It's new to me: Valkyrie no Bōken

This column is “It’s new to me,” in which I’ll play a game I’ve never played before — of which there are still many despite my habits — and then write up my thoughts on the title, hopefully while doing existing fans justice. Previous entries in this series can be found through this link.

The Legend of Valkyrie, rightfully, gets most of the attention when it comes to Namco’s sword-wielding warrior from the heavens. That attention is a bit relative, too, since there has been exactly one English-language release of the arcade classic, and it was buried on one — and only one — of the early Namco Museum volumes back on the original Playstation. Which is to say, those who know certainly know, but Valkyrie isn’t a household name for those who aren’t big on Japan-exclusive arcade games or Namco’s crossover titles with the likes of Capcom, Nintendo, and Sega.

Which should tell you something about just how well-known the first Valkyrie game — Valkyrie no Bōken: Toki no Kagi Densetsu, released for the Famicom in 1986 — is outside of Japan. Namco has re-released Toki no Kagi Densetsu — which (Google) translates to “The Legend of the Key of Time” — on numerous occasions throughout the years, but always in Japan despite the fact that the vast majority of the game’s text is in English or unnecessary for understanding how to get around. Throw in that the game isn’t considered to be of the same quality as its better-known sequel, and you’d be right to assume that fewer people have played of it, sure, but have even heard of it in the first place.

Not to harp on this too much, but Hardcore Gaming 101’s series page only mentions Valkyrie no Bōken — translated to The Adventures of Valkyrie — as part of their writeup for Valkyrie no Densetsu, aka The Legend of Valkyrie. Kimimi hasn’t gotten there yet, either. This is not a knock on either of those lovely publications, either, but just some context for how little attention Valkyrie’s first adventure has received over the years even in English-language press that tends to lean heavily toward Japanese titles. There are a lot of video games out there, folks.

Namco had begun to develop brand new games for the Famicom, rather than just the ports that they’d seen major success with, and this initial Valkyrie adventure was one of the earliest of those efforts. The Legend of Zelda had been an unqualified success for the Famicom and Nintendo in February of ‘86, and Dragon Quest, a few months later, was a revelation for Chunsoft and Enix. There’s a little bit of the design of both of those games in Valkyrie no Bōken, but it’s also very much its own thing — it released in August of 1986, just six months after Zelda, and three months after Dragon Quest, so while there might have been some inspiration in there, it’s not like there was all that much time in between them. This was simply the direction development had been taking for RPGs, especially action ones, for a couple of years now. Namco’s The Tower of Druaga released in 1984, as did the original version of T&E Soft’s Hydlide (with the upgraded Famicom edition hitting shelves in March of ‘86), and Nihon Falcom’s Dragon Slayer.

The real-time combat of Zelda is there, as is this large open-world to explore with dungeons and such scattered about full of foes and treasures, but it’s not a block-by-block grid of a map like Zelda, either on the overworld or in those dungeons. It moves a bit more like the scrolling Dragon Quest, in that sense, and, in addition, includes more of the kind of role-playing game mechanics that won’t have people arguing nearly 40 years later about whether it was ever considered an RPG or not like happens to Zelda whenever the genre is mentioned near it. Given the structure of Valkyrie no Bōken, though, which focuses so heavily on finding hidden items in specific regions to allow you to move on to the next one paired with a whole lot of combat to get stronger, it also has quite a bit in common with Hydlide. And, like Hydlide, you will die in a hurry if you don’t watch your health or the strength of the enemies you’re facing.

Given all of that, it’s kind of funny that Valkyrie no Bōken’s genre is listed as “RPG/action-adventure” when you could just say “action RPG” and be correct, but that semi-unnecessary distinction does at least give you an idea that, in many ways, it feels more like an action-adventure title than something as comparatively straightforward and action-focused as, say, Ys. There is a real emphasis on exploration here, on finding hidden treasures and items to both improve your own ability to survive and also unlock more of the world. You’re going on an adventure! One full of action! And also you gain experience and level up! Action RPG would get you there, for sure, but throwing “action-adventure” in there still makes a lot of sense, especially back in an era where, again, Zelda as RPG was more of a consideration than people would give it today.

