A Good Novel

The inimitable Jane Austen once wrote that ‘the person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid’. Being a fan of books in general, I have always considered this to be one of the truest statements ever made by man. Given that JRPGs are, in essence, interactive books, it should therefore come as no surprise that I like them. Their popularity in the west is, unfortunately, more of a recent phenomenon. Suffering from bad translations and even worse PR, the JRPG has only recently received due recognition by an English speaking audience. This particular post has been churning in my brain for days now, due to the fact that I have been working on a joint post with a non-Japanese-speaking friend of mine who is much newer to the genre than I am. The game that we were working on, which will remain nameless due to spoilers, was one of the plethora of JRPGs that was released for the Super Famicom in Japan back in the nineties. When most people hear about Super Famicom RPGs, they think of grand adventures like Final Fantasy VI or quirky cult classics like Mother 2. Rare it is that you think of SNES + RPG = bad. All that I can say is that it actually happens with as much frequency as any other genre, and it got me to thinking about JRPGs in general. What would have happened if that game had been the first JRPG that I had ever played? Would it have been the last? After coming to the conclusion that I have way too much free time on my hands, I decided to write my thoughts down, if only to give myself some peace.

Given the experience that I had with the previously mentioned mystery game, not to mention several of the bad games that I have canvassed for this blog, it wouldn’t surprise me at all that some people would wonder why I love this genre far above all others. I suppose that I love RPGs mainly because they combine two things that are very dear to my heart: reading and winning. Of course there is never enough winning to be had for my taste, but I think that that is a complaint that every gamer would make. Having discussed this particular character flaw of mine in detail in the post The Same Old Grind, I won’t go into it here again. If I’m awake, I need to be distracted, and RPGs are very good at forcing you to organize your thoughts in order to propel your way to that elusive win. Add in a bit of micromanagement without it being tedious, and you can keep my constantly churning brain busy for hours. Perhaps I just enjoy the busywork.

When asked by a friend of mine what I considered to be the ingredients to make a good RPG, my first response was likable characters, both playable and otherwise. As some of you may have noticed in previous posts, I can’t click with a game that doesn’t give me a reason to want to play it. A solid battle system comes in a close second with me. Bells and whistles are nice, but we’re talking about a good RPG, not a great one. A tricked out battle system can quickly devolve into something really irritating. Final Fantasy VIII comes quickly to mind as a game that I would have loved if the battle system had not been so very annoying. Give the likable characters an interesting path to follow in a world that seems alive and you have a good RPG by my standards. Greatness, of course, requires more than this. If you want an example, go play Chrono Trigger instead of reading this nonsense.

My love for the JRPG has been canvassed lightly here, if only to clear my head. I could spend hours rambling on about the sense of majesty created by a truly great game, how games as recent as Ni No Kuni and Tales of Xillia 2 have brought me to tears, but that would be a waste of space. Instead I’ll refer once again to my shelves of games, some twenty years old, a few twenty days. Much like novels, there are the classics, the exciting current bestsellers, and more random games than I could ever remember the stories to. Unfortunately, there are those special few games that, much like the Twilight series, I most fervently wish had never been made. But I keep all of them together in one room, in as safe a condition as is possible, in order to always know that I have the comfort of an adventure close at hand. Be they good, bad, or indifferent, JRPGs are an integral part of my life, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

If you feel like hearing more of my gaming prattle, feel free to follow me on Twitter. You can find me at @bejiita_buruma

Disk 12: Dragon Knights Glorious (ドラゴンナイトツグロリアス)

Name: Dragon Knights Glorious (ドラゴンナイトツグロリアス)
Type: Visual Novel RPG
Available Languages: Japanese

After several weeks’ jaunt from Sony’s little gray console, it’s time to return to the PlayStation. This week we take a look at Pandora Box Creative Office’s JRPG Dragon Knights Glorious. Yes, dragons again. What can I say, they’re a JRPG staple. Apparently this is volume one of a group of games called the Pandora Max Series, amusingly designated on the front cover of the jewel case as PMS. After the prerequisite juvenile chuckle has been logged, let’s see what this rather generic looking adventure is all about.

The Pandora Max Series, as I will call it because I can’t bring myself to use the shortened designation, seems to be a reduced price group of games for the PlayStation. Considering that this game’s list price is under 2,000 yen, I’m prepared for just about anything. Having no opening sequence, we head from the main menu straight to the game proper. We are greeted with a screen full of static, accompanied with trippy music and what sounds like someone trying to wake us up. Possibly. Maybe. Not what I was expecting, but I’ll roll with it if it means that I can get away from this music.



No, it's not the fault of the device that you're viewing this on. The game really does start out looking like this.

