Kuusoukagaku Gulliver Boy

[termis]

Just some random thoughts on the game...

I read the gamefaq review for the SNES version of this game, and both of the reviews listed as being a short game - 4-5 hours till one finishes it. 

So thinking, hmm... I can use a quick RPG game before I get into a long one, and I started it.  About 7 hours into the game and nowhere near finished, I realized they were totally different games.   Well, I started it, so I'll finish it unless I get really stuck.  Once I'm finished with the game, I'll probably write a short review up on gamefaqs for the PCE version to clear up the fact that SNES and PCE versions are different games.

Interesting game so far.  It's definitely an old school RPG, but a little watered down in some ways (i.e. no real weapon/armor equipping), but it has interestingly different ways of doing things in others (you have to be a merchant and trade goods between cities to make good money).

Video's pretty grainy, but passable for its time.  For this generation games, I prefer the clean look of cut-scenes, but FMV had to start somewhere...  At least it's not done in an overkill fashion that was to be FF series later on...

Though it's a SCD/ACD game, most of the music is done through the chip.  Though this makes loading virtually non-existent, I really do wish they threw in some more redbook audio here and there. 

About 13 hours into it, and I think I'm not quite half-way through.  The saturn version of the faq on gamefaqs is rather bad, but better than nothing.  I had to supplant it with a Japanese faq that I found on the web which was less wordy, but had more info.

[Tatsujin]

yeah, Hu-Video ruled at that time, although it's sucking nowadays.

[m1savage]

Gulliver Boy is a cool game. The guidebook that came out for this in Japan was quite helpful to me due to all the pictures. I'd like to see a more detailed english guide for this game too.

[thewestexit]

I really liked Gulliver Boy, what I played of it anyways (I got about 8 hours into it a few years back); the story felt very old school and easy for me to get into, plus the hu-video is really impressive for its time.

[GUTS]

That would be cool if you got a faq done, I started playing but couldn't figure out where to go a little ways in.  The video was definitely impressive though, I'd never seen FMV on the Duo before.

[termis]

I was afraid someone would ask. 

Well, I dunno if I'd have the patience to write the whole thing, but if this will help anyone else...  Babelfish seems to translate these well enough for one to get a gist of what they need to do:

These should be enough to get you through the game.   Well, hopefully anyway - I'm about half way through the game at this point.  It's for the Saturn version, but everything followed along smoothly for me so far.
http://www6.airnet.ne.jp/kai/game/galiver1.html
http://www6.airnet.ne.jp/kai/game/galiver2.html
http://www6.airnet.ne.jp/kai/game/galiver3.html
http://www6.airnet.ne.jp/kai/game/galiver4.html

This one is just a bonus.  You don't _need_ it to pass the game per se (so far for me, anyway), but it tells you where to buy and sell your items for profit, and what each item does: 
http://www.rpgdl.org/etc/gulliver.html

There is also an one English faq up on gamefaqs as I said previously, but it's really missing some critical detail and I can see how you can easily get stuck if you only resort to this:
http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/saturn/file/gulliver_boy.txt

[termis]

Finished it today.  It took a tad over 40 hours of gameplay to finish.  Quite a bit more than the initial 4-5 hours that I thought I was going to spend on this game. 

More thoughts on the game now that I'm finished with it:

Money in the game is quite useless.  Basically, you never really need to buy anything.  The only thing you can equip are a limited numbers of weapons, which are all found items.  As for items, I think I stocked up on some anti-poison and healing items maybe once or twice in the whole game, I still didn't even really need it.  This kind of takes away from the whole trade system for making money, which is too bad, cause it's an innovative system of making cash.  But I guess if you're inclined to do so, you can still trade to your hearts content to make your characters filthy rich. 

The story and the setting was quite decent, and well told.  I guess it's based on an anime of some sort, so if one saw it, I suppose it'd be easier to get.  Basically some ridculous adventure about a boy and his crew out to save the world against the evil Spaniards - well, for 3/4ths of the game, anyway.  The whole kusoukagaku sekai (sci-fi world) is pretty cool.  Mixture of 15-16th century European feel, magic, and sci-fi was pretty cool.

Overall, a decent RPG, but it could've been so much more with a more comprehensive list available for equipping, and if it made good usage of the money you made through trade.

[m1savage]

Heh, was wondering how close you were going to come to your 4-5 hour estimate.

So which RPG is next?

[Black Tiger]

There is also an one English faq up on gamefaqs as I said previously, but it's really missing some critical detail and I can see how you can easily get stuck if you only resort to this:
http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/saturn/file/gulliver_boy.txt

No joke. I got stuck around half way through the game and the walkthrough wasn't any help and actually didn't make sense when I went over what I'd already done. Maybe the Saturn version is a little different... but its probably just the walkthrough.

[termis]

So which RPG is next?

Oh, I'm not too sure.  I was thinking KO Seiki: Beast Sanjuushi.  Anyone know anything about it?  I've yet to come across a review written in English.

No joke. I got stuck around half way through the game and the walkthrough wasn't any help and actually didn't make sense when I went over what I'd already done. Maybe the Saturn version is a little different... but its probably just the walkthrough.

Yeah, I think it's just the walkthrough.  The Japanese faq I used was also originally written for the Saturn version, and it seemed fine.  There are big chunks missing in the English faq.

Welp, if you ever want to go through it again, feel free to msg me.  I'd be glad to help (if i still remember by then, anyway....)

[m1savage]

I finally got an original copy of KO Seiki: Beast Sanjuushi just this week! Played a little bit of it the other day and it looks to be fun. Either it or Star Breaker are what I'm planning on playing next.