Fun Facts (Because this is my childhood game and I know too much about it): Studio Ghibli and Gainax worked on the 2D animated cutscene at the end and was actually Ghibli's first video game collab long before Ni No Kuni (which Ghibli animated and developed later in 2010), supposedly they helped with the character designs for the humans and world. Technically Graffiti Kingdom is it's sequel, but that game is more Action RPG. In the dub Charles Martinet (Voice of Mario) plays Marshall the villain and Kevin Miller (Voice of Sly Cooper) is Mono. The creator of Touhou worked on this games music and the iconic shrine maiden from Touhou project is a secret boss you can fight alongside various other Taito based doodles.
wow. I wish they do a remake of this game, or just a brand new game with the same or better monster creation style. nothing insanely complicated like DREAMS, just the amazingly simple yey deep to make incedible things. I just wish it would come with a mouse
I remember years ago, I came across with some gameplay videos for the sequel on Niconico dudes was able to made mech from Zone of Ender, Hatsune Miku and Touhou characters with almost all the details intact Which is pretty impressive considering it was like a 20 years old game on PS2
@@Mortisk You would be correct, yes. Katsuya Kondo, the character designer for Studio Ghibli, worked heavily alongside Genki during the development of Jade Cocoon. It's one of my all time favourite games.
trivia for this game, ZUN, the creator of Touhou, worked on this game and Reimu, the main character from touhou, is among the enemies you face in the post game
There WAS a Japanese mobile game that’s a spiritual successor to Magic Pengel with plenty of improvements to the drawing system, but it lasted less than a year.
People say games "need a pc port," but this game REALLY would be a whole different game with it. Magic Pengel would literally be a cult classic with mouse support and fan tweaks to the combat mechanics
woah, you have GOT to play graffiti kingdom next! I played it as a kid and only vaguely remember the story, but I remember the little square dog and character creation system are very similar to this game, I'm betting graffiti kingdom was made by the same studio after they made this!! It's really cool to learn there's a prequel, the story and characters have so much charm
Both games were developed by Taito and Garakuda Studios, so you are correct there. You can see cameos of Zoe and Taro in Graffiti Kingdom's ending, hanging out in the crowd of bystanders. The MC of that game also has a companion, Pastel. She's a doodle dog, just like the one in the intro of Magic Pengel. GK also has numerous cameos from other Taito games hidden as secret creatures you can become, such as a Space Invader, Bub from Bubble Bobble, and even Reimu from Touhou (ZUN used to work for Taito) , dubbed here as "Flying Girl"! (GK is great, play it when you can)
I remember seeing gameplay of GK many years ago (2007 or so) on RUclips when I was checking out lesser known ps2 games. Whoever made the video tried their absolute best to replicate a massive pair of boobs on one of their creations... It looked just bizzare, though. Never forget that being my first experience of that game.
15:53 This might be weird, but I love when a story has _one scene_ that bumps up the age rating. It’s such a great way to pace the escalation. You have all this cartoony, friendly competition… _Then BAM!_ Bloodshed. Kid hero on the ground. It’s kinda like how PG-13 movies can get away with using the F word _once,_ so they have to think about where to drop it for maximum impact. Apply that to every flavor of ‘objectionable content’ and you can create a scene that’s ‘shocking’ in context, even if it’s objectively tame.
I like that sort of thing too! It can also really make you take a character seriously as a threat when they do something so tonally dissonant like that.
I still have my copy of this and Graffiti Kingdom from when I was a kid. This is my all-time favorite game for the PS2 and like NOBODY knows about it!! Thank god someone talked about it! Also the fact there's Touhou Easter eggs is so wild to me in BOTH games.
If I had a nickel every time a Ghibli animator worked on a fantasy dog fighting game... Gonna have to add this to my collection somewhere after Dewprism, Tail Concerto and Jade Cocoon. This sounds like another game that was designed straight for me.
I’m really flabbergasted right now because randomly a couple of days ago I remembered playing this game and how much I liked it. Particularly how the main menu says the title of the name. Seeing that you just made this video a day ago is super bizarre and kind of surreal. I guess the collective consciousness is real after all.
I wanted this game so bad as a kid but didn't have a PS2. I think it was featured in an issue of Tips n Tricks magazine, completely forgot about it til now. Honestly still looks cool af.
I was always a huge fan of Monster Rancher for PS2 when I was growing up. At the time I thought the ability to create monsters from other game discs / movies was mind-blowing, but the 3-dimensional doodle system present here is just as impressive! Really cool getting to learn about this game, thank you for sharing it.
Is it sad that when this video randomly showed up in my recommendation feed, I shouted out "NO WAY SOMEONE'S TALKING ABOUT MAGIC PENGEL?!??" 😭 Not to mention a Megaman Legends mention! This made me so happy, I gotta subscribe immediately! Please do one on Graffiti Kingdom next, I beg of you!
