Old/obscure/underrated JRPGs

[MRY]

Amazing. So many great finds in this thread -- not that I'd ever play any, but I really had no idea that there were so many jRPGs that were so different from the ones I grew up playing.

 

[Siveon]

Amazing. So many great finds in this thread -- not that I'd ever play any, but I really had no idea that there were so many jRPGs that were so different from the ones I grew up playing.

We mainly missed out on many of the Japanese computer based RPGs due to lack of interest, support, competition, cultural values (most of them have pornographic scenes or themes) etc.
Nowadays we miss games its usually because our heavy hitter localization companies got broken up (XSEED) or pigeon-holed (Atlus). So we rely on a lot of smaller companies to pick up the slack, like PQube, Playism, etc.

 

[abnaxus]

Played Lenam Sword of Legend (1989)

P. weird game. It plays entirely like a command based adventure game, even inside dungeons.

The story could have been written by a ten year old. The enemy art is p. nice but all other art looks amateur.

Feels like a doujin. That other 80s game with green hair waifu (Emerald Dragon) is light-years beyond.

Spoiler

 

[baka-neko]

Played Lenam Sword of Legend (1989)

Hey abnaxus! I'm also a big fan of obscure retro Japanese computer games - though my level is just around JLPT3.

Actually, I'm also a game maker and would love your feedback on my RPG called "Light Fairytale".

Can you please activate PM with me? I'll give you a key. Thanks!

 

[Endemic]

Nowadays we miss games its usually because our heavy hitter localization companies got broken up (XSEED) or pigeon-holed (Atlus). So we rely on a lot of smaller companies to pick up the slack, like PQube, Playism, etc.

There are still bigger players like JAST and NISA around localizing PC titles. Some games are simply too niche to be worth it, fan scene included.

 

[infidel]

Bonus experience can be gained by using skills during missions (like successfully negotiating or interrogating, finding hidden clues, etc).

How do you use skills in that game? Just a menu of possible options?

 

[abnaxus]

Played Last Guardian (1995)

It’s a strategy rpg with gameplay similar to Nana eiyuu monogatari or Days in duel. Unlike those games this is a p. long game and quite story driven.

Characters are not (phaggit) Elves nor furries, but classic therianthropes (and one human, which is an important plot element). Some characters’ ability to shapeshift can be a game changer in certain battles (some of which are quite hard).

The story is p. gud and characters are likable. It’s a nice surprise after dropping a couple of games that looked good beforehand but turned out not fun to play.

Spoiler

 

[Nifft Batuff]

I am so frustrated.

 

[Abu Antar]

I am so frustrated.

Sexually?

 

[abnaxus]

Played Elves (1992)

I may or may not have previously disregarded this game in the past because of the title. But once you set aside you prejudices, it actually turns out to be a good game (AZN Elves aren’t as pathetic as their western counterparts).

The game is divided in two parts, the second part is more interesting. In the first part Elves come to an island to find a new home but immediately run afoul of the (local) Dark Lord who kidnaps the main character’s waifu. The Dark Lord spawns an offspring with the main character’s waifu who’s kidnapped in the beginning of the game and jumps into the flames at the end.

The second part takes place some centuries later with first part main character’s daughter as the new main (but her father is party member too) with the Dark Lord’s (wretched) spawn stirring up trouble making you traipse across the island again.

Combat is simple but fun. Positioning is important. Most of the time you fight large groups of enemies but enemies can’t really hurt you anymore once you outlevel them by a certain amount, even bosses during the first part of the game are one/two shotted. Magic works like Suikoden with limited amounts of charges before resting.

Spoiler

 

[abnaxus]

Played Estonia (1993).

It’s a really odd game. Random Spanish, Glodia-style combat and learn-by-doing leveling system. Minimalist story.
Going through the dungeons is fun enough though (the game is really short).

