The Legend of Valkyrie
1989 · Action-Adventure · Arcade
Overview
The Legend of Valkyrie (1989) is Namco's top-down action-adventure for one or two players, in which the warrior Valkyrie helps defeat the warlord Kamooz. Gamest readers voted it the best arcade game of all time.
Deep Dive
Kurino Xandra searches for the Golden Seed to save his people's dying fields, joined by Sabina and Zuul and later by the warrior Valkyrie, who helps him defeat the warlord Kamooz at the Northern Spring. Players fight enemies with projectile attacks, collect gold, and buy spells and weapons in shops, through eight areas that each end in a boss, against a timer.
Developer Story
Hiroshi Fujii led the design, with music by Hiroyuki Kawada, and Namco released it in Japanese arcades in April 1989 as a follow-up to the Famicom game Valkyrie no Bōken (1986). A PC Engine version with new stages followed in 1990.
Did You Know?
- Development began as a four-player, Gauntlet-style game with several Valkyries, before those ideas were dropped.
- One designer used the pseudonym "Koakuman" ("little devil"), which North American versions mistranslated as "Quarkman".
- Its first fully English release came in Namco Museum Vol. 5 in 1997.
Sources & further reading
- Valkyrie no Densetsu — Wikipedia