One thing that separated Valkyrie from all of those other games releasing in that same stretch of a few years was the protagonist: Valkyrie was a woman, which wasn’t unique, no, but it might as well have been at that point. As “Critical Kate” Willaert introduced in her series, Video Dames, of the over 8,000 video games released in the 1980s just in America, all of 84 of them featured playable women characters. (Since you’re thinking about it now, the original Metroid released less than a week in Japan after Valkyrie’s first adventure did.)

The main designer of Valkyrie, Koakuman, explained in a 1991 interview that the very first thing decided about the character was that, “…it would be a female warrior.” Koukamon continued, saying, “A female protagonist was still taboo when we made Valkyrie no Bouken for the Famicom. We wanted her to be strong-willed and uncompromising, and with a strong sense of justice.” The decision to draw her in the style she ended up in came from Hiroshi Fujii, who had moved over to development on Valkyrie after it was already in progress. It’s a fascinating tale, as Fujii himself notes, because how Valkyrie looks in-game doesn’t match up at all with the character illustrations he ended up doing for Adventures of Valkyrie, but, as he was in charge of character design work on the sequel from the planning stage, it was his initial artwork from a few years before that ended up being the basis for the Valkyrie look that’s still in use by Namco to this day:

In addition to not having the impossible-to-miss French braid, Valkyrie also has black hair, not blonde, in-game. She eventually dons a winged helmet and a mantle in-game, but at the start of things, she’s got none of that. Just that dress sans her armor, a short sword, and black, unbraided hair. The shield seen on the cover would have to wait a few years for a different game.

That Valkyrie — the one used only for game illustrations like the box art and manual, but not in the game itself — has stuck even though it was Fujii, admittedly, doing whatever he felt like because he had been given that freedom to make the art that made sense to him. Which is how we ended up in a world where Fujii’s vision of Valkyie got to meet the adult version of Tiki from Fire Emblem: Awakening in the Project X Zone games…

…or having to tell Vashyron from Resonance of Fate that he’s kind of a pervert:

Here’s how Valkyrie no Bōken works. Whereas in The Legend of Zelda, you can pick a name for your character, in Valkyrie, you have to pick your astrological sign and your blood type. Don’t just enter your own Zodiac symbol and blood type and call it a day, though. These are something of a code for the kind of experience you’ll have, because the Valkyrie that you’ll start the game out with will be different depending on your answers. If you select a Fire sign, for instance, Valkyrie will be strong physically, but begin with a lower magic power. This grants you the most starting hit points by far (64), but by the same token, the lowest number of magic points (32). An Earth sign Valkyrie is more balanced, with 48 of each — that’s the second-most hit points and second-fewest magic points, but it’s also enough of the latter to start off with the healing spell. Valkyrie doesn’t learn new spells based on her level, no, but by how many magic points she has. So, while the Fire sign begin with more hit points, you’re more reliant on resting at the inn (which costs money) or health potions (which cost money or need to be found) in the early going. Air and Water signs are almost identical at the start, at 32/64 and 33/63 and with the same two spells, but Valkyrie’s strength grows just a little bit faster in the latter.

So, the astrological signs determine the kind of character you’ll be, and blood type determines the difficulty of your adventure and your growth rate. Mercifully, the StrategyWiki page for Valkyrie no Bōken details all of this, so you’re not stuck with an untranslated manual and pure guessing. Type A has no inherent advantages or disadvantages at the start, and works well for beginners given the balance. You won’t level up too fast or too slow this way, and, late-game, you’ll be stronger than Type B characters, who have an early advantage of quick leveling ability — one-third the experience points to reach level 3 compared to Type A, for instance — but will eventually slow down in a way that lets A surpass their growth rates. Type O is the opposite, with very slow leveling at first — 3,500 experience for level 3 — but they’ll eventually shoot ahead of the balanced Type A with quicker late leveling. By level 12, they’ll have surpassed Type A by a level despite their early head start. Then there’s Type AB, which is for those of you who embrace chaos, as the level rates are randomized. Which means you might end up stronger at the same experience rate late-game than a Type O, or, you could end up even weaker than the B’s at the same point.

