/vr/ - Retro Games

No thank you i just need Jet Moto.

First there's the Daisenryaku ("Grand Strategy") series developed by a Alpha SystemSoft, which is a lengthy series of turn-based strategy games. You command units on a hexagonal grid and carry out attacks which are displayed in neat cinematics, similar to Advance Wars. The series generally hasn't left Japan with the exception of Dai Senryaku VII on the Xbox and Iron Storm on the Genesis, both of which have a cult following to this day.

Daisenryaku: Player's Spirit and Master's Combat were released for the PS1 and fit the mold of the series pretty well, as their campaigns are inspired by or based on historical conflicts, and feature various countries as different factions to play as. The exception was Cyber Daisenryaku, a game designed to bring new players into the series. Here you play as a high school-aged tactician who commands units in a virtual war simulator, in preparation for real-world conflict. Unlike the other games, Cyber Daisenryaku has a visual novel-style presentation and involved story with various supporting characters, though the turn-based strategy gameplay is the same.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0spnHGWjnIA

>>4581296
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwO6cFvInMQ

>>4581315

Also developed by Alpha and related to the Daisenryaku series is Kokidou Gensou: Gunparade March, a game that combines the turn-based strategy of Daisenryaku with a full-fledged life sim/RPG story years before Persona 3. The premise is that humanity has been fighting a losing war against alien monsters for the past 50 years, and Japan has resorted to drafting its high schoolers into the army by funneling them into military schools. You play as a student who splits his time between a normal, teenage life and epic battles against aliens on bipedal mechs.

The combat gameplay hasn't changed much but there's so much more to do now outside of fighting, such as exploring the town, going to classes, participating in extracurricular activities, getting to know your classmates, and even going on dates. The game's story and characters were so popular that it was adapted to an anime series, which is better-known internationally than the game itself. There was a follow-up on the PS2 called Gunparade Orchestra, which features a mostly new cast.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHWDoz7A-5U

One thing that the PlayStation had a lot of was board games with RPG-esque features. Usually these were isometric, Monopoly-style board games where players chose a character class instead of a piece, purchased items at shop spaces, gained EXP from slaying monsters, and even challenged each other to duels while advancing. One of the most popular in this genre was Gaia Master: Kamigami no Boardgame, developed by Capcom. Aside from multi-player it features a single-player story mode, several characters with unique perks, and the typically gorgeous Capcom fantasy art and sprite work. Rounds even feature RPG-style showdowns against story enemies and monsters.

Gaia Master was successful enough to warrant sequels on the Dreamcast and GBC, but none were localized outside of Japan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vh3L8WS1_Gg

inb4 the Little Ralph shill

>>4581341

As I said, though, the PS1 had tons of other board games with RPG-esque features or gimmicks. Here is a rundown of other noteworthy ones:

Anokodokonoko, a dating sim board game where the objective is to buy gifts for the girl you're targeting and take her out on dates to various available locales. The players all compete for romance in the multi-player mode.

Bokujyoukeieiteki Board Game Umapoly, a board game with themes of agriculture and animal husbandry. As you advance you can raise and auction off prize horses, win races, find your stud an ideal mare, and other things, all displayed in comically graphic sprite-based illustrations.

Hi-Hou-Oh, a board game with a treasure-hunting/spelunking theme, with boards that are set in places like Atlantis or the Tower of Babel. The core of the game is your typical Monopoly clone where the player with the most money wins, but the selection of characters, themes, and various gimmicks based on finding treasure in ruins give it flavor.

>>4581357

Dokapon! Ikari no Tetsuken, a board game with a fantasy RPG theme and various retro RPG-esque features. This game's sequel was localized as Dokapon Kingdom for the PS2 and Wii. Dragon Money and Dioramos are two other board games with the same theme.

The DX Jinsei Game series had five entries on the PS1. These are basically enhanced versions of the classic board game The Game of Life, where you find a job, marry, start a family, and so on, but presented with colorful sprite-based graphics. Each entry added more professions, options, and random events. The series also had two spin-offs: DX Nippon Tokkyu Ryoku Game (with a theme of Japanese tourism), and DX Okuman Chouja Game (with a corporate business theme).

Finally and perhaps most interesting is Kimagure My Baby, a game where you raise a cute daughter all the way from infancy to adulthood, while overseeing important milestones in her life such as her high school graduation, first job, and eventual marriage.

Another thing that the PS1 had a lot of in Japan was adventure/sim games with a cooking or restaurant theme. Among the lesser-known ones is Ramen Hashi, a ramen-cooking adventure. You play as a Japanese man coming home from the end of World War II and deciding to become to the best ramen cook in the country. You follow his quest all the way from the 1950s to modern times. Gameplay is split between first-person exploration/interaction with characters, and ramen-making mini-games. The game as an interesting style that reminds me of newspaper cartoons, and is appropriately nostalgic.

There's also the better-known and perhaps even more nostalgic Charumera, where you play as a wandering ramen stand seller in seventies Japan. There isn't a lot to do in this game other than soak up its sunset atmosphere and experiment with ingredients for new ramen recipes. You do earn money, but the game never punishes you for not breaking even, and in general it's pretty relaxing. The protagonist of this game is known as Uncle Charumera and is actually the cartoon mascot of Japanese ramen company Myojo Foods.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3p8HXvshrvA&t=128s

>>4581374

Probably the best-known cooking game on the PS1 is Ore no Ryouri: We Cooking, where you play as a prodigious boy-chef across several restaurants. Customers come in and ask for various dishes that you prepare through a series of short mini-games, similar to the later Cooking Mama series.

In more action game territory there's Honoo no Ryourinin: Cooking Fighter Tao, where chefs engage in literal duels and a shounen-style, over-the-top aesthetic rules everything. It reminds of the anime series Shokugeki no Souma. The game's story is presented with anime-style illustrated portraits, but duels are top-down sprite-based combat scenes where you can literally attack your opponent with a cooking utensil while gathering ingredients and preparing dishes. The story mode only lets you play as protagonist Tao, but the Free Battle mode lets you pick any of the game's twelve chefs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VXd23_cnx0

Moving towards puzzle cooking games we have Yakitori Musume, where you play as a girl in charge of a yakitori restaurant. Patrons will sit down and chat you up as part of the game's story/adventure element, but the real meat is the yakitori-cooking mini-game that ensues.

In the same vein we have Yakiniku Bugyou, a very popular and addictive puzzle game where you are in charge of a grill with various cuts of meat and other things cooking on it. Various patrons will scroll past the stop of a screen asking for different orders, and you'll have to satisfy them while keeping up with increasingly higher demand. This game can be played without knowing a word of Japanese and is extremely fun; it was even made shortly available for download on the North American PlayStation Network.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKLKXs3lLN4

Another thing that was huge on the PS1 but stayed complete in Japan was the horse-raising sim. Horse racing is a pretty popular gambling and cultural activity in Japan, though these games focus exclusively on breeding, training, and raising horses for Western-style jockey races. There are shitloads of these games for the PS1, including series such as Classic Road (pictured), Breeding Stud, Derby Jockey, Disc Derby, G1 Jockey, and Gallop Racer.

Usually when one of these games makes its way to America it's dumbed down and marketed as a horse game for teenage girls, but these highly technical sims were clearly designed for a crowd of serious hobbyists, and are generally impenetrable if one doesn't know Japanese.

Compared to the amount of party-based JRPGs available on the PS1, the number of strategy RPGs seemed paltry, but this was only really true for English-speaking audiences. Japan kept a ton of SRPGs for the PS1 to itself.

Chief among them is Houshinengi, developed by Koei and based on Investiture of the Gods, one of the great classics of Chinese literature which also serves as the setting for their Warriors Orochi series. It's a fantasy adventure set in ancient China, with the sprites-on-polygons presentation and turn-based combat that SRPG fans are accustomed to. Every character is given their own anime-style portrait, features, personality, and abilities in battle. The game is much lighter compared to Koei's historical Chinese strategy games, although it maintains the company's signature style.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqDAYbVQ9QQ

Cool! this is really interesting OP

Are there any RPGs that are more open ended like Romancing Saga 3 but also have a world exploration like typical Final Fantasy Games? (In Romancing Saga, you move between towns and dungeons only).

