­THE HIDDEN GEMS

A brief look at some of the over- looked, underappreciated, or Japan-only games for this wonderful console.

2014, 4chan.org/vr/ /vr/ 2014 1 THE FIREMEN 2: PETE & DANNY The Firemen 2: Pete & Danny is a sequel to the SNES hidden gem which basically functioned like a top-down shooter, except you were shooting out pressurized water to put out the most mali- cious fire ever. In this Japan-only sequel protagonist Pete returns, now joined by his buddy Danny for two-player co- op action. You go around putting out several mys- teriously-started fires all around New York City on Christmas Eve, which for some reason was a very popular time and place among late-nineties video games. There’s a lot more visual variety in the game’s stages and the core gameplay remains the same. Compared to the first game, The Firemen 2’s sprite work is sort of bland and dull, but still totally serviceable, and it’s also kind of needlessly text-heavy, which will es- DIVER’S DREAM pecially be a slog if you don’t speak Japanese. It’s still a totally worthwhile adventure. Diver’s Dream (JP: Dolphin’s Dream) was an underwater exploration game localized and released only in PAL territories. For a game of its kind it has a very “game-y” bent, unlike the RACING LAGOON more free-roaming Aquanaut’s Holiday or End- This was a seriously unique game that tried to less Blue. Your mission is to explore sunken combine racing games with RPGs. It puts you ships and wreckage and recover well over 100 in the shoes of a Japanese street racer over the unique treasures, as well as scraps that you can course of ten nights in the city. Each night you trade in for varying amounts of money. With can drive around challenging other drifters to that you can purchase better diving equipment street races (the game’s version of random en- (you start off with a pair of swim trunks) and counters), and if you win you get to take a part of weapons (to fend off sharks and dangerous fish). These are also customizeable by their car to customize your own. You can end a the player. night by going to an obligatory Climax Encoun- The whole process of venturing ever-father into the sunken ships and caves, only to ter and challenging a sort of boss, which you surface with new treasure and buy even better equipment, is really addictive. There must win against to progress. is also a Free Mode so you can explore to your heart’s content though, and even during salvage missions you get to roam around very wide areas. The progression is indeed RPG-esque, as there is a very involved storyline which can be explored to a greater or lesser degree if you pay attention to various event Though the game’s cutscenes are pretty ugly and swimming animations are stiff markers on the map. Driving up to these locations activates additional scenes which and basic, it’s still totally worth playing today. On the PS2, the sorely overlooked may lead to side-quests or simply character interactions. Everblue 2 would employ a very similar game structure of diving and salvaging, Though it’s Japan-only, it can be played once you memorize the basic menus and and I believe it was released in all regions. assuming you don’t care about the story, as the map markers make progression fairly straightforward. 2 /vr/ 2014 FORGET ME NOT JINGLE CATS Forget Me Not was originally a home-made Jingle Cats: Rabupara Daisakusen no Kan (this game designed by a hobbyist on a version of may not be the full title, but it’s almost univer- RPG Maker. It won a development prize and was sally referred to as Jingle Cats) is the kind of remade for the PSX as Forget Me Not: Pallete. game that would’ve been a massive cult hit and This is a beautiful game in terms of art direction, internet favorite if it had been released today. the top-down perspective and small and but The gist of it is that you take care of two cats in well-made sprites lure you into a nostalgic at- a home and try to get them to like each other. mosphere. The game revolves around an amne- As the game adds more cats (each of them in- siac woman and the psychiatrist who is helping dividuals with pre-set names and preferences), her recover her memories. The game has two taking care of them and making them get along modes: in the first you explore and interact with becomes more challenging. Apparently there is the setting, and in the second you shift into a sort of “astral projection” where you some kind of backstory or end goal about raising a cat choir, but I don’t know about interact with objects to open new paths and recover memories. that. You scroll around a first-person 2D view of the house’s rooms where the cats will be doing whatever cats do. You can feed them, bathe them, pick them up and move Presentation is neat and distinctive, as the character move in small, closed rooms them around, and have them interact with objects and each other. and hallways engulfed by darkness, but by opening new pathways you can help fill up the void, mimicking the protagonist’s process of remembrance. It was also a The game’s presentation is seriously charming, everything is a cartoony, scribbly, clear and obvious influence on the similarly haunting Yume Nikki. and almost Art Noveau in its style, including the endearing cats themselves. Ob- viously Japan-only, though once you get a hang for the menus and options (and Sadly it was only released in Japan and knowledge of the language is essential to memorize the cat relationship chart), it can be played successfully. enjoy the game and progress. Hopefully it will get a translation someday.

POP’N TANKS! HYPER CRAZY CLIMBER Pop’n Tanks! is a very obscure Japan-only Hyper Crazy Climber is an excellent console re- game published by Enix. It’s a tank combat make of a Japan-only arcade classic, a 2D action game, but with colorful environments, cutesy game where you climb massive vertical struc- anime characters, and blocky mini-tanks to pi- tures while avoiding various objects thrown at lot around various arenas. You can create your you. This game added content in every sense, own tank from scratch using various parts or with three playable characters (a boy, a girl, play through a story mode with one of the eight and a cute bug-thing) and an exciting variety of characters. Obviously there is also multi-player, stages (including a clocktower, a construction either with the story characters or with custom site, and a giant beakstalk), with a boss encoun- tanks you’ve saved to your memory card. ter awaiting you if you can make it to the top.

The game’s lighthearted tone and visuals are unusual for the genre, and gameplay There are lots of new obstacles and enemies is tight and fast-paced, with battles usually over in less than five minutes. Though it thematic to each stage, and the levels are all very beautiful and visually inventive, isn’t compatible with the later DualShock’s control pad, the ability to strafe makes it but the challenging high-speed action won’t allow you to stick around and take in so that combat is smooth and exciting regardless. Story aside, no Japanese knowl- the scenery. Obviously it requires no knowledge of Japanese to play, so get on it. edge is required to play. /vr/ 2014 3 BOKU NO NATSUYASUMI: FUURAIKI SUMMER HOLIDAY 20TH CENTURY Fuuraiki is a cult-favorite adventure which comes close to visual novel and dating sim Boku No Natsuyasumi: Summer Holiday 20th games in terms of presentation. You play as a Century is an isometric 3D adventure game photographer traveling across Japan’s Hok- that takes you back to nostalgic summer vaca- kaido region by motorcycle on a work assign- tions of your childhood. You play as a Japanese ment, but that doesn’t mean you won’t encoun- child enjoying his break in his relatives’ country ter a number of girls on your journey who you home. The game is divided into days of a month. can interact with and perhaps romance. The Each day you wake up and go on adventures, dialogue-based gameplay and progression are whether it’s exploring the environment, run- pretty much the same as your average visual ning errands for other characters, swimming, novel, but the game’s enveloping warmth and playing, capturing bugs, or climbing trees. At the end of each day you write down sense of freewheling adventure have earned it a place around seekers of lesser- what you did in your diary, creating a lovely page of child scribbles and drawings. known PSX gems. As a twist, the game is really about the protagonist as an adult reminiscing about this idyllic period of his childhood, and at the end of the game you get to peruse Obviously though, being the kind of game that it is, Fuuraiki is pretty much pointless each diary page of your vacation. to play without knowledge of Japanese. There was a very similar sequel for the PS2 The game uses pre-rendered backgrounds based on real-world photographs where you travel around the Okinawa region instead. The PS2 game Kita E is also a which much look much more lush and inviting that you would expect, and it has an travelogue type of visual novel where you travel by train. amazing sense of place and a great degree of charm. Japanese knowledge will be required if you want to get involved with the story to any degree, but otherwise it can be played with help from a guide. INCREDIBLE CRISIS Incredible Crisis is a weird Japanese game that It’s amazing that there is no one working on translating this game considering the was localized precisely so it could be marketed amount of praise it has received online over the past years, so hopefully someone as a “weird Japanese game.” It stars a very av- will pick it up eventually. The series is successful in Japan and has spawned sequels erage Japanese family of five who, as they go for the PS2 and 3, as well as a PSP spin-off which has similar gameplay and visuals about their day, find themselves in a series of but puts you in the role of a parent raising a family. increasingly bizarre and ridiculous situations. These play out as back-to-back mini-games where you have to do things like snowboard, survive a sinking ship, disco dance, or fend off alien invaders using one of the family members.