Enemies typically appear on screen in batches of four, at the compass points, surrounding Valkyrie. Your job is to make sure that you hold off attacks from all sides without taking much or any damage, which is possible since enemies are either weak enough to be defeated by you in a hurry, or, if they’re strong enough to resist a single blow, can be knocked backwards by the force of it, giving you some breathing room for a moment. The bad news is that your sword is very short, and even when you get longer swords, it still has the same attack range. The good news is that stronger swords hit a lot harder, so you don’t need to pull off those short-range swings as often.

Enemies drop items and bags of gold, and while there are shops, for the most part, you’re going to want to save your money for the inns that heal your hit points, magic points, and serve as both a password generator and checkpoint for if you fall in battle. You’ll continue from an inn with your experience points rounded down and your items still in stock, should you die — luckily, you can save without also spending the money to heal, so be sure to frequent these inns if only for that reason while you’re out grinding for experience. What makes the inns so expensive is that there’s a base cost of 20 gold to recover your MP, but to refill your HP, you’re actually charged by the point. It’s not a terrible idea, if you’re in the business of saving money, to use a healing spell before popping into the inns for that reason. If you’re fighting enough to get stronger to go into the new areas, though, and you’re finding items rather than buying them, you’ll have the cash to be able to avoid scrimping like that.

Whenever you die, treasures on the map respawn. Whether you’re finding them just laying on the ground, like happens with antidotes and health potions, or whether you’re talking about the magic ship you find shortly into your stay on the first continent in the game that somehow fits into a treasure ship. It is a magic ship, after all. You can hold just eight items at a time, and they’ll include the things you equip (if they’re permanent items, like swords and the most powerful helmet and mantle), as well as the various potions, keys, the soul of a defeated enemy that opens up a couple of pyramids, and said ship. You equip a weapon to the B button, and toggle which spell you want to use in the pause menu, then utilize it with A. You can also choose to not have any spell equipped, should you want to avoid accidentally pressing A and using up half or more of your precious MP in the game’s early going until you mean to, or to avoid shooting off fireballs at random because your finger slipped.

There’s no one to talk to in Valkyrie no Bōken, as they’re mostly missing to avoid having their souls stolen by demons. You see, there’s a clock tower in the center of Marvel Land, and the key within the clock was stolen, reversing the flow of time and releasing some sealed away demons in the process. Valkyrie descends to Marvel Land from the heavens to defeat the Demon Zouna, who now possesses the key, and bring the concepts of time and demon-free existence back to Marvel Land. There’s a shopkeeper, and Valkyrie is at least in theory paying someone to stay in those inns, but otherwise, this isn’t like Zelda, where you pop into caves and find old dudes handing out swords and words of wisdom about Dodongo. It’s just you and a bunch of demons you’re trying to kill so that you can get time back to normal.

Despite the lack of directions, you still have exploring to do. And it’s the kind you will probably want a guide for, at least to start: I don’t say this to suggest you are weak or incapable, but Valkyrie no Bōken actually came with detailed maps to help get you going and into the flow of things in the early game. So you don’t have to feel too bad about looking up some early ideas on what to do, such as how to get off of the first continent, or find a better sword without paying for it, or to learn things like “once your strength reaches a certain threshold you can use that axe you cut down trees with to also fell mountains.” Some things are a little more obvious, however, like how a certain type of larger enemy only appears on screen in specific areas, anchored to them, where the game is trying to tell you that you should really want to go.