>>4581412
Well, the most influential and popular SRPG franchise, Fire Emblem, stayed Japan only for the entire "retro" era. So no shit.

>>4581412

Aubirdforce and its sequel, Aubirdforce After, are sci-fi SRPGs developed and published by Bandai. The player chooses to follow the story of one of two protagonists, and acts as a space fleet captain, recruiting new pilots with distinct features and personalities. These pilots can be commanded in turn-based battles that, unlike your typical SRPG, take place in spaces, allowing for 3D grid-based movement. This adds a whole other layer of tactics to combat and can be disorienting at first, but becomes really engaging and really makes the series feel unique.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ygd2fKSlwTY

>>4581382
>Honoo no Ryourinin: Cooking Fighter Tao

Sorry, I made a mistake. This game is called Cooking Fighter Hao, not Tao.

>>4581413

Velldeselba Senki: Tsubasa no Kunshou arguably fits the bill. This is a beautiful RPG developed by Tenki that takes place in a world of floating islands and features gorgeous airship design that looks like it was taken out of a Studio Ghibli film. You explore towns and settlements in a top-down, sprite-based presentation, but the general overworld can be explored in first-person 3D using your airship. (This is also the perspective used for engaging in battles.) Without a doubt one of the best PS1 RPGs to not receive a localization.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwnanaVdU8w

>>4581447

If not Velldeselba, another stranger option is Linda3 (or Cubed) Again, an enhanced port of a TGX-16 RPG also developed by Alpha System. This is one of the more bizarre RPGs on the system, where you play as a man and woman tasked with gathering males and females of a planet's various fauna before it's wiped out by a meteor in eight years. Visually it's a very simple game, with the typical top-down view and first-person, turn-based RPG battles. But you are encouraged to capture beasts instead of simply kill them, which requires more strategy. The story is also divided into three distinct scenarios, each with increasingly bizarre premises. The third scenario is the hardest to complete on time and has the most nonsensical story, but is allows you to explore the entire game world pretty much from the start in order to gather the required 100 species in order to pass.

Exploration in Linda Cubed Again is really fun, because the world changes noticeably with the seasons. Some species become more common than others, some parts of the world flood while others thrive, some NPC services are available and others aren't, and so on. Completing the game's third scenario requires intimate knowledge of the world's inner workings.

The story of Linda Cubed Again is also famously bizarre and surprisingly graphic, with fully-animated sequences to narrate it. It's a fiercely original and strange game, definitely not perfect, but worth trying if you're up to it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LejME5lKwoA

>>4581296
>finally built up decent vocabulary and grammar skills
>font makes it hard almost impossible to read certain kanji
This is a bigger problem in sfc games but still, FUCK

>>4581591

Damn, I want this translated.

Love this topic. Will post some of my favorites I've been talking about for years but a lot of these titles are pretty fresh to /vr/ so please carry on OP

>>4581790

Moving on from RPGs for a second, Brave Prove is a top-down action-adventure game developed by Data West. This was the last game they put out before leaving the video game business. Brave Prove plays a lot like Alundra or a 2D Zelda game, but it's most clearly inspired by the Genesis game Beyond Oasis/The Story of Thor. You find elemental spirits that can later be summoned for special attacks, and the game's general art direction has a similar vibe, with really colorful environments and chunky sprite work. There's also very little story, so the game is highly accessible for non-Japanese speakers. If you like classic action-adventures, this is recommended.

It should also be noted that some special attacks in this game are performed through input combinations, so you should look those up if you want to be able to pull them off.

>>4581829

In a similar vein to Brave Prove but much cuter is Community Pom, a top-down action-adventure where you play as a little girl-wizard whose task is to save her land... from giant watermelons. The general gameplay is like a 2D Zelda, but you can capture fuzzy little creatures called Pom, which can then help you in battle. But you have to keep them happy and also manage the Pom village, so the game has a minor sim element. There isn't a whole lot of optional content or replay value, but Community Pom does have that cozy anime atmosphere typical of the developer Fill-In Cafe, which went on to do the Summon Night series, among other JRPGs.

The game does require some knowledge of Japanese to progress, due to the puzzles and fetch quests involved, though you can brute-force your way to the end or consult a guide.

This game's popularity warranted a reprint with the title Community Pom: Omoide O Dakishimete, but aside from a new subtitle and new box art, I don't think it features any additional content.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7OVZ2R-A64

In the realm of 3D games we have Blade Arts: Tasogare No Miyako R'lyeh, a third-person action-adventure game published by Enix. You play as a treasure hunter, exploring forgotten ruins and sealed dungeons. The game's spelunking fantasy theme definitely has a Tomb Raider vibe, but your character fights with a magical broadsword, which is very satisfying to use. In general the game has good controls and combat, thanks to a lock-on system. It also looks quite nice, features a great soundtrack, has well-directed cutscenes, and includes full voice acting to boot. It's kind of mystery as to why this game wasn't localized; it even ties into the Lovecraftian mythos in its story.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaAIaeMA4rM&t=509s

If this game looks appealing to you you may also want to try Brightis, a medieval fantasy action-RPG developed by the legendary Quintet, which has similar gameplay but more slow-paced and exploration-heavy. The combat and general vibe also remind me a bit of FromSoftware's games, especially Evergrace and its sequel.

https://youtu.be/MX27r0FON44

Konami's Goemon / Mystical Ninja series began on the SNES, but four Goemon games were produced for the PS1, none of them localized. The first one, Uchuu Kaizoku Akogingu, is a pretty bad and weird platformer. The second, Ooedo Daikaiten, is a slightly better but generic iteration. The third, Karunarakoi! Ayashi Geikka no Kuroikage!, is a top-down 3D mess.


For the last Goemon game on the system, Goemon: Shin Sendai Shuumei, a visual overhaul was attempted, while maintaining the gameplay intact. Goemon and his friends have been re-designed for a more shounen audience, and Ebisu in particular has been turned into a cute girl! The game takes place in the far future, with the characters re-cast as bounty hunters, but the general Goemon world's elements are the same. You can still play as the four main characters (Goemon, Ebisu, Sasuke, and Yae). It's a 2D platformer with sprites and occasional polygons, and there's no more world map exploration, as all the shopping and upgrading is done in the stages themselves. Goemon Impact also returns for some impressive mech battle sequences. It's actually a really good game, if you can get past the new look.

The game also has a pretty badass soundtrack, much of which has been uploaded to YouTube. Here's the opening cinematic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-sLooYq5bk

>>4581909
>Konami's Goemon / Mystical Ninja series began on the SNES, but four Goemon games were produced for the PS1, none of them localized.
And they're all shit compared to the N64 and SNES Goemon games.

>>4581960
also goemon began in the arcade in the mid '80s

Another thing that the Japanese PS1 library had a lot of was train sims, complex games designed for hobbyists. These are generally divided into two kinds: development sims where you manage a rail company, and games that faithfully simulate the experience of actually piloting a train from point A to B.

Of the former kind, Artdink's A Ressha de Ikou series of rail company management sims is the best-known. Of the latter kind, the Densha de Go! series, which gives you a first-person perspective of train-piloting, is notorious.

Densha de Go! in turn had a spin-off called Kisha de Go!, a nostalgic throwback where you pilot a steam locomotive instead of a modern passenger train. The general gameplay is very similar, but piloting a locomotive is more complicated, as the controls are stiffer and you have to stay aware of factors like water and coal-burning. The game does feature beautiful, detailed graphical environments that are still impressive today.

Pictured is Kisha de Go!, two other Densha de Go! games, and a specialized controller produced for series followers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_-XWseof58

>>4581848
blade arts looks interesting, would I have trouble playing it if I don't know any japanese?

>>4582020

I doubt it, it's a straightforward game and in any case there are playthroughs online.

I've played this game way too much.
I love the PS1 japanese library.

