 Sssssmmmmm... that's strong! Hi there, welcome to part 5? I've done 5 of these things now? Geeze. But yeah, part 5 of the English-translated Super Famicom RPG series. As usual, I have to mention that a lot of the more popular games have already been covered in earlier parts like Final Fantasy V, Second Densetsu 3, Live or Live, on and on. In part 5, I want to take a look at the most popular Super Famicom role-playing games based on anime. Well, the games that have been translated anyway. This is an interesting category because these games are made for a specific audience. You usually have to be a big fan of the show to have any incentive whatsoever to enjoy the game. Just to be upfront, I will say I only have a passing knowledge of stuff like Magic Night Ray Earth, Dragon Ball Z, Sailor Moon, and the like. I am however very familiar with Tenchi Muyo, Ranma, and Slayers. In fact let's start with Slayers, one of my favorite anime TV series ever. It's a fantastic blend of humor, fantasy, and storytelling. This game in particular however was actually released right before the anime series started, so it's mostly based on the Slayers' novels. Most of the familiar characters are here though, like Gauri, Emilia, and Zelgadis, and some characters from the Slayers' special novels are here too, like Naga. The game's story has Lena losing her memory, which of course lends itself to a video game format because it's the convenient reason to gain experience for the purpose of re-learning all her spells. She eventually comes to find out that the greater beast, Zelos, has been creating clones of her and I won't spoil the rest of the story, but it is pretty good and it's definitely faithful to the Slayers universe, especially the artwork and dialogue. I love at the beginning here when she's discovered by this small village and after realizing who she is, they decided best to just dump her into a pit full of goblins. Yup, that sounds about right. The gameplay itself is very standard Final Fantasy type stuff, they're gonna find that a recurring theme throughout this video. There's nothing unique or out of the ordinary in that department. There's up to four characters in your party at a time, but you don't really get to choose who and when, the story pretty much dictates that for you. So yeah, this is one of those games made for Slayers fans and people already familiar with the series. But even if you're not, this is still a fun straightforward JRPG if you're looking for something new to scratch that itch. And arguably it does that slightly better than the other games on this list. Slayers will definitely make you laugh, that's for sure. Just don't expect anything beyond the basics when it comes to gameplay. As I mentioned earlier, I'm also familiar with the Tenchi Muyo series. And Tenchi Muyo Game Hen is another game that does a great job representing the Tenchi universe. As you can see right away here, this game looks freaking fantastic. The pixel art here is tremendous, and every character sprite is so detailed. However, this is a turn-based strategy, RPG, and you're pretty much locked into set paths the entire game. There's no open world exploring at all, really. So that's kind of disappointing. If you're used to stuff like Front Mission or Tactics Ogre, then Tenchi Muyo Game Hen is a steep step down from stuff like that. Characters level up based on individual monsters defeated, and there's a maximum of eight levels each can earn. So yeah, the gameplay here is very linear and limited. Still, this simplified approach does fit reasonably well with the source material, and you do get to pick from several characters before each battle, and you unlock more as you go along, including characters like Ayaka's bodyguards. The story is of course centered around Ayaka and Ryoko fighting to impress Tenchi. Then suddenly this strange girl appears from out of nowhere and kidnaps Sasami, because she wants to test everyone's fighting skills, I guess? If you're not a fan of the show, there's not much incentive to play Tenchi Muyo Game Hen, unless you just want to get your feet wet with a turn-based strategy RPG. But even in that case, you can find better elsewhere. However, if you are a fan of Tenchi Muyo, this game is great, with a fantastic English translation, great dialogue, and again, this game just looks really good. So yeah, if you like the show, you'll love the game. Otherwise, I would only play Tenchi Muyo Game Hen if you're looking to play a straightforward linear strategy RPG. Mahokishi Ray Earth, or Magic Night Ray Earth, is another great-looking game that represents the series well. The pixel art for the characters is top-notch, and the battles are reminiscent of Breath of Fire. The story has you play as three high school girls that get transported to another world, called Saphiro, and of course it's up to them, and only them, to save Princess Emerald. Her prayers bring peace and happiness to all, but after being kidnapped by the evil High Priest Zagato, Saphiro descends into chaos. In other words, pretty standard stuff. Unfortunately, as great as this game looks, it is really, really easy. Like just pound the A button, don't bother healing, don't bother with any thought to strategy whatsoever. You could finish this game in your sleep. You gain a level almost every battle, so as a result, Magic Night Ray Earth is pretty boring. The only reason I'd recommend this one is if you're a big fan of the show, otherwise it's just not worth playing. If you're looking to scratch that enemy RPG itch, you're better off with Slayers or Tenchi. Ranma One Half, Akane Kodan, Teki Hiho, is a bit better. Again, I hate to sound like a broken record, but the gameplay here is traditional Final Fantasy Dragon Quest style stuff, nothing you wouldn't see anywhere else. And that's mostly by design, because out of any game on this list, this is the most fan-friendly game, and I mean, at least most of the other games here make some kind of attempt to appeal to a general audience. But if you've never seen or even heard of Ranma, you'll have a hard time understanding what the heck is supposed to be going on. And the game does not apologize for that. All this series in jokes are here, lots of running gags, infighting, all the characters are their usual, unusual selves. And of course, the story is centered around Ranma's ability to change into a girl when doused in cold water and back into a boy when doused in hot water. It doesn't stop to explain very much, to the point that the story is kind of hard to talk about, without going into the entire plot of the show. And I won't bore you with those details, I'll just say it's exactly what you'd expect from an episode of Ranma 1.5. Now we get into Dragon Ball Z, with Dragon Ball Z Super Seya Densetsu. As you can see, this game looks a little rough around the edges, that's because it came out in