Old/obscure/underrated JRPGs

[shywn]

Hilarious emulation bug in Neko Project when finally I find another rpg game to play.

Your GDC clock is set to 2,5 MHz, right?

I got graphics errors exactly like that if it's set to 5 MHz (the default in NP.)

 

[Metronome]

Tao for NES. The gameplay is pretty basic, but it has a pretty unique setting and music.
The only obscure JRPG I know about. I could never beat it due to the convoluted plot triggers.

Spoiler

 

[abnaxus]

I finished Maha Barata.

Spoiler

This is a game based on one of the stories of Mahabharata, namely about Draupadi, the main character of the game (though main character changes in the final part of the game), and five princes (of course since this is a Wapanese game, two are androgynous; one of them even turns into wombyn).

I know little about Hinduism so this was interesting for me to play. You meet many Vedic deities.

Combat frequency is (very) high but it is not really a grindy game at all. You can and should run away as much as possible especially inside dungeons (actually very similar to Burai Gekan). You only need to be able to defeat the bosses (who are related to the story and usually weaker than many random encounters) to progress which can be done with some tactics (this is one of those rare games where spells like silence/paralyze/confuse etc. are useful). Dungeons are decently labyrinthine.

All the redundant combat especially in final dungeon made it kind of a chore to finish. You can never fail to run away but it’s still annoying pushing the same two buttons every five seconds (a game like D’ark, for instance, had the brilliant option of turning off combat completely when you were tired of it).

But the final boss fight was epic; Draupadi basically killed boss (Asura) on her own after three princes got knocked out quickly, it was very fitting for her to do so since he had possessed her father.

Graphics wise it kinda looks like Early Kingdom. Music is very nice.

The game is decently long with 5 chapters.

Also Ail-Soft is still around nowadays, you can buy the game for ¥7,800.

https://www.ail-soft.com/pro_maha.htm

All their other games are run-off-the-mill eroge/VN however. Very understandable, obv. they figured that those games are the only that sell on PC in Wapan.

Spoiler

 

[abnaxus]

Kuro no Ken poster on the wall.

 

[abnaxus]

I finished 95% of Masho Denki La Valeur by Kogado for PC88 (1989).

It’s an old game with very simple plot (which doesn’t even start until the final 5% of the game) and gameplay but I found it to be irresistibly charming. The various dungeons/mazes are fun to traverse and exploration is encouraged as it’s the only way to learn magic spells.

It also has some nice music and enemy design.

To access the final dungeon you need to receive some item from a witch but my character got zapped to death upon receiving the item each time (it’s completely different in PC Engine version). I suspect it’s some kind of copy protection, actually some time before that a random dude had appeared out of nowhere and permanently turned the main character into a maggot but I managed to bypass that somehow.

My recommendation is to play the PC Engine version instead.

Spoiler

 

[abnaxus]

Played Days in Duel by Swat (1994).

It’s a p. fun Shining Force clone (speaking of Sega, one final boss is reminiscent of Dark Force from Phantasy Star). Since it’s a PC98 game occasionally you are presented with a pic of a nekkid gurl.

The game consists of two stories, in story 1 the main character is middle-aged with a daughter, story 2 is about the main character’s exploits in his youth. Story 2 is way superior to 1.

Three of the characters in the game are from another Swat game called 桃源境 Harlem Fantasy, a silly adventure game/walking simulator with card combat.

Spoiler

 

[Thorakitai]

Brigandine: The Legend of Forsena and it's updated release: Brigandine: Grand Edition.

It's basically what happens if you fuse Fire Emblem, Advance Wars and Ogre Battle into one game. You basically choose one of the 6 kingdoms in the continent of Forsena and you have to conquer the rest.

Like Fire Emblem, you have a total of 40+ characters (Who have their own unique portraits and their own biographies) of different classes that can promote into stronger classes or reclass into another.

Like Advance Wars, you have to recruit many units of vastly different roles and functions.

Like Ogre Battle, you'll have to set up your forces, conquer castles and make sure your own castles are properly defended.

 

[abnaxus]

An airplane crashes. The survivors wash up on a mysterious, uncharted island. Crazed fanatics chase after them, and vile abominations lurk in the shadows. No, this is not a new season of Lost, it's Ningyo no Rakuin. The title translates as "Mark of the Mermaid," which is one reason why it caught my attention. As it turns out, the story has nothing in common with Hans Christian Andersen, but a lot to do with the works of Howard Phillips Lovecraft.

