@@davepostma6736you're right. He didn't cover Blue Breaker. That one was a unique side scrolling jrpg with dating sim elements. It's also on the ps1. He made it clear this isn't "every" saturn RPG. So a part 2 is possible, then he'll combine them to a 7 hour marathon - just like what he's going to do with Ultima.
Yeah I love Ultima but so many of those games do not hold up well. Sadly as computer RPGs primarily they don't get the fan hacks they really need even if they were some of the earlier games to get mods online.
My grandpa was a woodworker by hobby, and good enough to be a trademan, and when he found out that I was turning into an RPG nerd he started turning (literally using a lathe) into little basically chess pawns with bigger heads that I could paint to use for combat. I lost all the figures in a barracks fire when I was in the military, but I talk about this because the art style in Camelot games (talked about around 19:40 in the video) always reminds me of those figures.
This is not only a great story of inter-generational harmony, but also a fantastic way to describe Camelot's art style. The characters look like an old artisan's wood carvings.
I was one of the translators for Verve’s fan translation of Dragon Force 2 - so happy that people are still getting to experience the game for the first time through my words! Dragon Force was always something special for me when I played it on the Saturn in my early teens, and I think you picked up on a lot of the qualities that made it stand out to me at that time. Thanks for the nostalgia trip, and for keeping Dragon Force alive! 🫶
I have still never played the sequel despite loving the first game, and Dragonforce being literally the only Sega Saturn game I still own the disk for. Need to do that one of these days.
I love the idea that Nostradamus predicted Cyber Doll's plot. No one has actually read him, but the idea that he sat down and was like 'immortal robots in dystopian America are the result of trying to cure loose muscles'
32:44 "The fuck do you mean she died?!? The president was impeached; it's not illegal to have robot legs!" The entire segment covering the "loose muscles" intro cutscene had me in TEARS
Okay, I have to add my voice onto this. It is downright CRIMINAL that we don't have a fan translation for CyberDoll! The amount of Sci-Fi RPGs that one can play is rare enough. A Cyberpunk RPG with a limb destruction system and an interesting (if outright insane) story to it? How has this NOT been translated!?
If Shining Force 3 part 2 and 3 can get translations, so can CyberDoll. CyberDoll gives me Genesis Shadowrun crossed with m Phantasy Star vibes. Surprised this is the first time I've heard of the game.
I would love to see it happen. I urge any multilingual programmer with a passion for obscure RPGs who happens to be reading this: quit your job and translate CyberDoll instead. History will look upon you kindly.
saturn translation is a bitch. famously tedious unlike more approachable systems, it takes a very dedicated team and a long time so many projects get abandoned half way.
Virtual Hydlide feels like a fake game some TikTok RP account would make where the comments get to choose what the green screen actor does next, and personally, I think that's beautiful.
100%. There's definitely something weirdly charming about it. Side note: they should have ported Elder Scrolls I: Arena rather than made Virtual Hydlide, but I'm sure Bethesda didn't have the clout at the time for anything like that.
Shining in the Holy Ark really feels like proto Golden Sun. You can even see the evolution of the fairy system into the djinn, little elemental creatures you have to explore all over to collect and help you in battle.
Absolutely. Not to be redundant (since I say something like this in the video) but I feel its the first time where Camelot's style is crystallized. Shining Wisdom had bits and pieces, but it all comes together in Holy Ark.
It is absolutely proto Golden Sun. Camelot has a clear through line not only visually but in style, and that carried from their Shining entries to Golden Sun. I miss that godly developer so much.
The reason Victor Ireland made games harder is that in Japan, video game rentals were outlawed, but legal in the west, so he didn't want people to be able to rent a game and beat it in a weekend, he wanted another sale. On another note, he would also send out review copies with different secrets, different strats, to try and prevent reviewers from writing guides to make the games easier. This resulted in Gamespot refusing to review Working Designs games that weren't on pressed discs.
Oh man, you would've thought the 1980s were a real hoot. You know, when the US labeled aids as a "punishment from god" and openly called it a "solution to the gay problem." Real funny stuff....
Shining Force 3 is so great. I played through it years ago and even just seeing a lot of the specific battle maps makes me think like, "Oh man, I remember THAT battle!" Having even the individual battle maps be so memorable is a hell of an achievement and I'm SO bummed SF3 was Camelot's last tactical RPG
I played Scenario 1 as a kid, and it is one of my most nostalgic games. Thank goodness that it was eventually translated and I did finally get to play Scenario's 2 and 3 a couple years back. it was a literal, lifelong, childhood dream come true for me. XD Also, it was painful seeing Dantares with a halberd and not a lance, as were the lack of bonds between his characters, lol.
I always love learning about obscure video games I've never heard of on a system I've never owned nor knew anyone who did. Having my experiential lacunae filled is satisfying in the same way as watching someone smooth plaster over a crack in the wall.
The Saturn was such a tragedy. It gets a bad wrap. People clown on Sony for not "predicting" 3D, but they forget that nobody knew how to make 3D games for a really long time. It made all the sense in the world for Sega to split the difference and ease into 3D. But what they couldn't predict was the games media, and to a lesser extent gamers, being so obsessed with 3D that they would give Battle Arena Toshinden (a terrible game even on day 1) "10s" while ignoring games like Symphony Of The Night just because they artificially pumped 3D games just for being 3D.
I remember stumbling upon Majuular's 3DO RPG video around a year ago and it was an instant subscribe for me. This video cements why I remain an avid consumer of his content since then: 1. Casual comfort viewing of long form old video game essays 2. Very nuanced but well-earned jokes 3. Meticulous but lovingly crafted insights Sincerely wishing for this man's success (and more content)!
Majuular, You may not remember me, but I commented on one of your videos several months ago, opening up about losing my daughter to suicide last year. You replied with some of the most kind and genuine words I've ever read, words that stay with me to this day. The work you do on these videos is pristine, and has quite frankly been a huge inspiration for my own game review videos. Thank you for just being a good human. ❤
Of course I remember. I clicked on your channel to see how you're doing just now. It seems like you've transformed your ongoing journey with grief into an outlet that really resonates with people. In spite of everything, that's truly amazing. My heart breaks for you man, but the strangers on this website benefit from your rawness and sincerity. Keep going.
Oh wow, you made the Omori vid that made the rounds a few months ago. All my love and respect to you and your daughter. I'm so sorry you experienced that. But also, thank you for bringing your thoughts out. You're a fantastic human.
@Love_Yourself4830 Majuular's solid. I'm very sorry. Checking out your Edith Finch video now. (I've been meaning to make one myself for about two years.)
Hey Majuular. I don't know how hard it is for RUclipsrs to do this but THANK YOU for time stamping and titling the time stamps. I could just be dumb, but I feel it's nice to be able to look down at the section or game I am on and honestly few people I watch do this. So thank you.
I still remember walking down the hallways in highschool in the late 00's and overhearing two kids talking about how great Dragonforce was. I stopped and did a double take, why the heck are they talking about an obscure but great Sega Saturn game? Before I could go over and extoll the greatness of Leon, I fortunately realized it was some band, lol. Shining Force 3 also still holds a very special place in my heart. The main menu theme with Gabriel is one of my favorite game songs ever.
@@Majuular I like that you added the little bit about how Saturn emulation has extra complicated steps involved. A few days before you put this video out I was fiddling with it b/c I wanted to try Dragon Force and Shining Force 3. I did a little reading, tried a few things but gave up b/c there's other things I wanna play that don't involve research and troubleshooting and time is precious. Thanks for the video though. You're a character. Effortless funny.
@@Tony_Cardoza I mean it's really not that complicated. The only thing is that Mednafen, the best Saturn emu, is command-line, so if you aren't comfortable with that, you just need to download a GUI frontend, like Mednaffe or MedGui Reborn. Beyond that, all you need is the BIOS, which isn't unusual or hard to find. I was curious how long it'd actually take, and without knowing _any_ of this ahead of time, it still only took
@@Danenos They were originally Dragon Heart. I don't know why they changed their name, but maybe the movie studio attacked them. I randomly found them in the Napster days and then they disappeared for a few years before I found out they changed their name to Dragon Force instead. And then Guitar Hero or Rock Band made them mainstream. I'm happy for them. But I don't think they're named after a Sega Saturn game, but I'd be happy to be wrong if that's the reason they chose that during their change
You know you make fun of MLD in Cyber Doll but really think about it. An incurable disease that seemingly makes your muscles incapable of contracting is quite terrifying, especially when you remember that things like your diaphragm and heart are muscles.
Seeing you cover stuff like Virtual Hydlide and Baroque is awesome. This was a great break to put between Ultima entries to give that a breather. Channels like yours and others in the same space are doing such a great service in highlighting these hidden gems (granted in some cases that term applies very loosely). Keep up the great work.
My autistic ADHD ass struggles to concentrate on 45 minute lectures and courses, but have absolutely no problem sitting through a 3 hour Majuular video.
@Majuular, don't forget that Shining Force CD isn't a new game, It's a remake of the Game Gear games and actually 4 games on one disc. To play all four games, you have to have a Sega CD RAM cart since the save is soo big, it requires the extra space of the RAM cart. You have to beat games Books 1-2 to unlock Book 3, Beat Books 1-3 AND find the hidden tome in 2 to unlock the final game, Book 4.
