Crowdfunding For Hardback Book: Japanese Game Obscurities

[Snake]

Pledged~ looking forward to when the book finally comes in the mail.

[Discoalucard]

Good news! The publisher figured out a way to get the shipping costs down to US buyers, so now it'll only cost about $10 shipping instead of $23, bringing the total price to $30 for the hardcover.

For anyone that already pledged, they'll be sending out an email shortly with the details, but basically you can get the most recent HG101 ebooks PDFs/Kindle files or opt for a refund of the difference in shipping costs.

[Discoalucard]

Updated the tentative list of the games to the one I'd posted on the crowdfunding page. The list is still tentative since I'm still considering dropping a couple and swapping a few in...for example, both Daiva and Juushin Rogas sound cool but they're a bit too similar (strategy games with side-scrolling action components) that I might just end up featuring one of them.

I was playing Jagur 5 last night, an interesting MSX action-RPG from Compile where you control five mercs running and gunning in Southeast Asia against a drug cartel. I'd only been familiar with the name from before but I picked it because Compile is a cool developer and it's one of the games with barely any English coverage. Ended up being a good choice!

[ryall]

This look great, and it's nice for once to be able to pledge to one of these things and not have to worry about swingeing postage costs to the UK.

Looking forward to reading the write-ups on Der Langrisser, Tengai Makyou, Metal Max 3 and Chaos Seed.

[Discoalucard]

I had written one up for Metal Max 2 already, but I just got in the DS versions of Metal Max 2 (a remake) and Metal Max 3, so I'm gonna compare them to see which is the better one to focus on. Considering how many RPGs get localized, it's really unfortunate these were almost all passed over.

I also ended up springing for the PC-FX version of Der Langrisser, I'd played all of the others previously but not that one. It's regarded as the best one, for a variety of reasons, that the book will go into (though just briefly, since the pieces are about 250-400 words each).

[8 Bit Dreams]

Have you ever played Stealth for the Super Famicom? There's not much out there like it at least that I've ever played.



www.giantbomb.com/stealth/3030-44689/

Personally I had a blast playing it and never ever seen much online chatter about it. I believe it did receive a fan translation in the past.

I had found an IOS game much like it years ago which I had played a ton, not sure if it's still around, I think I still have it on my iPod.

[ryall]

Aug 15, 2017 9:00:37 GMT -5 Discoalucard said:

I had written one up for Metal Max 2 already, but I just got in the DS versions of Metal Max 2 (a remake) and Metal Max 3, so I'm gonna compare them to see which is the better one to focus on. Considering how many RPGs get localized, it's really unfortunate these were almost all passed over.

I've never played MM3 or the DS version of 2 so I'd love to read a good write-up of either of them - there's so little info about the series in English media.

[Discoalucard]

Well, roughly, the series was in limbo for a little while after Data East closed. The developers resurrected it into the Metal Saga name since they couldn't get the real name. The PS2 entry came out in America, and it's pretty alright but definitely plagued by technical issues. There was a DS Metal Saga game that was pretty bad, from my understanding.

Then they got the Metal Max name back and did the third game on the DS, which is 2D sprites on 3D backgrounds. I played it for about half an hour this morning, you control a guy who was resurrected by the series' recurring mad scientist character and then set on their way. You have amnesia, of course, so when someone asks you your name, you immediately look around and see drumcans, so you call yourself "Drumcan". Then you pick a last name out of three, I think it's "Drumcan Smith", "Drumcan Jones" and "Drumcan June". Apparently you find out your real name later on but a lot of players just stuck with Drumcan. Anyway, it subverts some tropes a bit because even though you lost your memory you're technically still very powerful even at level 1, so you can crush pretty much every early enemy. The enemies are unusual - one of them is the Toast Raptor, a combination of a lizard and a, well, toaster. There's also a "manliness" stat. Some of the character art (including what looks like the cover) was done by Masaki Hirooka, who also did the Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia art.

