Inspired by @Jaffe 's admission on the podcast as a fellow Oz guy. Respect for knowing who The Gnome King is.
Much like how there are way more Oz books than you probably realized, there are way more Oz games than you probably realized! And most of them are Japanese!
A few notable examples to get the thread kicked off:
The deeply strange Yellow Brick Road, a first person adventure game with prerendered cutscenes and a sort of ATB combat system. You can watch @exodus play it here:
A Nintendo DS RPG (Beyond the Yellow Brick Road) whose look I just adore
And this PS1 title which notably features Ozma, a book only character from novels after the first one
I think the existence of these games is really interesting, but also points us towards a useful realization about copyright law. Every Oz book is in the public domain, so even though the 1939 movie won’t be for another decade anyone who wants to can play in that creative space and get a little instant brand recognition. Don’t use the ruby slippers, though! Those are from the movie so you’ll get in trouble; use the original sliver slippers instead.
Or the desert that instantly kills you if you touch it surrounding Oz. Oz has, baked in as a setting, a fantasy map with a hard boarder you can’t cross! That’s very easy to put into a videogame!
My favorite Oz Extended Universe character was always The Troublesome Phonograph, a record player that was brought to life and would incessantly annoy everybody with modern ragtime music.
They’re always in season, but he has to maintain a constant pumpkin patch to make sure he always has one ready. Seems like a tough way to live, but hey what isn’t.
I think about that DS game all the time, though I’m mainly fixated on the fact that it’s controlled via a giant virtual trackball on the touchscreen. Such a whimsically bizarre and unnecessary design choice–that is to say, it rules.
this was on the edge of my memory but I found it eventually. Oz themed enemies from Symphony of the Night. I also have vague memories of some rpg enemies that reference oz but google is not working for me