There was a snippet in a video I recently watched that showed that Sega cheated on this and the ram cart wasn't actually necessary. Seems like they bloated save files for that game in order to entice people to buy it. I am retroactively mad about this lol Fortunately the saves carry over so you don't actually need to have them all available either. It was just handy for people who wanted everything available. I had to live with transferring save data and deleting my old save. But somehow it worked. It was definitely all BS though. Or maybe the Slim SegaCD had a touch more memory than the OG SegaCD. Somehow I experienced at least 3 of the stories without the ram cart. But I'm pretty sure I did all 4. Definitely 3 at least. I remember the crazy old lady and having both protagonists
Walked in all smugly like "I think I will know *all* these games" and left wanting a translation of Cyber Doll with all my heart. We didn't appreciate you when we had you my sweet sweet Saturn.
Man, here's hoping someone takes up the reigns and does a translation patch for Cyber Doll. It looks exactly like the kind of thing I'd love. Also, can't believe he didn't once crack an "If it ain't Baroque, don't fix it!" gag. Perhaps he was hoping the comments section would have a bloke with a bespoke Baroque joke.
Baroque does not get enough coverage and attention. There isn't even a video going over creature designs and analysis. I've been dying for Baroque coverage seeing as though my time and energy for reading is limited. But my work allows me copious listening time. Your video was a treat! Thanks a lot man. You rock.
Aids, loose muscle disease, President Grandon Gates, Nostradamus, cyborgs, dark visitor disease, and Human brain controlled supercomputer overlords? All it's missing is dragons, aliens and bullet time and the plot would reach The Silver Case levels of wtf.
As soon as Baroque showed up I knew it was going to be the last game. That game is an absolute rabbit hole with its own gravity well. This was an absolute delight to watch. And damn does it make me miss Camelot-era Shining games that much more. Thank you for putting them back on a lot of folks’ radar along with all of the others included here. Even Air’s Adventure.
My YT analytics tab tells me that Dungeon Chill and I have tons of crossover in terms of viewers. When I saw he uploaded a video today too, I knew at least a few people would be having a good Saturday!
@@Majuularit is crazy you both upload today. I've been going back n forth checking like damn nothing yet. Now there's 6 hrs of new content between you two dropped to fill my weekend. Thanks
It's kind of funny back in the 90s Working Designs was seen as a high watermark of translating obscure JRPGs with love and care. Nowadays they're mostly seen as a joke and not regarded too fondly.
It's a really strange reputation they've developed. Regardless, nobody can fault them for their packaging. Nice goodies and plenty of artwork. They certainly gave more of a damn about bringing games to Western audiences and making them as enjoyable as possible. Sometimes those good intentions led them down weird avenues lol
I still love Working Design's translations of Lunar Silver Star Story Complete and Lunar 2 Eternal Blue Complete. I don't know if the person in charge of Lunar knew what they were doing more than their other projects, or if it all just came together to work there when it didn't elsewhere. But IMO it did work for SSSC and EBC.
I have to wonder if some of that is just the astroturfed, politically reactionary "translation purist" thing that's going around lately, which is really not about actual translation quality and more about dogwhistling against an imagined Woke Localizer Conspiracy.
you take what you can get at the time. their style of writing is often obnoxious and artlessly crams in jokes that don't feel earned, which is like, whatever. it was written by a bunch of otaku nerds in the 90s so it makes sense they'd be like this. what REALLY ticks me off about their localizations was when they fiddled with the difficulty. they turned popful mail into such a chore to play, and silhouette mirage was borderline impossible. awful company. 0/10.
One of the things I like about the Shining series is how many aesthetically interesting races there are living seamlessly in the world. You can go into some pub and an imposing half-dragon guy will be in there downing a beer and giving you helpful, friendly advice.
Be forewarned - talking about the Saturn too much risks summoning a bunch of gen X guys who will endlessly ask rhetorical questions about "could the Saturn have succeeded if Sega did [X]"
It's a real pity it didn't do well. I got one day one but I knew something was wrong from the start. Sega had already messed up with the 32X and launching the Saturn too early and at too high a price. There was a brief time when they were neck and neck with the PS1 in 96' after the Saturn had great games like Nights,Sega Rally, Virtua Cop ECT. But by 97' the writing was on the wall and they never recovered. It didn't help that they treated companies that supported them ,Working Designs ECT, poorly. Sega just didn't know what they were doing until it was too late. The real shame is that Gen Z people now don't know much about great systems like the Saturn and have grown up with the garbage that Ubislop and EA have shoved out over the years. Especially with DEI,ESG nonsense shoved into games the industry was far better 20 or 30 years ago.
@@Longlius it sold several million more than the N64 and did better than the ps1 until 1998 when the psx really exploded. A japanese person will probably not remember it as a failure at all.
After I finished Albert Odyssey, I sold it. This was in the 90s. It was the last game I ever traded/sold. I have kept everything I have bought since then. Still kicking myself for selling it.
SEGA didn't market it. Released it in limited quantities, made no attempt to sell it at all. Didn't help that the Saturn hardware was being sold at a handicap, cause SEGA made NO ATTEMPT to repair relations with retailers (many of whom wouldn't stock the system or any Sega hardware at all). That sums up Sega's attitude for everything in a nutshell. "Do not attempt. Do not try. Unless you are trying to fail."
That game is the biggest argument in favor of emulation. There's no re-release, no official digital version and a physical copy can cost thousands of dollars because only a few thousands copies were ever sold. It would be almost lost media by now without emulation
@@j.2512I was lucky enough to get a copy on day one due to preordering it over a year before it came out. I have loved the game and played it many times. I kept my copy in great condition and had it graded awhile back. Now that I'm older and have stopped collecting games I sold it for $3,000 along with the rest of my Saturn collection such as Magic Knight Rayearth,Raident Slivergun and 70 other games . It was a sad day but the money went into a savings account for my brother and my niece,15 grand so far, in case something happens to me. I still have the soundtrack on CD that I got import back in 98' though and listen to it quite often.
@@Carsonj13kind of an odd sentiment for a company that literally threw anything at the wall to see if it could stick. Sega wasted resources on trying to bring VR and net play to the console market in the 90s.
The twist about Sonic Planning being Camelot hit so hard. I was all like, "The battle animations and the font of these Shinning games kinda reminds me of Golden Sun" and then boom.
I gotta admit im a little disappointed you missed: "Mystaria: The Realms of Lore" I was OBSESSED with that game as a child. I'll let it slide though because i love your content.
let's go my favorite youtuber covering my favorite niche game baroque!!! keep it up, you're the only person on this website i still actively make time in my days to watch videos from fresh
@@Majuularstill doesnt top the guy I had once. Dude didnt speak a lick of english, ordered two wraps. All veggies, ALL SAUCE. And then we spent 10 minutes trying to get the right amount from him for payment. Man ate both right in front of us at one of the tables.
@ChristopherJasonHerrOmegaXi how long ago was that?? Whenever there's a severe language barrier with truckers/drivers at my warehouse job, they'll usually bust out their phone and speak into google translate, and it usually makes the language barrier a non-issue so long as they aren't doofuses.
Some important details about the Ghost Stories dub Maj didn't mention (likely due to lack of relevance, and the video was long enough already): the director for the ADV dub, Steven Foster, was/is notorious for drastically altering anime scripts during dubbing, similar to Working Designs. Plus, the narrative about the series being a failure or "boring" is likely untrue: Ghost Stories was actually fairly well-received in Japan for a smaller-scale kid's show. It's been people who worked on that dub who have spread the story about the original's quality and reception and being given "free reign" to make the series "interesting." I understand that alterations are inevitable when localizing a work from one language to another, but the idea of "I don't like the original, so I'm going to change it to whatever _I_ want, and then claim I was given the ok for it in the first place" is a _seriously_ bad habit for localizers to get into, and I can see why people are starting to scrutinize the Ghost Stories dub, or a lot of the Square-Enix RPGs in the 90s (look up how FF8 was butchered in English), more closely. Again, I wouldn't expect Maj to mention all of this, but since he brought up the topic, I felt it necessary to elaborate.
Wait did FF8 have a shit localization? I wondered why I didn't like any of the characters and forgot the majority of the story within a month after finishing it, maybe that's why...
@aortaplatinum The biggest thing is Squall's infamous "Whatever." In English that makes him sound like a dismissive dick, while in Japanese he ends his sentences more tactfully and comes across more shy and introverted. I've also read his relationship with Rinoa is set up a bit better in JP.
Ya I can see where you're coming from. I felt a little less strongly about Ghost Stories because anyone interested in accuracy still has access to the subbed version, but you are right that in principle a studio shouldn't take too many creative liberties.
Really nice video, thanks for the time and effort to highlight this great console’s library. If I may have two nitpicks: ① It is a pity what could be argued to be the best RPG of the console, Tengai Makyō Dai4 no Mokushiroku, is missing from the list, but I guess that gives a good excuse to explore the Tengai Makyō series in a separate video. Especially if you are looking for better written comedy in the genre. ② The game needs less introduction because / thanks to its PS1 and HD ports, but it feels really weird to see a Saturn RPG retrospective skipping Grandia, which was pretty much treated as the FF7 of the console in Japanese magazines at the time. ⭐︎Small correction: Camelot was founded by the other Takahashi brother to develop PS1 games at the same time as Shining Wisdom. Camelot’s first game was Beyond the Beyond. Golden Sun is a mix of STHA and Beyond the Beyond’s ideas.
