Sega's Phantasy Star Online in Japanese arcades (2004: Quest of D ~ 2014: Shining Force Cross Exlesia Zenith )

[Dooble]

Quest of D is an action RPG released only in Japanese arcades by AM2 in 2004.

It is dark fantasy dungeon crawler using the Chihiro arcade hardware which is basically an original Xbox with more RAM. It really is PSO for arcades.

Interrestingly, IGN covered this game when it was showcased at a Japanese arcade expo:
https://www.ign.com/articles/2004/09/04/quest-of-d-playtest

Excerpt:

Sega-AM2's Online dungeon crawler is almost set for arcade release in Japan, making it one of the main focuses of Sega's booth at the JAMMA arcade show, now running in Tokyo. Sega has Quest of D playable via four sit-down units, with lovely Sega girls explaining the intricacies of the game as show goers give it a try.
We took this opportunity to see what the fuss with this title is all about, and were immediately impressed with what we saw. Quest of D incorporates many of Sega's arcade technologies into what looks like a showpiece title.

Try this for a list of standard equipment. Quest of D utilizes the Chihiro arcade board, currently the most powerful arcade board in arcades. It makes use of Sega's Online arcade network, allowing players across Japan to play together. It uses a touch-panel screen allowing for direct input from the player. It uses an analogue joystick, allowing for smooth control (most arcade joysticks are 8-way). It uses not one, but two card readers. One reader accepts a deck of "D Force Cards," analyzing analyzing them and then placing them into the game. Another accepts an IC card which is used to save player data.

On your first time playing Quest of D, you're required to create a character. When creating your character, you can choose its sex and its job, selecting between warrior, magician and priest.

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Around 2004, the concept of Japanese companies building games exclusively for their arcades with no overseas release of any kind, was still foreign. So it was still expected that the games showcased at the expos over there would be playable at home in some form, so journalists would go cover them. It was common practive in the 90's.
But alas the game never made it out there anywhere. It got various version updates with the last one being Ver 3.0 in 2008.

I always thought this was a fascinating title for three reasons: dark fantasy was not that common in Japanese action RPG's (Dark Souls sure changed that). The gacha elements with physical trading cards predates what is prevalent with lootboxes today. However it sounds so much more fun to have physical cards that you collect and trade in the real world and you have a community around you to trade with. And finally, this is made by Sega AM2 after Shenmue II and OutRun 2, and it's what became part of their development work for a long time.

Shining Force Cross is the unofficial sequel to Quest of D. It has nothing to do with Shining Force. Nothing. Why they called it that, I don't know. Pull in more people maybe? Well it is more casualized from what I can gather from JP Wikipedia. Also there is no CCG element. Looking at gameplay, it reminds me of the over the top action of PSO2 or KH2 rather than the slow and methodical PSO1 or Souls series. This one got updated all the way up to 2014.

Both games got an official soundtrack release. The composers are veterans such as Sachio Ogawa who was involved in music in Sega games since Sonic 3, or Fumio Ito who's work dates back to Virtua Fighter 3.

Anyone ever played these games? If so, what are your thoughts on them.

 

[Tailzo]

I always wanted this for consoles :(

 

[Dooble]

I always wanted this for consoles :(

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Sega did not have any loot action rpg's on consoles from '08 to '16 (basically the period where Phantasy Star was on handhelds) so Sega could have ported it then. Capcom had Monster Hunter on Wii, so there was a market.