info on obscure Saturn games?

raiden · Post by **raiden** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 4:59 pm

recently I got myself a nice little modded Saturn again. My main incentives were Nights, Darius Gaiden, Batsugun and Sega Rally, but now that I´ve got it and started scanning ebay for interesting games, I find myself just as curious as back in 2000 when I was sifting through Den Den Town´s 2nd hand Saturn games. There are so many games I´ve never really heard of, where I haven´t got a clue what they are, and it´s always pretty hard to find some info about them. Most of them are dating sims, probably, but I´m sure not all of them are. So can anyone recommend me either a site about those lesser-known Saturn games (I don´t need to be told how great Hanagumi Taisen Columns or Necronomicon are, for example), or tell something about a few of them? Before I sold my old Saturn, I had owned it for a few years already, reading lots of western gaming mags, too, so if you´re thinking about games that were featured in western gaming mags, I probably know them already. But there are so many games that were never mentioned in western publications, and I´m curious to know more about those.

iatneH · Post by **iatneH** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 5:12 pm

Have you heard of BLACK/MATRIX? Cool little SRPG that's only around $10 or $12 now, and all over eBay.

raiden · Post by **raiden** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 5:24 pm

yeah, played Black Matrix through some 5 years ago

ok, to give a few examples which games I´m asking about:

Akayashi Nindenku no Hitotsugai Plus
Akuma Zensho Dainishuu
Amaki Shioni
Aponashi Girls: Ri-N-Po-Su
Aqualude: Umibi Monogatari
Ayakashi Oshiden Kuno: Ban Plus
Back Gain: Gain Tensei
Blade Disk: Tokobetsuhen Kosu Players
Bouken Katsugeki Monomono
Brain Battle Q
Break Thru
Cross Tantei Monogatari: Motsureta 7Tsu no Labyrinth
Daedalus

that kind of stuff

jp · Post by jp » Thu Apr 06, 2006 6:26 pm

Akayashi Nindenku no Hitotsugai Plus - Dunno. I have it, but I didn't play it for more than 5 minutes due to lack of Japanese knowledge. Its by the same people who made Tukai! Shooting Slots though...

Akuma Zensho Dainishuu - The American translation is Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers. Its part of the Shin Mege... whatever series. Once again, I didn't play much of it due to my lack of Japanese knowledge. I understand its supposed to be good though if you know Japanese.

Daedalus - In the US its called "Robotica".

Those are the only 3 I'm fairly certain of. I may have the rest... and I may have played them... I just don't recall what they were called. ^_^ I don't really play the dating sims/strategy games/RPGs much due to the fact that my knowledge of Nihon-go is very slim.

Edit: Actually, I'm pretty sure I have Brain Battle Q, Blade Disk, and Break Thru. And Cross Tantei Monogatari: Motsureta 7Tsu no Labyrinth sounds like its that apocalyptic RPG... though I could be wrong. I'll get back with you on those sometime tomorrow night (since I don't feel like sifting through the Saturn collection right now, heh).

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Fri Apr 07, 2006 2:55 am

You might want to check out GaijinPunch's site if you haven't already, it has some basic info on a bunch of Japanese games, including Saturn ones.

Neon · Post by **Neon** » Fri Apr 07, 2006 9:17 am

Raiden - even if you've got the board you'll want to get the Garegga port. There's a few others that are better than arcade perfect/have reasons to own beyond the arcade, let me know if you'd like further detail as I know that's not 100% on topic.

SteevTee · Post by **SteevTee** » Fri Apr 07, 2006 10:27 am

Wow, I bought my first Saturn the other day and modded it too. I was gonna start a similar topic, raiden, you've save me the effort.

jp wrote:Daedalus - In the US its called "Robotica".

Yeah, I bought this pre-owned with another game for £2.99. Bargain.

It's an fps set in some space staion. The level layouts are randomly generated and thus are different each time you play. Pretty cool game.

raiden · Post by **raiden** » Fri Apr 07, 2006 12:41 pm

You might want to check out GaijinPunch's site if you haven't already, it has some basic info on a bunch of Japanese games, including Saturn ones.

that´s a fine start, thanks. Not very detailed, but at least I can get some idea what kind of games they are.

even if you've got the board you'll want to get the Garegga port. There's a few others that are better than arcade perfect/have reasons to own beyond the arcade, let me know if you'd like further detail as I know that's not 100% on topic.

I think I´m sufficiently aware of the differences, as I had the Saturn version for years before buying the PCB. But I think I´ll keep the PCB, just for the sake of laziness to do the necessary trading, and because I think the PCB just might last a little longer, as it doesn´t have any moving parts. Right now, working Saturns aren´t that hard to find, as the hardware was actually made to last (what a rare thing nowadays), but in, say, 5 years from now, problems might occur more frequently, whereas the PCB should easily have another 10 years.
The one thing that could entice me to return to Saturn Battle Garegga is being able to turn the slowdown off. But recently, I haven´t played the game that much anyway. Toaplan is where all my love goes now, shmup-wise, so I´m very keen to pick up Batsugun.

Akayashi Nindenku no Hitotsugai Plus - Dunno. I have it, but I didn't play it for more than 5 minutes due to lack of Japanese knowledge. Its by the same people who made Tukai! Shooting Slots though...

don´t know that one either

- what kind of game is it?

Akuma Zensho Dainishuu - The American translation is Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers. Its part of the Shin Mege... whatever series. Once again, I didn't play much of it due to my lack of Japanese knowledge. I understand its supposed to be good though if you know Japanese.

ah, ok, I even played Soul Hackers back then. Didn´t like it too much because it requires extremely dedicated levelling, but the atmosphere is very cool.

Daedalus - In the US its called "Robotica".

so it´s a fps, eh... well, I don´t think I´m going to play those on Saturn anymore. Only going to pick up Duke Nukem in order to unlock Death Tank Zwei.

Those are the only 3 I'm fairly certain of. I may have the rest... and I may have played them... I just don't recall what they were called. ^_^ I don't really play the dating sims/strategy games/RPGs much due to the fact that my knowledge of Nihon-go is very slim.

I´m just not patient enough. Got Sakura Wars 1+2 for very cheap lately, but didn´t even manage to play part 1 up to the first save point before actually falling asleep. I need some action going on!

Edit: Actually, I'm pretty sure I have Brain Battle Q, Blade Disk, and Break Thru. And Cross Tantei Monogatari: Motsureta 7Tsu no Labyrinth sounds like its that apocalyptic RPG... though I could be wrong. I'll get back with you on those sometime tomorrow night (since I don't feel like sifting through the Saturn collection right now, heh).

Please feel free to write more about similarly unknown games as well