Thank you for the feedback, I appreciate it. Indeed, I skipped Grandia (and a few others) mainly because I didn't want to write off the possibility that I might do a full length video on it someday. But you're right, it couldn't hurt to at least mention it.
As an Australian that works so hard, I would sleep hearing Majuular talk about obscure games. He's that kind of person that you can sit around a camp-fire and hear about his passion for obscure games and be comfortable around.
lol, I'm glad you still dig it. I played and wrote about Ultima IV and V very close to each other, so I figured I'd take a break to decompress and give the subscribers of this channel some non-Ultima stuff to chew on. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, so I'm looking forward to putting together the next Ultima vid!
@@MajuularUltima 6 is such an amazing and groundbreaking game that I can wait awhile for your video on it. Along with Ultima 7 and Ultima Underworld and Ultima Online it was really the best of the best back in the 90's. It would be interesting to see you do a last video about everything that's happened since the 2000s for Richard Garrett.
Every new Majuular upload I get in the car, go to my local movie theater, go to the concessions stand, buy a large bucket of popcorn, butter that puppy up, leave, drive home, then watch it in my recliner on my TV while chowing on buttery goodness. Best channel on RUclips.
Majuular my man. It's like you've read my mind, I was thinking today about all the different & strange RPGs on the Sega Saturn while I was window shopping for my own collection (It's small UK Saturn games are extremely expensive) and I saw your 3DO video again and thought about how cool it would be if you made one for the Saturn. Thanks for the 3 hours of entertainment dude.
You're welcome! Based on prices I was seeing for Deep Fear (which only had an english release in PAL versions) I can't even imagine. Collecting can be a brutal hobby these days.
“Muscle loosening disease” is cracking me up but cyber doll looks awesome. The Saturn community has been putting out a lot of fan translations recently and I hope this game gets one
"How did she die, just put a computer in her leg!" Maj, you forget this is taking place in the US and not Canada, her insurance probably didn't cover it. Why do you think she took on being a politician? Government workers get them good ass benefits.
I got a Saturn for xmas in 1996 and the fitst preorder in my life I ever made made was Panzer Dragoon Saga. I knew it was the end of the line for my prized Saturn, and even though it got great reviews and lauded in magazines back then, to my friends with Playstation and N64 it was totally irrelevant. But to me it felt like Sega had given its fans a tremendous gift. I get weepy thinking about that game.
The whiplash from Shining the Holy Ark to Cyberdoll's "Nostradamus predicted a worse disaster than a cure for the Devil's Virus, AIDS" (????) is quite something. More or less insane than Parasite Eve's premise, who can say?
Oh my God THANK YOU for talking about Airs Adventures I feel like I'm going crazy 'cause here in Japan it costs 100yen, it's everywhere but no one seems to know what it is, it is never talked about since it was never released abroad and I feel like I was the only person on the planet to having played it
I can't believe within moments of the video being published there's already someone in the comments who has played that game. I figured it would take a few days at least!
When Hideki Kamiya said the main inspiration behind Scalebound (RIP) was Hydlide, I was shocked because my only knowledge of the game was from AVGN. So I am eternally thankful to Kamiya for exposing me to how innovative the game was.
Nice to see my tweet featured! Sadly you failed the assignment. No one has to say the Saturn sold well, it didn't, but there's no need to mention it's sales where it's not relevent to the topic. Is that context really necessary when talking about the systems RPG library? Does that directly affect any games on this list? The aim here isn't to rewrite history, but to focus on the games and challenge creators to be more creative when discussing the Saturns library.
Hopefully you took the gag in the spirit with which it was intended. I take your point! However, I'm speaking to an audience of people who largely do not have ANY Saturn experience (at least it's statistically likely that this is the case.. in part because the console wasn't popular). I think it's not only possible but worthwhile to briefly provide some context without belaboring the point. For YOU, Dan the Mega Driver, it may come across as belaboring the point, because you've likely watched many, many more Sega-related videos than the average person who watches RUclips videos. "Does that directly affect any games on this list?" Your words are chosen carefully - "directly". The chain of causality in many historically significant moments is not "direct", but "indirectness" doesn't invalidate information that helps contextualize those moments. Sure, I think you can take this to an extreme. For example, if I were to explain the entire history of word processing software for the sake of explaining why I don't like a new Microsoft Word update. I think most people would agree that's superfluous. To tie it back to my video - well, first of all, the videos on my channel all have a significant historical angle. the first 5-15 minutes of any of my videos will be spent talking about the development history of the subject, and sometimes tangentially related information that I deem insightful or relevant enough to, say, help explain why a game turned out the way it did. More "directly", I use the Saturn's history as a springboard to explain why the console wasn't on my radar, why it may not have been on the viewer's radar, and why despite having so many critically acclaimed RPGs, many of them are more obscure than their PS1 brethren. I would bet you dollars to donuts that a not-insignificant percentage of people who watched this video 'til the end only had a vague idea of what the Sega Saturn even was prior to watching. Is the context really necessary when talking about the systems RPG library? No. Nothing in this video is necessary. This entire video isn't necessary! I didn't need to discuss Working Designs or the broad topic of translation when talking about Albert Odyssey. I didn't need to mention that Dragonforce's director went missing during production in order to talk about Dragonforce. Going over the evolution of Camelot's art style isn't necessary to discuss Shining The Holy Ark in a vacuum. There are certainly people out there who will find much of that information extraneous, and those people would benefit from finding a more traditional, journalistic review of the games in this video. I'm trying to help illustrate a narrative, provide context for the audience, and most of all, make an interesting video. By spending a minute or two laying the foundation of the Saturn's history, I think this video managed to appeal to people outside of the relatively small Saturn RPG niche. Speaking of superfluous: my entire response to your comment 😬 I just wanted to offer my perspective on why it seems like "sales" are the monkey that Saturn videos can't get off their back. And since you are (INDIRECTLY) a part of my video, I figured a thorough reply would be in order.
"This is the kind of game you play as a child and spend the rest of your life loving and trying to convince other people to play it. And probably failing." ... ... okay, I... don't really know how to feel about you just calling me out harder than I've been in years. I guess I'm pretty impressed if nothing else. Because yes, it's not theoretical, what you wrote in that script is basically exactly what happened to me. I liked this game so much as a child I forced myself to learn the basics of english to understand it better (which ended up being pretty useful as it turns out) ... I still even recommend it to people saying they miss Golden Sun every now and then, almost 30 years later. And indeed, pretty sure it's never worked :D Just wanted to inform you how hard you nailed that one, because, wow, just... wow.
This video was made for me, thanks papi Majuular I literally was 1 year old when the saturn released but the library of weird games is so fascinating to me
How dare you take what essentially is my entire childhood and throw it into one video. I love everything you put here on YT, but this one is extra special. You covered pretty much my favorite RPGs growing up; PDS, Shining Force, Shining THA (which incidentally randomly enters my mind to this day), and the all mighty Dragon Force, which never got it's sequel release in the West. One last recommendation for you here though, Iron Storm.
@@MajuularIron Storm is good but pure strategy no RPG elements at all. Since you did mention Record of Lodoss war though,which is still a great anime,it would be a cool idea to do a future video about every Record of Lodoss war video game.
Pretty cool video! You really need to make a part 2. There's too many cool original RPGs in the Saturn left: Dark Savior and their parallel universes system, Princess Crown, Wachenroder, Slayers Royal, AnEarth Fantasy Stories...
I never watch long videos like this, but this one had me enraptured and really brought light to my recent rough days. Watching it filled me with fascination, excitement, and intrigue. Your passionate analysis of just what makes each of these so interesting is WONDERFUL. This was such a lovely video to watch. Fills me with appreciation for so much creativity in the early days.
Things have been... Rough, recently. There is much stress in my life. But I know this will help soothe those feelings, even if only for a while, so from the bottom of my heart I must say Thank You, truly!
The most tragic thing about Panzer Dragoon Saga is that because no one played the game it wound up influencing nothing. There’s an alternate universe where it was popular and there are a ton of games that iterate and improve on its battle system. But it’s not this one.
Not sure I feel the same way. I think it's fine to have this unique game stand completely on its own. The real tragedy is how it's still very difficult to play the game nowadays as it's even harder to get a legit copy today (unless you're willing to sell your kidneys) and Saturn emulation has certainly improved but remains iffy (I personally still think Mednafen's emulator is the only acceptable option, and that one only sports a software-based renderer). The best option is probably just getting a Saturn with an Everdrive, but that also requires you to get either a CRT, or some super expensive upscaler to get a nice image. I certainly don't have room for a CRT where I live, and don't have the money for a nice upscaler either (and most of my retro systems have been shelved anyway since I emulate most of my systems nowadays for practical reasons and because I don't really want to risk damaging my games further)
Original Panzer Dragoon is on PC. The Xbox game was published with Microsoft's aid back when they were new and bought titles to be made. Sadly that means no REmake until they say so.
