PixlBit

My sporadic output is due to a shitty work schedule.  I'm only here tonight because I had to cancel my class due to emergency root canal surgery.  Pity me!  But lucky you, I've got time to tell you about all the obscure games I decided to play this Summer.  Here it is in list form!

Shining Force III: Episode 2 (Sega Saturn)

Beyond Oasis (Sega Genesis)

Granstream Saga (Playstation)

Wario Land II (Gameboy)

Exile (Turbo Duo)

Treasure of the Rudras (Super Nintendo)

Esper Dream II (Nintendo/Famicom)

Valkyrie Profile (Playstation)

Odin Sphere (Playstation 2)

Sparkster (Super Nintendo)

Ninja Five-O (Gameboy Advance)

I try to rotate through the systems so that when I finally (not happening) get through 90% of my prodigious backlog, I'm not stuck with twenty Sega Master System games.  That reminds me: my next game should be for the Sega Master System.

I've written reviews for all of the above.  Do you care about any of those games?  Want to read a review for one of them?  For all of them?  I can oblige if you ask real nice-like.  Ah, but the internet has lots of reviews, you don't need mine, right?  Self-indulgent tripe that it is.

Ah, wait, not so fast.  One of those games up there is good.  I mean REALLY good, with a capital REALLY.  It's not Shining Force III: Episode 2, because I have't finished it yet.  But it is good, potential top fifty RPG good.  

I had to jump through fifty hoops to play it.  I had to import the Japanese copy, which wasn't expensive, just sayin'.  I had to patch the english translation and burn the game onto a blank cd. I had to unscrew the top of my Saturn and tape an internal lever to another internal lever to ensure that the disc would keep spinning even when the disc tray was open.  I then had to perform the "Sega Saturn Swap Trick" to fool my system into thinking it was playing a North American game.  But I wasn't good at the swap trick, and despite numerous annoying Youtube tutorials given by good-natured but painfully unfunny internet comedians, I could not get the system to play my burned (burnt?) copy of (acronym alert!) SFIIIE2.  So my girlfriend, who I love but who I hate, sees me getting all frustrated and meekly asks "Can I try?".  What an asshole my girlfriend is, ammirite?  So, you know how this story ends, right?  She nails it ont he first try..... the game works!  And my Saturn has been on ever since.  I'm terrified that if I turn off the system or even hit reset that I won't be able to replicate the process.  Then I'll have to let me girlfriend take another crack at it (she's actually two for two in attempts at getting it to work, and I'm oh for like a billion) and I'll be even more in her debt.  Have I mentioned that she was a lawyer for Activision, and is featured prominently (not really) in the credits of many of their A-list releases? Oh, that doesn't impress this crowd, huh?  Why couldn't she work for Rockstar or Squenix or something?

Not my Saturn..... but it looks like my Saturn.

Anyway, Shining Force III: Episode 2 is a refreshing play- it feels like a Saturn game and I like it and everything.  I'm happy that some people spent a decade of their life translating some Japanese so I could play this game for a week or so.  I really enjoy it.  But it isn't the best game on the list.

That game is Esper Dream II.  Just kidding, that game sucks.  That game is Treasure of the Rudras.  Seriously, excellent game.  So many reasons why.  I wrote a long review/rumination that I'm sure I'll post soon enough.  Why wasn't it ever translated for us?  We like RPGs in this country.  We even liked them in 1995.  Fuckers.  Lot's of cursing in this post, eh?  I got a root canal today, did I mention?