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The GU-L Experience
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- Опубликовано: 6 авг 2024
- A complete narrated playthrough/discussion of GU-L, a Japanese RPG Maker horror game that was released over two decades ago and has never been translated. Taking clear inspiration from Resident Evil and Battle Royale, the game was a prize-winning entry in a development contest held by Enterbrain, unfortunately forgotten in the present day.
Tracking down a copy of this game proved to be somewhat difficult, but it is possible to play thanks to the preservation work of a Japanese blogger (hagane-ya.net/archives/9831). I'd recommend some Japanese knowledge for this, or at the very least, a good translation program. Advance warning, you'll have to download some .exe files from a twenty year old link, so if that makes you uncomfortable, I totally understand, but I can at least vouch for their safety.
web.archive.org/web/200210022...
First, go to the above Web Archive link. This brings you to the March 2001 Enterbrain contest page. The first entry on the page is for GU-L. From the top of the page, scroll down until you see a purple/pink download button with "5,900KB" next to it. This will download a 5 MB .exe that installs GU-L onto your computer.
If you've never played an RPG Maker 2000 engine game before, the game actually will NOT work as soon as you download it. There's a second step - below the pink/purple download button, you'll see a link that has the text "RPGツクール2000 RTP" in it. This is the Run Time Package for RPG Maker 2000 - it's basically generic files/assets that allow you to play RPG Maker games. Click this link, and on the page that you're brought to, scroll down until you see one final link that says "ダウンロード rtpsetup.exe". This downloads an installer (in Japanese) that will install the RTP onto your system. After this, the game will work. If the weird installers and .exe files freak you out, all I can say is that these come directly from Enterbrain (who owns RPG Maker) and they are safe. Hope you give this game a shot sometime.
Music Used (In Order)
========================
Lunacid - Beached
Yume Nikki - Barracks Settlement
Yume 2kki - Scorched Wasteland
Space Funeral - Tamariu (Mystery Forest)
GU-L - Title Screen (sp-slogo1_)
LISA: The Painful - Summer Love
OFF - Burned Bodies
OFF - Soft Breeze
LISA: The First - F* it
Ib - Dining Room
Yume Nikki - Shining Above the Step, Below the Slope (Snow World Slowed)
LISA: The First - The Sireen's Call
LiEat - Stagnation
LISA: The Painful - Mirror of Blood
GU-L - Drug High
GU-L - blood
Shin Megami Tensei - Castle of the Four Gods
.flow - Overgrown Islands
Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne - Shinjuku Hygenic Hospital
Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne - Heretic Mansion
OFF - Clockwork
Majin Tensei II - In The Shop
Shin Megami Tensei If... - Gouman Kai
LISA: The Painful - Men's Hair Club
Resident Evil 3 Nemesis - Free from Fear
GU-L - dancers2
Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne - Shinjuku Hospital After Conception
Yume Nikki - Save Screen Theme
Shin Megami Tensei NINE - Ikebukuro
LISA: The Painful - Exploding Hearts
Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne - Nightmare System
Baroque - One Foot in the Grave
OFF - Unreasonable Behaviour
LISA: The Painful - Bath Boys
Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne - Amala Labyrinth (Final Movement)
Yume 2kki - Green Butterfly Area
ReKinder - bm5
LISA: The Painful - Goodbye Baby
LISA: The Painful - Goodbye
Yume 2kki - Green Butterfly Area (I wanted to use it again whatever)
Timestamps
====================
00:00 - 01:36 - Introduction
01:36 - 08:25 - Tracking Down GU-L
08:25 - 23:04 - Prelude to Madness
23:04 - 45:23 - Nagata's Game
45:23 - 54:52 - Abaddon - Lower Labs
54:52 - 1:08:36 - Family Matters
1:08:36 - 1:20:22 - From the Depths of Depravity
1:20:22 - 1:33:19 - Project F (Game Over)
1:33:19 - 1:35:33 - Conclusion
=====================
GU-L Resources/Extra Footage
========================
decoymmd.blog.fc2.com/blog-ent...
potato0824.blog24.fc2.com/blog...
hagane-ya.net/archives/9831
galleria.emotionflow.com/1206...
/ @nyanmo22 (GU-L Let's Play)
/ @stbill (Witch's House Footage)
/ @timmyakmed (Ao Oni Footage)
/ @jadusable (BEN Drowned Footage)
This one is pretty out there. Hope you guys like it, I thought for a really long time about what the best game to cover would be, and then I found this at the last minute. Check the description for songs used and instructions on how to download the game yourself. Yeah I know I'm still working on SMT 2
SMT II is freaking insane. I still haven't finished it. Now that I think about it, V is the only one I actually beat!!
Banger as always Marsh
It's great, your really taking us into the obscuritory now. Bless your google image skills and dedication.
