lol
5 Likes
Last one for 1993! It’s
Langrisser: Hikari no Matsuei
I’ve never played Warsong, Langrisser, or Growlanser. This is my first exposure to this variant of a tactics game. I told myself I’d play through one mission and then post about it. Turns out I liked it so much I played through two. The first mission doesn’t really help get you used to the game anyways.
What separates this from your Fires Emblem and Shinings Force is that you’ve got captains and units who are attached to them. You can buy more units to attach to a captain but you’re limited to only one unit type per captain. Units act independently of their captains, but there is a steep decrease in strength when they venture outside of the captain’s range. I thought, great, they figured out how to extend the length of missions by giving you five times the units you’d typically control. But that’s not the case!
That’s because there are several design choices that speed things up. If you kill a captain, all the units under their command die. This turns encounters into little puzzles where you try to carve a path through a troop to take out the captain in the center. Another nice bonus is that ending your turn will automatically reposition your troops so that they move into a captain’s radius. That’s smart!
Sometimes missions have multiple victory conditions and I think that means the story can branch off into various paths. These two missions have been relatively easy to beat so I’d be interested in seeing more.
13 Likes
After the wave of Vay Quality
Sol Moonarge
Surprised me. First it’s by IREM. The intro video is stunningly impressive. Then you get to the game and…
Huh. I am glad I read That One Blog I Keep Mentioning and just loaded up on healing plants because I needed to use almost all of them to finish the first real dungeon. And thought I’d stop there because it was just boring. The game feels like an amateur project made under-duress. The people at the bar just talk about the developers. I’m not sure anyone is a professional voice actor. The NPC dialog is half-assed.
But I took my second party member to the mountains where we quickly got a 3rd party member and then talked to a wizard. The wizard is suddenly violently murdered by the big bad. We’re given the Sun Sword (which raised my attack from 40 to 108.) With his dying breath he asks us to stop the big bad then teleports us around.
My jaw hit the floor as I saw the overworld ZOOM OUT better than any Mode 7 effect.
Then reshow me the intro video (linked above) but with context of what I was watching. I stopped shortly after but a long play suggests this is less than 10 hours long. I might have to sit with it just to see what other completely buckwild graphic flourishes it will surprises me with.
The protagonist has a Pinncolo nose for some reason.
The level up theme is that iconic Ear-Piercing IREM arcade sound effect that is a joy.
The game is normal as hell otherwise. Weird to give you two party members so very briefly that immediately take them away. Maybe I’ll get wild and just play through this one.
9 Likes
Welcome to 1994! This is the list I’ll be using to check off what gets mentioned.
Right off the bat, I’m going to highlight a couple of games from the year and reserve them for you, dear reader. These are games that have either been released in English, translated by fans, or don’t require Japanese knowledge to enjoy. I cannot make any promises that these are Good.
Xak III: The Eternal Recurrence
Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon
Startling Odyssey II: Maryuu Sensou
Ryūkō no Ken
World Heroes 2
Puyo Puyo CD
Kaze Kiri
Panic Bomber
I am also adding the PC-FX into the mix because why not? Would there ever be a better time than now to look at that thing’s library? Don’t worry, I’m not suggesting anyone else play these. To prove it, here’s a rundown of its three launch titles.
Battle Heat
The PC FX’s only strength was its ability to play video directly from game discs. Hudson tried to apply this strength to a fighting game. “Oh, you mean by inserting anime cutscenes in between matches?” No, they did it by making the entirety of the game a system of anime cutscenes. Instead of placing characters in profile, standing on a horizontal plane, this game puts the camera right on the characters’ faces. Different buttons trigger moves: heavy attack, light attack, block, special, and taunt. Pressing a button causes a little clip to play; your character tries to do whatever you told them to. However, the opponent can respond by pressing a different button and countering the attack. It is completely buckwild and I have no way of processing the madness.
Sotsugyō II: Neo Generation FX
This is a girl raising simulator, contemporary with Princess Maker. The girls in question are five high schoolers and you’re meant to guide them through their school lives to try and ensure a successful future for them. This would be an amazing game for me, if not for the perverted subtext of it all. Not knowing Japanese, I’m having a terrible time trying to figure out what I can do. All these menu options are so tedious to machine translate. I don’t even need to play it this way because the game got an official localization for Windows in the 90s. Then again, I don’t even need to play it at all. Reading this description from MobyGames, maybe that’s for the best: “Get them all into top colleges and your boss will praise your genius. If they all flunk or wind up wanting to marry you, you’ll obviously be fired.”
Team Innocent
Hudson makes their own response to Snatcher and Policenauts. The background is that a scientist in the future has been splicing animal genes with humans. This has a created a trio of super women who now form a taskforce known as Team Innocent. I chose a mission where I have to investigate a space station and locate a man named “Gold Ricefield.”
Playing the game is not menu-based. Instead, it has the sort of tank controls that Resident Evil would employ a few years later. Oddly, you control an anime paperdoll moving over pre-rendered landscapes. The first action I did was open a hangar door, yeeting myself into outerspace. It turns out that was going to be the most exciting thing to happen to me for the next fifteen minutes.
