Volgarr the Viking - Ending A Playthrough
From Volgarr's game description, "Possesses all the hallmarks of true classics like Super Ghouls 'N Ghosts (SNES), Rastan Saga (Arcade), Castlevania (NES)...." I haven't played Rastan Saga, but I can definitely agree with SGnG and Castlevania. Volgarr has old school feel and difficulty to it, but it's also carefully designed, so deaths were simply my own fault.
You're given access to a sword and a throwable spear that you can use for damaging enemies and creating platforms against walls. You also have access to a double jump that is very similar to Super Ghouls 'N Ghosts. You will be committing on every jump, so you need to plan out your jumps more carefully than usual. If you play well enough, then you can also gain access to a blue helmet, "Baldur's Protection," which gives you 1 extra hitpoint after opening a chest. And then you can unlock, "Tyr's Flame," the flaming sword, if you open another chest without getting hit, which doubles the sword damage and extends its attack range. The better you play, the stronger you become.
This playthrough goes through the entire, "Path of the Valkyrie." Essentially, this path provides alternative and more challenging levels compared to the main game. To unlock access to these levels, you must have at least one life fire (those blue orbs that I pick up throughout) at the end of a world. These act as lives when you go into the alternative world. If you run out, then you are booted back to the standard level for your playthrough. To get access to a life fire, you need to have full armor and the flaming sword, unlock two previous chests without getting hit, and then your next chest will contain the fire. You'll also get one if you beat a boss for the level with the sword from what I can gather (or maybe without dying?) I'm not 100% sure. Ending A requires you to beat the entire path as well as the final secret level.
In any case, I barely played the game past the standard level 3 previously, so everything after level 1 was new territory to me in this run. It was still a fun time though. I managed to beat the game under 10 retries too, so that was a pleasant surprise. That said, don't expect perfection from this run since it was a first runthrough for me.
Time Stamps -
0:00 Intro & Opening Area
0:24 World 1
7:33 World 1 Boss
8:04 Break 1
8:23 World 2
22:26 World 2 Boss
23:03 Break 2
23:20 World 3
35:40 World 3 Boss
37:35 Break 3
38:03 World 4
46:28 World 4 Boss
51:11 Break 4
51:30 World 5
1:20:36 World 5 Boss
1:23:35 Break 5
1:24:10 World 6
1:33:42 World 6 Boss....wait, what just happened?
1:34:04 World 6 Break
1:34:26 Secret World
1:40:46 Final Boss
1:46:25 Final Break
1:46:53 Ending A
1:48:09 Full Credits
1:53:29 Final Results
I strongly recommend this game if you're all about the old school difficulty games. I would say that it's not as punishing as SGnG or Castlevania, but it's still a good time.
Volgarr the Viking Steam Page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/24...
Broadcasted live on Twitch -- Watch live at / tminator64