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Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami
Platforms: PC-8801, MSX2, PC Engine Super CD-Rom^2, Sega/Mega CD, Saturn, Playstation
Years of Release: 1988 (PC-88), 1988 (MSX2), 1992 (PC Engine CD), 1994 (Sega/Mega CD), 1996 (Saturn), 1996 (Playstation)
Snatcher is a legendary game in the modern era. Today it is considered a great opus of interactive fiction, and it largely stands above most of its contemporaries among those that have played the game. In its time, it was heavily overlooked by most of the international audience despite a wealth of rave reviews. Snatcher was originally developed and published by Konami for Japanese computers, releasing on the NEC PC-88 and MSX2 in 1988. Development was quite lengthy and expensive for Konami and shows many of the trademark behind the scenes issues with projects led by Hideo Kojima that would eventually lead to their fallout decades later. The project suffered from an unrealistic scope, as roughly half the story was condensed or axed altogether. Despite this, development still took far longer than most projects of the era. All of this would not pay off in Konami's eye, as the game's initial PC sales were underwhelming. A cult following developed around the game, and this likely led to Konami issuing later ports. The first one being 1992's port to NEC's PC Engine Super CD-ROM^2. What is interesting is that this PC Engine CD release was not just a straight over port, but it included the game's 3rd Act as a mostly cinematic experience. 1994 would see a strangely Western exclusive port released for Sega CD that allegedly only sold a few thousand copies. This Sega CD release further expanded on Act 3, adding some extra exploration and action. The final ports were released in 1996, exclusively in Japan, for the Sony PlayStation and Sega Saturn.
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Title: Phantasy Star
Developer: Sega
Publisher: Sega
Platforms: Sega Mark III/Master System
Release Years: 1987 JP, 1988 NA/EU
In the now rather long history of role playing games there have been a surprisingly small number of examples of science fiction settings. It has become more common in recent years, and there are examples from every era, but it would not surprise me to see the difference between traditional fantasy settings skewed in a near ten to one favor against the smaller sample pool of science fiction. The late 1980s saw a huge growth in Japanese role playing games. They had existed for years, even before Dragon Quest became the consensus Grandfather of Japanese RPGs. However, only small developers really played around with them until Chunsoft struck sales gold with Dragon Quest III, coupled with Squaresoft's Final Fantasy series. Larger developers began looking at this design formula as an emerging market and began developing their own projects. Sega was rather quick to fill this growing niche on its own hardware, developing Phantasy Star for the Sega Mark III or Master System as it was also known as.
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One of the major trends overtaking the gaming world in the late 1990s was the rise of the survival horror genre. Capcom's Resident Evil and Konami's Silent Hill are the most well known from this day, but many Japanese developers threw their hat in the ring. Deep Fear is Sega's big entry to the burgeoning survival horror genre. It would be developed for Sega's Saturn and released in 1998 in Japan. It would also be the final Saturn game released in Europe, and would be released just over two weeks before the Japanese release. A North American release was prototyped but sadly never released. However, this has been largely made irrelevant as years later this North American build would be leaked onto the internet.
The game takes place in an undersea US Naval base called the 'Big Table'. A strange space pod crashes down into the Pacific Ocean. The US Navy tracks it down using a submarine called the SEA FOX and brings the pod back to the Big Table. John Mayor is then introduced to players, who will be controlling him, and the game starts off with John having a prank played him. John and his partner, Mookie, are then assigned to assist workers in the Navy Area where the SEA FOX had returned but had just detached itself. John has a mission to rescue any of the personnel, and especially head researcher Dr. Gena Weisburg. This first job starts to show the strange mutated monstrous creatures that will inhabit the Big Table over the course of the rest of John's journey deep beneath the sea.
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In 2009, Atlus released the first game in the Shin Megami Tensei series since Nocturne. Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey would release for Nintendo's DS to good reviews and underwhelming sales. However, Atlus kept the development team around and they began work on Strange Journey's followup. The fruits of their labor would release in 2013 when Atlus released Shin Megami Tensei IV for the Nintendo 3DS, with a European release following in 2014. The 3DS was only 2 years old at this point, and Atlus used a lot of the early marketed features in Shin Megami Tensei IV. The character art in cutscenes are 2D, with the environments being in 3D, and the console's 3D functions can be switched on to create a layering effect during cutscenes, exploration, and battle.
