Genres neglected outside of Japan and at HG101

[Discoalucard]

Most of the genres mentioned here I haven't covered myself because I'm either not familiar with them, or don't particularly like them.

The only real dating sim I've played is Tokimeki Memorial, and I have a particular loathing for it. The only similar style game I've enjoyed is Persona 3, and that's barely even half of the game. Regarding some of the more popular games of older years (To Heart, Kanon, etc), I'm not even sure how they "play". Visual novels are a bit different, because of the language barrier. I can read enough Japanese to get through most games, but am not nearly fluent enough to comprehend something like this.

I've never played a vehicle sim and honestly they don't sound too interesting. Ditto with sports games. Don't like board games either (can't stand Mario Party/sugoroku-type games), not familiar with most Japanese sports, and don't see the point in pachinko.

As mentioned above, I'll definitely take any articles on any of these subjects, but I can assure you I probably won't be writing them myself.

[Scylla]

Vehicle sims are funny because they're the type of games that almost everybody would say to themselves "I would never get into that", and then they stumble across one that makes them go insane. :) My boyfriend and his buddies are flipping out about the new A-Train game revealed at the Tokyo Game Show, and I just can't comprehend what the fuck is wrong with them, haha.

Everybody needs to try the first Art Truck Battle on PlayStation just once, though, as far as I'm concerned. I could go into how you can pimp out your truck for hours, creating whatever images you want to draw on it, customize what Japanese curses you'll yell at people, and all together manipulate every last detail of the truck that you could possibly imagine, but screw that, it's not important, what IS important is the CRAZY JAPANESE MALE SINGER that belts out his songs with more emotion than humanly possible for every slow-paced, plodding race in the game. I like to imagine that it's the truck driver singing the songs himself, but that's just me. :)

[zzz]

Like I said, I am not asking that this site's format change or anything. However, it seems that even if games of these genres do not get any entries, this message board at least would be a good place to talk about these genres or introduce people to these genres. Of course most here are not familiar with these genres. That is why I started this topic.

I mentioned that I play some of these genres. About some of these:

Japanese sports: I have a tae kwan do game that was made by Human Entertainment that plays like a fighting game and is ok and a judo game that I have no clue how to play. What really interests me, though, is oozumo games (called sumo wrestling outside of Japan). These are fast paced games that play like a combination of fighting games and wrestling games. There are two good games for Famicom, four masterpieces for SFC, a bad game for Genesis, a playable arcade game and some more recent games that I have not played. These have very non-conventional controls, but I could explain these to anybody who is interested. There is also a competitive martail arts game for Genesis called Budokan which is ok. There are probably others but I am not familiar with those. A sports genre that also does not seemingly ever get released outside of Japan would be horse racing games. I am not familiar with these games though.

About vehicle simulators: vehicle simulators and arcade vehicle simulators are not the same genre. Vehicle simulators are simulation games. I do not really get into that genre. Arcade vehicle simulators are game play based and not necessarily realistic at all. They are not true simulation games. They just have a vehicle theme. You generaly play those games for points by operating the controls of a vehicle in a very specific manner. Or some of them, depending on how you define this genre, are combative. These games are very challenging and are not slow paced games. They require constant attention to everything that is going on and I consider them to be as well paced and enjoyable as any genre.

Survival horror games are interesting. Anybody not familiar with these should give Sweet Home for Famicom and Clock Tower for SFC a try.

I do not generaly like strategy games, but I have found some good strategy games and I am always willing to give these a chance. Nintendo's Wars series is amazing and I would recommend it to anybody even if they dislike strategy games. Famicom Wars, Super Famicom Wars (my favorite in this series and among my favorite games) and those Gameboy Wars games should be emulatable. BB Gun for SFC is a amazing game that I would recommend. Stealth for SFC is a very interesting, very good stealth based strategy game. Daisenryaku is also a good series. There are others that are ok or at least playable also. What about Super Robot Wars? Are those strategy games or strategy rpgs?