@@almostontimehero5415That only affects the original game and now I don't even think that is a factor anymore especially after the remake of Panzer Dragoon a few years ago. The simple fact is that Panzer Dragoon didn't sell at all and with the Source code for Saga gone Sega will never bother to completely remake the game . Plus Sega is a pale shadow of the company they used to be so I wouldn't expect them to know which way is up anymore.
"Weird World of Saturn RPGs..." Ah, this'll be a good 30 minutes of interesting titles to look up. "...Majuular" *checks runtime* Ohhh man, there goes my afternoon.
With regard to your opening statements. I know your time use would be excessive. But I would absolutely be up for a sequel covering some more Saturn RPG’s. The sheer amount left in Japan has always been a mystery to me.
I’ve been checking your channel every day for the past few weeks. I’ve been itching for some more Majuular in my life! Made my day, and quality content as always!
30:37 the Devil's Virus 😂 I LOVE the implication that A) the people of the future have gone full circle and base their culture on the 1980s Satanic Panic or B) the Japanese developers didn't understand the meaning of that phrase.
From what I gather, the Saturn's 3D capabilities were more an afterthought than anything else. The models are made of quads instead of triangles because it's based on the system's sprite rendering capabilities, with every face essentially being a scaled, perspective corrected sprite.
I don't know if "afterthought" is the correct way to put it. I think the 3D capabilities were fleshed out much later in the design of the console than its counterparts (perhaps as compensation for they saw the competition was doing), it indeed took the quad as a primitive (going against most of the industry), but I think, most importantly, Sega didn't have enough documentation, tools and libraries to support development. This put a huge amount of burden on new developers up-front in what was already a new frontier for some teams. Combine that with the difficult to use co-processors, and it was just a very tough job to pull off for some developers. On the other hand, the systems 2D capabilities are really fantastic.
@@robinmattheussen2395 What I specifically mean is it's a feature that came later in development and is largely informed by the earlier work in 2D rendering. It wasn't necessarily a feature that came about by someone asking "what's the best way we can do this?" but more "what can we cobble together based on what we have?" It's surprisingly decent despite that but the PS1's more forward thinking approach has clear benefits that the Saturn's 3D efforts lack.
>Check youtube >New Majuular video >Get hyped >Saturn RPGs >Get more hype >Look at chapters >See Baroque is covered Today got really good really quickly
I remember blowing through Panzer Dragoon Saga in about a week and honestly its one of my favorite RPGs I've ever played. I can't believe they made it work on the saturn.
A Saturn RPG worth checking out, though JP only is Tengai Makyō: Daiyon no Mokushiroku which is one of many great titles from the fantastic Tengai Makyō series. It's visually and conceptionally unique, the setting taking place in a fictionalized apocalyptic 1800's USA from the perspective of the Japanese is beyond comical. Seriously look up the world map for the game, and you'll see what I mean. I really hope someday it can be fan translated as playing through it is truly a treat in Japanese. Also if this title seems interesting I'd recommend checking out the fan translated, and extremely ambitious SNES title in the series Tengai Makyō Zero. The game has no repeating enemy sprites with a ton of detailed enemy sprites, a real time clock function with in game elements/events tied to time of day or date, and topped with fun gameplay. Linda Cube is also a rather unique RPG, though the Saturn version titled Linda Cube Kanzenban is an enhanced port of a PS1 enhanced port (kinda) of a PC Engine title. Unfortunately though the Saturn version is JP only with the PS1 port being the only English fan translated version. The PS1 version though has censorship neither other version has due to Sony's policies. Hopefully the wall of text isn't off-putting, but thanks for yet another interesting dive and perspective. Your videos are always top notch, I look forward to your next one.
The Saturn is such a damn gem of a console - hope to see more of it's library on your channel :) - lookimg forward to the fan TLs in the work, and hope games like Terra Phantastica & Wachenroeder are considered for a future deep dives. Also, all the Saturn peripherals are totally worthy - Twin Stick for Virual On, Bulk Slash, and a couple other games; 2 mission sticks can be used to play Panzer Dragoon Zwei; the mouse can be used to breathe new life into numerous games including Sakura Taisen and Virtua Cop 1 & 2; just so many unique gaming experiences you really can't get anywhere else.
"Muscle-Loosening Disease" absolutely sounds like it makes you shit your pants as symptom number one.
*Symptom number two
I understand the focus group didn't like Poopypants Syndrome, but not calling it Floppy Dong Disease is a missed opportunity.
@@Majuularthey're saving it for cyber doll 2 no doubt...
@@NIGH11 Perfect
Hahaha b holes are really funny it gas to be said
Majuular saw the inventory system of Ultima VI and thought "Nah, I'm gonna play every Saturn RPG instead."
Spear, spear, spear, spear, spear,spear, and 21 gold coins.
Far from every Saturn RPG...
@@davepostma6736 that's not what your mom said last night. She said, "Yeah, that's every Saturn RPG"
@@davepostma6736you're right. He didn't cover Blue Breaker. That one was a unique side scrolling jrpg with dating sim elements. It's also on the ps1. He made it clear this isn't "every" saturn RPG. So a part 2 is possible, then he'll combine them to a 7 hour marathon - just like what he's going to do with Ultima.
Yeah I love Ultima but so many of those games do not hold up well. Sadly as computer RPGs primarily they don't get the fan hacks they really need even if they were some of the earlier games to get mods online.
My grandpa was a woodworker by hobby, and good enough to be a trademan, and when he found out that I was turning into an RPG nerd he started turning (literally using a lathe) into little basically chess pawns with bigger heads that I could paint to use for combat. I lost all the figures in a barracks fire when I was in the military, but I talk about this because the art style in Camelot games (talked about around 19:40 in the video) always reminds me of those figures.
This is not only a great story of inter-generational harmony, but also a fantastic way to describe Camelot's art style. The characters look like an old artisan's wood carvings.
I was one of the translators for Verve’s fan translation of Dragon Force 2 - so happy that people are still getting to experience the game for the first time through my words! Dragon Force was always something special for me when I played it on the Saturn in my early teens, and I think you picked up on a lot of the qualities that made it stand out to me at that time. Thanks for the nostalgia trip, and for keeping Dragon Force alive! 🫶
Oh that rules! Thank YOU for keeping Dragon Force alive!
I have still never played the sequel despite loving the first game, and Dragonforce being literally the only Sega Saturn game I still own the disk for.
Need to do that one of these days.
I love the idea that Nostradamus predicted Cyber Doll's plot. No one has actually read him, but the idea that he sat down and was like 'immortal robots in dystopian America are the result of trying to cure loose muscles'
Uhh it's in there somewhere.. well not exactly but basically he said it..
@@Majuularif you change around some of the letters, then it's close enough
Nostradamus's predictions came true! He didn't say they couldn't happen in video games.
@@subtledemisefoxAnd translate it loosely enough?
One of those things where if you're looking, you will find it. He still had a fascinating life that bears study
Thanks for the shoutout. Always happy to see new Saturn videos that shines a positive light on the system.
Appreciate you and your compatriots' hard work. Just finished Bulk Slash for the third time, having a hoot.
Ayyyy
>Check RUclips
> Nothing new
> Make coffee
> Check RUclips
> New majuular
> Life is good
Normal people: "Jesus, three hours? That's a pass from me."
Me: "It's THREE HOURS. Hell yes!"
@@Interference22me aswell
@@Interference22 This'll take me weeks to finish...
I just came home from a friend and wanted to go to sleep soon - but now I guess that is going to be rather hard...
Simple pleasures that makes the week's worth of hard work bearable.
32:44 "The fuck do you mean she died?!? The president was impeached; it's not illegal to have robot legs!"
The entire segment covering the "loose muscles" intro cutscene had me in TEARS
Okay, I have to add my voice onto this. It is downright CRIMINAL that we don't have a fan translation for CyberDoll! The amount of Sci-Fi RPGs that one can play is rare enough. A Cyberpunk RPG with a limb destruction system and an interesting (if outright insane) story to it? How has this NOT been translated!?
If Shining Force 3 part 2 and 3 can get translations, so can CyberDoll.
CyberDoll gives me Genesis Shadowrun crossed with m Phantasy Star vibes. Surprised this is the first time I've heard of the game.
I would love to see it happen.
I urge any multilingual programmer with a passion for obscure RPGs who happens to be reading this: quit your job and translate CyberDoll instead. History will look upon you kindly.
@@Majuular I honestly considered giving it a shot. Then I watched the intro and my brain exploded.
saturn translation is a bitch. famously tedious unlike more approachable systems, it takes a very dedicated team and a long time so many projects get abandoned half way.
Love the cailou reference
Virtual Hydlide feels like a fake game some TikTok RP account would make where the comments get to choose what the green screen actor does next, and personally, I think that's beautiful.
100%. There's definitely something weirdly charming about it.
Side note: they should have ported Elder Scrolls I: Arena rather than made Virtual Hydlide, but I'm sure Bethesda didn't have the clout at the time for anything like that.
Shining in the Holy Ark really feels like proto Golden Sun. You can even see the evolution of the fairy system into the djinn, little elemental creatures you have to explore all over to collect and help you in battle.
Absolutely. Not to be redundant (since I say something like this in the video) but I feel its the first time where Camelot's style is crystallized. Shining Wisdom had bits and pieces, but it all comes together in Holy Ark.
