ive got phantasy star in my collection and ive never played it:/, i always stared at the catalog for hours as a kid imagening what it would be like to have all those games:) master system is def my most nestalgic system
What a great overview of an overlooked game! You have really stepped up your quality in recent months and I really dig those transitions. The tips on not spamming the sword to deal more damage and finding good areas to funnel enemies will definitely come in handy when I finally get to sit down with this one proper!
Thank youuu! I've been working hard on getting my head around some editing stuff and I'm happy that's coming through. And I'm sure I'll be there when you stream through it. Happy to help, as usual!
Great review! Golvellius is awesome. All three versions are worth playing through, thanks to the very different level designs and tricks, although the items are the same. I still need to play through the parody spin-off known as Super Cooks for the MSX2.
I've always appreciated the idea of a "second quest" or in this case, a third one. I really appreciated that about Zelda 1 for NES and even though they're not all in the same cartridge here, I still think it's exciting to be able to experience a game several more times in a slightly different way. I did see some gameplay of Super Cooks, and I want to play it just because it's so bizarre. I always enjoy a good parody. Thanks for coming by!
@@hungrygoriya it's been the years already, and since this game didn't seem to impress you thaaaat much, it's probably of little use, but here it is: the herbs grant you invincibility... they translated it poorly and spoke of invisibility. You get both, don't use ANY kind of health-restoring help... let your lives run out and once you reach "death"... you just don't die. There are also passwords that grant you some advantages, like only entering QQQQ... Anyways, my dearest game. Thank you so much for the trip through memory lane ❤
@@GOLVEL Oh seriously?! I stared at that health bar and expected a proper heal. Invincibility's almost just as good! Thanks so much for the clarification. And I can see this game's meaningful to you by your big screen name here, haha... did you play this as a kid and fall in love back then?
@@hungrygoriya Oh, of course! I'd forgotten it's my nickname 🤦🤣 It's a lovely part of my life, yes. Some of the stuff is - literally - lost in translation, but as a whole, it holds up okay. It's not as deep and resourceful as other RPGs, but for what it was, I loved it.
The music playing during the opening used to make me cry and care so much for those "people". This is the most nostalgic game ever for me. I didn't know English back then, so I had to memorize most of the stuff while playing with my cousin, who did understand. I used to think that the password screen was just to write stuff like your name 😂 and that the fairy just told stupid things - she did often - and so guess-playing was quite the adventure. Love this game, still play it now and then.
I can't tell you how many people have shared with me how important English games were to them as non-English speakers. That's so cool! I can't imagine taking that leap and getting anywhere back then or even now.
@@hungrygoriya Thank you for replying. It is, indeed, like rediscovering the games you love. So it is a good thing, once you've learned the language 😊 And then, there are people like you, who keep alive those memories for so many of us. Keep up the amazing work :-)
@@GOLVEL Awww thank you! I'll do my best to keep covering cool games. Meeting nice folks in the comments is one of my favourite parts of making the videos here, so thanks for taking the time to leave some kind words.
I just bought this game at my local video game store a few days ago. I'm looking forward to playing it this winter now that I'm laid off until Spring. This video will be very helpful. Thank you.
I played this game when I was about 12. My favorite part was getting the water and wing boots, and then going back to the early stages of the game to find secret spots.
For me, Golvellius is mainly praiseworthy as a dry run for The Guardian Legend. Compile re-visited the same core idea (a Zelda-like overworld paired with something completely different in place of the usual dungeons) and delivered something way more exciting to me thanks to the space shooter aspect and the huge variety of weapons. The soundtracks of the the two games even sound pretty similar.
You know, while I was streaming through this game, people kept reminding me that Randar looked just like (if not maybe even was?) one of the characters for The Guardian Legend. I've yet to play that one but I've heard quite a lot about it. I'm planning a playthrough later this year. When I play that one, I'm sure I'll be thinking about Golvellius a lot if they're that closely related.
Oh man...I freaking LOVE this game!!! Still have it CIB! The ONLY time that I called 1-900-USA-SEGA because I couldn't find the Aqua Boots, and ran up my parents phone bill (this was in 1989, and I was only 9 years old)...boy were they pissed...LOL!!!! Wonderful review!! #MEMORIES :)
I loved this game so much. It had great music, graphics, and world design. The game was definitely grindy, but there was still something satisfying about finding the perfect grindings spots in each region of the game.
Oh the memories, renting this back in 1995, the 'mantra' was so long, so it was easy to get one letter wrong, going over it for 15 minutes or more changing one letter/number in hopes of getting back to where you were! Anyway I loved this game, one of my favourites. I really think it IS a zelda clone, it borrows heavily off the first 2 games. Not as much as Golden Axe Warrior though. And the music, I actually love this soundtrack, the intro song you have playing at the 3 second mark, I have that on my phone, it's a nice interlude between all the darkwave and gothy synthpop I have on there when out walking in nature 😆 I hated the dungeons in this game though, the scrolling ones where you got stuck against walls etc.. I might actually appreciate them now if I ever play it again though, like how you say a nice break from all the top down slashing. Thank you for all these Master System reviews, I grew up with a SMS so it's nice to see it get some love in the youtube review world.
The music in Golvellius is one of my favourite parts about the game. It's so good! Glad you've got some of that to keep you company on your walks. That's awesome! I had a tough time figuring out the bad paths in those dungeons as well, but thankfully they weren't too long! And it's my pleasure to cover some Master System stuff. I played so many great adventure games for the system, and this was definitely a favourite of mine!
Just rebought this game to play on my Mega SG... I remember playing and loving this on the SMS back in 89. Great review! Thanks for reviewing SMS games
Nice! I'm happy you got to enjoy it when it was new. I only wish I'd had a Master System back then. I think I would've loved it as much or more than my NES. Enjoy playing through again :)
I still remembered the overworld theme...when u play a game as an adult to review it, versus when you spend hours on it as a kid. The song was def memorable. I even remember this code for the game. Not sure if it came from a magazine. KRS2 4444 4444 4444 4444
I can just imagine how memorable some of this music was. It's like the NES and Genesis stuff I played as a kid. The music's permanently embedded in my brain.
I only ever knew one kid who had a master system, and he also had a genesis. We almost never played any of his master system games. Seeing some of these games now, I really wish I had gotten a chance to really experience them as a kid.
Playing them as a kid would've been awesome, but I can say that they're still really challenging and fun at this point in life too! I've really been enjoying searching through the Master System library over the past couple of years and there is rarely a time I haven't had a good experience.
I can understand why this would be just the ticket to a good time for young folks. I had a similar experience playing Zelda 1 for NES as a kid, just wandering and having fun. I've said it often, but I wish I'd gotten to experience so much more when I was younger.
I used to have this game when I still owned a Master System, but I never got around to it. I've added it to my emulator collection now. It looks like fun but subject to lazy or amateur developers. I'd love to see it remade like the Wonder Boy games.
It's definitely a little more simplistic compared to other games out there like it, but what hurts it the most is the localization. A map would've really helped too. Have fun!
Nice little game you got there. I would love to see more master system games. Although Sega was predominant here in Brazil in the 80 and 90's I only had one friend who got a MS, all my other friends had Nintendo. That's a console that I know very little about.
I've played through a few great Master System games over the years and have a lot more in my collection to play through. You can definitely expect some more Master System content as soon as I have a chance to play through some more games!
This game has an awesome FM soundtrack, and the "space invaders" is in fact Randar, the unofficial logo of Compile. I love this game to death, it is the first game I ever bought with my own money. I drew a full colour map of it, back in the day.
I can't say I've had the pleasure of listening to the FM soundtrack, but that might be something I seek out today. I made a map while playing but it was only a graph paper map that I ended up messing up once I got to the ocean. It did the trick to help me mostly get my bearings, though! Thanks for stopping in!
Hey HG another great video I love it when game developers are nice enough to set up a level so that you can use an optimal murder strat. I think a lot of late 80s and early 90s games unfortunately were a little grind heavy at the start and lead to too many early game overs and rage quits.
Yeah, I mean I have solid patience so grinding never bothers me personally, but it's nice where you have spots that give you a fair opportunity to grind up without getting surrounded. You lose half your money if you die in this game.
It was my pleasure. I know I already thanked you a million times, but thank you again for being there to help redirect on stream when I needed it. Seriously! You're awesome :D
Great review! At 7:59 those snake sprites look so familiar, have they been in another game? The only one that springs to mind is Wonder Boy in Monster Land.
Thank you kindly! I think they really do look like the snakes from Wonder Boy in Monster Land/Dragon's Trap. I haven't played Wonder Boy III yet though... that's on my list!
This was a game I rented many of times when I was younger. When I was finally able to pick up a copy I completed it many times. I recently played it again and had a great time but have not completed it. Great review as always. Keep the SMS reviews coming in. =)
This game must've been so much fun as a young person. I bet you had as much fun with this as I did with Zelda growing up. So much to do and find, right? I hope you'll be able to sit down and finish it sometime. It was pretty tough toward the end, but if I can do it, so can you!
You're very welcome! I think one of my first RPGs was Faxanadu for NES, and I always feel nostalgic watching someone talk about that too. Thanks for watching :)
I'm always up for taking on a Zelda clone, such as it is. I might have mentioned that in your Golden Axe Warrior review. It's a nice change of pace to have a game in a style you like, but just in a different flavor. And this one sure looks like it has a bit more spice going on! Good review!