The satellite I roamed was large and empty. I would enter a room, find something to pick up, but for the longest time, I couldn’t seem to find a puzzle, character, or anything related to my goal no matter where I went. At least I figured out how to run. Items I picked up included mechanical oil, an electronic tuning fork, shampoo, and an ice pick. Occasionally, some life form would pop up and attack me. All I had to do then was punch and knock them back until they died.
Eventually, I did stumble upon a video message from Gold Ricefield where he confesses his sins. I’m not sure, but it sounds like something like “Trouble with Tribbles” or Gremlins happened here. I’m not exactly jazzed to sort it out though. This is certainly the best game I have seen for the PC FX.
12 Likes
Trying to save me from myself eh? Nice Try! I’m also playing Xak 1 this month because I missed out on it and there are TWO Xak games this year that reference it. Gotta have the complete experience.
I will say I was so turned off by my one exposure to Cosmic Fantasy I won’t be playing either Cosmic Fantasy 4. That’s right there are two! One focuses on characters from CF1 the other from CF2. Both of my mooks have them as having the same cover art except for different subtitles but I am finding two different covers on ebay so they got it wrong! You can expect lots and lots of fanservice. Girls in swimsuits, girls in underwear, girls in bath houses. Everything you need to get real hot and bothered playing a weirdly high-budget bad sci-fi JRPG except for all the castles and stuff.
One of your party members is a green rat that is also a motorcycle. I watched most of I think Cosmic Fantasy 2 on the Visual Scenes disc. Certainly better than playing it. Was shocked they actually have someone narrating the connective tissues between the cutscenes.
I’ll be back soon with summaries of all the horny mahjong we aren’t gonna touch. Which is about the same as it ever was. Real wild at the end isn’t more shooters or Sonic clones but just a pile of JRPGs. At least we get that actual game by Falcom.
This is also the final year of Hucards with the staggering volume of 2 games.
8 Likes
Also Rainbow Islands (which I played only for like two minutes and was pretty turned off) was The Last CDRomRom release. Everything for 1994 is Super CDRomRom or uses the Arcade Card which is a different thing I am not gonna think too hard about.
3 Likes
All The Stuff Not Fit To Play
Mahjong Lemon Angel
Based off the late-night horny anime, and ported from a Horny Arcade Mahjong. The stripping scenes have been cleaned up, like that means your child or grandma would then play it.
CAL 3
What do you say Moby Games? “Cal III is a Japanese-style adventure with visual novel characteristics. The player interacts with characters and is given several dialogue options or actions to choose from. There is no other interaction with the environment, and the progress is strictly linear. Most choices are optional, and only a few lead to Game Over. The computer versions of the game contain a few scenes with nudity, but overall the sexual content is by far milder than in the predecessors.”
ShinAi Monogatari
An adventure game where starting from elementary and ending at high school graduation you try to find true love. GROSS!
Super Real Mahjong PV 2-3 Custom
Based off the arcade strip mahjong.
Seisenshi Densho Mahjan no Bushi
Adventure Fantasy setting but Mahjong. It doesn’t seem horny? The 3 screenshots are all clearly from less than the first 5 minutes of the game.
Sexy Idol Mahjong Fashion Monogatari
Combination strip mahjong with a board game featuring digitized real women. How many trash PC Engine game buzzwords can you have in one game? Is there a hidden shooting segment? I am not finding out!
Tanjou: Debut
A follow up to my hated Sotsugyou, this time take 3 ladies (thankfully) to the top of the idol world. Plenty of different endings.
Sotsugyou Shashin: Miki
I don’t think this has anything Sotsugyou, but it is an adventure game about leering at high school girls. The mook notes it is unusually short, which almost makes me want to suffer it to see how short. I am trying to avoid showing up on watchlists however!
Sotsugyou 2: Neo Generation
I am not playing this shit.
6 Likes
i feel like sotsugyo probably isn’t as bad as its subtext, tho maybe i’m just trying to rationalize it looking cool as hell in screenshots like so many of these simulation games do.
if one of the safe console versions gets fantranslated i’d try it
5 Likes
FWIW I had a good time with the WS port of Sotsugyou and it seems universally agreed upon that the sequel is the best one
I might play it over the weekend if I don’t get distracted by Evo and report back
5 Likes
1994 games what i own
gotzendiener: a great-looking isometric action rpg that’s heavy on the puzzles. i’d like it more if it had more of an action focus, but the premise is cool: the hero is mortally wounded and dies immediately after killing the final boss and freeing the princess. you, the princess, now have to make your way out of the boss’ castle
panic bomber: a bomberman-themed puzzle game. the snes version is a lot easier, so you might want to play that instead?
wow, is that all i have this year?
7 Likes
Tengai Makyō: Deden no Den
This was a promotional game given out to people who participated in experimental 10-player Bomberman tournaments. It crosses over with Tengai Makyou’s most popular character. It’s only multiplayer! Still, I really love seeing chibi Kabuki on the title screen.
