The Classic Arcade and Console Era (1972-1989) - Syvalion
Fly around giant mazes as a cybernetic golden Chinese dragon. Yes, really!
RELEASE DATE: 1988
DEVELOPER / PUBLISHER: Taito
BEST VERSIONS: Arcade, Sharp X68000, PlayStation 2 (for the English text)
PLAYABILITY TODAY: Fairly playable
Elsewhere in this series, you’ll find an entry for Dragon Breed and mention of Saint Dragon, two shoot ‘em ups featuring mechanical flying dragons. Syvalion, at least superficially, seems to be the same sort of game, but the difference is that its mechanics are based upon traversing dangerous mazes to hunt down bosses rather than simply scrolling from side to side. It’s short, it’s sweet, it’s different every time you play it due to procedurally-generated levels. But on top of that, it has a really amazing soundtrack and a story that branches into 105 different endings (a few of which ever refer back to Rika’s adventures in our previous entry Raimais!)
So, why isn’t this game better-known today? Much like many other late ‘80s Taito arcade games, Syvalion was Japan-only, and its home ports on the Sharp X68000 and the Super Famicom likewise stayed in their home country. The first North American release was actually in the 2006 Taito Legends 2 PlayStation 2 compilation, where the game felt rather unimpressive compared to the likes of other obscure gems like Elevator Action Returns, Arabian Fight and Dungeon Magic. More importantly, however, the PS2 port lacked the trackball control scheme of the original arcade cabinet. That turns out to make all the difference between playing Syvalion as it was intended or playing it in a manner that can make the game into a less exhilarating experience.
The basic idea behind Syvalion is that you’re piloting a giant starfighter that happens to look like a golden Chinese dragon in a quest to destroy five alien mecha that are heading for the Earth. The dragon is long, but moves very quickly and can spin around quickly to shoot in eight directions. As you take damage, your dragon begins to change color to help you know that you’re in danger, and your flame can also temporarily go out with overuse. You can also occasionally find helper units that follow behind your dragon and shoot at enemies.
While there is a fixed training mode called Basic Combat Series where the game is always the same, it’s far more fun to play the Real Combat Series, which randomizes many elements, including the enemies, stages, background music and helpers you’ll encounter. On each level, you fly through a maze, destroying enemies that are vulnerable to the plume of flame you shoot out of your dragon’s mouth and dodging those guarded by a blue force field. Each level requires maybe two minutes to blast through, and the game reinforces this sense of urgency with a fast-moving timer counting down from 1,000. Each level concludes with a boss battle, which can vary from game to game. You might fight a giant spiky star, or a huge insect, or a massive horned ogre sporting a boomerang, or an insidious metal ammonite or, my favorite of all, a sinister-looking long-necked dinosaur called Zandicc that hangs around the bottom of the screen, presumably because the rest of its massive body is out of view, as a later appearance in Darius Force reveals.
And yes, that Darius connection is on purpose, because Syvalion, like Raimais before it, takes place in the Darius universe. The story is otherwise unconnected and lacks any of the fishy aesthetics of Taito’s shooter series, but the game does have another odd connection to Taito’s Bubble Bobble games: the Sharp X68000 port includes a secret Bubble Bobble clone called Sybubblun that replaces Bub and Bob with golden dragons and includes some new mechanics. It’s not just a knockoff, either; original creator Fukio Mitsuji had a hand in the development of both Syvalion and Sybubblun.
The game’s story is interesting because it’s written in short little interstitial text that concludes with the aforementioned 105 endings, some of which include a favorable outcome and others of which suggest that you failed to stop the enemy completely. Since the story is always presented in text, it doesn’t have much bearing on the gameplay aside from your own interest in it, and I never did figure out the exact conditions for how the endings were triggered. Much like the strange multiple endings in Toaplan’s Zero Wing, they mostly seem inconsequential.
If you’re going to play Syvalion today, I’d suggest trying the PlayStation 2 Taito Legends 2 version first since it’s translated into English and then perhaps go back to either the arcade original or the lengthier and more fleshed-out Sharp X68000 version, both of which work great with a mouse in place of the trackball. Antstream arcade also has a version of the game, but it’s difficult to control. The Super Famicom version (which was also ported to the SNES in Europe) is a competent port, but it, too, is hard to play on a controller.
As Our Series Continues…
It’s time to move on to console and arcade gaming in the 1970s and 80s, and we’re going to cover it all with an exploration into hundreds more games you’ve probably never played but definitely ought to check out. Come for amazingly great early 1980s games like Warlords, Super Locomotive, Shark! Shark!, Acrobatic Dog-Fight, Mysterious Stones: Dr. John’s Adventure and Intrepid and stick around for mid-to-late 1980s greats like Peter Pack-Rat, Penguin-kun Wars, Momoko 120%, UFO Robot Dangar, Wonder Momo, Raimais, Last Alert, The Legend of Valkyrie and the arcade version of Twin Eagle: Revenge Joe’s Brother, complete with a rockin’ soundtrack with wonderfully inscrutable lyrics.
If you’ve never heard of any of those games, you’re in for a treat as we explore them one by one. And If those games are all old hat to you, don’t worry; they’re just the tip of the iceberg for what we’ll be discussing!
If you missed my series on the hundreds of 1980s PC games you probably never played, you can find the entire archive at https://greatestgames.substack.com.
Anything I don’t share here will be in my upcoming book, tentatively titled The Greatest Games You (Probably) Never Played Vol. 2. Subscribe to this newsletter so you won’t miss it!