I feel like this one departs from Zelda in a lot of ways and tends to focus more on exploration rather than puzzle solving, but there are enough similarities that you'd be happy playing this game if you love Zelda too. It was a fun game. I hope you'll try it out sometime!
One of my favorite SMS games! You seem to have discovered the sword trick the same way my brothers and I did: by accident, but it's definitely effective. Here's a tip the manual also doesn't mention: buy every bible you can *before* defeating the local boss demons, because they'll max out your money when you beat them (giving you plenty of cash for buying those crystals!) I always enjoyed the music in this game, and felt the various overworld themes did a great job making me feel like I was progressing and getting more powerful. This game supports SMS FM sound, so if you have the means, you might consider checking that out. Great video!
That tip about the bibles would've been suuuuuper helpful to know! I didn't have to spend too much time grinding, but I died very, very often! Thankfully someone was kind enough during my livestream to let me know about the sword thing or else I would've been poking things in turbo mode forever. When I was looking for music for this video, I'm pretty surprised at just how many different tunes there were. There's so much and all if it's so good! I really enjoyed Golvellius. Would you put this one in your top 5 for the SMS?
@@hungrygoriya Yes, I would. Though I think this game is objectively very good (graphics, music, gameplay), nostalgia is also a factor. We didn't have an NES, so this was our Zelda. (Golden Axe Warrior wouldn't be released for a few more years).
@@MightyQDawg Golden Axe Warrior was so late! I think it would edge out Golvellius for me just based on a wider range of attacks alone, but Golvellius is definitely great. I'm glad I finally got around to it and only wish I had been able to do it much sooner.
I didn't realise but I read an article of yours about you getting 11 Master System RPG games. I read your review a year or so ago and decided to buy the remaining RPGs I didn't already have. Thanks so much for that review and synopsis, I actually bought Golvellius because of your review. Actually read the article well before finding this chanel today.
nice calm narration and thorough vid. overall good review, I could see putting on a playlist of yours and falling asleep after I watch em in detail first
I have been enjoying the SMS videos. As a kid I had many of these games and it is fun to revisit through your videos. Golvellius was one of my favorite Master System games and have fond memories. This week I just played through the Sega Ages Phantasy Star port on the Switch. Such great games that not as many people have played.
Right on! I've played a few other games I want to review for the system but just haven't gotten around to it yet. I still need to play the Sega Ages Phantasy Star version but I've heard such good things about it. I would've killed for automapping the first time I played the original.
This will always be one of my favourites! Another one a friend had that I would always play whenever I had a chance. Guess I’ve always been a sucker for action adventures! I eventually managed to beat it when I still had my SMS collection and after so many years of trying I felt so accomplished! I will say needing to find the crystals after beating a boss was a bit of a learning curve was probably why I never beat it as a kid. Also trying to beat it with both herbs in your inventory to get the good ending was hard. The surprise you get actually made it worth it. To me at least 😊 Apparently the MSX2/MSX3 versions are a bit more fleshed out. Complete with a town you start in as oppose to just entering the cave on the SMS. Some confuse this with being a sequel but it was just an attempt by the creators to put a more meaningful story Anyways, great review. I was going to put a comment somewhere about this one but glad I found it! The Master System doesn’t get enough love and this is, at least to me, one of it’s shining gems 💎
Yesterday I was about to start Golden Axe Warrior but eventually I decided to start Golvellius instead, since I wanted a more original game and not a blatant Zelda clone. I'd say my first day with Golvellius was pleasant, even though I had to murder hundreds of bees to buy the first shield and the second sword (yes, because I found out that bees gave me more money than snakes, while being easier to kill than bats). I like the fact that there are so many caves to reveal. I prefer to find caves by killing enemies instead of burning random bushes like in Zelda 1. I also loved that the music changes whenever you obtain new equipment. Overall, it's a game mostly based on grinding and money, but it's still fun to explore the different areas, and it's certainly not the most frustrating 8 bit game.
It's a great adventure if you ask me! Figuring out how to unlock caves on each screen was a fun puzzle, the kind that didn't make me feel too frustrated. I was never stuck for too long. Glad you're enjoying it!
Thanks for the review! It helps me know what I’d be getting into if I try to tackle this game. The long held tones of the music at the beginning of the video bring back Guardian Legend nostalgia.
I've only been getting to Master System slowly of late, but this is one I had to hunt down, even if I've not made much progress so far. Really enjoyed the video, and it seriously makes me want to push this up the back log. Also appreciated knowing just how it had changed between the two MSX ports too!
I'm happy you're jumping into this system's library. I've been a fan for the past few years and have been thrilled by so much of what I've played so far. Some favourites were Golden Axe Warrior, Asterix, Psychic World and Master of Darkness. Have you been looking at any PAL region stuff? Not sure where you're from, but there are some amazing things we never got here in Canada.
@@hungrygoriya I'm from Australia, so being able to find some of those is certainly doable (at least within reason of course ;) ). Golden Axe Warrior is one I'm looking forward to diving into as well, having nabbed that a few months ago. As for some of my picks, it goes between some of the early stuff like Enduro Racer and World Grand Prix, to stuff like Power Strike (and I really want to get a hold of the second, but that's YIKES territory), Fantasy Zone, Out Run and others.
Great game! It was cryptic at times but not so much that I couldn't make it without using a guide. I loved that at the end you can basically walk over everything on the overworld!
very good review! As a big fan of compile its really interesting to see how they liked to incorporate different gameplay styles into their titles such as Guardian Legend, and this of course. I will need to play through this
Thanks so much! I'm really curious to try out Guardian Legend and am planning a playthrough not too long from now. I know that game's a mix of genres, but I think this is the second time that I've seen anything like this kind of genre mix in an action RPG with SpellCaster being the other example. I hope you have fun with Golvellius when you get around to it!
Oh hello there! Thanks for perusing the channel and catching up :) I have another Master System game review in the works... I hope to have it out in the next few days if all goes well, so stay tuned for that. Glad to meet another fan of the console!
Cool, Compile developed this? I missed out on this game. I'm seeing a few similarities between this and The Guardian Legend. Those NPCs are insane, but I'm having a good chuckle at their monologues. Having to buy the crystals are a bizarre concept. I guess it lengthens the game? Some strange quirks in this game. Looks really fun, I'm going to have to try this one. Excellent video, Goriya!
Yeah, it was all Compile! There seem to be some characters between this and The Guardian Legend from what some folks have said here, but I haven't played it myself just yet. And yeah, the NPCs were pretty frustrating sometimes, mostly because you're itching to find items or information but you mostly end up with nothing but being insulted. Randar (the big smiling guy that I didn't show here) is my favourite because his healing was flat rate throughout the whole game. Expensive for the beginning, but a screamin' deal later on! There were definitely a few quirks that seemed to pad out the game but I swear if I had just died less, I would've had all the money I needed and not needed to grind so much. It's definitely a lot of fun and I hope you do enjoy it whenever you find the time to give it a whirl.
Getting some SERIOUS Zelda vibes from this one...this looks WAY better than the Golden Axe Warrior game, which is also a Zelda clone. I really like that you can hold down the button to do more damage instead of spamming as you mentioned here. Shame that there's no projectile attacks. That would've been a huge improvement to the game. Who knew that bibles are the source for expanding wallets! This game looks really cool...Love that there's different play styles for the dungeons too...i've owned this one for a while...I need to bust it out and play sometime soon. Great review, HG!
Yessss! it definitely does feel like Zelda in many ways, but I found the controls here a bit jarring and was itching for the restrictions of grid-based movement. Switching up the play style was a really nice touch here too. I got a tiny bit of shooter practice in, just enough to say! And yeah, there were a few little things that I would've never found out on my own, which is why I'm always super grateful when I'm streaming a game and people can share their wisdom with me. Projectiles would've been awesome here, truly. Golden Axe Warrior had it all, which is why that one would be rated a bit higher for me comparatively. And thanks so much for taking the time to watch. I appreciate your continued support :)
I hope you can get through it! If I'm thinking you're stuck where I think you're stuck, I got stuck there for a while myself actually. I spent a good while just wandering around because things were pointing me in a direction other than what I was thinking I needed to be doing. Good luck!
@@hungrygoriya Thanx! I don't want help bc I'm stubborn (lol), but it's the desert area near water. I believe I need to find boots to allow me to walk on water. Also I'm realizing that just about every screen has a cave you need to uncover. Until I hit this snag I was really liking this game.
@@backinthedaygamer Yeeeeeep that's exactly the place I got stuck too. The game was so cut and dry up to that point and then things went of the rails in terms of what to do or where to go next. You'll get it. If you need a hint, you know where to find me!
Good review. It also has FM music if you have a way of taking advantage of it. It can be fun to play through it again and just see how much quicker you can beat it. Or just trying to beat the first 3 bosses quickly.
I was jamming away to the FM soundtrack for this game today, and I'm still pretty sure I like the PSG stuff better. I imagine the game becomes a lot more streamlined once you know roughly where things are, but there's so many screens with so many ways to open things up that I'm pretty sure it'd take a lot of practice for me to get faster :D
I'm a huge Compile fan but I was not familiar with this game series. Always nice to see Master System games that look interesting. Also nice to see Randar appearing in another game. I always liked his huge smiling face in the Guardian Legend 😬. Although he was Compiles mascot so he has appeared in quite a few of their games..