It is absolutely proto Golden Sun. Camelot has a clear through line not only visually but in style, and that carried from their Shining entries to Golden Sun. I miss that godly developer so much.
@@Majuular Shining Wisdon is a pretty poor game, but Holy Ark is a certified banger.
It even has the menu guy! I love menu guy and his doofy expression
Not to mention that Sakuraba score.
The reason Victor Ireland made games harder is that in Japan, video game rentals were outlawed, but legal in the west, so he didn't want people to be able to rent a game and beat it in a weekend, he wanted another sale.
On another note, he would also send out review copies with different secrets, different strats, to try and prevent reviewers from writing guides to make the games easier. This resulted in Gamespot refusing to review Working Designs games that weren't on pressed discs.
Trying to screw over guide writers? Wow, that is super petty!! 😂
"The devils virus....AIDS" and "muscle loosening disease" are the funniest fucking things I have ever heard in my life
just gay things
@@j.2512 Gay and black, I 'spose.
Oh man, you would've thought the 1980s were a real hoot. You know, when the US labeled aids as a "punishment from god" and openly called it a "solution to the gay problem." Real funny stuff....
_Rich Evans noises_
Shining Force 3 is so great. I played through it years ago and even just seeing a lot of the specific battle maps makes me think like, "Oh man, I remember THAT battle!" Having even the individual battle maps be so memorable is a hell of an achievement and I'm SO bummed SF3 was Camelot's last tactical RPG
I played Scenario 1 as a kid, and it is one of my most nostalgic games.
Thank goodness that it was eventually translated and I did finally get to play Scenario's 2 and 3 a couple years back.
it was a literal, lifelong, childhood dream come true for me. XD
Also, it was painful seeing Dantares with a halberd and not a lance, as were the lack of bonds between his characters, lol.
I always love learning about obscure video games I've never heard of on a system I've never owned nor knew anyone who did. Having my experiential lacunae filled is satisfying in the same way as watching someone smooth plaster over a crack in the wall.
Oh, hey Dosh! Thanks for introducing me to Cogmind, I've lost days 😅
This right here. I’d read about them in magazines but zero friends had any of these games.
Fancy seeing you here. actually taking a break from binging your content lol.
it's always a nice feeling when a funny videoman I like to watch enjoys other funny videomen that I also like watching
The Saturn was such a tragedy. It gets a bad wrap. People clown on Sony for not "predicting" 3D, but they forget that nobody knew how to make 3D games for a really long time. It made all the sense in the world for Sega to split the difference and ease into 3D. But what they couldn't predict was the games media, and to a lesser extent gamers, being so obsessed with 3D that they would give Battle Arena Toshinden (a terrible game even on day 1) "10s" while ignoring games like Symphony Of The Night just because they artificially pumped 3D games just for being 3D.
I remember stumbling upon Majuular's 3DO RPG video around a year ago and it was an instant subscribe for me.
This video cements why I remain an avid consumer of his content since then:
1. Casual comfort viewing of long form old video game essays
2. Very nuanced but well-earned jokes
3. Meticulous but lovingly crafted insights
Sincerely wishing for this man's success (and more content)!
Heartily agree, and it was the same video that got me watching, too!
Majuular,
You may not remember me, but I commented on one of your videos several months ago, opening up about losing my daughter to suicide last year. You replied with some of the most kind and genuine words I've ever read, words that stay with me to this day. The work you do on these videos is pristine, and has quite frankly been a huge inspiration for my own game review videos.
Thank you for just being a good human. ❤
Maj is one of the most based creators on YT.
Of course I remember. I clicked on your channel to see how you're doing just now. It seems like you've transformed your ongoing journey with grief into an outlet that really resonates with people. In spite of everything, that's truly amazing. My heart breaks for you man, but the strangers on this website benefit from your rawness and sincerity. Keep going.
Oh wow, you made the Omori vid that made the rounds a few months ago.
All my love and respect to you and your daughter. I'm so sorry you experienced that.
But also, thank you for bringing your thoughts out. You're a fantastic human.
@Love_Yourself4830 Majuular's solid. I'm very sorry. Checking out your Edith Finch video now. (I've been meaning to make one myself for about two years.)
Hey Majuular. I don't know how hard it is for RUclipsrs to do this but THANK YOU for time stamping and titling the time stamps. I could just be dumb, but I feel it's nice to be able to look down at the section or game I am on and honestly few people I watch do this. So thank you.
3 hours of RPGs?
Count me in.
Saturn RPGs, nonetheless... ❤
@@Pai3000I never really thought about them
You perfectly captured the feel of Shining the Holy Ark with that breakdown of its sky boxes. Good stuff.
Hearing that I did the dungeon crawler justice from the dungeon master is high praise indeed.
ayyy dungeon chill
@@wompwomp9946 ayyyy
I still remember walking down the hallways in highschool in the late 00's and overhearing two kids talking about how great Dragonforce was. I stopped and did a double take, why the heck are they talking about an obscure but great Sega Saturn game?
Before I could go over and extoll the greatness of Leon, I fortunately realized it was some band, lol.
Shining Force 3 also still holds a very special place in my heart. The main menu theme with Gabriel is one of my favorite game songs ever.
Heartbreaking second paragraph..
@@Majuular I like that you added the little bit about how Saturn emulation has extra complicated steps involved. A few days before you put this video out I was fiddling with it b/c I wanted to try Dragon Force and Shining Force 3. I did a little reading, tried a few things but gave up b/c there's other things I wanna play that don't involve research and troubleshooting and time is precious. Thanks for the video though. You're a character. Effortless funny.
@@Tony_Cardoza I mean it's really not that complicated. The only thing is that Mednafen, the best Saturn emu, is command-line, so if you aren't comfortable with that, you just need to download a GUI frontend, like Mednaffe or MedGui Reborn. Beyond that, all you need is the BIOS, which isn't unusual or hard to find. I was curious how long it'd actually take, and without knowing _any_ of this ahead of time, it still only took
I mean, the band's named after the game. Tangentially they were talking about the game.
@@Danenos They were originally Dragon Heart. I don't know why they changed their name, but maybe the movie studio attacked them. I randomly found them in the Napster days and then they disappeared for a few years before I found out they changed their name to Dragon Force instead. And then Guitar Hero or Rock Band made them mainstream. I'm happy for them. But I don't think they're named after a Sega Saturn game, but I'd be happy to be wrong if that's the reason they chose that during their change
40:42 The interface showing off your cybernetic body is so damn cool. Being able to upgrade yourself with found parts is just icing on the cake.
I'm kind of kicking myself for not touching on that aspect of the UI. It's really stylish. Same with the gun menu.
You know you make fun of MLD in Cyber Doll but really think about it. An incurable disease that seemingly makes your muscles incapable of contracting is quite terrifying, especially when you remember that things like your diaphragm and heart are muscles.
We're not going to talk about the sphincter? Not even the slightest bit? Like, at all?
Don't forget the anal sphincter and kiegel muscles
I would personally appreciate it if we ignored it. (Ewwwww)
Neuro/muscledegenerative diseases are scary in real life. Epidemic of such is kinda horrific.
And no, let's not talk of symptom two.
@@analogmoz Maj is gonna cover the Robert Maplethorpe game so brace yourself for sphincters.
Seeing you cover stuff like Virtual Hydlide and Baroque is awesome. This was a great break to put between Ultima entries to give that a breather. Channels like yours and others in the same space are doing such a great service in highlighting these hidden gems (granted in some cases that term applies very loosely). Keep up the great work.
I'll never get sick of your intro. Has a cozy late night 80's feel to it that makes me nostalgic lol.
I agree. Feels like one of those shows that would come on at 2-3 in the morning, except you actually wanna watch this one.
My autistic ADHD ass struggles to concentrate on 45 minute lectures and courses, but have absolutely no problem sitting through a 3 hour Majuular video.
@Majuular, don't forget that Shining Force CD isn't a new game, It's a remake of the Game Gear games and actually 4 games on one disc.
To play all four games, you have to have a Sega CD RAM cart since the save is soo big, it requires the extra space of the RAM cart.
You have to beat games Books 1-2 to unlock Book 3, Beat Books 1-3 AND find the hidden tome in 2 to unlock the final game, Book 4.
There was a snippet in a video I recently watched that showed that Sega cheated on this and the ram cart wasn't actually necessary. Seems like they bloated save files for that game in order to entice people to buy it. I am retroactively mad about this lol Fortunately the saves carry over so you don't actually need to have them all available either. It was just handy for people who wanted everything available. I had to live with transferring save data and deleting my old save. But somehow it worked. It was definitely all BS though. Or maybe the Slim SegaCD had a touch more memory than the OG SegaCD. Somehow I experienced at least 3 of the stories without the ram cart. But I'm pretty sure I did all 4. Definitely 3 at least. I remember the crazy old lady and having both protagonists
Walked in all smugly like "I think I will know *all* these games" and left wanting a translation of Cyber Doll with all my heart. We didn't appreciate you when we had you my sweet sweet Saturn.
Man, here's hoping someone takes up the reigns and does a translation patch for Cyber Doll. It looks exactly like the kind of thing I'd love.