The character models for a ps2 game do look low poly now that I think abt it but I think it works well with the artstyle. Higher poly bright textured assets and buildings.
This game makes me sooo happy bro. I used to play alot of tenkaichi as a kid and when id get frustrated id pop out the disk and put in magic pengel for a relaxing time a truly beautiful game. Never could beat the 3rd battle tho my doodles were so weak
Oh yea, I remembered owning this game. I used to put a ton of hours into this game. Created lots of my own monsters on it. Glad that the game looks as good as I remembered. Heck is even better than I thought it would be. I rented Graffiti Kingdom as well. I wished I would've bought that game so I have it along with Magic Pengel.
How have I never heard of this game? I love monster collectors and Ghibli so this seems right up my alley! I'd love to play it someday, thanks for the video!
3:47 ♪I wanna fly sky high / Let's go together / I wanna... / Yeah, hey, oh / Yeah, flying high / Feeling good / Blue, blue skies / Blue, blue skies, I see♪
That was such a lovely video! I had to skip the spoilers section, you really sold me on this game. You are extremely underrated, I hope this video is recommended to even more people. Subscribed, and will stick around!
This game was one of my favorites as a kid, and to this day I love talking about it! I didn't remember much of the story, but I'll never forget when the villain just pulls out a gun! Maybe the most unexpected moment in a game lol.
I absolutely ADORED this game as a kid. For Christmas one year a relative gave me their PS2, along with the handful of games they had, and included in the little pile was Magic Pengel. I had no clue what it was, and my relative had never actually played it. So I booted it up, and... I fell in love with it. Yeah the combat was janky, but I spent HOURS doing nothing but create doodles, perfecting their design, exploring town, everything. I loved every bit of it. It took me forever, but I did eventually complete the game and I was crying, it was such a bittersweet ending. My family at one point wasn't doing great on money, so I offered to sell my PS2 and games to try and help, which part of me slightly regrets now just from the fact of how much I miss those games. For the longest time Pengel felt like a fever dream tho, since I could never find anyone who had even HEARD of it, much less played it. It was only a few months ago I was able to find others who had played it, helped me feel less insane lol. Now my goal is to get a PS2 again and collect all the games I used to have, ESPECIALLY Magic Pengel. One day I'll get to play it again
Honestly dude this was really cool. I loved the way you presented it. It almost makes me want to make like a successor for this game that idea is really cool. Great vid!
I remember people used to draw their doodles in Graffiti Kingdom crouching, so when they would summon them, they would stand up and be like 10ft tall. It was hilarious.
what I find more weird is that the main antagonist shoots the main character but then for some reason she just survives the definitly looking final blow. Because fuck reality or believability or so :/
@@Evilriku13 Obviously, by draining color from the world, Mono also drained the color from the bullet, and robbed it of its lethality lol If it works on doodle creatures, why not also bullets XD
@@Evilriku13I have a cousin/uncle (cousin of my mom) that was shot 13 something times and is still alive. He was shot mostly in the chest near the heart and a few in the head. People can easily survive a “fatal” shooting
PS2 is my favorite system. The library is so huge that I am still discovering cool games I haven't heard of before to this day. Thank you for spreading the word on this one!
When I heard the "Masterpiece Theater" part of the japanese title, I immediately thought of the "World Masterpiece Theater" titles, which is the name of a series of anime adaptations of classic western novels. Miyazaki and Takahata (later the founders of Ghibli) have worked on several of those adapations and the majority of those series resemble the ghibli style alot.
What a unique twist on the monster tamer genre! The combat does look a bit lackluster, but for the time it was truly unique and interesting. Love the Ghibli aesthetic too. Your creations made me laugh (that gun Pikachu ahaha) Going to check the rest of your channel out now :)
I remember going to my friends house when I was a kid and playing this game with her. I had never heard of it and for so long I wondered what the heck that game was since I was too young at the time to remember. I’m glad to see someone talking about it because it absolutely enamored me. Now that I’m old enough to actually understand what’s going on I should actually give it a real playthrough
You’re telling meme a ps2 game had an ai smart enough to understand what you draw and it recognises legs and arms, if the character was upright or all fours, recognises the head from the body and looks pretty rad? What??
Not AI but a much simpler solution. There was a menu used to specify what type of part you were adding. Like to add arms, you would select “arms” before you started drawing that part and the game would use the category to determine how to animate the part. Iirc you gathered more categories to use as you progressed through the game, such as wings, horns, tails, etc. Which parts you added affected what moves your doodle had. It was still pretty rad though.