The Metal Max 2 remake (technically the second remake after the bad GBA port) is done in the style of MM3 but apparently fixes some of the stuff (better music, etc.) and adds in some character classes from MM3 like the Wrestler and Nurse classes.

[ryall]

Yeah, Metal Saga was my introduction to the series, and I loved it despite the technical issues, but I've always wondered if it was the right game to use to introduce the series to the West. One of the handheld entries might have been a better choice, though I know they came a bit later. A couple of years ago I sunk many hours into the fan-translated Metal Max Returns (SFC) on a PSP, and also tried battling my way through MM4 on the 3DS, despite my terrible Japanese. They're both brilliant games, and a complete antidote to so many of the criticisms people often level at JRPGs (the lack of freedom, melodramatic plots, etc).

I've just had a look and it seems there's a team working on a fan translation of MM3, though it looks to have stalled:
gbatemp.net/threads/metal-max-3-translation-project.404823/

Hopefully it materialises.

[Nester the Lark]

I noticed you have the game Relics on the list. Would the article make any mention of the game Rinne? It was mentioned at the Xseed forums recently as an obscure Falcom game, so I started to do some research on it and learned it was originally considered to be Relics 4.

There's extremely little info about it in English. Even Falcom's website doesn't seem to mention it since they don't own any rights to it; they were just a development partner with Bothtec. (Although it does seem to include a number of Falcom references in it, including Ares from Brandish being a playable character.) What little I did find of it was really intriguing. It looks more like a Western-developed PC game from the '90s.

It'd be interesting to know more about it. Maybe it could warrant its own article.

[Maliki]

The little survey after backing asked my reason.. I had to check 'other' and say I HAVE TO HAVE THIS!

Seriously, this book is next level

[Discoalucard]

Aug 15, 2017 15:00:35 GMT -5 Nester the Lark said:

I noticed you have the game Relics on the list. Would the article make any mention of the game Rinne? It was mentioned at the Xseed forums recently as an obscure Falcom game, so I started to do some research on it and learned it was originally considered to be Relics 4.

There's extremely little info about it in English. Even Falcom's website doesn't seem to mention it since they don't own any rights to it; they were just a development partner with Bothtec. (Although it does seem to include a number of Falcom references in it, including Ares from Brandish being a playable character.) What little I did find of it was really intriguing. It looks more like a Western-developed PC game from the '90s.

It'd be interesting to know more about it. Maybe it could warrant its own article.

Well, the article focuses on the original Relics, so it just wraps up the rest of the history and mentions Rinne (plus an Xbox pitch that never went anywhere.)

The second and third Relics games (developed in the late 90s for Windows) didn't have much to do with the original (from what I've read, I haven't played them) other than reutilizing the "possession" mechanic, but they were isometric, which is probably why they look more like Western CRPGs. I assume Rinne is the same. It's something I'd like to delve into when I have more time to focus on them.

[Discoalucard]

Must as well bump this with some recent stuff.

I've been posting some of the entries for the book to generate some interest, this should be coming every Friday:

www.hardcoregaming101.net/category/feature/japanese-video-game-obscurities/

IGN also did a very cool write-up on us back in December:

www.ign.com/articles/2017/10/16/hardcore-gaming-101-seeks-funding-for-obscure-japanese-games-book

I'm looking at tweaking the list here and there too, looking at it I think maybe I've taken the "obscure" part too literally. But on the other hand, I do really want to highlight stuff that looks really interesting but no one really talks about it, so it's a hard line to balance.

[qishmish]

Hi! Wanted to add that Kuma Uta was one of early projects where  Siren series monster designer worked.
fftranslations.atspace.co.uk/s2/takahashi.html

[Woody Alien]

It's the first time that I helped crowdfund a book. It arrived recently and I must say it's pretty damn good! I like the layout and the abundance of big pics. I also could find only one mistake: on the page for "Nora to Toki no Toubou" the cover artwork was replaced with the one for "The Screamer" instead. For the rest it's quite good.