Golvellius had my attention from when I first laid eyes on it and it proved to be much of what I'd hoped it would. I'm really pumped to play some Guardian Legend now with all of this background on him... this is my first Compile game so it's all news to me!
@@THESHMUPMASTER Not yet! I have a playthrough planned for this fall with a friend. We're going to trade the password back and forth and play it together. That should be fun!
That's the one! It's also on the password screen so I used to fire that up as a kid and sit and listen to it. It's one of my favourite games and pieces of NES music!
Awesome game to review! I always loved how this game looked, though I never got very far in it. I mean, my cousin had it - I did what I could while I would be there visiting him :) I should probably emulate this some time, though I'm always stacking more RPGs onto my backlog. Heck, I started Crystalis earlier this year and I'm suddenly reminded that I haven't beaten that either :P Stopped playing it to play Dragon Quest XI or Tales of Vesperia or Death End re;Quest or something and kinda forgot about it. I am bad at finishing RPGs :( Speaking of Death End re;Quest, y'know, I'm kinda surprised Compile - or rather Compile _Heart_ nowadays - hasn't made a modern follow-up. To this game or any of their other cult classics, like Guardian Legend. There's definitely enough cache to the Golvellius name that people would pay attention if they announced a new one, but even a spiritual follow-up would be a nice break from their usual M.O. these days or pumping out moe girl RPGs of varying quality with turn-based combat. It would be great to see a modern 3D third person action-RPG (even a cheaper production like Compile Heart does) from them with these 80's anime character designs. LOVE that swooshy green hair! (^-^)
Sounds like you've got your RPG work cut out for you for the next little while! I hear ya though. There's so many games out there to play that it's hard to stay focused sometimes. I'm not sure why more companies don't do a good modern day followup to some of their heartfelt series from the past. If their audience is us, we are the ones that'll play so now is the time! Maybe your wish will come true. I hope it does!
OK, so some fun facts about Golvellius for you. ;) It's not specific items you need that make certain cave entrances appear, it's... gold. Or more specifically, your gold max. If your gold max isn't high enough, some cave entrances simply won't ever appear, period. The reason for this is because... in the original Japanese, your currency isn't gold. It's "find." As in, the literal ability to find things. I can see why they changed it to gold for the English release, though, because... like... my brain breaks every single time I think about spending my ability to find secrets as currency, in order to buy bibles that increase my capacity to find secrets so I can find more secrets and also buy more expensive things. It's just SO WEIRD and SO META. ;) Also: the original version of Golvellius for MSX1 was a bit more open than this version. As you said, in this version, most areas are self-contained, only opening up the bottleneck leading to the next area after you've obtained the crystal from the boss nearby. In the MSX1 version, this is... mostly not the case. The first 3 or so crystals kiiiiind of do this (though they tend to open up large swaths of the game, including later dungeon levels and areas you're definitely too weak to explore once you gain access to them), but after that, suddenly, the ENTIRE REST OF THE WORLD just opens up to you, and you're left to your own devices for the remainder of the game. I absolutely love this, as it's almost overwhelming, but also REALLY fun to explore. When they ported the game to SMS, they completely changed the world map and all the dungeon levels, and gave it a more linear, segmented feel. ...Then, when they ported the game again to MSX2, they completely changed the world map and all the dungeon levels AGAIN, as you noted, but kept that more linear, segmented feel from the SMS game. The MSX2 version of the game is definitely the best graphically and musically (FM music, yo!), but I feel like its maps are perhaps the weakest? Never fear, though: there was a fourth Golvellius released as well, also for MSX2... called Super Cooks. It uses the MSX2 Golvellius engine, but changes "find" to "dish," and arms your main character with a frying pan instead of a sword... and changes all the enemies to evil food items hell-bent on killing you. The stages are even MORE segmented, but the gameplay is improved by leaps and bounds -- this time, you find new weapons as you go (a salt shaker, a burner, etc.) that all have very different attacks and can be swapped out for your frying pan whenever you'd like... and you ALSO learn special item crash-like charge abilities for each weapon that not only decimate all enemies on the screen when used, but are also used to clear certain obstacles in order to access screens you couldn't before. Additionally, in the side-scrolling dungeon stages (which are all that exists in Super Cooks; there are no overhead-view auto-scrolling stages this time), you choose one weapon to take in with you, and you have the AMAZING, STUPENDOUS, REVOLUTIONARY ABILITY... to face left! That's right... you can actually turn around and face left in the side-scrolling stages! It's a miracle! ;) Super Cooks is a weird, weird game, but a really fun little romp. I like that each stage is based on a different country's cuisine, and this immediately leads to amazing content in stage 2, which is based on American cuisine. Every single NPC speaks "English" when you first start stage 2, meaning you can't understand them at all (and their English is represented by things like "I HAVE A PEN!") until you find an English language school and buy some English lessons. Something similar happens in the China stage, where the NPCs all speak "Chinese" and you need to learn the language before you can continue, though it's nowhere near as amusing. Anyway! Just figured I'd fill you in on this game's weird release history, and the amazingly meta, brain-breaking concept that is "find" (or "dish") in the Japanese, rather than "gold." Hope you enjoyed this little tidbit! ;)
Wow! See I never knew about the "find" thing at all... that does make a lot of sense. Acquiring knowledge is a really cool mechanic that was completely lost on the English-speaking audiences, haha... bible = money never made sense to me so this explanation helps. I knew about the other versions of the game on the MSX/MSX2 and Supercooks, but not this degree of detail (I haven't played any of them but knew that the maps were at least different)! I really want to play Supercooks especially just because of how quirky and neat it is. Thanks for the information! I'm sure others will find it useful as well!
Have you ever played Crystalis by SNK for the NES its a great action rpg that is similar to this except it has an experience leveling system . It has a bunch of elemental magic swords that you power up and charge for a projectile spell attack .
It is a giant leap that Compile took from here to Guardian Legend, although even in that game enemies can get relentless. (only circumvented through overpowering the subweapons) >2:49 Health-healing space invaders? Landa, obscure as always.
This was my first experience with Randar (as the manual calls him) and squinting at those tiny health pickups didn't quite translate to the giant blue healing friend you meet up with, haha The Guardian Legend is a phenomenal game. I loved it!
Just played this through to completion! I don't usually make hand-drawn maps for games but I definitely needed to for this game, I found I enjoyed it though. I played a physical copy on my Retron5 and only used save states as a replacement for "passwards". However there was a part though where I used save states to cheat a bit, and that was the Warlick boss battle (the two red demons who repeatedly rush at you). Did you beat them honestly and if so, how did you do it? Also SPOILERS I would be interested to hear your thoughts on the ending. I thought it did more to set up the story for a sequel than it did to tie up the narrative this game told. I also thought that Golvellius looked like TMNT's The Shredder combined with McDonald's purple Grimace and seeing him carrying off kelesis and rena into the sunset as buddies is exactly the kind of unexpected, wacky ending I love so much in retro games. So anyways, thanks for reviewing this game, I bought it & played it due to your review! :)
I did finish the game without any save states since I'm usually playing on original hardware. I know I struggled with all of the bosses later on in the game and just had to get good/lucky in the sections prior to facing off to conserve health as much as possible. It's been a long time but I'm pretty sure I just barely squeaked by in that fight. And I hear you about the ending... it was a bit disappointing to me as well because it didn't really tie things up. It was silly that Golvellius just becomes your friend after everything. It definitely didn't fit with the tone of the rest of the game. Thanks for taking a chance on it because of this review! That's very heartening to know :)
I have never regretted getting a sms over a nes as a kid because of games like this. I still want to try the sequel but I don't think it has been translated or released on any other platforms.
Love this game so much when I was little ... The music completely brainwashing as, A kid you would dream about the music Sega brain wash love still today
I used to have this system and game. But for some reason my teenage dumb self gave it all away. This game was the shizzle and needs a remake with today's systems. Honestly, it feels like it would make a great mix between BotW and a Souls game.
@@hungrygoriya I could just get an emulator and a rom of the game, but I imagine a modern remake with souls like elements, maybe a bit of soul reaver or Darksiders influence? Maybe in an open world like BotW.
Some of the musical pieces were actually quite fantastic. The gameplay and content for the SMS was *severely* nerfed when compared to the MSX version. Overall, the game was unfortunately repetitive, mostly due to the "sword only, nothing else" system. 🐲✨🐲✨🐲✨
That's a good game and several of those guys from Compile are making a new 8 Bit SHMUP, first game they've made together since Gun ✨ Nac and Compile Heart is also making a new SHMUP 😂🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉❤
@@hungrygoriya yeah Yuzo Koshiro is making a 16 bit SHMUP, former Compile employees are making a new 8 Bit SHMUP and former Compile employees that work at Compile Heart are making a next Gen SHMUP. My profile picture is the ship from the Compile Heart game 😎
I remember this game. There are a few design flaws to make it memorable. I really don't have much to say about this title unfortunately. It isn't terrible, just extremely tedious and the flying stages are imbalanced.
It definitely didn't feel very polished in parts, but I'd say overall I had a positive time with it. Despite feeling lost and struggling a bit with some of the difficulty spikes here and there, I'd rate it pretty high among the RPGs I've played for the system.
This does seem to get a lot of praise but for me I think Golden Axe Warrior is the better game. The overworld and dungeons just felt a lot more fun to explore. Plus I'm glad it didn't have anything like the scrolling sections this does, such an odd thing to put in compared to the rest. Different for sure!