Fun Fact: 21 Manga Artists and illustrators contrbuted to the Doodles in the game, including: Monkey Punch (Lupin the Third) Tetsuya Chiba (Ashita no Joe) Fujiko Fujio A (Doraemon (with Fujiko F. Fujio), The Laughing Salesman) Leiji Matsumoto (Galaxy Express 999, Space Battleship Yamato, Space Pirate Captain Harlock) Takao Saito (Golgo 13) Kaoru Shintani (Area 88 (You may know this through the Capcom game U.N. Squadron)) Takashi Yanase (Anpanman)
15:20 I haven't watched any playthroughs of this game or went thru it myself since I was a small child. Hearing that voice line, but recognizing is so vividly, it gave me massive chills. The inflections in the voice and everything
I was reading a gaming magazine back in the early 2000s and saw an article on this game and finally found a copy at GameStop. I had such a blast playing this
The indy, A and AA scenes are always full of fun weird experimental games that get overlooked, this much hasn't changed over the years. Although some of them do get at least some due attention from big RUclipsrs these days, even if it doesn't really help boost them as much as you'd think. I mean these videos still get millions of views in spite of the algorithm obviously not favoring talking about such games.
Whoaaaa i did not expect to see a video about this in my feed. This game was so obscure, I'm shocked anyone remembers it at all. It was my childhood tho lol This game's OST is *gorgeous*
If you like this i bet you’ll love Jade cocoon aswell. The first game is on ps1 but the second is on ps2. I grabbed the ps2 version on my emulator cuz it’s a game i used to play a ton as a kid.
NOSTALGIA OVERLOAD, I probably would have loved this as a kid, it just reminds me so much of the kind of stuff I saw in my youth, it hurts. This feels like a game I should have played or at least be exposed to back in those days. What a wild concept!
The best doodle I ever made with this game was a bouncy body with just as many floppy arm segments as possible linked together into tentacles. It ended up looking like this amorphous, non-Euclidean nightmare swirling mass, and due to all the parts I used it was quite strong.
Seeing the creature maker instantly made me think of Graffiti Kingdom. Though in that the size and shape of the parts determined their strength more instead of their colors. Taking direct control of your creations and getting to run around as them always felt nice, it was a pretty fun experience. Makes me wish games nowadays could keep the same light hearted tones that these games had.
Great video, truly and underrated gem. There's a sequel called ''Magic Kindgom'' or something, and it's even weirder! It's a platformer and it´s quite fun!
Thanks for going over this game! I dabbled in it, but didn't get far enough to really get familiar with it. I also played Amazing Island and Graffiti Kingdom, and can definitely recommend Graffiti Kingdom. Magic Pengel probably has the best story of the three, but I'd argue that Graffiti Kingdom has the best monster creation engine. (Seriously, there are some bonkers creations online!) Compared to Magic Pengel the creation engine is more precision and less floaty crayon. Also, the battles (and exploration, where you play as your monsters) are all done in real-time, like an adventure game.
It is still crazy to me that we had the technology to make doodle games in that era and I am surprised nobody talked about this 3D example. This is insane. This is like the perfect artsy game, although it is obviously a bit more work than some people would like.
Thanks for talking about this game! It's a childhood favorite even though I couldn't beat it because it was really difficult. If you didn't know, I recommend checking out the sequel, Graffiti Kingdom! It changes the gameplay from being rock paper scissors to being an action platformer. Also, LostMagic on the DS follows up on Zoe and Taro's adventure to find their dad a little bit, but that game is completely different from both Magic Pengel and Graffiti Kingdom.
Wait, Lostmagic is seriously connected to this game? I bought it used for pennies way back and haven't played it in years so I don't even recall much... a replay with this context could be real fun.
Probably my favorite part of this game is the music. So gorgeous... the music on the title screen in particular, "The Farthest Town", is one of my favorite pieces of all time.
This video game gives me a strong sensation of nostalgia. It reminds me of my old collection of Ghibli DVD's and when I used my PS2 to play them. Also reminds me of Harvest Moon because of the graphics. Ahh God I miss those times.
4:55 that stairway view reminds me so much of the ghost town Chihiro visits at the beginning of Spirited Away. Yes, it’s wood and not stone, but something about the detail of the food stalls next to stairs matches up for me.
The fighting system kind of reminds me of the Dokapon series of games. As an attacker you got attack, strike, magic and battle skill, charge being one of them while as a defender you get defense for defending attacks, counter which counters strikes and will always instant kill unless your stats are really high compared to your opponent, and a defensive magic move or you can give up.
I wish I was in the timeline where this game became a major hit and birthed a franchise the scale of pokemon. If they refined the actual battle mechanics with later iterations it feels like this would've been my favourite game ever
My first 'console' was the OG Gameboy. Then the N64, then PS1 to PS2. The PS2 was, in my opinion as an old hat, the best console to have ever existed. It has SO MANY wonderful games.
i love this game's artstyle so much, i miss games looking like this SO MUCH and what a cool idea to let you create your own monsters!! ALSO LOVE THIS CHANNEL'S COLOR SCHEME AAAAA
This video unlocked massive childhood memories for me. I saw the thumbnail and thought it looked very familiar, so as I was watching, I kept trying to remember where I saw it when it suddenly came to me. I had played the sequel to this game called Graffiti Kingdom outside of Japan when I was a kid. It was similar to this game, where you could customize literally every aspect of a creature, but for some reason they made it an action platformer. Sadly I don't remember much of the story though. I remember playing as like a prince though. Thank you for talking about this game and making me remember some childhood stuff. It was an excellent video.