As far as games like Cabal, I have found NAM-1975, Pirates, Blood Brothers and Wild Guns.

[dai jou bu]

michiyoyoshiku said:

anyways dating Sims are finally showing up here.......they just suck

[sfchakan]

I'm kind of amazed that no one's tackled the Sakura Taisen games. I only have the first game for the Saturn and haven't played any of the others, so I don't feel qualified enough to write anything about them. Although I had to be hand-held through a lot of the Japanese by a FAQ, I still enjoyed playing it a good bit.

[dai jou bu]

All I have is Hanagumi Taisen Columns II. =\

[Discoalucard]

I wanted to do Sakura Taisen eventually. The sim portions are tolerable IMO because they're balanced out by the strategic segments (which are still a stretch from anything in-depth like FF Tactics, but it's good stupid fun.) I have 1, 2 and 4 for the Saturn and 1 for the DC (although only really played 1), along with the Columns game. Most of them are easy to get ahold of to, but it's definitely pretty low on my priority list compared to other large series like Legend of Heroes, Tales of...and others.

I do want to do Clock Tower (and by virtue of that, Haunted Ground) someday as well. The only one I spent any time with is the third one, which is a lot different, but I somehow ended up kinda enjoying.

[sfchakan]

If I remember correctly, how each of the girls felt about you at the end of the sim portions affected the RPG/Strategy sections of the game, so it was a little more rewarding than hentai boobies or a cheesy ending. To me, at least.

[haircute]

sfchakan said:

If I remember correctly, how each of the girls felt about you at the end of the sim portions affected the RPG/Strategy sections of the game, so it was a little more rewarding than hentai boobies or a cheesy ending. To me, at least.

That's right. Depending on the answers you gave to the different girls they would gain/lose abilities or stats. If you're really mean to them then they have no faith in you and it actually makes the game sort of difficult in the battle parts. I have Sakura Taisen 1-3 on the SS and 4-5 on the Dreamcast. ST1 and I THINK 2 have excellent faqs for them at gamefaqs but sadly the one (last time I checked anyway) for 1 only had the Sakura storyling. My girl of choice is Ri and not Sakura but it's still a great faq. I also have a few artbooks for ST and a strategy guide so...I'm kind of a big fan. Wikipedia's article on the series is fucking amazing and if you're interested I would highly recommend checking it out! As an aside: ST has had a lot of clones, obviously. Lunar Wing is one that comes to mind and that I own. Aoyama Souichi did the character art and I loooooove this man but sadly that's just about the only reason to play it.

Bloodybride did have translation patch released and, for me anyway, it works fine with the ISO or whatever and epsxe. I haven't tried it on my new system but on my old clunker it worked fine aside from the occasional garbled text.

I have ToHeart on PSX (the non-h version) and on PC (the original run with the H scenes). ToHeart, like most Leaf games isn't necessarily about the sex. I mean, the only time that any kind of humping takes place is at the very end. Playing through ToHeart is actually kind of a relaxing experience. The music, art, and general atmosphere are very peaceful. Sadly, my Japanese skills have declined SERIOUSLY these last couple years so I can't really make out too much of the story. I also own quite a bit of ToHeart merch...

In general, the games from the more popular companies seem to be less about sex than the stuff from others. Why, CROWD for example seems to have a lot of games that just get right down to business. GJ? has beautiful character designs but seems to focus entirely on boin-chans. Not that I'm complaining tooooo much.

And uh...yeah. I'm just rambling but I'm kind of real hung over so forgive me.

PS: tokimeki memorial 2 rocks for serious

[kal]

Clock Tower would be good for an article, espcially with the weirdness of the SNES version.

[zzz]

Are there any other dating sims that I might like if it is not a genre that I enjoy in general?

I decided to look into a few of these genres that I am not familiar with and discuss my results. I will be discussing emulatable games only, so that people here can try them out. I already mentioned strategy games, shooting gallery games and a few sports games. I will start with a genre that I am familiar with, oozumou games. I will explain how these play if anybody is interested.