While more than a few Japanese RPGs have used elements of Lovecraftian imagery over the years, much of it cribbed from the Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual, the writers for Ningyo no Rakuin obviously had a fondness for the source material. Between the fanatical quasi-human tribesmen, the Deep Ones rising from beneath the waves, and the grad student from Miskatonic University, there are more references to the Mythos than you can shake a shoggoth at. The plot itself is fast-paced, centering first on surviving the dangers of the island and later on rescuing the main character's girlfriend from a particularly nasty fate involving an unnamed Elder God and a transformation into a fishy abomination. Elements of the storyline play out before and after (and sometimes during) each battle, and the interludes between battle chapters include a short summary of recent events leading up to the current plot point.

The main issue to be had with this game's plot and pacing is that it's in constant forward motion. There is no backtracking, no side-questing, and no shopping (or even monetary rewards for battle). All equipment must be found in treasure chests scattered across the combat maps, and the very fact that it's possible to miss upgrades makes the game's survival aspect all the stronger. However, the straightforward plot movement means that the game is equally playable by someone with limited knowledge of Japanese. The story has its good points, but the combat does not require nearly the same reading level.

In terms of gameplay, Ningyo no Rakuin is a straight tactical RPG, and plays similarly to other PSX titles of the genre such as Vandal Hearts. Instead of having attack phases for enemies and allies, turn order is set by the relative speed of each character in play. The game's eight playable characters each have their own dedicated weapons and abilities. Skills come in two varieties. All attacks in the game, even the most basic, use MP, but as the characters gain in level more attack techniques become available, with different ranges, targeting types, and added effects. Special abilities cover a wide range of support, healing, and status-inflicting skills, and each character has his or her own specific skillset that expands as levels increase. As well, everyone has a different inherent support skill that often affects the game's attack-counterattack mechanic, and a different movement type that increases that person's effectiveness over certain terrain. While certain party members are definitely more useful than others, there is a time and a need for every single one. Unfortunately, the five member limit for each battle, combined with the set number of scenarios in the game, makes it easy to have underleveled characters.

In terms of graphics, Ningyo no Rakuin is about what one would expect of a PSX title with sprite-based characters in a 3D tactical field. A dominance of dark, moody background colors can make it difficult to see the targeting range of attacks or skills, while the camera can be rotated, that's not always enough to allow the player to see where an enemy is positioned. These two issues can lead to some difficult situations, as several characters have a minimum range to their attacks, and it's not always easy to tell if a character can hit an enemy until after they've already been moved on the map. The game does not allow take-backs once someone has been moved, so it's possible to place one of the long-range attacks too close to an enemy without realizing it.

There are decent-looking splash pages at appropriate points in the story, and these pictures often capture the feel of the Lovecraftian horror elements very well. The game's musical score is not especially broad, but its handful of themes and combat music again fit the game's core horror theme quite well. Not a one of these tunes could be described as upbeat or peppy, but some manage a decent level of creepiness, especially in combination with the level designs.

Typically, there are three possible goals in combat — kill the target, kill everything, or survive. Battles featuring that last one tend to be the nastiest, in spite of sounding fairly simple. While survival usually entails getting as many people as possible to a specific point on the map, the game likes to throw curve balls at the player. Survival levels have at least one respawning enemy type, and killing one enemy may cause another to pop up behind the party's current position. Often, these levels will also have special events that pop up at the worst possible time. One example is a level where everyone must cross a bridge. Halfway across, the main character loses his balance and falls off. He lies stunned in the water for several rounds, but if anyone tries to go back across the bridge, that triggers the appearance of enemy reinforcements. Getting through one of these levels takes a good deal of trial and error. Sometimes the only thing going in the player's favor is the ability for characters to stand in place for a turn and recover health at no cost.

Ningyo no Rakuin stands out in the crowded field of PSX role-playing titles because of its setting more than anything else. Beneath the veneer of Western horror lies a fairly typical tactical experience — though not without its fair share of challenge. It's a pity this game never left Japan, as it probably would have been well received by US gamers circa 2000.

Shame rom sites are ded

 

[flyingjohn]

Damn you abnaxus!Every single time i am thinking of starting any western game you post some interesting jap game.

BWAHAHAH Found it bitches.

Here is a picture of running it in a emu:

Anybody who wants a link can PM me.

 

[abnaxus]

Played the original Startling Odyssey for PC Engine (1993).

Already played the remake on Playstation Startling Odyssey: Blue Evolution which was indeed a good game, but it suffers from some really ugly pseudo-3D during battles and went full animu with character design and cutscenes. Guess I initially got some issues with PC Engine emulation.

The original has much better character/boss design and classy 90s feel cutscenes. Combat and challenge wise it’s very much like Phantasy Star 1/2.

It was interesting to see how faithful the remake was. For one, the doggie doesn’t get vaporized by the bad guy in the beginning but the child still does, you meet Sophia (and other party members) under different circumstances and the Princess is actually a virtuous girl rather than a snotty sloot (but she plays only a minor role in the original).