I love this. Oh my word how have I not heard of yhis before? And it looks like you've got a great backlog of videos covering a great niche in gaming. Subbed!
THIS GAME IS SO UNDERKNOWN. ITS SO AMAZING. I HAVE THIS AND GRAFFITI KINGDOM. its one of the single greatest and most creative and unique games. so happy to see this getting some love! I love the rock paper scissors battle mechanic
Never heard of this. It's amazing that I'm still finding out about these games decades later. Makes me wonder how they ever had a chance to sell if someone who actively looks into these things has never heard of them decades later.
I really enjoyed your attention to the aesthetic of the art , world and details made to complement the story. Subscribed bc I love how you focus on more than just the gameplay and the plot's main arc.
I remember getting this game way back when but never finishing it. I never thought it was similar to Pokémon since it was so different from it in a lot of ways. Thanks for covering it. Really takes me back to the good old days Also, I don't know if this would help, but I remember another JRPG on the console I could never finish. It involves a subway and a red woman traveling down a time tunnel (sorry, that's all the details I can remember). Thought I could say it was very shin megami-esque in a way.
My friends and I would buy the cheapest games at gamestop and stay up all night playing them and beat them in one go. This was one of them. Afterwards "I am the doodle king!" was a running joke.
I don't remember what magazine it was in, but as a child I read about this game as it was coming out. I really was interested in this and wanted to buy it, but never was able to. Years later I tried to find it, but couldn't remember the name and nobody else seemed to know about it. I'd thought it was just something I'd imagined, and gave up. Over a decade later, this pops up and I immediately had to watch! Thank you for making a video on this, and letting me see what it is I'd missed all those years ago!
Fun Facts (Because this is my childhood game and I know too much about it):
Studio Ghibli and Gainax worked on the 2D animated cutscene at the end and was actually Ghibli's first video game collab long before Ni No Kuni (which Ghibli animated and developed later in 2010), supposedly they helped with the character designs for the humans and world.
Technically Graffiti Kingdom is it's sequel, but that game is more Action RPG.
In the dub Charles Martinet (Voice of Mario) plays Marshall the villain and Kevin Miller (Voice of Sly Cooper) is Mono.
The creator of Touhou worked on this games music and the iconic shrine maiden from Touhou project is a secret boss you can fight alongside various other Taito based doodles.
REIMU TOUHOU REAL????
Didn't Ghibli work on Jade Cacoon for PS1?
wow. I wish they do a remake of this game, or just a brand new game with the same or better monster creation style. nothing insanely complicated like DREAMS, just the amazingly simple yey deep to make incedible things. I just wish it would come with a mouse
I remember years ago, I came across with some gameplay videos for the sequel on Niconico
dudes was able to made mech from Zone of Ender, Hatsune Miku and Touhou characters with almost all the details intact
Which is pretty impressive considering it was like a 20 years old game on PS2
@@Mortisk You would be correct, yes. Katsuya Kondo, the character designer for Studio Ghibli, worked heavily alongside Genki during the development of Jade Cocoon. It's one of my all time favourite games.
trivia for this game, ZUN, the creator of Touhou, worked on this game and Reimu, the main character from touhou, is among the enemies you face in the post game
She's also unlockable in Graffiti Kingdom, know as "Flying Maiden"
that’s crazy
wow
She also featured in the short-lived Rakugaki Kingdom, an unfortunately unsuccessful mobile spin-off (from 2020, apparently?)
wth I never realized that, and Magic Pengel is one of my favorite games ever
There WAS a Japanese mobile game that’s a spiritual successor to Magic Pengel with plenty of improvements to the drawing system, but it lasted less than a year.
What's it called?
Game name pls
@@ChannelOfJorispretty sure this person is referring to Graffiti Kingdom
I remember that! It made me so angry 😭
@@daikaji3833 That sounds about right, I vaguely remember there was a Graffiti Kingdom phone game.
People say games "need a pc port," but this game REALLY would be a whole different game with it.
Magic Pengel would literally be a cult classic with mouse support and fan tweaks to the combat mechanics
Imagine drawing pad support? Or Apple Pencil support
The is begging for a switch port. Okami legitimately became perfect with touchscreen drawing and this would too.
If Magic Pengel and Graffiti Kingdom got put on modern platforms, I'd buy that in a heartbeat.
I want to play them so badly. :(
@@KidBowsur- 😄
My Brother in Christ, emulate it.
woah, you have GOT to play graffiti kingdom next! I played it as a kid and only vaguely remember the story, but I remember the little square dog and character creation system are very similar to this game, I'm betting graffiti kingdom was made by the same studio after they made this!! It's really cool to learn there's a prequel, the story and characters have so much charm
the same people worked on a mobile game too but probaly suffered for being a free to play online only game.
