No Happiness Will Dwell In This Kingdom! Let's Play Rolan's Curse 1 & 2

The evil King Barius has been released from imprisonment and has sent his monsters to terrorize the land of Rolan. Are you the brave hero who’ll seal him away for good?

Ladies and Gentlemen, I’d like to welcome you to the second in a series I’m calling “Let’s Play Beowulf’s Game Boy Youth”.



Rolan's Curse, known in Japan as Velious Roland no Majuu (something like “Barius, the Beast of Roland”) was a relatively early game for the Game Boy, released in in the US in 1991. Developed and published by American Sammy, it’s a Zelda-style �-view action/adventure game.

Movement is tile-based, but the player character can move half-tiles, which can be useful for tactical maneuvering, because he can’t turn in place unless at least partially blocked. The maps are set (rather than being randomly or procedurally generated) so the path through the game is basically the same every time; though they’re very large and moderately branching, especially for the era.

There are also basic rpg elements: Each area is broken up by towns, where you get advice from the locals. Though there’s no XP and you can’t collect money or buy anything, your character does advance, and some of that advancement comes from random pickups from monsters. So grinding for health and attack increases is entirely possible.

The game has no save slots, but a password is always available on the subscreen. Using a password returns you to the beginning of the chapter (of which there are four) with all of your items and stats intact.

The one aspect that I regret not being able to show off is the multiplayer—this game allowed two player simultaneous play via Link Cable. (Which I think I was only able to try once or twice as a child, but was a Big Thing at the time.)

This isn’t really a long or complicated game, and in a lot of ways it’s not really a difficult one, either. But it’s the sort of game that fascinated us back in the pre-online maps days, and it’s still pretty fun to play now.

Since we’re trying for “let’s play” here, I’ve got several bits of audience participation (and there will be more when I reach the sequel).

First: If anyone wants to play along, I’ll be posting my passwords periodically, along with challenge-run suggestions if anyone is feeling adventurous.

Second: The hero of this game is never given a name. What should I be calling him?

Third: When I reach the sequel, that hero will be allowed a four-character name. It’s probably best to start brainstorming that early, lest I end up calling him HERO.

His name shall be...

... Jim.

DNDL. What better way to defeat the Beast of Roland than with Roland's sword?

Ned, as in the lyricist for "Rawhide". Or Dimi, short for Dimitri, the composer of same.

Rolan, Rolan, Rolan...

Rolan’s Curse Post #1 – Chapter 1

So, given that there’s a tie with one vote each for his name, I supposed we’ll be calling our hero…“NedJim”. I can deal with that. I’m more partial to calling his descendent “DURN” as an abbreviation for “Durandel”, but we can take more votes for that as we go along.

For now, let’s get started.




You begin the game in town, with a sword (1 attack power) and two hearts (4 life power).


Every hero needs a sword, and NedJim is no exception.



The townspeople give some amazingly generic commentary. They don’t even make an effort to specify what “that monster” is. Barius? The chapter boss? The first random wandering monster outside of town?


There’s a large Life Potion here. It goes into your item slot and can be used once to restore all of your hearts. (Chests are opened by walking over them.)


(This is the manual description. I actually was able to find and scan my original copy of the manual, so we’ve got a bunch of these that may not be anywhere else online. Whee, exclusive content!)


The castle gates lead to new areas. The first section of Chapter 1 is a forest.


Here’s our basic enemy, the Slime. It moves slowly in a straight line until it hits a wall, then it turns and does the same in the opposite direction. One hit will kill it.


Foes you kill generally respawn a couple of seconds later in a shimmer. You can actually walk through a respawning monster without collision damage until it fully solidifies.


These guys are Redcaps. Trust me, I know what color their caps are supposed to be and totally didn’t arbitrarily decide that because I had heard of “redcaps” as monsters when I was eight. Anyways, they walk in a straight line between tunnels, and do so faster than you can walk. They also die in one hit. They are often seen in rows going at different speeds or in different sequences. They’re decent for farming mini-potions or Armor Pieces from.


