Just over here thinking about how good the title screen songs are in each game, I’ve listened to them so many times…just perfect.
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I can’t keep myself from the PC Engine!!!
Kisou no Louga 2
This is a SRPG game by the Schartzchild team which I somehow missed with the first Louga. It features the same hilarious non-animation but honestly looks bad for the PCE standard.
The game ruins itself in that you need to take a turn to turn. Movement/Attack/ and turn are the same Single Turn cost. Your direction also determines where you can attack or move. When you enter combat it takes up a sphere of influence that has 24 Rounds. Actions are determined just like outside of battle by Speed. Each turn you get still would be wasted turning to even face the enemy.
In the second battle the main character died, explained “To die in this place…” and then it kicked me back to attract screen.
Shining Force is a shining example of video game compared to this. Playing all this shlock as @AutomaticTiger said, puts into relief how good the known titles are. Langrisser and Ogre Battle regardless of their own merits, are masterpieces of playable video game compared to this.
Don’t worry we also have:
Solid Force
Schartzchild team](Kogado Software Products games - MobyGames). It features the same hilarious non-animation but honestly looks bad for the PCE standard. Nice future-style character designs.
It plays like a standard SRPG, though it has a minefield of dangerous kanji. I had to save state to figure out what was deploy characters (I think in this case it was “Placement”). The problem here is the enemies took more than 3 turns to kill, and seemed to infinitely spawn.
I could have been misreading the mission objective, my friends were very loud and I was not paying attention. There were supply crates that I could get more guns from.
Eventually my the main character got surrounded by 4 enemy death bots, died, explained “To die in this place…” and then it kicked me back to attract screen.
Shining Force is a shining example of video game compared to this. Playing all this shlock as @AutomaticTiger said, puts into relief how good the known titles are. Langrisser and Ogre Battle regardless of their own merits, are masterpieces of playable video game compared to this. Is Hybrid Front good? I guess I have to find out compared to this.
Next Time: TITTY QUIZ GAME
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https://hg101.proboards.com/thread/4565/lot-pc-engine-cd
Now I gotta track down these two Taikenbans!!!
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Yabba Dabba (Hidden shooter in Tenshi no Uta 2 if you use the wrong System Card.)
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How many hidden shooters are there??
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Quiz Toukou Shashin
Yesterday while in voice chat, we watched the PC Engine all games video. When suddenly I saw a quiz game I had not seen before. It’s an unlicensed porn game, but that’s never stopped me from answering trivia questions. Questions like where was the capital of Japan during the Taisho era? What is the capital of America? In what country is UNTAC based? When was UNICEF founded? What does incest mean? What equipment do you use in Heiyankyou Alien? What does Famicom stand for? What does this japanese turn of phrase originally mean?
Yes you had a question about one of the questions? Why yes there was a question about what color is Samus Aran’s hair. We didn’t know it was from 1994 when we were playing it so it was a real debate. There were quite a few questions that if you spoke english like we do, the question was very easy.
Also a question about what’s the least you can bet on the ponies. We saw 2 different animes that were more undressed than we expected them to be. Guess it makes sense for an unlicensed Hu-card porn game released in 1994.
Insanity
This is an unlicensed homebrew game for CD that everyone but me loved the soundtrack of. The game…is barely a game. It’s Berzerk but if you touch the walls you or the enemies die. You move very very slow.
some of the expressions in Solid Force were real funny.
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Hyaku Monogatari hontou ni aata kowai hanashi
This is a Sound Novel by Hudson, based on a book, that supposedly seems to be collected submitted True horror stories. And they felt user submitted because they suck. But also they feel like actual ghost stories you’d hear around the camp fire. I never heard ghost stories growing up, and I hated all scary things. There is some charm that these are all so simple and stupid. The sound design is also really good and from my survey stories take 5-10 minutes. A lot of them have the exact same framing we would in English this totallly really happened to my aunt.
“I went on a vacation with my family when I was younger. The room was seperated into a western and Japanese room with paper doors between them. I had trouble sleeping and awoke in the middle of the night unable to hear the waves. I woke up my mom, and we looked at the door and it opened up and there were ghosts that were like bloody and stuff then they disappeared and the waves came back and we made dad get up and take us home.”