@@hungrygoriyaI think my comments were removed because I was posting links to it? Anyway, worth playing if you can. Made for the ti 84 plus ce, but I'm using an emulator, "cemu"
i m afraid of secret paths - when you dk if they are exist, all this artificial extention, but how long it will take to complite for the first time, blindfolded ?
It took me about 15-20 hours or so? It could be less if you're really diligent in your exploration! I've seen people playing it for the first time complete it in a shorter timeframe too. I really take my time.
@@hungrygoriya "diligent" - i was hoped to skip most of exploration and accidentally find right way to go, i hoped main quest holes are opened, and secret holes are optional for loot,upgrades,shops...
Yesssss! I can just imagine how many papers existed with passwords for this game. I found the font easy to read at least. Did you ever run into trouble writing down your passwords correctly?
as far as I remember, no. maybe once or twice, but I wrote so many passwords during the game (usually a password every death or whenever I met the guy who told you that) that if I was wrong to write a letter, it didn't matter: in the worst case, I lost 10 minutes of game . Now, it is so easy because i take a photo of the CRT instead to writing down. ( yes, I playing on real hardware 😅)
@@Ilarik76 Right right... 10 minutes is nothing in this game! I also usually take photos with my phone now just to streamline things, and it's been a real lifesaver. I'm also a real hardware person... I love collecting games, especially for the Master System since everything still feels so brand new to me.
@@Ilarik76 Well, although I'm in Canada, we bought some scart cables to get RGB output from the console, and then I also have a Framemeister upscaler to make things even nicer. I think I only capture at 30 fps, but the upscaler and RGB really made a difference. I don't know if you've played Psychic World before, but when I tried capturing that natively before we had the option for scart, it looked so bad, and I wanted to review it so much that we started looking into upscalers.
Ooh, this is made by Compile? That explains the auto-scrolling stages. The sword mechanics remind me of Crystalis. A lot of this game looks great, while a lot also looks "meh". Great script and review, though.
@@NefariousWes No worries! And now that you mention Crystalis, that totally makes sense. It's been a long time since I played any of that game. I should make a point to do that soon! Thanks about the script too. I'm glad I finally got this one out of my head.
Reminds me of those sand red enemies in Zelda one where you could go off screen and back on 3 screens to the right from the start screen past the spiders. just stand there and attack and they come right into you for lots of rubies. great way to quickly farm and progress through the game. You already know that obviously but the bottle neck in the video made me think of that. Having a blast showing my son the games on the NES Classic so far my son really enjoys Kirby's Adventure and Mega Man 2. I won't let him play Ninja Gaiden yet don't want him to break the TV out of frustration. Do you have family members or friends play these games with you while you do the reviews? Old timey English gets annoying for sure, could never get into Shakespear no matter how good the play. Thou est like her or not. But I love the game insults :) breaks up the monotony. Tales of Phantasy comes to mind of fun humor in a game. Never liked that top down view in NES games like Super C. Reminds me a little bit of the Death Star run in the NES Star Wars very fast and run out of room on screen the Gameboy version moved at a snails pace and was simple but the NES one looked hard as nails. The bosses look like Illusion of Gaia fair pretty cool. This looks like a winner of a game.
I don't blame you for keeping Ninja Gaiden out of his reach for the moment... those are tough games and you certainly don't want any controllers embedded in your screens! And in terms of family playing along with me, sometimes my husband will play some games with me if I need some two-player footage, but mostly a lot of the games I review here I play on stream on my own (sometimes he's in the chat helping to moderate). I do have lots of company with my chat there. My husband and I don't seem to enjoy a lot of the same games, but we do sit down and play some Neo Turf Masters golf every couple of months. I can never get into the insults in games, haha... they always make me feel bad!
I suppose it's going to be different for every person. When I think about this game, I can only really think of the first overworld tune and that's it. The soundtrack is awesome though!
"Golvellius: Valley of Doom is an action RPG on the Sega Master System" That is a collection of words I like 👀 Jokes aside, this looks really cool, I never even knew it existed! it's definitely going on my "must-own" Master System list
These old ladies are hurting this economy! Charging for a crystal that you rightfully earned? Ridiculous! Still, does look pretty fun. Might be more enjoyable if this was a game where your constants are constantly overflowing with money and you need to burn some. Great review dear!
One of my all time favorite Master System games, only second to Phantasy Star.
ive got phantasy star in my collection and ive never played it:/, i always stared at the catalog for hours as a kid imagening what it would be like to have all those games:) master system is def my most nestalgic system
What a great overview of an overlooked game! You have really stepped up your quality in recent months and I really dig those transitions. The tips on not spamming the sword to deal more damage and finding good areas to funnel enemies will definitely come in handy when I finally get to sit down with this one proper!
Thank youuu! I've been working hard on getting my head around some editing stuff and I'm happy that's coming through.
And I'm sure I'll be there when you stream through it. Happy to help, as usual!
@@hungrygoriya Remember your mantra, you two.
@@jacobyne The mantra in this game is long and hard. Perfect for remembering :)
Great review! Golvellius is awesome. All three versions are worth playing through, thanks to the very different level designs and tricks, although the items are the same. I still need to play through the parody spin-off known as Super Cooks for the MSX2.
I've always appreciated the idea of a "second quest" or in this case, a third one. I really appreciated that about Zelda 1 for NES and even though they're not all in the same cartridge here, I still think it's exciting to be able to experience a game several more times in a slightly different way.
I did see some gameplay of Super Cooks, and I want to play it just because it's so bizarre. I always enjoy a good parody. Thanks for coming by!
@@hungrygoriya it's been the years already, and since this game didn't seem to impress you thaaaat much, it's probably of little use, but here it is: the herbs grant you invincibility... they translated it poorly and spoke of invisibility. You get both, don't use ANY kind of health-restoring help... let your lives run out and once you reach "death"... you just don't die. There are also passwords that grant you some advantages, like only entering QQQQ...
Anyways, my dearest game. Thank you so much for the trip through memory lane ❤
@@GOLVEL Oh seriously?! I stared at that health bar and expected a proper heal. Invincibility's almost just as good! Thanks so much for the clarification.
And I can see this game's meaningful to you by your big screen name here, haha... did you play this as a kid and fall in love back then?
@@hungrygoriya Oh, of course! I'd forgotten it's my nickname 🤦🤣 It's a lovely part of my life, yes. Some of the stuff is - literally - lost in translation, but as a whole, it holds up okay. It's not as deep and resourceful as other RPGs, but for what it was, I loved it.
There's something very soothing and relaxing about watching you review obscure retro action RPGs. I'm glad I found your channel.
So glad you're enjoying the journey here. Thanks very much :)
The music playing during the opening used to make me cry and care so much for those "people". This is the most nostalgic game ever for me. I didn't know English back then, so I had to memorize most of the stuff while playing with my cousin, who did understand. I used to think that the password screen was just to write stuff like your name 😂 and that the fairy just told stupid things - she did often - and so guess-playing was quite the adventure.
Love this game, still play it now and then.
I can't tell you how many people have shared with me how important English games were to them as non-English speakers. That's so cool! I can't imagine taking that leap and getting anywhere back then or even now.
@@hungrygoriya Thank you for replying. It is, indeed, like rediscovering the games you love. So it is a good thing, once you've learned the language 😊 And then, there are people like you, who keep alive those memories for so many of us. Keep up the amazing work :-)
@@GOLVEL Awww thank you! I'll do my best to keep covering cool games. Meeting nice folks in the comments is one of my favourite parts of making the videos here, so thanks for taking the time to leave some kind words.
@@hungrygoriya Ditto 😊
I just bought this game at my local video game store a few days ago. I'm looking forward to playing it this winter now that I'm laid off until Spring. This video will be very helpful. Thank you.
Good luck with it! I hope the tips here are helpful.
I played this game when I was about 12.
My favorite part was getting the water and wing boots, and then going back to the early stages of the game to find secret spots.
Yeah! Being able to walk over old blockades was very satisfying!
For me, Golvellius is mainly praiseworthy as a dry run for The Guardian Legend. Compile re-visited the same core idea (a Zelda-like overworld paired with something completely different in place of the usual dungeons) and delivered something way more exciting to me thanks to the space shooter aspect and the huge variety of weapons. The soundtracks of the the two games even sound pretty similar.
You know, while I was streaming through this game, people kept reminding me that Randar looked just like (if not maybe even was?) one of the characters for The Guardian Legend. I've yet to play that one but I've heard quite a lot about it. I'm planning a playthrough later this year. When I play that one, I'm sure I'll be thinking about Golvellius a lot if they're that closely related.
@@hungrygoriya Yeah, that little guy was a sort of mascot for the company for a long time. He shows up in quite a few games.
@@willmistretta I will keep my eyes peeled for him. Thanks for the heads up!
@@willmistretta all the NPCs are rude to outright jerks in this game, except Randar. Randar, the true MVP!
Oh man...I freaking LOVE this game!!! Still have it CIB! The ONLY time that I called 1-900-USA-SEGA because I couldn't find the Aqua Boots, and ran up my parents phone bill (this was in 1989, and I was only 9 years old)...boy were they pissed...LOL!!!! Wonderful review!! #MEMORIES :)
Oh goodness, haha... I imagine they would've been livid with that phone bill. My parents never let me call any hotlines if I was stuck.
