PC-Engine Japan-only adventure/VN/RPG recommendations?

[Schlomo]

I'm currently getting my PC-Engine Duo RGB-modded and I'm wondering if anyone here can give me some recommendations for games that are rarely discussed in the West because of the language barrier.

I'm familiar with the more famous series and titles like Ys, Langrisser, Tengai Makyo, Snatcher, Tokimeki Memorial etc. of course, so I'm looking for more obscure titles (or at least obscure in the West) that are worth a play or in some way remarkable or cool-looking.

 

[Cucurbitacée]

I'd probably recommend a bunch of shoot'em up, but not sure that's what you are looking for.

EDIT. I'll pick the RPG and Visual Novel I have in my collection and talk about them. Please note that I can't read Japanese and I got these games for so cheap back in the day that I could not buy them.

Monster Maker (RPG): I like the graphics and music, but never went really far.

Patlabor (Digital Comic): I watched some of the anime beforehand and played for quite some time but never finished it.

The Secret of Blue Water (Digital Comic): I really liked the anime and actually finished this one, one of my favourite.

Galaxy Fraulein Yuna (Digital Comic): I never went very far into this one, magical girls are not my thing.

 

[Glimlocker]

I'm currently getting my PC-Engine Duo RGB-modded and I'm wondering if anyone here can give me some recommendations for games that are rarely discussed in the West because of the language barrier.

I'm familiar with the more famous series and titles like Ys, Langrisser, Tengai Makyo, Snatcher, Tokimeki Memorial etc. of course, so I'm looking for more obscure titles (or at least obscure in the West) that are worth a play or in some way remarkable or cool-looking.

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Wow, this is delightfully obscure, and I love it!

I can only speak on some RPGs - Moonlight Lady is a fun little anime style Action RPG. Nice production values on this one, and it's somewhat playable without knowledge of the language.

Blood Gear is supposedly one of the better RPGs on the system, also a bit of an action RPG, I believe? It's a mech-based RPG that also seems to have a fair deal of polish on it. Haven't gotten too far...

Gulliver Boy has a great rendition on the PCE, especially with an arcade card. Even with just a System 3.0, the cutscenes still look great!

Definitely don't forget about the port of Popful Mail, which is much more closely based off of the original PC-98(?) version, unlike the popular Sega CD version. It's still old-school Falcon bump combat, but a ton of fun.

One of the better looking RPGs on the system is Sol Moonarge. I have no idea if this is a good game, but it looks amazing! I may end up buying this just for the uniqueness of the game.

You also have some other more well-known ones, such as Xak and Emerald Dragon.

The comics/VN above look excellent. Hudson made consistently amazing games on this system, so I think you'll be good with any of those. Makes me wish I could read fluent Japanese.

 

[Schlomo]

Thanks! Those three licensed games are exactly the type of adventure game I'm looking for. Any original works (not based on manga/anime) with that kind of "gameplay"? Preferably sci-fi/fantasy/detective story themed and not dating sims.

 

[eXistor]

Just out of curiosity: can you read Japanese? Otherwise I'd wager you'd get almost no enjoyment out of VN's and story-heavy games. I suppose you could enjoy some rpg's using a guide, but would it really be worth all the trouble?

 

[Schlomo]

Just out of curiosity: can you read Japanese? Otherwise I'd wager you'd get almost no enjoyment out of VN's and story-heavy games. I suppose you could enjoy some rpg's using a guide, but would it really be worth all the trouble?

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I can. I guess it would be easier to search Japanese websites on this topic as well, haha. Just thought I'd ask here first.

 

[eXistor]

I can. I guess it would be easier to search Japanese websites on this topic as well, haha. Just thought I'd ask here first.

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Ok cool, I wish I could. You have a lot of options open to you then, kinda jealous actually :)

 

[Schlomo]

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Thanks for your recommendations too, some of those look amazing! With RPGs from that time I'm always a little afraid that they'll be too tedious to actually play.

 

[Glimlocker]

Thanks for your recommendations too, some of those look amazing! With RPGs from that time I'm always a little afraid that they'll be too tedious to actually play.

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Hm. In that case, I'd stick with the ARPGs Moonlight Lady and Blood Gear, and the Falcom bump-combat games (Xak series, Popful Mail).

But, man - so many good little gems on the system, quite a few of which were never released on other systems, to my knowledge.

Blood Gear is developed in part by Westone, of Wonder Boy in Monster World fame. I wish I was further, but my JP language skills aren't nearly good enough to get through.

A few more games I thought of:
- Falcom's Legend of Xanadu series is fantastic. Pretty similar to Ys, just as fun to me.
- Magicoal is a unique two-player Action RPG that's pretty solid
- You can and should also play through the original versions of Exile (XZR), before Working Designs got ahold of it.

 

[Takuhi]

Ys IV, Emerald Dragon and Linda Cube are the must-play RPGs that come readily to mind.