The game’s frenetic pace and mini-game collection structure is reminiscent a less hyperactive WarioWare, but with a sort-of overarching storyline and pre-set mini- game sequences depending on which family member you’re using. The presenta- tion is pretty good since each mini-game is crafted in a very self-contained way, and the soundtrack, provided by the Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra, is excellent. On the other hand, it’s a pretty short game that can nonetheless become tedious due to some annoying recurring mini-game sequences, and it’s sort of lacking in replay value. However it’s a total blast the first time around. 4 /vr/ 2014 RAKUGAKI SHOWTIME JUGGERNAUT Rakugaki Showtime is a Japan-only, Treasure- Juggernaut is an all-but forgotten horror adven- developed beat-’em-up/arena fighter with a ture game that was released in all regions. You unique “living scribble drawing” aesthetic. A play as a young man whose girlfriend has been fourth-wall “hand of God” draws objects on an possessed by a demon, and you must know isometric arena, which you can pick up and travel into her soul to save her. throw at your opponent, using different kinds The gameplay is a very straightforward first- of throws to launch objects quickly, or in an person point-n-click deal where you travel from arc, etc. You can also counter thrown objects room to room, examine objects, and solve an and perform special, character-specific moves. undending series of (mostly easy) puzzles. There is an item that bounces around the stage However, if you have the patience for the typi- and can be picked up after hitting it enough cally slow pace of such games, Juggernaut’s times, which then allows you to perform your character’s super move, much like atmosphere and unusual settings make it worth your while. The game’s main a Super Smash Bros. Smash Ball. Though the rules of combat may seem basic, it’s gameplay gimmick is the ability to take control of other people’s bodies, and cer- actually very fun and involved. tain areas or objects will require different bodies to enter or manipulate successfully. The dimension-jumping plot also leads to a lot of delightfully bizarre situations, like There are several unlockable characters, including a walking Cloud Strife parody browsing the Internet in the 2550’s or wandering into a village of undead residents and Mischief Makers’ Marina Lightyears, since this is a Treasure game after all. You who are all missing their eyeballs. can also unlock and play as the game’s many mooks and generic enemies which appear in single-player mode. If you liked something like D (PSX), another horror adventure that revolves around puzzles, you’ll like Juggernaut. Like D, it has a pseudo-realistic but somewhat “off” art style, and also features a lot of FMV scenes which in our time look weirdly (and LONDON SEIREI interestingly) Uncanny Valley. TANTEI-DAN London Seirei Tantei-dan is a Japan-only JRPG SOUL OF THE SAMURAI that would be my top choice for a PSX fan trans- Soul of the Samurai is a forgotten Konami- lation project right now. This Bandai-developed developed game that predates Onimusha’s hidden gem is visually gorgeous and strongly combination of survival horror gameplay and reminiscent of Studio Ghibli films such as The feudal Japanese setting. You can play as either Castle in the Sky. It takes place in turn-of-the- a samurai or a female ninja and move through century London, in the cusp of the steam age, fixed-camera 3D environments while fighting and you play as a young boy who fancies him- mooks. Though it’s not nearly as reliant on item self a detective, going around town, solving mysteries, and participating in turn- conservation or stealth tactics as a Resident based fights with hooligans, policemen, and stray dogs. Evil game, like Onimusha, the deliberate design choices prevent you from being an all-out kill- The game’s presentation is a dream and the story goes in directions that you ing machine, and instead encourage you to wouldn’t expect once “the world of spirits” gets involved. It may be one of the most employ strategy and fight enemies with caution. It has has a lot of puzzles to break charming and comfy JRPGs ever released on the system. up the fighting, and like many survival horror games, features two scenarios with minor difference depending on which character you choose to play as. It was local- ized and released in NA, so fret not.. /vr/ 2014 5 MAGICAL DROP F: KORKORO POST NIN Though JP-only, Korkoro Post Nin is a game that DAIBOUKEN MO RAKUJYANAI! anyone can play and everyone should play, a Magical Drop F: Daibouken Mo Rakujyanai! simple but highly addictive puzzle title. The pro- continues the Magical Drop series of competi- tagonist is a cute mail delivery girl who for some tive matching puzzle games (like Puyo Puyo reason lives in a town made up of complex verti- or Puzzle Attack) with cute cartoon characters. cal mazes presented with 2D sprites and visuals. This entry redesigns the whole casts in a more The goal of each level is to reach each of the red realistically-proportioned nineties anime style mailboxes in the stage, at which point you can and offers a more involved story with unlock- advance, but there are also other optional col- able characters, but the core gameplay remains lectibles. the same. The cast is large (each character You don’t actually control the girl, though; rather represents one of the Major Arcana) and they all have their own special moves you control the maze itself, which can be rotated left or right in order to guide the and attributes. The many character animations as they win or lose in matches are mail girl to her destination. (I’m sure there are other puzzle games with this exact endearing and visually attractive. set-up but I can’t think of another one right now.) There are obstacles and enemies as well which will spell your doom if you run into them, but time limits will prevent Magical Drop F is probably the best game in the series in terms of presentation and you from planning out complex strategies and instead force you to improvise as single or multi-player gameplay, and was the last game in the series before the origi- you get a feel for the game’s pacing. nal developers stopped producing the games. It’s Japan-only, but Japanese knowl- It’s supremely addictive and entertaining and you don’t need to know a word of edge is obviously not required to play. Japanese to play. N2O, NITROUS OXIDE GUARDIAN’S CRUSADE N2O, Nitrous Oxide is a scrolling shoot-em-up Guardian’s Crusade (JP: Knight and Baby) is a that was never released in Japan. The game very innocent-looking and lighthearted JRPG featured music by The Crystal Method, and has where everyone looks like a living toy. You some plotline about how aliens are trying to take on the role of Knight and go on adven- build a sub-atomic particle collider, and your job tures all across the land, but soon enough you is to enter these colliders and destroy all the en- come across a weird little monster (Baby) who emies or something. introduces the game’s monster-raising sim elements, as you can feed and pamper Baby The gameplay was fun as hell. You are constant- in order to make him stronger and command ly moving forward inside of a donut, and can him to transform into different monsters in bat- move left or right along the inner walls as you tle. These two are your only members of your travel forward. You start each level at a certain party, but instead of spells Guardian’s Crusade features collectible toys, which can speed, and each enemy you kill makes you move faster. Also, if you take too long be summoned in battle for various different effects, and all have unique anima- spikes start appearing on the wall. It makes for some high speed action. If I recall cor- tions and attributes which are one of the highlights of combat. rectly there are about 40 levels, and a boss level every 5 levels. Great colorful visuals While a lot of the environments look super basic and the FMV scenes look rath- and the good electronic soundtrack work well together, and suit the gameplay. A er unfortunate today, Guardian Crusade has a lot of surprises in store, including a fun shoot-em-up, and a great game to play at any party with hallucinogenics. much more affecting story than you would expect, and a much more potentially complex battle system that you could possible have predicted. 6 /vr/ 2014 YUUYAMI TOORI THE GRANSTREAM SAGA The Granstream Saga is a fairly unusual JRPG TANKENTAI intended as a spiritual successor to the Soul Blazer/Illusion of Gaia/Terranigma trilogy of SNES Yuuyami Toori Tankentai is a 2D horror adven- action-RPGs. This is a top-down 3D adventure ture released by Spike, which included members about a fairly cookie-cutter young hero who sets of Human Entertainment, the studio behind the out to save his floating island world of evil. The Twilight/Moonlight Syndrome cult games and downsides of The Granstream Saga are its ugly Clock Tower, the originator of this type of experi- character models and totally by-the-numbers ence. story which packs absolutely zero surprises for It is presented in realistic and lovingly detailed anyone who has played a JRPG before. environments that are in 2D but simulate depth, breathing life into the Japanese suburbs of 1999 But on the other hand, gameplay aspects of the game make it stand out, such as where a group of children and a dog explore the various urban myths that have the fact that combat is completely active-time, with a variety of useable weapons cropped around at school. Gameplay is divided between gathering info on rumors and spells, and while battles are always one-on-one and enemy variety leaves at school, exploring the city at night, and interacting with parents and classmates in something to be desired, fights are generally very fun. Also, instead of buying new dialogue scenes that advance the story. weapons or spells, the hero’s magical artifact can “read” certain objects or metals and create new weapons or spells out of them, which encourages exploration During the game sections where you can actively move around and explore, the instead of tedious grinding. large and detailed character sprites, motion-captured to convey a realistic sense of movement, travel across a 2D plane in a series of screens, investigating rumors. The It was also developed partially by Production I.G., which means it has a lot of good- dog that accompanies often has to stop to pee on a lamppost or gets tired easily, quality anime scenes for a game of its time. but will warn you of incoming supernatural activity. If you’re obsessed with the Twilight/Moonlight Syndrome games or the original Clock Tower you should definitely look into this game, although it’s JP-only and text- heavy. EHRGELZ: GOD BLESS THE RING Ehrgeiz: God Bless the Ring was a pretty well- known 3D fighter whose main selling point was that it featured Final Fantasy VII characters in its roster. However the main reason why this game is here is because it has a massively overlooked single-player Quest Mode.