“There was a salaryman that was completely normal in every way. He had only thing he wouldn’t do. Stand in front of a mirror at night. See when he was in middle school he was washing his hands at night and then his reflection stopped moving. It turned into a black spirit and then reached out of the mirror to grab him and he was like Aaahhhhh stop And he pushed the hand away and was fine the end.”
I read 5 of the 100 stories. You select them by a single candle, and when the story is over the candle is blown out. Imagine how spooked I’d be by reading all 100 stories!! 
Kaze no Densetsu Xanadu II
I go co-sign everything Kurisu said. it looks great for a PC Engine game trying to compete with a SNES game but also completely generic. Really seeing the masters of Falcom and Hudson at the non-animation reminded me what I was missing.
The strongest feeling I had while playing it was boredom and I kept thinking “have I played enough? Can I stop”. I finished the first boss. That’s enough right?
Ginga Oneesama Densetsu Yuna 2 Eiiin no Princess
Wow Two Hudson games in one post. I skipped the first one, thanks @aislesgrises !
“it’s very well drawn, often really cute. a teacher challenges you to a karaoke duel but you don’t actually get to play this part. every once in a while you have to do really slow, really bad turn-based fights against weekly villains. it’s OK. i’d prefer to play something else.”
The sequel after an impressive space battle shoved me deep into annoying infantile-anime voice and I think I am stupider for having played/read/listened to this. I think I can call a lawyer to get in on a class action lawsuit against Hudson for anime-poisoning.
The heroine is a Sailor Moon Usagi-chan level ditz who meets an escalating standard of other animes who have a rivarlry with her that she does not understand. Complete with the Eternal Princess now making her way to Earth to destroy it. I recognize the card battles from GS Mikami except that was the whole game and was deflating and here it’s just boring. You can’t manually save in this one and the save points are placed quite strangely. Immediately after a battle you can save, but not before. The Rumiko Takahashi adaptions still reign surpreme!
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i think the first one is probably exactly the same on this, but i’m someone who feels the appeal of that stuff sometimes.
like,
conceptually this is fantastic. this could be so good if yuna wasn’t kinda boring.
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i own one the rerelease of the first yuna game just because it was dirt cheap and came with a bonus disc containing actual animated fmv. i think it’s one of two pc engine games with actual fmv (as opposed to the usual full screen pixel animation, which looks significantly better, as the pc engine really isn’t powerful enough to render any kind of good looking video).
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The third Yuna game is an actual SRPG; I played the Playstation version which was decent but not excellent.
Xanadu II had such confusing dungeons.
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I swear to god I will play some PC Engine tomorrow, but for now, here’s the list I’ve made for this year’s releases:
If anyone wants to have a good time, I understand that Ane-San and Sapphire are where one can be found.
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I can provide kinda old to ancient stuff on four of these:
Ane-San
Last played in 2019. An okay beat-em-up; the AI is a little on the simple side, attacks one at a time, and would be too easy except that sometimes out of nowhere they just snap out a lightning fast hit, which can start to wear you down after a while.
The novelty is the all-female theme. There’s apartment decorating, insane music, hair pulling, and a small amount of nudity. Wacky boss characters–who become playable once defeated–questionable balance, bizarre and maybe not so great animation.
As far as I could tell when I was trying to look it up four years ago, “ane-san” COULD mean “elder sister,” but in actual usage is reserved specifically for talking about a yakuza boss’ mistress.
~~
Ginga Fukei Densetsu Sapphire
I’ve only played this super-expensive Super CD-ROM-ROM game in the Ginga Ojousama Densetsu Collection on PSP, in 2008. It seemed like a decent port but I don’t really know. There was definitely a lot going on graphically for a PC Engine game, even some (pre-rendered, I think?) 3D. Sound and graphics, though intense, weren’t super-pleasing, and the gameplay didn’t stand out really, aside from being pretty tough–and the collection version only gave you four continues. Didn’t end up going back to it.