The PlayStation also had tons upon tons of construction and management sims with unique themes. Chief among them is the Azito series, where you expand and manage a super-villainous secret base, complete with traps, mutated monsters, and robot guards. However, secret HQs are expensive, and you have to balance defense spending with consumer product development, which will generate enough profit to keep the lights on. Also, you have to deal with the occasional kaijuu attack or superhero invasion. The games are steeped in Japanese pop culture, tokusatsu, and old-school manga. Azito 3 in particular makes the interface more user-friendly and the presentation more attractive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5Ca3eUt2fE

Some other PS1 sims with unusual themes include: Aqua Paradise: Boku no Suizokukan, where you manage an aquarium; Dekiru! Game Center, where you manage an arcade; Doki Doki on Air, where you manage a radio station; Famires e Youkosou!, where you manage a family restaurant chain; Burger Burger, where you manage a fast food empire; the Gakkou o Tsukurou!! trilogy, where you manage a high school as its principal; Happy Hotel; where you manage a hotel; King of Producer, where you manage a talent agency; the Conveni Special series, where you manage a convenience store; The Drug Store, which is self-explanatory; and finally Gamesoft Wo Tsukurou, where you manage a game development studio.

There are a few "virtual pet" raising sim-type games for the PS1, but none can really match Dig-a-Dig Pukka, a charming titled developed and published by Sony. Here you're put in charge of an adorable, mouse-like creature who explores a verdant planet in search for minerals. The game has a Pikmin-esque vibe, with scenery presented on a 2D or isometric plane and regularly interspersed with cinematics. Keeping track of your little miner's hunger, fatigue, and so on are obvious necessities, as well as hauling any treasure back to home base for examination. For the most part the game doesn't really have a language barrier so long as you're willing to click through lots of boxes of Japanese texts, though sometimes you'll encounter an obstacle that Pukka won't know how to deal with, and will have to choose the correct option through trial and error. At any rate, it's not a punishing game.

OP, yea there were some pretty interesting JAP only games - but holy shit was there some garbage on the PS1 that thankfully never made it out of Japan. Look at Cosmic Race - it was a close to launch title in Japan and it was one of the worst games ever made. How the hell does something like this ever get approval from Sony Japan?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QG0g5UAiL8

The pocket station for PS1 was only released in Japan.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PocketStation

>>4582098
I've played the Azito games. 1 and 2 are pretty similar. They changed the interface in 3 to be more like those Sims games.
It's one of those games that is really addicting once you get the hang of it, and a game can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 5 hours (if you go into attrition with your enemy).

I remember liking Azito 2 the most, because there were more events and options in the base. I didn't play 3 a lot.

For anyone who doesn't know, you can choose to play as either the heroes or the villains. If you play as the heroes, you get Kamen Rider, Gorenger and all that stuff. If you play as the villains, you get monsters from those same shows. You can build giant robots, and everything is faction-specific, even employees and operators. You may think only seedy types would be willing to be a scientist for an evil organization, but you actually get some pretty decent people (although a bit too ambitious).

There's a forced time limit, so you can't just build everything and attack all at once. If you try to do "missions" (involves helping/kidnapping people), the other side will find out where your base is, and send wave after wave of attack. However, you can still postpone this, but they'll eventually find it anyway. That's the time limit.

The game works in increments - every stage you complete will give access to better stuff (units, employees, robots), but you can still keep your old stuff from prior stages.

The only thing I never understood was how traps worked. They hit my guys as much as the enemy. I realize I shouldn't have my guys walk through them, but then what is the point if they attack both people?

>>4582143
>>4582098
These look super neat. Thanks for the thread op.

The first Tobal game came out in North America and PAL territories, but Tobal 2 was exclusive to Japan. A 3D fighter similar to Tekken. Character art was designed by Akira Toriyama, author and illustrator of the popular Dragon Ball manga. In this game, you have 200 different characters to choose from. Some are really nonsensical, but that's what makes it fun! There are your normal human main characters, but then there are others like penguins, frogs, dogs, phantoms, robots, worms, machines, orcs, and so much more!

>>4582303
Image didn't post for some reason

>>4582303
I hear the story mode in this game is bonkers, and that you can cook meat by standing next to an enemy on the world map since they're represented by little orbs of fire.

>>4582314
You can capture monsters to use them on Versus mode, even making tournaments with them. There's a Chocobo somewhere. The cheapest monster is some motherfucking crystal with rotating crystal bits around it.

I saw several threads discussing MF about a year ago and I've been wanting to get into it ever since. Unfortunately, I don't know Japanese and I'm a bit mediocre when it comes to editing or modding ISO files.

Boku no Natsuyasumi is a gorgeous adventure game developed by Millennium Kitchen, where you play as a young boy enjoying a month of vacations at the Japanese countryside, in the summer of 1975. As each day passes, you may wander around your grandparents' rural home, collecting bugs, swimming in the pond, helping with the daily chores, or getting to know the townsfolk. There's a good degree of freedom, and the game itself looks beautiful thanks to the use of polygons combined with pre-rendered backgrounds, based on nature photographs. The game has a bittersweet tone towards the end, and each day concludes with a crayon-scribbled entry in the protagonist's diary. Definitely one of the most atmospheric and memorable adventure games on the console.

Due to the nature of the game you can't really lose or get stuck much, so it's entirely possible to play this one without knowing Japanese (as well as all the following Boku no Natsuyasumi games). Text is presented vertically in these games, so it's unlikely we'll ever see a fan translation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nX2I0YanKMg

Not only did Boku no Natsuyasumi get ported to the PSP, but the series continued with Boku no Natsuyasumi 2 on the PS2, and 3 on the PS3. There was also a PSP spinoff where you raise a family.

Doki Doki Poyatchio!! is an overhead adventure game developed by Studio Saizensen, also responsible for the Umihara Kawase cult series, and they even share the same character designer. In this game you play as a young boy sent to a rural town for a month in order to help his aunt with her bread deliveries. Delivering bread and buying ingredients are the only things you have to do every day; how you spend the rest of the day is up to you. The town is populated by various characters who move around according to their own schedules, including a number of girls who exist as romance options for the player. Despite having a top-down, sprite-based presentation reminiscent of JRPGs, this game has no stats or combat whatsoever, and is more of a laid-back adventure/sim. Obviously, your ending changes depending on the girl you pursue.

As a side-note, the same developers would eventually produce Shining Hearts on the PSP, which was clearly meant as a spiritual successor to this game. However, Shining Hearts is a full-fledged RPG with combat and stats. You can find out more here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMAGmJEYhik

>>4582493
This is all cool thanks m8

Rakugaki Showtime was released by Treasure. It's far from their best game but it's their best game on the PS1 at least. Plus Marina is a playable character.

>>4582616
kill yourself treasurefag

>>4582616
Looks fun.

>>4582652
Go drown yourself in Foster's or shoot yourself...oh wait.

>>4582652
>roofucker

>>4582652
Did a dingo eat your baby, mate?

Is there any way to hack a Pal console to play them? My PSX already has a pirate chip in it.

>>4581325
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_apTiW4o-U

>>4581382
So it's true Cook, Serve, Delicious had an obscure original game for PSX. I was always treating that as a tall story to bolster own sales.

>>4581742
Don't give up, anon. Assuming you are self-learning, it takes between 4 to 6 years to gain complete fluency of reading Japanese.
And gives a hilarious result in the end where you are perfectly capable of understanding the language and even communicate using written version, but are essentially mute

Bookmark

>>4581341
I knew recognize the art style on that cover—that's none other than Kinu Nishimura.

Dr. Slump is a very good-looking 3D adventure game based on the manga series by Akira Toriyama, and developed by Bandai. The first thing most people notice about the game is the beautiful low-polygon graphics, which really do justice to the cartoon. You can walk around and explore protagonist Arale's town, interacting with other characters and even engage them in various activities. The game world isn't very big, but it has a sense of warmth and detail similar to the towns of Mega Man Legends games. There are however dungeons with combat and platforming elements, though they're not very hard and there isn't a real focus on that aspect.

There's a full playthrough of this game up on YouTube with commentary on how to proceed, so you can turn to it if you ever get stuck:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vc4Uw0b81dg

This is a very good-looking 3D adventure game based on the manga series by Akira Toriyama, and developed by Bandai. The first thing most people notice about the game is the beautiful low-polygon graphics, which really do justice to the cartoon. You can walk around and explore protagonist Arale's town, interacting with other characters and even engaging them in various activities. The game world isn't very big, but it has a sense of warmth similar to the towns of Mega Man Legends games. There are however dungeons with combat and platforming elements, though they're not very hard and there isn't a real focus on that aspect.

