Lord of the Balrogs was developed and published by Supersoft in 1983 for the Commodore 64 and was only released on cassette.
The premise is that the party is tasked with infiltrating the ancient fortress of Zorg to find and defeat a powerful and evil Balrog. This evil entity, of course, resides on the lowest level of the fortress and is guarded by other unique examples of its kind.
Scattered throughout the fortress are 6 sacred relics that will help to defeat the evil Balrog. In actuality they will do more than help; they are absolutely necessary for your success. One of the six relics will actually slay the Balrog outright. You just have to choose the right one. I ended up cycling through four relics and watched two of my party members perish before I defeated the dread beast.
The 6 different sacred relics you must find are shown below:
Your party consists of five different character classes: an amazon, a cleric, a hobbit, a sorcerer, and a warrior. You get to name each of your five characters and then you find yourself entering the fortress of Zorg. The fortress is composed of six different levels and you’ll find each of the relics on the first five levels. One of the levels will hold two of the relics. Once you have all six relics in your possession you can make your way down to the sixth level.
The sixth level is populated by several different variations of balrog. You have a silver and platinum balrog, a red balrog, etc. and each are quite formidable.
A typical fortress room is depicted above. It is in these rooms that you’ll either find a chest to plunder or you’ll find yourself in an encounter. Most of the creatures seem ripped right out of a Dungeons & Dragons monster manual. Combat is automated and resolved rather quickly. The monsters, once defeated, can have treasures that can aid you in your quest. There is an item called a Wand of Power that has a few charges in it. When you use this item it increases the strength of your party members. The Lamp of Daybright will allow you to see where you’ve already been in the dungeon and show you the entire map you’ve explored. Otherwise without the Lamp a fog of war comes into play and previously explored areas disappear. There is also a Chalice of Life which you can use to resurrect dead party members. You want as many of your party members present as possible before your final battle with the evil balrog. The rooms are connected by passages and there are usually 2 or 3 different sets of stairs on each level as well that allow you to move up and down.
When combat ensues you choose which of the five party members are going to do battle that round. I found that the amazon and warrior were more affective in dealing with tougher opponents. When you get to levels 5 and 6 the battles become much tougher and play begins to become a little more stressful. On the lower levels you’ll have the opportunity to uncover two different spells: a spell of cold and a spell of heat. The sorcerer can use each of these once and can represent your party against some very tough opponents. There were a couple of battles where I found the amazon and warrior to be ineffective but when I chose the sorcerer I ended up victorious. The sorcerer cannot use any magic until you find these spells in the fortress.
Once you come upon the lair of the evil balrog than your screen and combat changes from you’ve experienced before.
The game is entertaining in that as you’re fighting the evil balrog he taunts you all the while and hurls insults at you. On the special combat screen you’re on, each round you’ll have the chance to “use” one of the six sacred relics. If you choose incorrectly he laughs and taunts your ineffectiveness and then both destroys the relic and instantly slays a party member. So if you have all five of your party members it guarantees that you’ll get to use five out of the six relics that you found and it is likely one of them will defeat him. If you show up to the last battle with only two or three party members you’ll have to hope that you guess correctly.
I actually had all five of my party members and cycled through four relics before I guessed correctly. I was starting to get a bit nervous.
There is no way to save the game but luckily each playthrough only lasts roughly two hours. I found the game to actually be pretty enjoyable to play. I enjoyed exploring the fortress and the way the game was setup. I initially started playing late one night with the intention of just learning the keyboard commands and that I would attack the game in earnest the next day. I ended up getting sucked into play and stayed up very late that night and actually finished the game.
This was another obscure game title that I found myself enjoying quite a bit. I had never heard of this offering before playing it and I enjoyed the experience.
Next up on the docket is Knight Quest.
Until next time…