~~
Wrestling Universe: Fire Pro Joshi - Doumu Chou Taisen
Last played in 2019. When I was trying to babelfish this back in 2004 I came up with “Wrestling Universe - Fire Pro Woman - Longed for Dream Super Woman Great War - All Women vs. JWP.” These days, Wikipedia calls it “Wrestling Universe: Fire Pro Women: Dome Super Female Big Battle: All Japan Women VS J.W.P.”
It’s an Arcade Card port of a SFC all-female Fire Pro game by Human from the previous year: “Zen-Nippon Joshi Pro Wrestling Kounin: Fire Pro Joshi All-Star Dream Slam.” I’ve read a review ( https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/turbocd/589293-wrestling-universe-fire-pro-joshi-doumu-chou-taisen/reviews/128656 ) saying the PCE port’s graphics and sound are inferior to the SFC version, but it has better music, being on CD, and more wrestlers.
The port was handled by HuneX, formed as a partnership between NEC and Human in 1992 (ie “Human x NEC” or something). HuneX are still around, making romance games. And their sprite work is a lot cuter than Human’s ever was.
It plays pretty much like a Fire Pro, but there’s no story/adventure mode. Still, if I was going to pull out any Fire Pro to play, it might be this one, 'cause I dig the sprite work. The digitized portraits of the real-world Japanese wrestlers are pretty cool, too.
~~
Kabuki Ittou Ryoudan
Last played in 2020. Arcade Card fighting game based on an anime or something. In 2004, “Itouryodan” babelfished as “One Sword Cool Talks.” : P It runs fast, with smooth if rather plain animation. The movement is somewhat spasmodic–maybe a bit too fast for the simplistic control–and the AI is really, really dumb. Decent character portraits.
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kabuki ittou ryoudan is a fighting game spin off from the far east of eden series, probably the pc engine’s flagship rpgs.
also, it dawned on me while reading your ane-san description that you aren’t aware of the sukeban subcullture of 70s/80s japan. which means you have some really cool shit to learn about!
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these icons are so good
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Ohh. So not based on an anime? Gosh.
THAT’S safe to say ; D
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Yeah, HuneX could do (does?) good pixels. : ) Oh and I thought I’d had a character select screen but didn’t but now’s as good a time as any to make one:
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Yeah I’ve been referring to them by the Japanese name Tengai Makyou. The main character of the fighting game is the star of the Gaiden game who as Kurisu and I both said, is quite annoying!
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Metal Angel 2
If it counts for anything the sequel is vastly improved. For one you have a normal console menu, Thank Bonk. The presentation all around is great. And it started with a personality quiz to determine which girl I would train. Even better it never gave me the age of the girls!
Where do you like to go?
- Beach
- Mountain
- City
On Sundays you like to
- Karaoke
- DRIVE
- Shop
What is your favorite part of a girl’s body?
- Boobs
- Butt
- Feet
What genre of game do you like?
- RPG
- Action
- Simulation
What genre of movie do you like?
- Action
- Comedy
- Science Fiction
As the questions show, going directly for what the audience of this would be. I ended up with the quiet polite girl whose Oneechan was a previous champion.
This time you train the girl for one week then have your first competition which is a single elimination 4 round bracket. As you are just the manager, the battles are two vaguely-feminine power-armor doing circles around each other. There is some kind of meter that then allows you to enter commands or count-commands. I chose counter every time and was pretty successful.
After the competition got back to the raising part where I could choose the girl’s training regimen week to week. She got sick in the third and fifth week and decided she had to retire and get a real job in construction or finance and I was going to quit being her manager and become a family man.
It has anime style commerical break cards those look fantastic. I don’t like raising sims. This one seems fine if you wanna raise animes.
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Puts hand on table, slides everything off. Enough of this Anime BULLSHIT It’s time for
Linda Cubed
You know i was dreading this one? See as a younger man I bought it on PS3 digital and played it for maybe 10 minutes before closing it forever. Now I am older, I speak Perfect Japanese and I tricked myself into playing every single JRPG for the PC Engine this year. Here it is time to give it a try.
It’s good!
It’s a complicated, strange work. The main guy behind it was also on the Tengai Makyou games and wanted to make a big complicated strange work in response to how restrictive but big budgeted those were.
