Super FamiComplete #113: Yokoyama Mitsuteru Sangokushi

Title: Yokoyama Mitsuteru Sangokushi (trans. Yokoyama Mitsuteru's version of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms)

Release: 06/26/1992

Developer: Tose

Publisher: Angel

Once again we have returned to the bane of this blog: a Japanese exclusive strategy rpg about either the Romance of the Three Kingdoms or the Sengoku period in Japan. This one is about the former: you can see a Zhuge Liang staring right at you with his telltale feather fan and Guan Yu with his beautiful beard right on the box. This will most likely be rather inscrutable.

Background

Yokoyama Mitsuteru was a manga artist who started work in the 1950s, making him one of those stalwarts of the manga industry and a contemporary of the greats such as Osamu Tezuka. He worked diligently in the industry up until his death in 2004, and was known for such works as Tetsujin-28-go a mecha manga, Sally the Witch and Princess Comet, some of the first "magical girl" manga, and most important for today's blog post, manga based on classic Chinese literature such as The Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Water Margins. 

While his work never reached international acclaim like Tezuka, he was a much loved manga author in Japan, winning a multitude of awards and with much of his work being adapted into anime, film, and as here, video games. This game is based on the manga of the same name, and is a retelling of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. For those who don't remember read our earlier blog post on the Koei game of the same name, never played a Dynasty Warriors game, or aren't familiar with Chinese literature or literature, the Romance of the Three Kingdoms is considered one of the great classics of Chinese literature, written by Luo Guanzhong. The Romance of the Three Kingdoms tells the story of the dissolution of the Han Dynasty in China, one of the more powerful early dynasties that existed around the same time as the Roman Empire, and the resultant civil war that erupted between the Wu, Shu, and Wei kingdoms. 

The "three kingdoms" break down as follows: you have the Wu, led by the Sun family (of Sun Tzu fame), represented the old guard nobility steeped in family history and tradition (but ultimately ineffectual and callous to the common man and the welfare of China as a state), the Wei led by the despotic Cao Cao, represented military prowess, authoritarianism, and ruthlessness, and the Shu, led by the idealistic Lui Bei and his two sworn brothers, are often considered the "heroes" of this tale, representing the can-do attitude and gumption of the common man in the face of overwhelming odds. It is a much loved story both in China and the world abroad, and many of the people from this tale have been elevated into legends and folklore. 

Yokoyama Mitsuteru Sangokushi is Mitsuteru's retelling of the story in a way that is pretty comprehensive; all the various factions are represented, though the story gives special weight to the Shu and Wei factions. The "drama" of the period is especially heightened, and there is a romance subplot built upon between Liu Bei and a girl he saves during the Yellow Turban Rebellion (the inciting incident for this plot). The manga ran for an impressive 16 years and 60 volumes, which speaks for itself it terms of popularity. 

As far as developer we have the faithful workhorse, Tose, and the publisher is Angel (later absorbed into Bandai), whom we have seen a couple of times thus far in the blog publishing some other Japanese exclusive games. 

Gameplay

Now a quick proviso right up front: once again I do not speak Japanese nor read their written word and there is no working translation available for this game online, so this review will be rather short and making best guesses. 

Like Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the story has "scenarios" that you play through, which act as the set dressing for the game itself. Now you can play through this scenario in a whole multitude of different ways and don't need to follow the narrative of the story, but it is there to give context to the different factions. The first scenario starts at what is considered the "inciting incident" of the Three Kingdoms era, which is the Yellow Turban Rebellion. This was a populist and religious rebellion centered around a cult of mystics who wished to overthrow the Han Dynasty, and the noble families and many of the central heroes of the three kingdoms era cut their teeth on the during this revolt. In this scenario it looks like you play the heroes of the Han court in its final days. The second scenario starts right at the actual civil war between the three kingdoms. You can choose who your starting side and build your kingdom from their starting zone. 

Sadly, though, there isn't too much more I can really say beyond this. It is a menu have 4X strategy game, and I couldn't figure out how to progress out of my turn, or exactly what actions I was enacting. The presentation is pretty solid: they incorporate the art and styling of Mitsuteru into the game pretty well, which gives your generals and nobles much more personality than in the Romance games. Many of your menu screens will be against splash backgrounds depicting scenes in a city or in the royal court. 

Music

The music is pretty solid too! 

Manga and Anime

Instead of showing advertisements, I figured I would show off more of the manga and anime this game is based on...

Final Verdict

It certainly is a neat oddity of a game, but one that is inscrutable unless you are a language speaker and reader. And with that, we are done June 1992 EXCEPT for the US developed games.

 

Super FamiComplete #112: Sougou Kakutougi Astral Bout

 

Title: Sougou Kakutougi Astral Bout

Release Date: 06/26/1992

Developer: A-Wave

Publisher: King Records

Here we have another Japanese exclusive game with an amazing example of box art that could only exist in the 90s. This one seems to be a wrestling game of some kind, so let's jump in. 

Background

So this game is based on the Japanese equivalent of 90s UFC. The UFC was very different in the 90's; nowadays, the fighting styles utilized in the sport are homogenized into that MMA style: lots of striking leading to grappling on the floor. 90's UFC though, was truly a competition between various forms of martial arts: you would have sumo vs the riot cop, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu vs Greco-Roman Wrestling. UFC would primarily make its money through pay-per-view style distribution, and then VHS and DVD sales.  It was kind of a carnival of strange gladiatorial combat, available at Blockbusters everywhere. 

