I really liked Seiya Monogatari; it was my favorite RPG I played for the system other than maybe Ys I & II but I think that’s partly nostalgia.
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there’s a non-zero amount (at least two) of transwomen making video essays who swear doukyuusei is great so i have the remake waiting in my steam library for whenever i feel i can play that kinda game for 40 hours because lets be real its gonna be 40 hours
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Oh my god, the remake’s subtitle is “BANGIN SUMMER”
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Angelique Special
Now, this is special. This is the first game I’ve played for the PC-FX that feels like it can compete with and even surpass Team Innocent. It feels like it really has something to share with you. Some have called it the first dating sim for women. More importantly, it was created by women. The project was spearheaded by Keiko Erikawa, its character designs were done by Kairi Yura, and its music is from Chinatsu Kuzuu. The story involves a competition between two girls on the cusp of adulthood. The competition is to see who will become the next queen. This involves seeking guidance and aid from nine male guardians of the world. They each guard over different elements and have their own personalities. From what I understand, the more you rely on a guardian, the more your relationship with them deepens.
The game has been very friendly to my translation app and tutorializes quite a bit. This is good because it appears to be a lot more than just a dating sim. I’m detecting notes of Populous and Act Raiser as well. You are helping a little town whose inhabitants regard you as an angel. They ask for favors and you can help them. You can also call on the guardians to assist you or obstruct the other princess. This is exactly the kind of strategy game that I love. If I had more time, I would definitely get into this more. I’m curious if anyone has had any experience with this series.
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I’ll maybe give the PS1/Saturn versions a shot soon.
Time to check in on The Megadrive/32x/CD in 1995
Notables: After Burner 32x, Road Blaster CD, Ristar, Alien Soldier, Ecco The Dolphin CD, Metal Head 32x, Time Gal CD, Stellar Assault 32x, Comix Zone, Virtua Fighter 32x
Shared with PC Engine: Dragon Slayer 2, Fatal Fury Special
“Decent” year for the 32x and the last gasps for the Sega CD and Megadrive. Maybe notable that about half the Megadrive library for this year was Genesis games more than likely released un-localized.
Oh the back of the megadrive mook has a list of games not released in Japan. Sorry I only notice this in the last real year!
Japan Exclusion Notables 1995: Aero The Acrobat 2, Road Rash 3, The Adventures of Batman and Robin,
Hey while I am here
Japan Exclusion Notables 1994: Dune Battle of Arrakis, Sub-Terrania, Mega Turrican, Earthworm Jim, Red Zone,
The Genesis did have a lot of good platformers.
I don’t have the mook for Playstation (which is two volumes, such is the Playstation library.) but will post Saturn and SNES lists before the end of the month.
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You might get some use out of these sites:
http://tk-nz.game.coocan.jp/gamedatabase/index.html
Which is what I used to compile a big list of JRPGs that I made. The first site is better for chronological lists (and has some systems the second doesn’t), the second is better for genre-divided lists.
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Tried to play more Doukyuusei. The player character is such a creep. Literally asking every girl he meets if they want to have sex. Excited about going to watch school athletics so he can oogle. Several of the 1st year students have been warned to stay away from his creep self. Excited to say he can see down a girl’s shirt. Maybe it is saying something that he is also a big loser. The overworld is not very helpful, I wondered around and tried to enter unmarked houses. I was supposed to meet my friend at 11am, did, and had a few tiny event scenes I assume introducing the girls, but the title screen assured me there are like 14 of them. Quite a few are older than the main character (who just turned 18 okay and is in his last semester of high school.)
Entering a building causes a 2 second pause to happen. Eventually I felt like I had run out of possible things to do, and went back home at 3pm (time seems to advance at a pace) and went to bed.
The game did give me the option to declare I was gay early on, to a girl, as I assume was a joke because the active harassment continued unabated. Maybe that’s why the deepest conversation I had was with an antagonist-arrogant classmate.