@@hungrygoriya I didn't exactly get permission either...LOL! :)
I loved this game so much. It had great music, graphics, and world design. The game was definitely grindy, but there was still something satisfying about finding the perfect grindings spots in each region of the game.
The music is so good! And I agree: finding a place to exploit was awesome!
Another gem. Would love a re-release of this game. Like a Sega Ages treatment.
That would honestly be amazing. I would love to see what they'd do with it!
Oh the memories, renting this back in 1995, the 'mantra' was so long, so it was easy to get one letter wrong, going over it for 15 minutes or more changing one letter/number in hopes of getting back to where you were!
Anyway I loved this game, one of my favourites. I really think it IS a zelda clone, it borrows heavily off the first 2 games. Not as much as Golden Axe Warrior though.
And the music, I actually love this soundtrack, the intro song you have playing at the 3 second mark, I have that on my phone, it's a nice interlude between all the darkwave and gothy synthpop I have on there when out walking in nature 😆
I hated the dungeons in this game though, the scrolling ones where you got stuck against walls etc.. I might actually appreciate them now if I ever play it again though, like how you say a nice break from all the top down slashing.
Thank you for all these Master System reviews, I grew up with a SMS so it's nice to see it get some love in the youtube review world.
The music in Golvellius is one of my favourite parts about the game. It's so good! Glad you've got some of that to keep you company on your walks. That's awesome!
I had a tough time figuring out the bad paths in those dungeons as well, but thankfully they weren't too long! And it's my pleasure to cover some Master System stuff. I played so many great adventure games for the system, and this was definitely a favourite of mine!
Just rebought this game to play on my Mega SG... I remember playing and loving this on the SMS back in 89. Great review! Thanks for reviewing SMS games
Nice! I'm happy you got to enjoy it when it was new. I only wish I'd had a Master System back then. I think I would've loved it as much or more than my NES. Enjoy playing through again :)
You have such a pleasant way about you in your videos. Thank you for this wonderful retrospective.
Awww I appreciate this! Thanks for saying so!
I still remembered the overworld theme...when u play a game as an adult to review it, versus when you spend hours on it as a kid. The song was def memorable. I even remember this code for the game. Not sure if it came from a magazine. KRS2 4444 4444 4444 4444
I can just imagine how memorable some of this music was. It's like the NES and Genesis stuff I played as a kid. The music's permanently embedded in my brain.
I only ever knew one kid who had a master system, and he also had a genesis. We almost never played any of his master system games. Seeing some of these games now, I really wish I had gotten a chance to really experience them as a kid.
Playing them as a kid would've been awesome, but I can say that they're still really challenging and fun at this point in life too! I've really been enjoying searching through the Master System library over the past couple of years and there is rarely a time I haven't had a good experience.
Loved the song at 7:37
Lots of fun playing this as a kid with my neighborhood friends. We all loved this game.
I can understand why this would be just the ticket to a good time for young folks. I had a similar experience playing Zelda 1 for NES as a kid, just wandering and having fun. I've said it often, but I wish I'd gotten to experience so much more when I was younger.
I used to have this game when I still owned a Master System, but I never got around to it.
I've added it to my emulator collection now.
It looks like fun but subject to lazy or amateur developers. I'd love to see it remade like the Wonder Boy games.
It's definitely a little more simplistic compared to other games out there like it, but what hurts it the most is the localization. A map would've really helped too. Have fun!
Recently discovered your channel ^_^ it's been so fun watching your videos ^_^
Thank you for taking a chance on me here!
“Optimal murdering conditions.”
Amazing review! You’re always really thorough which is nice.
I thought of you when I wrote that line! I have to keep up my ruthless conquerer reputation.
Golvelius is my jam! I actually played this long before I played zelda. The music is top notch in this game.
Ah the memories...
I wish I had been lucky enough to have a Master System growing up. Zelda and I became fast friends so I can imagine I would've loved Golvellius too.
Nice little game you got there. I would love to see more master system games.
Although Sega was predominant here in Brazil in the 80 and 90's I only had one friend who got a MS, all my other friends had Nintendo.
That's a console that I know very little about.
I've played through a few great Master System games over the years and have a lot more in my collection to play through. You can definitely expect some more Master System content as soon as I have a chance to play through some more games!
@@hungrygoriya that would be lovely!
By the way, I am loving your channel! Keep up the great job!
This game has an awesome FM soundtrack, and the "space invaders" is in fact Randar, the unofficial logo of Compile. I love this game to death, it is the first game I ever bought with my own money. I drew a full colour map of it, back in the day.
I can't say I've had the pleasure of listening to the FM soundtrack, but that might be something I seek out today. I made a map while playing but it was only a graph paper map that I ended up messing up once I got to the ocean. It did the trick to help me mostly get my bearings, though! Thanks for stopping in!
@@hungrygoriya same here: graph paper & crayons, it was how we rolled, before the internet came along & spoiled that for everybody ;)
Thanks! I know that the price of a cup of coffee doesn't cover the time and effort you've put into your videos, but... still, thank you so much.
Wow! That's awfully kind of you! Thank you so much for the tip and for your kind words. It's greatly appreciated :)
Wow- i've not heard of this game before, fantastic review!
Thank you very much! It's a great one if you don't mind some deep exploration!
@@hungrygoriya i've been sharing your reviews with my friends. Your channel was a great find!
Hey HG another great video I love it when game developers are nice enough to set up a level so that you can use an optimal murder strat. I think a lot of late 80s and early 90s games unfortunately were a little grind heavy at the start and lead to too many early game overs and rage quits.
Yeah, I mean I have solid patience so grinding never bothers me personally, but it's nice where you have spots that give you a fair opportunity to grind up without getting surrounded. You lose half your money if you die in this game.
Somehow I missed this one when you posted it! Another fantastic HG Review, thank you for sharing. Also, I LOVE the box art "with password save!"! :-D
You're very welcome! It's hard to remember a day where a password save was a true good feature!
Great review, thanks for sharing this with us, HG!!...and yes, I chuckled after "optimal murdering conditions" :-D
It was my pleasure. I know I already thanked you a million times, but thank you again for being there to help redirect on stream when I needed it. Seriously! You're awesome :D
Solid above average game. Borderline classic for those who were lucky enough to play it in its day.
Great review! At 7:59 those snake sprites look so familiar, have they been in another game? The only one that springs to mind is Wonder Boy in Monster Land.
Thank you kindly! I think they really do look like the snakes from Wonder Boy in Monster Land/Dragon's Trap. I haven't played Wonder Boy III yet though... that's on my list!
@@hungrygoriya You definitely have to play WBIII, it's one of the best games of the 8 bit era :)
@@claufranco It's on my list! I hope to get to it in the next couple of months.
This was a game I rented many of times when I was younger. When I was finally able to pick up a copy I completed it many times. I recently played it again and had a great time but have not completed it. Great review as always. Keep the SMS reviews coming in. =)
This game must've been so much fun as a young person. I bet you had as much fun with this as I did with Zelda growing up. So much to do and find, right? I hope you'll be able to sit down and finish it sometime. It was pretty tough toward the end, but if I can do it, so can you!
I also played this as a kid and finished it, what a trip rented it from the video store with a master system since I never owned one myself lol!
Thanks for this nostalgic game video, I remember this title for good after 30 years. I think it was one of the first RPGs I played.
You're very welcome! I think one of my first RPGs was Faxanadu for NES, and I always feel nostalgic watching someone talk about that too. Thanks for watching :)
I never got to play this one, this video is good for me to catch up
@@hungrygoriya Faxanadu taught me to read along with my mother and brothers
@@WhiteThumbs It's got some great elf conversations, for sure! I also love the story in the manual.
space invaders = those are mini Randars :D nice review of the SMS version!
Argh... I totally see them in the background of the Randar shop now. Hahaha thank you! Mystery soooolved!
Beat me to it!
I'm always up for taking on a Zelda clone, such as it is. I might have mentioned that in your Golden Axe Warrior review. It's a nice change of pace to have a game in a style you like, but just in a different flavor. And this one sure looks like it has a bit more spice going on! Good review!
I feel like this one departs from Zelda in a lot of ways and tends to focus more on exploration rather than puzzle solving, but there are enough similarities that you'd be happy playing this game if you love Zelda too. It was a fun game. I hope you'll try it out sometime!
music sounds like Guardian legend in a way well, the first track used at least.
One of my favorite SMS games! You seem to have discovered the sword trick the same way my brothers and I did: by accident, but it's definitely effective. Here's a tip the manual also doesn't mention: buy every bible you can *before* defeating the local boss demons, because they'll max out your money when you beat them (giving you plenty of cash for buying those crystals!) I always enjoyed the music in this game, and felt the various overworld themes did a great job making me feel like I was progressing and getting more powerful. This game supports SMS FM sound, so if you have the means, you might consider checking that out. Great video!
That tip about the bibles would've been suuuuuper helpful to know! I didn't have to spend too much time grinding, but I died very, very often! Thankfully someone was kind enough during my livestream to let me know about the sword thing or else I would've been poking things in turbo mode forever.
When I was looking for music for this video, I'm pretty surprised at just how many different tunes there were. There's so much and all if it's so good! I really enjoyed Golvellius. Would you put this one in your top 5 for the SMS?