Love your vids
Know anyone who does translations, would really love to play this myself.
The fact people were commenting on the dev's last work before GU-L and the fact that it was part of a competition makes me wonder "what were the other entries in the competition like?", "what were the other dev's games like?", "are they lost media as well?" and "can we track down and find them all?". We can't let more of these games go to waste!
I'll have to look into more of the contest entries, there are dozens and dozens on there. Not much horror but interesting stuff regardless
@@MarshSMTsomething bizarre like yume nikki would be cool to see
I really like dreamlike and weirdcore stuff
That's the sad reality of indie/obscure games from non Western countries. Even with so many people translating manga and anime, we have barely scratched the surface of content available exclusively in Japanese. The same goes for videogames as well, there are a lot of games that never got an official translation nor even a fan made one
@@alanmonteros6432It is why I'm learning Japanese since there is a lot of obscure media that probably never getting translated lmao.
@@antimatter3084Who knows? Perhaps you’ll be the one who would be translating them in the first place.
The deadlinks was the real horror we met along the way
What the- It's you?!
rapidshare link be like: 💀
Dude literally covers up his evil eye to contain his dark powers. He's living every chunibyo's dream.
Takaya literaly does the whole Tokyo Ghoul shit before Tokyo Ghoul, right down to covering his one right eye and it being red. It's amazing.
@@RiderWithTheScarf There were a couple other things in there where I was wondering if it was an example of different people making the same narrative leap or if this game inspired the other people, since it's the older piece of media.
@@boobah5643 third option. They share a common inspiration
@@RiderWithTheScarfthey’re even called ghouls!
@@RiderWithTheScarf ngl. I wrote this comment as soon as Takaya put his eyepatch on. Only to realize seconds later this was literally just tokyo ghoul.
This game truly is something else. Tokyo ghoul, Japanese atrocities, the energizer bunny. It's a shame this game didn't end up getting more traction in the states when it first came out. This is exactly the sort of wild experience a good rpg maker game should be
Crawling the web in Japanese looking for some obscure old game
"dead link" "dead link" "Oh hey an entire fucking forum dedicated to it, aaand they're all dead links on a near dead forum"
You don't know how painfully familiar i am with that
All I can say is god fucking bless the datahoarders and god bless the skull and crossbones flag for usually coming in clutch
Marsh going all "Indiana Jones and the Lost RPG Maker Horror" is something I never knew I needed, but goddamn do I want more of it.
"It belongs in a hard drive!"
Imagine his games folder (the real one) like the warehouse they store the Arc of the Covenant in
Ok
@@MegaDeathRay10 Specifically from the "Don't Fuck With This" armory. The same one where they keep the Ark of the Covenant, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the actual body of Christ.
Man that sure looked like a persona 5 calling ca- *Shot to death*
You never saw it coming?
@@autobotstarscream765 Guess it was their Last Surprise
"dudes go 30 seconds without their juuls and don't know how to act" yo😭😭😭😭😭
Bros is unknowingly SINGLE-HANDEDLY reviving a WHOLE ENTIRE fandom with a 1 hour video.
You have zero understanding what the word fandom means, dont you?
@@ESALTEREGO I mean it works relatively fine here lol, the only way it wouldn’t is if absolutely no one played this game, which if that was the case we wouldn’t be watching a video on it. So I’m sure there’s a small subset of people who enjoyed it at one point, even if most likely forgetting.
@@didybopintitys name at least one person except that youtuber who played the game 🤣
Dont bother, you cant XD
@@ESALTEREGOmarsh literally showed other people who played it in the video shut up fool
@@ESALTEREGO you must have a lot of friends with how fun you seem to be.
Gul more like marsh sniffed some glue before finding this game
Marsh please use your silly horror game searching method more often. I wanna hear more about Japanese RPG maker games with funny names. Also this is genuinely good for media preservation.
Same here, I hope this becomes something that happens more, not that Marsh couldn't do something different and we wouldn't like, it's more from the fact that this was fantastic, I've never saw someone go through these lengths for a topic so interesting as this, also, if it wasn't for Marsh I would never even know about Peret em Meru, which I'm currently playing!
I just wanna hear more about japanese fan games that never make it here for some reason, like, have you ever heard of any japanese fan game of anything at all? I haven't, even though most shit I'm interested in comes from there, who knows what stuff we're missing
I just realized that any touhou fan game counts cuz it's touhou so the logic above sounds silly but ignore that
the sprite art in battles is truly some unsettling stuff. the takashi's sprites becoming more grotesque over time is a much more "enjoyable" scare than surprise deaths and chases. idk if i just didn't look hard enough back then, but i really wish more rpg maker horror games did stuff like that.
oh shit bubbletea! good taste in videos haha, love your content, man
had to take a double take when I was scrolling through comments and recognized your pfp
i wonder what you think about fear and hunger then
Alright alright...So....this game went from being corpse party, to mad father, to resident evil, to the boogey man, and back to resident evil, and at the same time it was all a giant tokyo ghoul reference.