Quest Mode is basically a dungeon crawler with fighting game combat. It has randomly-generat- ed dungeons, monsters, treasure, and even a hunger stat. Basically, Ehrgeiz may have accidentally turned out to be the best dungeon crawler on the PS1, or at least a very interesting experience for fans of the genre. It’s worth playing solely for this mode. /vr/ 2014 7 CHIPPOKE RALPH .BAKUSOU DEKOTORA NO DAIBOUKEN DENSETSU 2 Chippoke Ralph no Daibouken: The Adventure Bakusou Dekotora Densetsu 2 is a game aimed of Little Ralph is a side-scrolling 2D action game at the dekotora or “decorative truck” subculture with varied and visually pleasant settings. You of Japan, a group of hobbyists who pimp out play as a young warrior who is turned into a their trucks with outlandish parts taken from small child by demons, but still ventures out to other vehicles and paint them with lavish de- save his hometown armed with nothing but a signs. The scene became a national craze in sev- sword and shield. enties Japan due to a series of popular movies, but has now remained as a more niche interest. The game is a non-stop side-scrolling romp In this game two decorative trucks raise against through waves of enemies, and Ralph can only take two hits before going down. each other on the highway to deliver their package first. Since you’re driving a truck Though the level of challenge isn’t infuriating, it escalates at a good pace, and the your top speed is fairly low, but you can use dirty tricks and even run over hape- game has a unique end-of-level scoring system based on picking up fruit which will less motorists to slow your opponent down. And obviously you can customize and keep more veteran players interested in retrying stages. The game is about three decorate your truck to your heart’s content. hours long, and playing it in Easy mode will prevent you from seeing the last three The game has a pleasant retro charm that harkens back to the golden days of de- stages of witnessing the true ending. kotora, with an enka soundtrack that suits the tense but colorful races across the This is overall a very fun and well-built title, similar in presentation and gameplay Japanese countryside under vibrant blue skies. to another hidden gem, Moon Crystal for the NES, but with much more fun boss . encounters. SILVER JIKEN SUZU MONOGATARI Before he achieved international cult success Suzu Monogatari is an obscure Capcom game with Killer7 and No More Heroes, Suda51 had a developed by the director of the Breath of Fire great run of adventure games on the PS1, but series. It is an isometric sprite-based JRPG where perhaps his crowning achievement is Silver you play as a girl tasked with recovering the Jiken. This is a moody and noirish crime story Seven Bells of God, which have been scattered about a series of gruesome murders commit- across the land. You accomplish this by explor- ted in the 24 Districts, and the special detectives ing the town and speaking to its residents to ob- dispatched to solve them. The game has two tain clues, and while you can do lots of life sim- scenarios: in the Suda-written one you play as a type things such as fish and dig up treasure to detective following the serial killer’s trail, and in sell, you also participate in card battles. the other one you play as a journalist writing a story on the murders. Instead of turn-based RPG combat, Suzu Monogatari is a card game-based JRPG. Silver Jiken’s presentation is top-notch, from the moody soundtrack to the excel- I’m unaware of the intricacies of the system, but based on what I’ve seen online it lent environments which combine a sense of end-of-century dread with a weird appears to be pretty basic and maybe inspired by hanafuda. You can tell that it was Uncanny Valley plasticism to its character portraits and film reel-style storytelling. directed by the people behind BOF however, in the character and world design. Un- The whole thing is experimental in a way that is typical of Suda and obviously the fortunately it doesn’t look like the kind of game you could succesfully play without story goes wildly off the rails at one point. However it is basically impenetrable with- knowing Japanese. out Japanese knowledge. 8 /vr/ 2014 .ORE NO RYOURI: SKULLMONKEYS Skullmonkeys was a brutal hard platformer de- WE COOKING veloped by the Neverhood, the same team that Ore no Ryouri: We Cooking is a frenetic cooking made The Neverhood. There is a password sys- sim where you play as a child prodigy chef who tem so you don’t have to play through in one sit- is challenged by his rival to a great cook-off in ting, but it’s still a damn hard game. It has an old- eight different restaurants. The story is present- school flavor, in that one hit kills you unless you ed with cartoony 2D sprites in a unique style. have a power-up. The precision required for suc- cess gives the game an Adventure Island feel. I The gameplay consists of taking orders from have never managed to beat the game, but I still customers and the occasional food critic, and consider it the best 2D platformer on the sys- cooking the respective dishes in a series of tem. The game got mostly good reviews on re- first-person activities such as cutting fish or peeling onions, exactly like in Cooking lease, but was largely ignored by most everyone. PSX gamers wanted 3D games for Mama. However Ore no Ryouri throws in the nerve-wrecking time element of hav- the most part, and Neverhood fans wanted another point and click adventure. The ing customers waiting in line, having to manage your resources in the from of cook- great claymation graphics and music and sound effects make for a pretty game. If ing implements, and occasionally having to perform other tasks such as calling the you like challenging platformers, be sure and check this one out. police to pick up a drunk or stomping cockroaches in the kitchen. It’s a very fun and . fast-paced game that’s easy to approach but hard to master, and requires no Japa- nese knowledge to play. . FINGER FLASHING Finger Flashing is a puzzle-shooter hybrid pre- sented with 2D sprites moving on vertically- TIME BOKAN SERIES: scrolling 2D isometric levels. You play as a wiz- ard girl or a bazooka-wielding boy and take on BOKAN TO IPPATSU! DORONBO waves of enemies coming down on you with power shots based on rock, paper and scissors. Time Bokan Series: Bokan to Ippatsu! Doronbo Naturally I don’t need to explain which one beats is a vertical 2D shooter based on the classic which. The rules of this basic children’s game Japanese Time Bokan anime series, about time- are applied here so you can chain shots and travelling heroes. However in this game you destroy whole groups of enemies at once while play as recurring antagonist Doronjo and her progressing through a handful of your typical- two dimwitted henchmen. (They made an ap- ly-varied stages. Single-player campaigns are pretty fun and challenging, but the pearance as a playable threesome in Tatsunoko game really comes alive in two-player showdowns where you can mess with your vs Capcom.) Instead of aircraft you ride colorful, opponent’s performance to make it to the finish line before you do. oversized vehicles and go on a rampage de- stroying everything in your way in lush and colorful worlds. It’s great fun to be had Though Finger Flashing requires no knowledge of Japanese to play, it has been fan for anyone and obviously you don’t need to know a word of Japanese to play. The translated. It is also available as a PSOne Import on PSN (in Japanese) as FLASHING- sequel to this game, which is quite similar but features different characters, was ac- FINGER. tually released in PAL territories as Time Bokan Yattaman. . .

/vr/ 2014 9 DIE HARD TRILOGY CRITICAL DEPTH Die Hard Trilogy. Made by the long-since defunct Critical Depth, from SingleTrac, the same peo- Probe, the game was a mixed bag. The game ple who did Twisted Metal 1 and 2, and wikipe- was divided into three games, each tied into one dia claims it was done with the same engine. It’s of the movies from the original trilogy. The first car combat, except with submarines. This game game was a fantastic 3rd person shooter, the was overshadowed by the Twisted Metal series, second was an unremarkable light-gun game, and promptly ignored. Then again, it really didn’t and the third was a decent racing/action type do too much different than the TM formula any- game. While the game got good reviews, most ways. That being said, it’s a fun game if you liked gamers knew to avoid movie-license games, so TM1 or TM2, and the ability to fight in three di- the game was mostly ignored. It’s a shame too, mensions I feel adds to the combat. Obviously since the 3rd person shooter game is damned not as great as the TM series, but a decent game fun, and does a good job of mixing strategy with gunplay, and very good level de- that didn’t deserve the cold shoulder it got. sign. .

