Dead & Buried – Netmonster – Shunt Over, Yokai Watch!

1998 – General PTO first became aware of NetMonster life while examining the HTML source of a broken web page. Working intensely to develop a way to communicate with the creature, in time, he was able to create a dialog with it.

NetMonsters – digital creatures which make their home within the Internet. While largely benign, the malicious ones are responsible for wreaking much havoc on the Internet, breaking links, corrupting images, crashing servers and much more. Their leader? The enigmatic Netmonster known only as Shade.

1999 – the NetMonster Resistance Corp is formed. Dedicated to keeping peace and order between humans and NetMonsters, they are the last line of defence against the enroaching spread of Shade and his minions.

NetMonster is a Monster Collection Battle Game released in 1999 by White Mask Productions.

Wizard’s Climber – Fantranslation Release

Softhouse Chara is a company known for several simulation games, such as island survival simulator Nangoku Dominion, but outside of its native homeland, the company has been rather unknown due to the fact that none of their games have ever been made available in English

Seems like this changes today, as an anonymous group has now released a fantranslation of one of their more popular games – Wizard’s Climber.

Wizard’s Climber is a stat raising simulation game, somewhat similar to Gainax’s Princess Maker, where you play as a Wizard assisting the heroine Celes in her attempt to become a great Wizard and win a Magic Tournament.

Fans of such games may find this to be of interest. You can find Wizard’s Climber translation patch here

NewType Republic Released!

Hello everyone and Merry Christmas Eve!

For a long time I have unfortunately been neglecting my game design projects in favor of simple writing due to life issues, but hopefully this is where things turn around.

Some context to start with – a “RPGMaker Super Robot Wars SRPG Engine” was released recently and I just thought I would do a little something in it. This is a short 20 minutes crossover SRPG that admittingly comprises of my particular in-jokes so I’m sure most of it will be incomprehensible unless you’ve been following me for quite some time. Still, maybe you’ll get a chuckle or two out of it.

You can find NewType Republic over at the Misc page.

Reflections on Dark Hero Party

(This article is intended to be read after the full completion of the game in question, as it assumes viewer’s knowledge of the events of the game in order to perform a full analysis.)

Dark Hero Party is an allegory for real life.

Despite its status as a meme, Dark Hero Party poses several interesting questions about the world we live in and asks us to reflect on what we truly value – both in fiction… and in reality.

Dead & Buried – Sword Girls – The BH Era (Before Hearthstone)

The Lazion Empire is a grand power present in the Sword Girl universe holding most of the territory. One day the empire asks for tributes to be paid, with their vast forces, the smaller countries quickly conceded. However, The Royale Kingdom and The Republic of Vita refused and other countries soon followed. Sword Girls follows the story of four girls within different factions. Sita Vilosa of the Vita faction, Luthica Preventer of the Crux, Iri Flina from the Darklore faction and Linia Pacifica from the Academy.

Swords Girls is a Korean Browser Based Digital Card Game running from 2011-2013 (EN) / 2017 (KR)

A Look At – Nangoku Dominion – I’m a Survivor

You play as Aloha, a young man with amnesia who is stranded on a volcanic tropical island with nine other people (six girls and three men), and the objective is to survive on the island, and perhaps regain your memory or gain the love of one of the girls and escape with them.

Nangoku Dominion is a Survival Simulation game released by Softhouse Chara in 2005.

A Look At – POWER DoLLS – X-Com but Mecha

The year is 2535 and the planet Omni, originally a colony of Earth, has declared its independence. The Terran Government’s response: a series of violent suppression leading to all-out war. It’s an uphill battle for the resistance forces, until Omni begins converting Power Loaders, originally civilian construction vehicles, into combat mechas.

Five years later, the 177th squadron was formed, from from an elite group of all-female team and named the DoLLS (Detachment of Limited Line Service.) A fully equipped formation consisting of mecha backed up by air and artillery support, these brave women prepare to face the harsh battles ahead…

POWER DoLLs is a series of turn based wargames, developed by Kogado Studio (Symphonic Rain, Gadget Trial.)

A Look At – NTRPG2 – “Holding On”

Mars lives a peaceful everyday life in his quiet village.
Fascinated by the nearby ruins, he’s determined to unlock its secrets.
Accidentally undoing a magic seal, Mars and his lover find themselves attacked by demons.
He is saved by a visiting knight,
But that was where his troubles began…

NTRPG2 is a Doujin RPGMaker Game released by Hanataka in 2014.

(This article will contain major spoilers for the game in question.)

A Look At – The Shattered Princess of Ice and Snow – “Worth”

The world was peaceful after the Hero defeated the Demon Lord.
However, princess Aina has yet to return…
Rumor has it that she was enslaved by the Hero’s younger brother Schum.
Aina’s younger brother, Prince Hara, hears of the news,
and thus seeks to find a way to save his sister…

The Shattered Princess of Ice and Snow is a Doujin RPGMaker Game released by U-ROOM in 2019, serving as a spin-off story in the Dark Hero Party series.

(This article will contain spoilers for the game in question along with its predecessor.)

Kamigakari – Official English Localization Release

A new Japanese Tabletop RPG has now been officially localized and available digitally at DriveThruRPG.

I’ve written about the fan-translated version here, and assume that the official product will provide a more polished version. Kamigakari apparently has had a rough Kickstarter process but here’s hoping that it leads to more officially translated Japanese Tabletop RPGs in the future.