There’s a way to fix all my complaints with these games and it would be to set in college. Where people have free time and everyone is horny and everyone is an adult and you are also having constant encounters with people that would have been above you but are not some kind of your equal now that you are both adults. But trying to help this guy who looks at a playground swing and laments there isn’t any women on it so he can catch a look, ugh. Go to the dump.
Princess Maker 2
Okay my curiosity got the better of me and I had already suffered Doukyusei. I admit I zoned the hell out during the intro and washed dishes while barely listening to it. Maybe that explained things. Because suddenly I had my daughter (which has her 3 sizes on display at all times 
). I had to set her schedule for the first month. After a few magic lessons my money completely ran out. Then she got sick in the 3rd month from telling her to work at a Inn (what I am doing during this is unclear.) in the 3rd month I gave her 3 weeks of rest then sent her out to the world without even a knife to fight monsters. We have no money! She got destroyed by a giant praying mantis. Our winged devil helper saved her but felt I was done. Through just trying to navigate the menus I had failed the game utterly (also the font is bad.)
Seems like it could be fun to uh…study and meld and make all the decisions for this 10 year old anime girl until she becomes a real adult. But I haven’t played dozens and dozens of games and see the Gainax logo to begin to trust the intention and execution of this.
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RENNY BLASTER
THIS IS PC ENGINE BABY. A game for adults in which a private eye in YOKOHAMA is hired by Marie Dracue to stop something. I zoned out once she said her name and that it sounded like Dracula.
It’s a bad boring single-plane belt scroll. Which after all this time is a welcome return. You’re travelling across Europe trying to stop Dracula in the modern day. You partner with a magician and can choose him to fight as.
I know I am a broken record at this point but I feel like I got half-way through the game before I fell asleep on the couch. It was fun! Not good, but fun! All the punch sound effects sounded like a cat sneezing.
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Let’s Super Famicom 1995!
Notable Games: Super Adventure Island 2, Estopolis 2 (can’t remember the english name), NBA Jam Tournament Edition, Front Mission, Undercover Cops, Magical Poppin, CHRONO TRIGGER, Love Quest, Rockman 7, Emit Vol 1 and 2, RPG School Super Dante, Ladystalker, Tactical Soccer, Marmalade Boy, Kawa no Nushi Tsuro 2, Sim City 2000, Earthworm Jim, Super Return of the Jedi, Caravan Shooting Collection, Cats Run ZenNihon K Car Senteiron, KoKyaku Casino Bar, Dracula XX, Go Go Ackman 2, Indiana Jones’s Greatest Adventures, Yoshi’s Island, Mahouou, Clock Tower, Masukata something Super Trawling, Wedding Peach, Hammen no Violin Hiki, Metal Max Returns, Seiken Densetsu 3, Tactics Ogre, the third in the Quintet series that the name escapes me, Crstyal Beans from Dungeon Explorers, Panel De Pon, Romancing SaGa 3, Rendering Ranger, Donkey Kong Country 2, Leading Jockey 2, Fushigi no Shiren Dungeon 2, Frank Thomas Big Hurt Baseball, Rockman X3, Dragon Quest VI, Go Go Ackman 3!, Tales of Phantasia, Sensai Mahden Beast and Blade, Ganbare GoemonKirakira Tochuu,
PC Engine Mutuals: Princess Minerva, La Place no Ma, Super Variable Geo, Emerald Dragon, Super Bonk 2, Ninja Gaiden Trilogy, Brandish 2 Planet Busters, Human Grand Prix 4 F1 Dream Battle, Chou Aniki Bakuzenrentairan??, Angelique Premium Box, Princess Maker, Farland Story 1 and 2, Record of the Lodoss War, Ys V
Obviously I am using mutual loosely here.
There’s a fighting game of Flash Hiders the rpg by Right Stuff??
A different Zenki platformer that I am not going to begin to try and read the Kanji for. i’m sorry 2 Zenki Platformers.
This is way better than 1994! Once again I am noticing no shooters on Super Famicom. There is still just so so much Salaryman game on the system. Pachinko, Shogi, Mahjong, Horse Racing, Casino, Fishing. Just a sea of it. You’d cut this list of 360 games in half if you took out the salaryman. Excited to see there is some kind if adaption of Marmalade Boy! I’ll try that on a stream soon.