Monsters (even the humble Slime) will randomly drop items. Among the most common are the mini Life Potions. They restore 2 hearts immediately on pickup.


(I refuse to call it “Elvenade”. It’s not made from real elves, after all.)

And here you can see I swapped the Life Potion in my item slot for a Magic Axe. I can’t attack with it—it’s for destroying obstacles.


(It is also the secret best secondary item in the game.)

The monster in that earlier shot is a Spider. They move faster than Slimes, and turn 90 degrees when they hit a wall. They also occasionally randomly pause. They take two hits to kill.


This is an important item that came from a chest: A Heart Container. It gives you a permanent increase in your life.


Actually, I should probably take a step back and discuss permanent versus temporary stats. Certain common pickups will increase your temporary attack or life, as shown outside the parentheses. Rarer items (like the Heart Container) increase your permanent stats, shown in the parentheses. When you move on to the next Chapter, your temporary totals drop down to your permanent totals.


Temporary life points come from these Armor Pieces, which increase your health by half a heart, or one point.


(Armor. Chain mail. Whatever.)


This dead tree is the sort of obstacle you can destroy with the Magic Axe. Doing so gives me access to an extra Armor Piece.


North of there, I pass through a castle gate to the second segment of this Chapter, the caves.


Caves are populated by Bats, which spawn, move in small circles, then vanish, then respawn. They only take one hit to kill, but they can be seriously annoying.


Also popular in caves is the Grim Reaper, who floats over holes and shoots fireballs at you.


Picking up a second sword increases my temporary attack power by 1.


This rock is another example of an obstacle that can be destroyed by the Magic Axe.


Down here we have Zombie. He moves back and forth in three-step turns, and takes three hits (even with my attack power of 2) to kill.


Opening this chest nets me a Power Glove, which increases my permanent attack power by 1. Score!


(The manual doesn’t call it that, but I love the Power Glove. It’s so bad.)

And over here, behind another breakable rock, is another Heart Container. Double Score!


The third area in Chapter 1 is the swamp. Which is really just another forest with a couple of different screens.


The first critters we see here are the Beast Knights, which spawn like Redcaps but then follow the walls until they leave the screen. They also take several hits to kill.


One screen north of the entrance, there’s an island blocked off by a breakable dead tree, where I find another Power Glove.


Breaking another tree past several rows of Redcap generators reveals this little beauty: The Fire Wand. It replaces your sword and increases your temporary attack power by 1. When equipped with it, you can shoot two fireballs (which fly about 3 squares) instead of swinging your sword. Even though it seems to do less damage per hit, it is a superior weapon in pretty much every instance.


(The manual and the game itself seem to disagree on the name of this item…)


Over here, right in the middle of the path, is another Sword. It would again increase my temporary attack power, but it would also switch me back to the Sword, and I’d rather keep my Fire Wand.

These flying, one-eyed things are Zeppelins. They generally float harmlessly in one spot, but when they respawn they rapidly fly back and forth across the screen, ignoring obstacles.


And these are Rats, which I missed noting before. They run around fairly quickly and take a few hits to kill until you upgrade your weapon.


The fourth area is actually a second town. There’s a Life Potion here, but I opt to keep my Magic Axe for the moment—I might need it again.

I…what?


Yes. It is. I don’t have one, though. Do you mean the axe? Or are you just a carpenter making conversation?


There are actually two paths to take from here: The Castle, on the right; and the Cave, on the left. The Castle is actually optional, but there’s treasure there.


So we’ll go to the Castle! It’s got bats, which are unexciting.


Guarding a chest with a Power Glove is the Death Shepherd, who flies in circles and shoots fireballs in four directions. They take a few hits to kill and they sometimes drop Swords or Fire Wands.


In the next room are Skull Chompers. They’re generally harmless and often drop Mini-Potions when killed, though occasionally killing one triggers a Death Shepherd to appear. (This is a favorite trap in the later levels—some monsters don’t spawn until less dangerous ones are killed.)


They guard another Heart Container.


There are only four screens of the Castle, so we loop back through town. Note that the Life Potion is still there, if I want to take it.