Goddamn language barrier, it negates us the opportunity to meet and play gems like this one. Excellent video.
One final thing, who needs bazookas and rail guns to defeat a final boss when a cup of tea is all you need!?
And remember this came out around 2001, 10 years before tokyo ghoul and mad father were even things. Cool stuff.
if you want to play it, i’ve seen some people playing the game in english so it shouldn’t be impossible :)
Also I think I know what happened to Izumi in terms of her “parasite”
She’s probably the victim of kodoku, a ritual type magic from Japanese folklore where you mix several insects in a jar, and let them kill one another until only one survives. The fluids of the insect that survived would be used to poison/curse the victim that would control them, cause them misfortune, or kill them.
Or, considering the name, it's probably based on the Chinese gu jar, which is the same.
It also creates ridiculously OP fighters
I think there was a manga based off of that premise.
Yup, it's called Doku Mushi, but I wouldn't recommend reading it because of its disturbing and rather questionable content.
Holy shit is that a Raidou Kuzunoha reference
Hm, a story where one of the main characters is a ghoul with one eye that turns red when under extreme duress/thirst and wears an eyepatch to cover it up?
I wonder if Sui Ishida ever played this game…
honestly i think he really did lol
Could just be a common source. I heard someone referencing Most Dangerous Game as a possible inspiration
Theory Time...
He made the game using an alias, Tokyo Ghoul was the final version of the story.
I really wanna believe this was the Tokyo ghouls author and artist highschool project he did before drawing manga. The parallels and some key plot points are almost uncanny and the art looks like a really really early version of their art.
considering Sui would have been 13 or 14 at the time of making the game, that's pretty unlikely, but who knows.
Considering the similarities like the names (GU-L sounds a lot like Ghoul), the growing limbs that maul and kill other people easily and the fact that Takashi looks and acts like Tsukiyama...
@@gothicanimeangel96that’s literally the prime age for a creative to make something like this lol
@@gothicanimeangel96Andreas of Team Psykallar released the original Afraid of Monsters mod when he was barely a teenager, like at 13. If you can develop an award winning Half Life mod in the GoldSrc engine as your breakout project before truly reaching puberty, it’s not impossible to do the same in the RPG Maker engine. An engine is that is *a lot* easier to work with in comparison to GoldSrc.
@@gothicanimeangel96Japanese pursue creativity outlets earlier because they don’t have the time before the grind starts.
48:31 "You wanna guess what the rabbit's name is?"
At this point I genuinely would not be surprised if he was named Akemi Nakajima
The part about Unit 731 really caught me off guard. Japan avoids talking about the atrocities that were committed during WW2 because doing so is considered strongly tabboo. From what I have seen, a lot of Japanese people aren't even aware of Unit 731 existence.
It is most certainly known by a lot of Japanese Indy devs. Hell, it is basically a trope for the weird old Japanese scientist to be a former member of the unit.
@uchytjes10 Typically, from what I've seen when they have a crazy scientist character, they're a nazi. That does make a lot sense, though. Since Japanese indie developers can use games to more freely reference and criticize the taboo aspects of the culture.
almost like every fucking nation doesn't talk about the atrocities they've committed..........
@@evilevilcritterExcept Florida. Yes, it's part of the bigger part of the landmass that is America but at this point, Florida is the modded GTA server of the United States.
@@ProfessionalNamielleLewder69 I mean, given how Florida reports on damn near everything and turns it into an article, it makes me wonder if people lick doorbells for 3 hours for attention, for example.
Marsh definitely the only guy to make me care about shit as niche as this
ThorsHighHeels a close second
@@vvmurphyvvi was about to say that lol
@@vvmurphyvv thors kinda mid, ngl
Ross from Accursed Farms is one of the classics in this sphere. Highly recommend
Considering the similarities between this and Tokyo Ghoul and rising interest in lost media,it might not be so niche
Gotta say though, the scientist with the iv machine that doubles as a scythe goes hard as fuck, bravo to the artist who woke up that morning and decided to make the most early 2000s design possible
1:15:45 It was Nakajimas hands guiding you through the puzzle, he'll always be out there watching you
You guys let Nakajima’s name rest😭
I just saw that and it was totally bullshit 🤣🤣
All the gods of anime and jrpgs helped on that one HOLYY 😂
Haruhi Madoka and Nakajima (as we saw in the last game he became God) all 3 helped here 🤣🤣😂
HE CANT KEEP GETTING AWAY WITH THIS!
his hands a comforting
this joke is prolly funny as hell if i got the reference
Another Japanese work that references Unit 731 is surprisingly mainstream.
