Star Ocean: Blue Sphere!
god damn it I’m never going to win
Ernest Becomes Magnetic.
Alright, it took me a bit of time, but here’s a small part of the screenshot.
This tricked me, I immediately thought arcade game cause I thought it was imploring you to ‘insert credit’, but the Fighter’s name is Insert, the Wizard’s name is Credit.
One of the Wizardry games maybe?
It’s not a Wizardry, but obviously the right general genre.
I’ve got bad news about Credit the Wizard.
Is— Is this Phantasie Ⅲ??? If it is, that’s absolutely not easy mode, but I guess it worked out because there are madmen like me around!?
Solid guess. As for me, I don’t think it’s especially obscure. After all, it’s common knowledge that Phantasie III: The Wrath of Nikademus is the third video game in the Phantasie series.
The “final” installment of the Phantasie trilogy was based around fighting the evil Nikademus and finishing him for good. Released in 1987, this time Nikademus was attempting to take over the entire world and it was up to the party to stop him.
Phantasie III maintained the style of the original two and improved upon the graphics on all platforms except the DOS version. The combat engine also saw a few upgrades, adding specific wound locations, with characters now able to have their head, torso, or a limb specifically injured, broken, or removed. It was also now possible to have a more tactical battle line-up, with the ability to move characters to the front, middle, or rear of the party. The game also improved upon the spell list and added a larger variety of weapons and equipment. The game also had two possible endings depending on whether the characters chose to fight Nikademus or join him.
Reception[edit]
Phantasie III sold 46,113 copies.[1] Computer Gaming World stated that “there are a few new wrinkles” in the game.[2] The magazine’s Scorpia was pleased by Phantasie III improving the trading interface and combat, and by the “grand ending” to the game and the trilogy,[3] but called the game “by far the weakest in the series” and criticized its short length.[4][5] Phantasie III was reviewed in 1988 in Dragon #130 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in “The Role of Computers” column. The reviewers gave the game 4 out of 5 stars.[6]
Phantasie I, Phantasie III, and Questron II were later re-released together, and reviewed in 1994 in Dragon #203 by Sandy Petersen in the “Eye of the Monitor” column. Petersen gave the compilation 2 out of 5 stars.[7]
Yes, it is Phantasie III!
Obskyr, I did think about whether the game was an easy mode game. I know that early RPGs aren’t as easy as, say, Tekken 2, but this was one of SSI’s more successful games and pretty popular for the time. It also has enough success in Japan that the developer made a Japan-only sequel, Phantasie IV. I think it’s about as easy as the game I guessed, and at worst “pushing it,” as Video_Game_King said about Konami Wai Wai World and Crystalis.
I also tried to give good clues with what I featured. Genre is obvious: wizard, fighter. The typeface is C64. And I tilted toward familiarity with the UI; the body part location system is memorable if you’ve seen the game. But yeah, if I’ve overestimated its popularity, my bad.
I don’t think it’s in the same league – apparently it only sold 46,000 copies in North America, but more importantly, being somewhat popular on Japanese vintage home computers doesn’t translate to cultural cachet on an English forum in 2024, hahah! Great choice of bit to screenshot, though. And besides, it’s hard to argue with results – it was guessed within a day, so…
We do all have our areas of expertise that seem obvious to us, but might be more obscure in a wider cultural context than we think – it might be the same with my next pick; we’ll see:
Ah, heck!! Some part of me knows exactly what this is but that part of me is not being friendly right now. Maddening!!
That is exactly what I was going to say! I can see the whole screen but I can’t remember the name.
Shiren?
@yeso Not a half junky guess. Certainly is very Japanese, innit. And I did, incidentally, play Shiren 1 for 80 hours this month…
I’ll be so dastardly as to break format for a bit here for the next clue – it comes in the form of an audio clip. Which… I believe might more or less give it away in the case that one is already familiar with the game? We’ll see.
I’ll pay my dues by reviving the audio version of this thread with a guess as well.
That text looks very familiar. Just dont know what the H it’s from
guwange?
The Genji and The Heike Clans