There's a full playthrough of this game up on YouTube with commentary on how to proceed, so you can turn to it if you ever get stuck:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vc4Uw0b81dg

Most jap. wrestling games were way better than the crap released here.

Even the Smackdown games that were only slightly better than War Zone or Attitude were just graphically beefed up versions of the Toukon Retsuden engine. Some rumors even suspect that the first WWF Smackdown was based on Yuke's budget release of their engine (Simple 1500: The Pro Wrestling). And they casualized the gameplay even further with Smackdown.

Beside the often mediocre Yuke's titles (Toukon Retsuden 3 maybe was their best one on the system) the best Wrestling games on the PS1 were done by Human Entertainment with especially AJPW King's Soul (Zen-Nihon Pro Wrestling: Ouja no Kon). The game had gameplay much deeper than it needed to be. They even simplified the inofficial sequels King of Colosseum and KoC 2 on the PS2 just a bit, which used the same engine than as PS1 game.

Oh yeah, Fire Pro Wrestling G from Human was also a great wrestling sim

And don't let me start on the games from Dream Japan, Inc

>>4583359

Oh shit! I just realized I fucked up on this post. Please disregard it.

Addie no Okurimono: To Moze from Addie
is a beautiful puzzle-adventure developed by Sony's Japanese studio. You take on the role of a young girl named Addie who finds herself in a dream-like version of her hometown. The residents of this town mirror the members of her community in the real world, but act strangely and in ways that reflect their personal turmoil. You proceed by interacting with characters and solving puzzles. You generally solve puzzles using the Loglock, an artifact that lets you rearrange letters (of English words) to change one object into another. The game has a wonderful storybook atmosphere clearly inspired by Golden Age Hollywood movies, and the vibe is comparable to the Professor Layton series. There are also many references to Jungian psychology, which the writer must have brushed up on for this game. Also, one of its many neat details is how the protagonist's full portrait is always visible to the side of the screen, reacting to events.

There have been some on-off attempts to fan-translate this game to English, but nothing has surfaced. The most we got was a short sample of a translation uploaded to YouTube five years ago. It's entirely possible to play the game without knowing Japanese, but you won't get a whole lot out of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7eYU376chY

>>4583460

Generally speaking, Human had the best sims and some incredible adventure games on the PS1. Very underrated company in the West due to their limited localization.

>>4583465
This just reminds me that Napple Tale never got an English patch, either. :(

>>4583323
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvH2kDyD4TM

>>4583323
wow those cell shading, toon graphics are amazing! Love it, very Windwaker

Damn, this thread makes me realize how stuck to mainstream releases I was back then. I guess all the magazine advertisements steered me to the games but the only I got from these so far is just Tobal No.2 and Rakugaki Showtime.


>>4582338
I really want this game ever since it was introduced to me through a thread on /vr/ about a year ago. It seems so interesting but its current rate of $40 is just so high.

>>4583498
Reminds me of rockman dash.

>>4583515

MF is one of the few games to ever truly pique my curiosity in terms of the living world feel that I love seeing. I've watched some YouTube videos on it, and it's hard to imagine that such a vibrant setting can be expressed on a system like the PSX. I honestly feel like it's level of depth is on par with if not beyond that of Skyrim.

>>4583465

Speaking of games developed by Human, there's the Twilight Syndrome series, totaling four games, three of which were released for the PS1. Twilight Syndrome: Tansaku-hen, Kyuumei-hen, and Saikai. The first two games follow the lives of three teenage girls who investigate rumors of ghosts at their school. The game is presented as a 2D side-scrolling adventure, and is fully exploration-focused, with no real combat and very few puzzles. Players are encouraged primarily to advance the story.

In terms of presentation the Syndrome games seem like successors to Human's more famous Clock Tower series. They use large, rotoscoped sprites and detailed multi-layered backgrounds to create an uncanny TV-show feel. The third game, Saikai, shifted to toon-shaded 3D models for its presentation, and featured a new story, but gameplay remained the same.

Interestingly, there was a spin-off also for the PS1 called Moonlight Syndrome, and it was directed by none other than suda51. The game is very similar to the main series in both gameplay and presentation, but more visual novel-esque. It features a standalone scenario which, as per usual for suda, isn't afraid to tackle taboo subjects such as incest and torture.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoSKZAndHj8

>>4583860

In relation to the Syndrome series, there are two more, similar games that are also worth discussing.

The first is Yuuyami Toori Tankentai ("Twilight Street Investigation Team"), an adventure game also developed by Human. It features the same presentation as the first two Syndrome games, with rotoscoped 2D animation, multi-layered backgrounds, and a contemporary urban setting. This time the player follows three middle schoolers who investigate rumors and urban legends overheard at school. Each day you can choose to follow one of the three protagonists, and if you pick up the corresponding rumor, you can head out at night to investigate it.

The second game is Silver Jiken ("The Silver Case"), an adventure game directed by suda51 with a story that ties into Moonlight Syndrome and the rest of his "Kill the Past" series. This is a psychedelic crime thriller with a unique presentation taking place in a near-future, semi-dystopian version of Tokyo. I don't want to go further into this one because it's been fully officially translated, released for Steam and PS4.

Thanks for the thread OP, some fascinating write-ups. It's interesting how not only some titles but seemingly whole gaming niches never made it over, perhaps for cultural as well as business reasons.

God I wish I could read nip.

The first two games in Koei's Daikoukai Jidai ("Great Age of Sailing") series, released for the SNES, were localized as Uncharted Waters. These are top-down, fairly open-ended RPGs with sim elements set in the Age of Discovery, where the player can sail, trade, explore, plunder, and more.

The PS1 had three Daikoukai Jidai games, none localized. The first was an enhanced port of Daikoukai Jidai II, which is a fan favorite. The second was Daikoukai Jidai Gaiden, a more character-centric, linear game that concludes the loose story of the first three entries. The third game is Daikoukai Jidai IV: Porto Estado, which made the gameplay more linear and somewhat more accessible; for example your characters no longer age, so you don't have to sire children in order to play as them when your original character dies. The presentation is also a lot more attractive and intuitive, with a side-view of the compartments of your ship, and gorgeous character illustrations.

However, if you want to play something more open-ended and sim-like, the first three games in the series are recommended above Gaiden or IV. (Daikoukai Jidai III was an interesting and experimental entry released only for PC.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkb92XZlFJo

>>4584012
I feel the same way. More importantly, it seems like no matter how much I look into JP-only games, there's always more and more and more that I had no idea existed, and a lot of it is stuff that I'd be really interested in playing. It's weird.

Kowai Syasin: Shinrei Syasin Kitan is an interesting puzzle game with a spirit photography theme. You play as a remarkably busty lady with ESP abilities. The game shows you a picture, and you have limited time to locate a certain detail which betrays the presence of a malicious spirit. Once the spirit is revealed they will try to attack you, and you have to seal them away using quick button inputs. It's a pretty fun game with an original concept, which was later developed further in the Fatal Frame series. A full playthrough is available on YouTube if you're curious:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KE1VU_2bzRM

In Japan the PS1 had a ton of "FMV games" or "interactive moves" that used live-action actors to portray story scenes, and they were usually mediocre or straight-up terrible. Not so for Suzuki Bakuhatsu, a weird, Enix-published adventure game where you follow the daily life of a bomb disposal expert's daughter. She's always being tested by bombs planted inside everyday objects, like an orange on her nightstand. The meat of the game consists in these bomb-disarming puzzle sequences presented in 3D, where the use of different tools in a distinct order under a strict time limit will result in success. Although it's a fairly short game, it has three difficulty levels. The game is easily playable without knowledge of Japanese assuming you don't mind missing the story, and there are playthroughs online.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7YWJDefhXQ

Iblard: Rapture no Kaeru Machi is a dream-like, first-person adventure game where you explore a world of flowers, blue skies, ruined castles, and shimmering lakes. The game's setting is directly based on the paintings of fantasy neo-Impressionist Naohisa Inoue, whose art is set in the fantastical world of Iblard. There are some simple inventory puzzles that need to be solved, but they can be easily brute-forced, and the main point is to soak in the atmosphere of the setting. The game itself has little text or cinematics, so you're not even missing out on much if you don't speak Japanese. There is no real threat of death, either, so you can take things at your own pace.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8g5RLjdxd6I