In Bleach, the Arrancar Szayelaporro Granz, as well as his brother, are *heavily* insinuated to have been members of Unit 731 in life in the novels (which are all canon btw, so go read them if you're a fan), which makes sense when you remember the kind of "attacks" he used in the show. Like that one where he made voodoo dolls of his target's internal organs? Yeah.
that's pretty much in-character for the pink hair freak, do you have excerpt where it's hinted?
that is quite literally not possible because szayel died hundreds of years before the main storyline. Stop spreading misinformation online chuzzo.
@@intergalactictitanium3566 Ulquiorra is the one that died hundreds of years ago and lived as a tree for most of his time
@@intergalactictitanium3566 "I don't know what I'm talking about, but I'm very adamant that I'm right"
Wait, is this states in CFYOW?
Ngl the art has some charm to it despite how wack it kind of looks. Definitely gives me some old RPG maker vibes.
its very unskilled at times but it has a nice, creepy and nostalgic vibe that i really like
Wonder if the game's creator still out there, making games, the person has some really fun ideas.
Edit: i looked it up, according to a tweet from years ago by a japanese fan who was also looking for the creator's whereabouts, Yubu-san was working on a remake of GU-L around 2003~2007 it seens, but then went radio silent and their blog (that was linked in the tweet) isn't working anymore. Now it really is a mystery.
Storywise, kinda sad Takashi didn't get to see his mom... But i doubt he could be properly introduced into society after what father dearest did to him
Damn, that's a shame. I hope they're still working on it
Project FLAME got to him its truly over
Dude's probably still around, people change identities online all the time
I've also seen it, there was also a trailer or some sort of demo video on Nico nico. Even found a link from 2021 but it just brings me to the login part...
Now we need to track this guy no matter what
I have to say, I'm genuinely impressed by how sophisticated the narrative of this game is.
I'm also very surprised to see a piece of Japanese media that directly references Japanese crimes against humanity, because typically those topics are quite taboo and are typically brought up through metaphors and less direct references. I'd wager that most Japanese people wouldn't have known about those experiments, so it's clear that whoever made this did so with the intent to make people more inclined to look into it.
It's a shame that the game is so obscure, though I guess that there are a lot of examples of people who created something like this when they were younger and weren't able to continue making similar projects due to having to work a regular job, or just feeling that they were under an obligation to put their hobby aside in the name of becoming an adult with responsibilities.
Take a bit of Marsh, mix it with the most obscure game you can think of and you have a true Masterpiece.
A Marshterpiece if you will
@@versebuchanan512 I most certainly will not
1:15:00 snakes are often associated with immortality, which can be seen as a form of overcoming death.
theres ouroboros, the snake that eats its own tail and is basically a cooler, more metal version of the infinity symbol (its also associated with alchemy, the end goal of which was the creation of the philosopher's stone, which could in turn be used to make an elixir of eternal life)
and the end of the epic of gilgamesh has a snake stealing and consuming an herb that grants eternal youth which the titular gilgamesh had meant to consume himself to escape mortality
Oh goddammit. Not Ouroboros. Not again. THE ENDLESS NOW.
The caduceus, a symbol of two serpents going around a staff, was also a symbol stretching back to ancient Greece
@@KeremyJato oh right completely forgot about that one! yet another association with immortality, as asclepius god of medicine and wielder of the caduceus was so good at making drugs (in the pharmaceutical sense) that he made a cure for death, and was summarily executed by the gods for treading into their territory.
Or the serpent who tempted Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden fruit, which in turn stole eternal life from them.
And a snake's head may still move/react for some time after being cut off, as if it survived death!
“These games are comfy”
*Witch’s house gameplay in the background*
Hmm…
I hope that this gets a fan translation someday, I really wanna add this to my collection
3 months friend!
@@eatmynutsarchmage4883 huh
fck u mean? there a lot of fantranslation of pc games, like a vn and a lot of rpgm games
wow, the reveal that the project came out of unit 731 was shocking as hell. i’ve never seen something from real life as fucked as that ever make it into any media, much less video games
felt the same. damn.
It’s also obliquely referenced in Spooky’s Jumpscare Mansion.
Apparently there was an uproar in China about the evil scientist from MHA initially being named Maruta in reference to the 731 experiments to the point where major Chinese publishing companies like Tencent flat out banned it until both Shounen Jump and the Writer both issued apologies and changed his name in future publications.
This is actually the first time (I can remember) that I've seen Unit 731 referenced by name in fictional media, and I'm quite surprised it was in a _Japanese_ game in particular.