The only visual novel I remember really enjoying was 3x3 Eyes, but it was one of the first VN's I ever played and I was a big 3x3 Eyes fan so I'm not sure how it stands up nowadays.

 

[LiquidPolicenaut]

I can recommend the Snatcher-esque Dead of the Brain I & II. The last game released for the PC-E in Japan and one of the rarest, it's a pretty good port of the PC-98 original...

 

[Deleted member 12790]

dead of the brain I and II is a great game

 

[mogster7777]

This console seems to have some really great JRPGs and platformers that noone has played because they never got localised. How come there were so many on this and PCE-CD? Any particular reason? Nearly all of them have no fan translation which is a shame. What are the best JRPG's on the system besides Ys? Is Dungeon Explorer good?

They also seemed to have very good music especially the CD format versions of the games. Even the chip tunes of the cartridge versions were superior to anything at the time and sound fine today.

There's something about this console thats really cool. It had really nice pixel art in the games too which seemed way better than the NES at the time, and still holds up extremely well.

 

[Deleted member 12790]

This console seems to have some really great JRPGs and platformers that noone has played because they never got localised. How come there were so many on this and PCE-CD? Any particular reason? Nearly all of them have no fan translation which is a shame. What are the best JRPG's on the system besides Ys? Is Dungeon Explorer good?

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Dungeon Explorer (ESPECIALLY Dungeon Explorer II) is great but it's not really a JRPG. It's more like gauntlet with heavy RPG elements.

Probably the best known JRPG series on the PCE would be the Cosmic Fantasy series. only one of the four ever came to the US. Oddly enough it was the second in the series. it was one of working designs first major projects.

 

[Glimlocker]

This console seems to have some really great JRPGs and platformers that noone has played because they never got localised. How come there were so many on this and PCE-CD? Any particular reason? Nearly all of them have no fan translation which is a shame. What are the best JRPG's on the system besides Ys? Is Dungeon Explorer good?

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See the OT post and my posts above for a good list!

For turn-based JRPGs, I'd probably agree Cosmic Fantasy, but also Dragon Slayer is an excellent title.

For ARPGs, see most Falcom titles on the system, with my highest recommendation being the Legend of Xanadu series!

 

[takoyaki]

One VN that's considered a cult classic is Shin Onryō Senki (真怨霊戦記).

I've only purchased it very recently and haven't played much of it yet, but it's supposed to be a very good occult horror/detective VN with some impressive freedom during the investigation gameplay elements.

Another interesting horror VN is "Hyaku Monogatari: Honto ni Atta Kowai Hanashi" (百物語 ほんとにあった怖い話). It's a horror/ghost story anthology that contains dozens of short stories.

EDIT: The Neutopia games are much cheaper if you go with the Japanese versions.

And different genres, but check out the Hanii games if you're looking for something weird that's not too expensive. There's two games, a shmup and and a sidescroller, where you play as a Haniwa doll.

http://www.videogameden.com/hucard.htm?hor

http://www.videogameden.com/hucard.htm?his

One more tip: I found books that cover the whole software line-up of a console to be a great starting point when you want to get a quick overview and find some hidden gems. Much better and more efficient than randomly searching old Japanese websites imo. This one about the PC Engine is great, it covers all the Japanese games with pictures and short descriptions. There's another similar one I haven't read, but the N64 and GBA books by the same author are fantastic.

 

[takoyaki]

Bump for visibility, let's keep this thread going and share some more rarely discussed PC Engine games!

Another RPG that looks really interesting, "Laplace no Ma" (ラプラスの魔). A horror RPG by Human that's giving me Sweet Home vibes. Not a PC Engine exclusive, also on SNES, X68000 and MSX..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laplace_no_Ma

This video game is a mixture of the role-playing video game and survival horror genres and set in the vicinity of Boston, Massachusetts in a town called "Newcam", it is modeled after the fictional city Arkham created by H. P. Lovecraft.

The horror part of the game lies in the exploration of the fictional Weathertop Mansion, whose owner dabbled in black magic. The game's CRPG features include its character classes—Dilettante, Medium, Detective, Scientist, and Journalist—and that the player can leave the mansion to walk around the town to go to shops to buy items needed to defeat the monsters and complete the game.

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[Glimlocker]

Bump for visibility, let's keep this thread going and share some more rarely discussed PC Engine games!

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There are soooo many exclusives or exclusive ports on this system, it's such a shame few people are aware of them.

I'm fascinated by all these VN games, as I've played very few, if any, on any system.

The real question is how you folks learned Japanese well enough to get through all these games! It's a bit of a life goal of mine...

Another recommendation for a point and click is the Space Adventure Cobra series. The second one was released in the west on the Sega CD and is now one of the most expensive games on that system - which is saying a lot.

The PCE CD version of Cobra II? You can buy it for under $10 on eBay, along with the first game.

 

[Bitanator]

Tenshi no Uta 1 & 2
Startling Odyssey 1& 2
Cosmic Fantasy 3 & 4 games are worth checking out