What looks to be the silhouette of the winged dragon-girl from the front cover of the game appears, and she snaps you out of the static via a dual shock attack. That was new. Unfortunately the horrible music remains. The dragon fairy’s name is Puriru, this weird dream is in fact her ‘Mind Mail’, and we’re the first to accept it. I wonder why. She gives us the option of changing her name to something we’d like better, which is kind of desperate and sad, so I’ll be nice and continue calling her Puriru.

When she asks for your character’s name, we get the dubious joy of finding out that it is Daiku. Whatever you say, game. After digesting all this, Puriru asks Daiku some questions about himself, all of which he is apparently happy to answer. After Puriru’s inquisition, the Mind Mail gets cut off before she can finish telling you whatever it is she had to say. How very typical.

After deciding that the whole bizarre sequence was a dream, which would be a logical step if this wasn’t an RPG, Daiku muses about it in a monologue of white text on a silent black screen. It’s about as entertaining as it sounds, but at least that horrible music from the Mind Mail is gone. During this sequence, the player is allowed to make a choice as to the main character’s opinion of said dream, which leads to some character shaping that is somewhat interesting. After some rather deep, destiny-laden thoughts, Daiku is offered another choice as to his opinion on the dragon fairy girl.

We finally reach chapter one, and are awakened by being decked by a guy whose hair looks like something straight out of a Toriyama Akira manga. This is Chiko, according to the booklet, and I like him already. It seems that Daiku was smiling in his sleep, and our companion took offence to it, given that they had eaten quite badly the night before. It then becomes clear that we’re in jail. It quickly becomes obvious that Chiko has serious anger management issues, as he starts a fight with our cellmate immediately after beating Daiku up.


Apparently, Chiko hates joy.

After yet another visual novel style decision making sequence about how to stop the fight, we are introduced to our other cellmate. According to the accompanying booklet, this extremely pretty fellow is Batto, and he gets the honor of being the first person to mention Dragon Knights in the game. During the conversation that follows, it is revealed that Daiku is travelling with these people in order to become a Dragon Knight. It is also his fault that they are in jail, which will look really great on his resume. After discussing their situation, during which Chiko assures Daiku that he is going to kick his…er…hindquarters, we are offered a save point and a flashback sequence. Wow, Daiku sure spends a lot of time talking to himself. He is a classic visual novel protagonist, only way less interesting. I don’t know about you guys, but I’m ready to get to the fighting now.

When you reach the RPG portion of the game, you will face the enemy in a first person perspective format. The battle system itself is very basic, with five commands appearing at the bottom of the screen between your characters’ avatars and their stats. You can attack, use special techniques, defend, use items, or run. You can decide what sort of basic attack you want to use against the enemy and, depending on which ones you choose, you can unlock a more powerful attack in a later turn. This gives what would otherwise be a barebones battle system a bit more oomph.

The character designs in Dragon Knights Glorious are this game’s greatest selling point, as they are very nicely drawn and emote quite expressively. I’ve already mentioned that I found Chiko to be hilarious, and that is entirely due to his well-drawn expressions. The game’s story sequences take place in visual novel like stills that are extremely basic, which I would normally have a problem with, but the screen is mostly taken up by the characters that you are talking to. Chiko’s rumble with his cellmate takes up almost the entire screen.

The music in this game is actually quite good in many places, when they choose to use it. But on the other hand, there are too many long silences for my taste early on, and of course the horrible opening sequence music deserves a mention again for being just that bad.

Overall, I can say that you can tell that this is a budget game. It is a visual novel with RPG gameplay and mini games that I would have enjoyed more if it hadn’t felt so bland. We’ve seen this hero a thousand times before, and will probably see him a thousand times again. If he were at all interesting it might make his endless internal monologues worth reading and therefore make this game worth the small chunk of change that I paid for it, but as it is, I can say with no hesitation whatsoever that this is the first game that I have posted for on this blog that is a complete waste of time.

If you feel like hearing more of my gaming prattle, feel free to follow me on Twitter. You can find me at @bejiita_buruma

Cartridge 4: Cyber Knight (サイバーナイト)

Name: Cyber Knight (サイバーナイト)
Type: Sci-Fi RPG
Available Languages: Japanese

I’ve been on a space kick recently, it seems, particularly after playing Alshark several weeks back. Between that and Gadyurin, this blog has seen a bit of interstellar travel, but there is room for more, in my opinion. A part of me wanted to dig out my copy of Phantasy Star: Sennenki No Owari Ni so that I could do homage to its greatness, but the truth of the matter is that that game is way too famous for this blog. So with my usual admonition of ‘go play that if you haven’t yet’, I’ll move on to something else. In keeping with my current mood, I’ve decided that that something else is going to be the Super Famicom JRPG Cyber Knight.