@@supremelystupidmoron4120 small correction: his name was not actually a reference to that, at least not on purpose. The names of MHA characters are usually some sort of pun, his was one too, the reference to Unit 731 was accidental.
Marsh is like that one guy you know who calls you up in the dead of night and says “You'll never guess what I just found.”
For another obscure horror game, might I suggest Re: Kinder? It's pretty sad considering what happened to the creator, and the game seems to be a look into what he felt when making it. The game takes place in a setting where mental illness is something that people don't believe exists. I feel this game needs to be talked about more just because of the subject matter.
I know about the game, but what happened to the creator? :o
@@denjidenji9162 He unfortunately took his own life. The game itself about mental illness and not being believed it's real from others makes me feel his game was based on his personal experience.
Ohh yeaah, iirc the original Kinder (made by the same dude) got compared to Gu-l
Crawling through the countless deadlinks and scouring early 2000s Japan internet is how you get cyber ghosts. Do you WANT cyber ghosts?
1:11:43
I've seen two other games reference Unit 731 to some degree- Spirit Hunter: Death Mark and Spooky's House of Jumpscares.
In the former, there is the Kannon Soldier. Unit 731 isn't directly mentioned, but it's a very obvious inspiration for the ghost as she was the victim of Imperialist Japanese scientists who grafted her body onto several others.
Spooky's House of Jumpscares has Specimen 9, a skull thing that kills you if you afk for too long. It's also the final boss of the game. Prior to fighting it proper, you go through a room with a radio. This radio says "I'm taking all those 'logs' they keep throwing out. And I'm nailing them together.", and you see 731 on a wall nearby. That should say it all.
...it's some messed-up shit.
The fact I also knew it from both of these beforehand too lol.
@@Poni5hi punishing bird
I no longer feel bad about the nukes, but I am also angry that we took their data for ourselves like we did Operation Paperclip and handed stipends and pardons out to the perpetrators. As if anything they learned was worthwhile.
Higurashi mentions Unit 731 too
@@amergingilesit was reasonably worthwhile though. There's knowledge like how frosbites worked and the treatments for it, how certain injuries affect the human physiology, and more. Mad scientists are cruel, and their methods are usually nonsensical. But with the quantity of tests these people do, they're bound to find something new eventually. A broken clock is still right twice a day, something like that.
The story about trying so hard to find a download link is one I find painfully relatable, good on you for following through and sharing your results with us
53:28
Every time he says "kill" here it's pronounced the same: "kiru", but spelled in different ways.
切る is a generic word for cutting, 斬る is to cut someone to death, and キル is a transliteration of the English word "kill"
yeah its a pretty funny little dialogue
There is Japanese word for specifying cutting someone to death?!
@@ajflink
yeah, though it is often used to refer to cutting with a sword
The whole 'Fire allowing you to transform your appearance' concept has recently been a major plot element in the Chainsaw Man manga. While it's possible they're both taking inspiration from a similar interpretation of fire in Japanese mythology, I also would not put it past Fujimoto to have played this game as a teenager during the 2000s and taken this idea from it, the whole plot kinda does sound right up his alley.
That reminds me of Madoka Magica's ED part where Madoka seems to burst into flames before running after something in the abyss
That's literally the main plot point of Fire Force. Probably the Kagutsuchi myth being the inspiration
Hey I don't know if you noticed but the card at 9:05 looks like a persona 5 calling card! very awesome! I love persona 5!
Only one man can make me watch an hour and a half video about a game I've never heard of
Man... You really did found a buried game. An entire generation of people are reaching adulthood and this game was there even before their birth.
The puzzle at 1:14:52 is supposed to line up with the Chinese zodiac, I think. Twelve spots and four of them are zodiac animals. I believe the answers you chose even go in the correct order.
Can confirm. They're sorted there like numbers on a clock. Since snake, horse, goat and dog are 5th, 6th, 7th and 11th, can place them accordingly
Cool! Can't wait for the fan translation in 3 months!
Wait what!
@@frankblazer6377 It might be a little longer than that, but yeah I am working on one right now.
Edit: To be clear, because someone thought it would actually be around 3 months, it will be a lot longer than that. This is a project I'm doing just for fun in what little free time I have. I can't really give an accurate estimate, but please don't be disappointed that it won't be done within 3 months.
@@NicoNikoNickthank you so much
@@NicoNikoNickBased. Fan translators like the guy covering Japan's version of Terranigma deserve some love.
Update, still here. Still working on it. Although, I do work a full time job, I have been working hard in some of my free time to edit this script. I've also sent some screenshots to Marsh and offered to help him with these types of games, if he decides to cover more of them in the future. It's gonna be a long project, but I'm here to try to help out the community I love.
Even if the pacing issues are bad, the story and setup is more interesting than some of the commercially sold horror games of that era.