I heard about it after playing this one, definitely going to keep an eye out!
Both games were developed by Taito and Garakuda Studios, so you are correct there. You can see cameos of Zoe and Taro in Graffiti Kingdom's ending, hanging out in the crowd of bystanders. The MC of that game also has a companion, Pastel. She's a doodle dog, just like the one in the intro of Magic Pengel.
GK also has numerous cameos from other Taito games hidden as secret creatures you can become, such as a Space Invader, Bub from Bubble Bobble, and even Reimu from Touhou (ZUN used to work for Taito) , dubbed here as "Flying Girl"! (GK is great, play it when you can)
Graffiti Kingdom Is a mustplay
I remember seeing gameplay of GK many years ago (2007 or so) on RUclips when I was checking out lesser known ps2 games. Whoever made the video tried their absolute best to replicate a massive pair of boobs on one of their creations... It looked just bizzare, though. Never forget that being my first experience of that game.
15:53 This might be weird, but I love when a story has _one scene_ that bumps up the age rating. It’s such a great way to pace the escalation.
You have all this cartoony, friendly competition… _Then BAM!_ Bloodshed. Kid hero on the ground.
It’s kinda like how PG-13 movies can get away with using the F word _once,_ so they have to think about where to drop it for maximum impact. Apply that to every flavor of ‘objectionable content’ and you can create a scene that’s ‘shocking’ in context, even if it’s objectively tame.
I like that sort of thing too! It can also really make you take a character seriously as a threat when they do something so tonally dissonant like that.
5:19 That one shop owner who's selling "seafood" and "FLESH." 🤣
ive never seen or heard of this game before and yet the artstyle and characters feel so nostalgic and charming.
I did notice the cubeish dog character does get a larger role in Garakuta studio's other game on the PS2, Graffiti Kingdom. Honestly really cool!
I still have my copy of this and Graffiti Kingdom from when I was a kid. This is my all-time favorite game for the PS2 and like NOBODY knows about it!! Thank god someone talked about it! Also the fact there's Touhou Easter eggs is so wild to me in BOTH games.
Never heard of this one. I love learning about niche little games like this. I especially really like the artstyle here.
If I had a nickel every time a Ghibli animator worked on a fantasy dog fighting game...
Gonna have to add this to my collection somewhere after Dewprism, Tail Concerto and Jade Cocoon. This sounds like another game that was designed straight for me.
Can't believe you forgot Ni No Kuni!
DEWPRISM MENTIONED!!!! Mint is the greatest character in fiction
Drawing your own creatures is actually amazing, I’d never stop playing
I’m really flabbergasted right now because randomly a couple of days ago I remembered playing this game and how much I liked it. Particularly how the main menu says the title of the name. Seeing that you just made this video a day ago is super bizarre and kind of surreal. I guess the collective consciousness is real after all.
I wanted this game so bad as a kid but didn't have a PS2. I think it was featured in an issue of Tips n Tricks magazine, completely forgot about it til now. Honestly still looks cool af.
I was always a huge fan of Monster Rancher for PS2 when I was growing up. At the time I thought the ability to create monsters from other game discs / movies was mind-blowing, but the 3-dimensional doodle system present here is just as impressive! Really cool getting to learn about this game, thank you for sharing it.
Same! Always thought that Magic Pengel is an improvement of Monster Rancher. One of my favorite childhood games alongside Poy Poy and Team Buddies
Is it sad that when this video randomly showed up in my recommendation feed, I shouted out "NO WAY SOMEONE'S TALKING ABOUT MAGIC PENGEL?!??" 😭
Not to mention a Megaman Legends mention! This made me so happy, I gotta subscribe immediately! Please do one on Graffiti Kingdom next, I beg of you!
RIGHT THERE WITH YA
ME TOO!!! I had never seen anyone ever mention this game before and it just showed up!!! WILD
The character models for a ps2 game do look low poly now that I think abt it but I think it works well with the artstyle. Higher poly bright textured assets and buildings.
@@birdbowah I've always loved these style of graphics.
Exactly, if it hard good art direction I would totally play a new game in this style.
Thumbnail, editing and general vibe of your video is awesome hope you get to make more of these
This game makes me sooo happy bro. I used to play alot of tenkaichi as a kid and when id get frustrated id pop out the disk and put in magic pengel for a relaxing time a truly beautiful game. Never could beat the 3rd battle tho my doodles were so weak
Oh yea, I remembered owning this game. I used to put a ton of hours into this game. Created lots of my own monsters on it. Glad that the game looks as good as I remembered. Heck is even better than I thought it would be. I rented Graffiti Kingdom as well. I wished I would've bought that game so I have it along with Magic Pengel.
Woooah this is so sick. Reminds me of spore but with a lot more charm. Games from the early 2000s had so much heart, even when they were janky.