Spoiler

 

[abnaxus]

Played Genseikitan Disc Saga 3 (1995)

It’s a humorous rpg game where main character is (horny) dog called Smash. It’s from the developer from Madou Monogatari so obviously the game was going to be weird.

Spoiler

 

[abnaxus]

Played Wondrous Magic, a SNES exclusive rpg game (1993).

It’s a wondrous game. I hope to play other SNES rpg game as good as this one.

The main character is a young magic gurl you can name yourself but her default name is Fierice. Together with her grandfather, a master wizard, she must prevent the reawakening of ebul (the final boss looks like the Dark Force of SNES) by reassembling the staff of the goddess of creation in order to summon her.

So the combat is all about flinging spells at monsters, and it never gets old really although encounter rate may be high. In a party of four you can control only one party member and the AI is competent enough. The paladin melee party member is nicknamed “double sword” but actually can only equip one sword in the game.

Most of the time it is enough to control Fierice who is mainly a support character with only two offensive spells, Fire and Frost. Though during difficult battles it is best to control grampa since only he has an important Haste spell. Also later in the game he can spam Instadeath spell.

All spells require HP to cast except for certain priest spells that reduce an attribute called “piety” which can only be restored by praying in temple or by items that are very expensive early on. In early game if you’re not careful you may stumble into a bossfight at the end of a dungeon without healing spell.

In almost all battles the party is completely surrounded, and basically every party member takes on their own batch of enemies. You can turn to face different enemies in combat.

Interestingly you can find some items in the game that hint at another world, maybe it’s a reference to another game of the developer. At the end of the story they left enough open to make a sequel possible.

Spoiler

 

[Massl87]

Hello,

I recently discovered this awesome message Board and im a huge Fan of rpgs. I also own a lot of the older eroge PC jrpgs and most PC engine rpgs. I also finished nearly all of my pce rpgs some years ago. I really like to finally Start my pc88 and 98 rpgs.

abnaxus can you contact me about this matter please?

Nice to be here
Massl87

 

[abnaxus]

Played Shinseiki Odysselya (1993), another snes exclusive rpg game.

It’s another impressive game. Gameplay is p. standard but concept wise it is a p. unique game.

It takes place on Earth during different ancient time periods (and Atlantis, Mu, Lemuria are around).

The main character is gurl who wakes up without any memory in 10,000 BC at the dawn of human civilization and meets DraQ. DraQ merges with a guardian god and reincarnates as the Prince of Persia, becoming a permanent party member.

It turns out she was chosen to restore Earth’s guardian gods by breaking the seals imposed on them by the Heavenly Emperor (the seals are guarded by the Four Guardian Beasts of Chinese mythology) because the underworld is threatening earth and the Heavenly Emperor doesn’t give a chit.

In short, she must restore balance (until it turns out you’ve been manipulated all along). The backstory is that in ages past the heavenly realm defeated the earthly realm. Once you get to heaven yourself the reason for this war is revealed: the Heavenly Emperor conquered an earthly goddess (actually the daughter of the main villain). The main character is their lost daughter, who unable to cope with unleashing the Great Flood had her memory erased and identity changed, becoming a guardian god herself. When entering the body of a mortal gurl praying to her she was sent back in time and the game begins.

So from stone age you move to 1300BC where you help da joos flee Egypt of Ramses II (not-Moses is another party member). Then you move to 550BC which is the game’s <current year> where you help da joos in their war with Babylon. In fact the jooish princess is party member for a while. Later you visit India, ancient Greece, China during Warring States period, and cross the Atlantic on the back of a wyvern.

(Funny, the king of Persia is an utter lecher and will p. blatantly sexually harass one of your party members at one point. Imagine that in a modern game on Nintendo platform.)

In the end the main character returns to godhood and saves the world by unleashing another Great Flood which is p. epic

Three of your party members are missing at the end of the game but they can reincarnate as guardian gods. Since DraQ knocks up the jooish princess it is a clear sequel hook. Got a bad feeling about this sequel tho.

