Old/obscure/underrated JRPGs

[abnaxus]

"Schneider" is German for "tailor," so his name can be translated as "Dark Tailor"; this seems appropriate, as he can seemingly conjure clothing out of nowhere. His name is a reference to the vocalist of German metal band U.D.O., Udo Dirkschneider. The spell that releases Dark Schneider, "Accept," is a reference to Accept, Udo's former band.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

I just found out about this.

 

[Grauken]

I just found out about this.

Damn, that looks cool

 

[abnaxus]

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Are you enjoying it, abnaxus? Are you playing the PC-98 or FM Towns version?

I found the FM Towns version somewhat smoother + arranged music is just chef's kiss, although I kinda prefer the gritty sound of the PC-98 version.

 

[abnaxus]

Is there even a half decent FM Towns emulator? Couldn't get any games to work.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Is there even a half decent FM Towns emulator? Couldn't get any games to work.

Unz is the only one I think. I think you need to insert a blank floppy into the first drive to make the games boot up. Apparently it'll use a floppy disk to save data.

 

[abnaxus]

Played Ares Ou no Monogatari by Gust (1994).

This game was a nice little surprise. One of those rare Wapanese games with western artstyle. I had looked at some other strategy rpgs for PC98 (both turn-based and real-time) before but they turned out not very good.

Story is about a peasant boy who learns on his 16th birthday that he is the heir to a kingdom that had been invaded by an evil empire. He then sets off on a journey to reclaim his throne. Setting is Anglo-Saxon ish.

Gameplay is similar to Shining Force, you level up by performing actions on the map (most xp from killing enemies). As the story goes on you gain more and more party members of different classes and battles become bigger and bigger. It is possible to revisit areas and battles to gain xp or resources to sell.

At certain points some characters will be able to multiclass. These characters will become so powerful they are essentially one (wo)man armies, while other characters that can’t multiclass will lag behind in power. Eventually all your troops are able to multiclass but that’s just complete overkill. The final parts of the game are p. epic.

The story is interesting, Ares is a noble protagonist and he gets likable companions as well. Not to mention, a strong warrior princess waifu Nina (also 16). But then it turns out he is supposed to marry some other 16-year-old princess Liliane. Sucks as I thought Nina was bettest gurl.

Maybe if Liliane dies in the final dungeon Ares marries Nina anyway but I didn’t test it. It’s probably a game over as Liliane is prolly character essential to the story.

The game ends on somewhat of a cliffhanger; Ares becomes king of the continent but his mother is still alive in the country his enemies invaded from.

Gust developed another strategy rpg after this with oriental setting called Falcata. Then they degenerated into weeabery with Atelier series. I’d rather have a sequel to a game like this.

Spoiler

 

[peacegamer]

Beated this game two years ago.


It supposeto be a good game.
Except one thing...

The game balance / battle system is very poor.
It is very easy even for the last boss, if you know what to do.

This is a huge factor that make this game not very enjoyable.

You will need to have Japanese knowledge at some point to solve some riddle to continue the story.

And that's it. This is from my memory about 2 years ago ...

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Unz is still the only FM-Towns emulator. God.. I have problems with this thing on win7 and win10. It works ok on winXP. I thought I heard someone said SCUMM could run FM-towns stuff.

If you happen to have a Wii console, they make superb emulation devices (and if you don't have one, they are pretty cheap to get, second-hand). They are dead simple to soft-mod, and then you can install a wide selection of emulators on them (I think for all the systems you mention, including ScummVM). It's actually easier to use most of the emulators on the Wii rather than messing with compatibility issues for Windows. And you can play the games right on your TV screen.

I can't verify this as I don't own a WII console. Man, this is annoying.

Has anyone tried this system for emlation:
http://www.emutopia.com/index.php/emulators/item/279-fujitsu-fmtowns-marty/245-xe

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Unz is still the only FM-Towns emulator. God.. I have problems with this thing on win7 and win10. It works ok on winXP. I thought I heard someone said SCUMM could run FM-towns stuff.

If you happen to have a Wii console, they make superb emulation devices (and if you don't have one, they are pretty cheap to get, second-hand). They are dead simple to soft-mod, and then you can install a wide selection of emulators on them (I think for all the systems you mention, including ScummVM). It's actually easier to use most of the emulators on the Wii rather than messing with compatibility issues for Windows. And you can play the games right on your TV screen.

I can't verify this as I don't own a WII console. Man, this is annoying.

ScummVM only runs a bunch of select games since it has a reimplementation of their game engine or smth.
What problems are you experiencing?