Also, can't believe he didn't once crack an "If it ain't Baroque, don't fix it!" gag. Perhaps he was hoping the comments section would have a bloke with a bespoke Baroque joke.
You don't need to make bad jokes about Baroque since the whole game is basically a huge bad joke
I love these explorations of under-exposed console libraries. Dragon Force and Cyber Doll both seem like real hidden gems.
a 3 hour majuular video? well there goes my afternoon plans
Nah nah, let's be real: You didn't have plans till the video dropped.
Baroque does not get enough coverage and attention.
There isn't even a video going over creature designs and analysis. I've been dying for Baroque coverage seeing as though my time and energy for reading is limited. But my work allows me copious listening time.
Your video was a treat! Thanks a lot man. You rock.
My first hearing about it and I had Saturn at its prime. Def would have loved this game.
I can't get over Cyber Doll's intro, holy shit.
Aids, loose muscle disease, President Grandon Gates, Nostradamus, cyborgs, dark visitor disease, and Human brain controlled supercomputer overlords?
All it's missing is dragons, aliens and bullet time and the plot would reach The Silver Case levels of wtf.
@planescaped Hey I only made it to the fourth mission, let's not write off any possibilities
As soon as Baroque showed up I knew it was going to be the last game. That game is an absolute rabbit hole with its own gravity well.
This was an absolute delight to watch. And damn does it make me miss Camelot-era Shining games that much more. Thank you for putting them back on a lot of folks’ radar along with all of the others included here. Even Air’s Adventure.
Majuular AND Dungeon Chill! Be still my heart!
My YT analytics tab tells me that Dungeon Chill and I have tons of crossover in terms of viewers. When I saw he uploaded a video today too, I knew at least a few people would be having a good Saturday!
Yes I second this with the addition of finntrovert and georggreat
@@Majuularit is crazy you both upload today. I've been going back n forth checking like damn nothing yet. Now there's 6 hrs of new content between you two dropped to fill my weekend. Thanks
Is like the Deadpool and Wolverine of RUclips 😂 hard to believe it wasn't "planned" @@Majuular
@@Majuular The two of you are on a whole other level for /comfy/ relaxed but thoughtful videos 🤌👨🍳
Majuular talking about pinapples to explain classic philosphy concepts when summarizing a 30yo cult classic game
Yep, he's still got it
It's kind of funny back in the 90s Working Designs was seen as a high watermark of translating obscure JRPGs with love and care. Nowadays they're mostly seen as a joke and not regarded too fondly.
It's a really strange reputation they've developed.
Regardless, nobody can fault them for their packaging. Nice goodies and plenty of artwork. They certainly gave more of a damn about bringing games to Western audiences and making them as enjoyable as possible. Sometimes those good intentions led them down weird avenues lol
I still love Working Design's translations of Lunar Silver Star Story Complete and Lunar 2 Eternal Blue Complete.
I don't know if the person in charge of Lunar knew what they were doing more than their other projects, or if it all just came together to work there when it didn't elsewhere. But IMO it did work for SSSC and EBC.
I have to wonder if some of that is just the astroturfed, politically reactionary "translation purist" thing that's going around lately, which is really not about actual translation quality and more about dogwhistling against an imagined Woke Localizer Conspiracy.
you take what you can get at the time. their style of writing is often obnoxious and artlessly crams in jokes that don't feel earned, which is like, whatever. it was written by a bunch of otaku nerds in the 90s so it makes sense they'd be like this. what REALLY ticks me off about their localizations was when they fiddled with the difficulty. they turned popful mail into such a chore to play, and silhouette mirage was borderline impossible. awful company. 0/10.
On one hand, you get a fuckton of extras
On the other hand, one character gets turned into a surfer dude weed bro
One of the things I like about the Shining series is how many aesthetically interesting races there are living seamlessly in the world. You can go into some pub and an imposing half-dragon guy will be in there downing a beer and giving you helpful, friendly advice.
Be forewarned - talking about the Saturn too much risks summoning a bunch of gen X guys who will endlessly ask rhetorical questions about "could the Saturn have succeeded if Sega did [X]"
the Saturn actually did succeed in Japan and they had a very popular ad campaign with segata sanshiro. Its the international market that buried it.
Yeah, that dude tweeting at the start of the video was 100% out of pocket. I didn't realize some folks were so defensive of a 30 year old console.
@@j.2512 It succeeded during its first year in Japan but also lost out to the playstation by year 2.
It's a real pity it didn't do well. I got one day one but I knew something was wrong from the start. Sega had already messed up with the 32X and launching the Saturn too early and at too high a price. There was a brief time when they were neck and neck with the PS1 in 96' after the Saturn had great games like Nights,Sega Rally, Virtua Cop ECT. But by 97' the writing was on the wall and they never recovered. It didn't help that they treated companies that supported them ,Working Designs ECT, poorly. Sega just didn't know what they were doing until it was too late. The real shame is that Gen Z people now don't know much about great systems like the Saturn and have grown up with the garbage that Ubislop and EA have shoved out over the years. Especially with DEI,ESG nonsense shoved into games the industry was far better 20 or 30 years ago.
@@Longlius it sold several million more than the N64 and did better than the ps1 until 1998 when the psx really exploded. A japanese person will probably not remember it as a failure at all.
After I finished Albert Odyssey, I sold it. This was in the 90s. It was the last game I ever traded/sold. I have kept everything I have bought since then. Still kicking myself for selling it.
Panzer Dragoon Saga remains one of gamings greatest tragedies. Something that good should not have been left to die on Saturn.
That game was EPIC
SEGA didn't market it. Released it in limited quantities, made no attempt to sell it at all. Didn't help that the Saturn hardware was being sold at a handicap, cause SEGA made NO ATTEMPT to repair relations with retailers (many of whom wouldn't stock the system or any Sega hardware at all). That sums up Sega's attitude for everything in a nutshell. "Do not attempt. Do not try. Unless you are trying to fail."
That game is the biggest argument in favor of emulation. There's no re-release, no official digital version and a physical copy can cost thousands of dollars because only a few thousands copies were ever sold. It would be almost lost media by now without emulation
@@j.2512I was lucky enough to get a copy on day one due to preordering it over a year before it came out. I have loved the game and played it many times. I kept my copy in great condition and had it graded awhile back. Now that I'm older and have stopped collecting games I sold it for $3,000 along with the rest of my Saturn collection such as Magic Knight Rayearth,Raident Slivergun and 70 other games . It was a sad day but the money went into a savings account for my brother and my niece,15 grand so far, in case something happens to me. I still have the soundtrack on CD that I got import back in 98' though and listen to it quite often.
@@Carsonj13kind of an odd sentiment for a company that literally threw anything at the wall to see if it could stick. Sega wasted resources on trying to bring VR and net play to the console market in the 90s.
Putting your review of Baroque with dungeon chills is spectacular
The twist about Sonic Planning being Camelot hit so hard.
I was all like, "The battle animations and the font of these Shinning games kinda reminds me of Golden Sun" and then boom.
I was hoping some people watching this wouldn't know already for some extra dramatic flair.
I'm seriously impressed with Baroque's story. Thank you for this fantastic narration.
Also, I can't believe I had never heard of Cyber Doll.
I gotta admit im a little disappointed you missed: "Mystaria: The Realms of Lore" I was OBSESSED with that game as a child. I'll let it slide though because i love your content.
let's go my favorite youtuber covering my favorite niche game baroque!!! keep it up, you're the only person on this website i still actively make time in my days to watch videos from fresh
>Be me
>On an 8 hour shift at Subway
>Check RUclips for something to listen to
>New Majuular vid droped 15 minutes ago
>Is 3 hours long
>Pog
Hopefully this makes up for the guy who asks for every vegetable and then comes back and complains because he doesn't like red onions.
@@Majuularstill doesnt top the guy I had once. Dude didnt speak a lick of english, ordered two wraps. All veggies, ALL SAUCE. And then we spent 10 minutes trying to get the right amount from him for payment. Man ate both right in front of us at one of the tables.
@Majuular thanks for making these amazing videos! ❤
@ChristopherJasonHerrOmegaXi how long ago was that?? Whenever there's a severe language barrier with truckers/drivers at my warehouse job, they'll usually bust out their phone and speak into google translate, and it usually makes the language barrier a non-issue so long as they aren't doofuses.
"be me" yeah who else would you be, ya dingus
God the Baroque section alone could have been a whole separate video man this was some good content.
Some important details about the Ghost Stories dub Maj didn't mention (likely due to lack of relevance, and the video was long enough already): the director for the ADV dub, Steven Foster, was/is notorious for drastically altering anime scripts during dubbing, similar to Working Designs. Plus, the narrative about the series being a failure or "boring" is likely untrue: Ghost Stories was actually fairly well-received in Japan for a smaller-scale kid's show. It's been people who worked on that dub who have spread the story about the original's quality and reception and being given "free reign" to make the series "interesting." I understand that alterations are inevitable when localizing a work from one language to another, but the idea of "I don't like the original, so I'm going to change it to whatever _I_ want, and then claim I was given the ok for it in the first place" is a _seriously_ bad habit for localizers to get into, and I can see why people are starting to scrutinize the Ghost Stories dub, or a lot of the Square-Enix RPGs in the 90s (look up how FF8 was butchered in English), more closely.
