this thread has inspired me to finally get around to playing some of the oddball (to me) PS1 games I’ve found at thrift stores the past year.
I’ll start with T.R.A.G. which in Japan was given the infinitely better title HARD EDGE.
Imagine if Resident Evil and Final Fantasy 7 had a baby. the baby got the tank controls and lock-and-key style maze running from RE, and the crazy anime hairstyles from FF7, as well as the whole disc 1 Midgar aesthetic, particularly Shinra tower. that’s what this is… an anime Resident Evil game set in the Shinra tower section of FF7 with knockoffs of AVALANCHE taking control—I seriously think they lifted Aeris’s hair wholesale for the Michelle character. you switch between 4 different characters to explore different floors of this doomtower, so it’s almost like Lost Vikings, too. almost.
but I need to talk about the music real quick, because the music is, I swear, literally plagiarized from FF7. just listen:
I can’t say for certain but it sounds a lot like something that would be in FF7 while you’re hanging out in Midgar slums, or even FF8 while you’re hanging out in Dollet or Deling City. I will admit that part of my enjoying this game as much as I did was due to the cool hangout soundtrack which may or may not be plagiarized.
I am honestly surprised at how much time I put into it (I was also surprised that the main dude’s name is Alex, because that’s my name too)… I played until I got a game over for the first time, which took around 5 hours. the game was mercifully easy up until that point, and death came finally at a boss that moved fast enough that I need to master the tank controls to beat it so… F that.
the enemies you encounter in this tower are either zombified Shinra soldiers or RE Hunters wearing sweatpants (seriously). they are all pitifully easy to dispatch. in addition to the RE tank controls there are little combo moves you can do which are pretty cool. like imagine if Chris Redfield could backflip away from zombies with a double tap of the back button, or Jill could do a forward dash/spin kick combo by double tapping the forward button. kinda neat actually.
the voice acting is hilariously terrible, or terribly hilarious, as you’d expect. the translation riddled with grammatical errors that the voice actors dutifully recite. one of the characters is a ‘Detective’ named Burns Byford, an amazing name. in conclusion:
I then started playing A Bug’s Life, greatest hits version, but I quit after about 10 minutes because it kind of made me sick. it’s so ugly. you have no control over the camera so it just follows behind you whichever way you turn. the jumping sucks, there are terrible voice sounds constantly shouting the same thing over and over. the menu design is awful. the save screens are so badly designed I nearly overwrote some other game saves the first time I tried to save. oh well, it was only a dollar.
next I moved to AKUJI THE HEARTLESS and uhh, this game kind of rules. it’s a 3D action platformer in which you can actually control the camera (R1/L1 swivels) and it works pretty well. it reminds me a little bit of Crash Bandicoot actually, if Crash Bandicoot’s entire world were smeared with the blood of his enemies. you collect still-beating hearts to regenerate your health (the hero, Akuji, had his heart torn out of him, hence the title). the fighting is fast paced and feels good.
the graphics are great, classic low-poly PS1 stuff. I adore the character models, such as this creepy guy. I really dig the skeletal spectacles and top hat on him:
for some reason they got the blandest college professor-sounding dude to do the voice of the undead warrior Akuji, but eh, who cares. I only played this for about an hour before other matters required my attention (namely, sleep) but I plan on going back to it as I was actually having fun.
ps1 society 4 lyfe!