SYLPHIA
game Cover
game CDRom
シルフィア
©1993 Tonkin House
Tokyo Shoseki Co.,Ltd.
Release : 1993-10-22 (¥7800)
SuperCDRom² THCD3001
Shooter / Vertical

Sylphia is a vertical shooter published by Tonkin House. The game draws from Greek mythology and tells the story of Sylphia, a female warrior with a tragic destiny. Her tale starts as she lays fatally wounded in the temple of Athena - merciless monsters have taken over the city and she perished as she desperately tried to protect innocent villagers. The gods, touched by the sincerity of the young woman's devotion and love, decide to give Sylphia another chance... Now turned into a Sylphid with tremendous powers, the female warrior embarks on a long journey of revenge, ready to fight for her homeland. Sylphia starts equipped with a fairly basic fire weapon that can be upgraded in various ways - four different types based on the four basic elements are available throughout the game, from Fire (Red), Air (Green), Water (Blue) and Earth (Brown). Each weapon type is associated with an additional sub-weapon which range from Homing Fireballs (Red), Reverse Fire (Blue), Ring Blades (Green) and Rotating Rocks (Brown). Sylphia can also trigger a devastative special attack that deals great damage to on-screen enemies - this power is obviously available in limited quantities and may only be be used in desperate situations. Various other items are available for the taking, such as extra lives, Mirrors/Gems (slowly increase a health bar located at the bottom of the screen that gives the player an extra life when full) and Green Orbs (increase the active weapon's power level). Sylphia consists of eight stages and is single player only.
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Compile and Sylphia There has been much controversy over the origins of Sylphia - was the game developed by the prolific game maker Compile? Although their name is not specifically listed in the end credits, all signs indicate that the Japanese company developed the game. First of all, Sylphia used to be listed on the Compile homepage before it was taken down (picture on the right). Additionally, several artists from the staff listed at the end of the game worked on several other Compile games, such as Ikurō Urai (Gun Nac), Shinichi Nogami (Madō Monogatari, Puyo Puyo), Shunsuke Takashima (Robo Aleste), Kōji Teramoto (Xevious Fardraut Saga, Zanac, Puyo Puyo 2, Goardic Gaiden) or Takayuki Hirono (Gun-Nac, Aleste 2, Zanac, Goardic Gaiden). All signs do indicate that Compile developed (or helped developing) Sylphia.

Sylphia warning screen Here is the System Card warning screen for Sylphia. Most Super CDRom² games featured System Card warning screens. These screens appeared if the player happened to boot up a Super CDRom game with the wrong system card (under version 3.0 for a Super CDRom², or any system card for an Arcade CDRom²). Although some of the early games simply didn't boot at all with the wrong card, some started to display simple warning screens, elaborate animated scenes, and some, such as the popular Akumajō Dracula X, even included a short mini-game! Interestingly, these Super CDRom² warning screens became forgotten pieces of history because most players used a Duo system (which has a built-in 3.0 system card) to play their PC Engine CDRom games (Simply use a System Card v1.0, v2.0 or v2.1 to activate the warning screens on a Duo, Duo R or Duo RX system).

Game Staff (Copied from the end credits) :

STAFF

Producer
Ikurō Urai

Supervisor
Yoshiie Matsumura

Director
Junichi Nagatsuma

Co-Ordinator
Takao Araki

Programmer
Shinichi Nogami

CD/DA Song Writing Crew (1st)
Keiji Takewchi
Satoshi Shimazaki
Katsumi Tanaka

CD/DA Song Writing Crew (2nd)
Einosuke Nagao
Tsuyoshi Matsushima

CD/DA Song Arrange Crew
are made of this
(Rhythm int'l)
Katsumi Tanaka
(LMSRecordings)

CD/DA Recorded and Mastered at
HitfactoryJapan
(LMS Recordings)

CD/DA All Song Published by
LMS Music inc
All Rights Reserved.

CD/DA Produced and Directed by
Kaysumi Tanaka (LMS Recordings)

CD/DA Sound Presented by
LMS Recordings

Sound Effects
Akiyoshi Nagao

Voice Actors
Sonchō Sawa
Crude Matsuoka

Graphic Designer
Neko Koneko
Tenji Satō
Shunsuke Takashima
Kōji Teramoto
Hideo Hotta
Shōji Mizumoto
Riu

Logo Designer
Yokorin

Package Designer
Makoto Jindai

Game System Adviser
Takayuki Hirono

Special Thanks to
Emarin
Iwane
Kawai
Ma-Chu
Pochi
Wild20g
Kerol
Katsuji Suenaga
Nattō



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Sylphia manual Spine Card
Click on picture to enlarge

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Sylphia Level Select Screen Level Select Screen:
Go the option screen and press Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, II and II. This will activate the Level Select Menu. Interestingly, the gorgeous map displayed in this hidden menu is not available in the original game, and it is anyone's guess as to why the developers didn't use it to show the player's progress...

LK
rating
Add your Pov here !

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The female warrior Sylhpia was destined by the gods to become a legendary hero, but was the game destined to become a legendary shooter? I have to say, it's pretty damn close. The game's setting is really appealing and aesthetically unique, especially for the genre. The scenery is very diverse and enemies are equally varied, the bestiary is filled with fantastic mythological creatures and other imaginary foes. I feel that the graphics are a mixed bag, some levels look beautiful (the cloud level is gorgeous) whereas others are just a bit flat or feel rushed (I'm looking at you, cave level). The controls are very responsive and the gameplay is excellent (although the game is on the easy side of the difficulty spectrum and features unlimited continues). The arsenal of weapons is decent but not completely satisfying - it was the first let down for me, I personally would have loved to see more secondary weapons and the 'Earth' weapon is a bit weak and not that effective. I should also add that the game got some extra attention in the sound department - the techno soundtrack is fairly good (well, despite its undeniable qualities, I feel that some tracks really fit the game but it is a question of opinion) and the sound effects are excellent (except for that annoying crossbow sound). As you probably already know, Sylphia is one of the most expensive CD games for the system, but it won't blow you away as much as other rare titles will (such as the excellent Sapphire). But overall, Sylphia is a wonderful and solid shooter that fans of the genre really owe to themselves to experience.




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