After starting the game, naming my character, and distributing six points as I will in his stats, the game itself begins. A spaceship, the Swordfish, is being attacked by pirates, and one of their lasers has hit the main engine. I may not be a futuristic spaceship mechanic, but even I know that that means trouble. Soon, pretty much everything is shutting down from massive damage, and the captain is out of commission. There is nothing left for the crew to do but to use the Jump Drive without a known destination, which is just about as dangerous as it sounds. It’s either that or die here for certain, though, so the commander (that’s you) chances it.



A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away....

After your wild space ride, the remaining crew lands on an unknown planet with their ship damaged, unable to use the Jump Drive to take them back to Earth. So, there is nothing to do but land your spaceship and, with the five other combat ready crew members available, take a look around the planet we’re on. After trotting through the various rooms on the spaceship to familiarize ourselves with them, it’s time to head to the hangar and find our Modules, which are giant fighting robots. This game just got way better, didn’t it? After choosing which three party members get to have all the combat glory, it’s time to move out. Unfortunately, they’re puny little level ones, so we have no recourse but to level grind.

Luckily, our ship has landed right next to a city populated by humans whose speech we can understand. What are the chances? Apparently this planet is called Far World by the people who inhabit it, which is a useful (and rather strange) bit of information. So after shrugging at the naming sense of the locals, our intrepid heroes learn that there is a college nearby which may be able to help us out of our predicament. There we meet Professor Sokolov, who says that the humans on Far World left Earth 250 years earlier on the immigration ship Europa. It appears that they ended up here as a result of a jump miss, much like us. It seems that whatever remains of the Europa is in the forest to the north, so we should probably go check that out for the Monopo-ru Coil, which is the part we need. After getting a bit more helpful information and a star map from the local scholar, we have to go talk to the President of Far World. It sounds like he’d be a good person to know.

After getting hassled by the President’s surly guards, we meet President Roland. After confirming that Far World is populated by Earthlings who made an emergency landing here 250 years ago, he apologizes to our party. It seems that we were mistaken for invader robots which have been hassling the locals as of late. It sounds like they need us to take care of this problem for them, even though there are only a handful of us. We do have giant robots of our own, after all. But what about our Monopo-ru Coil, you ask? We’re certainly not going anywhere without that, so we’ll take the path that makes the most sense at the moment. We’ll head to the Europa in the forest to the north, and hope that some of these local robots are stupid enough to try to get in between us and the shiny part that we need. Now that sounds like a plan!



A map of the Swordfish, your sweet, but currently useless, ride.

In battle, your screen will be split into three sections. The upper right section displays your stats and the bottom section gives you information about the battle as it is happening. The upper left section shows the battle itself, with your three Modules on the right and your enemies on the left. When it’s your turn, you get a list of options to choose from. You can attack, defend yourself or others, or use the option menu to use items like rocket launchers or missiles. In the equipment menu, you can change your weapons or use defensive field items. You have the option to continue battling or run if you press the B button.

The game really doesn’t look like much, I must admit, but I’m willing to give it a bit of a break given that it was released in 1992 and that its PC Engine counterpart dates back to 1990. The game’s best moment, appearance wise, is in battle, when the Modules and their enemies attack each other. While these little cut scenes can be quite tedious after a while if you’re trying to level grind, they look quite a bit nicer than the rest of the game. The music isn’t bad at all, given the game’s age. It’s rather generic, but certainly acceptable.

I must admit to getting quite bored with Cyber Knight after a while. I feel rather badly about it, given that I liked the premise. But the battle system lags so much that after a while you feel like you’ve been waiting for years to get from one place to another. While those cut scenes that I mentioned earlier are the nicest looking part of the game, they are also the most frustrating part. Every attack is played out that way, not just special attacks, and it takes every bit as long as you would think. If you are a fan of space based RPGs and have a lot of patience, Cyber Night is worth a look, but if you have another game on your docket you may want to weigh your options.

If you feel like hearing more of my gaming prattle, feel free to follow me on Twitter. You can find me at @bejiita_buruma

Disk 11: Alshark (アルシャーク)

Name: Alshark (アルシャーク)
Type: Sci-Fi RPG
Available Languages: Japanese

Today we’re taking a step in an entirely new direction by looking at an RPG that is played on the PC Engine. The game in question is called Alshark, and while the version I’m playing is for the Super CD Rom, it appears on several other platforms. Alshark’s jewel case bills the game as a space opera RPG, which is a bit different than this blog’s usual fare, which I’m pretty excited about. The front cover has an attractively drawn cast of humans and aliens who look primed for intergalactic warfare, so here’s hoping that I’m not disappointed. As usual, I’ll be spelling the names with the anglicized names given in the accompanying booklet for ease of reading.

