Old/obscure/underrated JRPGs

[Lord of Riva]

Let's try this bitch out: https://www.deepl.com/translator-mobile

It kinda works, it's not just gibberish. Menus should not be a problem, story heavy games though will be a pain it also can't do them live, doing it via photos will take a while.

Still that is an impressive difference from my experiences thus far, thanks for the tip flyingjohn

 

[abnaxus]

Let's just say I haven't been impressed with this on-screen translation stuff. If it works at all, it usually comes up with crap prolly because in this case it can't read the font well if at all.

The biggest hurdle is that if you have zero knowledge of the language, you usually have no clue whether you are being fed random garbage.

 

[SerratedBiz]

When you play a game with machine translation, you do it with the expectation that the translation will be barebones. Accurate enough to understand menus, names and a general understanding of what's being said on screen, but nothing more than that.

Expecting anything more just shows your inexperience. Go learn a language if you're so picky.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Yandex

Uh.... hmmmm.... well....

 

[Sarathiour]

Last time I tried to used those, it can sort of work, but you need to fiddle quite a bit with it, because sometimes he misinterpret some font in a bloc, or hallucinate some shit. That's not even tackling the issue of you having no feedback on how correct those are.
Right now, playing like that is too much of hassle for too little quality to be really enjoyable.

 

[WholesaleGenocide]

-

I have recently started learning Japanese, specifically to enjoy this giant catalogue of games. It takes ages to progress though, *sigh*

But I can not resist the giant amount of stuff they shat out on their old computers, it's irresistable.

I started studying for the same reason, and it's definitely not a surprise why most people quit, the language is a bitch. Not sure when you started but here's a couple useful links that I found useful for actually playing games.

Project Neko II with texthooker support (pc-98 emu): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rirQyfsd5IqW6S0E8LfVzDJXNve8-YBc/view
Textractor (texthooker to work with pc-98 games, also a lot of VN's if you're into that kind of thing) https://github.com/Artikash/Textractor
Agent (script based texthooker that has support for a bunch of random games -- authors manually have to make hooks for each game so it's mostly VN's sadly but has some hooks for weird stuff like Pathfinder: Kingsmaker, DQ11, Persona 4/5, etc.) https://github.com/0xDC00/agent
Manga_OCR (Probably the best OCR when you need to manually do a lookup. It's trained on vertical text as far as I know but it does work for looking up a word or two. Use it in conjunction with sharex to take a small screenshot of a word or two to get the Japanese text copied to your clipboard to lookup with yomichan) https://github.com/kha-white/manga-ocr

You just use the texthooker in conjunction with a clipboard inserter extension in your browser along with a texhook page (there are various ones on the internet; I also found one that allows manual editing of a given line which is very convenient in case you can't find a word because it's in some uncommon reading or only half of it is in kanji and it's not in a dictionary because of that.

You probably know about yomichan and all that shit but I did run across a lot of useful stuff like setting it up to ignore spaces (helpful when pc-98 spits out needless spaces in between kanji) so let me know if any of that is useful.

 

[Lord of Riva]

Thank you for your input, I will check out what you suggested soon.

I am currently moving into my newly built house so I am not sure if I am able to do much of anything for the foreseeable futur apart from, I don't know building furniture or digging around in a Garden I also have a newborn.

I will come back to you, if I have further question, your writeup is certainly appreciated.

 

[abnaxus]

Played Rarue (PC98, 1993)

In this game the main character is a normal (slightly portly) young man, basically young BLOBERT:

When his scholar father is taken by a corrupt priest after some ancient secrets he embarks on a quest to save him. Since the main character is the son of a scholar, he can learn the language of monsters which can be used to avoid combat.

The cities in this game are quite big and detailed. The game world is p. expansive with many optional caves. There are also many side activities strewn about (there’s a memorable town with the entire population cursed with undeath).

The final boss was capable of casting an instagib “Megaflare” every round but the simple Sleep spell worked on him.

It’s kind of a hidden gem.

Spoiler

 

[abnaxus]

I was looking forward to playing Suzaku because of the setting similar to Tengai Makyo

Unfortunately got yuge unfixable graphical errors during certain fights that made the game unplayable. From what I was able to play it seemed a decent dungeon crawler.

