Blazing Heroes 2 to is the sequel to Riglord Saga/Mystaria/Blazing Heroes that was released earlier
this year in the US. Blazing Heroes 2 is a strategy/RPG similar to games like Shining Force.
Riglord Saga 2, as it is called in Japan, is a huge improvement over 1.
The game is in hi-res, and features two main characters, a ninja and female
dragon knight. Riglord Saga 2 was released on November 2 in Japan. Sega of America has yet to announce
a release date for Blazing Heroes 2 in the US.
STORY:
It has been more than a century since the Riglord War. The Dragoon Kingdom, located at the
northwestern part of Riglord Continent, is invaded by Kadarl, a sorcerous nation full of mystery. Princess Mieu of
the Dragoon Kingdom and Prince Rasty of the neighboring nation escape from the turmoil, and leave the region to
look for allies to strike back.
CHARACTERS:
Mieu: The graceful dragon knight excels in both swordsmanship and might of the dragon.
She is a little bit on the confident and self-conscious side. Deep inside her heart,
she is kind and sensitive.
Rasty: He is a direct descendant of Prince Arthur and Priestess Elize, the well-known
heroes in Riglord War. Folks say that he succeeded ArthurÕs soft-mindedness
and ElizeÕs talent in holy spells. He can also cast attack spells.
Asuka: He is the team leader of ÒTsukigumiÓ (The Legion of Moon), the ninja team of
Iga tribe in the land of Yamatai. He is a direct descendant of Musashi, the
renowned hero in Riglord War. He wields ninjutsu techniques. He is honest,
polite, and fortified with faith. His mother and beloved little sister live with him in
the countryside.
Nazuna: Once a rootless Shikigami (genie), she forcefully signed a contract to become
Asuka's servant. Whether this relationship is a product of Nazuna's likable
character or Asuka's hidden leadership is yet to be known. She is an archer with
the ability to cast special spells.
- Atlus
Devil Summoner Soul Hackers is the latest game in the Megami Tensei series and is the sequel to
Devil Summoner, which was released in December of 1995 for the Sega Saturn in Japan. Soul Hackers features
the same game system as Devil Summoner, but the story is unrelated. The story involves a mysterious netwok
organization that steals souls and the game features three different views. The overall map looks down upon
the city of Tenkai from diagonally above. The 2D field map is used for moving around local areas. And of
course, the 3D dungeons will return as the places where you will spend the majority of your time. These
field maps are composed of polygons and pre-rendered graphics to create beautifully detailed backgrounds.
Devil Summoner Soul Hackers should be released for the Sega Saturn in Japan in November of 1997 and will
have a suggested retail price of ¥6,800. Game information and screenshots are from the
teleparc GAME geisen.
- Sega Enterprises, Ltd.
Dragon Force 2 is the sequel to Dragon Force, which still stands as one of my favorite games for
the Sega Saturn. The game is a strategy/RPG that is extremely high on the addictiveness scale. Since
Working Designs is no longer releasing games for the Sega Saturn after Magic Knight Rayearth, the chances
of us seeing Dragon Force 2 in English are pretty slim to none.
- Datam Polystar
Dragon Master Silk is a 3D RPG being developed for the Saturn in Japan. The game has not been announced for a US release, but let's hope, the pics look nice. Dragonmaster Silk has been released in Japan (3/27/97).
- C's Ware
An adventure game tracking Kojiro Amagi, a down-at-the-heel private eye, and Marina Hojyo, an elite
government investigator. The two cross paths and become involved in a huge conspiracy. This four-disc set, of
which one is a ŽÔMaking ofŽÕ bonus disk, has over 30,000 pieces of sampled speech that when
uncompressed accounts for 3 gigabytes of data. Forty voice actors are featured in this massive animated
adventure.
EVE burst error has been released in Japan, no US date has been announced, nor has it
been picked up for US release.
Falcom Classics
- Falcom
Falcom has announced that it will release 'Falcom Classics' for the Sega Saturn
this November in Japan. Falcom classics will contain some of Falcom's extremely popular
Japanese PC games from the 80's, Xanadu, Y's and Dragon Slayer, in one package which
will retail for ¥5,800.
Each game will feature enhanced graphics and for Dragon Slayer
and Xanadu you'll have the choice to play the original version or a newer version that will
allow you to change the level and map.
In case you're not familiar with these 3 games, Dragon Slayer was originally released
in 1984 and featured elements of action and puzzle RPGs. Xanadu was one of the most
famous PC games in Japan, it was released in '85 and is a side scrolling RPG with a lot
of puzzles and action. Y's was originally released in '87 and it's a top view traditional
RPG. Y's was also released for the Duo in the US, and is well known for having one of
the best video game soundtracks of all-time. (most of this information is from
Yoshi's Land)
- Hudson Soft
Here are some screen shots from the latest RPG in the Far East of Eden (Tengai Makyo) series by Hudson Soft. This
series is not well known in the US, but is very popular in Japan. The previous games in this series were for the PC Engine CD-Rom.