Again, I wouldn't expect Maj to mention all of this, but since he brought up the topic, I felt it necessary to elaborate.
Where can I read more about FF8s butchered translation?
I also heard that it was the voice talents who were ad-libbing the script so the director cant take credit for most of the jokes anyway.
Wait did FF8 have a shit localization? I wondered why I didn't like any of the characters and forgot the majority of the story within a month after finishing it, maybe that's why...
@aortaplatinum The biggest thing is Squall's infamous "Whatever." In English that makes him sound like a dismissive dick, while in Japanese he ends his sentences more tactfully and comes across more shy and introverted. I've also read his relationship with Rinoa is set up a bit better in JP.
Ya I can see where you're coming from. I felt a little less strongly about Ghost Stories because anyone interested in accuracy still has access to the subbed version, but you are right that in principle a studio shouldn't take too many creative liberties.
Really nice video, thanks for the time and effort to highlight this great console’s library. If I may have two nitpicks:
① It is a pity what could be argued to be the best RPG of the console, Tengai Makyō Dai4 no Mokushiroku, is missing from the list, but I guess that gives a good excuse to explore the Tengai Makyō series in a separate video. Especially if you are looking for better written comedy in the genre.
② The game needs less introduction because / thanks to its PS1 and HD ports, but it feels really weird to see a Saturn RPG retrospective skipping Grandia, which was pretty much treated as the FF7 of the console in Japanese magazines at the time.
⭐︎Small correction: Camelot was founded by the other Takahashi brother to develop PS1 games at the same time as Shining Wisdom. Camelot’s first game was Beyond the Beyond. Golden Sun is a mix of STHA and Beyond the Beyond’s ideas.
Thank you for the feedback, I appreciate it. Indeed, I skipped Grandia (and a few others) mainly because I didn't want to write off the possibility that I might do a full length video on it someday. But you're right, it couldn't hurt to at least mention it.
@@MajuularNo worry, good excuse for a Vol.2 if this one works out! I’ll definitely share it along. Cyberdoll needs more love.
>Saturn RPGs
>No Madou Monogatari
Another year of hoping for acknowledgement *sob*
Oh wait is that Virtual Hydlide? On second thought BEST VIDEO
We'll save it for part 2!
(Someday)
As an Australian that works so hard, I would sleep hearing Majuular talk about obscure games. He's that kind of person that you can sit around a camp-fire and hear about his passion for obscure games and be comfortable around.
I wonder if he's done Ultima VI yet?
-What's that? You wanted 3 and a 1/2 hours of obscure RPG knowledge?
Ok!?
(for clarity, it's extremely cool)
lol, I'm glad you still dig it.
I played and wrote about Ultima IV and V very close to each other, so I figured I'd take a break to decompress and give the subscribers of this channel some non-Ultima stuff to chew on.
Absence makes the heart grow fonder, so I'm looking forward to putting together the next Ultima vid!
@@Majuular You're a treasure. You're so good at all of this.
4:43 I know that, thanks to my SEGA Mega Drive II Mini!
@@Majuular you ground out the oldest of the old, I hope you don't get absolutely sick of it and quit before the pure gem that is ultima 7
@@MajuularUltima 6 is such an amazing and groundbreaking game that I can wait awhile for your video on it. Along with Ultima 7 and Ultima Underworld and Ultima Online it was really the best of the best back in the 90's. It would be interesting to see you do a last video about everything that's happened since the 2000s for Richard Garrett.
Every new Majuular upload I get in the car, go to my local movie theater, go to the concessions stand, buy a large bucket of popcorn, butter that puppy up, leave, drive home, then watch it in my recliner on my TV while chowing on buttery goodness. Best channel on RUclips.
Majuular my man. It's like you've read my mind, I was thinking today about all the different & strange RPGs on the Sega Saturn while I was window shopping for my own collection (It's small UK Saturn games are extremely expensive) and I saw your 3DO video again and thought about how cool it would be if you made one for the Saturn. Thanks for the 3 hours of entertainment dude.
You're welcome! Based on prices I was seeing for Deep Fear (which only had an english release in PAL versions) I can't even imagine. Collecting can be a brutal hobby these days.
“Muscle loosening disease” is cracking me up but cyber doll looks awesome. The Saturn community has been putting out a lot of fan translations recently and I hope this game gets one
"How did she die, just put a computer in her leg!"
Maj, you forget this is taking place in the US and not Canada, her insurance probably didn't cover it. Why do you think she took on being a politician? Government workers get them good ass benefits.
it granted them immortality so they can wage forever and pay it back
I got a Saturn for xmas in 1996 and the fitst preorder in my life I ever made made was Panzer Dragoon Saga. I knew it was the end of the line for my prized Saturn, and even though it got great reviews and lauded in magazines back then, to my friends with Playstation and N64 it was totally irrelevant. But to me it felt like Sega had given its fans a tremendous gift. I get weepy thinking about that game.
5:55 Majuular, you misunderstand. That was EXACTLY the type of humor I came to you for.
The whiplash from Shining the Holy Ark to Cyberdoll's "Nostradamus predicted a worse disaster than a cure for the Devil's Virus, AIDS" (????) is quite something. More or less insane than Parasite Eve's premise, who can say?
Oh my God THANK YOU for talking about Airs Adventures I feel like I'm going crazy 'cause here in Japan it costs 100yen, it's everywhere but no one seems to know what it is, it is never talked about since it was never released abroad and I feel like I was the only person on the planet to having played it
I can't believe within moments of the video being published there's already someone in the comments who has played that game. I figured it would take a few days at least!
@@Majuular Honestly when I saw it was "Saturn RPGs" the first thing I did was to check if Airs Adventure was there LOL
I can't get over the game studio named "Gamestudio"
i bought a copy of it in a store in france since japanese saturn games are wayyyyy cheaper. It was 10 euros and i thought the cover looked cool
The line about seeing a square reflected in the TV screen was worthy of EmptyHero
NEW MAJUULAR RPG VID?
*Grabs the FLASK OF TEFNUUT*
When Hideki Kamiya said the main inspiration behind Scalebound (RIP) was Hydlide, I was shocked because my only knowledge of the game was from AVGN.
So I am eternally thankful to Kamiya for exposing me to how innovative the game was.
21:55 “where the beer flows like wine” majular 2024
Pretty sure he’s quoting Dumb and Dumber
Nice to see my tweet featured!
Sadly you failed the assignment. No one has to say the Saturn sold well, it didn't, but there's no need to mention it's sales where it's not relevent to the topic. Is that context really necessary when talking about the systems RPG library? Does that directly affect any games on this list?
The aim here isn't to rewrite history, but to focus on the games and challenge creators to be more creative when discussing the Saturns library.
Hopefully you took the gag in the spirit with which it was intended. I take your point! However, I'm speaking to an audience of people who largely do not have ANY Saturn experience (at least it's statistically likely that this is the case.. in part because the console wasn't popular). I think it's not only possible but worthwhile to briefly provide some context without belaboring the point. For YOU, Dan the Mega Driver, it may come across as belaboring the point, because you've likely watched many, many more Sega-related videos than the average person who watches RUclips videos.
"Does that directly affect any games on this list?" Your words are chosen carefully - "directly". The chain of causality in many historically significant moments is not "direct", but "indirectness" doesn't invalidate information that helps contextualize those moments. Sure, I think you can take this to an extreme. For example, if I were to explain the entire history of word processing software for the sake of explaining why I don't like a new Microsoft Word update. I think most people would agree that's superfluous.
To tie it back to my video - well, first of all, the videos on my channel all have a significant historical angle. the first 5-15 minutes of any of my videos will be spent talking about the development history of the subject, and sometimes tangentially related information that I deem insightful or relevant enough to, say, help explain why a game turned out the way it did. More "directly", I use the Saturn's history as a springboard to explain why the console wasn't on my radar, why it may not have been on the viewer's radar, and why despite having so many critically acclaimed RPGs, many of them are more obscure than their PS1 brethren. I would bet you dollars to donuts that a not-insignificant percentage of people who watched this video 'til the end only had a vague idea of what the Sega Saturn even was prior to watching.
Is the context really necessary when talking about the systems RPG library? No. Nothing in this video is necessary. This entire video isn't necessary! I didn't need to discuss Working Designs or the broad topic of translation when talking about Albert Odyssey. I didn't need to mention that Dragonforce's director went missing during production in order to talk about Dragonforce. Going over the evolution of Camelot's art style isn't necessary to discuss Shining The Holy Ark in a vacuum. There are certainly people out there who will find much of that information extraneous, and those people would benefit from finding a more traditional, journalistic review of the games in this video. I'm trying to help illustrate a narrative, provide context for the audience, and most of all, make an interesting video. By spending a minute or two laying the foundation of the Saturn's history, I think this video managed to appeal to people outside of the relatively small Saturn RPG niche.
Speaking of superfluous: my entire response to your comment 😬 I just wanted to offer my perspective on why it seems like "sales" are the monkey that Saturn videos can't get off their back. And since you are (INDIRECTLY) a part of my video, I figured a thorough reply would be in order.
"This is the kind of game you play as a child and spend the rest of your life loving and trying to convince other people to play it. And probably failing."
...