The first screen of the cave has Zeppelins roaming around a series of small paths and bridges. The second is full of Beast Knights and Slimes.


The third screen has a big pit in the center, and a Mud Golem blocking the side path. He moves slowly, but takes a lot of hits to kill. He can drop a Life Potion when he dies.




The fourth screen has two rows of generators, which each alternate a slow-moving Mud Golem and a fast-moving Speed Demon. The second is very hard to maneuver through without taking a hit, but getting over there can net you a Heart Container. Also of note is that both of these monsters can drop any of the equipable items—but again, I want to keep my Magic Axe.

Because the fifth screen has a breakable rock blocking the way to a Power Glove.

The Slimes and Skull Chompers in this room seem more likely than usual to drop Mini-Potions, too.


These are my stats going into the boss room.



And here we have the Chapter 1 boss, Blob-O-Matic. He moves in a figure eight along the top of the screen, then spits out three invincible mini-blobs, two in a wave a one straight forward. As long as you have a Fire Wand, he’s easy—either stick to one side and be patient (hitting him whenever he moves into your line of fire), or walk up to this point right after he passes and shoot him while he’s firing mini-blobs.


He shimmers and disintegrates upon death.


NedJim, raise your sword in triumph!


A bit of text commentary plays, and then you appear in the first town of Chapter 2.


Here’s my stats and password at the start of Chapter 2, if you want to play along!

Oh hey, even the display encourages LP.

And this is why I don't drink Gatorade.

Yup, that's the only sensible reaction to that screen.

I am not ashamed to admit I bought this game for the box art. I think it was on sale and I was still a bit disappointed re: money's worth. The music is good, but the glacial pace of combat can't disguise the total length of the game. Never did get to try co-op either.

RC2 is vastly improved though, one of the better games I ever played on GB. Looking forward to that

Rolan’s Curse Post #2 - Chapter 2, Part 1

Hello again! We open this entry of NedJim’s journey at the beginning of Chapter 2.


The townspeople have nothing particularly useful to say.


Though I suppose this would be a useful hint if you hadn’t read the manual and had rushed through the first area.


There’s a Life Potion here, if you don’t have a secondary item or you want to switch. I think pretty much every town has a Life Potion, actually.


Leaving town sends us straight into a monster gauntlet, with Redcaps and Spiders filling a swamp-like area. In later chapters, monsters have more health and do more damage, though this is mitigated by your increasing attack power and life totals.


The next screen up has a chest that holds the Chameleon’s Ring, one of the secondary weapons that I had yet to talk about.


The manual doesn’t have a high opinion of it.


It turns you into an immobile piece of scenery, such as a tree or rock. Against ground-based enemies, this can occasionally be a useful defense, because they’ll turn around when they reach you. Against flying enemies like the Zeppelins that infest this area, it’s useless—them passing through you still hurts you! It’s a circumstantial item at best, and I’d rather have my Magic Axe (Protip: You almost always would rather have a Magic Axe), so I restart with my password again.


The reason you want to keep the Axe is because the Power Gloves and Heart Containers are most often found in areas blocked off by removable obstacles. You can sneak around to the Glove, but the Axe makes it easier to reach.


This Heart Container requires the Magic Axe, however.

Protip: In many cases, if you kill a monster and it drops an item, it won’t respawn until you pick up that item (or it vanishes). However, if multiples of the same monster (such as Redcaps from a particularly fast generator) appear, then the others can spawn and get you while you go for items. This set of generators is a pain to cross, incidentally, but can be a decent place to grind.


There’s a final breakable tree just before the end of this area, but it leads to a Sword, which I don’t want—I’d rather keep my Fire Wand, even if picking up the sword would give me a point of temporary attack power.


The second area is The Land of Shipwrecks!


And it’s populated by a new monster: The Death Crab. Death Crabs skitter back and forth a few spaces, then pause.


The first screen has a convenient chest with some Armor in it. (I haven’t been noting when an enemy drops Armor, by the way, just in case you’d been wondering why my heart total has been creeping up.)


The second screen has more new enemies, the Kraken. They spawn in the water, step onto land, shoot fireballs out of their sides, then retreat to the water and vanish.