So an asteroid is going to come and destroy this world in 8 years. It will not be stopped. Luckily a Divine Being (of nebulous goals) has provided an ark and ask for two of every animal and two humans. Luckily you are the male part of the equation and your childhood friend is the girl. She is introduced during a briefing with her 3 sizes and that she’s 16. Hey Otaku? can you stop being pedophiles for 10 seconds. actually scratch that, stop being pedophiles, game developers from 30 years ago. It’s a fucking disease. No wonder anyone that liked this stuff was thought of as a unwashed pervert. They fucking were!!
Sigh.
I’m going to try and give a sample of all the Ideas this game is pulling with. The Cubed is the 3 alternate scenarios you play with. Each of them with the same goal, though the last scenario is vastly more complicated. The game time advances as you play, seasons change, ducks migrate, the population decreases as the astetroid gets closer.
All the enemies are visible on the world map and identifiable. The battles are basic Dragon Quest stuff, except the enemies can move to cardinal directions and you obviously take more damage if the enemy is to your back. So far my only party member is the main character, but you can hire dogs to beef your numbers. A little girl gave me her dog Hana to protect me on my Humanity Survival Mission. I was warned to not fight Rats. I did anyways, the rats can cast plague which ruins your defense, and wiped out my party. If I die I just wake up at command HQ, full HP, all my money. The dog however stays knocked out. I have to go to the Veternarian to revive them, but it cost 400 currency. I started the game with 100. I could sell the dog for 270, and then get a not-dead dog. But in the interest of role-playing seems horrible to abandon the mutt give to me by a young girl.
You do not get money from battles. All the enemies are the animals you are trying to collect. Once they get down to roughly 10% HP they are auto captured. You need to drop off one Male and Female to the Ark, which gives you a small stat bonus for the males, and Linda for the females. Then you have a bounty of options for what to do with the excess. You can just sell them, you can turn into meat (which rots as the game continues), you can release them in battle for special attack, if you collect enough you can turn them into equipment. I currently trying to collect 10 Male Ducks to change into a Scythe that will be a big boost to my attack. When you die you have a chance to lose your animal cargo. Death comes pretty easy.
The world is very open and supposedly the later scenarios are even more open. you can walk through water. You can more or less travel anywhere. You save by using a payphone. You can store money and items at banks, though unsure why you need to do this yet. You get your actual objectives through voice mails you need to use the payphone to hear (remember that olds?)
After your briefing at the beginning you meet Linda by her planting a big kiss on your face and being a loud gaudy horny teen. She gives you a message to meet you at the hotel. I ignored this because she also demanded I get to level 3, since I was level 1 and she was even level 2. I kept dying to Rabbits. She wasn’t at the hotel when I looked. Instead I was told to go 3 towns over where she was at the hospital. Everyone in her town was dead, she had no memory of anything, not even me. Her demenanor had compeletely changed to formal and apologetic. “I understand even if you are my fiance, to hate me for not remembering you.” The doctor says I gotta go to the otherside of the world to deal with the Pharmacutical CEO who has a miracle medicine for her. A nurse outside says “I’ve also lost my memory, but I’ve still found an idea of happiness here as a nurse.”
The animals around the hospital are too much for me so I’m back just north of the ark, trying to fight enough ducks to get enough ducks to get the scythe.
It’s totally a Select Button game. The music is all weird mood stuff some of it with chanting or talking, that also changes with the seasons. It has none of the hard barriers we hate (outside of Dragon Quest style level gating). The 3rd scenario will apparently take a lot of paying attention to the first two scenarios and NPC dialog to successfully complete. Sounds like there is a high chance of failure by not going to the right place by the right season, or not capturing enough animals before they go extinct.
I am really debating switching to the Saturn version (which is improved and uncensored, but on the Alpha core on MiSTeR) or the PS1 (which is improved but censored.) I will probably be fine with the PS1 version, lets be fair. Whatever censorship they are talking about is for the best. Though looking online some of the Key Visuals are very graphicl violence. Let’s hope it’s not also the other thing, though absolutely will be at some point let’s be fair.
Excited to play more! Took me a long time to write this and have been ignoring my actual child so post over.
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