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Insomniac, Universal, and Sony all stumbled into a smash success with the release of Spyro the Dragon. It was inevitable that a sequel would be developed and released, and that sequel would be Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage. Ripto's Rage released in 1999 with mostly the same list of credits when it came to key positions. The game would be renamed to Spyro 2: Gateway to Glimmer in Europe. Ripto's Rage adds much to the base of the formula of the first game while maintaining the highly consistent quality. It's a great example of a sequel which built upon the strengths of the original game while adding features to the game that do not make it feel bloated and work in line with the basic idea of platforming, exploration, and collecting that was established with the first Spyro.
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Phantasy Star is one of Sega's longest-running video game franchises. It really is one of the company's own flagship products and has near continuously seen development and releases since the Japanese release of the first game for the Master System back in 1987. By now Phantasy Star could be said to be divided into two eras. The first is the older single-player era; all the games for Sega's cartridge consoles fit into this camp. The first game was a first-person dungeon crawler while the second through fourth used a top-down perspective for the full experience. Each of these games were single-player role-playing games, meant to let players build characters from nobodies into world-defining powers through the magic of grinding. The Sega Saturn generation only saw a release of the first four games on a compilation disc. Sega had new plans in mind for the series and its upcoming late 90s console, the Dreamcast. Phantasy Star Online released and featured multiplayer action and a single-player option. This fusion and ability to move your character back and forth from online to single-player was a massive change and evolution from the roots of the series. Today, all new Phantasy Star releases follow the basic outline explored by one of the Dreamcast's premier role-playing releases of Phantasy Star Online. However, there needed to be a next step beyond this original game; a bridge between this now archaic multiplayer console relic and the already aged and newly starting to be reimagined Phantasy Star Online 2. This bridge would be Phantasy Star Universe, which would see its original Japanese release on Playstation 2 and Windows on the final day of August of 2006, with a North American launch following in late October. An EU release followed in late November; the ultimate bonus of an AU release came the following week of very late November. An Xbox 360 release would come virtually simultaneously to the North American releases, however the Japanese release lagged behind until just two weeks before Christmas of 2006.
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Data East is a company most known for their arcade games, but like many Japanese developers, they made sure to get in on the lucrative role-playing game market of their home country. They would start their flagship RPG franchise all the way back on the Famicom, and this series was called Heracles no Eiko or Glory of Heracles in English. The series, as of 2021, includes six total games with five of them being in the main series and one of them being a spin-off released for Game Boy. The first four main titles would see two releases on Famicom and Super Famicom each. Data East would go bankrupt in 2003 and a chunk of their staff would end up at a developer called Paon at the time, now called Paon DP after a merger in 2015. Paon would buy the rights to some of the Data East properties, with Glory of Heracles being one of them. The fifth main game in the series, Heracles no Eiko: Tamashii no Shomei, would be developed by Paon with assistance from Studio Saizensen, known for developing Umihara Kawase and Code of Princess. Heracles no Eiko: Tamashii no Shomei would be published by Nintendo and release for the DS in 2008 in Japan. This would also be the first and only game in the franchise to see a release outside of Japan, being released as Glory of Heracles in North America in 2010.
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The first Breath of Fire game was considered a nice success for Capcom, enough to not only warrant a sequel but to also localize and release that sequel internationally once again. This time, they would do it themselves instead of contracting Squaresoft. They probably should have, as the game is notorious for having a bad translation. Breath of Fire II would release in Japan in 1994, with a very late 1995 release in North America. This time, a small, obscure, and seemingly German publisher named Laguna Video Games would also publish and release the Super Nintendo game in Europe in 1996. The Game Boy Advance port of Breath of Fire II also followed in 2001 in Japan, with a 2002 release in North America. Ubisoft also handled the European release of the Game Boy Advance port and also released it in 2002.
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Role playing games and dragons, name a more iconic duo. Breath of Fire was Capcom's first foray into the realm of role playing games. They made a fairly memorable splash at the time and ended up turning the Breath of Fire series into one fondly remembered among gamers who have been around since the 16 bit generation. Breath of Fire was originally released on the Super Nintendo in Japan in 1993 and North America the following year. Capcom self published the game in Japan, while they contracted Squaresoft to localize and publish the game in North America. A Game Boy Advance port of the game was released in 2001. This time Capcom published the game in both Japan and North America, while Ubisoft would release this version in Europe.