The game opens with a rather interesting background story sequence, followed by an animation showing the main party members. So far, so good! Once you are able to start the game proper, you will be on the planet Home. The game begins in the city of Kosuma with the protagonist, Sion, being awoken by Kal, his robot friend. If I could set Kal’s voice to my alarm clock, I would. It is truly terrifying. After being literally forced out of bed, Sion drags his way out to see his parents. It appears that a meteorite crashed into Home not far from Kosuma the night before, and his father, Jido, is going to investigate it. Sion wants to accompany him, but since his father is going for work, he refuses, promising to take his son after the investigation is finished.


If Kal's hyper warbling is to be believed, it is, in fact, morning.

After this disappointing setback, we get control of Sion. He immediately goes off to find Shoko, daughter of another of the surveyors and resident pretty girl. She decides to help him hightail it to the Zakusen Canyon, site of the meteorite crash, and offers Sion a handgun to protect himself from the local giant insects. I’m sure her dad won’t mind her stealing his hidden weaponry to blatantly disobey him! It’s for the sake of the universe…probably.

After equipping Sion with his shiny new weapon and cringing at his and Shoko’s level one statuses, it’s time to go out and level grind. Luckily the enemies here are ludicrously weak, and a villager in Kosuma is more than happy to help you on your quest for glory by giving you unlimited healing items. When imminent death seems far less likely, Sion and Shoko head out for Zakusen Canyon to peek at their fathers’ progressing investigation.

Zakusen Canyon is to the north of Kosuma and looks exactly like the world map, save for the fact that your characters have to wend their way through a labyrinthine wall of mountains in order to find their way to the site of the meteorite crash. There are quite a few dead ends and tougher enemy groups further in, which makes the dungeon more interesting and more frustrating in equal measure. Now is about the time that I feel that I should mention that I would love to have control of more party members than just Sion. Thankfully this dungeon is quite short by Alshark standards, and my party reached the crash site unscathed.

That's the strangest looking meteorite our heroes have ever seen.

Shoko hurries Sion along, and they hide behind a conveniently placed rock formation. The ‘meteorite’ that their dads went to investigate certainly looks a lot more like a spaceship to me, but what do I know? A cut scene ensues, in which Shoko asks the million dollar question: what is that? They quickly place it as a warship from the Zoriasu Empire, of a type that they don’t recognize. I do believe that we’ve hit upon the intergalactic warfare portion of the game! Their discussion of the reasoning for the empire being there is cut short as someone exits the ship and a fight ensues. Mamon, Shoko’s father, grabs his head in pain and screams, and when he recovers, it is clear that he is possessed. He proceeds to slaughter everyone, leaving with a few cryptic words about something called ‘Alshark’. Given that that’s the name of the game, I would say that we should make note of it.

Your party manages to make it to Jido in time to hear his last words. He charges us with finding a man named Scrap Joe, who is actually way more useful than his name implies. Jido is certain that something has happened to Mamon, and dies with the word Alshark on his lips. You would think that it was important or something. Sion seems pretty set on getting back at the Zoriasu soldiers that he holds responsible for his father’s death. Shoko begs him not to hate her father, as she is certain that something has happened to him. Sion agrees, laying all the blame on the Zoriasu soldiers, and vows to save Mamon. So much for a seemingly innocent adventure.

Alshark’s battle system is pretty basic. You control the main character, Sion, who is given a list of commands to choose from. He can attack, use special techniques, use items, change any party member’s equipment, check any party member’s status, or run. The other characters move freely, attacking and healing at will. Depending on what weapon or weapons the character has equipped, they will attack one or multiple enemies. While human characters can level up via battle, a robot like Kal can only be leveled up by a talented mechanic like your party member Joe.

 

 

Alshark, unfortunately, doesn’t look like much. The world map is huge and rather bland, and the sprites are tiny and unremarkable. The in battle sprites are more of the same, and are really nothing to write home about. The music in places is rather catchy, though, and kept my toes tapping as I worked my way through the bland, labyrinthine dungeons. The cut scenes, however, are quite impressively drawn, and the voice acting throughout the game ranges from comical to excellent.

Overall, I truly like Alshark. While it is a very basic game, the setting is different enough to set it apart from other RPGs of its ilk. I do admit to comparing every space based RPG to Phantasy Star: Sennenki No Owari Ni, and Alshark is certainly not even close to touching that game’s greatness, but that should not keep an RPG devotee from killing a few hours with an amusing game. It’s not Phantasy Star, it’s not Star Ocean, but it is fun.

