Genesis: Beyond the Revelation (PC88/PC98)

[Haruka]

Has anyone played this game? It's an early RPG developed by Square but unfortunately it's not that great. Despite being released in 1987 for PC98 and 1988 for PC88 (well after the release of the original Dragon Quest), it actually resembles the early Ultima games somewhat. Weirdly enough, the title screen of the game has a copyright for both 1985 and 1987. Does anyone know why this is? I suppose it would make a look lot of sense if this game was in development back in 1985 because it has that "pre-Dragon Quest" type of feel to it. However, even in Japanese I couldn't find any information about this. Which is suprising because one of the (former) big shots at Square-Enix, Hiromichi Tanaka, worked on this game. I at least expected some kind of interview or something but I got nothing.       

[toei]

Haven't played it, but some sites, like mobygames, claim a release date of October 1985 for the PC-98 version. However, that's user-submitted information, and I have no idea what their source is. Meanwhile, the Japanese wikipedia page for Square lists it as a 1987 game. It's possible that the team that developed it was still more influenced by Ultima even though Dragon Quest was out. It's not like everyone always jumps on the bandwagon right away. But the 1985 copyright can't be handwaved away, either.

Also, Square often acted as a publisher, so even if there's no developer mentioned, it's entirely possible that it was made by another company, like the Deep Dungeons series.

[dsparil]

Generally if there's multiple dates like that it's either because it's a rerelease or it's the date for the first game in the series. Mobygames only has screenshots for the PC-88 version which has the 1985 and 1987 dates. I suspect that the PC-98 version was actually released in '85 with the PC-88 release being in '87 or intended for that year but pushed back into '88. I can't find any info on the PC-98 version apart from it existing, but the PC-88 version is also the only one with a fan translation (and a fairly old one too).

[Haruka]

It's odd because the Project Egg website (on which this game is available) says the PC98 version was released in 1987. I suppose it's possible they made a mistake but I'm not sure. Also, I haven't found any Japanese computer magazines from 1985 on the internet archive that mention this game.

Edit: I just checked the manual and it has a copyright for 1985. I guess that really is the year in which it was released. 

Anyway, I unfortunately have to give up on completing the game because an extremely powerful enemy suddenly appeared on the map and relentlessly chases me. I have no way of beating him despite being pretty powerful already, and constantly running away is just tiresome. A walkthrough website exists (in the internet archive) but it just lists basic info like the world map, items, etc. I wonder if the "Challenge!! Personal Computer AVG and RPG" book series covers this game.

[toei]

Another possibility is that it got a tiny, semi-amateur release in 1985, as was the case with lots of obscure computer games then, and a wider re-release in '87. After all, Square was just starting in '85. Out of the fives games listed on their Japanese Wikipedia for '84 and '85, three are ports of other companies' games.  Porting an early '80s game from one Japanese computer to the next could probably be done by a single programmer, two at most. It also seems to be saying that Sakaguchi was just a part-timer at Square when he wrote the scenario to Death Trap, their first release (an adventure game). So it sounds like they were a small operation at the time.