Best HuCard RPGs and English walkthroughs?

[nat]

Benkei Gaiden is a cool HuCard RPG with awesome music.

Indeed. Benkei is the first game that comes to mind when considering "good" Japanese cartridge-based RPGs. Not only is the music great, I really dig the art style. Feels very "classic" 16-bit, like an early Genesis game if that makes any sense.

[Black Tiger]

Kabukiden is actually romanji heavy once you get past the short first area. The walkthrough I wrote draws out the Japanese names of all the items and spells and there are maps for everything, so it's totally playable for even players new to JRPGs. I believe that TMII has a romanji title for all kanji items in the game at the top of the screen. Although my walkthrough for that game isn't nearly as detailed, both games are pretty straight forward with their objectives and are easier to play using a walkthrough than many other JRPGs.

...I don't remember that. I didn't get all that far in Kabukiden. I did get as far as the crazy amusement park (Welcome Welcome! Quack Quack!) and I don't remember a lot/any of romanji except the printed dialogue of the f*cked up Disney characters.

You were so close to the point that Kabuki and Zeami leave Jipang and spend the rest of the game on London (fictional UK). There is only one dungeon after the amusement park, with the first major boss/priest (FFIV equivalent of a "fiend"). After that you set sail for London. As soon as you get off the boat, everyone speaks english with actual english text and voice (until Zeami helps with the translation).


GAUGE: If you're interested in Kabukiden, aka Far East of Eden or Tengai Makyou: 'Fuun Kabuki Den'... it's a ($5) Final Fantasy style Tengai Makyou game. Kinda like how Final Fantasy Tactics is a Tactics Ogre style FF game. Tengai Makyou's theme is a wacky misinterpretation of feudal Japan (total fantasy though). The regular Tengai Makyou games play more like Phantasy Star II - IV. If you're interested in an extremely PSII - IV style game, try Neo Metal Fantasy, which I also wrote a walkthrough for. Feel free to contact me if you have trouble with any of them.

HuCard adventure/RPG type games aren't good to play on the go since you can't save your game and it's hard to read the long passwords on the Turbo Express/PCE GT screen.

[Bonknuts]

Here are reviews for most of the Japan-only, traditional-style HuCard RPGs:
Benkei Gaiden

 Hey runin. Have you played the SNES version of Benkei Gaiden? If so, do you know if it's a sequel or a remake?

 I completely forget about that game. Pretty cool little 3megabit hucard. Definitely a hucard game that translation scene has overlooked (hucards are much easier to hack for translation than CD games).

HuCard adventure/RPG type games aren't good to play on the go since you can't save your game and it's hard to read the long passwords on the Turbo Express/PCE GT screen.

 
 You know, I never thought about that concerning the TG Express and other PCE portables. In general, for you PCE fans out there, how important would a 'back up' compatible device be? Like a pass through port (kind of like how game genies work on portable systems). Like if a group/community were to actually make one. From a technical stand point, there's pretty much nothing to it. One reg mapped into open bus of the last 8k of address range - to lock/unlock BRAM, and 2k of ram mapped to bank $F7 (battery backed or flash). Would there be enough demand to cover the cost or do PCE portables owners not play their portable systems enough to warrant such a building of said device? Just curious. I know building such a device wouldn't be cheap for the sole fact that the unique hucard female connector isn't cheap to manufacture (or so I've been told from someone that looked into it). I know David Shadoff build the entire lot of kisado converters from buying old stock of digital controlled sewing machine parts. They just happen to use the same female connector. But AFAIK, he bought and used them all and couldn't kind another source after that.

 GAUGE: Hey BP, glad to see you're a multi console fan.   No CD unit? Which core system do you have? TG16 or one of the PCE models?

[Black Tiger]

Hey runin. Have you played the SNES version of Benkei Gaiden? If so, do you know if it's a sequel or a remake?

It's a sequel or a different story. Definitely not a remake.

HuCard adventure/RPG type games aren't good to play on the go since you can't save your game and it's hard to read the long passwords on the Turbo Express/PCE GT screen.