 

[abnaxus]

Played Xantgenos (PC98, 1992)

It’s a bonafide fairytale rpg game. The main character is called Grimrock, a young human. You get en elf party member, a fairy (pint-sized waifu), a dragon (named Gravitybomb, son of Tachyonbomb and Dimensionbomb, who you pick up straight from the egg and grows bigger and bigger as he levels up), and a near thousand year old Dwarven witch princess.

The game world is one giant hex grid. There are animations during combat but they get old quickly and should be turned off because they greatly slow down the combat. Other annoyances are buff spells that can miss and sometimes your party starting combat in the worst position imaginable

Overall the tone is very light-hearted and tongue-in-cheek but it is far from a kiddie game.

Spoiler

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

So many damn language locked games. It is sad.

 

[abnaxus]

Played Aggregate (1994)

It’s a rpg game where you create a party of adventurers called “divers” and raid dungeons for ancient artifacts. The story is very low key in the beginning, the game doesn’t really start until you are roflstomped by the main villain and thrown into a murder dungeon while losing your entire inventory.

After leaving the murder dungeon it turns out two decades have passed during which the game world has undergone some big changes. The main villain is almost as absent as Sauron, instead you go around the world meeting some unique characters and taking down his seven main cronies one by one.

The main characters are mute, instead you team up with two spirits that do all the talking.

The combat is fully automated (Ultima VII style) and the AI is decent enough but care needs to be taken with offensive magic due to friendly fire, though later in the game you simply cast a wall spell protecting you from all magic and you are free to drop literal nukes (spell called Enola Gay, dropped by the bosses Little Boy and Fat Man).

Spoiler

 

[kaisergeddon]

I'm seriously impressed by the intro and credits, damn. Someone over there at JHV was flexing some muscled up ESL. Remarkable English for being 90s Japan. I reckon that's what happens when you witness the power of computer game developers for a multimedia company cornering hardcore markets.

Aggregate looks like a solid fusion of eastern and western game design philosophies. I like the character designs, especially the native-looking girl a lot. Anachronistic mixes of high fantasy and science fiction technology is a retro Japanese staple, and it's good to see it in top form here with that spaceship soaring out of a silo for the final stretch.

Pretty cool how you just leave a scattering of gory corpses in your wake too, lends a certain visceral reality to the combat.

 

[Anonymous Ranger]

I been playing Horai Gakuen no Bouken! Or The Adventure of Hourai High School in English. (SNES 1996)

It’s a pretty average JRPG I would even say it’s easier than most. You can really just spam attack without doing anything else and it’s enough to defeat just about anything in the game you come against, including bosses, assuming you’re not too under leveled. Where the game really shines is the story, it doesn’t even try to take itself seriously. It’s like one of those quirky Earthbound like games but actually good. Off the top of my head some of those weird moment include…

>Party member taking a dump outside of the school because he can’t get into the bathroom

>Having a gang of people dressed up as penguins constantly cause issues for everyone around the school as they try to take it over

>Having to interrogate a group of Santas to try and find a missing student.


It’s a very weird game and really it's not anything too amazing gameplay wise but at least I had my fun with it. I only bothered to bring it up because I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone talk about it before anywhere.

 

[abnaxus]

Played Shinseiki Kouboushi Dead Force (1994)

It’s a very pretty looking strategy rpg game: art style wise it is reminiscent of Heroic Legend of Arslan (Kamimura Sachiko herself was responsible for the character design). I like the game characters but gameplay is a drag.

You have your main characters/heroes/commanders, each of which can have three underlings that are pathetically weak. There’s a fusion system with which you can make better units but to use it you need to scour the (usually large) map and collect crystals, making the already slow as molasses gameplay even slower. And after all that busywork they still mostly suck.

Basically in the end you end up mostly ignoring all that and just have your main characters/heroes/commanders kill everything.

The biggest weakness of the game, though, is that except for one stage with vampires and the final stage where you need to hack through a million blue blobs, you fight only humans. Although in the game intro you are shown a variety of monsters.

Spoiler

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Shinseiki Kouboushi Dead Force

That's a really nice looking game, particularly that hell level with the skeletal structure towards the end. Are they standing on a red spaghetti of veins or something? And what's up with those grey trees? Were they turned to bone?

 

[abnaxus]

Played Fall (1991)

It’s a below average action rpg game from the developer of Mad Paradox and Possessioner, both of which are mediocre as well. I do like the art style of these games though.