I wish this game had a translation but unfortunately it probably never will have one . This game reeks post world war 2 japanese traumas and i really appreciate the fact it had the courage to mention unit 731 . It looks really interesting to play but yeah unfortunately as a non japanese speaker i'll have to stick to this video :'( (wich was amazing btw like always)
Damn Marsh showing me a bunch of footage of creepy pasta games I managed to avoid my entire life lmaooo I respect it
Hey marsh, don't pull yourself into a knot trying to out-do yourself, but this kind of video is fantastic and completely unique in it's style and feel.
This is fantastic and i hope you continue doing similar things in the future.
the process and explanation of hunting down this game, to then make a movie-length video about this obscure find is fuckin' incredible. preserving this extremely obscure RPGMaker game in this fashion is really cool. i greatly appreciate the chance to see a game like this being shown off to the public after being tucked away in a corner for decades.
another banger video. thanks, man.
since cryaotic left the internet (for a good reason) and manlybadasshero hasn’t touched a classic-style rpgmaker horror game for over a year, seeing marsh play them is both unexpected and welcoming
edit: this probably didn’t age well
Wow, this comment hit different. I'm getting old
I've been spending the past few years showing RPG Maker games to my partner since he hasn't seen them and it's been a nice way to make new memories to replace the old ones with Cry.
kind of unrelated but as someone who used to be a huge fan of manlybadass im really not a fan of the direction his channel has gone :( which isnt too bad because i get that content creators grow and their tastes change, but manly only seems to be interested in 3d horror as of late
@@wpbn5613 I mean, this is just easily verifiably false. like half of his recent stuff has been 2D games, and if we want to get technical the original comment is also false because he uploaded a video a little over a month ago of the game "Case 03: True Cannibal Boy" which is made in rpg maker, although it's done more as a visual novel so it doesn't really fit the same vibe as rpgmaker horror normally does.
@@frog1405 yknow what, ill go watch that. i think what i should've said is that i enjoy his taste in the games he used to play a lot more compared to the ones he does now
I'm so hyped that games like this are and will continue to be part of the Marsh arsenal. No exaggeration, you're doing incredible work helping preserve fascinating works of art. Nothing on youtube excites me more than seeing one of your videos drop, keep up the good work, and I'm wishing you well.
Between the video on Peret em Heru and this one, I can confirm that if you want to do more videos on these kind of niche unknown indy games, I'm all for it.
I've played a lot of RPGmaker games. Ever since the Ao Oni days, pretty much. I'm surprised this one slipped through the cracks! I half expected it to be an unfinished mess, but was pleasantly surprised. Hopefully we'll get that fan translation sooner rather than later. Just goes to show... big, crazy mansions really are a timeless setting.
By the end of the video I started thinking about the RPG maker community of a particular central european country that had its heyday back in the early 00s. The games weren't good or even original by any means, but I must have played this game called Amnézia (Amnesia) like a dozen times from beginning to end when I was a child. I remember the game leading me to the website of the devs that had a once pretty lively forum which was kind of my first exposure to the "real" internet. By the time I happened upon it it was effectively dead for years, but I think it gave me a taste for the obscure and the half-forgotten that never quite left me since then. Just going by my knowledge of the dozens of these kinds of games that were out there only in my language (most of which I didn't ever get around to playing), it really is a staggering thought to consider the immensity of the amount of media that never had audiences larger than a couple hundred, or even a couple dozen. Just how much effort is buried under obscure languages no one would care to learn and thousands of links long dead?
Ngl my jaw dropped when this game referenced… that. I rarely see Japanese works that even acknowledge that “project”
i usually dislike watching these videos about rpgmaker horror games because i feel like a lot of them try way too hard to be overdramatic, but i really like the kind of casual way marsh presents his videos. it feels less like a pseudointellectual video essay about the deep and dark themes of some game i don't care about, but more like an older brother or a friend from school showing you something cool he found on the internet.
i know marsh was apprehensive about doing a video on a game this niche, but i wouldn't personally mind if he made more videos like this and the one on peret em haru. it's fun to watch him talk about a game i would've never known about otherwise in a way that doesn't feel pretentious, which is very refreshing considering how youtube is now.
I hate it when some D rate RUclipsr says, "take as look at this spooky game I found, this is some messed up stuff!" and then talks about some game we all know about all while sounding like the type of guy who'd piss himself if he ever read a page of Berserk, or whine about it being unsavory. You actually showed off something really cool and obscure and I love your style of presentation! Love your vids man, keep up the great work!
Holy hell, I've never been as glued to the screen during any obscure videogame coverage as this one - this is the ideal lost videogame experience right there. Genuinely obscure, genuinely interesting. Thank you for covering this! I hope you backed the game up somehow, stuff like this really should not disappear.
