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Post by dsparil on Feb 2, 2023 14:51:25 GMT -5
I don't have any direct experience with Welcome to Pia Carrot, but it seems like a series that had quite a bit of mindshare outside Japan. This appears to have been the first PC-FX game to get a fan translation based on RHDN although there's none listed for the later games. Smart that it lets you schedule most of a week in advance. There's way too many simulation focused VNs that make you tediously do each day at a time.
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Post by kaoru on Feb 3, 2023 4:02:33 GMT -5
To be honest, before Pia Carrot, I wasn't even aware the PC Engine had a follow up console. Even when I read that it is for PC-FX I just thought that it is a PC Engine rebranding or addon or a JP region name for something theresuch at first.
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Post by dsparil on Feb 3, 2023 11:22:21 GMT -5
Bikkuriman World ビックリマンワールドDeveloper Hudson Soft Publisher Hudson Soft Format HuCard Release (JP) October 27, 1987 Release (US) Unreleased Westone née Escape’s Wonder Boy series is one of the most tangled webs in all media. Sega only controlled the Wonder Boy brand leaving Westone free to license out the underlying games. 1987’s Wonder Boy in Monster Land stands as one of the most especially complex branches. A name modification to Wonder Boy in Monster World for the official Mark III / Master System port necessitated by Epoch’s WaiWai Monster Land for their Super Cassette Vision console spawned its own sometimes overlapping sub-series. Jaleco’s Famicom port based on Journey to the West created a mini-series with the sequel even seeing a second theme swap when released in the US. Hudson of course already had experience with the Wonder Boy series having ported the original game to Famicom and NES as Adventure Island. Rather than using Adventure Island as their faux Wonder Boy brand, future games evolved on their own although Monster Land did receive an Adventure Island themed version several decades later. Hudson instead chose to produce a game based on a confectionary from candy giant Lotte. By 1987, Japan was in the midst of a Bikkurimania spurred not so much by the nutty chocolate wafer but the stickers sold with them. At their launch in 1977, each came with mundane prank sticker such as spilled ink. In 1985, Lotte launched the Demons vs. Angels series, and these stickers struck a chord with the Japanese public that reverberates to this day. Lotte was reasonably quick to transform their stickers into a multimedia franchise with an initial anime series launching in October 1987. Hudson’s game is ostensibly based on this anime as both the timing and presence of Toei Animation on the title screen suggest. However, other than the replacement of boss and shop keeper sprites, this is more or less the original RPG inspired action-platforming arcade game. Even though the regular enemy sprites and level graphics were not changed, the added visual distinctiveness from the license does give this version a leg up over even the original arcade game which is colorful but somewhat generic. Bikkuriman World is less of an odd launch title than it may seem. Aside from the use of a super popular license, the game was released less than four months after the arcade game making it the first home port. The challenging but mostly fair gameplay also make it a good game to go back to time and time again. Three examples of the changed graphics. Mascot character Super Zeus appears in place of the fortune teller while the villainous Satan Maria replaces the grim reaper bosses. The robotic Herachrist is the main shopkeeper. This was also one of the very first games to get a fan translation back in 1998 but its rough like most from back then. However, since most of the graphics are the same, this could pass for a screenshot right from the original if not for the minor sprite tweak.