@@hungrygoriya Yes, I would. Though I think this game is objectively very good (graphics, music, gameplay), nostalgia is also a factor. We didn't have an NES, so this was our Zelda. (Golden Axe Warrior wouldn't be released for a few more years).
@@MightyQDawg Golden Axe Warrior was so late! I think it would edge out Golvellius for me just based on a wider range of attacks alone, but Golvellius is definitely great. I'm glad I finally got around to it and only wish I had been able to do it much sooner.
I didn't realise but I read an article of yours about you getting 11 Master System RPG games. I read your review a year or so ago and decided to buy the remaining RPGs I didn't already have. Thanks so much for that review and synopsis, I actually bought Golvellius because of your review. Actually read the article well before finding this chanel today.
Right on! It's pretty great when worlds collide like this! I hope you enjoy Golvellius when you get around to it.
@@hungrygoriya I will. I have started it and am definitely keen to put time into playing it.
This. wonderboy 3 and ultima defined me. Such nostaligia listening to the music especially. Thanks for sharing the memories.
My pleasure. I can't wait to play more Master System stuff over the next few months.
zelda: the bible lets you shoot fireballs
golvellius: the bible lets you HOLD MORE MONEY
those were the days man
You never know what a good book will do for you.
nice calm narration and thorough vid. overall good review, I could see putting on a playlist of yours and falling asleep after I watch em in detail first
This wouldn't be the first time I've ended up on a sleep playlist :) Thanks so much for stopping in and having a watch and listen.
I have been enjoying the SMS videos. As a kid I had many of these games and it is fun to revisit through your videos. Golvellius was one of my favorite Master System games and have fond memories. This week I just played through the Sega Ages Phantasy Star port on the Switch. Such great games that not as many people have played.
Right on! I've played a few other games I want to review for the system but just haven't gotten around to it yet. I still need to play the Sega Ages Phantasy Star version but I've heard such good things about it. I would've killed for automapping the first time I played the original.
This will always be one of my favourites! Another one a friend had that I would always play whenever I had a chance. Guess I’ve always been a sucker for action adventures! I eventually managed to beat it when I still had my SMS collection and after so many years of trying I felt so accomplished! I will say needing to find the crystals after beating a boss was a bit of a learning curve was probably why I never beat it as a kid. Also trying to beat it with both herbs in your inventory to get the good ending was hard. The surprise you get actually made it worth it. To me at least 😊
Apparently the MSX2/MSX3 versions are a bit more fleshed out. Complete with a town you start in as oppose to just entering the cave on the SMS. Some confuse this with being a sequel but it was just an attempt by the creators to put a more meaningful story
Anyways, great review. I was going to put a comment somewhere about this one but glad I found it! The Master System doesn’t get enough love and this is, at least to me, one of it’s shining gems 💎
Your videos are a treat. Thank you.
Thank you for watching!
I've been looking for this game for so long! Great review HG
Glad to be able to point you in the right direction! Thanks so much for checking this out!
I like how you review master system games. It was my first system as a child and I like seeing games I missed.
I try to shine a light on these ones since they're not talked about very much. I hope to do some more in the coming months too!
Yesterday I was about to start Golden Axe Warrior but eventually I decided to start Golvellius instead, since I wanted a more original game and not a blatant Zelda clone. I'd say my first day with Golvellius was pleasant, even though I had to murder hundreds of bees to buy the first shield and the second sword (yes, because I found out that bees gave me more money than snakes, while being easier to kill than bats). I like the fact that there are so many caves to reveal. I prefer to find caves by killing enemies instead of burning random bushes like in Zelda 1. I also loved that the music changes whenever you obtain new equipment. Overall, it's a game mostly based on grinding and money, but it's still fun to explore the different areas, and it's certainly not the most frustrating 8 bit game.
It's a great adventure if you ask me! Figuring out how to unlock caves on each screen was a fun puzzle, the kind that didn't make me feel too frustrated. I was never stuck for too long. Glad you're enjoying it!
Thanks for the review! It helps me know what I’d be getting into if I try to tackle this game. The long held tones of the music at the beginning of the video bring back Guardian Legend nostalgia.
I've really gotta jump on that Guardian Legend train!
Probably my favorite game ever! (Mega Man 3, Lunar 1+2, Phantasy Star II are also up there in my nostalgia pantheon)
i come from Cannot Be Tamed.
looks good so im subbing :)
I've only been getting to Master System slowly of late, but this is one I had to hunt down, even if I've not made much progress so far. Really enjoyed the video, and it seriously makes me want to push this up the back log.
Also appreciated knowing just how it had changed between the two MSX ports too!
I'm happy you're jumping into this system's library. I've been a fan for the past few years and have been thrilled by so much of what I've played so far. Some favourites were Golden Axe Warrior, Asterix, Psychic World and Master of Darkness. Have you been looking at any PAL region stuff? Not sure where you're from, but there are some amazing things we never got here in Canada.
@@hungrygoriya I'm from Australia, so being able to find some of those is certainly doable (at least within reason of course ;) ). Golden Axe Warrior is one I'm looking forward to diving into as well, having nabbed that a few months ago.
As for some of my picks, it goes between some of the early stuff like Enduro Racer and World Grand Prix, to stuff like Power Strike (and I really want to get a hold of the second, but that's YIKES territory), Fantasy Zone, Out Run and others.
Well written and well edited Goriya. I may need to add this to my Master System collection.
Thank you! You mean you don't have it already? Good sir, I implore you to get on that immediately!
Great game! It was cryptic at times but not so much that I couldn't make it without using a guide. I loved that at the end you can basically walk over everything on the overworld!
Yes! It was very emancipating given just how prescribed your walking paths were, especially in the jungle/forest near the end. I loved it!
very good review! As a big fan of compile its really interesting to see how they liked to incorporate different gameplay styles into their titles such as Guardian Legend, and this of course. I will need to play through this
Thanks so much! I'm really curious to try out Guardian Legend and am planning a playthrough not too long from now. I know that game's a mix of genres, but I think this is the second time that I've seen anything like this kind of genre mix in an action RPG with SpellCaster being the other example. I hope you have fun with Golvellius when you get around to it!
These videos are amazing. Thank you for giving the Master System some well deserved love!
My pleasure. Thank you for taking the time to watch!
Hello! New sub here, just wanted to say thanks for rekindling my old love for the SMS! Started with your Golden Axe Warrior vids. :)
Oh hello there! Thanks for perusing the channel and catching up :) I have another Master System game review in the works... I hope to have it out in the next few days if all goes well, so stay tuned for that. Glad to meet another fan of the console!
Cool, Compile developed this? I missed out on this game. I'm seeing a few similarities between this and The Guardian Legend. Those NPCs are insane, but I'm having a good chuckle at their monologues. Having to buy the crystals are a bizarre concept. I guess it lengthens the game? Some strange quirks in this game. Looks really fun, I'm going to have to try this one. Excellent video, Goriya!
Yeah, it was all Compile! There seem to be some characters between this and The Guardian Legend from what some folks have said here, but I haven't played it myself just yet. And yeah, the NPCs were pretty frustrating sometimes, mostly because you're itching to find items or information but you mostly end up with nothing but being insulted. Randar (the big smiling guy that I didn't show here) is my favourite because his healing was flat rate throughout the whole game. Expensive for the beginning, but a screamin' deal later on!
There were definitely a few quirks that seemed to pad out the game but I swear if I had just died less, I would've had all the money I needed and not needed to grind so much. It's definitely a lot of fun and I hope you do enjoy it whenever you find the time to give it a whirl.
Getting some SERIOUS Zelda vibes from this one...this looks WAY better than the Golden Axe Warrior game, which is also a Zelda clone. I really like that you can hold down the button to do more damage instead of spamming as you mentioned here. Shame that there's no projectile attacks. That would've been a huge improvement to the game. Who knew that bibles are the source for expanding wallets! This game looks really cool...Love that there's different play styles for the dungeons too...i've owned this one for a while...I need to bust it out and play sometime soon. Great review, HG!
Yessss! it definitely does feel like Zelda in many ways, but I found the controls here a bit jarring and was itching for the restrictions of grid-based movement. Switching up the play style was a really nice touch here too. I got a tiny bit of shooter practice in, just enough to say!
And yeah, there were a few little things that I would've never found out on my own, which is why I'm always super grateful when I'm streaming a game and people can share their wisdom with me. Projectiles would've been awesome here, truly. Golden Axe Warrior had it all, which is why that one would be rated a bit higher for me comparatively.
And thanks so much for taking the time to watch. I appreciate your continued support :)
Love this game. Great coverage! I’m stuck about halfway through the game (on something stupid) but I look forward to finishing it
I hope you can get through it! If I'm thinking you're stuck where I think you're stuck, I got stuck there for a while myself actually. I spent a good while just wandering around because things were pointing me in a direction other than what I was thinking I needed to be doing. Good luck!
@@hungrygoriya Thanx! I don't want help bc I'm stubborn (lol), but it's the desert area near water. I believe I need to find boots to allow me to walk on water. Also I'm realizing that just about every screen has a cave you need to uncover. Until I hit this snag I was really liking this game.
@@backinthedaygamer Yeeeeeep that's exactly the place I got stuck too. The game was so cut and dry up to that point and then things went of the rails in terms of what to do or where to go next. You'll get it. If you need a hint, you know where to find me!
Good review. It also has FM music if you have a way of taking advantage of it.
