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| This title sounds like a portmanteau of "outrage" and Dan "Aykroyd." |
Outroyd
Japan
Japan
MagicalZoo (developer and publisher)
Released in 1985 for MSX and Sharp X1
If I'm going to make any progress on this list, it means not taking the bait on games like Super Rambo Special and Outroyd, the latter of which is listed as an RPG on Wikipedia, sourced to an MSX game library. There's a reason I don't often accept the definitions of platform-specific game databases. This is the second time that Wikipedia list entry has been based on the RPG definitions of a source rather than Wikipedia's own definition of the genre.
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| The hero navigates a city-like map. |
Outroyd is set on the world of Quorn in the year 2108. I have no idea why it makes a difference what year it is if the game is set on a different world, but there you have it. The machines have staged an uprising and have nearly wiped out humanity. The hero is a resistance fighter named Ramon Okudaira. He wears an armored suit and spends the game invading robot bases and mowing them down with a variety of weapons. There are statistics for energy, defensive power, and offensive power, but these are all inventory-dependent and do not improve through fighting. The game is thus of the usual action-oriented type, in which every victory produces equipment upgrades to fight the next wave of (harder) enemies.
I suspect it wouldn't take long to win--it is a cassette game, after all--but I had trouble getting it running and keeping it running. (This was my first attempt at a cassette with the MSX emulator.) I shall thus leave it for the Action Game Addict and move forward.
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| The game has a bit of an attitude. |
Secrets of Bharas is still in progress, but I have little to report except fighting a bunch of battles. Maybe in a few days. We'll have another entry tomorrow to make up for this brief one.
"We'll have another entry tomorrow to make up for this brief one"
ReplyDeleteAnd with these words, the CRPG Addict advanced a level and gained the title of Blogging Addict!
(really, your comment feels as if you think you have an obligation to us; we are truly spoiled!)
Mos def... you do what you want and we will read along!
DeleteI have an obligation to my Patreon subscribers, at least.
DeleteYou really don't, says this subscriber.
DeleteI agree with that. There is no obligation for my Support.
DeleteIf you're going to play MSX games, I suggest you take a look at SD Snatcher. It's an RPGization of a visual novel with a cutesy aesthetic that clashes bizarrely with some pretty brutal sequences. The story is good, if a bit dated. There's a somewhat innovative turn based combat that's halfway between Dragon quest and Fallout, as you target specific body parts to inflict different types of damage. It's fun and probably one of the best Japanese RPGs of the 8-bit period, if tedious at times.
ReplyDeleteIt was retransmitted recently by Project melancholia and I'd recommend that translation over the previous one by Oasis as that one only has about 40% of the text.
By retransmitted I meant retranslated.
DeleteHmm. Quorn is a meat substitute. Introduced in 1985...
ReplyDeleteQuorn is people!
DeleteSpoilers, dude!
DeleteI'd totally read an Action Game Addict.
ReplyDelete...or a Simulation Game Addict, like comparing the different versions of Flight Simulator...
...or a Chess Game Addict, who played through historical chess game software and did deep dives on the evolution of algorithms.
I've considered starting an "FPS Addict" project now and again. Real-life issues aside though, I just don't have the drive to power through games I dislike in order to document them. I'd have to play games like William Shatner's TekWar, ugh.
DeleteOn my start, I plan to start a Tactical/Strategy game addict, and have taking a few actions.
DeleteAlex, I guess that most of the content of your FPS Addict blog will be ranting about dozens of poor Doom/Quake clones exactly as Chester ranted about Ultima clones.
DeleteBe careful with this flight sim addict blog because I am pretty sure that there is a small subculture of die-hard FS fans and for some entries you will have 100+ posts with flaming and obscenity about which version was the peak of the series and which was the lowest point. For sure, they have their own Ultima IX.
DeleteI'm gonna go ahead and say you probably shouldn't do shooters of any kind unless you really like them. Tekwar's still of the relatively good quality kind, Capstone improved over their previous efforts, if you can believe that. You've got a lot of crappy Wolfenstein clones, and then in the '00s there are a lot of bad shooters in modern settings (and WWII I guess). Doom and Quake clones don't really figure into that mix too much. Most of them are weird enough that you're not just going to complain because they're a bad Doom-clone. I'm sure there are loads of weird crappy games in various sims and other kinds of shooters.
DeleteMind, this is coming from someone who actually is doing an FPS Addict kind of thing, I just don't like advertising that at all. I don't really like cheapening up someone elses blog with that, but I also don't want to see someone commit to something they don't really want to do.
Don't worry, I had no serious intention of doing it for precisely that reason. I can barely even stand to play Wolf3D for a few minutes, I can't imagine how awful a bad clone of it must be.
DeleteI think fundamentally the RPG and adventure game genres have greater diversity, especially in terms of weird outliers, and more interesting things to talk about than a lot of the core action genres, which by and large tend to be pretty straightforward and adhere to specific formulas (and yeah, a lot of the older and more obscure titles are just plain bad). You could probably still get deep into the nitty gritty on them, but I think it'd be tougher and have a smaller potential audience.
DeleteAs with the Rambo game, it looks like this is listed in an RPG in software databases because of the marketing on the box.
ReplyDeleteImages on Generation MSX
The box spine has the game identified as ãƒãƒ¼ãƒ«ãƒ—レイング ("role playing"; blue text below the tape icon). The sticker on the tape itself is even more explicit, with the English phrase "Role Playing Game" prominently featured on it.
I think it's just that the "role playing" label was plastered on everything that looked even vaguely like an RPG by marketers in the early Japanese PC scene. The static screenshot, at least, looks kind of vaguely like an Ultima clone.
Thanks for the translation. I agree that's probably the problem, but I don't think it's unreasonable to expect databases to apply consistent definitions to the actual gameplay mechanics rather than taking the publisher's word.
DeleteGotta say, when you first started doing briefs, I expected more games like Midwinter or Lords of Doom. Weird, not really RPGs, but not really anything else. Not proto-metroidvania games. Not really a complaint, just annoyance at the MSX having a lackluster RPG library, I guess.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I can tell, the MSX had a decently strong RPG library. What it very much didn't have was any real presence in English speaking countries, along with a lot of RPGs not being exclusive, so most of them either never came out in English or were translated on a different system altogether
DeleteTrippy. Outroyd! One of my favorite action-adventures for the MSX, but one that apparently never gained much traction or recognition-- certainly I never expected to see it featured here. It still holds a special place in my heart as one of the few games for the system I managed to complete back in the day.
ReplyDeleteMost definitely not an RPG in the traditional sense, though your character does get stronger and gains abilities that allow it to unlock areas, powers etc. Lots of fun once you get what's going on.