If you feel like hearing more of my gaming prattle, feel free to follow me on Twitter. You can find me at @bejiita_buruma

Disk 10: Startling Odyssey 1 Blue Evolution (スタートリング・オデッセイ１ブルー・エヴォリューション)

Name: Startling Odyssey 1 Blue Evolution (スタートリング・オデッセイ１ブルー・エヴォリューション)
Type: Turn Based RPG
Available Languages: Japanese

This week we take a look at the RPG Startling Odyssey 1 Blue Evolution. This game has the distinction of being the only one of the three Startling Odyssey titles to be brought from the PC Engine to the PlayStation. It also has one of the more interesting titles that I’ve come across over the years. Let’s see just how startling this supposed odyssey actually turns out to be, shall we? Paging through the manual, I noted that things look like your generic RPG fare, save for the moment when I got to the characters section and saw that the main character was voiced by Midorikawa Hikaru. After the requisite fangirlish squeal had been unleashed at the presence of my favorite seiyuu ever, I saw nothing else of interest beyond the nice character designs (and, of course, made the usual fervent wish that the busty female characters would put something on before they caught a chill). I suppose it’s time to see what this game has to offer us!

The game opens with a rather decent anime sequence. While it was nothing to some of the masterpieces I’ve seen over the years, it was more than passable for its day and was a nice introduction to the characters. From what I gather from the introduction and the manual, there was a pretty massive battle between good and evil that went down long before the game began. We’ve heard this kind of stuff before. According to the infallible internet, the Startling Odyssey games actually go in reverse order, 2 being a prequel of 1, and 3 being a prequel of 2, so I suppose I’m allowed to be a fish out of water here. I’ll play them in the order intended, complete with the requisite confusion.

We awaken in the village of Arishia as the protagonist of the game and resident Midorikawa Hikaru character, Leon Solford. The pest who won’t let him get his shuteye is local boy Mark, accompanied by his dog. Belied by the cheerful music in the background, he actually has a good reason for waking Leon up. It appears that a monster has gotten into the village, and it is up to Leon to help drive it out.

During our trek around the village, we learn that monsters have only begun showing up in the area recently, which is never a good sign in a videogame. The other shoe should be dropping any time now. An earthquake rocks the village in the midst of Leon’s quest for information, after which Mark’s dog Ron senses something. It seems that Ron has found the infamous monster, which is quite demonic in appearance and can talk. Leon is then thrown into his first battle against the monster, Kureido, which he wins handily. With a typically villainous ominous statement being thrown at our hero, the monster dies. His passing is followed by yet another earthquake.

The next morning Leon’s fervent admirers Mark and Ron have shown up at his house again, and Mark asks if Leon is going to see the elder. Since it seems there is a conversation to be held with that gentleman, that is where we should head off to. Saria, Leon’s mother, arrives, and Mark tells us that Sophia is coming home. This is important to us because she is the next playable character that we’ll get and has healing spells. Enough said. Saria hustles Leon off to the elder’s, but another earthquake shakes the land. After listening to the billionth inane comment about how many earthquakes there have been lately, you gain control of Leon.

As Leon leaves, Saria stops him for apparently no reason, changing her mind at the last minute about telling him what she had to say. A poor choice, methinks. Outside the elder’s house, Mark tells Leon that he wants to be like him when he grows up. We never would have guessed that, given that the boy and his dog have literally been following us everywhere since the beginning of the game. Leon, however, seems surprised. Mark desires to become strong in order to protect the village from bad guys, which is an admirable, if rather childish, plan. He then runs off to play with his dog, leaving Leon happily laughing in his wake.

The elder is, naturally, pleased with Leon’s monster cleansing of the night before. Apparently things are a lot worse around here than they appear, though, as there have been rumors of Mazoku (literally ‘evil tribe’) destroying villages on the continent. The monster from the night before gave him a bad feeling, to which Leon replies that Kureido said that the end of the village was coming. The elder is not pleased to hear this news, and it leads into a discussion of the war between light and darkness 270 years previously. The elder cuts the discussion short and shoos Leon outside, where he teaches him the Shooting Star skill. Not bad, old man!

Unfortunately, we don’t have time to appreciate our shiny new powers, as there is a disruption in the village. Mark, of course, comes to get you, telling you that there are Mazoku in the village and that people are being killed. Gara-do and his band of mooks have appeared in this village under the name of his emperor to take the land for the Mazoku. It’s leave or die, but Leon isn’t too keen on that idea, and with Mark as his cheerleader, he clears through some of the rabble with his new technique. Leon then flings himself sword first at Gara-do, who proceeds to totally annihilate him.

Out of nowhere, more of the enemies are blown to bits, the source of firepower being none other than Leon’s mother. After an impressive showing of power by Saria, Gara-do shifts the balance in his favor by capturing Mark and killing his dog. He knows that Saria won’t act because of Mark, and proceeds to turn her partially to stone. He then hurts Mark anyway. Saria’s transformation into a statue is then completed, and Gara-do sends her off to become a part of his collection. Tossing Mark’s body to the ground, he teleports off with the magically petrified form of Leon’s mother. Mark reaches out to Leon shakily, telling him that he wants to become stronger, like Leon, and then dies. I believe that we’ve just found the startling part of the game, because I’m genuinely startled by my sudden rage. Leon is left to bury his grief, discover his family’s past, and find a way to save his mother from the magic that binds her.