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The original Playstation is one of the most important video game consoles in the history of electronics. Many changes to the way video game development was conducted took place during these years. While big budget 3D blockbusters were marketed to the sky and back, some other companies realized they could target lower price points. Before the Playstation, most lower priced games were re-releases of older, successful games, but the cheaper manufacturing and shipping costs of CDs and jewel cases persuaded some companies to just develop and release lower priced games, which would come to be known as a budget title. The PC gaming market had been doing this since its inception, but consoles could finally get in on the small priced release train. Lower the scope of the game, don't add too many features, and focus like a laser on what will be in the game, and these developers and publishers could release a rather competent game for $20. BursTrick Wake Boarding!! is one such game.
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Dragonsphere is a point and click adventure game published by MicroProse and developed by their internal development studio MPS Labs. This internal team at MicroProse had developed two point and click adventure games prior, Rex Nebular and the Cosmic Gender Bender and Return of the Phantom. Dragonsphere would release as MicroProse's third, and final, internally developed point and click adventure game. Dragonsphere was developed for MS-DOS and would release in 1994. Much later in history the game would be put under a new spotlight when it was released as a permanently free game through CD Projekt's Good Old Games digital store in 2011.
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About 5 years back, a strange and interesting game for the Playstation 2 was reviewed called Steambot Chronicles. It can be described in many different words and phrases, such as mecha sandbox rhythm role playing game. Steambot Chronicles was developed by Irem, a company mostly known for arcade games and especially the R-Type series of shoot 'em ups. The transition to its RPG swan song might be a little unexpected to long time arcade fans, especially given the fact that few people even know about Irem's RPG passion project. Somehow, Steambot Chronicles was successful enough for the company to develop a handheld spinoff for the Playstation Portable. Steambot Chronicles: Battle Tournament would release in Japan in 2008, developed and published by Irem themselves. The following year would see the game's release in North America with Atlus as its publisher.
Steambot Chronicles Review: http://www.rfgeneration.c...ambot-Chronicles-3030.php
Continue reading Steambot Chronicles: Battle Tournament
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Tenchu: Stealth Assassins is an action stealth game developed by Acquire and published by Sony Music Entertainment Japan in Japan, and Activision internationally. It released in 1998 and was Acquire's first developed game. 1998 was an insane year for the burgeoning stealth genre, it saw the release of both Metal Gear Solid on the Playstation and Thief: The Dark Project on PC. Tenchu would actually release before either of these other two classics, and as a result, may be a bit more forgotten.
Tenchu follows the tale of two ninjas, Rikimaru and Ayame. Both characters have distinct personalities. Rikimaru is an honorable warrior, respecting his adversaries if they show honor and skill with their weapon and combat style. Ayame is much less tactful than Rikimaru, often berating her enemies, which leads to some encounters throughout the game playing out differently. Both characters progress through the exact same levels, but their motivations and goals differ slightly. The game starts off grounded in reality, with both ninjas hunting down corrupt merchants, doing illegal border crossings, and going on rescue missions. In usual video game fashion this leads down the rabbit hole until the supernatural masterminds are revealed.
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When it comes to classic survival horror games, there is no other developer with the same pedigree as Capcom. They arguably invented the entire genre with the Famicom movie licensed game Sweet Home back in 1989. In 1995 Capcom would publish Clock Tower for the Super Famicom, with the series being developed by Human Entertainment. Its sequel, Clock Tower 2 would later be released internationally by ASCII; who would soon rebrand themselves as Agetec, as just Clock Tower. The international releases of the second and third Clock Towers followed the absolute explosion of the popularity of horror games, but would not be able to ride that wave themselves.
Continue reading Spooky Plays: Haunting Ground
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Spooky Plays: Dead Rising: http://www.rfgeneration.c...lays-Dead-Rising-3793.php
A couple years ago Spooky Plays looked at the first Dead Rising, a fun and unique open world zombie sandbox experience that's not really much of a horror game. Its more of a love letter to classic zombie movies with some other horror tropes thrown into the mix. Lawyers working on behalf of George A. Romero even sued Capcom for how similar Dead Rising is to classic zombie movie Dawn of the Dead. For most of the game the zombies are little more than a nuisance and the real horror comes from the game's still living Psychopath boss fights. After the success of Dead Rising, Capcom tasked Blue Castle Games with development of a sequel, which would release in 2010 for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and a bit later on PC.
Continue reading Spooky Plays: Dead Rising 2
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