This little mound is the breakable object for the beach theme.



The chest contains the equipable Power Crystal. If you hold the button, a sparkle will fly around you and you’ll charge up a super-shot. You can’t move while doing this, though you can turn in place. Again, it’s pretty situational, so I revert to having the Magic Axe again.


The manual thinks the Power Crystal is the BEST THING. I really don’t know why.

In this case, keeping my Axe gives me access to another piece of Armor on the next screen.


Have I talked about the Invisibility Cape before? It randomly drops from enemies, and provides a few second of invincibility when you pick it up, signified by flashing.


Apparently Merlin exists in this world?


The gate here leads to chapter 2’s second town.


There’s a Life Potion here, as usual.


An accurate statement. We’re only partway through the second chapter.


This woman seems to think the Power Crystal is much more badass than it actually is.


Gratuitous Ye Olde English encouraging us to have fun while Death Crabs and Krakens are trying to eat us. Whee!


But first: This chapter also features an optional castle area.


This castle is a fantastic place to visit. Yes, the four screens are full of Grim Reapers, Death Shepherds and Bats, but there also some lovely prizes. Like a Fire Wand, which I do grab, for the extra point of temporary attack.

Down here is a breakable wall. This is another one where the Axe is technically optional, but it’s a bit easier if you have it. That allows us to reach a Glove and a Heart.


Also in this area are these axe-wielding Lumbering Hulks. As their name should imply, they slowly lumber across the screen, but they take a lot of shots to dispatch and hurt if they hit you.


Then it’s back to the town, so we can take the proper path.


Here’s NedJim’s stats and password at the moment. We’ll pick up the rest of chapter 2 in a few days.

Collecting Power Gloves and Heart Containers to boost your permanent stats isn’t strictly necessary—you can grind temporary stats in every stage—but it makes your life easier in the long run. Especially early in each chapter, losing a lot of your health and attack power can make handling the first batch of enemies difficult. If you want to do a challenge run, try intentionally skipping the permanent stat increases in the first chapter.

Rolan’s Curse Post #3 - Chapter 2, Part 2


We had left off in the second town of Chapter 2, just after the optional castle area. From here, we’re heading back to the beach, where the Death Crabs and Krakens roam.


Heading to the left gets me to a breakable sand dune that blocks off a sealed-in screen. There’s a Fire Wand here, which I grab for the temporary attack boost.


There’s also a second dune that blocks off a single Speed Demon enemy. Why bother? Because Speed Demons drop the various subweapons, so if you want to switch off (I don’t), this is the place to do it. Ironically, when I kill him, he drops a Magic Axe. (In theory, if you were low on health, you could kill him until he drops a Potion, use it, and then kill him again until he dropped the item you wanted.)


North of there, I find some Lumbering Hulks. The guard a dead end with some Armor and a Power Glove that I don’t need the Magic Axe to access. (Lumbering Hulks in this area have a tendency to instantly respawn in a spot you need to pass through, so you have to wait for them to go by rather than killing them.)


To the east is a Sword, but I don’t want it.


North of the sword is the correct path, with another sand dune to destroy to access some Armor and another trapped Speed Demon.


Then the gate, which leads me to a new swamp/forest area. Many classic enemies return.

My first stop is a breakable tree, which blocks a Shield of Valor.


(A good shield for Christians, I suppose.)


The Shield of Valor, as you can probably guess, can be held in four directions and blocks projectiles. You can spin in place while using it, but not move or attack. Like every other subweapon, it’s situational, and I don’t bother with it.


West of there, guarded by Spiders but otherwise ripe for the taking, is a Heart Container. Just north of here is an identical screen with a Power Glove and a bevvy of Zeppelins.


There’s also a Fire Wand in the east. (Past a screen full of Slimes, which is a great place to grind mini-potions if you need them.)


Then the gate to the final town in this chapter! Guarded by a nasty Beast Knight who takes a big chunk out of my accumulated health.


As you could probably guess, 32 is the highest health you can have, but permanent health overrides temporary, so it’s still worthwhile to pick up Hearts even if you’ve maxed out on Armor.