Bakuchō Yoshimoto Shinkigeki
Hudson went back to the comedy platformer well. It’s been how many years since Kato-chan & Ken-chan? This one is very firmly Osaka-based comedy. Apparently Osaka is like the traditional comedy capitol of Japan. At least I think I read something about that when I visited. Anyways, the platforming is secondary to the nonsense that happens. Really, platforming is just a vehicle to stop this from being a menu-based slideshow reel. There’s a bridge where I’m supposed to play a shell game, but instead of cups and a ball, it’s five women with their backs turned and only one of them is “beautiful.” Then I got a dance it’s a weak version of Simon. My favorite part is where I have to play rock-paper-scissors and throw okonomiyaki in my opponent’s face.
Formation Soccer on J-League
I am really bad at this soccer game! It is one of two HuCard releases for this year. There’s a foosball quality to it because you can chain passes from player to player with the right timing and positioning. The ball was always on my side and my goalie had terrible reaction speed. I turned the goalie onto manual after the first half and it was even worse. Turns out my reaction speed is abysmal. I still claim that Power Eleven is the best soccer game on the PC Engine.
Seisenshi Denshō
I wanted to play mahjong and I was curious about this one that Rudie mentioned. He was right, it is very light on horniness. Case in point, your first opponent is an old man, not a scantily clad woman. But it is very heavy on talking. I had to fast forward while turbo advancing dialogue. Some of the imagery in the intro is sublime.
10 Likes
advanced v.g.
famous horny fighting game franchise in a console iteration with the horny art removed.
it plays really poorly, with insane hurtboxes
and an annoyingly “clever” ai.
götzendiener
götzendiener is really cool, all i’d like to add to what loki said is that outside the opening there seems to be no dialogue, text or prompts. basically no need to wait for a translation. it’s really annoying to control though. of all solutions to isometric movement this might be the most ??? one
10 Likes
That’s an emoji right there.
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dragon half is based on a somewhat horny manga which got a full english release only a few years ago, but the most well-known thing it has outside japan is the 2-episode oav, which was released in english on both vhs and dvd. it was pretty popular in the pre-pokemon boom days!
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Seeing the pictures of Advanced VG: “Oh My.”
We do get like 5 Fighting Games for 1994. Which will be the best??
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the answer is algunos
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certainly hope its not advanced vg
1 Like
Xak
I went to Xak tonight, in preparation of playing the 2 games for 1994. I don’t have much more to say than anyone who has ever touched Xak. It is just an Ys-clone that very badly wants to kill you. But also you can save anywhere and the challenge is leveling up enough to steam roll the challenge. I probably didn’t get much farther than Minty did, and not going to see more of the gamw. It’s not Ys! Ys has this perfect balance of being playable and good. This is just playable and dull. Some neat songs (particularly at 16 minutes with the saxophone solo)
5 Likes
The Atlas
This is wild. Artdink made a Portuguese explorer simulator. It opens with “The Garden” by Andrew Marvell. It’s the fifteenth century and you are given some contract by Lisbon. The contract is to explore the south, open trade routes, and complete a map. To do this, you are given a large sum of money right from the beginning. You can spend this on buying ships and hiring captains. Each of these captains has their own background, a professional history and differing levels of respectability. When you send them on expeditions, you can choose to trust them and enter their reports into record, or you can deny their account and fire them.
Obviously, I’m not going to be able to play such a menu heavy game. I think it has only been localized in Germany. Even so, I think it’s a fascinating contemporary for Civilization and its ilk. Even though a lot of its storytelling is emergent, there still so much presented to you.
Auto Crusher Palladium
It’s a Pack-in-Video joint. I’m pretty bored by it, actually. You engineer a robot fighting buddy and you can design two programs for it. Battles run automatically, but you can change the program with the I or II buttons. Programs tell your robot to focus on a certain range of combat or to prioritize certain weapons. I ran one fight and it took so long! I don’t have enough time in my life to run a second one. There’s a funny looking scientist who can research new parts and he is my favorite thing in the game.
Kakutou Haou Densetsu Algunos
It’s a Fill-in-Cafe joint. I don’t know about it. I mean, it’s better than Martial Champion, but it ain’t know Street Fighter II. The story is that some powerful being is promising to fulfill fighters’ wishes if they can defeat the eight other fighters. The first character I chose turned out to be a joke character, a fat Chinese man who wishes to be thin. The Japanese script ends each of his lines with an “アル” I guess to show that he has a Chinese accent. He was kind of fun to play as because he had a fast punch combo attack.
I played one other character, a swordsman from a demon clan who wished to fight stronger people. It’s kind of unfair that his wish is granted no matter what. He was more of a shoto and it was with him that I got frustrated by inputs not being as dependable as I wanted them to be. Oh well! I’m pretty sure Fill-in-Cafe shapes up a bit by the time they port Asuka.
13 Likes
Atlas is a longrunning series and the newest one Neo Atlas 1469 got an English localization. It has too many systems going on for me to get into it iirc, but I love the look of the pce one from your screenshots. They really aced the colonial-era sepia parchment world map look on their first go.
9 Likes