 You know, I never thought about that concerning the TG Express and other PCE portables. In general, for you PCE fans out there, how important would a 'back up' compatible device be? Like a pass through port (kind of like how game genies work on portable systems). Like if a group/community were to actually make one. From a technical stand point, there's pretty much nothing to it. One reg mapped into open bus of the last 8k of address range - to lock/unlock BRAM, and 2k of ram mapped to bank $F7 (battery backed or flash). Would there be enough demand to cover the cost or do PCE portables owners not play their portable systems enough to warrant such a building of said device? Just curious. I know building such a device wouldn't be cheap for the sole fact that the unique hucard female connector isn't cheap to manufacture (or so I've been told from someone that looked into it). I know David Shadoff build the entire lot of kisado converters from buying old stock of digital controlled sewing machine parts. They just happen to use the same female connector. But AFAIK, he bought and used them all and couldn't kind another source after that.

I would gladly pay $100 - $150 for something like that. I'd also pay a lot for a convenient super long life battery pack. But I'm not a typical Turbo/PCE fan (my PCE tattoo was $400).

[Bonknuts]

Hey runin. Have you played the SNES version of Benkei Gaiden? If so, do you know if it's a sequel or a remake?

It's a sequel or a different story. Definitely not a remake.

Ahh. I'll have to check it out some time.

I would gladly pay $100 - $150 for something like that. I'd also pay a lot for a convenient super long life battery pack. But I'm not a typical Turbo/PCE fan (my PCE tattoo was $400).

 Maybe a new thread should be made to query about it. AtariAge community does similar stuff to this and rather successfully too. If it's a community thing, it could be done for non profit. But being realistic, even if these were made by hand to keep the cost down - the connectors would have to be made in batches. There would have to be a number of preorders to cover that cost. I was told something custom like that could run $30-40 per connector in small batches of 100. That's $3000-4000 up front. I couldn't believe it myself. Even shelling out $1000 up front is quite a bit. If there are like 50-100 people *really* interested in something like this, this could actually be done. We need to make poll thread, and on other forums too.

[SignOfZeta]

As nice as that sounds, the end product would be expensive and huge (the Express itself is expensive and huge). People would still probably never actually leave the house with it. HuGoPSP (or something like it) is still going to be 1000x more practical since it does all that, and plays CD games (theoretically, I've never had it work).

[termis]

Hey, it'd be nice to read more English reviews/thoughts of ANY PCE RPGs from some other folks than the ones who we regularly see, so all you out there -- go play them, and let us know what you thought.

[Arkhan]

Hey, it'd be nice to read more English reviews/thoughts of ANY PCE RPGs from some other folks than the ones who we regularly see, so all you out there -- go play them, and let us know what you thought.

I like Burai.  Do you rearry want my opinion? :-D

[Necromancer]

Would there be enough demand to cover the cost or do PCE portables owners not play their portable systems enough to warrant such a building of said device?

I'd buy one even though I don't use my 'Express much at all.  Yes, I am retarded.

As a possibly cheaper alternative, would it be possible to incorporate the save feature in a flash cart?  You wouldn't be able to play 'real' games but the on-screen results would be the same, all in a (hopefully) smaller and cheaper package.

[Arkhan]

As a possibly cheaper alternative, would it be possible to incorporate the save feature in a flash cart?  You wouldn't be able to play 'real' games but the on-screen results would be the same, all in a (hopefully) smaller and cheaper package.

I was about to say this but then I forgot to.

It is what I have been doing.  I imagine having more doodads clicked onto my express would make it even less portable than it is in the first place. ^_^

also its not like the stuff saves to your REAL hucards, so theres never the whole "oh, my save is on a bootleg" like when you play something like Dragon Quest 2 on a flash cart w/ an NES.


Theres probably a way to get the saves off of the flashcart and onto a tennokoe but im half asleep and might be making shit up !

[GAUGE]

Here are reviews for most of the Japan-only, traditional-style HuCard RPGs:
Benkei Gaiden

 Hey runin. Have you played the SNES version of Benkei Gaiden? If so, do you know if it's a sequel or a remake?