I’d recommend avoiding the sequel though, there the new developer decided the game would be more fun if you had to do all three game modes at random through- SAIYUKI: JOURNEY WEST out the game. Unless you really enjoyed the other two game modes. Saiyuki: Journey West is a Koei-developed SRPG . that is often forgotten when discussing the PSX games that exist for this somewhat small genre. It is based on the classic Chinese tale Journey to KYUIN the West, which has inspired unending amounts Kyuin is a bizarre horizontal “cute-’em-up” where of pop culture, including Dragon Ball. you play as a young boy riding a magical vacu- um cleaner that shoots energy pellets. The boy Play as a male or female protagonist and recruit himself is a 3D model superimposed on 2D back- several were-beast allies to accompany you grounds and most enemies are detailed sprites. in battle. Aside from your main character, all of This is very similar visually and in spirit to other your fighters can shift into more powerful beast wacky PSX shooters such as Harmful Park and forms in battle, and knowing when to transform (as transformation is temporary the Parodius games, which lots of unusual and and greatly taxes the user) is essential to win. All characters also have elemental af- unexpected enemy types, varied and strange finities which affect their strengths and weaknesses in battle. settings for stages, and powers inspired by gags or mundane, everyday objects. The challenge The presentation is very similar to a game like Final Fantasy Tactics, with isometric level is low for shmup veterans, but that also makes it accessible to everyone, and sprites on 3D environments. Visually it’s somewhat more colorful, and certainly has you’ll mostly want to play it for the ridiculous factor. If you enjoyed this, definitely a more happy-go-lucky tone than FFT. Character skills and attributes are largely set consider trying Harmful Park and Sexy Parodius as well. in stone, and are not customizeable. Though the game does not put forth a huge . challenge level, it’s demanding enough to keep SRPG fans entertained. .

10 /vr/ 2014 SIDE BY SIDE SPECIAL .KURU KURU Side by Side Special is a Taito touge racing game. Touge racers are Japanese games where MAMAMARU you race cars along mountainside roads, much Kuru Kuru Marumaru is a driving sim with a like in the Initial D franchise, which is its own sub- unique, cartoony visual style that is very well- genre of racing titles in Japan due to its basis on realized. You play as a teenage boy who wants real street racing and the sense of tension that to obtain his driver’s license to impress girls, comes from constantly making tight turns and basically. Unfortunately the seemingly normal- moving along narrow paths. looking driving school that he signs up for is a hellish training ground that will put him through Side by Side Special is similar to the Touge G Max fifteen dangerous challenges such as driving games and features over 20 cars from various along a mountainside while avoiding falling Japanese car makers with realism and fidelity as the main selling points. Races are boulders, venturing into underground caves, or exciting and stages are colorful in that nineties kind of way, including beach stages even driving along the sea. where you race past sunbathing tourists and blue-sky mountain pass races. Defi- nitely worth looking into for genre fans who have maxed out everything in Ridge The game puts you in the driver’s seat from the first-person perspective, so it is in- Racer R4 and similar titles. deed closer to driving sims than racing games, and you’ll need to get a hang of the controls before you can successfully pass even the basic tests. Obviously there is a dating sim element as well where you romance many girls that the protagonist is OH NO! interested in; these are presented in neat visual novel-style character portrait dia- Oh No! is yet another of those supremely weird logues along the main character’s colorful hometown. Deciding which girl to prior- Japanese games. For some reason, the father of itize will determine your ending once you clear the game, so while it’s not terribly a typical Japanese family decides to go without long, it does boast some replay value. Aside from the dating sim portions, Kuru Kuru clothes and starts walking around in his under- Marumaru is playable without knowing Japanese. It also has a surprisingly large wear. His son happily follows suit. Eventually the amount of voice acting for a PSX game. underwear craze seems to catch on around the neighborhood, so three underwear-donning men burst out of their homes and start parading WOLF FANG: down the street. KUUGA 2001 In Oh No! you control three characters who Wolf Fang: Kuuga 2001 is a really awesome are constantly moving up a vertically scrolling 3D stage in urban Japan. You must scrolling shooter/run & gun developed by Xing. change the formation in which the three characters move to avoid obstacles, nab It’s actually the sequel to the vertical shmup Va- tasty hamburgers (watch out for the dangerous puffer fish hamburgers), and even- por Trail that saw release over here a few years tually make it to the finish. The game also has a multi-player battle mode and a prior. Slightly customiseable mechs to suit dif- “Love” mode where boys duke it out with girls. ferent playstyles and some animu voice acting make for a pretty awesome arcade experience. The whole game is presented in a likeable cartoon aesthetic and the characters themselves move like flat paper cut-outs, similar to games like Paper Mario or Par- appa the Rapper, which is fitting for Oh No!’s whimsical sense of humor. It requires no Japanese knowledge to play. /vr/ 2014 11 SLAP HAPPY BATTLE KONCHUUDEN Battle Konchuuden is a Jaleco-developed mon- RHYTHM BUSTERS ster-raising RPG which revolves around captur- Slap Happy Rhythm Busters is an excellent Ja- ing and training nearly 60 different species of pan-only 2D fighting game developed by Poly- common bugs, which is a very popular pastime gon Magic. Though the combat is 2D, characters among Japanese children. Indeed, you play as are cel-shaded 3D models who drip style, de- a Japanese boy in an overhead 2D sprite world signs obviously inspired by Shibuya fashion and reminiscent of Pokémon, and you start out with youth culture, and the entire game is shockingly a single bug which you can then pit in battles similar visually to Jet Set Radio (with shades of against other critters. Once you defeat a bug, The World Ends with You as well). It has an im- you can add it to your collection. pressive roster (21 characters, many of them unlockable) for a brand new fighter, and the basic array of modes that you would The battles in this game look a lot better than the overworld, with fully 3D models expect from this kind of game. for the bugs which look quite detailed, as do the stages where they fight, such as patches of grass or dirt which are brought to life in an uncanny way. Battles are turn- Combat does not stray far from the Street Fighter mold, with several basic charac- based where bugs move along a grid on the floor like in an SRPG, but this is more ters taking on the roles of typical fighting game archetypes, but many others are about positioning than strategy, and once the bugs clash you can coordinate but- more esoteric, like a pair of twin girls fighting by sitting on top of each other, or a ton presses or mash Square to defend yourself and emerge victorious. man who, after losing a certain amount of HP, bows out and sends in his wolf to Japanese knowledge is required to play. In many ways Battle Konchuuden seems fight. basic compared to other similar games of its time, but it can be very addictive for bug enthusiasts or people who would like to reminisce about a childhood of dig- The “Rhythm” in the game’s titles comes from special moves which every charac- ging around in the dirt. ter can perform, which will introduce a short rhythm-based segment for the play- er which will result in maximum damage if performed right. Overall it’s a very fun game for people who enjoy the funky-fresh style of games like JSR and TWEWY, or SAMURAI DEEPER KYO people interested in obscure PSX fighters.. Samurai Deeper Kyo is a 2D weapons-based fighter, based on the anime/manga series of the same name. It plays out in the Tokugawa period of Japan and features a host of sword- fighters, ninja, royal soldiers, and many other less orthodox characters of the time. Visually it can be somewhat reminiscent of The Last Blade, but the characters are a lot more anime- ish and boast modern touches, and while there are some nice-looking stages, they don’t really reach the level of detail and beauty of the Last Blade games. Still, this is a very entertaining fighter with a good amount and variety of characters, certainly a huge treat for fans of the franchise. It features an assist system like the Marvel vs Capcom games and also has a Sudden Death mode, which is exactly like it sounds, and can actually be pretty exhilarating with a friend. 