I recommend to play this before the remake. Or better just skip the remake.

Spoiler

 

[abnaxus]

1) Played Queen’s Library by Cocktail Soft (1993).

It’s an action rpg consisting of five scenarios. I couldn’t get into other action rpgs (most notably Xak) but this one was p. decent overall (Yuurou Transient Sands was alright too).

Unfortunately also 90% finished, got completely stuck at the end. Not sure due to bug or due to a missing item (sometimes you need to return to previous scenario to unlock some hidden stuff). This game is so obscure that I didn’t even find a Wapanese guide.

Spoiler

2) Played Power Slave by Umitsuki Seisakusho (1995).

It’s a pseudo-VN/RPG with some occasional active-time battles.

The battles are simple but fun. The story is mostly humorous. There are short but animated hentai scenes. Art and music are p. nice.

Most memorable part of the game is main character’s Kansai-ben speaking gf.

Spoiler

3) Played Angelus: Akuma no fukuin, a really old adventure game by Enix for PC-88 (1988).

Since it’s Enix game one can expect quality. It is basically a Wapanese Gabriel Knight/Broken Sword.

There’s a blonde (British) journalist Brian Pearl (with a female assistant) investigating a weird event where people holding a particular blue stone die from a curse tied to a Gnosis cult trying to resurrect an evil god.

There was a sequel in the works at one point which got canned unfortunately. There’s only a prototype for PC Engine.

Spoiler

The sequel was to be a direct continuation of the story. Brian is a reincarnation/avatar of the evil god’s nemesis, the dude that pops up at the end of the first game must be the evil god’s avatar.



I would’ve played it.

 

[peacegamer]

I guess this thread gonna becomes lively again

 

[Grauken]

Abnaxus is the king of this thread. Who knows what moves him

 

[infidel]

1) Played Queen’s Library by Cocktail Soft (1993).

How did you get this thing going? I've found the FDIs and tried them in Anex86 and Neko both. It hangs on start saying "No system files".

 

[abnaxus]

Are you sure you have the latest files?

I ran the .hdi and only had to use the .hdm at the beginning of a new scenario. Once inside the new scenario I could switch back to .hdi.

 

[infidel]

Where did you get .HDIs from? I could only find FDI/FDD in the collections I have.

 

[flyingjohn]

Where did you get .HDIs from? I could only find FDI/FDD in the collections I have.

I will give you a hint:Neo Kobe.

 

[infidel]

Oooh, I somehow managed to mix Cocktail Soft with Queen Soft, hehehe. I have it, yeah.

 

[Jrpgfan]

Today I reminded of an old eroge I played when I was really young called Kingdom(this one https://vndb.org/v110).

This game had a big city with a lot of NPCs and stuff to do, and the NPCs had actual schedules and would do different things and trigger different events depending on the day and time of the day(and the job you'd take, among other things). This is a really rare feature even in big boys cRPGs and the level at which it was presented here I don't think I've ever seen in any other game.

Time would actually pass in scaled real time and the npcs would roam the city in this fashion, making it feel really alive. And the amount of endings and routes you could do with the characters were insane(just take a look at this walkthrough https://forums.fuwanovel.net/topic/2586-koisuru-oukoku-kingdom/). I wish more full scale RPG devs would take note of this.

Back then I hadn't realized but today I see how impressive this game was, especially for an old obscure eroge. I remember having a brief discussion with felipepepe about this game and the schedule system, and he dismissed it as being more of the same, but now I realize not even Ultima had it presented this way and at this level(with NPCs actually doing stuff in real time ie. you could trigger an event that would make a ghost girl follow you around town, or catch a tough looking milf teacher on her way home after leaving a bar late at night and abuse of her drunken ass). It's been a long while since the last time I played it so I don't know how well it'll hold, but it's undeniable that featureswise it's a very unique game.

 

[felipepepe]

I don't remember talking about this, but the walkthrough doesn't make it look so unique... looks a lot like every Harvest Moon clone, not to mention Majora's Mask, Deadly Premonition and RPGs like Dragon's Dogma or Lightning Returns.

I mean, it's still cool, but not that unique.

 

[Jrpgfan]

Majora's Mask is a unique game, though. And the NPC schedules are actually the focus here so it has more content of this type.

I don't remember seeing anything like this in Dragon's Dogma.

Haven't played the other games so I can't really comment.

The main point though is that it's impressive for such an old obscure eroge. It's definitely the most unique "visual novel" I've played atleast.

 

[Jrpgfan]

I can see some similarities with Stardew Valley, which I assume took inspiration from Harvest Moon(never played it myself). But I don't remember much of this aspect of that game, aside from the fact that you couldn't have sex with the NPCs

 

[abnaxus]

Couldn't get this old PC88 Enix game to work

Got Fangs by Enix (1991) to work, actually, it runs only on PC88 emulator.