If you're looking for another first-person exploration adventure on the PS1, you can try the slightly better-known Gaball Screen. This was the vanity project of another artist, the pop producer Tetsuya Komuro, where you explore a series of surreal, low-polygon stages while playing as his shoe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3H_C9iES_hE

Finally, for a game with the same aesthetic and mood but not the same genre, Kaze no Notam: Notam of the Wind is an air balloon-riding sim where you can simply fly over the game's mysterious world, exploring every corner while fulfilling no specific objectives.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9UNwm_eYwA

Forget Me Not: Palette was originally released as Palette, made on RPG Maker 95 by Nishida Yoshitaka for a software contest, which he won. As a result the game was remade for the PS1 by Enterbrain. This is a unique adventure game with the overhead perspective and sprite-based presentation you would expect from a JRPG. It tells the story of an amnesiac woman and the psychiatrist trying to help her restore her memories, which are illustrated as a dark, dreamlike labyrinth that the player explores. By interacting with objects and solving puzzles, the player unlocks new memories, opening new paths in this world. There are no stats, combat, or other RPG aspects to speak of.

Though the original Palette was released as freeware and fully translated into English, a translation of the remake has never been completed. However, if you play the original first you can easily make your way through Forget Me Not. There's also a full playthrough of the game up on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDDCfSV2ojo

Hakaioh: King of Crusher is an entertainingly bad 3D beat-'em-up from FAB Communication. You play as a Japanese salary man who goes on a comical rampage, kicking, punching, and head-butting everything. The game starts off pretty low-stakes, but if you destroy sufficient things before completing a stage, you will be rewarded with transformations into werewolves, ogres, and even giant monsters, at which point the Self-Defense Force and later international armies swoop down to engage you in combat. Things get so ridiculous over the game's eighteen levels that it has to be seen to be believed. Unfortunately the game does not play well, it's extremely floaty and has lots of hit detection problems, but it might be worth trying for the story aspects alone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VxLWbU0IaM

Tearring Saga. Made by the original creator of Fire Emblem after leaving Nintendo. Lawsuits from Nintendo prevented the game being called Emblem Saga.

>>4585927
KAGAAAAAAAAAA

>>4585927

Worth mentioning that this game got a fan translation, and it really does play (and look) pretty much like SNES-era Fire Emblem. It has a PS2 sequel subtitled Berwick Saga, but that one has no translation.

The Book Of Watermarks is a Myst-clone based upon Shakespeare's play "The Tempest". Prospero is portrayed by an American actor named Jack Donner and the theme song for the game is sung by Enya's sister. It's also entirely playable by non-Japanese speakers due to the entire game lacking a lot of dialogue and the cutscenes being recorded in English. The only thing Japanese you have to deal with is the Main Menu and that's it. The cool thing with the cover and tray liner of the physical release is that it's actually made out of parchment paper, and it gives off a little transparency, so you can kinda see through it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUQICnnUxvo

>>4586058
It is in the working.

This is a great thread. I want you to know that I am monitoring and mirin.

>>4581395
Huge is an understatement. I have seen elaborate setups for these in almost every arcade I have visited in Japan.

>>4582120
>flight game
>doesn't turn the ship
>WAAH THIS GAME SUCKS
Every time.

Chippoke Ralph no Daibouken or The Adventure of Little Ralph is a pretty well-known game at this point, I think. It's an action-platformer developed by New Corporation. You play as a warrior trying to save his town from demons who have turned him into a defenseless child. It's very tough, and largely score-based. It also has fighting game-style boss battles and a gorgeous, Ghibli-esque visual style. It's basically the whole package, and has basically no language barrier. Be aware that you won't even get to see the real final stage unless you're playing on hard mode, though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=io9pntL1nL8

Germs: Nerawareta Machi is a truly weird first-person game and the only game developed by KEJ, which is otherwise a CG graphics company. You play as a journalist wandering about his hometown, which has been infiltrated by aliens. For its time the open-world environment is very impressive; the game world is pretty large and you can move around by car or public bus. The game's outdoors environments are presented in a noir-ish sepiatone with big red arrows pointing to buildings you can enter (interiors are in full color). If you run across one of the city's aliens you can shoot them, but if they kill you, you'll turn into one of them (which can be fixed by a trip to the hospital). Also, the city is pretty much empty except for you. It's a bizarre and unsettling game in every way, definitely plagued with issues, but forward-looking for its time. Worth a play if you're looking for something atmospheric and different.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-B6ig8uZ8kY

>>4583323
>There's a full playthrough of this game up on YouTube
Not yet but I'm working on it.

That thread about Jap-exclusive terror/sound novel games made me want to learn Japanese so fucking much.

>>4588178
How is your progress?

Was it good?

>>4588212
I've only studied Jap for a month like a year ago, and only learned vocabulary interesting to me at the time (how to present myself, tell where I study and some facts about my routine and life). I can't understand almost no simple phrase, though, and have already forgotten most of the Kanji that I had learned (that weren't so many to begin with). I'm currently in Germany for an exchange until next week, so my mind is occupied with that at the moment, but I'll begin as soon as I come back to my country Brazil.

>>4588178
There were audio game makers besides WARP?

Some of these games look really great. I hope somebody takes on some of these for a english translation.

>>4588217
I played this a long time ago. I'm a fan of the Arcade game, and it was a letdown. The tracks feel really wide, and the drifting feels almost on rails.

Have this saved from another thread if any else wants it, thanks for shedding some light on them OP

Have you ever played Wonder Trek?

>>4589883
Sound novels are not audio games. It's a game label created by Chunsoft to describe their textual games ("novel') with an emphasis on sound design ('sound novel"), like Otogirisou and Kamaitachi no Yoru on SNES.

>>4589989

"Sound novels" is a term created by Spike Chunsoft to describe a type of narrative adventure game they popularized with the Famicom game Kamaitachi no Yoru. Kamaitachi no Yoru is basically a "whodunnit" thriller told through text. It uses featureless silhouettes of people and basic photographic background slides for embellishment, but it's closer to a text adventure than a "visual novel". Soon the term "sound novel" started to be used by other developers who explicitly copied the style of this game.

There were tons of sound novels on the PS1, including an enhanced port of Kamaitachi no Yoru with new, additional storylines. Some other notable ones include Akagawa Jirou: Yasoukyoku and its sequel (detective stories), 19:03: Ueno Hatsu Yakou Ressha (paranormal mystery), and Akazu no Ma (sci-fi).

Chunsoft also released Machi: Unmei no Kousaten for the PS1 (a port of the Saturn original), a sound novel that follows the predicaments of several different characters over one night in the city, which received a famously perfect score from Famitsu at the time. Its sequel, 428: Fuusasareta Shibuya de (Wii) was awarded a perfect score as well.

>>4581997
>complex games designed for hobbyists
Congrats on completely misunderstanding Densha de Go!

>>4590152
>"Sound novels" is a term created by Spike Chunsoft to describe a type of narrative adventure game they popularized with the Famicom game Kamaitachi no Yoru.
Spike Chunsoft wasn't a thing until a few years ago.
Otogirisou is the first sound novel game, and it's for SFC, not Famicom.

>>4581395
The horse racing genre fills up the resells stores to its neck with the pachinko vidya.

>>4590167
Congrats on making a worthless post not explaining what he got wrong.

>>4585846
kino scene at 18:42

>>4590640
That's what green text doing there, are you autistic?

>>4590152
I can tell that someone didn't actually play Machi.

What the fuck is this thread

>>4581296
99% of the Japan only PS1 library is one of the following:

1: Visual novels
2: Dating games
3: Baseball games (lots of those)
4: shogi games (tons of those)
5: really generic waifu fighters (like variable geo)

Honestly, the only interesting games we missed out on were:

Mad Panic Coaster
Pepsi Man
LSD (gets old after 20 minuets)
Gaia Seed

That’s about it really.

>>4591025
>what is planet laika?