12 /vr/ 2014 LITTLE LOVERS: ADDIE NO OKURIMONO: SHE SO GAME TO MOZE FROM ADDIE Little Lovers: She so Game. It’s a mixture be- Addie no Okurimono: To Moze from Addie is a JP- tween a board game and a dating sim, every only puzzle-adventure similar to latter titles such player is a student in high school and the objec- as the Professor Layton series. The story is about tive of the game is getting the heart of the girl a young girl named Addie who is given a broken you pick at the start of each game. music box by her friend Moze, who will be mov- Like other board games, it features minigames, ing away tomorrow as his parents are divorcing. although they are not that good like the ones in After falling asleep while playing with the music Magical Date. Most of the fun in the game comes box, Addie wakes up in a strange resort town from making the other players fail in getting the populated by people who look exactly like the girl spreading rumours or using cards to impress the girl. residents of her hometown, but they all go by different names and don’t seem to recognize her. The game has wonderful watercolor-style portraits and scenes, and the general at- SENTIENT mosphere is very nostalgic and dreamlike. Unlike in Professor Layton, where puz- Sentient is one of the most bizarre, fascinating, zles are unrelated to the overarching story, each word puzzle in this game serves and potentially engrossing games to be found directly to solve a problem encountered during the game and move the plot along. on the PS1, a port of a Windows game of the The game’s story has clearly done its research in terms of psychology, and many same name. In Sentient you are a technician concepts from the field will be recognizeable to people who are familiar with them. sent to a space station orbiting an alien sun that Recently, a translation group has taken up working on this game, so let’s hope that currently has two problems: its orbit is failing, turns out smoothly. bringing it ever close to the sun, and its crew is suffering of radiation disease, which is lethal. The game has an unseen time limit during which you must fix one of these problems to avoid a HOSHI NO OKA faster Game Over. However, Sentient goes far beyond that. In a space colony with 62 different charac- GAKUEN MONAGATARI: ters, all of which you can interact with and befriend, the possibilities are infinite. The game is full of possible plot lines or side-quests (many of which are red herrings), GAKUENSAI you can experience twelve different endings depending on which aspects you pri- Hoshi no Oka Gakuen Monogatari: Gakuensai. oritize, and the combination of NPC actions and interactions is basically infinite in This dating sim is quite popular in Japan among its scope. PS minor games. The character models leave much to be desired, looking like digitized real-world faces pasted on stocky polygon models, and the whole game looks kind of washed- Your character arrives to his new school during out and dingy compared to the Windows original, but this also gives it an interest- the time of the cultural festival and he will have to ingly surreal feel. Interaction is handled through classic adventure game text parser help the different girls in the campus with the decorations for their classrooms and dialogue commands, which can seem unnecessarily long-winded at first but clearly clubs. allows you to interact with Sentient’s world to a fuller degree. This is a potentially obsession-causing game if you can get past its clunkier aspects and see into the The production values might be kinda low for this kind of game, but it’s quite fun and mind-boggling array of possibilities it offers, as a sort of outer space social survival finding different materials for the decorations make the game a unique experience. sim. /vr/ 2014 13 VANARK Vanark is a 3D rail shooter very similar in style and gameplay to Star Fox 64, where you control a group of spaceship pilots defending the hu- man Mars colony from an alien invasion. In each SHINSETSU SAMURAI SPIRITS: stage you play as one of the characters and shoot your way through 3D stages full of mon- BUSHIDO RETSUDEN struous alien combatants, and the occasional Shinsetsu Samurai Spirits: Bushido Retsuden boss. is a turn-based RPG based on SNK’s Samurai Vanark also features a few deep space free-flight Spirits (Samurai Shodown) fighting game series, missions which put it close to a type of space which features various warriors and monsters combat sim, though the core gameplay remains duking it out in medieval fantasy Japan. This the same. You can also control the pilots themselves in between missions, moving game was notoriously delayed many times, through the inside of the mothership, interacting with other characters, triggering originally announced at the height of Samurai cutscenes, and engaging in occasional action sequences doing things like disarm- Shodown’s popularity, and eventually released ing bombs. with only two of three planned scenarios, which would have covered the three main SamSho The story is very involved and developed for a game of this genre, and while it’s not games. exactly the most riveting thing in the world, it’s entertaining and definitely feels like a bonus to all the rail-shooting action. At the beginning of the game you can choose to play as one of six characters--Haoh- maru, Nakoruru, Genjuro, Galford, Ukyo, or Cham Cham--and progress through a TAIDAMA WAKUSEI 2D sprite-based overworld of towns, monsters, and turn-based battles, complete with equippable weapons, armor, and accessories, which is to say it is a traditional KAITAKUCHUU! RPG modelled after Final Fantasy. The story only has minor changes depending on which character you play as, and eventually you can recruit secondary party mem- Taidama Wakusei Kaitakuchuu! is a Japan-only bers, which may be other protagonists you didn’t choose or additional characters take on stategy games like Age of Empires, but from the series. heavily simplified into games that last about 15 minutes. Choose one of four teams, each one The game’s story, presentation, and gameplay were well-received especially by se- made of three color-coded robots, and set off to ries fans, though long load times were cited as a problem. The PSX version (it was colonize a planet in seven days, planting trees, originally released for the Neo-Geo CD) features an active-time bar for battles, which building houses, and interfering with the oppos- keeps them from being strictly turn-based. ing team’s progress as well. You can view the en- tire planet’s surface at any point, scrolling across For a while there were rumors that Working Designs would bring this game to it to see your robots hard at work doing whatever it is you’ve commanded them. North America, but this never materialized and it stayed in Japan. Multiple transla- Games last a period of seven in-game days and are over pretty quickly in practice. tion groups have considered tackling the game but as of today no-one has com- There are also several different planets for you to conquer, each one with different pleted an English translation. terrain, weather condition and special features that will force to adapt.

