gosokkyu

エンド

  • 戦う人間発電所

owatte shimatta


This was an early hit for System Sacom in 1985 and pioneered a format dubbed "novelware", which basically just means "storybook-esque images/text before every stage", with the core action consisting of overhead shooty action gameplay with slow movement and incredibly choppy flip-scrolling between screens, as well as your typical Druaga-inspired "RPG" horseshit. This game received several different micom conversions, as well a Famicom Disk System adaptation published by Sunsoft; I'm only really familiar with this version and the FCDS version, and I can say that the console adaptation got a hell of a glow-up (as well as a promotional manga by Sunsoft's illustrator Moriken, which did as much for its popularity as anything else).

Thus far, EGG Console's offered up several games that were either relatively straightforward to parse with or without Japanese knowledge, or sufficiently interesting or historically significant to justify playing in spite of how opaque or clunky they might be, but Märchen Veil... iunno about this one. The story, which centres on a prince on a quest to return to his betrothed princess after being cursed into satyr form and banished to a wasteland, is the main draw, but even that has its caveats: it's all-kana, so kinda bothersome to read, and it ends a ways into the story—strictly speaking, this is Märchen Veil I, with the rest of the story relegated to the PC-9801 sequel. It's cute, really, but is that enough?

Incidentally, this was a very early work of Yukio Horimoto, who went on to create the company Infinity with some other Sacom alum, and there are some thematic/design similarities between this game and Infinity's Ai no Densetsu Olympus no Tatakai (Battle of Olympus).


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in reply to @gosokkyu's post:

It moves a bit quicker in the PC-98 original, and you run faster when sticking to cleared paths like shown in the store video. (Nor is the scrolling between screens so damn choppy!) This game's more about methodical exploration and keeping enemies well away while solving puzzles or getting items. Fast ARPG this isn't. I wouldn't say the story's the draw so much as the dungeon crawling, but it's a nice distinction from other games of the time.

1/19/24 update: I played through the whole thing on PC-98, just out of curiosity. You have three speed options, the fastest of which isn't shown in the trailer. This doesn't feel as slow as advertised. It's a good game, but levels 6 and 7 have some of the most tedious shit I've dealt with in an ARPG (ex. teleporting wizards which take 10 hits to kill, lock you on that screen (with respawning enemies) until dead, and always teleport as soon as they're hit). Final stage can also softlock you if you aren't careful with defeating its boss in a specific way, though the whole ending's easier and more intuitive. First 2/3 plays like if Druaga had intuitive design, better combat, and an odd consumable-saves mechanic. It's an acquired taste, though maybe easier to sell today than Hydlide.