The battle system in Startling Odyssey 1 is turn-based, with your characters appearing on the right side of the screen and the enemies on the left. The character’s HP and SP appears attached to them by a blue line. When it is your character’s turn, their name and face will pop up on the screen and a set of option buttons will appear. The central button will allow you to attack, the left will let you use skills, the right defend, the top use items, and the bottom will take you to another page of buttons. This page has four buttons, the center of which returns you to the previous page, the left allows you to run, the right sends you into auto battle, and the top allows you to change weapons. It’s very basic and couldn’t be easier to learn, given that the buttons come with accompanying illustrations for beginning learners of Japanese. All that being said, the in battle sprites are truly hideous. There is absolutely nothing good that I have to say about them. I hate to be so negative, but there it is.

I rather like some of the music in Startling Odyssey, although I know that it won’t be to some peoples’ taste. It reminds me very much of the background music of some of the anime I watched as a teenager, and I can’t help feeling nostalgic about it. Other than those few tracks, though, the rest of the music is average. The game’s appearance is also average, with nothing really speaking to me of any extra effort being put into making something memorable. The cut scenes are decent, with the anime style stills making for a nice illustration of the scene in progress, but as I said earlier, I’ve seen it done better.

Overall, Startling Odyssey 1 is a decent way to kill a few hours, or even a few days. It’s not great in any sense, but it certainly isn’t bad either. However, having played through this truly generic RPG for quite a while now, I can say that the only truly startling thing that I’ve come across in it is its title.

If you feel like hearing more of my gaming prattle, feel free to follow me on Twitter. You can find me at @bejiita_buruma

Disk 4: The Mystic Dragoons (ミスティックドラグーン), Part 2

It is every woman’s prerogative to change her mind, and apparently I am going to be doing a lot of that when it comes to the game The Mystic Dragoons. As my longtime readers probably recall, when I first posted for that game, I intended to write several weeks’ worth of my experiences with it for general internet consumption. Thinking that the first post wasn’t going over well, I trashed the idea. That post has since become the most popular one on this blog. So, to thank the readers who enjoyed that bit of whimsy on my part, and to felicitate myself for being wrong yet again, here is part two of my The Mystic Dragoons adventure!

When last we left our ragtag band of heroes, they were recovering from a vicious and unprovoked attack on their hometown that left everyone they knew and loved dead. Needless to say, our little party of five is feeling a tad bit vengeful. It’s time to head into Dorasshu and prepare to track down those Tactical Dragoons. They’re clearly a compassionate lot, after all, leaving a bunch of teenagers to fend for themselves in a burning village. And like I said earlier, they have dragons.

Before we move out, I want to discuss the cover art for this game, which I mentioned in passing before. Now that I know a bit about the characters, I’ve discovered that it depicts Cliff and Elmys, dancing. Yes, he’s dancing with the Gureizeru prophecy princess who, accidentally or otherwise, condemned Collet and everyone in it to death. Strangely, he’s dancing with a drawn sword in hand, so either this is the most bizarre assassination attempt since the time travelling dragon, or we’re about to see Cliff embark on a very awkward relationship. Just thought that I should throw this strange little nugget out there. As before, I’m using the anglicized names that were given in the art booklet where applicable, so if you’re playing along with this post, sorry for any confusion. Well, onward to glory!

We arrive in Dorasshu, where Bud, one of our party members, begins to immediately admire one of the nearby ladies. This irritates Roxy, another party member, greatly. But hey, we all deal with intense, crushing grief in our own way, right? Some of us just do it by ogling strange women and irritating our jealous childhood friend. Romantic subplot, incoming! 

Bud opens up a whole new can of worms by admiring the local 'scenery'.

Eugo, the fifth member of our party, speaks to the aforementioned pretty lady and tells her that we want to go to Harvey and then on to the country of Pura-ma. Unfortunately, it appears that the cave to Harvey was blocked by an earthquake three years ago. Of course it was. What else would one expect in an RPG, after all? Then we tell the pretty lady, Amugine, all about our plans and don’t try to hide Alf, because her well swathed appearance isn’t suspicious at all and there haven’t been any ne’er do wells lurking around recently. Apparently Alf can travel through time and Amugine can tell that just by looking at him. She then books it, leaving Roxy to remark on her oddness. I don’t know about you, but I don’t find her suspicious or sinister at all.

Well, that was weird. Anyway, we’re off to get us some shuteye, and then we need to track down an elf for some healing magic. That is the best idea that this game has thrown at us yet. I like not dying. After strolling around and looting the town, hero style, we manage to track down the aforementioned elf, who is sitting in a room that is hidden behind a giant curtain. Subtle. Tall, blonde, waiflike, pointy ears, check. That’s an elf. She teaches us Prayer of Healing, and therefore greatly lessens our chances of dying. Apparently the elves are our allies and we should talk to them all. Duly noted. As amusing as this has all been, it’s time to move on and see exactly what is going on in this cave to the west. I can’t envision the Tactical Dragoons having a sudden attack of conscience and coming back to check on the bunch of orphans that they so unceremoniously ditched, after all. Us having to do this the hard way is what makes this an RPG, right?