The game is pretty cute and very intuitive, so it’s not hard to get a hang for the con- trols and menus even if you don’t speak Japanese. Multi-player is also a blast.

14 /vr/ 2014 FIRE WOMAN MATOIGUMI GERMS Fire Woman Matoigumi is sort of a distant prede- Germs, a legendary “lost” game that was un- cessor to Persona 3 in its combination of school earthed a couple years ago by a Japnese on- life/dating sim aspects with turn-based RPG line seller and then uploaded online by the combat. You play as a male transfer student combined efforts of /vr/. Germs is a first-person who gets beat up on his first day trying to stop a adventure/shooter similar in style and presenta- group of abusive ruffians. However this incident tion to LSD: Dream Emulator (but not as outright gets him the attention of the Matoigumi, three psychedelic) where you play a reporter investi- schoolgirls who use their magical fighting skills gating a strange series of incidents in a city and to protect the weak and vulnerable, and he is eventually encountering mutant monstruosi- asked to join the group for his courage. ties. As a member of the Matoigumi, it’s your job to wander around the school grounds after class checking if anyone is in trouble, and The game received an extremely limited run, which is why it was believed to be lost, confronting bullies, stalkers, and ruffians in simplistic turn-based fights. The whole and in some ways it feels unfinished, especially in the occasional faceless character game is presented in a top-down 2D view with expressive sprites for the characters. model or nonsensical dead end. It is however worth playing for its unique sense of You improve your stats by joining various different clubs and after school activities, atmosphere and general “off” quality if you’re the adventurous type. and there are 11 different date-able girls in school. The dating sim aspect of the game is pretty barebones, with few options beyond walking girls home from school, giv- ing them presents on their birthday, and saving them from harrassment. Though you can romance multiple girls at once, you’ll have to choose one to get her ending, accompanied by an FMV sequence. There’s even a character called Otaku Joe who holds the stats on every girl and can tell you how much each of them likes you at CLICK MEDIC the beginning of every month. Though every aspect of this game is fairly shallow Click Medic is a zany take on hospital simulation and simple, they combine to create an original and entertaining experience that developed by GameFreak of all people. You take would be more developed by games in the next generation. However, it is JP-only on the role of a fresh young doctor on his first and there is no translation effort planned as far as I know. day on the job. Gameplay is divided into two sections: first you meet and diagnose patients based on their symptoms, and secondly you NEUES take them to some sort of futuristic machine NEUES it’s a rising sim where you have to help where you can use micro-tools to enter the pa- a robot girl to become human. Every week you tient’s body and eliminate the virus responsible have to decide a schedule for you and for the for their illness. (Viri are represented as cartoony girl, you can investigate the forest, collect plants, little critters that need to be zapped away.) teach your robot girl about religion, singing, dancing, etc.. The entire game is played like a visual novel or adventure, including the virus-zap- The story is presented like a visual novel and ping gameplay segment where you have to choose which routes to take inside a there are many characters whose story will be patient’s body to succeed in curing them. The hospital staff consists mostly of cute revelead as you progress within the year that girls who will interact with you in large anime-style portraits. There are other activi- lasts the game. ties that can be done around the hospital which revolve around general manage- It can be quite hard and unforgiving without a ment and equipment improvement as well. Knowledge of Japanese is required to guide (it has some hidden stats), but it’s worth a play.. shot because it’s quite unique and darker than the Wonder Project series. /vr/ 2014 15 LOVE LOVE TOROKKO BEALPHARETH Love Love Torokko (Love Love Truck) is a mine- Bealphareth is an isometric, third-person dun- cart-racing game with... dating sim elements? geon crawler with fairly well-drawn sprites and A group of people are looking for a legendary consistent but nicely-realized medieval fantasy treasure inside a mine and you play as a boy environments to explore. Gameplay is seriously who wants a piece of that pie. It takes two peo- addictive because unlike other games of its kind, ple to operate a minecart by pushing the lever battling is completely active-time and you can like a see-saw, so you get to pick one of several switch between characters in your party at any different girls to accompany you, which will ap- time instantaneously, all of which have different parently determine which ending you get. skills pertaining to their battle class. The sheer amount of available weapons and monsters to The story is very silly and lighthearted, with be found makes it a great experience. 3D anime-style character models and fairly basic but colorful environments. You race your minecart across the railways by rhythmically pressing buttons, jumping And obviously there is a dating sim aspect as well, in that every character who joins or switching rails to avoid falling off dead ends or to jump over obstacles or shots your party will be a girl, and you will be able to interact and romance with all of them. from enemy minecart-riders. There’s not much else to the game beyond the single- Obviously depending on which one you go for you’ll get a different ending for them. player story mode, I’m not sure if multi-player exists but it does seem to be available. Even if you’re not interested in this aspect of the game it’s very much worth playing for fans of dungeon crawlers or action-RPGs. Unfortunately it’s Japan-only, and at- tempting to play it blind would be quite the effort, though it’s certainly possible. TORNEKO: THE LAST HOPE Torneko: The Last Hope is a modern roguelike much like the Mystery Dungeon or Shiren the Wanderer games. It stars the chubby merchant HAPPY DIET Torneko from Dragon Quest IV and was sur- Happy Diet had WiiFit beat by nearly decade at prisingly localized, under the subtitle “World of the time of its release. It’s a diet management Dragon Warrior.” The gameplay is very straight- and weight loss sim. However, it has a pleasant forward if you’ve ever played a game of this cartoon presentation and a main character who type: you travel through procedurally-generated is a kid in a racoon suit to make things more dungeons, fight monsters in turn-based battles, palatable for the player. There are three modes: and lose everything if you die. Torneko is a bit in Diet Story, you help the titular main charac- more forgiving in the last case, but will still pro- ter manage his diet in order to lose weight in vide as much challenge as any classic Dragon Quest game. It has a good variety time for various events. In Own Diet, you input of enemies to fight and items to find or craft, but dungeon environments are a bit your own data (height, weight, BMI, etc.) and repetitive. then manage your diet with the game’s helpful knowledge of nutritional balance. The game is presented from an overhead view with somewhat compressed-look- This game was also compatible with the Stepper Controller peripheral, which came ing sprites, but it has occasional claynimation scenes in place of FMVs which are into play during Walking Mode, which set your user-created avatar (another kid absolutely gorgeous and a total joy to watch. If for some reason you’re a big fan of in a racoon suit) to wander around 3D environments while losing weight thanks Torneko or just appreciate roguelike games, be sure to pick this one up. to physical exercise. However this peripheral is optional and the mode can still be played while... sitting in front of the screen. Happy Diet may not help you lose weight, but it’s an interesting curio for those fascinated by game history. 16 /vr/ 2014 TAIL CONCERTO SONIC WINGS SPECIAL Tail Concerto is a 3D action-platformer starring Sonic Wings Special is a vertical console shmup a furry police offer chasing a group of pirate kit- that combines aspects of the first three Sonic ties while riding a mech that looks and moves Wing games, bringing together a total of 14 pi- surprisingly similar to Tron Bonne’s. The whole lots, each with an extra unlockable aircraft. Co- game has a Mega Man Legends sort of feel and op multi-player is also a possibility but the sec- takes place in a world of floating islands popu- ond player can only pick someone from the lated by cute anthropomorphic animals. You run same team as the first player’s character. The around on your bipedal mech capturing felons game is fairly zany and light-hearted, with char- in bubbles and jumping across great chasms. acters such as an American cyborg and a talking Unfortunately the game isn’t D-pad-compatible dolphin. Different characters and combinations and the analog controls can sometimes lead to have different endings, as well. frustrating platforming hell, especially in the last stages. The stages and planes in Sonic Wings special can look somewhat dated, as they are However it’s a cute little game definitely worth a look for Mega Man Legends fans, basically taken from games that were mainly from the previous console generation, with a couple really cool stages but mostly bland boss fights. It’s the kind of game but the variety in characters and stage paths, not to mention secret characters with you could probably 100% in a day, so don’t spend too much money on it if you’re alternate versions of stages, makes it worth playing. It also has a pleasant sense of not going to emulate. Solatorobo: Red the Hunter for the NDS was a spiritual sequel humor and a number of instances of entertaining Engrish. set in the same world.

SOOKYUGURENTAI GAKKOU DEATTA Soukyugurentai is fairly well-known among KOWAI HANASHI S shmup fans but deserves to be tried by every- Gakkou Deatta Kowai Hanashi S is an enhanced one. It starts off hovering over amazingly de- port of a Super Famicom game. It’s a visual novel tailed futuristic Earth cities, with 3D models and in a pure sense of the term with very little direct layering providing a fantastic illusion of depth, interaction; you just click through dialogue and and travels ever-farther into space where even scenes, continuing the story. It is a compilation more visual wonders await. It’s a very attractive- of fifty different scary stories and urban legends looking game, cinematic in a way that current set in and around Japanese schools and featur- AAA titles aren’t, almost telling a story without ing students, though the stories have recurring words. characters. Choose from three different ships and take on a The reason why this game may be worth playing to someone who doesn’t know space invasion with the game’s trademark homing laser web which lets you de- a word of Japanese is because it’s so hilarious to just look at. It features a full cast a stroy multiple enmies at once with correct timing. It’s a fairly challenging game for real-life actors who were motion-captured for the scenes of the game, with incred- shmup novices but once you get a hang of the homing laser range it becomes a ibly cheap-looking special effects tacked on. The resulting reaction is usually humor total blast to keep playing until you succeed. as opposed to horror. In that sense it is similar to the cheesy FMV games of the early This game got an arcade release and near-perfect Saturn port as well, which was 90s like Night Trap, which haven’t aged well at all. The fact that this game is divided localized as Terra Diver. In either case you don’t need to know Japanese to play a into bite-sized, manageable stories also helps it be accessible to a non-Japanese shmup. speaker. /vr/ 2014 17 TOBAL 2 UMIHARA KAWASE: SHUN Tobal 2 was the sequel to Tobal 1 which was Umihara Kawase Shun is the second game in released in all regions. Tobal 2 is an extremely the Umihara Kawase cult series of platformers, complex fighter rpg under the guise of a typical where a schoolgirl has to navigate surreal plat- 3D party fighter. The art was designed by Akira form worlds by a using a fishing rod to grapple Toriyama which adds nice flair to the game. The onto higher ground or swing across chasms. graphics are top notch for the ps1 and there are She will also have to negotiate fish-like enemies 2 soundtracks for the game. One for the Quest wandering around the stage, and the whole mode and one for the Arcade mode. In game game has an odd but endearing fish theme. combat plays with the speed of Virtua Fighter and the technicality of Tekken. The series is best known for its tether-based gameplay and grappling physics, which are There are literally over 200+ characters although some are just pallette swaps, but very original for the genre and fun to master, though they also provide a high level still many characters have just frames and their own movesets. EVERY character of challenge. Stages have multiple exits and there is a variety of paths to uncover. you meet is playable. In the Quest mode you play in a dungeon crawler type setting Compared to the first game, the amount of enemies is lower to allow the player to and descend dungeons while managing stats like stamina and defense while man- engage more with the platforming aspects, and the graphics have only been mildly aging inventory space and the most useful equips. You unlock characters pokemon improved, but retain their oddball charm. style by throwing gems at enemies near death. There are even random encounters in some dungeons. The arcade mode plays like any typical fighter. You take on all Upon its original release this game was sponsored by the Mitchell fish company and the main characters and view an ending. features commercials in between levels. The latter Second Edition, also for the PSX, adds a handful of new stages and removes all Mitchell branding from the game, so it may be preferable. SUZUKI BAKUHATSU Suzuki Bakuhatsu is a game where you play as the daughter of an explosives defusal expert. Everything in her life is rigged with explosives, and the core gameplay consists of disassem- bling literally EVERYTHING in order to access the bomb while the timer ticks down. By rapidly searching for screws to unscrew and bolts to unbolt, you strip away layer after layer until the bomb is revealed, culminating in a pulse-pound- ing wire-cut with seconds to spare.