Works fine for me on Win7 x64, btw.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Nvm on that xe.. all I got was missing bullshit and after a few hours trying to put them into the win32 build I gave up. Its probably just malware bullshit.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Nvm on that xe.. all I got was missing bullshit and after a few hours trying to put them into the win32 build I gave up. Its probably just malware bullshit.

Maybe I just don't know how to load games effortlessly. My biggest issues was on the only game I ever tried was the Ultima 1-3 trilogy for fmtowns on unz.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Nvm on that xe.. all I got was missing bullshit and after a few hours trying to put them into the win32 build I gave up. Its probably just malware bullshit.

Maybe I just don't know how to load games effortlessly. My biggest issues was on the only game I ever tried was the Ultima 1-3 trilogy for fmtowns on unz.

Ultima trilogy worked fine for me.
Find the Neo Kobe Emulator Pack, mount the iso into a virtual drive, (optional, required for a couple of games) mount a blank floppy image into the first floppy drive and you're all set.

 

[abnaxus]

Fuyuu City is a futuristic town in a land where the entire power is in the hands of women, who are much stronger than men. Five beautiful, clever, and strong women form a group called "Aurora". They are the ones who control Fuyuu City and its surroundings. A nameless guy winds up in Fuyuu City with his memory lost. He is outraged by what he sees there, and decides to help the discriminated men.

lel the Wapanese Leather goddesses of Phobos

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Fuyuu City is a futuristic town in a land where the entire power is in the hands of women, who are much stronger than men. Five beautiful, clever, and strong women form a group called "Aurora". They are the ones who control Fuyuu City and its surroundings. A nameless guy winds up in Fuyuu City with his memory lost. He is outraged by what he sees there, and decides to help the discriminated men.

lel the Wapanese Leather goddesses of Phobos

Whoa, I think Tom is translating this one right now.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Ah! Now that i'd like to see. Family computer.. FuYuu City. I'm looking this up.

Ah some progress from jan


N R Ape? Hah!

And i was unaware it was on the PC engine...

 

[lightbane]

That sounds like a Codex-worthy game, back when the Japanese were not censoring titties because "muh Ethics Department said so".

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Censoring titties is a sin and a crime against all of humanity..... well in most cases. I can think of 4chan pics that nearly blinded me and those horrors can never be undone.

 

[Endemic]

That sounds like a Codex-worthy game, back when the Japanese were not censoring titties because "muh Ethics Department said so".

Eh, the censorship was milder but still existed. The related law dates back to the Meiji period.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

I was just reading versions of Shadowgate, Deja Vu, and Uninvited. It said several religious objects and violence was removed from the latter. These games aren't all that violent but I've heard nintendo does this routinely or Japan period. Its more "of american" versions/translations to "PROTECT" our poor little selves. Sheesh. 4-5th grade there were girls giving blowjobs when i was a kid and middle school got worse (or better depending on how you look at it). We all cussed, loved rated R or NR-17 movies (i guess they existed in the 80s which are now rated PG i guess or G).

Poor widdle kiddies are fragile.

 

[abnaxus]

Added some more rpg to my list recently but in the meantime checked out some “adventure” games for PC98. I give preference to those with unusual/interesting setting.

So I finished Reira: Slave Doll which I had expected would be an interesting detective adventure in cyberpunkish setting like X-Girl.

Sadly though, Reira was mediocre at best. The entire game takes place in a scrap yard with only female employees, all androids (aka slave dolls). The “detective” main character is a dolt and there’s not much detective work to be done either – just revisiting the same ten or so locations again and again until something triggers.

The plot is also highly predictable.

Spoiler

Otoh X-Girl was an incredibly atmospheric game with decadent, amoral protagonist and brilliant soundtrack – and despite the bizarre torture porn sections even had a nice good ending.

Spoiler

 

[AdolfSatan]

Not speaking an ounce of Japanese, I lurk to this thread to look at cool pictures of mechas, weird monsters, cyberpunk cities, and just overall top-notch pixel art and dithering (and those sweet-ass colour palettes). But jeez, someone get me a tutorial for this shit right now:

I know it's a lazy hishi + box + a frog tie (albeit not a good one), I just can't picture how to make it all in one single strand.

 

[ghostdog]

I really like that 90s anime style. NuAnime seems like a lifeless blot compared to that...

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

I await the awesome AI that will translate everything for a particular language barrier.... it'll probably be brain inplants or wires like those games (how uncomfortable). I do enjoy that 90s art style. I enjoy the 80s and 70s as well but eh... Those just look damn crisp and clean which is appealing.

That dude a M. Bison wannabe? He certainly didn't take that bullet well.