“Sylvan Tale” (Game Gear!) — A Great Unknown Adventure Game!

It wasn’t until within the last year or two that I had ever heard of Sylvan Tale. In fact, I think I stumbled upon it once by searching for “Zelda clones” at some point, and then I forgot about it until very recently. So, don’t feel too bad if you’ve also never heard of this one – you’re likely not alone!

Sylvan Tale is an adventure game produced by Sega and released in Japan back in 1995 for the Game Gear. Despite being produced on an 8-bit platform (with roughly the same hardware as the Master System), the game’s graphics are really good and the music is quite nice. The game drops the player in the world of Sylvalant searching for six Droplets in order to restore balance to the world, and while on a core level the game features a style not unlike Zelda, it borrows from other games as well (such as Crusader of Centy) and builds up its own unique experience. I like the ability to swap into different animal forms in the game to solve problems, for example, and I enjoy the fact that there are plenty of NPCs to interact with.

In this video (the 55th episode of The Retro Play Show), I tackle the first half or so of the game. So, why don’t you drop in and enjoy the video for a while, and then consider finding a copy for you to enjoy as well!

 

Jessica Brown

Retro Games and Technology Editor. She'll beat pretty much every Mega Man game without breaking a sweat.