Or something. I still haven’t played the game but it looks cool and you could prob- ably figure it out.

18 /vr/ 2014 POPOROGUE PoPoRoGue is a Japan-only JRPG and the direct sequel to PoPoLoCrois Monogatari for the same console. This is a series of isometric, sprite-based RISING ZAN: JRPGs with a great fairytale style of art design, a classic Western fantasy setting, and very mem- SAMURAI GUNMAN orable, light-hearted characters from all walks Rising Zan: Samurai Gunman is essentially the of life. In PoPoRoGue, protagonist Pietro has missing link between the clunky 3D beat-em already defeated the Ice Demon from the first ups of the 5th gen and the fast paced beat em game, and is welcomed home as a hero. How- ups of the sixth generation that started with ever, he soon gets bored of a normal boy’s life devil may cry. and sets out in search for adventure once again.

Speaking of devil may cry, this game came out PoPoRoGue has the same turn-based tactical combat system as the first game, two years before the first game, yet has an al- where you move around a grid-based area and attack with skills or magic. It has no most scary number of elements that feel like random encounters, as enemies are present on the overworld and can be avoided. they were taken directly from that game (and later title godhand, made by many of Enemies will even chase you if you flee a battle! Also, dungeons are procedurally- the same people). A hero in red wielding a sword and a gun at the same time fights generated, and interestingly, all your secondary party members can be hired out as his way through a wacky and anachronistic wild west, interrupted by cut-scenes mercenaries to carry out missions and return to you with rewards. where people say silly stuff and minigames and set pieces where people do silly things.You have a powerup mode that makes your character very fast and changes PoPoLoCrois II also exists for the PSX, but it is actually the third game in the series. the background music to his themesong, you have arbitrary ratings at the end of every stage to rate how “sexy” and “cool” you were (instead of stylish) and the char- acter even has a tendency to yell LETS ROCK before kicking ass. NIGHT STRIKER Night Striker is a Japan-only scaling “3D” shooter Speaking of the game itself, this is where the “missing link” moniker comes in. Put with a presentation and layout similar to F-Zero, simply, while the controls make a valiant effort compared to how jank ps1 3D beat where you pilot a high-speed futuristic vehicle em ups were, they still have some issues. You move via tank controls because ps1 through a future metropolis. The game is entire- game, the lock on is pretty finnicky and the camera has a tendency to not cooper- ly sprite-based and uses scaling to simulate 3D ate. However besides that most of the elements that made devil may cry such a hit as you move through sci-fi cities, open fields, and a few years later are there. You can freely combo between a variety of sword, gun over water in different stages. Overall it looks like and jumping moves, and while the game starts out pretty easy it ramps up the dif- a high-end SNES title, but if that doesn’t bother ficulty fast, with multiple playthroughs on a harder mode or to get a better ranking you the special effects and sprite art are compe- is encouraged. tent.

While the combat is a little clunky, the game oozes a very specific kind of charm, The daughter of some important scientist has best personified by the goddamn original theme song they made for the game. been kidnapped and a special task force is dispatched to recover her. You shoot down enemies while strafing or drifting to avoid damage; your striker vehicle has shields which collisions or damage will chip away at, but are recharged at the end of every stage. You can also find shield power-ups and recovery items.

/vr/ 2014 19 ACONCAGUA MY GARDEN Aconcagua is an incredible adventure game My Garden is a very simple JP-only simulation with a unique premise and great production val- game similar to the Harvest Moon series, but in- ues. It begins when a plane crashes into Aconca- stead of being in charge of a farm you play as a gua, the tallest mountain in South America and girl who must grow flowers on a garden. These part of the Andean mountain range. The survi- can be sold for a price depending on their vors of the crash are all people who in some way beauty and uniqueness and the money can be are another were following Pachamama, anoth- used to buy new seeds and useful items. The er survivor, a revolutionary woman who is head- gameworld is largely restricted to the protago- ed for her home country of Meruza to spark a nist’s grandma’s home and the titular garden, revolution that will hopefully topple the brutal which one must water and tend to while plant- dictatorial regime. But now that said regime has ing seeds and managing various tasks. The made sure that Pachamama never reaches Meruza, the survivors must pool their game is friendly to beginners and non-English speakers, with very intuitive menu skills to survive and make it off the mountain with their lives. options and actions helpfully illustrated by icons. It’s an entertaining diversion for Aconcagua is a third-person 3D adventure game where you can switch between Harvest Moon fans or people looking for a casual and relaxed game. your playable characters at any moment; each have different abilities which will come in useful at different points. The game mostly consists of solving puzzles and finding items, and interestingly the characters feel like they have real agency in how the game progresses, as you need to make puzzle solutions make sense to them-- not just to you--by having them communicate. This makes them really feel like vir- NEKKETSU OYAKO Nekketsu Oyako was a Japan-only PSX launch tual characters with thoughts and emotions. title intended almost as a tech demo to demon- Released late in the console’s life, Aconcagua still looks pretty great for a PS1 game, strate the console’s capabilities for handling a which some particularly amazing setpieces and a rousing orchestral soundtrack. traditional arcade beat-’em-up game. However Its plot is refreshingly mature and told in a relatively level-headed way for a it’s also a very fun game on its own right. An evil video game, but still sporting an action movie bent, making organization has kidnapped the mother of a it a spiritual predecessor to games like Un- family of four; now the father, son, and daughter charted (but without going into full-on set out to fight hordes of enemies on very color- fantasy toward the end). ful, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure-esque city streets Though the game is JP-only, the voiced on their quest to save her. cutscenes were done in English (and occasional Spanish) for realism’s sake, The gameplay is nothing surprising for fans of beat-’em-ups and the three playable which can help players figure out solu- characters (sadly, Mom does not become playable after rescuing her) sport good tions to puzzles with occasional help variety and are all totally viable. It was ported to the Saturn some time later, but sur- from a guide. prisingly the technical differences aren’t so great as for there to be a truly superior version, and the PSX original handles transparency better. It’s definitely one of the beat-’em-ups worth hunting down for the PlayStation, along with titles such as Panz- er Bandit and Captain Commando, as the console didn’t receive many other arcade ports.

20 /vr/ 2014 CHARUMERA GUNBARE! GAME Charumera is a loveable and laid back game where you take on the role of a traveling ramen TENGOKU 2 salesman, wheeling your cart around town and Gunbare! Game Tengoku 2 is a video game set setting up shop wherever it seems that cus- within a video game. More specifically it’s a ver- tomers might be interested in a tasy bowl. It is tically scrolling shoot-’em-up where each level presented with delightful pop-up storybook takes place inside a video game in an arcade. graphics and tries to evoke a nostalgic pseudo- Thus you will find yourself shooting your way seventies Japan with flute melodies and some- through a child’s bedroom, a racing highway, what anachronistically-dressed customers. an ominous haunted building, and other, even stranger locales, coming upon naturally bizarre While wheeling around town, you can stop and bosses in the end. The game is a sequel to a Sat- offer food at any point, and customers will gather. By combining ingredients ob- urn-only release that was actually a port of an arcade title. Compared to that game, tained you can come across dozens of different recipes (mostly through trial and Game Tengoku 2 has fully-3D presentation, from the various ships you can pilot to error), and you may find that a new recipe is a hit with customers and makes you the surprising backgrounds and enemies, but the core gameplay remains the same. tons of money on the first couple weeks, but quickly they’ll grow sick of it and start demanding something else. Though there are many PSX shooters with unorthodox or cutesy settings out there, Game Tengoku 2 is one of the most out-there based on the sheer audacity of its Every once in a while one of your customers concept, and the shock factor continues to escalate with each passing level. In will strike up a conversation, which may be an terms of difficulty it’s fairly accessible for novices to the genre and veter- opportunity for someone to sponsor your ans may not find a lot to challenge them, but it’s worth taking brand, which will help in making money. on for the presentation. Money is usually spent buying more recipes or expanding your opera- tion, and in this sense it simu- lates managing a small, one- person business. Ironically the game is perfect for unwinding after a long day of work thanks to its presentation and slow pace.