>>4587049
I can also confirm this. It’s nuts how crazy the Japanese are about horse racing.

And just gambling in general really. A lot of Japanese are really addicted to gambling.

>>4588217
Nah, not really, get AA on PS3. Much better initial d game.

>>4591025

If you looked through this thread you would find thats not the case.

>>4581315
>>4581315
>Daisenryaku
Wasn't a big reason why it almost never got ported overseas how it lets the player play as all sides, including in WW2?

One interesting trivia surrounding its lone US release:
>The game's North American publisher, Working Designs, donated 50 cents of every copy sold to the National Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.

The other game released in English had a plot about the US/Israel against Russia/Syria so it didn't have this problem as much.
This is one series I doubt even fan-translators will touch.

>>4581591
Linda3 was developed by ex-Hudson employees who worked on Tengai Makyou II and wanted to do something new.

>>4581813
Gungage was out in Europe too.
Idk if they just cut all of its text for a quick buck or they did it properly.

>>4581909
>Goemon: Shin Sendai Shuumei
The art design is shit, the PS1 level design is bland (but the Impact battles the best) but the GBA port is where it gets really really horrible.

>Uchuu Kaizoku Akogingu, is a pretty bad and weird platformer.
Shame on you.
It was originally planned as the fifth mainline game.
It plays like the third game and the barrier is steep, but yeah past that badly scaled top-down view there are pretty well designed 2D levels by the same team. Ooedo Daikaiten trimmed the fat but had blander level design.

>Karunarakoi! Ayashi Geikka no Kuroikage!
A horrible 3D game.
The DS, PS2, even the first N64 one, are better.

>>4581848
>Blade Arts
>It's kind of mystery as to why this game wasn't localized; it even ties into the Lovecraftian mythos in its story.
It was being localized, and cancelled among a few other games in the same era (Star Ocean GBC, Dragon Quest 4) because Enix USA was a mess.

>>4588134
>Ralph no Daibouken
Reading that interview from New Corporation devs was so moving. It was really a passion project. An indie game without all of the bullshit that "indie" now stands for.
Real shame how Sony gave up on smaller jp devs come the PS2 and their NA AAA shift.

is there anyway to learn jap online? how long would it take to get a good grasp of it? 2 years?

someone could post those 2d list games plizz?

>>4581296
Man, those guys should have FPGA'd the PS1 and not that sneshit. Just joking I love snes.

I always really enjoy reading about games like this, thanks OP.

I've got to learn Japanese already, I'm missing out.

>>4591574
6 months in and I'm playing snes jrpgs. Granted I have to look a lot of stuff up, but the grammar in these games is pretty simple at least. Stuff like Machi and other adventure games would be harder, but still doable.
Anyway, it's said to be 2-4 years depending on how NEET you are.

>>4591574
If you start this kind of discussion you'll bring out all the retards on /vr/
Some will say 6 months is enough and any longer you must be stupid, others will say 2 years, others will be honest and say a shitload of time.
Thing is, people learn how to read hiragana/katakana and start looking every other word on google translate and say "Pssh it took me 2 weeks".
But unless you learn kanji along, you'll always be in a shit place when trying to understand Japanese. Kanji is vital and there's no easy way of learning it. You have to look and write the same bloody kanji over a hundred times and hope it sticks. Then repeat for the 500 kanji that are the ones that show up the most. One month you take a break and your brain will delete the memory of at least half of those kanji.

>>4591752
I got stuck after I couldn't pronounce the l/r thing. Tried to push on and learned some kanji but gave up. Forgotten everything by now.

>>4591838
Also I just didn't have the IQ to read a book on moongrammar and not fall asleep.

>>4581591
Oh my god dude, the art. What is that art from, it's actually good and not shit-tier animu crap.

>>4591025
>implying dating games aren't interesting

>>4581296
Elite thread, anon

The Angelique series is a blend of strategy sim and otome game developed by Koei. There were five games developed for the PS1: Angelique Special, Duet, Special 2, Tenkuu no Requiem, and Fushigi no Kuni Angelique. All entries in the series feature a protagonist named Angelique, who is summoned to a fantasy land where her ability to rule as Queen will be put to the test.

The player has to rule her assigned land while managing attacks from other rivals, including Angelique's main rival Rosaria, who is also playable in some entries. The player also employs the help of Guardians, handsome men with special powers who can aid her kingdom or ruin her rival's. At the end of the game, the player must choose to become Queen of this world or forfeit power in favor of love, if she has fallen for one of the game's romance options.

The first Angelique game was released for the Super Famicom, and Angelique Special is an enhanced remake of it. Angelique Duet and Special 2 are more or less expansions of the same game.

Angelique: Tenkuu no Requiem is a full-fledged RPG spin-off with turn-based combat featuring the protagonist of Special 2. Fushigi no Kuni no Angelique is an Alice in Wonderland-themed board game spin-off with dating sim elements.

All five Angelique games were packaged and released together in a special edition called Angelique History.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ejJw6jY9r4

Fuuraiki is a visual novel developed by F.O.G. where you play as a young, freewheeling photographer sent on assignment to the northern Hokkaido region of Japan. He travels by motorcycle experiencing the landscape, taking the best pictures, and reporting back every night. The game also has a dating sim element, with four girls you can meet and enter a relationship with. Fuuraiki is known for its blend of real-world photography and artistic illustrations, as well as its laid-back atmosphere, which is different from your typical hyper-colorful dating sim. The game was followed by sequels on the PS2. The series has a strong cult following in Japan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDqsZYey-cY

Hyper Crazy Climber is a console remake of the arcade smash Crazy Climber. Your objective in the original game is to climb up the side of a skyscraper while avoiding enemies and falling objects. Hyper Crazy Climber revamps the graphics, features three playable characters with different strengths and disadvantages, and includes an array of thematically different stages, from a spooky clock tower to a giant beanstalk. It also features "boss battles" at the end of every level. The gameplay is extremely intuitive and fun, and the language barrier is nonexistent. This is definitely one of the more import-friendly and worthwhile PS1 games if you like arcade-style action. The original Crazy Climber is also included.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjbYGTg1mZY

>>4592208
Kinda gay lol and I'm a dude who's played Rhapsody

>>4581296
>all those gorgeous sprites
>early 3d heaven
>that train simulator

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSlGv9aFk4o

I played this game Expert when i was a kid on a bootleg CD, its a game like Doom but its anime themed and its actually playable without knowing japanese for the most part
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59wMx_oFR1Q

LSD Emulator.

>>4591574
hit up the /djt/ thread on /jp/
ignore the autists in the thread but use their guide, which has loads of useful resources.

>>4592250
>gay
Do you not know what "otome game" means?

>>4591025
Hey man, don't talk shit about Variable Geo.

http://projectmizzurna.tumblr.com/

>>4597004
NEVER
EVER

>>4597004
I downloaded the translation patch, but I'm awful with patching or editing ISO's. Is there a tutorial or walkthrough for how to do this?

>>4597673

There is no patch available. It's only a translation of the game's script. The project has been abandoned.

Here's a PS1 visual novel that I played earlier this year, Subete Ga F Ni Naru which is a VN adaptation of a novel by the same name. I was interested in it because one of the credited writers was Takumi Nakazawa (Ever17, Remember11, Root Double) but the game was honestly fairly disappointing partially because it was much too long and had too many endings. It's okay as a closed room mystery but that's about it. Obviously, you will need to know JP to read it.

>>4597757
Oh God. Welp. So much for that. I can only hope that someone else picks up the slack and continues the work.