... okay, I... don't really know how to feel about you just calling me out harder than I've been in years. I guess I'm pretty impressed if nothing else. Because yes, it's not theoretical, what you wrote in that script is basically exactly what happened to me. I liked this game so much as a child I forced myself to learn the basics of english to understand it better (which ended up being pretty useful as it turns out)
... I still even recommend it to people saying they miss Golden Sun every now and then, almost 30 years later. And indeed, pretty sure it's never worked :D
Just wanted to inform you how hard you nailed that one, because, wow, just... wow.
This video was made for me, thanks papi Majuular
I literally was 1 year old when the saturn released but the library of weird games is so fascinating to me
I HEARD YOU WERE DOING A VIDEO WITH BAROQUE IN IT FROM YOUR POST ON INSTAGRAM I LOVE YOU MAJUULAR THANK YOU FOR PLAYING BAROQUE
Wow, Panzer Dragoon Saga looks so freaking cool. The atmosphere is thick
How dare you take what essentially is my entire childhood and throw it into one video. I love everything you put here on YT, but this one is extra special. You covered pretty much my favorite RPGs growing up; PDS, Shining Force, Shining THA (which incidentally randomly enters my mind to this day), and the all mighty Dragon Force, which never got it's sequel release in the West. One last recommendation for you here though, Iron Storm.
Thank you for the rec! I have been enjoying some really obscure Saturn games lately, so I will put that one on the list.
@@MajuularIron Storm is good but pure strategy no RPG elements at all. Since you did mention Record of Lodoss war though,which is still a great anime,it would be a cool idea to do a future video about every Record of Lodoss war video game.
Pretty cool video!
You really need to make a part 2. There's too many cool original RPGs in the Saturn left: Dark Savior and their parallel universes system, Princess Crown, Wachenroder, Slayers Royal, AnEarth Fantasy Stories...
You should do the TurboGrafx next! Heaps of niche RPGs. Great vid as always. ❤
I never watch long videos like this, but this one had me enraptured and really brought light to my recent rough days. Watching it filled me with fascination, excitement, and intrigue. Your passionate analysis of just what makes each of these so interesting is WONDERFUL. This was such a lovely video to watch. Fills me with appreciation for so much creativity in the early days.
Things have been... Rough, recently. There is much stress in my life. But I know this will help soothe those feelings, even if only for a while, so from the bottom of my heart I must say Thank You, truly!
Cheers, happy to help in a small way and may things get better for you soon.
Thanks for such a long, in depth segment on Baroque!
The most tragic thing about Panzer Dragoon Saga is that because no one played the game it wound up influencing nothing. There’s an alternate universe where it was popular and there are a ton of games that iterate and improve on its battle system. But it’s not this one.
Not sure I feel the same way. I think it's fine to have this unique game stand completely on its own. The real tragedy is how it's still very difficult to play the game nowadays as it's even harder to get a legit copy today (unless you're willing to sell your kidneys) and Saturn emulation has certainly improved but remains iffy (I personally still think Mednafen's emulator is the only acceptable option, and that one only sports a software-based renderer). The best option is probably just getting a Saturn with an Everdrive, but that also requires you to get either a CRT, or some super expensive upscaler to get a nice image. I certainly don't have room for a CRT where I live, and don't have the money for a nice upscaler either (and most of my retro systems have been shelved anyway since I emulate most of my systems nowadays for practical reasons and because I don't really want to risk damaging my games further)
Original Panzer Dragoon is on PC. The Xbox game was published with Microsoft's aid back when they were new and bought titles to be made. Sadly that means no REmake until they say so.
@@almostontimehero5415That only affects the original game and now I don't even think that is a factor anymore especially after the remake of Panzer Dragoon a few years ago. The simple fact is that Panzer Dragoon didn't sell at all and with the Source code for Saga gone Sega will never bother to completely remake the game . Plus Sega is a pale shadow of the company they used to be so I wouldn't expect them to know which way is up anymore.
"Weird World of Saturn RPGs..."
Ah, this'll be a good 30 minutes of interesting titles to look up.
"...Majuular"
*checks runtime* Ohhh man, there goes my afternoon.
YESSS!!! You're a legend bro. I love your vids and this sounds like a super juicy one. The 3DO rpg videos you did was my favorite.
Thanks! 3DO was my favorite vid to make. This is a spiritual sequel of sorts.
Some say he still wanders the pyramids hallucinating talking clip-art.
With regard to your opening statements. I know your time use would be excessive. But I would absolutely be up for a sequel covering some more Saturn RPG’s. The sheer amount left in Japan has always been a mystery to me.
I’ve been checking your channel every day for the past few weeks. I’ve been itching for some more Majuular in my life! Made my day, and quality content as always!
"Something was in the water at Sega HQ and it was turning the freakin' games great" is the kinda subtle reference I subscribe for.
>new Majuular video drops
hell yeah !
>it's a 3h30 video
HELL YEAAAAAAH !!!
And most importantly it's not all history of some game company
I really enjoy it when someone is talking about Saturn's RPG! Thank you for this!
I was WAITING for a Flask of Tefnut reference. This video delivered.
I laughed so hard at Muscle Loosening Disease that the entire cyber doll review just went in one ear and out the other
The amount of excitement I got from "New Majuular upload" then the extra excitment of "3.5 hours long"
Today is a good day
a majuular video a day keeps the muscle looseness away
How the heck to do you find time to play so many time-consuming videogames and to edit such well made videos?
30:37 the Devil's Virus 😂 I LOVE the implication that A) the people of the future have gone full circle and base their culture on the 1980s Satanic Panic or B) the Japanese developers didn't understand the meaning of that phrase.
From what I gather, the Saturn's 3D capabilities were more an afterthought than anything else. The models are made of quads instead of triangles because it's based on the system's sprite rendering capabilities, with every face essentially being a scaled, perspective corrected sprite.
I don't know if "afterthought" is the correct way to put it. I think the 3D capabilities were fleshed out much later in the design of the console than its counterparts (perhaps as compensation for they saw the competition was doing), it indeed took the quad as a primitive (going against most of the industry), but I think, most importantly, Sega didn't have enough documentation, tools and libraries to support development. This put a huge amount of burden on new developers up-front in what was already a new frontier for some teams. Combine that with the difficult to use co-processors, and it was just a very tough job to pull off for some developers.
On the other hand, the systems 2D capabilities are really fantastic.
@@robinmattheussen2395 What I specifically mean is it's a feature that came later in development and is largely informed by the earlier work in 2D rendering. It wasn't necessarily a feature that came about by someone asking "what's the best way we can do this?" but more "what can we cobble together based on what we have?" It's surprisingly decent despite that but the PS1's more forward thinking approach has clear benefits that the Saturn's 3D efforts lack.
A 3+ hour Majuular video on saturn RPGs. I often forget this site doesn't always suck. Can't wait to watch this one.
>Check youtube
>New Majuular video
>Get hyped
>Saturn RPGs
>Get more hype
>Look at chapters
>See Baroque is covered
Today got really good really quickly
Real shit, found out about Baroque recently through a friend, and I've put an unreasonable amount of time into it lmao
I remember blowing through Panzer Dragoon Saga in about a week and honestly its one of my favorite RPGs I've ever played. I can't believe they made it work on the saturn.
always love a good coffee and a majuular video on a saturday morn.
Saturnday maybe ??
AAAA I’m so excited that you included Baroque. I’ve been obsessed with the game for years and could never find anyone that talked about it.
A Saturn RPG worth checking out, though JP only is Tengai Makyō: Daiyon no Mokushiroku which is one of many great titles from the fantastic Tengai Makyō series. It's visually and conceptionally unique, the setting taking place in a fictionalized apocalyptic 1800's USA from the perspective of the Japanese is beyond comical. Seriously look up the world map for the game, and you'll see what I mean. I really hope someday it can be fan translated as playing through it is truly a treat in Japanese.
Also if this title seems interesting I'd recommend checking out the fan translated, and extremely ambitious SNES title in the series Tengai Makyō Zero. The game has no repeating enemy sprites with a ton of detailed enemy sprites, a real time clock function with in game elements/events tied to time of day or date, and topped with fun gameplay.
Linda Cube is also a rather unique RPG, though the Saturn version titled Linda Cube Kanzenban is an enhanced port of a PS1 enhanced port (kinda) of a PC Engine title. Unfortunately though the Saturn version is JP only with the PS1 port being the only English fan translated version. The PS1 version though has censorship neither other version has due to Sony's policies.
Hopefully the wall of text isn't off-putting, but thanks for yet another interesting dive and perspective. Your videos are always top notch, I look forward to your next one.
The Saturn is such a damn gem of a console - hope to see more of it's library on your channel :) - lookimg forward to the fan TLs in the work, and hope games like Terra Phantastica & Wachenroeder are considered for a future deep dives.
Also, all the Saturn peripherals are totally worthy - Twin Stick for Virual On, Bulk Slash, and a couple other games; 2 mission sticks can be used to play Panzer Dragoon Zwei; the mouse can be used to breathe new life into numerous games including Sakura Taisen and Virtua Cop 1 & 2; just so many unique gaming experiences you really can't get anywhere else.
Another inevitable banger from Majular. Can't wait to watch it after my nap.
I ended up adding so many games to my backlog because of this video, thank you so much for making it 🎉🎉