Spoiler

P.S. if Wapanese bother to make perv fan art of such an old game its prolly a classic

Spoiler

 

[Massl87]

This looks interesting, i played so many rpgs on nearly every System and never heard about that. Maxbe i try it someday. I played through most PC engine rpgs a few years ago. That was fun.

 

[infidel]

Played Shinseiki Odysselya (1993), another snes exclusive rpg game.

I thought no booba was allowed on Ninty's platforms back then? How come?

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Nintendo censored releases of Japanese games in the United States, not the original Japanese versions, even on the Famicom/NES much less its successor.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Played Shinseiki Odysselya (1993), another snes exclusive rpg game.

I thought no booba was allowed on Ninty's platforms back then? How come?

Bah.. no english translation. Meh
http://www.geocities.ws/newkingmike/trans/ody1/index.htm

 

[infidel]

Bah.. no english translation. Meh
http://www.geocities.ws/newkingmike/trans/ody1/index.htm

"Dude! What were the Vic Tokai programmers on when they made this? The one screenful of text I tried inserting is filled with control codes right in the middle of the text. Also, when I change one word, it appears to change every string everywhere else in the ROM. "

I can guess what he's talking about. The control codes are there because manually parsing a string char by char in a loop would be the most common and consistent CPU-friendly way in the 80s and early 90s due to lack of power, especially on consoles. And changing the word problem relates to them using a dictionary to compress it. Nowadays we just put HTML/JS inside and call Webkit API on each and every string display, fuck everything, we got GIGABYTES and GIGAHERTZ, bitches, wheeeeee .

 

[abnaxus]

Played Toushin Toshi 3 (2008)

It was released 14 years after Toushin Toshi 2 and Alice Soft’s first 3D rpg game.



Toushin Toshi is another rpg series taking place in Rance world. Like Rance, main character is a caricature of a typical Wapanese rpg game protagonist, but on the opposite side of the spectrum.

These series’ shtick is taking part in a tournament where you can do basically whatever you want with the female partner of your opponent when you win each round.

Despite a very slow start it’s much better than 1 and arguably better than 2 because it is longer and has a strong plot. In fact it’s kind of an amalgam of the first and second game.

It’s a standard dungeon crawler like the first two games. Female enemies from the first two games (and Otome Senki) appear occasionally as secret enemies.

It’s a p. dark game overall but there’s plenty of humorous distractions and hentai absurdities to lighten the mood. At least there’s something for everyone.

What Alice Soft is really gud at, is creating truly detestable villains. Feels really great at the end being finally able to trounce the pheggits that were toying with main character and his loved ones the entire game.

Like in Toushin Toshi 2 at one point you come across portals through which you can encounter some characters from other Alice Soft games, like Daiakuji, Daibanchou, Choukou Sennin Haruka, Escalayer. There’s even Kenshin chan.

Someone at Alice Soft was really protective of Kalar waifu. She has plot armour until the very end of the game, when you face her in the final round (of the first year) there is a forced loss. And you lose to her once again after you finally become toushin (you need to work hard to be able to turn her crystal blue). However BAD STUFF happens to so many other gurls. And once you finally become toushin, chit hits the fan completely.

Spoiler

After finishing the game you can enter Alice Mansion, talk to Alice Soft staff and unlock some stuff.

Spoiler

Reminder that Alice Soft is the only Wapanese pc rpg game developer of note left (if not the only one left at all), dating back to PC88/PC98 era. At any rate, now that Rance series is finished, I’d like a sequel to Otome Senki after 26 years.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Are those cactus people things? The waifus sure are horny, is the pixelation a censor IN-GAME?

 

[abnaxus]

Played Song Master (1992), snes exclusive rpg game.