It can be fun to play through it again and just see how much quicker you can beat it. Or just trying to beat the first 3 bosses quickly.
I was jamming away to the FM soundtrack for this game today, and I'm still pretty sure I like the PSG stuff better. I imagine the game becomes a lot more streamlined once you know roughly where things are, but there's so many screens with so many ways to open things up that I'm pretty sure it'd take a lot of practice for me to get faster :D
I'm a huge Compile fan but I was not familiar with this game series. Always nice to see Master System games that look interesting. Also nice to see Randar appearing in another game. I always liked his huge smiling face in the Guardian Legend 😬. Although he was Compiles mascot so he has appeared in quite a few of their games..
Golvellius had my attention from when I first laid eyes on it and it proved to be much of what I'd hoped it would. I'm really pumped to play some Guardian Legend now with all of this background on him... this is my first Compile game so it's all news to me!
@@hungrygoriya Have you not played Guardian Legend yet? If not, you REALLY need to!
@@THESHMUPMASTER Not yet! I have a playthrough planned for this fall with a friend. We're going to trade the password back and forth and play it together. That should be fun!
I love that your intro is the death theme from faxandu - i think? Cool either way
That's the one! It's also on the password screen so I used to fire that up as a kid and sit and listen to it. It's one of my favourite games and pieces of NES music!
@@hungrygoriya me too.. for such a short ditty it sure stuck in your head. Very cool!
The game is coming to modern consoles my God i cant believe this!!!
Oh really? That's awesome! I'm glad more people will have a chance to try it out!
Thank you for this! My favorite SMS game.
You are very welcome! Thanks for stopping in and checking out my thoughts on it.
Awesome game to review! I always loved how this game looked, though I never got very far in it. I mean, my cousin had it - I did what I could while I would be there visiting him :) I should probably emulate this some time, though I'm always stacking more RPGs onto my backlog. Heck, I started Crystalis earlier this year and I'm suddenly reminded that I haven't beaten that either :P Stopped playing it to play Dragon Quest XI or Tales of Vesperia or Death End re;Quest or something and kinda forgot about it.
I am bad at finishing RPGs :(
Speaking of Death End re;Quest, y'know, I'm kinda surprised Compile - or rather Compile _Heart_ nowadays - hasn't made a modern follow-up. To this game or any of their other cult classics, like Guardian Legend. There's definitely enough cache to the Golvellius name that people would pay attention if they announced a new one, but even a spiritual follow-up would be a nice break from their usual M.O. these days or pumping out moe girl RPGs of varying quality with turn-based combat. It would be great to see a modern 3D third person action-RPG (even a cheaper production like Compile Heart does) from them with these 80's anime character designs. LOVE that swooshy green hair! (^-^)
Sounds like you've got your RPG work cut out for you for the next little while! I hear ya though. There's so many games out there to play that it's hard to stay focused sometimes.
I'm not sure why more companies don't do a good modern day followup to some of their heartfelt series from the past. If their audience is us, we are the ones that'll play so now is the time! Maybe your wish will come true. I hope it does!
Those are some of the best SMS graphics I've seen. Looks even more detailed than ffiv
I'm always surprised at how bright and colourful the SMS looks in general. Golvellius has lots of cool stuff going on visually... agreed!
OK, so some fun facts about Golvellius for you. ;)
It's not specific items you need that make certain cave entrances appear, it's... gold. Or more specifically, your gold max. If your gold max isn't high enough, some cave entrances simply won't ever appear, period.
The reason for this is because... in the original Japanese, your currency isn't gold. It's "find." As in, the literal ability to find things.
I can see why they changed it to gold for the English release, though, because... like... my brain breaks every single time I think about spending my ability to find secrets as currency, in order to buy bibles that increase my capacity to find secrets so I can find more secrets and also buy more expensive things. It's just SO WEIRD and SO META. ;)
Also: the original version of Golvellius for MSX1 was a bit more open than this version. As you said, in this version, most areas are self-contained, only opening up the bottleneck leading to the next area after you've obtained the crystal from the boss nearby. In the MSX1 version, this is... mostly not the case. The first 3 or so crystals kiiiiind of do this (though they tend to open up large swaths of the game, including later dungeon levels and areas you're definitely too weak to explore once you gain access to them), but after that, suddenly, the ENTIRE REST OF THE WORLD just opens up to you, and you're left to your own devices for the remainder of the game. I absolutely love this, as it's almost overwhelming, but also REALLY fun to explore.
When they ported the game to SMS, they completely changed the world map and all the dungeon levels, and gave it a more linear, segmented feel.
...Then, when they ported the game again to MSX2, they completely changed the world map and all the dungeon levels AGAIN, as you noted, but kept that more linear, segmented feel from the SMS game. The MSX2 version of the game is definitely the best graphically and musically (FM music, yo!), but I feel like its maps are perhaps the weakest?
Never fear, though: there was a fourth Golvellius released as well, also for MSX2... called Super Cooks. It uses the MSX2 Golvellius engine, but changes "find" to "dish," and arms your main character with a frying pan instead of a sword... and changes all the enemies to evil food items hell-bent on killing you. The stages are even MORE segmented, but the gameplay is improved by leaps and bounds -- this time, you find new weapons as you go (a salt shaker, a burner, etc.) that all have very different attacks and can be swapped out for your frying pan whenever you'd like... and you ALSO learn special item crash-like charge abilities for each weapon that not only decimate all enemies on the screen when used, but are also used to clear certain obstacles in order to access screens you couldn't before.
Additionally, in the side-scrolling dungeon stages (which are all that exists in Super Cooks; there are no overhead-view auto-scrolling stages this time), you choose one weapon to take in with you, and you have the AMAZING, STUPENDOUS, REVOLUTIONARY ABILITY... to face left! That's right... you can actually turn around and face left in the side-scrolling stages! It's a miracle! ;)
Super Cooks is a weird, weird game, but a really fun little romp. I like that each stage is based on a different country's cuisine, and this immediately leads to amazing content in stage 2, which is based on American cuisine. Every single NPC speaks "English" when you first start stage 2, meaning you can't understand them at all (and their English is represented by things like "I HAVE A PEN!") until you find an English language school and buy some English lessons.
Something similar happens in the China stage, where the NPCs all speak "Chinese" and you need to learn the language before you can continue, though it's nowhere near as amusing.
Anyway! Just figured I'd fill you in on this game's weird release history, and the amazingly meta, brain-breaking concept that is "find" (or "dish") in the Japanese, rather than "gold." Hope you enjoyed this little tidbit! ;)
Wow! See I never knew about the "find" thing at all... that does make a lot of sense. Acquiring knowledge is a really cool mechanic that was completely lost on the English-speaking audiences, haha... bible = money never made sense to me so this explanation helps.
I knew about the other versions of the game on the MSX/MSX2 and Supercooks, but not this degree of detail (I haven't played any of them but knew that the maps were at least different)! I really want to play Supercooks especially just because of how quirky and neat it is.
Thanks for the information! I'm sure others will find it useful as well!
Great video, like all your videos!
Thanks very much! I've really enjoyed this hobby and I'm happy you're enjoying it too.
I really enjoyed this game but never beat it. I plan to get this game soon.
I hope you do. It was awesome!
Have you ever played Crystalis by SNK for the NES its a great action rpg that is similar to this except it has an experience leveling system . It has a bunch of elemental magic swords that you power up and charge for a projectile spell attack .
Yes! I loved Crystalis quite a bit!
You just got a new sub S/O to Cannot be Tamed for the recommendation of your channel :)
Thanks for coming over to check things out here :)
It is a giant leap that Compile took from here to Guardian Legend, although even in that game enemies can get relentless. (only circumvented through overpowering the subweapons)
>2:49 Health-healing space invaders?
Landa, obscure as always.
This was my first experience with Randar (as the manual calls him) and squinting at those tiny health pickups didn't quite translate to the giant blue healing friend you meet up with, haha
The Guardian Legend is a phenomenal game. I loved it!
Hey cool channel dude, just subbed! Showing support to a fellow gaming channel!
It's not a space invander it's a blue lander. They're also in the guardian legend. It's compiles mascot
At the time I couldn't tell that it was supposed to be him! I've played this and the Guardian Legend and seen him plenty of times now though.
7:19
"Thou art a pinhead! Thy Gold art insufficient! Be gone!"
Gee thx (old hag!)
xD
The insults are so silly but also so pointed!
from the makers of one of my faves - Guardian Legend!
you can hear a lot of similarities in the soundtrack
Yeah! Randar (the shopkeeper) is the same guy as the shopkeeper in The Guardian Legend as well!
I really liked it playing as a kid. :-)
This one was tons of fun once I figured out how to find all the secrets :D
Was the Master System different from the Genesis and before it, kinda like the NES being before the SNES?
That's exactly it!
Just played this through to completion! I don't usually make hand-drawn maps for games but I definitely needed to for this game, I found I enjoyed it though. I played a physical copy on my Retron5 and only used save states as a replacement for "passwards". However there was a part though where I used save states to cheat a bit, and that was the Warlick boss battle (the two red demons who repeatedly rush at you). Did you beat them honestly and if so, how did you do it? Also SPOILERS I would be interested to hear your thoughts on the ending. I thought it did more to set up the story for a sequel than it did to tie up the narrative this game told. I also thought that Golvellius looked like TMNT's The Shredder combined with McDonald's purple Grimace and seeing him carrying off kelesis and rena into the sunset as buddies is exactly the kind of unexpected, wacky ending I love so much in retro games. So anyways, thanks for reviewing this game, I bought it & played it due to your review! :)
I did finish the game without any save states since I'm usually playing on original hardware. I know I struggled with all of the bosses later on in the game and just had to get good/lucky in the sections prior to facing off to conserve health as much as possible. It's been a long time but I'm pretty sure I just barely squeaked by in that fight.