Hope you'll end up covering more RPG maker obscurity!
I've only finished the "Tracking down" section and I can already tell this is going to be wild, like I doubt anyone has even thought about this game in a long time let alone documented it.
Came for the SMT content, stayed for the awesome in-depth obscurities. I absolutely love how it feels like a friend telling me about some cool shit they came across. Thanks for all the hard work as always.
god the music choices for this video are fucking top notch. OFF, Ib, Yume Nikki, Yume 2kki, Space Funeral....perfect OST for a video about a mysterious and surreal rpg maker horror game
incredibly based
and also LISA, which fits the game bizarre aspect
DON'T YOU FORGET LISA.
This is why we watch you Marsh. Obscurity made seen. Thanks friend. (Also heard some music from OFF. That game really shaped me as a kid, so I appreciate you giving it a little love)
Sidenote: This game was right up my alley, and just wanted to say thanks for bringing it to light Marsh. Please continue with the RPG maker experiences
Wake up, people, Marsh has a new obscure game to talk about!
Damn, the Persona 5 menus look like a GU-L title card ;)
Cracking video again, Marsh; thanks for sharing this obscure gem with us!
Never stop with the obscure horror. Especially since the SMT-Noose is slowly tightening.
I find myself feeling really sorry for Takashi. All he ever wanted was to feel loved and to live a normal life, but his psychopathic father destroyed any chance of happiness he had for selfish purposes. Nagata’s experiments caused him to lash out and attack uncontrollably; his only mother figure growing up was eventually lobotomized; then Takaya just shows up one day as a taunting reminder of what Takashi could’ve had. And in the end, he doesn’t even get to keep his autonomy before either dying brutally or sacrificing himself.
This kind of preservation is such an amazing and important thing to me. Thank you for this.
I can't believe a old post about a prize in a random blog managed to have a working link.
I have actually heard of this game in an old Gamefaqs thread about ao oni. So crazy after playing rpg maker games again, I INSTANTLY REMEMBERED ABOUT THE COVER PHOTO. Had it as a walkpaper once on my old iphone in blury quality
Game reminds me faintly of Black souls 1 and 2
I love this preservation of old rpgmaker games and thank you for your effort. Been on a binge of these forgotten games and dear god the amount of works Ive witnessed that deservingly need to be preserved
I'd make a joke about "What do Japanese indie horror game devs have against fat people?" but I know it's the same thing everybody has against fat people - we're fat. At least it was possible to save the guy in Peret Em Heru, I can't imagine what you could do differently to prevent Sutomu from dying.
Totally agree with you. Although to be honest as a fat person I’d rather go out pigging out on some grub than live through a crazy traumatizing death game
@@ducktsu7767 A good point, to be sure
Just checked he's the only one you can't save apparently
Kinda ironic considering that one of Japan's most popular cultural sports is Sumo
You would think they would be a bit more body positive about it
the part where Takashi said "It's GU-Lin' time" and then GU-Led all over the party nearly brought me to tears
fascinating video
Damn...having the 731 element in the lore actually scares me, its one of the cases where reality is much more scarier than fantasy
Love this type of content, really entertaining pls do more
also I think the snake orb thing around 1:15:13 is about the idea that snakes lives forever or reincarnates, like in Gilgamesh‘s legend or some Japanese myths
This video was great, Marsh. It's awesome to see obscure games that are not only interesting by themselves, but also capture the SMT nature of teenagers with guns killing monsters. I'm all for unqiue stuff like this.
Marsh talking about obscure games is exactly what I live for, I love this. It's like cracking open a gaming sarcophagus to drink the weird juice inside.
I am convinced, I AM COnVinceD this is corpse party popular in an alternate universe.
You could talk about almost any obscure RPG Maker game and it'd be enthralling. Thank you for taking us on this journey.
The more I think about it the more this game’s story sounds like a wild love child of Haunting Ground and Tokyo Ghoul
I think the snake orb's riddle is a reference to one of these:
1) the Epic of Gilgamesh, where the elixir of immortality is stolen by a snake?
2) Ouroboros?
3) The Asclepius staff, a symbol of medicine and healing
Snakes in general seem to be associated with healing and immortality
And inversely, snake oil, a term for fake cures.
Marsh, you are my favorite, video game guy, you are the only human being that can pull out something from beyond the memory of almost everyone
Excellent video as always, I do love me some Marshkino. I was really surprised by this game because the beginning act feels like an extremely standard "survive the shenanigans with as many of your friends alive as possible" but then it goes into this wild science horror direction. Really interesting, especially when you look at it as a sort of companion piece to Peret em Heru and how they're very similar until they aren't. Good shit and looking forward to the next video - Megaten, niche horror, or otherwise.