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Post by kaoru on Feb 3, 2023 13:33:16 GMT -5
Ginga Ojousama Densetsu Yuna
Developer RED Entertainment Publisher Hudson Format Super CD-ROM² Release (JP) October 23, 1992 Better known in the West under the (also found on the JP material) titel Galaxy Fräulein Yuna and another fantranslated game. It was often advertised as a "digital comic" and that's not too far off. Developed by RED Entertainment, who would later get to attract people to Sega's hardware with the VN/Strategy hybrid games Sakura Wars, this too was very much sold by the attractive female character designs. As to be expected, 90% of Galaxy Fräulein Yuna consists of reading the storyline accompanied by some nixe anime pixel art drawings. There's an adventure game menu where you get to pick which place to go every once in a while, but that's mostly smoke and mirrors. You can't do wrong decissions, you just get some flavor text if you pick any option that's not the one that progresses the storyline. Every now and then you fight another Galaxy Fräulein, which is not as exciting as it sounds, as you tend to pick one of two attacks and hope the RNG lets you win - while big but non-animated sprites of the girls get thrown on the screen. It's basically a cute and not too serious magical girl storyline set in space. Yuna is the newest title holder of Galaxy Fräulein, making her basically a pop idol. But also means she has a power suit. One day a fairy arrives and tells her the universe is at peril and other Galaxy Fräuleins have been corrupted. So she goes to travel space to literally knock some sense into other magical girls and eventually save the day. As said, digital comic works pretty well as a description since there is barely any game underneath it, even for visual novel standards. But it is reads and looks cute and that's all it wants to be. Although the original concept was to actually make a shmup, funnily enough. Galaxy Fräulein Yuna was fairly popular in the 90s galge market, spanning two direct sequels, some compilation discs, an anime and finally a shmup spinoff losely set in the same universe - the notoriously expensive Ginga Fukei Densetsu Sapphire.
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Post by dsparil on Feb 6, 2023 10:16:54 GMT -5
ShanghaiDeveloper Hudson Soft Publisher Hudson Soft Format HuCard Release (JP) October 30, 1987 Release (US) None In 1981, Brodie Lockard released the first version of his “mahjong solitaire” game Shanghai for PLATO. Although it is not very well known today due to its main use as an academic computer system, PLATO was highly influential both on early computer gaming and computing in general due to its sophisticated capabilities. In the second half of the 80s, Activision moved to commercialize Shanghai with versions being released on nearly every platform capable of rich enough graphics to properly display the tiles. Ultimately, the game did spawn a full series primarily filled out by Activision and Sunsoft in a mix of collaboration and occasional direct competition. Considering the simple nature of the game, this official line died off in the 90s, but clones and rereleases persist to this day. For the PC Engine’s launch, Hudson produced their own port. Like every other version of the original, only a single layout, The Turtle, is included. Tiles with free left or right edges are matched and removed until none remain, and that is all there is to the game. A randomized game is presented on start up with fifty fixed games also available. Multiplayer for up to five players is also included. Despite the game’s origin and popularity in the US, none of the series’s PCE releases ever came to the US. The PCE port is about in the middle graphically with advanced enough graphics to show some perspective but unsurprisingly lacking the high resolution graphics of some of the computer ports.
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Post by dsparil on Feb 8, 2023 8:15:33 GMT -5
The Kung Fu The 功夫 China WarriorDeveloper Hudson Soft Publisher Hudson Soft, NEC Format HuCard Release (JP) November 21, 1987 Release (US) November 1989 Irem’s loose Jackie Chan tie-in Spartan X, internationally known as Kung-Fu Master, is generally considered the first brawler and perhaps most widely remembered from its Nintendo developed Famicom and NES port. For the system’s first post-launch title, Hudson released their own take on the game. It is sadly one of Hudson’s few complete and utter duds. The Kung Fu, released as China Warrior in the US, takes many direct elements from Spartan X, but bungles many things in the process. Gameplay is a simple left to right semi-auto scrolling affair with enemies and the occasional obstacle (sometimes destroyable for points) coming from the right exclusively. Enemies only come in the form of non-attacking monks in three palette swapped varieties leading to large amount of repetition. Each of the twelve levels ends with a boss fight, and while these can be difficult for cheap reasons, most have simply exploited AI. The game’s main claim to fame is the large sprites, but the poor art design doesn’t do the game any favors. There are a few nice graphical touches such as the time of day changing in the outdoor level groups, but the sprite work is generally of low quality. The poor look of the monk enemies is especially odd since they’re the single most reused element. There is also a second loop, and unlike most games that feature one, the difficult doesn’t change appreciably. It does however mix up the enemies and traps a bit leading to a slightly less dull experience. This change doesn’t actually make the game particularly interesting since it still has a core issue of too little variety. As China Warrior, the game was also a semi-launch title after the system’s initial soft launch. In the US, it faced much harsher competition from some of the most well remembered games on the platform like Blazing Lazers and Dungeon Explorer. It even had the misfortune of releasing alongside Irem’s own Vigilante, a more directly contemporary variation on Spartan X and vastly superior to China Warrior. Expect to see this a lot with a few different backgrounds. This tiger is the game's single truly good graphical touch.
