Super FamiComplete #95: Maka Maka

 

Title: Maka Maka 

Release Date: 04/24/1992

Developer: Office Koukan

Publisher: Sigma Ent. Inc. 

This is a strange one. Maka Maka is yet another JRPG that never made it west, and while it is obscure, it has a reputation for its absurd story and monster design. It is a Japanese RPG made as a joke making fun of other RPGs. While this game pops up regularly online as in listicles of  "well goodness isn't Japan just the strangest," very little in roads have been made into actually seeing what this game is about. There have been no significant translations developed (or even in development), some incomplete let's plays on Youtube, and very little else; this game doesn't even pop up on Mobygames (please someone correct me if I am just blind. So, while this blog post will not rectify this, as my inability to read or translate Japanese precluded me from making much headway into this game (I am not going to experience another GDLeen nightmare), I would at least like to encompass what this game is all about, if I can. 

What is this mess?

The developer behind this is a very obscure game developer named Office Koukan, who developed only Japanese only titles, and mainly Pachinko and game show simulators. They went defunct around 2006, after an unsuccessful pivot to developing mobile games. I would even take this with a grain of salt, as most of the typical internet resources seem to relay their information on this developer with an implied shrug. The publisher is a bit more well-known, primarily because of the now infamous runner entitled Pepsi Man. Other than that title, though, they really didn't publish much, and never outside of Japan. 

Maka Maka, as mentioned before, is designed as an absurdist comedic take on RPGs. The design behind the game was a satiric manga artist known as Koji Aihara. Koji Aihara is known, in his works, for his command of the manga medium as a tool for satire: many of his works poke fun at the industry, Japanese society, and the reader as well. Yet, though his works are satirical and goofy, much of his artistry and craftsmanship is incredibly detailed and thought provoking. Many of his fans applaud his ability to tell an emotionally impactful message within the space of a single yonkama (traditional manga comic strip). While this, admittedly, is the internet book report style summation of this author, he seems interesting enough that I will see if any of his work is available. Here are some examples of some of his work and art style. 

This game is a turn based RPG, and focuses on the main character who is a young boy, but the reincarnation of a hero who slayed a demon prince millennia ago. Of course, the demon prince is now back, and is sending his minions to slay the boy. The minions include a cannibalistic space princess, sentient ants, and Ultraman style action heroes. All-in-all, this is a very strange game. 

Famously, this game shipped incomplete. The grasp of the developers exceeded their reach, in that by the time came to ship, this game was only in a prototype stage. The publisher, in this case, decided the best course of action was to ship the incomplete prototype to market, making this an incredibly buggy game. If you check out the tvtropes page for Maka Maka (aside from watching a let's play, one of the best ways to glean any information on this game), they list the multitude of ways that this game can soft lock you or scrub your entire save file. Some wonderful examples include if you lose a boss fight (which the game is also known for its difficulty) being kicked out of the room where the boss fight takes place, and being blocked from getting back in. Another triggers if you overheal your main character, which will start to warp the environments around you and eventually corrupt not only your save file, but the permanent programming of the game itself. The one I consider the most hilarious is if you decide to grind. If you max out your stats and then level up again, your stats revert to zero and start over, which has led to some rage posts online as people can't complete the game due to being stuck in too difficult a portion of the game. 

The state of this game is a real shame, as there was obviously a lot of care and neat ideas put into this game. One of the dungeons is after you are devoured by the cannibal space princess, Princess Gourmet, and the dungeon takes place throughout her digestive track. At one point you experience and travel to all the past lives of your eight party members, each taking place in a different time period (very Live a Live). Overall, the game seems to relish in disturbing the player and providing a surreal experience. Just check out some of these screen shots and enemy designs. 

Strangely enough, this game did receive a psuedo-sequel in the form of Idea no Hi, which was also designed by Koji Aihara. It is a game we will cover in two years (in terms of the blog; so probably in a decade or two knowing the pace of which I write this). 

Music

Here are some samples!

Ads

Weirdly enough, this game has some Japanese print ads. 

All in all, I am disappointed that I really couldn't dig into this game. It looked so quirky and strange. Oh well. Back to some normal-ass normal SNES games for a bit.