/vr/ 2014 21 YAKINIKU BUGYOU ORE NO SHIKABANE Yakiniku Bugyou is a... BBQ sim. You are present- ed with a top-down view of a grill where different WO KOETE YUKE cuts of meat (plus fried melon slices) are placed Ore no Shikabane wo Koete Yuke (roughly in an order you can’t control. Above, you will see translates to “Over My Dead Body”) is one of the portraits of demanding and hungry BBQ- the most original and in my opinion best RPGs goers showing which cuts they want. Your job is for the PSX. It combines traditional, turn-based to watch the grill like a hawk, making sure that RPG combat with a generations system that has the meat is cooked at its best possible point be- been explored in games such as SaGa Frontier fore dragging it to the character portraits in or- and Fire Emblem 4. A demon has placed a curse der to feed it to them. Their reaction will indicate on you, which makes you age 50 years every whether you did well or not. year; this gives you, in practice, two years to live. The characters’ portraits, which are varied and represent people from all walks of Your descendants will suffer from the same curse. life, will usually clue you into their general tastes, and you’ll also need to consider how well-cooked they like their meat. It’s a very simplistic puzzler without many vari- Gameplay is split between a family-raising sim where you sire children, raise them, ables, but as more demanding and varied customers step up and you start placing and manage your household (the basic unit of time for this part is one month), and a lot of pieces on the grill, the tension begins to mount and you’ll really need to be RPG combat, where you take a party of four into a labyrinthine dungeon on a mis- a master griller to succeed. The game was successful enough to be re-released as sion to kill the demon who cursed you. The whole game has an almost poetically part of the Best of the Best collection and was considered for being brought over as tragic feel to it, knowing that all your children and their children will only know a a PSOne Import on PSN. brief life of strife as they try to free your bloodline. It has gorgeous, traditional-style NINGYO NO RAKUIN character and enemy designs that evoke an Okami RPG. Ningyo no Rakuin is a strategy RPG developed It got an enhanced port for the PSP, but it also stayed in Japan. This port was adver- by the elusive and largely forgotten Highway- tised with two very poignant commercials in Japan star. It’s a bit like Lost in video game form. While on a vacation trip with his girlfriend, a high school student’s plane crashes into a mysteri- ous island with a native population that seem- ingly performs human sacrifices. Him and some other survivors will have to fight their way out of this predicament in turn-based, grid- based, isometric SRPG battles.

The odd thing about this game is that it combines a somewhat mundane and down-to-earth scenario with the traditionally fantastical combat of SRPGs. Char- acters move along the grid and attack each other with weapons or more esoteric means. The combat stages are very basic-looking, but the character portraits are nice, there’s frequent fully-drawn story scenes, and the story is pretty great. The fights themselves can drag on because some enemies are only vulnerable to weap- ons, and weapons are few and far between, but in general it’s not so bad as to bring the game down. 22 /vr/ 2014 LINDA3 AGAIN LUP SALAD Linda3 Again (Linda Cube Again) is a deeply Lup Salad is a fun and addictive puzzle game weird port of a monster-collecting JRPG. The where you play as the titular Salad, a little girl premise is that an asteroid is hurtling towards who is taken all over the world by her globe-trot- Earth (actually, “Neo Kenya”), and a man and a ting parents. Each level is thematic of a different woman are chosen by the military to gather one country or region of Earth, and the small details of every animal in order to load them unto an give these a lot of personality, such as the fact ark. Thus you go off to fight all sorts of creatures that Salad’s outfit changes depending on the real and mythical in first-person, turn-based climate, as does her sprite (like how she dons a combat, with the goal of capturing one of each. parka when they go to the Arctic). Captured creatures can also be sold for money, The game’s rather basic story is told through or turned into weapons and equipment. Though nice and charming pixel art, but the gameplay is the graphics look rather dated, the character portraits are fresh and stylish, and the the real meat. You are presented with a side-view of a puzzle and must push blocks game has frequent anime cutscenes. of different colors in order to match them and make them disappear. Salad is fairly agile and can jump up blocks or gaps, but the game’s real difficulty is that you’ll However what I mentioned previously is only Scenario A of the game. Once you always need to plan ahead and keep some blocks around in order to reach higher get into Scenario B and C, things get weird and twisted: a Santa Claus death cult ap- places later. By clearing all the blocks you get a full view of the panorama behind pears, characters get killed off, and a dark god gets prayed to. The whole game has you, which is representative of the location where you currently are. Though the a weirdly cheeky and dark sense of humor that is unusual to find in a game of this game is aesthetically very homey and almost retro, it can quickly become puzzle time, but is never too in-your-face about it. Though the gameplay itself may come hell for novices. off as somewhat basic, in terms of story and tone, it’s pretty much an RPG like no It was ported to NDS as Lup Salad: Lupulupu Cube. The PSX original is available on other. PSN as a PSOne Import as well. RUNNING HIGH KOUKIDOU GENSOU Running High is an on-foot racing game by Rex Entertainment, which generally didn’t do games GUNPARADE MARCH but were responsible for production of Satoshi Koukidou Gensou Gunparade March. Well, this Kon’s classic film, Perfect Blue. This futuristic sci-fi one is quite a unique piece, kinda like every game puts a spin on modern racers by featuring game made by Alfa System. cyborg characters who compete, as mentioned, It’s kinda hard to describe the genre, the game on foot. There’s about a dozen characters avail- mixes school simulation like Persona 3 with able from the start and several unlockables. SRPG battles where you control giant robots against alien monsters that are destroying Obviously, each character has different cybernet- Earth.While you dont have assignments your ic augmentations that define their strengths and character can roam freely in the city or the base/ weaknesses. Compared to the variety of available racers, the amount and variety school and meet NPC’s that will have their own schedules, the player can use those of stages leave something to be desired, but the stages that do exist are very nicely moments to bond with the different characters and this will have differents effects detailed, with sharp, defined graphics and logical design. The fact that you’re not in the battlefield. It’s a pretty complex game so dont expect to play it without know- racing vehicles but people gives you a weird sort of connection with your chosen ing japanese and even with that... you maybe will need to check a walkthrough, be- character, almost like a fighting game, and while the gameplay isn’t particularly cause there’s just a lot of things to do in this game. competitive, it’s definitely very fun and well-thought out. /vr/ 2014 23 UFO: A DAY IN THE LIFE UFO: A day in the life is a cute puzzle-adventure developed by the legendary Love-de-Lic, also responsible for MOON: Remix RPG Adventure, and L.O.L. (Lack of Love) on the DreamCast. As per usual, UFO is more about exploring your environment and interacting with virtual char- acters than it is about any sort of game-y score LOOKING FOR MORE? system or stat growth. You play as a cute little alien sent to Earth to retreat its brethren, which were scattered when a previous mission went awry. The aliens are invisible to humans, but can still be detected by watching closely when they interact with objects. Each level consists of a small and very detailed 2D area like a room or a street where you must play close attention to patterns and objects to finally pin-point the hiding alien’s position and photograph them with a special device. Humans often feature in these stages, walking around as outlandish- ly-designed cartoons, perhaps to emphasize how weird they must look to the alien protagonist. Though dialogue clues will help you locate the aliens, it can be played easily enough through visual hints and trial-and-error. RHYTM’N’FACE In Rhythm’N’Face, Osamu Sato attempts to combine early computer art (think using tan- grams) with a Rhythm game. That sounds like a complete disaster, but it’s actually pretty fun. You control a tiny dot that can resize itself and change shape, and follows in line after the com- puter shows you where to go. You can do slight deviance from just copying what the computer does to a very minimal damage to your high score, allowing you to create all kinds of wacky faces by changing a few shapes. If you like the weird instruments and synth in LSD, you’ll likely like the soundtrack to SEGA SATURN Rhythm’N’Face, as it’s mostly recognizable music remixed in true OSD fashion that amps up the bigger combo you get. Despite all this though, the game is brutally hard for a rhythm game, and there aren’t many stages. Also, while customizing the faces you draw is a feature, you can’t do too much to change them from what the game wants you to make. Overall, A really cool concept that should be checked out, I just wish somebody or possibly even Osamu himself looked at the idea and made a even better game out of it 24 /vr/ 2014 SOURCE TEXT: ANONYMOUS FROM /VR/ https://archive.moe/vr/thread/2082152/ LAYOUT: capey [email protected] Mail me for the indesign file if you want to use it as a template for your own recommendation chart /vr/ 2014 25 26 /vr/ 2014