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Post by kaoru on Feb 9, 2023 4:02:40 GMT -5
Dragon Slayer: The Legend of HeroesDeveloper Falcom Publisher Hudson Format Super CD-ROM² Release (JP) October 25, 1991 Release (US) December 1992 Since Dragon Slayer was Falcom's first big hit on early Japanese computers, they used to brand a lot of their following games with that title, even though they usually only have in common that you fight a dragon at the end. Some of them were so popular that they became their own serieses, with The Legend of Heroes being still very alive and kicking today thanks to the Trails games making Falcom all the money. The first incarnation hit the PC88 in 1989, was ported to several systems, and thanks to 1991s PC Engine version even saw the light of the day in North America. The backstory tells of a time when the kingdom was overran by monsters with the king dying in the process. His son Logan was too young to rule yet, so Baron Drax selflessly took over the job. As the game begins proper we control Logan, almost 16 now and ready to take the throne soon. Obviously Drax would rather keep it and tries to kill Logan. Logan joins the resistancen and with his new friends will take most of the runtime chasing Drax to defeat him and make the kingdom a safe place for everyone again. For the most part the first Legend of Heroes is a pretty mediocre RPG of the time both when it comes to its narrative progresion but also its play feel. It does offer a few nice things still, tho. For once the progression is pretty quick, with the way too many battles at least never taking very long, and the journey being over in 15-20 hours instead of getting uneccessarily prolonged. Enemies are also visible in dungeons (and later on the field map, too), tho dodging them might often be a different story. The menu even has some customising options, like having the other party members controled by the game or yourself, or assigning your stat-upgrades at level ups either manually or automatically. All very nice at the time, but not eliviating the Dragon Quest like gameplay too much. The game being on a CD of course means it comes with a few rudimentary cutscenes that are nice to look at, and quite a bit of terrible voice acting (at least in the English release). It's really a game that's neither here nor there, not bad but also not great. Something one can still fairly easily play if interested in finding out where the series started, but not really giving the player much beyond the quenching of said curiosity.
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Post by dsparil on Feb 13, 2023 10:44:10 GMT -5
Kato-chan & Ken-chan J.J. & JeffDeveloper Hudson Soft Publisher Hudson Soft, NEC Format HuCard Release (JP) November 30, 1987 Release (US) March 15, 1990 Like Bikkuriman World, Kato-Chan & Ken-chan is a fusion of Wonder Boy (an original take in this case) with a popular license. Comedians Cha Kato and Ken Shimura had been members of band turned comedy troupe The Drifters whose long running TV variety show was wildly popular and achieved the kind of astronomical viewership reserved solely for the most major sporting events today. After the show ended in 1985 after a sixteen year run, Kato and Shimura followed it up with their own successor, Fun TV with Kato-chan & Ken-chan in 1986 which went on for another six. Kato-chan & Ken-chan is more like an alternate sequel to Wonder Boy that advances and revamps the gameplay rather than the radical transformation of Monster Land. Some features like the skateboard are missing, but others like the timer-based health remain. The biggest gameplay change is in the need to find a key in the third Area of each of the six Fields, but it is rarely deviously hidden. The game has innumerable hidden switches and kicking anything even remotely suspicious becomes second nature. Since the game is licensed, the overarching theming is taken from a popular recurring detective parody featured on the show. The intro even starts as each segment does with the duo receiving a phone call on a red telephone with a background accurately reproducing the set. The common Pizzano Family mobsters are taken from these segments, but the graphics are mostly generic. The bulk of the game’s references to the show are in the frequent hint rooms where whichever character wasn’t chosen is generally dressed like a recurring character from the show. The duo may be best known in the US to sharp-eyed viewers of America’s Funniest Home Videos as the show is official adaptation of a segment from Fun TV giving Kato-chan and Ken-chan a legally obligated shout out for decades. The region was spared from a wedged in license and instead got the generic detectives J.J. and Jeff. Most of the overtly Japanese references were removed as were the references to human bodily functions; animal and context free scatology was deemed perfectly fine however. One of the content changes had an actual effect on the gameplay. The backward facing fart attack got changed to a forward facing spray can making it slightly easier to use. In another change, the kabuki character became a hooded devil. Random changes like this make the US version feel much stranger since they aren't references to anything in particular. You "partner" occasionally appears inside levels getting up to a variety of shenanigans.