The battle scenes will feature fully animated enemies. The overhead walking scenes are a mix of 3D rendered and
traditional hand-drawn art.
This game
will cover 2 CD-ROMs, and will feature 100 percent cel-animated, full-screen battles as well as tons of FMV,
which require massive storage. The Apocalypse IV promises to be chock-full of li'l mini-games, diversions, and
other unnecessary but fun distractions the series is famous for.
FEOE has been released in Japan (as of 1/10/97), still no reports on a US
release, which is highly unlikely.
- Technical Group Laboratory
Farland Story is a strategy-rpg along the same lines as Feda and Shining Force. The
game has two gameplay modes, an overhead map and the battle scenes. The overhead map is where
you move your characters around the towns and landscapes and the battle scenes feature one on
one fights. The graphics in the overhead map are very average, but the battle scenes are a
little better as they feature some nice character and spell animation. Like most of the games
listed on this page, the only way that we will see this game in English is if someone gives
me a couple billion dollars to start up a huge software company that isn't worried about profits,
just bringing over every RPG. Farland Story was released this past March in Japan.
- Yanoman/Max Entertainment
Feda: Remake is a strategy RPG, it is a remade version of the original Feda.
There has been no announced U.S. release date
- Konami
Genso Suikoden, formerly an exclusive Playstation RPG, has been announced by Konami of Japan for
the Sega Saturn. Genso Suikoden, just Suikoden in the US, is a RPG about a young boy who is the son of
the Empire's best Generals. He soon finds out that the empire is bad, and has to decide whether to fight
with the rebels against the empire, thus possible betraying his father, or to side with the empire. Suikoden
is deep RPG that will supply you with about 20 hours of gameplay and it features over 100 characters that
will join you on your quest. Includes great soundtrack, featuring music that changes with the mood of the game.
The chances of Konami bringing out Suikoden in the US are pretty slim considering Konami's past with US
Saturn releases.
- Game Arts
Grandia is a new 3-D RPG being created by Game Arts. Be sure to check out the pics of this graphically impressive title. Hopefully, Vic@WD will pick
this one up.
There are around 150 people working on or have worked on Grandia. The game has been
planned for over 3 1/2 years. The folks at Skywalker Sound are handling the music, and the guy who did GunGriffon's intro
The game is entirely 3D-rendered, texture-mapped polygons that can be viewed from any
angle. The characters are hand-drawn, and the game features a real time battle system similar to the one in the
Secret of Mana series, but much more complex. The setting is a Lunar-esque middle age fantasy world, but
with the addition of some highly advanced technology recently excavated from a long dead society, that has
landed in the arms of the villainous Garlyle army.
A playable demo of Grandia will be released this summer in Japan. Grandia is currently slated for a September 1997 release in Japan. It has been announced that Grandia will be on 2 CDs.
Sega of America has stated that it is interested in getting the rights
from GA to release Grandia in the US. Working Designs is also interested in bringing over Grandia.
- NCA/Masaya
Langrisser 3 is the latest in the popular strategy wargame series, previously available
on almost every system out there, including the Mega Drive, the Super Famicom, the PC
Engine Duo and even the PC-FX (the very first Langrisser game was translated by Treco
as Warsong). Despite the doubts raised by the early demo, the final product is a worthy
continuation of the series, featuring an improved combat system, plenty of scenarios to
clear - 36 regular (yes, 36, not 34 as you may think after finishing it for the first
time) and 5 hidden, good music and graphics that do the job quite nicely. Although you
are probably sick and tired of seeing the words "epic storyline" applied to every
RPG-ish import these days, the story in Langrisser 3 is top-notch with memorable
characters and some unexpected plot twists.
Given the copious amount of text in the game, the overall sophistication of the dialogue
and (cough, cough) the current state of the US Saturn market, an English translation seems
unlikely. However, the letters section in the latest GameFan (volume 4 issue 12) mentions
that not one but _three_ companies are going for US rights to the game. If this is true,
let's hope that the translation will be as faithful to the original as possible, anything
else would be a great disservice to RPG/strategy fans on this side of the Pacific.
- Team Andromeda
Azel: Panzer Dragoon RPG is a RPG that has spawned from the two great Panzer Dragoon shooters that
have previously been released for the Sega Saturn. The Panzer Dragoon games are well known for their great
graphics, excellent cg cinemas and beautiful music. Panzer Dragoon RPG is sure to live up to what we expect
in those areas as the pictures look amazing and I'm sure the music will be just as impressive. What remains
to be seen is whether or not Team Andromeda can give us an epic story that can equal or surpass the graphic
excellence.
