Golvellius: Valley of Doom
System: SMS
Release Date: December 1988
Developer: Compile
Publisher: Sega
Genre: Action RPG
Compile had a big month in December of 1988 and here is what will likely be their best addition, Golvellius: Valley of Doom. The evil Govellius had been banished a thousand years before and a good king now ruled the land. The only problem was a lack of water except in one main spot. As people began to disappear while fetching a pail of water, others began to whisper the name of the evil one and call the river valley the Valley of Doom! The good King Aleid fell sick with worry and in order to save him, his daughter Princess Rena took off to find a magical herb on the valley floor. When she didn’t make it back, the residents of the kingdom knew she had been captured.
You are Kelesis, Bane of Demons, adventurer clad with green hair. It is up to you to traverse the titular valley and save the princess from a most heinous fate. In order to save her, Kelesis must collect seven crystals from Golvellius’ evil generals. It’s going to take a lot of swashbuckling action to save the day! The game has three sections that you play through. The first is the overworld map. This is made up of a large number of screens. On pretty much each screen, there is a hole that is either there as you enter, appears after killing a certain amount of enemies, or when you slash a certain object a set number of times.
These holes lead to a few different kinds of encounters. The most prevalent are fairies. These flying sprites sometimes give you advice on what to do, but mostly just take up space and frustrate you. The next most likely are old ladies. They typically have something to sell you. These can range from life potions, wallet increasing bibles, and equipment to help make your journey easier, or get past obstacles. There are also encounters with characters who renew your strength, or offer to suck your blood for money!
The gameplay in the overworld is relatively simple. Enemies will spawn on each screen. You will have to kill a buttload of them in order to earn money. You need to earn hundreds of thousands of monies over the course of the game to buy all of the items needed to advance to the next area. While you’re swinging away with either Button 1 or 2, you’ll walk all around each area looking for the boss’s lair. Once you find it and enter, you are whisked away to one of the other gameplay styles.
The first is a side scrolling platformer. You have to kill snakes and caterpillars, as well as other baddies, while jumping and slashing to activate platforms. If you get stuck, you have to step to the left side of the screen and start over from the beginning. The other style is a constantly vertical scrolling section. There are times you can get stuck in spots and if you touch the bottom of the screen, you get to start all over. At the end of both of these sections is a boss. They weren’t too particularly difficult, once you learn their patterns. Even the ones who were difficult were able to be defeated by a barrage of attacking.
As you progress, the sections become longer and set you up for failure more often. But after collecting all of the crystals and traversing the final cave, you come face to face with Golvellius himself! It took all of my energy, but I hacked away and finished him off to beat Compile’s answer to the Legend of Zelda.
Graphics: 3.0
The graphics are pleasant, colorful, and no flickering or slowdown present.
Sound: 3.5
The music is good and it changes as you gain new more powerful items.
Gameplay: 3.0
The game works really well, the only problems I had were when trying to turn and swing the sword, I would often not turn before swinging, opening me up to damage.
Difficulty: 3.0
The difficulty comes in finding the next important hole. Some of them are pretty obscure to figure out, but trial and error wins the day.
Fun Factor: 3.5
I had a lot of fun with this one and kept coming back until I beat it.
Overall Grade: 3.2
Golvellius: Valley of Doom earns a B+. This is another happy surprise that I’m glad I got to play due to this project. I suggest you give it a shot when you get the chance.