For this month's "Maps Of The Month" featurette, I wish to draw your attention to King-Hyrule's Holy Diver (J) (NES) maps.
The Black Slayer, the "Emperor Of The Darkness", wreaks havoc upon the world with his black magic and army of followers and creatures. Our hero, Randy, seeks five emblem seals of the King Crimson family, with which he can draw upon holy magic to expel the Black Slayer and his followers from this world.
This platformer with gothic architecture in a medieval setting swarming with monsters may remind you of the Castlevania series, though now with a heavier dose of magic. Though progression is mostly linear, there are a few places where you may have to step aside to another screen or out-of-the-way part of a room, and later on, alternate paths, in order to find bonuses like extra lives and "Mana Extenders" to help you on your holy quest to save the world. And you'll need everything you can get your hands on - especially King-Hyrule's maps which point all these out - because like the early Castlevania games, it also has a ridiculous difficulty level.
Though it was originally only published for the Famicom in Japan in 1989, if you pre-ordered one of the very limited Holy Diver: Collector's Edition cartridges published by Retro-Bit® and sold at CastleMania Games, you'll now be able to enjoy this on your NES! Though this game is described as "holy", you might be cursing a lot, though...
So to recognize the effort put into diving into this difficult and (formerly-) Japanese-only game that deserves a look, King-Hyrule's Holy Diver (J) (NES) maps will be known as VGMaps.com's Maps Of The Month for September 2018.