There are special items you need to collect in order to make it to the end game, and they’re found in various dungeons. These dungeons make the overworld look tame by comparison, as the enemies within are always significantly more difficult than whichever ones you faced to enter the dungeon in the first place. And, you can’t easily escape the dungeons, either, like you can in the overworld by just walking back from where you came towards an inn. The rewards are worth it, though, as is exploring a little bit extra where you can to find items that aren’t required, but will make your life easier. Once you’ve collected the various required items that either are for wearing (the super sword, the blue helmet, and blue mantle) or for accessing otherwise inaccessible areas (Xandra soul, a magic whale) then you can head to the final boss. Who you literally cannot defeat without the Time Key. You get stuck in a loop against the demon — who, again, controls the flow of time at present, hence your being there to stop him and all — without it. Luckily, you can’t miss it, as said boss has possession of it. You beat him until he’s about to lose, and he vanishes, then reappears, but sometimes he drops the Time Key while pulling the vanishing act. Use the key in the keyhole it belongs in, and poof, the demons are once again sealed. It’s a fitting end to a game full of combat that, even with that, is far more about finding the right item for the right time.

Now, part of the reason that people know The Legend of Valkyrie better than its predecessor has to do with availability, sure, but part of it is also that it’s not only a better game, but one more people are going to be willing to embrace. It’s a lot simpler to pick up and figure out, whereas Valkyrie no Bōken is absolutely just for the kind of people who still think the original The Legend of Zelda rules, but that also maybe it holds your hand a little too much. You have to be the kind of person willing to go back to other RPGs of this era and be fine with your decision both during and after, which is not necessarily everyone. Valkyrie no Bōken is a true pain in the ass when you accidentally go somewhere that you shouldn’t and whoops you also haven’t saved in awhile. Or when some enemies spawn who can shoot fireballs while you’re just trying to get back to safety, but staying away from melee enemies for that purpose wasn’t enough. Or if you realize you truly have no idea where to go, because, again, this is a game where you can eventually wield an axe to cut down mountains, and oh, there are warp points that help you travel all around, and then they change where they dump you off without telling you depending on whether you have a special item or not.

That being said, if none of that sounds oppressive or horrific, then you’ve got a game to check out. Sadly, just the one: there was word of a potential sequel, advertised in Compile’s Disk Station #4 Vol. 1 in 1989, with the game mentioned as an MSX2 title, with the subtitle “Beyond the Door of Time”. This is the only piece of information is known to exist out there for the game, though.

Instead of a sequel to Adventure of Valkyrie, Namco released The Legend of Valkyrie in arcades, and then remade the original a number of times. While some of these are for Japanese mobile phones, one was for the Playstation, and like with the original, only available in Japan. As part of Namco Anthology 2, which was a cousin of Namco Museum but for classic console titles, Namco made brand new versions or remakes of these titles for inclusion in the collection. This remade Adventure of Valkyrie is nothing like the original Famicom title, to the point it’ll get its own coverage in this space at some point. It not only looks and plays more like The Legend of Valkyrie, but the game world is full of people and conversations, and it’s all far more linearly designed and less RPG-focused than its source material. Which is fine! It’s just an entirely different game, more reimagined than pure remake.

While Valkyrie no Bōken never received an official North American release, it is available via Namcot Collection. As nearly the entire game is either in English (even the ending!) or represented by symbols for your sword or what have you, you can play it if you want to without waiting for an official translation, so long as you have a Japanese Switch account — the international version was localized and released multiplatform as Namco Museum Archives, but not the original release, meaning it’s Switch only for this region-specific version of the collection.

There are also unofficial translations dating all the way back to 2001, though, the earlier edition did actually manage to break the ending of the game somehow, even though it was already in English. That was resolved, along with some other minor changes, in 2019 thanks to DvD Translations, and it was then translated into Spanish in 2022 based on that second effort.

Or you could just watch that video embedded above, as it shows someone who knows what they’re doing completing the entire thing in under an hour. You’ve got options, even if Namco has never actually given them to you.

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