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Post by dsparil on Feb 14, 2023 9:52:59 GMT -5
Victory RunDeveloper Hudson Soft Publisher Hudson Soft Format HuCard Release (JP) December 28, 1987 Release (US) August 29, 1989 From its inception in 1978 to 2007 when geopolitical concerns canceled the 2008 event and brought about a change in global region for 2009, the Dakar Rally traditionally ran from Paris to the Mediterranean before picking back up in northern Africa and taking various routes to Dakar, Senegal. Hudson’s take is somewhere between the fantasy and reality of the 1987 event. The real life version was a grueling three week affair with major mechanical trouble and even serious injury not uncommon. Hudson chose to focus on the mechanical issues and the start of each game includes the allocation of twenty units of repair parts in five categories. They also condensed the individual races from eighteen to eight and only included the car racing class although the other classes, trucks and bikes, do appear as competitors on the road. Gameplay is roughly a Pole Position clone but with the additions of mechanical wear and hills/dunes. Multiple terrain types are also used and the smooth roads of France transition to a mix of pavement, grass and several consistencies of sand. It’s mainly in these additions that the game falters some as the physics never feel quite right especially when driving on hills. Mechanical issues with tires and suspension are frequent, but the others are rare enough that they only exist for verisimilitude. Victory Run does have a certain amount of ambition, but it largely feels like a game made to fill a racing game slot in the release window. Graphics are good for an early game although the standard roads are a bit jagged. The time of day changes from day to night and back mid course as if the entire race is non-stop although it doesn't actually work that way. The overall route is quite similar to the one used in 1987 with some embellishments and simplifications. Some of the more complex terrains like mountains were excluded however. The low resolution map was taken from the PDF of the official history. For more information on the Dakar Rally as it was in this time period, this full length documentary covers the 1986 event. That year was marked by the tragic passing of founder and organizer Thierry Sabine along with his companions in a helicopter crash in the second half of the event. Perhaps Hudson chose this subject as a memorial of sorts.
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Post by dsparil on Feb 20, 2023 8:09:03 GMT -5
Wicked Holy Sword Necromancer 邪聖剣ネクロマンサー NecromancerDeveloper Hudson Soft Publisher Hudson Soft Format HuCard Release (JP) January 22, 1988 Release (US/EU) February 1, 2018 The first RPG for the PCE was also one of Hudson’s first turned-based RPGs being released only a few months after Peach Boy Legend on Famicom. Given the huge success of Dragon Quest, Necromancer unsurprisingly sticks close to its formula. The general menu system is the similar, combat uses enemy groups and the grind-based gameplay cycle is the same. There are alternations some for the better but others for the worse. A choice of party members is offered at the start of the game and the penalty for dying is only a nominal fee for resurrecting party members. However, saving requires paying a fee for the password and spells must be purchased despite having level requirements which only increases the grinding. The most obvious difference is the graphical style which leans towards the realistic although the HR Giger designed box art sets up expectations for the art the the game doesn’t quite match. Some of the enemy designs are quite grotesque, but many wouldn’t be out of place in a Final Fantasy game. In a nice touch however, enemies do feature a small amount of animation. The graphics may provide something new for Dragon Quest devotees, but the gameplay largely only tinkers at the edges. Necromancer surprisingly did eventually see international release on Wii U Virtual Console so late into the system’s life that the Switch had already been out nearly a year. This release is less surprisingly untranslated making progression difficult without a walkthrough. Perhaps spurred by this release, a fan translation was attempted in 2019 although it only went so far as to translate a few bits of text stored uncompressed in the ROM which thankfully included the main menus. This fellow is one of the two enemies near the starting town. The other is this more traditional butterfly. It features a two frame flapping animation with some vertical movement. The general graphics could have come out of any fantasy RPG. Passwords are a mix of hiragana, katakana and latin characters making them quite unwieldy. They start out at a whopping 30 characters and expand to about 50 by the end of the game.
