Tenchi Muyo! RPG, super famicom

Except for retro games, my colleague Kristin also likes some Japanese animes and manga. Here follows her review of this game on to which we put an English translation. 

Written By: Kristin
There are many Japan-exclusive strategy games, one of them is Tenchi Muyo! Game Hen, also known as Tenchi Muyo RPG in the inofficial translation. The game was developed by Banpresto and was released on the Super Famicom in 1995. If you ever saw the anime or read the manga, you will probably recognize most of the characters presented during the game: main character Tenchi, Princess Ayeka, Ryoko the demon, Mihoshi the space cop, cat-bunny Ryo-Ohki and so on. But this game introduces two new characters, never seen outside of this game: the girls Mizuki and Kusumi.


These screen shots are from the english translation which we can add to a physical, original cart.

Kusumi, an old classmate to the scientist Washu, is filled with revenge. During the game, you fight monsters who are summoned by Kusumi, but also by Mizuki - the girl who suddenly appears during the first scene. At first, she works as Kusumi's right hand - to do the dirtywork; for example kidnapping princess Sasami (also known as Pretty Sammy).

But when Tenchi and the gang manage to rescue Sasami, Mizuki is abandoned by Kusumi who in turn kidnaps Ryoko the demon. Mizuki now joins Tenchi and she becomes a playable character. By using her knowledge and Ryo-ohki's ability to transform into a space ship, they follow Kusumi to the moon where she continues her revengeful plans.


These screen shots are from the english translation which we can add to a physical, original cart.
All characters have different abilities; pros and cons. Some are naturally weaker, some a bit slower, while others can move around more freely. You can level up your characters up to level 8 but you are limited to use only four characters for each game.

To make a character level up, he or she needs to make the decisive hit, making the monster die. Just like in many other games, each character also has its unique set of attacks, which grows in numbers when they level up.

The game is really short in comparison to many other strategy games, but even if reaching the end isn't that difficult, there are many extra gaming hours to gain, plus some bonus characters. You have the possibility to go back to places where you already visited.

If you like this series since earlier, you won't be disappointed. There are a lot of dialog and the chemistry between the characters are often familiar. The game is very well-made, and even if the dialog can get a bit messy at times with all the honorable titles, you are pretty forgiving once you start playing the battles. And it's hard to quit. Tenchi Muyo! RPG is, compared to other startegy-RPG titles, actually very easy-going where you won't have to deal with a heavy story line. So if you're curious on how these type of games work, this title could be a great starter before taking on the bigger and longer strategy-RPGs.

Tenchi Muyo! RPG till SFC

Det finns många strategispel som aldrig släppts utanför Japan, ett av dem är Tenchi Muyo! Game Hen, som även kallas Tenchi Muyo RPG i och med den inofficiella översättning som gjorts. Spelet utvecklades av Banpresto och släpptes till Super Famicom 1995.

Om man har sett på animen eller läst mangan så känner man nog igen de flesta karaktärer som presenteras under spelets gång: huvudpersonen Tenchi, Prinsessan Ayeka, den närgångna demonen Ryoko, rymdpolisen Mihoshi, katt-kaninen Ryo-Ohki med flera. Men det introduceras även två nya karaktärer som aldrig påträffas tidigare: tjejerna Mizuki och Kusumi.



Dessa skärmdumpar kommer från den engelska översättningen som vi kan flasha till fysisk original-kassett.

Kusumi är en gammal klasskamrat till vetenskapskvinnan Washu som är ute efter hämnd. Under spelets gång slåss man mot monster som är framkallade av Kusumi, men även av Mizuki - tjejen som plötsligt dyker upp i första scenen. Hon fungerar först som Kusumis utsända för att göra smutsjobbet; bland annat att kidnappa prinsessan Sasami (även känd som Pretty Sammy).

Men då Tenchi och gänget lyckas rädda Sasami så anses Mizuki ha misslyckats med sitt uppdrag. Hon överges därmed av sin chef som då istället kidnappar Ryoko. Tenchi och gänget tar då över stackars Mizuki på sin sida som först nu blir en spelbar karaktär. Med hjälp av hennes kunskaper och Ryo-ohkis förmåga att förvandla sig till ett rymdskepp, följer gänget efter den hämndlystna Kusumi då hon flyr iväg till månen för att fortsätta sina planer.