>>4590152
When is somebody going to translate these games anyway? You'd think now that Danganronpa is big translators would be going back into the Chunsoft archives

>>4592221
Has anyone actually played this? I have the Tantei Stories in PSP and I liked them but the writing was pretty simple and bored me to sleep half the time, but I wanted to check out another game by them to get more a varied taste as to what they like. I guess games like Hayarigami spoiled me as far a good writing in VNs go.

good thread, i'm gonna hunt down the games that don't require extensive knowledge of japanese language

The PS1 had a few side-scrolling mecha action games, all good. The first is Mad Stalker: Full Metal Force, an enhanced port of a PC-Engine game by Fill-In Cafe, a developer better-known for cute JRPGs. This game plays like a side-scrolling beat-'em-up and is aesthetically similar to the Assault Suits games.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lp-3KyeHy_w

There'a also Gear Fighter Dendoh, a very nice-looking beat-'em-up based on a mecha anime of the same name. This one features a fairly involved story in between levels, as well as new, animal-themed special attacks that are obtained after defeating bosses, and has more of a Saturday morning cartoon vibe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daj-ohc5h2U

Wolf Fang: Kuuga 2001 is a very nice console port of an arcade game that plays more like a run-n-gun, with a mech that jumps and rolls at great speed while shooting in 360 degrees. The console versions had several additions, including limited mech customization and four different endings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LR4ZxxdvtCc

>>4598723

The PS1 also had several mecha games in other genres. One of the best-known among them is Love & Destroy, a 3D action game with dating sim elements and fantastic visuals. Though it's pretty short, it plays like a dream and looks amazing. It also boasts some replay value thanks to the different routes you can follow. The girls were designed by Katsura Masazaku, best known for Video Girl Ai.

https://youtu.be/hHXt8LookLM

There's also Gale Gunner, a space mecha game which plays more like a third-person shooter. Aside from your starting mech it features several unlockable ones in the single-player campaign, which can be used in the multi-player free battle mode.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1b-kKky_g7k

Finally, the Assault Suits series also had an entry on PS1, but unlike previous games it was an isometric strategy RPG similar to Front Mission.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yn-45xea-oY

>>4581296

Why don't you make this into a video. Would be pret cool.

>>4597787
Oh, the book had a video game adaptation?
I saw the anime.

It was a complete piece of shit.

>>4598903
Not him. It's less cringy and more personal this way.

>>4597803
People getting interested in shit games like Danganronpa doesn't actually mean they will buy good games sadly.
428 is finally geting an English release though.

>>4598903
too much effort

>>4598729
Be aware that Love & Destroy is one of the few PSX games that need a Dual Shock controller.

>>4597757

What the heck? I thought they were going to complete it?

>>4598915
What is the gameplay like in that game, is it basically a visual novel or are there some adventure elements as well

>>4599305
90% reading, 10% first-person roaming through a school.

Two that really interest me are the Yaku Tsuu or "Misfortune" games. They're relatively simple horror adventure games bit what really interests me is that they're by Hideshi Hino. Hino is a fucking mad man and made some of the earliest horror manga and wrote and directed "Flower of Flesh and Blood" and "Mermaid in a Manhole", two of the most controval Japanese horrot films ever made, so controversal one was even investigated by the US after Charlie Sheen saw it.

I really would love to see what weird shit he put in these. From the few gameplay videoes online the shitty low quality cgi looks horrific, borderline nightmareish.

>>4599263
The hacker has a hard-on for Resident Evil 1.5, so he spends more time on that (and other projects).
He's a cool guy.

By the way, I'm pretty sure at least 90% of all translation efforts never see the light of day. I translated Metal Gear Solid 3 and Seiken Densetsu 3 to my language, but they were never released (I'm not a hacker, only a translator). That was a good 3 or 4 years ago, too.

>>4599318
Did you translate from English?

London Seirei Tanteidan looks really cool. It's a sprite based jrpg set in victorian Londen.

Ultima Underworld, the revlutionary first person action RPG was ported to the PS1.
A notable change to the earlier versions was that enemies are polygons instead of sprites.
Unfortunately the game doesn't support sticks so the controls get quite complicated.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxLSW1PyrOo

>Jimmy Hapa posts on /vr/
wew

>>4599320
MGS3 was from English, Seiken Densetsu 3 was from japanese.

>>4599316
Oh shit, I had no idea Hino was involved in a game.
New games REALLY need to start hiring high profile horror manga artists again.

>>4583323
>>4583498
>>4583676
POP N TANKS BITCHES
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkznhen0vNo

The Getter Robo game looks pretty cool. Lots of great anime games we never got on PS1 ill bet

>>4591847
Actually, thats just what high budget anime used to look like before the 90s

>>4588142
It's astonishing how small some of these PSX games were. The ISO for Germs is only a little over 60MB.

>>4582051
So, I've always wondered: was this inspired by the 1968 Malcolm McDowell film?

>>4599459
oops, how bout an image

>>4582051
From what I've heard it has annoying dungeons. I still would like to trybit some day.
>>4599459
>>4599462
Yes, it was a major inspiration. The subtitle "If..." and the main setting being a distorted high school were a homage to that film. SMT often pays homage to western films, some other influencial films to SMT were Angel Heart and The Thing.

>>4599452
Most of the size on the ISOs come from either FMVs, music or dummy files. If you remove music/videos, you can end up with stuff like a 12MB ISO. FYI, a map in FFVII, full of textures and meshes, is a little over 5MB. A characters's textures are less than 300KB.
There were even "3-in-1" and "5-in-1" pirate discs back in the day, with a selector menu and everything.

>>4583498
That's not cel shading.

>>4583498
>not knowing what cel shading means

>>4585846
There's a bomb... in my...

>>4598915
The unfortunate thing is that 428~封鎖された渋谷で~ is nowhere near as good as Machi~運命の交差点~ and you will miss a lot of the references to the original game. Also judging by the quality of most localizations (especially their かまたちの夜 localization) 428 is probably going to be terrible.

>>4599316
This game is pretty cool actually. I starting preparation work on some videos where I talk about and interpret obscure Japanese games while playing them and I have considering do both of these games; though most likely I will start with something else.

>>4600010
Dude please share a link to your channel, I would love to see that. Finding youtube channels for actual obscure gaming is hard.

>>4600027
not him but you can check out my channel, I've played some neat obscure PS1/2 games. here's some jp only titles i recorded last year:
https://youtu.be/5C4oTFIC75A
https://youtu.be/KBKBt00Zkq4
https://youtu.be/lDmecwOuAVI
these were played on an NA PS2 fat with a flip-top case and swap trick.

>>4600027
I'm not ready yet, but I should have something ready this week, or the start of next week so I'll post the link here when it's finished. Most of the games that I want to do are text heavy though, for example my first game will be Hayarigami (I know, not retro by this board's standards) because I already have translated most of the scripts for fun, but I will be doing older games for the most part. While a majority of the games that I want to do are sound/visual novels, there are a few that I am going to work on as I get a hold of them. After Hayarigami, which will probably take a few months to finish all the chapters in the first game. I might do one or two playthroughs (to show off the different routes) of Otogirisou or Majotachi no Nemuri. For the first game I have planned I will probably do Hungry Souls. Anyway, like I said, once the first video is up and done I'll drop the link for you.

Thanks for your work nice thread anon.

LSD Meme Emulator

PS1 has a terrible library compared to SNES.

>>4601101

How so?

>>4601149
It’s just full of RPG shovelware. Dated 3D garbage. SNES has a better spread of genres.

>>4599903
>>4599932
Dont tell me its Gouraud Shading.

>>4601219
There's no tech involved you brainlet, it's just flat vibrant colors and a really good sense of lighting built right into the textures.

>>4591025
>Really generic waifu fighters
Hey, Angel Eyes was cool (even with some pre-rendered girls in a pixel art game)

>>4592221
Yes, thank you! I was searching for this.

>>4599341

Maybe this thread will inspire his next video. His content is always pretty good.

>>4581296
The only games that mattered on the PS1 were Resident Evil 2 and Syphon Filter 1. Everything else was worthless garbage not worth the time.

Easiest way to play these games on a US console?
>>4591574
Some people take 6 months some people take 10 years, depends on the person

>>4601092
How this game became a meme after so many years?

>>4598185
it blows

What's the ps1 equivalent of this game? What are the most blatant cheesecake games of the system?

>>4582309
>Akira Toriyama

why does he have to make everything look like dbz?

>>4607019
That's his art style you dumb twat. He has illustrated other mangas besides Dragon Ball. They all look like that because that's his style.

>>4607019
i dunno lol

>>4607078
im aware of that but at least show some variety. are you saying that tobal 2 art is acceptable?

>>4607078
good artists don't have styles, they're adaptive.