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Post by dsparil on Feb 23, 2023 12:27:11 GMT -5
Yōkai Dōchūki 妖怪道中記 Youkai DouchukiDeveloper Namco Publisher Namco Format HuCard Release (JP) February 5, 1988 Release (US) Unreleased Namco’s Yōkai Dōchūki, literally Yokai Travelogue but unofficially known as Shadowland through an arcade bootleg and officially only transliterated, sees protagonist Tarosuke journey through the Buddhist underworld seeking judgement and reincarnation. The original arcade game has a a reputation for high difficulty that is entirely deserved. Tarosuke battles his way through four expansive stages filled with enemies before being judged by his actions in the fifth leading to one of five endings. Enemies are unrelenting, and the game’s sole mercy is that continuing does not take away anything aside from returning to the start of the stage. The game features a recurring shop and the fact that all money and upgrades are kept makes the game slightly grindable. The game quickly saw two home ports, this first being for PCE. Given the mismatch between the 8Mb arcade game and the 2Mb card available in the system’s early days, it is not surprising that the game is heavily cut down with small levels inspired by rather than adapted from the originals. The game lacks any continue functionality but this is tempered by the reduced enemy and boss health leading to a much easier game. The later Famicom port has larger levels that are closer to the arcade game’s, very slight RPG elements and an even lower difficulty. However, the poor graphics for a mid ’88 FC game keep it from being the obviously superior version despite the more expanded gameplay. Despite the premise, the environments largely come across as generic outdoor areas as if the game took place in rural Japan. The enemies are more appropriate though. One strange thing is that this large monk only appears a single time despite being a recurring enemy in the arcade game.
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Post by dsparil on Feb 26, 2023 5:41:37 GMT -5
Victory Life 遊遊人生Developer Hudson Soft Publisher Hudson Soft Format HuCard Release (JP) April 22, 1988 Release (US) Unreleased The Game of Life first came to Japan in 1968 via toy company Takara. The game proved quite popular partially due to its resemblance to sugoroku, a game with roots in the sixth century. The original ban-sugoroku is a game similar to backgammon, but a new pictorial form developed in the ensuing millennium. The earliest e-sugoroku boards were used to explain Buddhist teachings with gameplay akin to snakes and ladders which originated for similar reasons. With the proliferation of printing, less overtly didactic subjects emerged like depictions of everyday life. Hudson’s Victory Life is one of the first if not the first official adaptations of the board game. Their take features a much larger board with a literal car and road interpretation, but it is otherwise fairly similar to then current edition. Up to five players are supported and can be either human or computer controlled. The only real drawback is that the board itself takes a backseat to various informational screens giving it a bit of a drab presentation despite good graphics when the board and events are depicted. No choking hazards here! There's a lot of detail put into the overall board with occasional goofy elements like a ninja flying by, but you don't get to see enough of it. Expect to see a lot of black backgrounds instead. It also takes some of the suspense away when you know how much money everyone has at all times. Every square has an associated illustration or animation at least.
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Post by spanky on Feb 26, 2023 7:36:22 GMT -5
I like how the family man you're playing as looks like 80s Mel Gibson.
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Post by excelsior on Feb 26, 2023 8:12:58 GMT -5
I like how the family man you're playing as looks like 80s Mel Gibson. I don't remember things going too well for 80's Mel Gibson's family. Maybe Life will take a dark turn on the road there.
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Post by dsparil on Feb 26, 2023 8:25:24 GMT -5
The male portraits in the game are just goofy as a group. You get RPG hero, sitcom dad, Mel Gibson, Patrick Bateman and Al Capone.
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