You kill enemies by bumping into them, run around looking for keys and the right information to beat the bosses, save damsels in distress who immediately reward you with sexytime, like in the Witcher (but one is a honey trap, also like in the Witcher).

The final boss is comically hard. Beating him isn't even worth it, since the ending is just three slides.

Spoiler

 

[SOLIDSNACK]

Hello!

abnaxus, would you happen to know of any RPG that has a Conan style barbarian main character? Or a heavy Swords and Sorcery theme? Fang and FEDA both seem to have a barbarian or two in their ranks, and Dinosaur's lead kind of fits... I am just really curious to see the barbarian/swords&sorcery theme from Japanese perspective. I feel like there has to be a game or two that qualifies as barbarian themed, what with how influential high fantasy was on Japanese gaming, and the fame of Conan and the amount of barbarian movies from the 80's.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Hmm, that's an interesting idea. The original Ogre Battle kind of felt like it had that Conan vibe of 'sword good, wizards bad' with the way unit and character alignments were arranged and the plot played out. I can't think of any JRPGs that have a real barbarian type main character though. Breath of Fire 3 kind of feels close; given that you're this animal child raised by a bandit and can't speak. But it's definitely got other themes going on that dilute that concept. I think one of the 7th Saga characters might have been a barbarian? That game barely had a storyline though AFAIK and it has aliens and robots and shit too.

 

[SOLIDSNACK]

Ah yes! Ogre Battle! The main is certainly is a barbarian. Both male and female versions. Male version even has the bronze skin! I would say the game invokes a more military high fantasy theme than barbarian though. Still! Good call.
As I said earlier, Brian from FEDA is a barbarian type character, and FEDA is a low magic game of dark lords and the clashing of steel so it covers some of the themes.

And the back of the Fang box makes it look like it has a barbarian in it, dude in the top right saying "Go to the 'Hell'!! Fucker!". Yoshitaka Tamaki seems to like barbarians as well! I'll have to check that one out. The quest for Japanese barbarians continues!

 

[abnaxus]

Baan from Dragon Knight series is the Bro Barbarian (who funnily enough becomes priest at the end of Dragon Knight 3)

Otherwise the protagonist of Aress Ou no Monogatari is depicted as a Conan-like figure, even with Atlantean sword. Setting has some similarities to Aquilonia.

 

[Raghar]

Actually I'm not sure if it's RPG, but Eternal Poison was very nice tactical squad game somehow similar to Final Fantasy tactics.

 

[SOLIDSNACK]

abnaxus! Aress Ou no Monogatari looks like exactly what I'm looking for! Though in battle screenshots the (what looked like) main character has a knightly look about him, I'll take it as a misstep by whoever drew the sprite as the concept art is most certainly barbaric! Look at that amazing cover art. I'll also have to check out Dragon Knight as Baan looks awesome, particularly in the first screenshot.

To add I came across: Guin Saga ~Hyoutou no Kamen~ on PC-88

If you don't know of Guin Saga it is a Japanese heroic fantasy novel that was popular. Guin is a barbarian. An amnesiac hero cursed with a leopard head who protects two orphaned royals on the run from an invading army. So Guin Saga it's self covers the bases of barbarian storytelling, but how about the game? Well unfortunately I can't seem to play it because it is an old text parser style adventure game in Japanese. A texthooker doesn't work on it and even if I translate it on my phone it doesn't matter because I can't write or understand Japanese, so I can't input the proper phrases to do any actions. Shame because I would like to play it...

The quest for Japanese barbarian games continues! I hold out hope more fair travellers will come and impart great knowledge on the subject...

 

[Grauken]

Otherwise the protagonist of Aress Ou no Monogatari is depicted as a Conan-like figure

He looks like a midget Barbarian with a too big head ️️

 

[grundo1561]

Glad to see this thread still going strong! It sparked my interest in retro Japanese games, and I come back to it often. I don't speak Japanese at all, but I can get by somewhat with Bluestacks running Google Translate using Logi Capture as a virtual webcam.

I don't think I've seen it mentioned, but I recently downloaded Zavas 2. You start as a baby, and it describes your upbringing piece by piece. Each time you undergo a different trial, which affects a different component of your characters stats. You are a member of an oppressed diaspora, and you are destined to go on a quest to clear your people's name.

I've only just begun it, but it seems really in-depth and I haven't seen much discussion of it on the English-speaking web

Click to show

The fam

Is this a man or a woman? I have no idea!