This game is based on a similar organization in Japan, called the Fighting Network Rings. The roster in this game is actually based on some of the fighters that worked at that time in the league. FNR, like the original version of UFC, went out of fashion in the early 2000s, with many of the fighters instead moving over to the "pro-wrestling" leagues in Japan. 

The developer I really can't find anything about online. They made some other games in the 1990s but only a few titles that made it to North America. The publisher, as you can tell from the name, was actually a record producer founded in the 1930s, but also started to dabble in the video game market in the 1980s and 1990s. They are personally noted for publishing the game with the raddest title Jesus: Bio Monster." 

Roster

In this game, you have representatives of 9 major "fighting styles" personified by some of the fighters that were in the FNR in the 90s...actually after doing some research, there definitely seems to be some real people and some fictional characters. The boxer, for example, is basically Mike Tyson...weird.

You have Barnov Grainer, who fought using Sambo, the Russian grappling and striking style, Somchai Pet Noi, the Muay Thai fighter, Akira Maeda, a Japanese professional wrestler, Kenji Takezawa, a Japanese karate fighter, Shiro Kimura, a Japanese Judo expert, James Taylor, a boxer from the US, Lee Wang-Yu, a kung fu expert from China, Billy J. Gibson, a US kickboxer, and Spell Falcon, a luchador.

Gameplay

Its a pretty stock standard wrestling game. You pick your character and slowly fight through the roster. Beat every character and you win the championship. The characters favor the moves that are prominent in their fighting style; in other words, every character can punch, kick, grapple, do reversals, and pin, but some characters favor one attack over the other. The boxer is the strongest puncher, the kickboxer the strongest kicker, etc. Your characters also do have a super meter and a special attack that you can utilize, though it takes a while to fill, and it is easy to lose the super meter by taking hits.

Overall, the gameplay is really weak: if you aren't using your character's strength, then you are losing the fights. Even when you are winning, you are just mercilessly cheesing the enemy with the same move until they get knocked out. If you are losing, the best thing to do is run around the ring and avoid until the round is over, as you get some of your stamina back between rounds. 

Also, the game just doesn't look good. All the characters are compressed sprites, and the color palette is incredibly blah. 

OST

The music isn't much to write home about...

Final Verdict

This game will actually spawn two sequels, both of which we will play over the course of this blog. Overall, though, this game is pretty forgettable. It is certainly better than Pit Fighter but it still isn't that good. Skip this one!

Super FamiComplete #111: Koushien 2

 

Title: Koushien 2

Release Date: 06/26/1992 (Japanese only release)

Developer: Affect

Publisher: K Amusement Leasing

While Koushien 2 is yet another baseball game, it does have the distinction of being the first game to be solely about the Japanese baseball league, known as the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). While I enjoy the sport of baseball, I haven't been invested in American baseball in some time, mainly due to being a Baltimorean and having one of the consistently lousiest baseball teams to follow in the Orioles. Now I have had the privilege of seeing a baseball game in Japan, a match between the Yokohama Baystars defending their home turf against the Tokyo Giants.

 Japanese baseball is quite exciting: there is a lot of pageantry and ritual surrounding the sport for both the teams and fans alike. In Japan it is much more of a team sport, and individual players are not showcased for their talents. Each game begins with both teams removing their caps and bowing to one another, and you will only see good sportsmanship and camaraderie on either side. Each team has a set of songs, dances, and chants that their fans perform at set times. Fans get decked out, as well, in ridiculous garb and bring noise makers, flags, and paraphernalia to help cheer on their team. The food at the parks, too, is really quite good. All in all, the energy is quite infectious and it made the sport feel alive in ways that American baseball just hasn't for me in quite some time. 

Background

Now you wouldn't know this as a person who can't read Japanese script, but this is actually a high school Japanese baseball game, so we aren't playing with any well known Japanese baseball teams. You are actually playing through the tournament bracket that Japanese schools have every summer. Koushien, actually, refers to the Hanshin Koshien stadium near Kobe Japan, home of the Hanshin Tigers, and where the yearly high school tournament is held. 

This game was developed by Affect, which showed up before on this blog as the developers for Nolan Ryan's Baseball. They developed games up until they shut down in 2008, but mainly little known Japanese titles that were never brought to the states.

Now the publisher is a new one for the blog: K Amusement Leasing. There really isn't much about this company available online. They did develop Koushien 1 for the NES, but mainly published other sports games for the Super Famicom. Their most well known published games I could find were the Ikari Warriors games, but those are also notoriously bad. 

Gameplay

Well the game is actually, dare I say, the best baseball game we have gotten thus far for the blog. The character sprites are big and well animated, the controls are to pick up, and the game moves at an energetic and brisk pace. The game interjects aspects of Japanese baseball into the play, such as fan chants and both teams bowing to each other before and after the game, giving this game a very unique flavor. 

Overall, though, it is still a baseball game, and perhaps an overly simplistic one at that. This is as barebones as a baseball game gets, for better and for worse. It is quite charming though, and it is probably the best representation yet of real proportioned people playing baseball. 

Music

The music is simple and based on the popular baseball chants that Japanese fans sing at the games. 

Final Verdict

The Koushien series actually had many entries into the early 00's, with the last entry being for the PS2. This means we will actually see the next two sequels somewhere down the line on this blog. Overall, this is a fun baseball game! You caught me on the right day Koushien 2. I'd collect it!