And I hear you about the ending... it was a bit disappointing to me as well because it didn't really tie things up. It was silly that Golvellius just becomes your friend after everything. It definitely didn't fit with the tone of the rest of the game.
Thanks for taking a chance on it because of this review! That's very heartening to know :)
Compile, that's a badge of approval to all who know what that means.
I have never regretted getting a sms over a nes as a kid because of games like this. I still want to try the sequel but I don't think it has been translated or released on any other platforms.
I think there are three Golvellius games in total. One of them's on the MSX and is food-themed I think? I forget the name now.
Love this game so much when I was little ...
The music completely brainwashing as, A kid you would dream about the music Sega brain wash love still today
I've had video game music from childhood games playing in my head my whole life. I understand this very well!
I used to have this system and game. But for some reason my teenage dumb self gave it all away.
This game was the shizzle and needs a remake with today's systems. Honestly, it feels like it would make a great mix between BotW and a Souls game.
I hope you can find a way to experience Golvellius again someday.
@@hungrygoriya I could just get an emulator and a rom of the game, but I imagine a modern remake with souls like elements, maybe a bit of soul reaver or Darksiders influence? Maybe in an open world like BotW.
I hear some similarities in the music for this game to The Guardian Legend, also developed by Compile.
Yeah! I didn't play the Guardian Legend before I played this, but I totally know what you mean.
Some of the musical pieces were actually quite fantastic. The gameplay and content for the SMS was *severely* nerfed when compared to the MSX version. Overall, the game was unfortunately repetitive, mostly due to the "sword only, nothing else" system.
🐲✨🐲✨🐲✨
That's a good game and several of those guys from Compile are making a new 8 Bit SHMUP, first game they've made together since Gun ✨ Nac and Compile Heart is also making a new SHMUP 😂🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉❤
Oh realllllly? That's great news!
@@hungrygoriya yeah Yuzo Koshiro is making a 16 bit SHMUP, former Compile employees are making a new 8 Bit SHMUP and former Compile employees that work at Compile Heart are making a next Gen SHMUP.
My profile picture is the ship from the Compile Heart game 😎
I always thought that Golvelius was the name of the hero. A bit like my 5 years old asks me why Zelda is not the name of Link... 😅
There's no reason why it couldn't have been. Good guess!
I remember this game. There are a few design flaws to make it memorable. I really don't have much to say about this title unfortunately. It isn't terrible, just extremely tedious and the flying stages are imbalanced.
It definitely didn't feel very polished in parts, but I'd say overall I had a positive time with it. Despite feeling lost and struggling a bit with some of the difficulty spikes here and there, I'd rate it pretty high among the RPGs I've played for the system.
Thank you SO much for defeating the devil prince and rescuing my daughter, brave hero!!
I can sell her to you for 1,000gp.
This does seem to get a lot of praise but for me I think Golden Axe Warrior is the better game. The overworld and dungeons just felt a lot more fun to explore. Plus I'm glad it didn't have anything like the scrolling sections this does, such an odd thing to put in compared to the rest. Different for sure!
I feel the same way. Golden Axe Warrior is definitely higher up on my list of favourites from this console. I absolutely loved it.
This game was super goood. Man that password sucked to put in all the time. Lol!
Agreed on both fronts!
Wow, I thought that "Banchor, Legend of the Hellspawn" was just a homebrew Zelda clone, but it appears he took a LOT from Golvellius
Oh really? I did a quick internet search to see if there was any footage and couldn't find any. That's a bummer though!
@@hungrygoriyaI think my comment didn't show up for some reason..? It's a well done game. Designed for graphing calculators
@@hungrygoriyaI think my comments were removed because I was posting links to it? Anyway, worth playing if you can. Made for the ti 84 plus ce, but I'm using an emulator, "cemu"
i m afraid of secret paths - when you dk if they are exist, all this artificial extention, but how long it will take to complite for the first time, blindfolded ?
It took me about 15-20 hours or so? It could be less if you're really diligent in your exploration! I've seen people playing it for the first time complete it in a shorter timeframe too. I really take my time.
@@hungrygoriya "diligent" - i was hoped to skip most of exploration and accidentally find right way to go, i hoped main quest holes are opened, and secret holes are optional for loot,upgrades,shops...
@@knkn5049 Yeah, I don't think that's a possibility with this one. You really have to look for stuff in this game, pretty much on every single screen.
One of my favorite games on SMS ! Tons of password wrote on every piece of paper in my house😅
Yesssss! I can just imagine how many papers existed with passwords for this game. I found the font easy to read at least. Did you ever run into trouble writing down your passwords correctly?
as far as I remember, no. maybe once or twice, but I wrote so many passwords during the game (usually a password every death or whenever I met the guy who told you that) that if I was wrong to write a letter, it didn't matter: in the worst case, I lost 10 minutes of game . Now, it is so easy because i take a photo of the CRT instead to writing down. ( yes, I playing on real hardware 😅)
@@Ilarik76 Right right... 10 minutes is nothing in this game! I also usually take photos with my phone now just to streamline things, and it's been a real lifesaver. I'm also a real hardware person... I love collecting games, especially for the Master System since everything still feels so brand new to me.
@@hungrygoriya Real hardware forever (and Master System was my first home console)
@@Ilarik76 Well, although I'm in Canada, we bought some scart cables to get RGB output from the console, and then I also have a Framemeister upscaler to make things even nicer. I think I only capture at 30 fps, but the upscaler and RGB really made a difference. I don't know if you've played Psychic World before, but when I tried capturing that natively before we had the option for scart, it looked so bad, and I wanted to review it so much that we started looking into upscalers.
Ooh, this is made by Compile? That explains the auto-scrolling stages. The sword mechanics remind me of Crystalis. A lot of this game looks great, while a lot also looks "meh". Great script and review, though.
Yep! The Sega port is still also Compile!
@@hungrygoriya I edited my post since I watched this on my phone and can't go back and forth between writing and watching.
@@NefariousWes No worries! And now that you mention Crystalis, that totally makes sense. It's been a long time since I played any of that game. I should make a point to do that soon! Thanks about the script too. I'm glad I finally got this one out of my head.
Reminds me of those sand red enemies in Zelda one where you could go off screen and back on 3 screens to the right from the start screen past the spiders. just stand there and attack and they come right into you for lots of rubies. great way to quickly farm and progress through the game. You already know that obviously but the bottle neck in the video made me think of that. Having a blast showing my son the games on the NES Classic so far my son really enjoys Kirby's Adventure and Mega Man 2. I won't let him play Ninja Gaiden yet don't want him to break the TV out of frustration. Do you have family members or friends play these games with you while you do the reviews? Old timey English gets annoying for sure, could never get into Shakespear no matter how good the play. Thou est like her or not. But I love the game insults :) breaks up the monotony. Tales of Phantasy comes to mind of fun humor in a game. Never liked that top down view in NES games like Super C. Reminds me a little bit of the Death Star run in the NES Star Wars very fast and run out of room on screen the Gameboy version moved at a snails pace and was simple but the NES one looked hard as nails. The bosses look like Illusion of Gaia fair pretty cool. This looks like a winner of a game.
I don't blame you for keeping Ninja Gaiden out of his reach for the moment... those are tough games and you certainly don't want any controllers embedded in your screens! And in terms of family playing along with me, sometimes my husband will play some games with me if I need some two-player footage, but mostly a lot of the games I review here I play on stream on my own (sometimes he's in the chat helping to moderate). I do have lots of company with my chat there. My husband and I don't seem to enjoy a lot of the same games, but we do sit down and play some Neo Turf Masters golf every couple of months.
I can never get into the insults in games, haha... they always make me feel bad!
Non memorable music? ,I hum This music to this day lol, along with Alex kid and Turok 2 :)
I suppose it's going to be different for every person. When I think about this game, I can only really think of the first overworld tune and that's it. The soundtrack is awesome though!
"Golvellius: Valley of Doom is an action RPG on the Sega Master System"
That is a collection of words I like 👀
Jokes aside, this looks really cool, I never even knew it existed! it's definitely going on my "must-own" Master System list
That's what I like to hear! I hope you enjoy it when you get around to trying it out. It was a great time with lots of mystery!
This looks like a port from the snk release of crystalis from the NES library. Anyone else notice the similarities?
There were releases on the MSX a few years before Crystalis came out.
These old ladies are hurting this economy! Charging for a crystal that you rightfully earned? Ridiculous! Still, does look pretty fun. Might be more enjoyable if this was a game where your constants are constantly overflowing with money and you need to burn some. Great review dear!
Yeah, if I hadn't died so much I probably had a lot more money! I need to get better at games! But thanks :) I really enjoyed making this video!
@@hungrygoriya You seemed to rock it pretty well! It looked pretty difficult.
This thing has more ads than the Super Bowl.
I gave up on this game pretty quick. Just could not get on with the combat.
It's a bit tricky and slippery at first. I eventually got it locked in.