Panzer Dragoon RPG is completely polygonal, consisting of flight and town scenes that are all 3-D,
and with motion captured townspeople. The story revolves around Edge who is
a guard in one of the Empire's excavation sites. One of his fellow guards is murdered by a man named
Craymen and Edge journeys to find him. More information is sure to be revealed at this year's Tokyo
Gamer's Show. Panzer Dragoon RPG should be released this summer in Japan. Sega of America has stated that it will bring out Panzer Dragoon RPG in the US, it could make it out as
early as Fall '97.
Sega and Team Andromdea have begun to explain the complex level-up system in Azel. After finishing scenarios
in the game, you get points that can be assigned to four areas: Attack, Defense, "Heart Skill," (basically,
this attribute controls your number of Berserk Points and the power of your Berserk Attack) and Maneuverability.
Depending on where you assign your points, certain parts of your dragon's polygonal body change; for instance,
higher Attack rating means a longer, lance-type horn, whereas high Maneuverability means a long tail and broad,
thin wings. This rapid model-changing is done in real-time: You can actually watch your dragon morph as you assi
gn points to different areas, and there are infinite combinations - therefore an infinite amount of dragons
exist in Azel!
The E3 version of Panzer Dragoon was listed as 50% complete, but it is really a lot less considering
that the towns and walking around parts were not in the version that was there. What they did have
there was the 3D world maps where you had full 360 degrees of flight and the very innovative battle
system.
The 3D world map where you could fly around anywhere, looked better than Panzer Dragoon II, which
was very impressive. Your dragon looks fantastic and you have five different dragons to morph into
and the variety of the changes at your disposal are nearly infinite. The control in is great, especially
with the analog controller, but is still very good with the digital pad.
You get into battles much like most traditional RPGs, as they are random and occur when flying around
the world map. The battles themselves are unlike any that I have ever experienced. You have the options
of firing your regular gun, use targeting, or you beserk attacks. The battles are fully 3D and you usually
encounter a large number of emenies that can be very impressive in size and the first boss I faced was really
huge and took a long time to defeat. The way the battles work is what sets it apart from any other games.
They are on rails, but you are usually moving and you must move around your opponent to set you up
for better shots and to avoid the attacks of the enemies, this adds a lot of strategy to the battles as you
spend a lot of time jockeying for position. You have a charge meter much like the Final Fantasy games, but
there are three of them that allows you three levels of charging up your targeting attack, the more you charge,
the better you targeting attack. Also, when charged you have the ability to do various beserk attacks
which are handled much like magic in that they use up you magic points. The beserk attacks are very impressive
looking and do a lot of damage.
It is way too early to call this a must-have game, but from what I've seen, it looks like it could be one
of the best and most innovative games ever released for the Sega Saturn or any other next generation console.
Panzer Dragoon Saga is currently scheduled for a January 1998 release in the US.
- Konami
Policenauts is a digital comic adventure set in the year 2040. Following the tradition of Snatcher, Policenauts has
the intense, deep and rich post-war story line that will draw you into the action. A complex role-playing game that will challenge your detective skills.
A violent and mature story line Tons of scenes, items, and puzzles to explore and solve. Konami has stated
that Policenauts will not be released in the US for any home system.
Puyo Puyo RPG is a new RPG based on the characters of the very popular Puyo Puyo license.
Just like many of the other RPGs on this page, it will never see a U.S. release.
- GLAMS
Quo Vadis is a Sci-fi war simulation game, that is loaded with lots of animation, a complex story line and many characters, voices and stages.
Ronde 5 NEW Pics
- ATLUS
Ronde is an RPG that is being developed for the Sega Saturn in Japan by Atlus. It is currently scheduled for
a November 10, 1997 release in Japan.
- Sega Enterprises Ltd.
Sakura Taisen translates into the Cherry Blossom Wars. Sakura is also the name of the main character
in this interactive/strategy-action game that features both excellent graphics, an intricate storyline and
tons of mech combat. The main game is an interactive movie where you socialize with other characters and
go about your schedule. The other part of Sakura Taisen is a 3-D isometric view action/strategy game where
you control a mech. The action/strategy part of the game is very similar to Front Mission on the Super
Famicom. Sakura Taisen has been released in Japan. Nobody has picked up this game for a US release.
For more information on Sakura Taisen, as well pics, movies and art concerning Sakura Taisen,
be sure to check out the following two pages:
Official "Sakura Taisen" Home Page by Red Company and
Unofficial Sakura Taisen Home Page.
- SNK
Samurai Shodown RPG is the much delayed RPG from SNK based on various characters from SNK's
fighting games. SNK should release Samurai Shodown RPG for the Sega Saturn this summer or fall in
Japan. Samurai Shodown has been announced for release in the US, although no date has been
specified.
