 by now we're all at least a little familiar with some of the more popular super Famicom RPGs that never came out in North America. Games like Final Fantasy 5, Seiken Densetsu 3, Bahamut Lagoon, that kind of stuff. But I want to dedicate a video to talk about a game that is right on that level, Chaos Seed, developed by Neverland, the same people who created the Super Nintendo Luffy a series as well as the very good energy breaker game that was also released only in Japan. Chaos Seed is a game of huge ideas both in terms of gameplay and story. Your party is a group of cave dwellers that are mysteriously in sync with these particular caves somehow. They're able to read their energy based on their shape and relative spacing to each other in order to read their own planet's health. I guess it's kind of like palm reading except with the earth or something? Anyway there's a big mix up and some people are misled to believe that the caverns are the cause of the planet's slow decay and draining energy. So it's up to your character to defend and rebuild the caverns accordingly. And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the dragon you meet right away that tears your soul into pieces and somehow displaces it in different dimensions. Oh is that all? Okay. The gameplay is every bit as whacked out as the story and I admit it's a little difficult to figure out what and how you're supposed to do anything in Chaos Seed. But the game does an admirable job in explaining and demonstrating various aspects as you progress further and further. Explaining as basic as I can, you build caverns by creating these rooms. You assign a room at particular elemental power. Earth, fire, water, wood, or metal. Sadly the metal element does not automatically summon Iron Maiden. You also have to clear the room of any obstacles in your way and by that I mean fight enemies and top-down Secret or Mana style combat. Visually and mechanically the real-time combat here is top-notch. As good as you could hope for in a game of this style. Anyway the goal in each cavern is to build a system of elemental rooms that flow together harmoniously to give the planet its energy back. Is that weird enough for you? The best way I can describe it is that it's kind of like Sim City. Like if you want residential areas to flourish, you have to put them by parks while keeping them away from polluted industrial areas. And if you want commercial areas to succeed, you need to build it near an airport or near the water. It's similar to that. It's all about mindful placement and careful spacing. You have to find the nexus of each room and funnel the energy into that area. You take turns between room building mode and a kind of maintenance mode so you can view how your rooms are responding. While you're doing this you'll occasionally be interrupted by monsters that you have purposefully or inadvertently summoned or by soldiers from the outside that want to stop you because they think you're doing more harm than good. I know that all sounds complicated but again just trust how the game explains it and you should be fine. And that brings me to the English translation. I know sometimes those can be a bit dicey. There are some English patches that are several years old that just aren't very good or reliable at all. Chaos Seed features an English patch written by the people at Dynamic Designs and they did an amazing job making a very complicated game and what I'd imagine is a very complicated translation into something that flows naturally instead of clunky and confusing. So big time kudos to them and if you play Chaos Seed show them some appreciation. I should also mention that Chaos Seed got a Sega Saturn release two years later, also in Japan. Sadly I haven't been able to find a way to play that one yet but from what I've seen it also looks really good. Anyway if you're looking for a totally original RPG experience you gotta play Chaos Seed. The learning curve is kind of steep I'll admit. In fact there's a ton of stuff I haven't even mentioned yet that's kind of hard to go over but the game does a much better job explaining it as you're playing than I ever could. So yeah if you're looking for something totally different go check out Chaos Seed.