We reach the cave that leads to Harvey and find it every bit as blocked as Amugine and the townspeople said it was. I suppose that it was too much to ask for them to all be a bunch of malicious liars. Alf squawks and, as though the universe is mocking us, it starts to rain. But then the screen warps in an odd way and a truly obnoxious alarm sounds. Didn’t the time travelling dragon in the opening sequence use water, and didn’t Amugine say that Alf was one? But our party is oblivious to the oddity going on around them, and goes to wait out the storm in a nearby hut. When the storm clears, our little troop returns outside to find that the massive cave-in has completely disappeared. After reacting with incredibly mild surprise to this, the party decides to move on, not bothering to question how this strange event has occurred at all. I suppose that in a world where time travelling assassination-assistant dragons exist, this kind of stuff is normal.

This dungeon is so incredibly linear and generic that there is no point in going into what I went through while traversing it, beyond saying that I fought a bunch of enemies, collected a few treasures, and didn’t die. Outside, it starts to rain again. Bud, being the genius that he clearly is, suggests that we return to the cave to wait it out. The obnoxious screen warp alarm thing happens again, and our band of heroes, equally oblivious to the obvious, books it back into the cave. Inside we meet a fellow with truly epic hair who is picking away at the magically returned cave-in and tells us what I’m sure you lovely, intelligent people have already figured out. Eugo, ignoring the evidence that is right in front of him, tells him that we just came from Dorasshu. The guy tells him off, which he totally deserved for being an idiot, even though what he said is true. So let’s move on, and hope that our characters can pick up some sense along the way.

This guy's hair is a thing of beauty. It's even more amazing in profile.

We return to the field map and, according to my handy little booklet, Harvey should be to our northwest. After checking the forests for the local elf and smacking around any mooks that dare to cross our path, we finally make our way into Harvey. It’s a slightly more colorful place than previous towns, and includes and inn with the two Ns on the sign reversed. Nice to see that they put so much effort into their advertising. I headed straight to the port, and there our party is confronted by a ship that sticks out like a sore thumb. But as our little band of misfits has no business boarding said ship, it looks like we’ll have to get ourselves clearance.


Lovely sign they have there. I wonder if that's anything like an inn.

Time to check out the large building with the incomprehensible writing on it in the middle of town. It seems that we’ve located the local bar, in which we find another elf and a hippie who runs the black market. A man in the bar mistakes you for hunters, which would be my first guess too when I see a bunch of angry teenagers and a ten year old girl just wandering around. Clearly they are people who go out and hunt things down in order to sell them. Sounds lucrative, though, so I’ll remember it. This is the most logical game that I have ever played, by the way. Its understanding of human nature blows my mind. Well, now that that interesting experience is over with, it’s time to check out the bar’s basement. What awaits us there is our only way forward.

I hope that that slice of Cliff’s continued escapades lived up to the previous post and was as fun for you to revisit as it was for me. Perhaps someday I’ll post another part of this, depending on the reception of part two. Either way, this was a fun revisit. We all know that I love dragons.

If you feel like hearing more of my gaming prattle, feel free to follow me on Twitter. You can find me at @bejiita_buruma

Disk 9: Kuro no Ken (黒の剣)

Name: Kuro no Ken (黒の剣)
Type: Turn-Based RPG
Available Languages: Japanese

Today’s game is yet another one that I picked up entirely for the cover art. Kuro no Ken, subtitled in English as ‘Blade of the Darkness’, sports a very nice sketch of a man saving a damsel in distress from an unpleasant situation on the front cover. The back of the jewel case promises an excellent vocal cast paired with high quality graphics. From the pictures shown to illustrate this fact, those high quality graphics consist of nearly naked women, which doesn’t impress me much. The male lead is voiced by Koyasu Takehito, though, and that impresses me a great deal. Let’s see if Kuro no Ken can live up to its own hype!

Whether you hear it first from the game opening itself or have read it in the manual, it seems that the world in the game we are going to play has had some trouble with jet black dragons. I seem to be meeting up with a lot of dragons during the course of writing this blog, but considering that my medium is RPGs, that should be no surprise. Koyasu Takehito’s voice speaks for the first time as a ship in the midst of a storm appears in a mirror. A strange conversation ensues with a woman, during which we learn that the main male character, Kaiesu, is in the country of Kuraitsen training as a swordsman. It seems that he has come to ask the woman where he should go next. She is as vague and unhelpful as one would expect, and ends by telling him to choose for himself.