Here’s the Life Potion for this town.


The townspeople give me some encouragement.


I’ve never visited this guy with a Chameleon’s Ring equipped, but I’m 99% certain it does nothing.

Am I just not using the Power Crystal correctly? Do I need to hook it up to a generator or defeat a fiend to restore its light? I mean, it’s pretty strong, but nowhere near what the townspeople are talking up.


The final area in this chapter is a cave. Full of Grim Reapers.


Breaking that rock would lead me to a Life Potion that I don’t need.


If you need to grind for mini-potions or Armor, these Redcap generators are a good place to do it.


Going west from there, past more generators and some bats, is another Fire Wand, and a Heart Container guarded by Grim Reapers.


North leads to a Sword guarded by Spiders, and a Power Glove that you need the Axe to get, which also has a Death Shepherd that swamps right on top of it.


Which means I’m going into the boss battle with lots of attack power, but only half my health.


This boss here is the Armordillo, which has a fairly straightforward pattern: It will close its eye, and do a series of horizontal-then-vertical steps down to the bottom of the screen (basically the Space Invaders march), then open its eye and move in a diamond pattern quickly.


There are big safe spots when it’s moving in the diamond, so you can just pepper it with Fire Wand shots like so.

Success!


Once again, we get a short bit of story.


Here is a password and NedJim’s stats going into Chapter 3. Think this has been too easy? Try doing the second chapter with a Sword instead of a Fire Wand.

I don't have anything constructive to add since I've never played this game, but I will say that it looks interesting, and I've been enjoying this LP. Keep up the good work, Beowulf!

Thanks! I'll admit, I was hoping to garner a bit more discussion here, because the forum has been so hopping lately. I'm guessing a lot of that this the fact that few people have played this, so there aren't that many with anecdotes to share. Also, the game isn't that long, as I'm already halfway through it, so there aren't many things to go in-depth about.

Hopefully the response when I hit RC2 will be better?

It'll be interesting to see, also, what kind of response Gargoyle's Quest gets. I'm planning that for my next LP--however the reservation rules settle out--and I've already started scanning manuals, Nintendo Power maps and other supplemental materials.

I actually didn't play RC2 as a kid, only years later when I discovered emulation (which is why I won't have manual scans for that, unfortunately). It's a better game on a lot of levels, though it's also a lot harder--I can make it all the way through RC1 without dying, but the bosses in RC2 have a tendency to murder me.

These NPCs have the best dialog.

I really like the boss designs. They're charming in that classic Game Boy way.

There's a copy of Roland's Quest 2 at my local used store that I keep considering. Should I pick it up?

I can't be the only person who saw this.

I actually own this game and played it on my OG Gameboy. I'm... pretty sure I beat it? But it never left that huge of an impression. When I think back of my Gameboy experiences it's Tetris, Alleyway, the first Super Mario Land, and the various not-actually-Final Fantasys. I had a lot of other games (Kwirk and Catrap, I'm lookin' at you), but not a whole lot of the library stuck in my psyche. I'm only vaguely remembering the mechanics now that I'm reading your LP.

But I am reading. Carry on, good sir!

Your local store has a selection of original Game Boy games? Damn.

I think it's worth your time for $20 or less; there's 5-10 hours of game (depending on your skill vs. patience) and a decent amount of stuff to find. It improves a lot of things over the original.

That, and on the extremely odd chance they have an original manual for RC2, I'd happily reciprocate in some way for a scan of it.

I remember reading that Kurt Combain felt that Nirvana had "made it" when Weird Al did a parody of them. This is my very first photoshopped screencap!

(Though, bizarrely, I never quite made that connection before.)

I suspect this made a big impression on me because this, Gargoyle's Quest, Super Mario Land and Tetris were the first games I ever owned.

And thank you! I had a lot of games that I didn't think would work well as LPs or there are already LPs of--pretty much everything Square or Nintendo developed for the console, really, but Catrap also. Maybe at the end of my next LP I'll post a full list and ask for requests of where to go next.