Dessa skärmdumpar kommer från den engelska översättningen som vi kan flasha till fysisk original-kassett.

Man spelar på ett rutnät snett ovanifrån och alla karaktärer har olika egenskaper; fördelar och nackdelar. En del är naturligt svagare, andra är lite långsammare, medan andra kan röra sig mer fritt. Man kan levla sina karaktärer upp till level 8 men egenskaperna är bestående oavsett level. Däremot så är man begränsad till fyra karaktärer per match.

För att en karaktär ska levla behöver han eller hon slå det avgörande slaget så att ett monster dör. Så som i många andra spel har varje karaktär unika attacker och magier som utökas allteftersom att var och en i deras level ökar.

Spelet är ganska kort i jämförelse med många andra strategispel men även om det går relativt snabbt att komma fram till slutet så finns det många speltimmar att hämta och olika karaktärer att hitta på vägen. Man har möjligheten att gå tillbaka till platser man redan har besökt.



Om man gillar serien sedan tidigare så kommer man inte att bli besviken. Det finns mycket dialog och kemin mellan karaktärerna känns ofta igen. Spelet är mycket välgjort, och även om dialogen lätt känns lite rörig då de alltid tilltalar varandra vid namn och hederstitlar, är man ganska förlåtande när man väl kommer igång att spela. Och det är dessutom svårt att sluta.

Tenchi Muyo! RPG är nämligen ett jämförelsevis lättsamt strategi-RPG där man slipper tung story som många andra spel inom samma genre kan ha. Så om man är nyfiken på hur den här typen av spel fungerar så kan denna titel vara en bra inkörsport till tyngre och definitivt längre strategi-RPG.

text av Kristin Loman.

Sword of Hope for Game Boy

I was asked to review RPGs on the Game Boy. It's hard because I don't speak Japanese and I don't play RPGs. They take too long. But I did have one RPG as a kid: The Sword of Hope. Its Japanese name is Selection, if it matters, and it was released in Japan at early as 1989. The only RPG I've ever beaten. It took me a long time but it was alright.

I had the Swedish version with Swedish translation. It is renowned for it's very strange translation, similar to how Shadowgate on the NES famously wrote "gä" and "slä" instead of "gå" and "slå". For an adult this may just be fun, but it's hard for a kid to understand why you need to open someone's chest ("bröst") when you see a treasure chest. The Tree Ent is translated as a Tree Ant, etc. I think the badly translated spells and items also make the game harder.

The graphics are really nice for a GB game.

The best thing about the game may be the music. I still hum some of the tunes from this game, such as the church music or the music by the ferry spring. Also, it is a nice little adventure you're on. You visit the excentric magicians trying to figure out how to solve their problems. You get to fight several strange enemies, such as the Vampire Lord, the gold-stealing Troll, and The Shadow. All of them have their weakness against a particular item or spell.

The spells work quite nicely too, and you'll be happy to level up and get new and surprising spells. There is some level grinding involved but it didn't bother me too much. One reviewer on gamefaqs thought it was almost too easy to level up and beat bosses, but as far as RPGs are concerned less is better for me.

There are two flaws. Number one is that when you level up, you still have to fight those stupids moths as in the picture, even though they can't hurt you. Such a waste of time, in my opinion anyways. The second thing that bothers me is how illogical it is sometimes. I ended up just trying every item on everything in every pictures. I did manage to beat it without a FAQ and that's nice for a kid who never played RPGs.
Of course they didn't have FAQs back then, you had to call Nintendo for answers. I would have been too shy to do that. I couldn't believe how people could call strangers on the phone like that.

The game has a password system which works well. There is actually one place in the game where if you don't get it right you are unable to try again, and have to restart from your latest saving point. This may be a bug. You probably want to know that this place is the ferry spring where you are asked such question as "do you prefer blue or green? * yes * no".

A problem for me is that I can't compare this game to other RPGs. Not even Pokemon or Final Fantasy I have played. I looked over the reviews at gamefaqs and decided to give this game 4/5. RPGs feel more like work than play to me, but I suppose that's how it should be. Anyways, I did play it too the end and it seems that battles are a lot faster than if you play other RPGs.