Remember when that 3D fan-remake of Chrono Trigger got shut down? Anyways any console that can play Chrono Trigger is the best of all time from the Super Famicom to PSP to GP32.
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lufia
i think this is a snes exclusive, being the cho aniki fighting game
flash hiders (either version) is a fighting game/rpg/management hybrid thing. like, there’s a mode where it’s just a fighting game, a mode where it’s a fighting game but you get equipment and level ups to boost your stats, and a version of that second mode where your character is ai-controlled
iirc, the snes version has better in-game graphics, while the pc engine version has full screen animated cut scenes
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Thanks got confused and it is morning.
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This game is pretty cool for what it is. It’s by CAProduction
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Space Invaders The Original Game
This game only takes up 93 MB of its CD. It includes all sorts of Space Invaders backgrounds, including an Omake version with cute girls and pencil drawings. I was really worried it was going to be a striptease thing, but relieved to find that it’s just cute. There are simultaneous 2-player modes that look kind of like a primitive version of Twinkle Star Sprites. I wish I had someone to play these with!
Shōgi Database Kiyū
This is another shogi game for the PC Engine but unlike many others, it is lightning fast. I have an option to go through famous games, move by move, and I can jump in at any time. I am still not good at shogi. I should probably play it on Clubhouse Games, one of the true descendants of the PCE. This version has really peaceful menus.
Princess Maker 1
I think everyone should experience a Japanese sim game from this time. I’m not sure what the best recommendation is. For me, it was Princess Maker 2. For Rudie, it sounds like Tokimeki Memorial filled the role. There’s something to it that turns what’s an overly-complicated personality quiz into something a bit deeper. There’s a reason that these became so popular and that reason goes far beyond mere titillation.
During the COVID lockdown, I streamed a playthrough of the unreleased DOS localization of PM 2. I played it with my sister co-hosting and my childhood friends as audience. It was one of the best memories I have of that time. The game is full of problematic details. Like Rudie said, you can see your adopted child’s measurements. There’s a chance that they will want to marry you when they grow up. There is sexy battle armor that you can buy and ask them to wear.
Despite these gross flourishes, the game accomplishes something with its premise. The problems with the game mirror the problems that society still has surrounding young girls. The girl’s measurements become a point to highlight your daughter’s body shame. There are creeps all over who want to marry her. Playing the game, you can try to protect her from their gaze, from her anxiety, from all the pressures of being a “lady” in the eyes of society. But you are guaranteed to fail sometimes, and it is at these moments where I felt something true and honest.
At the end of my playthrough, the epilogue told of how my daughter grew to resent me. She had taken what she had learned through the tutors I had hired and the experiences I had tried to give her. She became a teacher of sword fighting. But lacking charm or charisma, she wasn’t very good. Her school failed. With her strong sense of dignity and integrity, she was able to marry a man who would love her for the rest of her life, even while she hated me. She used her strength and hardiness to become a lumber worker. She was good at it and she and her husband lived good lives. I might have been a part of it had I not been so hard on her, had I given her more of what she wanted.
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Let’s put 95 to rest.
Formation Soccer '95 della Seria A
This is HUMAN and it’s such a technically impressive soccer game. The characters are very expressive. I can actually foul players with a slide tackle. I can dive forward to headbutt the ball far afield. The game is fast and tough and HUMAN are nice enough to make speed and difficulty into settings that you can tone down. And you’ll want to tone them way down because it’s really hard!
The intro has an Italian voice over. It’s so excellent. I want to watch Serie A now. Soccer is so cool.
Wrestle Angels Double Impact
Yet another all-female wrestling game. This one mashes up the menu-based wrestling from earlier PCE games with the simulation training of what’s currently en vogue. By all appearances, it comes across as Not Bad.
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This space invaders game looks very very similar to the SNES version that was released on it’s own cartridge…and as a bonus in the Game Boy space invaders cart. Yeah, apparently you can just boot SNES games off a game boy cart with a super gameboy. Only one game ever did this, Space Invaders.