The story is very simple: the main character is Remus looking for his big bro Romulus, has to collect six wolf fangs and defeat the Dark Lord.

I ended up not liking it much. Though the monster design is p. cute.

The game isn’t even listed on the Wapanese Wikipedia page of Enix so I guess nobody played it. There’s probably a story here.

Didn’t finish because I lost my saves but wouldn’t have continued anyway.

The game feels outdated for something that was released in 1991 (it pales to for instance Emerald Dragon which came out a few years before this). For instance, Illusion City and Vain Dream also came out in 1991 and those games are lightyears beyond.

Spoiler

On the other hand Dark Half by Enix for SNES (1996) is a much better game.

The story is seemingly simple: the dark lord has awakened and must be defeated… except for the fact that you also play as the dark lord aside from the “chosen one”. And playing as dark lord is actually much more fun, the good guy is kind of a boring putz in comparison.

As you move around the map, an attribute called “soul power” decreases (if it reaches zero, it’s game over but you’re never in danger of it running out) but can be recharged by killing stuff (the dark lord also increases HP and other attributes by killing stuff and absorbing soul power). The dark lord can wipe out towns (even children are not spared) to easily gain soul power.

The good guy gets stronger from certain orbs that enemies drop and crafting armour and weapons.

The good guy has some fixed party members but can also hire mercenaries, the dark lord turns monsters into his minions (you can walk around with gargoyles, golems, dragons, ogres, which is p. neat). The dark lord also needs to capture monsters to learn new spells and upgrade learnt spells, this doesn’t get boring because combat is p. fun.

The dark lord is immune to magic but initially extremely weak to physical attacks and with very little movement so he needs meatshields (he doesn’t get the Shield spell that makes him immune to physical attacks until near the end of the game).

In every dungeon there are some environmental puzzles to solve to continue. The dark lord usually needs to use magic (in particular Dispel) in order to traverse.

The story is also p. interesting. Of course it turns out that the true evil is not the dark lord, but the human ruler who formerly was among those who had beaten the dark lord and had stolen the power from his ring, literally building an Astronomican powered by human souls to create a barrier to keep the dark lord out.

At the very end you need to choose between the dark lord and the good guy.

Beating the game with the dark lord is a piece of cake and he’s not really evil anyway. Near the end it is revealed he created the world and humans (basically if Lucifer had created the world and humanity instead of God) and he just returned to pass judgment.

Beating it with the lame good guy is more challenging and probably what was intended but how many games are there where the “bad” guy wins?

This is a great game.

(Dark Kingdom by Square on SNES has a similar theme but in that game you’re just a minion of evil. Unfortunately that game looks garbage.)

Spoiler

Something entirely different is Genji by Hot-B (1988).

It’s a a detective adventure about the investigation of a supernatural murder of a female relative of the emperor in the Heian period. This game caught my attention because nearly all Wapanese games with historical setting are strategy games taking place in Sengoku era and a few games set in Bakumatsu period like Way of the Samurai.

The detective, Genji, is himself the younger brother of the emperor.

So you’d think this would be a game mixing the supernatural with some court intrigue in an seldom touched upon historical setting, and just when you think the case is solved and the game is p. much over the murderer turns out to be a psychotic time traveler trying to change history.

It's a shame the devs didn't really take this seriously.

Genji teams up with a female timecop, visiting Tang dynasty China in the process (the case is related to one of the Four Beauties of China, Yang Guifei).

Of course there’s also some debauchery and tentacle rape mixed in. Genji is a lecherous playboy and can get down to business with almost every lady in the game.

It’s a short but memorable adventure.

Spoiler

 

[lightbane]

The story is seemingly simple: the dark lord has awakened and must be defeated… except for the fact that you also play as the dark lord aside from the “chosen one”. And playing as dark lord is actually much more fun, the good guy is kind of a boring putz in comparison.

Hey, that game! I plan to play it at some point.

The dark lord can wipe out towns (even children are not spared) to easily gain soul power.

Really? In one gameplay video I watched the dark lord didn't do that, or the player didn't dare to do so.

Beating the game with the dark lord is a piece of cake and he’s not really evil anyway. Near the end it is revealed he created the world and humans (basically if Lucifer had created the world and humanity instead of God) and he just returned to pass judgment.

Lol? So killing even a barkeeper is "passing judgement"? That sounds like getting away with his actions for reasons.

 

[abnaxus]

If you have the dark lord kill every civilian, the good guy can afterwards harvest an item called "light of hope" by putting each corpse to rest. The number of these items also affects the ending. You can choose not to kill civilians but then I think you won't have enough at the end and the dark lord doesn't turn into an angel.