 I completely forget about that game. Pretty cool little 3megabit hucard. Definitely a hucard game that translation scene has overlooked (hucards are much easier to hack for translation than CD games).

HuCard adventure/RPG type games aren't good to play on the go since you can't save your game and it's hard to read the long passwords on the Turbo Express/PCE GT screen.

 
 You know, I never thought about that concerning the TG Express and other PCE portables. In general, for you PCE fans out there, how important would a 'back up' compatible device be? Like a pass through port (kind of like how game genies work on portable systems). Like if a group/community were to actually make one. From a technical stand point, there's pretty much nothing to it. One reg mapped into open bus of the last 8k of address range - to lock/unlock BRAM, and 2k of ram mapped to bank $F7 (battery backed or flash). Would there be enough demand to cover the cost or do PCE portables owners not play their portable systems enough to warrant such a building of said device? Just curious. I know building such a device wouldn't be cheap for the sole fact that the unique hucard female connector isn't cheap to manufacture (or so I've been told from someone that looked into it). I know David Shadoff build the entire lot of kisado converters from buying old stock of digital controlled sewing machine parts. They just happen to use the same female connector. But AFAIK, he bought and used them all and couldn't kind another source after that.

 GAUGE: Hey BP, glad to see you're a multi console fan.   No CD unit? Which core system do you have? TG16 or one of the PCE models?

A type of booster for the TurboExpress, PCE GT would be awesome. I'd have no idea how to do it, but I would definitely pick one up. I do some graphic design and illustration if that helps.

It's pretty much impossible to get a flash card for the PCE/Turbo these days, right?

And yeah, BonkNuts, I dig a few consoles. I've actually been a fan of the TG-16 since I got mine in 1990. Still have it along with an old CD unit. A few years back, one summer, a I really started collecting (picking up a US/Japanese converter, Arcade Card, SF II, a TurboExpress, Lords, Dragon Slayer, etc.), but the lack of RPGs and portable saving left me feeling like I needed more. So I got a Nomad and really got into Sega stuff.

I'm feeling like I might be up to the challenge of using a walkthough on a Japanese RPG. I'm looking at getting a copy of Benkei Gaiden.

Right now I'm mostly using a region modded PCE Core, with a CD-ROM2 unit and a region modded PCE GT. The CD system is back home in CA. So yeah, I can play CD games too, it'll just be a few weeks before I get my CD-ROM back.

Thanks again for all the help here. I'm still digging through all the recommendations.

[Arkhan]

I just ordered a NeoFlash like a month ago.  You can still nab them no problem usually!

USB connectivity, and the new flasher program uses WPF so it's all nice.


If you've got the CD stuff, do yourself a favor and get the Xak games, and Fray.

You will enjoy yourself so much you'll probably pee.

I also highhhhhly reccommend you try La Valeur and Emerald Dragon.

[GAUGE]

I just ordered a NeoFlash like a month ago.  You can still nab them no problem usually!

USB connectivity, and the new flasher program uses WPF so it's all nice.


If you've got the CD stuff, do yourself a favor and get the Xak games, and Fray.

You will enjoy yourself so much you'll probably pee.

I also highhhhhly reccommend you try La Valeur and Emerald Dragon.

Hey, thanks! I'll definitely check those out - and I'll try not to piss myself.

Just wondering, where'd you track down the NeoFlash? And (this might be a stupid question), does the flasher program come in a Mac variety? If not, I can just boot up in Windows.

[Arkhan]

Just wondering, where'd you track down the NeoFlash? And (this might be a stupid question), does the flasher program come in a Mac variety? If not, I can just boot up in Windows.

I think I remember seeing a Mac version on the NeoFlash forum... I can't remember though!  You gotta kinda dig around on that forum for stuff.  There is a PCE header remover too.

I found the NeoFlash on one of the sites on their site.  They link to a few stores.  If you don't see any for sale... maybe more are coming, or are floating around.

I'll be honest the site/organization is kind of a clusterf*ck.

[SignOfZeta]

Getting a PCE flash card isn't hard. Getting it to actually work though...