The omake version is totally unique to this game, but the multiplayer mode, down to the medals and sound effects, is pretty much the same in both minus some graphical differences.
Super gameboy version in action:
Battlemode in glorious “Recorded on a camera from a CRT”-o-vision:
Part of me thinks it’s so small because there’s not much to space invaders, another part of me wonders if it was small because it shared a lot of it’s codebase with the SNES game that had to fit on a gameboy cartridge.
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You beat me to Wrestle Angels. I saw it has the same completely random car system as GS Mikami which I really can’t believe is a genre of video game but here we are. Rock paper scissors by way of cards with types and stats that were as baffling as confusing.
Getting a tear in my eye as we are almost done…
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Me too!
If anyone wants to get a headstart on the final batch of games, I’ve prepared this list: PC Engines from 1996 and beyond - Google Sheets
This list has some extra information. Thanks to the link that @kurisu shared, I was able to see the content ratings for games. Now you can know if a game was recommended for people 18 or older; more importantly, you can know if a game was restricted for people 18 or older. I have also added a column to tag games that have been patched with English translations. I will not touch these and leave them for you, yes you, to try for yourself. There is a game that was restricted for 18+ and has an English patch. Nobody has to play this, but I’m not stopping anyone from trying.
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I can’t remember whatever format I decided before so here are the Playstation Games of 1995:
Notable: Cyber Sled, Myst, Starblade, Tekken, Gunner’s Heaven, Kyoudenkai, Jumping Flash, Arc The Lad, Aquanauts Holiday, King’s Field 2, Dragon Ball Z Ultimate Battle 22, hermie hopperhead, Beyond The Beyond, In The Hunt, D, Gensou Suikoden, Gunbird, The Firemen 2, Street Fighter Zero
PC Engine Related: Raiden, Shanghai Great Wall, , 3X3EYES ～吸精公主, Nobunaga’s Ambition Kiouden, Detana Twinbee Deluxe Pack, Hyper Formation Soccer, EMIT 1-2-3, Tokimeki Memorial Forever With You, Sotsugyou 2 New Generation, JB Harold Blue Chicago Blues,
There are enough good games there, but it’s not a particularly good year. You’d have been happy with your PS1 but been lusty looking over at the Saturn of all things:
Sega Saturn Notables: Panzer Dragoon, EMIT 1-2-3, Daytona USA, Ayton Senna Message To The Future, Virtual Hylyde, Astral, Battle Monsters, Shin Shinobiden, Virtua Fighter Remix, Neketsu Oyako, D, Kyoudenkai, Magic Knight Rayearth, Layer Section, Golden Axe The Duel, Steamgear Mash, X-Men, Galaxy Fight, Virtual Cop, Virtual Fighter 2, In The Hunt, The Hyper Golf-The Devil’s Course-, Gunbird, Darius Gaiden, Wangan Dead Heat, Kidou Senshi Gundam, Virtual Racing, Shin Megami Tensei Devil Summoner, Sega Rally Championship
PC Engine Related: Shanghai The Great Wall, Sangoshi 4, Super Real Mahjong PV, Yumi Mix Remix, Sotsugyou 2 New Generation, Fire Pro Burning Tornado, JB Harold Blue Chicago Blues, World Advanced Daisakusen, Detana Twinbee Deluxe Pack, Puyo Puyo Tsuu, Princess Maker 2,
Look Final Fantasy 7 will scorch the earth, but not yet. I am shocked this 3 volume visual novel Emit had releases on both CD systems and the Super Famicom. And we got our 3rd Fire Fighting Game.
I had some note about did the PC Engine even have a Gundam Game and how this seemed important. I just remembered all those games that had Gundam Sounds.
I also think I managed to update my PC Engine list to current, but it is a giant mess of 200-300 games at this point on a note on my phone so some stuff could be wrong.
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As far as releases go, I think Playstation and Saturn are tied for 1995, Saturn has a stronger 96, but then a deluge comes for PS in 97 that’s just kind of remarkable.
I never realized how absent Gundam was, wow. At leadt they got Macross, Patlabor, and Cobra.
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