Shinobu realizes that she is in a game that subsists on fanservice.

We are suddenly taken from that strange scene to meet Shinobu, who is sitting up in her bed as though she has just awoken from a dream. Apparently she was sleeping naked, but is thoughtful enough to cover herself with a sheet despite her confusion. There is a scantily clad woman in the room with her (the lack of clothing seems to be a theme in this game) who asks her if she understands her, because Shinobu is a foreigner. She introduces herself as Enisu, the savior of Shinobu’s life. Apparently Shinobu has no idea where she is, but she does mention a ship. Enisu saved her from getting eaten by monsters, and bribes her into working for her in return for saving her life. Unfortunately, Shinobu only carries a sword with her as a good luck charm, so she will have to use magic to pay off her life debt. There is a noble’s manor to the south of the city where Enisu wants us to go, so I suppose we have no choice. She won’t tell Shinobu what she’ll be doing there, though, which is worrisome. We finally gain control of Shinobu, who can’t find her very important sword anywhere. Enisu won’t tell her where it is, but says she’ll remember after her work is finished. Great, first guilt, now extortion.

Shinobu trudges south to the manor, which is replete with fountains and potted flowers, and stately music plays in the background. After the player takes a moment to decide that the place is legitimately creepy in its outward cheerfulness, Shinobu heads down a marble hallway, past some surly guards, and into the mansion proper. As she wanders aimlessly about, Shinobu finds a pretty jewel which she believes Enisu sent her to the mansion with the intention for her to take. She isn’t too keen on the idea and so doesn’t steal the jewel, but as she’s leaving she gets attacked by the guards for being Enisu’s underling anyway. A fight ensues, which Shinobu wins without breaking a sweat. Those guards really should have listened to her.

 



Unfortunately, a youjinbou, Zefyu-doru, shows up next, but he actually listens to Shinobu. After making a rather perverted comment and letting us think that we’re going to get away, the other soldiers remind the youjinbou of what he’s being paid for, and the fight is on. As he has both voice acting and an accompanying facial avatar, I’m assuming that this won’t be so easy. I attacked him with Shinobu’s basic magic attack, Fu Chou Jin, but it did nothing, and after commenting on her magic’s strangeness, Zefyu-doru defeats her in one blow.

Shinobu is certain that he isn’t just an average youjinbou. She is searching for a swordsman who is going to be caught up in some complicated RPG destiny that the game hasn’t explained yet, and Zefyu-doru is as confused by Shinobu’s riddles as I am. He reminds her rather forcibly that she has just lost a fight to him, which is probably something that she should be more concerned about at the moment. Just as Zefyu-doru thinks that his amusement is about to begin, Shinobu shows him why she isn’t as concerned as he thought she should be by using her magic to disappear from the battle entirely.


Shinobu decides that it's time to leave Zefyu-doru and the manor behind.

Shinobu heads back to the port city of O-rubain to speak to Enisu, telling her that she has no intention of becoming a thief. Enisu has no problem with this, though, as Shinobu had only been sent in as a decoy. Lovely how she saved her life only to throw her into danger immediately after she healed. After joking about how she doesn’t remember where Shinobu’s sword is, Enisu finally returns it. Apparently Shinobu is looking for a swordsman that she can entrust it to. She tells Enisu that the sword is cursed, that its name is Kuro no Ken, and that it’s better if she knows no more about it than that. I have a feeling that we’re going to learn a lot more about it before the game is over though, given that the game is named after the sword.

The battle system in Kuro no Ken is your average turn-based RPG fare. When it is your character’s turn, you will be presented with a window with that character’s health, magic, and status, and there will be a long list of commands that appear in kanji on the screen. You can attack, use a special command that depends on which character you’re using, defend, use an item, change your equipped weapon, or retreat. It’s an incredibly basic battle system, but it looks very nice.

The major conversations in this game take place in anime-like images, much like visual novels. They are very nicely drawn, if a little voyeuristic at times. The rest of the game world looks rather average, a typical fantasy RPG world that you could see in half a dozen games picked at random. In fact, it looks more like a Super Famicom game world than a PlayStation one. The in battle sprites are where this game shines image wise, as the creators really put some love into their design. The music is bland, not bad in any sense, but certainly not memorable either.

While Kuro no Ken was a nice game overall, in spite of its gratuitous fan service, it certainly didn’t live up to the hype on the jewel case. I will admit that the game looked lovely in battle, and that the anime cut scene pictures were nice, but the rest of the game was average at best. While I wouldn’t recommend Kuro no Ken over many other major titles, it is a nice way to spend a few afternoons if you’re bored. I have certainly played games that were a lot worse.

If you feel like hearing more of my gaming prattle, feel free to follow me on Twitter. You can find me at @bejiita_buruma