This game has a more traditional wapanese fantasy setting (feels a bit like the snes counterpart to Legend of Heroes: Dragon Slayer). Main character is member of the singer’s guild but he can’t control his power and therefore is sent by his grandfather on a trip to find a mentor. It then gradually turns into a quest to save the world. There’s actually almost no “song” related matter in the game at all.

Near the end of the game there’s an unexpected sci fi angle that makes the game feel less generic.

Spoiler

 

[abnaxus]

Played Dark Kingdom (1994), snes exclusive rpg game

Main character is an “anti-villain” sole survivor of a village that got wiped out instantly by a magical attack. He suspects the ebul army is behind it so he joins up with the ebul army who are busy conquering the world (or rather, island) and plans to rise high in their ranks to one day get his revenge.

So you rise through the ranks by performing (timed) missions for the big shots. In the beginning you have only three underlings but you get more and more powerful ones as the story progresses.

The game is largely serious in tone, but as soon as his “waifu” shows up the main character acts like the typical animu dweeb (moar liek Dork Kingdom amirite).

The most satisfying part of the game is prolly when you meet the supposed warrior of light (literally named Lux) and his party, a bunch of retarted teenagers. Feels gud pounding them into dust (a battle you’re supposed to lose). But later you befriend those snotty brats anyway.

You don’t fight the “demon king” at the end. The “demon king” is actually a p. chill guy but gets deposed near the end. The very final boss is a fantasy terminator/divine warrior (who looks like Mel Gibson) sent to destroy the main character for a surprising reason.

Random encounters on the world map are very rare but you can always get gold and experience by fighting in the arena at Castle Ebul. Inside dungeons there’s no timer and encounters are infinite.

Combat is challenging and rather slow and to make it extra annoying for normal attacks there’s a sword balancing minigame. Though you can switch between different parties which is a handy feature.

I really like the summoning animations:

It’s an interesting game. Quite bleak and dreary. Like losing all your party members save your waifu near the end, sometimes being forced to kill them yourself. And the ending sucks, the usual cliffhanger for a sequel that never came.

Overall it’s hard not to compare to Last Armageddon or Dark Half which evoked similar feelings.

Spoiler

 

[abnaxus]

Played Gdleen (1991), snes exclusive rpg game

This game is apparently the second snes rpg game (May 28 1991). Weirdly Drakkhen was the very first, released 4 days earlier.

First thing that struck me is that the game logo appears aplenty in Digan no Maseki, a PC game by Artec from 1988. And a game I remember fondly. Indeed the game takes place in the same world, called Gdleen. A world with quite exotic fantasy races and monsters.

In fact, the game takes place on the same continent as Digan no Maseki. Even the soundtrack seems to be reused.

I really like this connection to an obscure PC game, in fact it is a prequel with two party members the same as Digan no Maseki. You even meet the Digan no Maseki protagonist and his spouse as children, among other references.

Of course, the combat, tone and style are radically different; Digan no Maseki an sich was a western game developed in Wapan with unique art (it still galls me Dark Wraith is bugged for me).

The main character starts the game in a spaceship and crash lands on the planet of Gdleen, ending up somewhere in the western part of the continent. Soon he enters a ruin and starts blasting away with his lazor gun.

And then he meets his fairy waifu Fana (who gets kidnapped a few times)

The strange thing about this fairy race is that the women look like fairies but the men look like satyrs.

In fact fairy waifu is the fairy high priestess in Digan no Maseki

General Doran of the four-armed lizard warrior race is back also.

When the game begins there’s a war between the largest western countries on the continent instigated by ebul cult. The main plot has to do with getting back home by meeting the creator "god" Gavannah, in reality a scientist who had created the artificial planet Gdleen and all its inhabitants and whose clone you meet at the end of Digan no Maseki. He summoned the main character to beat a powerful alien wannabe usurper.

At the end there’s a fake choice whether to leave for earth or not. No matter how many times you hit “yes” you are forced to pick “no” and stay with your waifu. Which is just as well.

Spoiler