One of my all time faves, wish it had a bigger fanbase
How have I never heard of this game? I love monster collectors and Ghibli so this seems right up my alley! I'd love to play it someday, thanks for the video!
Duuude I wanted to play this game so bad as a kid! Great video 🎉
holy crap this video made me really emotional, i wasn’t expecting this from this game
Still have this game and have fond memories of it. It might be the first game i have ever completed as a kid.
AH! A NEW GAMING RUclipsR. i'm putting you in my pocket for later.
3:47 ♪I wanna fly sky high / Let's go together / I wanna... / Yeah, hey, oh / Yeah, flying high / Feeling good / Blue, blue skies / Blue, blue skies, I see♪
I completely forgot this game existed! 😢 I played it way back but i gifted it to a friend that moved away. Im glad this came back into my life!
Wow. This game looks truly phenomenal. It's so odd in that I'm feeling nostalgia for a game I've never even played. 😯
Oh my good. This is the game I saw in game magazines back in the day! Make your drawing to life kinda wild to read
That was such a lovely video! I had to skip the spoilers section, you really sold me on this game. You are extremely underrated, I hope this video is recommended to even more people. Subscribed, and will stick around!
Man, Taito used to rule in my household, with this and Graffiti Kingdom constantly in rotation
I absolutely love this it’s such a gorgeous art style 🥹
This game was one of my favorites as a kid, and to this day I love talking about it! I didn't remember much of the story, but I'll never forget when the villain just pulls out a gun! Maybe the most unexpected moment in a game lol.
I love that moniker "blue sky games" that's SUCH a vibe man.
It truly was amazing what limitations did for stylizations of games back in those days. You never appreciate something until it is gone.
I absolutely ADORED this game as a kid. For Christmas one year a relative gave me their PS2, along with the handful of games they had, and included in the little pile was Magic Pengel. I had no clue what it was, and my relative had never actually played it. So I booted it up, and... I fell in love with it. Yeah the combat was janky, but I spent HOURS doing nothing but create doodles, perfecting their design, exploring town, everything. I loved every bit of it. It took me forever, but I did eventually complete the game and I was crying, it was such a bittersweet ending.
My family at one point wasn't doing great on money, so I offered to sell my PS2 and games to try and help, which part of me slightly regrets now just from the fact of how much I miss those games. For the longest time Pengel felt like a fever dream tho, since I could never find anyone who had even HEARD of it, much less played it. It was only a few months ago I was able to find others who had played it, helped me feel less insane lol. Now my goal is to get a PS2 again and collect all the games I used to have, ESPECIALLY Magic Pengel. One day I'll get to play it again
I’m a HUGE fan of Amazing Island and never knew about this game! Definitely going to be hunting for it now.
Honestly dude this was really cool. I loved the way you presented it. It almost makes me want to make like a successor for this game that idea is really cool. Great vid!
I remember people used to draw their doodles in Graffiti Kingdom crouching, so when they would summon them, they would stand up and be like 10ft tall. It was hilarious.
>Game about doodles
>PULLS OUT GUN
what I find more weird is that the main antagonist shoots the main character but then for some reason she just survives the definitly looking final blow. Because fuck reality or believability or so :/
@@Evilriku13 Obviously, by draining color from the world, Mono also drained the color from the bullet, and robbed it of its lethality lol
If it works on doodle creatures, why not also bullets XD
@@Evilriku13I have a cousin/uncle (cousin of my mom) that was shot 13 something times and is still alive. He was shot mostly in the chest near the heart and a few in the head. People can easily survive a “fatal” shooting
@@phillemon7664 Please don't try it.
lol
PS2 is my favorite system. The library is so huge that I am still discovering cool games I haven't heard of before to this day. Thank you for spreading the word on this one!
When I heard the "Masterpiece Theater" part of the japanese title, I immediately thought of the "World Masterpiece Theater" titles, which is the name of a series of anime adaptations of classic western novels. Miyazaki and Takahata (later the founders of Ghibli) have worked on several of those adapations and the majority of those series resemble the ghibli style alot.
What a unique twist on the monster tamer genre! The combat does look a bit lackluster, but for the time it was truly unique and interesting. Love the Ghibli aesthetic too. Your creations made me laugh (that gun Pikachu ahaha) Going to check the rest of your channel out now :)
I remember going to my friends house when I was a kid and playing this game with her. I had never heard of it and for so long I wondered what the heck that game was since I was too young at the time to remember. I’m glad to see someone talking about it because it absolutely enamored me. Now that I’m old enough to actually understand what’s going on I should actually give it a real playthrough
Woah, core memory unlocked. I Forgot I played this game when I was younger, I think I rented it.
You’re telling meme a ps2 game had an ai smart enough to understand what you draw and it recognises legs and arms, if the character was upright or all fours, recognises the head from the body and looks pretty rad? What??