For Famicom:

SD Battle Oozumou
Terao no Dosukoi Oozumou

For SFC

Super Oozumou Netsusen Dai-Ichiban
Tsuppari Oozumou: Risshin Shussehen
Wakataka Oozumou
Oozumou Tamashii (best introduction to this genre)

A genre that I am also familiar with is arcade vehicle simulators. A few of these that I will explain how to play if anybody is interested:

Densha de GO! 2: Released for WS, GBC and NGPC. Start with NGPC port. That was this game's best emulatable port and this genre's best emulatable port. Among my favorite games.
Densha de GO!: Released for WS and GBC.
Jet de GO!: Released for GBC. Interesting passenger plane themed game. This is probably what I would recommened playing second if you are not familiar with this genre.
Pocket Densha: Released for GBC exclusively.
Pocket Densha 2: Released for GBC exclusively.

Combative vehicle games (arguably not part of this genre, but I will mention these regardless):

Battletank (NES): Kind of plays like Stellar 7
Super Battletank (SNES): Sequel to above
Super Battletank 2 (SNES) Sequel to above
Battle Submarine (SFC)
688 Attack Submarine (Genesis)
M-1 Abrams Tank Battle (Genesis): Kind of plays like Stellar 7

[sfchakan]

Haircute, would you be up to the task of doing Sakura Taisen? You seem pretty familiar with the series.

[zzz]

Those were genres that I was familiar with, but these are some genres that this topic is about that I was not familiar with that I recently looked into.

Horse racing games:

For SFC

Super Keiba ~ No clue how to play this.
Super Keiba 2 ~ No clue how to play this.
Keiba Eight Special ~ Seems to be a gambling game.
Keiba Eight Special 2 ~ Seems to be a gambling game.
Tekichuu Keiba Juku ~ Racing game.
Jikkyou Keiba Simulation - Stable Star ~ No clue how to play this.
Keiba Yosou Baken Renkinjutsu ~ Seems to be a gambling game.
Ippatsu Gyakuten - Keiba Keirin Kyotei ~ Seems to be a horse racing/boat racing/bike racing game. No clue how to play this.
Battle Jockey ~ Racing game. Among best horse racing games.
Derby Jockey ~ No clue how to play this.
Derby Jockey 2 ~ No clue how to play this.
Leading Jockey ~ No clue how to play this.
Leading Jockey 2 ~ No clue how to play this.
Jumpin' Derby ~ No clue how to play this.
Derby Stallion II ~ Gambling game.
Derby Stallion III ~ Gambling game.
Derby Stallion 96 ~ Gambling game.

For Famicom

Isaki Shuugorou no Keiba Hisshou Gaku ~ Seems to be a gambling game.
Keiba Simulation - Honmei ~ No clue how to play this.
Best Keiba - Derby Stallion ~ Seems to be a gambling game.
Family Jockey ~ Racing game.
Derby Stallion ~ Gambling game.

I did not find any horse racing games that I liked, but these are descriptions of these games.

Fencing games:

Great Swordsman (arcade): AWESOME game. First three levels are fencing.
International Track & Field 2 (NES): Has a fencing game.
ESPN International Track and Field (GBC): Has a fencing game. Maybe worth emulating for this fencing game alone.

[Scylla]

sfchakan said:

Haircute, would you be up to the task of doing Sakura Taisen? You seem pretty familiar with the series. :)

I second that. I'd love to learn more about the Sakura Taisen games.

[zzz]

I played some simulation games, but did not get good results. Dive Alert for NGPC is worth emulating but that is more of a action game.

Emulatable survival horror games:

Clock Tower (SFC): Amazing game.
Sweet Home (Famicom): Very good game.
Alone in the Dark 4 (GBC): Ok.
Resident Evil Gaiden (GBC): Good game.