Marsh is secretly a super genius, guessing his way through all these obtuse puzzles first try.
I love rpg maker games, those were a big part of my teen years (Ib was my favorite alongside Wadanohara and the great blue sea), and I'm a fan of obscure japanese games no matter the genre so this is a gem to me! A treasure!
The fact the story throws itself off a cliff just like the buss just make it better, I love crazy passion projects, amazing game and amazing video
The weirdest/strangest RPG maker games usually end up being bangers. Games like Magical Deathpair, Demon's Roots, and now Gu-L really show how this engine, despite being rudimentary, can have some really compelling stories and worlds.
Thanks for covering this one for the poor English locked RPG Maker game fans, Marsh!
I've seen so many "deep dive" videos that barely scrape the surface of the subject matter lately...
And you just put together this masterpiece, not even using a clickbait title.
Congrats.
Thank you so so much for the videogame preservation! Stuff like this is what all preservationists strive for! Also, spoilers for the final boss
I thought it was extremely neat how the title screen was of seemingly an "angel" facing backwards. So whats the final boss of the game? That super similar silhouette no longer being obscured! The final boss was in the title screen! And i think thats pretty wicked~
Very interesting that this game essentially has two main characters for how old it is.
Keisuke making sure the group stays alive and Takaya with his gu-l predicament.
Another delicious hour and a half to watch over and over until the lore is embedded in my brain, thanks Marshal!
These obscure game videos have been great
your videos are amazing. I'm glad to have discovered your content. I really like how you explore these strangely morbid older games. its just like you you said in the beginning how its crazy to think we ever believed in these creepy pastas, but its a miracle when you actually find a truly creepy game. even cooler when you find one that has been hidden for 20 ish years. I fkn love old games. I fkn love the sprites, the cheesy story, the classic tropes... I like them because they come from a time where everything wasn't main stream, and in fact Id say that at the time it was released, these types of games couldn't be farther from mainstream. I believe that when things are not done for the attention of the main steam, you usually get genuine art, story, and game design, from the creator. Its original and unique and I don't use this word a lot but its actually beautiful. I've watched this video and other videos' of games you have commentary on like last bible new testament I've watched them multiple times (wtf??) just because I think its a master piece and you do these games respect with your commentary, you don't over analyze the story or characters. I hope you see this and I hope you understand how much I appreciate your content and I hope you keep making more! don't change a thing!
means a lot to hear I appreciate it
I should add this thing to TV Tropes if I remember it later. Gotta preserve this stuff to keep it from becoming Lost Media.
If I forget and you're a troper, you know what to do.
Please no, TVT is cancer
Page up. Feel free to add new tropes if you can, folks.
nah, I pass chief @@fennwenn3317
What a wild game, story, and final boss. Thank u for sharing Marsh.
Finished my last day of work at my job today, and somehow, seeing Marsh release a new one is much more exciting, let's goooo
1:15:05 Bit of a stretch, but the other animals for each question kinda make sense;
- Snake: One who overcomes death; Ouroboros, the snake swallowing its own tail endlessly
- Horse: One who can fly the fastest; Pegasus, the horse from greek mythology
- Dog: One who is determined to overcome suffering, related to the moon; Hachiko (you should know why) -- and Laika, the first dog in space
This is amazing, and someone who can barely read japanese, I really appreciate your work on this video :D
This whole game is really fascinating...i been wanting to see some new japanese obscure rpg maker game again, and your video came in the right time i was looking for, it's a shame myself don't know much about japanese and can't play the game myself alone, hope GU-L gets a small fandom that will keep the game alive and not forgotten by time as it was.
A one and a half hour video of a very obscure RPG maker horror game, covered by the main man himself Marsh Nakajima? Sign me up!
I cant believe that one of the best rpg maker games I ever see is a fucking tokio ghoul x resident evil crossover forgotten for even their creator, thanks
The rpg maker era really was a time of creative dread. Cant believe after experiencing things like Yume Nikki, Mad Father, Misao, Stray cat crossing, Off, ReKinder, etc throughout the years there are still cases like Gu-L.
Wow I remember playing this back in 2015 and struggling through the Japanese (I was nowhere near as fluent as I am now). What a blast.
Id love to see this have a full face lift honestly to maker MV it could be made a lot more scary with updated art and graphics maybe also clear up some story chunks
I think transitioning into obscure old games like this and the pyramid one you also played are perfect once for your channel once you finish the Megaten games off. The fascination for Megaten's weird and quirky nature is shared by these.
The animal puzzle is so:
Counting sheep to fall asleep
If you cut a snake's head of , it can still bite you.
Pegasus is a mythical fast flying horse
Dog is space is a reference to Laika who was the first living creature to be shot in to space and the pavlov experiments
These kind of games are really inspiring to me to try to write a story like this