Not AI but a much simpler solution. There was a menu used to specify what type of part you were adding. Like to add arms, you would select “arms” before you started drawing that part and the game would use the category to determine how to animate the part.
Iirc you gathered more categories to use as you progressed through the game, such as wings, horns, tails, etc. Which parts you added affected what moves your doodle had.
It was still pretty rad though.
you have a layer system where you say what you are drawing first.
AI doesn't even exist it's all algorithmic still
@@redbluegreen1062 it never will exist.
@Null-value This is simple yet ingenious. Wish more character customization game like this could be made ngl.
Ah, glad we finally found Magic Pengel and Graffiti Kingdom
Fun Fact: 21 Manga Artists and illustrators contrbuted to the Doodles in the game, including:
Monkey Punch (Lupin the Third)
Tetsuya Chiba (Ashita no Joe)
Fujiko Fujio A (Doraemon (with Fujiko F. Fujio), The Laughing Salesman)
Leiji Matsumoto (Galaxy Express 999, Space Battleship Yamato, Space Pirate Captain Harlock)
Takao Saito (Golgo 13)
Kaoru Shintani (Area 88 (You may know this through the Capcom game U.N. Squadron))
Takashi Yanase (Anpanman)
@@DuwangKaizer that's really cool!
The audio when you block magic and send those squares is so nostalgic to me.
bro this game fkn epic, I couldn't even imagine getting my own custom hand-drawn pokemon today in 2024
15:20
I haven't watched any playthroughs of this game or went thru it myself since I was a small child. Hearing that voice line, but recognizing is so vividly, it gave me massive chills. The inflections in the voice and everything
I was reading a gaming magazine back in the early 2000s and saw an article on this game and finally found a copy at GameStop. I had such a blast playing this
The indy, A and AA scenes are always full of fun weird experimental games that get overlooked, this much hasn't changed over the years. Although some of them do get at least some due attention from big RUclipsrs these days, even if it doesn't really help boost them as much as you'd think. I mean these videos still get millions of views in spite of the algorithm obviously not favoring talking about such games.
i’m so glad i still have my copy !
Whoaaaa i did not expect to see a video about this in my feed. This game was so obscure, I'm shocked anyone remembers it at all. It was my childhood tho lol
This game's OST is *gorgeous*
If you like this i bet you’ll love Jade cocoon aswell. The first game is on ps1 but the second is on ps2. I grabbed the ps2 version on my emulator cuz it’s a game i used to play a ton as a kid.
WOW! What an absolutely beautiful game i've never heard of! Amazing video, thank you for sharing it!
This game is insane, and on PS2 no less. Glad I still have it instead of it getting thrown away or lost.
NOSTALGIA OVERLOAD, I probably would have loved this as a kid, it just reminds me so much of the kind of stuff I saw in my youth, it hurts.
This feels like a game I should have played or at least be exposed to back in those days.
What a wild concept!
The best doodle I ever made with this game was a bouncy body with just as many floppy arm segments as possible linked together into tentacles. It ended up looking like this amorphous, non-Euclidean nightmare swirling mass, and due to all the parts I used it was quite strong.
@@Arisilde Non Euclidean LMAO
Seeing the creature maker instantly made me think of Graffiti Kingdom. Though in that the size and shape of the parts determined their strength more instead of their colors. Taking direct control of your creations and getting to run around as them always felt nice, it was a pretty fun experience. Makes me wish games nowadays could keep the same light hearted tones that these games had.
Great video, truly and underrated gem. There's a sequel called ''Magic Kindgom'' or something, and it's even weirder! It's a platformer and it´s quite fun!
Thanks for going over this game! I dabbled in it, but didn't get far enough to really get familiar with it. I also played Amazing Island and Graffiti Kingdom, and can definitely recommend Graffiti Kingdom.
Magic Pengel probably has the best story of the three, but I'd argue that Graffiti Kingdom has the best monster creation engine. (Seriously, there are some bonkers creations online!) Compared to Magic Pengel the creation engine is more precision and less floaty crayon. Also, the battles (and exploration, where you play as your monsters) are all done in real-time, like an adventure game.
It is still crazy to me that we had the technology to make doodle games in that era and I am surprised nobody talked about this 3D example. This is insane. This is like the perfect artsy game, although it is obviously a bit more work than some people would like.
I'm so glad you mentioned Megaman Legends and Frogun, those are literally the games I thought of when I saw your video's thumbnail.
"Dark Cloud 2" is the most amazing PS2 game there is. Theres sooooo much in it.
GRAFITTI KINGDOM!! rented it at blockbuster and loved it. Bought it years later for $60 😭
Thanks for talking about this game! It's a childhood favorite even though I couldn't beat it because it was really difficult.
If you didn't know, I recommend checking out the sequel, Graffiti Kingdom! It changes the gameplay from being rock paper scissors to being an action platformer. Also, LostMagic on the DS follows up on Zoe and Taro's adventure to find their dad a little bit, but that game is completely different from both Magic Pengel and Graffiti Kingdom.