>>4607019

>pull PS1 out of storage
>works for like 20 minutes
>laser dies

I don't understand. This thing has a fraction of the hours on it that it should be capable of. It's unmodded and has never played a burned CD or anything else that hypothetical damages the laser. It's been in sealed plastic storage container with desiccant for like 15 years.

>>4607313
Yep, that's a real Sony PlayStation machine you've got there.
Try playing it upside down. If not, just emulate, or play on PSP/PS2.

>>4607260
>>4607251
>t non artists

>>4607315
>try to launch burned PSX games on my PS2 using Free McBoot + psxlauncher.elf
>not working
>turns out psxlauncher requires scph-50001+ and my PS2 is a scph-30001

If it ain't one thing, it's another.

>>4607487
have you tried POPS?

>>4607542
If I wanted to emulate I would just emulate on a PC. I think I might just pick up a modded PS1/PS2 on ebay or something, they're cheap enough.

>>4607542
POPstarter is emulation, and doesn't even work that well on PS2. Too many games stutter and have massive slowdown. It's a waste a time for all but a select few games.

>>4607542
Don't know about POPS, but the last time I tried ps2psxe it was awful on every game I tested. Sound issues, stuttering, graphical glitches, games outright not even loading. Even worse than all that, games were all forced to run in 480i and looked like absolute shit. It was literally worse than emulating psx on an rpi over composite, and that's saying something.

>>4607562
It's just a shittier version of the emulator on PSP. Last summer I played RE3, Soul Reaver and SotN on it just fine, Valkyrie Profile had the same error you get on PSP and Tekken 3 didn't work even though it works on PSP. I think the latest stable release is the best one as the latest beta version had stuttering issues.

>>4607487
Just get a scph-500XX
It's the definitive version of the "fat" console.
Integrated IR, Progressive Scan DVD, best heat management and nearly silent cooling, and it supports hard drives.

>>4581395
Pretty popular?

THAT SHIT IS FUCKING HUUUUUUUUGE

>>4581395
>Breeding Stud

>>4607313
I wonder why there's no solid state optical drive replacement for the PS1 like there is for the Dreamcast and Saturn. Yeah, I'm aware of PSIO, but that goes through the accessory port on the back which seems to cause it a lot of problems. A straight up optical drive replacement shouldn't have any compatibility issues, though.

It looks like the optical drive schematics for all the versions are publicly available from technical document leaks. Doesn't seem like it'd be an impossible task for someone with a logic analyzer and a lot of free time.

>>4601219
The game actually features NO SHADING at all. Just like Megaman Legends, it's just drawn textures.

>>4609182
just like in real life

i remember a ps1 game similar to Besiege, you created vehicles with moving parts and ran around islands

>>4591025
pleb

this thread is gold anon, I love you so much

>>4601219

Lack of shading was an every-day in the first ages of 5ft gen, Megaman Legends, Virtua Cop... Later not-shading was intendedly used to give a cartoonish look.

Great thread. How is the state of psx games translations? in comparison to nes/snes?

>>4609861
Borderline nonexistent, my man. For psx hacks, it's mostly just gameplay alterations.

>>4609861
take a look yourself
http://www.romhacking.net/?page=translations&platform=17&languageid=12&perpage=20&dir=1&order=Date

>>4606369
Dead or Alive count?

Very nice thread, OP. Lemme do my part too then.
The Bakusou Dekotora Densetsu series (also known as Art Truck Battle for some reason) is a weird series where you work as a trucker delivering all sorts of stuff all over Japan. The interesting thing is, there's this culture in Japan of having decorated trucks. If you look up デコトラ (dekotora, or short for decorated truck) on google you'll see what I'm talking about.
This game is all about that. When going around delivering booze or apples, you'll always come across some other trucker who tries to diss you and challenge you for a race. That whole "earn the respect of others by beating them" shit the Japanese love. There are a lot of different parts to customize and not much story. Just insert your own dissing lines and you'll be pretty accurate with the translation.
And the best part, you'll race to the sound of the best old people music they have.
Gameplay sample:
https://youtu.be/raK9XVbE8C8

>>4610264
Well, i wasn't expecting that low. I thought that, as time passes and people run out of good (s)nes games to translate and tools are developed, more translations for the psx would appear.

>>4611486
I'm pretty sure that's a screenshot of the Saturn version (because of the costumes).

>>4611998
It's from Playstation.

>>4588217
Lol what's with takumi's lips?

>>4611486
BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP

Any good/obscure Japan exclusive fighters?

>>4613229
Tobal 2 maybe

>>4613229
toshiden kids ,last blade and rival schools 1,5

>>4609632
Pane kit?

>>4613229

X/1999

https://youtu.be/8hjDQwqnrr4

>>4588178
Sounds cool. Is there any archive of that thread?

>>4581374
>tfw there are no English translations of the ramen games

>>4581374
>tfw there are no English translations of the ramen games

>>4581374

>>4611486
These times in DOA that only 14 costumes it was overwhelming.

Hey does anyone know how to find the list of ps1 games on the european ps3 store? I can only find individual titles by name.

>>4617867
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_PS_one_Classics_(PAL_region)

>>4617873
I kinda meant on the store itself, but after looking around it seems that's the only way to find them, so thanks anyway. Sorry for off topic.

>>4607313
i whipped out my old PSX two months ago to play Twisted Metal 2 with my bro during Christmas, hadn't ran it in probably 17 years
Wouldn't load any discs or anything. Swabbed the lens with 50% isopropyl and worked like new

thread doesn't have Aconcagua thread sucks im leaving

>>4617410
Today we have 60 costumes per characters.

Anything in here good that doesn't require decoding moon?

>>4620745
Gamera 2000 if you want to play some Panzer Dragoon on your PSX with some dope as Zunata tunes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTsTss0X2to
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YW2hg41ZH4

>>4581315
Fuck system soft and daisenryaku

>>4581331
You're confusing Alfa System, who made gunparade march and is a masterpiece, with SystemSoft Alpha who are piece of shit devs. Don't do this.

>>4591025
You forgot Gradius Gaiden, which IMO is the ONLY good game we missed out on. Pepsi Man is pretty decent.

Anyway, I agree with your general statement though. PSX had a lot of trash.

I've scoured most of the PSX library for Sound Novels as they were called back then and then came across this. I had no idea what it was until I looked it up. Only one play through of it on nico, so I figured it must be bad, but it's actually really great. It's a fantasy story about a prince who's spirit is trapped in a ring, so that anyone who wears the ring becomes possessed by him. The cool thing about the game is that unlike other novel type games where there is a set path, with artificial choices, or choices that lead to nothing more than a dialogue change, or even just to a dead end, each path changes the story completely, which stay focused around the ring. I've played through it 2 times already and there are so many possible paths that you can take. Also the music is really great, has a really dark Gothic feel that perfectly matches the games dark atmosphere and background which have a great oil painting quality to them.

>>4581296
GeGeGe no Kitaro Gyakushuu! Youkai Daichisen, based on the manga/anime of the same name. Really fun and damn it looks beautiful

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wT_7SQ-yPS0&t=471s

>>4624545

>>4624547
Awesome pixel art.

>>4617410
That bunny costume.

>>4624547
Dash dance

>>4624545
Oh wow, I didn't realize there was a game for this series. I watched one of the anime a good while ago although it's a pretty long-running franchise with several shows and manga.

>>4607251
>>4607260
I'm sure he can draw other things too but when people hire Toriyama for their art, they want their characters to look like DBZ. It's his thing and people pay him for it, so why not?

Are there any good beginner-friendly PS1 games that feature furigana? I'm a shitter at Japanese so pure kanji can be difficult since it's hard to look up words you don't know.

>>4581382
sounds like oot link sword strike effects

>>4614504
Nice j-rock/metal band.

>>4630007
Furigana is mostly only in new new NEW games, like on 3DS. DQ7 has it on 3DS, I think.

I used to love playing crash bash on my PS1. Shit was SO cash
Also Spyro the Dragon. Just wish it was a bit difficult as a game.

>>4624547

Neat.

>>4630007
It's easy to look up words you don't know. It's called a dictionary.

>>4582141
It still works with some English releases though funnily enough.

>>4636415
Come to think of it you can also hack stuff like FF8's summon with a hacking device even if you don't have a Pocketstation.