January 1992, pretty early on in the SNES lifespan, and it shows. And dear god that battle music will be burned into your brain after playing this for even an hour. The combat system here is at least a little something different and follows sort of a card game format, wherein each fight your party has dealt five random cards. On the upper left of the card is a number, Zed being the most powerful attack, and one being the weakest. The lower right is the defense power the card represents, the cards with the blue letters in the middle are energy attacks, and the yellow letters in the middle are the more powerful attacks. Of course, since this is an early SNES RPG, you can expect that just like Lufia and Breath of Fire and the like, the encounter rate here is insane. The story is your typical Dragon Ball Z stuff. I'm more powerful than you, no, I'm more powerful than you, you know, that kind of thing. I don't think this game is worth playing on its own if you're not into Dragon Ball Z, and even if you are, your mileage might vary here. The visuals and sounds aren't anything to write home about, and the encounter rate is a bummer. But there are up to 12 playable characters from the show, and I mean it is a Dragon Ball Z role-playing game. If you're a huge fan and you didn't know this existed, then yeah, there's a chance you'll like it. Otherwise, nah, no thanks. Next there's Bishouju Senchi Sailor Moon, another story. This is one of the better games on this list, and a pretty good JRPG in general, even if you don't care for Sailor Moon. Although I have to say this is right up there with Ranma as another example of a game that if you're not a fan of Sailor Moon, it can be tough to get into. However, the difference is that the translation here is excellent, and the game does a fine job bringing the player up to speed. It's mostly based on the Sailor Moon manga with some aspects from the anime scattered here and there, and I believe it takes place after the third season, technically speaking. But yeah, the story is structured in a way that it plays out like an entire season of Sailor Moon, full of twists and turns and monsters of the week, so to speak. So while it may be confusing to follow the story, it's definitely still playable. For the combat system, Bishouju Senchi Sailor Moon, another story, is actually a little more elaborate than other anime games. You have set formations, for example, and you only get a maximum of 12 MP, the catch being that it regenerates every battle. Most spells at the beginning of the game only cost 3 MP, but it does get to a point where you have to be careful about picking and choosing your spots for certain spells. And I emphasize the word careful because this game is hard, like 10 times harder than I thought it would be going in. The biggest flaw in the game is that it's pretty unbalanced. If you're under leveled by just one level, you have no chance at continuing, you're finished. Just go back and grind. But yeah, other than that, Bishouju Senchi Sailor Moon is a very polished game all around. I mean, the voices they have here are really impressive, up there with Star Ocean in that regard. This is an impressive game, very polished, and it's a must play if you're into Sailor Moon. Record of Lodos War has its own Super Nintendo game, the Japanese title being Lodos Tosenki. This is a pretty accessible game as far as anime RPGs go, because the story kind of plays like a prequel to the anime series, and the long intro will bring you up to speed on most of the backstory behind Lodos. This is another fantastic translation from Dynamic Designs, and they're as reliable as it gets, so you know it's pretty good. Anyway, you start the game as Carla, an immortal witch, and she gets killed immediately, but manages to possess her killer's body, and you go into towns trying to track down the rest of your party, and it goes from there. As you can see, this game is a turn-based strategy combat system that looks a bit like Ogre Battle, March of the Black Queen, and the key to winning each battle is picking out and defeating the leader of each enemy group that causes the rest of the enemies to flee. This game is pretty good, but it's very slow paced. There's four different scenarios to play through. The first three are pretty short, but the fourth is the real meat of the game. So yeah, this is the rare case of an anime RPG that anyone can get into, even if you don't know anything about the series, and it's a decent enough strategy role-playing game. Gulliver Boy is an anime series I've never even heard of, but Kuso Kagaku Sakai Gulliver Boy is an action RPG that's really fun. It plays a little bit like Secret of Mana with a top-down perspective and a forced wait time between attacks, but instead of traditional weapons, you have a circular blue fireball attack, in addition to eventually learning lots of really cool special attacks. You press the X button to switch between characters. You begin paired with this Edison guy who tosses bombs. The story is that Gulliver's dad is killed and he's out for revenge, so you and you alone are out to stop the evil Judo from taking over the rest of the continent, or something, I guess. It doesn't really matter. This is a fun pick-up-and-play game. The one problem is that it can be a little rough to get this game to work on an emulator since you have to patch it twice, once with an English patch and once with a fix. Otherwise the dialogue boxes will be all blank. But yeah, Kuso Kagaku Sakai Gulliver Boy is well worth playing. It's a pretty short game, but I mean, look at this dude's hair. It's amazing. Finally, we'll end with Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, another anime I've never heard of, but it too has a game, the Japanese title being Jojo no Kimu, not Boken. As you can see, this game has more of a Japanese fighting game presentation, with the middle of the screen dedicated to action cutscenes, so to speak. Kind of like how Yu-yu Hakusho Tokobehuten is laid out, for example. It's a little disorienting, but make no mistake, this is a role-playing game. The battle system is a bit weird, though. Before every battle, you draw a tarot card, usually a buff or a debuff before you head into battle. Besides attacking, you can actually talk to the enemy and intimidate them, but this isn't exactly undertale when it comes to dialogue, so that aspect isn't all that interesting. Anyway, like I said, I don't know of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, but I've read online that this game takes a lot of liberties with its story and kinda does its own thing, so if you're a fan of the franchise, be wary of that. If you're not a fan, you're not really missing a whole lot here. It's okay, it's certainly playable, but you can find better elsewhere. Anyway, that's all for now. Thanks for watching and have a great rest of your day.