Wait, Lostmagic is seriously connected to this game? I bought it used for pennies way back and haven't played it in years so I don't even recall much... a replay with this context could be real fun.
Probably my favorite part of this game is the music. So gorgeous... the music on the title screen in particular, "The Farthest Town", is one of my favorite pieces of all time.
This video game gives me a strong sensation of nostalgia. It reminds me of my old collection of Ghibli DVD's and when I used my PS2 to play them. Also reminds me of Harvest Moon because of the graphics. Ahh God I miss those times.
Yo great video, you snapped on SachEEL. I’ll have to watch more of your videos.
Oh man, i had so much fun with this game as a kid. PS2 had so many super creative games
4:55 that stairway view reminds me so much of the ghost town Chihiro visits at the beginning of Spirited Away. Yes, it’s wood and not stone, but something about the detail of the food stalls next to stairs matches up for me.
The fighting system kind of reminds me of the Dokapon series of games. As an attacker you got attack, strike, magic and battle skill, charge being one of them while as a defender you get defense for defending attacks, counter which counters strikes and will always instant kill unless your stats are really high compared to your opponent, and a defensive magic move or you can give up.
I wish I was in the timeline where this game became a major hit and birthed a franchise the scale of pokemon. If they refined the actual battle mechanics with later iterations it feels like this would've been my favourite game ever
3:50 like a dragon: infinite wealth
I forgot about this game, I bought it on a whim when I was around 9 or 10 and loved it. I probably still have it in a box somewhere. 31 now.
My first 'console' was the OG Gameboy. Then the N64, then PS1 to PS2. The PS2 was, in my opinion as an old hat, the best console to have ever existed. It has SO MANY wonderful games.
That was a fun watch, thank you! Hopefully I can find the game out in the wild. 👍🏾💚
i love this game's artstyle so much, i miss games looking like this SO MUCH and what a cool idea to let you create your own monsters!! ALSO LOVE THIS CHANNEL'S COLOR SCHEME AAAAA
This video unlocked massive childhood memories for me. I saw the thumbnail and thought it looked very familiar, so as I was watching, I kept trying to remember where I saw it when it suddenly came to me. I had played the sequel to this game called Graffiti Kingdom outside of Japan when I was a kid.
It was similar to this game, where you could customize literally every aspect of a creature, but for some reason they made it an action platformer. Sadly I don't remember much of the story though. I remember playing as like a prince though.
Thank you for talking about this game and making me remember some childhood stuff. It was an excellent video.
Picked this game up randomly at a hollywood video like 18 years ago and it is one of the single best purchases ive ever made
I love this. Oh my word how have I not heard of yhis before?
And it looks like you've got a great backlog of videos covering a great niche in gaming. Subbed!
When the world needed them most, taito vanished...
THIS GAME IS SO UNDERKNOWN. ITS SO AMAZING. I HAVE THIS AND GRAFFITI KINGDOM. its one of the single greatest and most creative and unique games. so happy to see this getting some love! I love the rock paper scissors battle mechanic
This looks amazing. Thanks for doing a great job of telling us about it.
Wow, I've never seen this game before but it looks so gorgeous!
Never heard of this. It's amazing that I'm still finding out about these games decades later. Makes me wonder how they ever had a chance to sell if someone who actively looks into these things has never heard of them decades later.
I really enjoyed your attention to the aesthetic of the art , world and details made to complement the story. Subscribed bc I love how you focus on more than just the gameplay and the plot's main arc.
Just got reccomended this video you have a really soothing voice and the video was very well put together keep up the good work man!
I remember hearing about this back in the day, but never saw it in any video game or rental stores. I'll have to give it a look 👀
I remember getting this game way back when but never finishing it. I never thought it was similar to Pokémon since it was so different from it in a lot of ways. Thanks for covering it. Really takes me back to the good old days
Also, I don't know if this would help, but I remember another JRPG on the console I could never finish. It involves a subway and a red woman traveling down a time tunnel (sorry, that's all the details I can remember). Thought I could say it was very shin megami-esque in a way.
This might be the first time I’ve heard someone else talk about this game! I wish I still had my old copy.
My friends and I would buy the cheapest games at gamestop and stay up all night playing them and beat them in one go. This was one of them. Afterwards "I am the doodle king!" was a running joke.
I don't remember what magazine it was in, but as a child I read about this game as it was coming out. I really was interested in this and wanted to buy it, but never was able to. Years later I tried to find it, but couldn't remember the name and nobody else seemed to know about it. I'd thought it was just something I'd imagined, and gave up. Over a decade later, this pops up and I immediately had to watch! Thank you for making a video on this, and letting me see what it is I'd missed all those years ago!
The fact that you can create your own Pokemon and battle with them in a game is CRAZY 😮
This would go crazy on the Switch as a HD Port