Category: Feature
Eggy (Japanese Video Game Obscurity)
During the early days of computer gaming, publishers often found products by holding game development competitions. Enix was one of …
Cruise Chaser Blassty (Japanese Video Game Obscurity)
Square’s first role-playing game sure has a lot going for it. For starters, it eschews fantasy traditions for sci-fi flavor, …
Fantasian (Dark Age of JRPGs)
Among the early Japanese RPG scene, Xtalsoft’s Mugen no Shinzou series is well known for combining the exploration of Ultima …
Animal Land Satsujin Jiken
Enix kickstarted the whole mystery Japanese adventure game craze of the 80s with Portopia Satsujin Renzoku Jiken, which was followed …
Cease and Desist – Parodies and Infringement in Video Games
Much of the video game industry was the Wild West during the 80s, particularly in Japan. Since it wasn’t regulated …
Paladin (Dark Age of JRPGs)
Paladin (or “The Paladin“, as written in-game) is an early action-RPG released by Bothtec in 1985. Various Japanese sites indicate …
Cross-Series Cameo: Adol in Lunar: The Silver Star
Video game publishers occasionally cross-reference competitors titles in cheeky ways, though sometimes have to be done subtly to avoid copyright …
Riglas (Dark Age of JRPGs)
Most RPGs of the 80s utilized an overhead view or a first person perspective, while a select few (such as …
Weird 2 (Dark Age of JRPGs)
I thought a game named Weird 2 would be an interesting game to cover for this column…but nope! It’s actually …
Overseas Sequels
The cultural appeal of certain video games can vary greatly around the world, sometimes having vastly different receptions based on …
Sengoku Turb
This entry was written for the Japanese Video Game Obscurities book, which is currently being crowdfunded on Kickstarter. The campaign …
The Three Great She-Devils of Square
Among the Japanese RPG fanbase, there’s a specific term for a set of female characters largely disliked by the audience: …
