Aura Battler Dunbine (聖戦士ダンバイン)
Developer: Beck
Release Date: 2000
Platforms: PlayStation
Aura Battler Dunbine is a 1983 anime directed by Yoshiyuko Tomino (Mobile Suit Gundam), taking place in an alternate fantasy world called Byston Well filled with European-style castles and mecha that looks like insects. It was incredibly influential, with later 1990s shows like Magic Knight Rayearth and The Vision of Escaflowne featuring similar premises, as well as predating the isekai craze of 2010s anime. It first received video game adaptations as a pair of strategy games for the MSX2 and PC98 computers in 1991, and also lived on through the Super Robot Wars games, eventually receiving a PlayStation strategy-RPG in 2000.
The original anime starred a Japanese teenager named Shou Zama, who was initially drafted by the evil lord Drake Luft, before betraying him and fighting for the rebels. This PlayStation game instead places you in the role of an original character who you can name (with the default name Shunji), who is summoned before Sho and ends up allied with the nation of Li.
On its own, this is all bog standard SRPG stuff, dragged down by dreadfully long battles, but it sets itself apart with its branching storyline. You can take the Law route, following the same path as Shou did in the anime, defecting to join with Marvel Frozen, Nie Given, and other rebels to fight against Drake, and you can follow it through the same downer ending as the TV series. Alternatively, you can take the Chaos route and join with Drake’s army to take a whole different route through the story. Altogether, there are fifteen endings. You can also decide the fates of many of the cast members of the show – even Tokamak Robsky, an extremely minor character who was killed in the first episode, can be saved and drafted onto your crew. There’s a path where Sho turns evil. You can also get some of the Aura Battlers from the sequel OVA, plus some that weren’t in either anime series. As such, it’s a must play for fans of the anime, just to see the different ways that you can change the story. It also features FMV of the original TV opening and ending sequences, plus a brand new CGI cinema.
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