A Bowl of Lentils did an hour long history video about Falcom's early years. The employment flyer included was due to Falcom's desperation for new talent after a massive exodus of key staff members between 1988 and 1990. As result of that experience, I am told Falcom today has a policy of obscuring who did what on their titles to avoid headhunting.
Yep. Everyone should check out Bowl of Lentils' video if they haven't already. It's excellent. And the 1988-1990 exodus was far from the only time they needed new staff. This game is 1996, so you can see they still needed new people even 6 years later. In the late 90's and early 2000's Falcom was in fairly dire straits in general and I thought the company was going under for sure. But yeah, they have a fairly regularly rotating staff I gather. Even today, I still see calls for new employees pretty regularly.
Haha youtube recommended that for me the other day after binging your videos. Awesome to get two complementary, in depth, historical takes on the same company/games
FWIW, Falcom wasn't the only company who pulled the obfuscation thing. Sega did it too; the developers of the Phantasy Star games were all credited under pseudonyms, for example.
A tear of vermilion was my first game from Gagharv trilogy. And oh my God it was incredible, the music, the story were simple gorgeous. I started to see where the Trails series comes from. And how many Easter eggs we have in Trails that have their origin in Gagharv, like Muse/Mildine. It'll be nice to have a rerelease of these games on modern consoles with a better translation but alas it's too much to ask considering that even Sky trilogy wasn't ported yet to modern consoles.
The sprite and pixel work in these Japanese PC games has always impressed and fascinated me. Always looks like the hardware it's running on was lightyears ahead of everything else available from that era.
Glad you like it, but you have to remember, this was 1996. There was plenty of advanced looking hardware and software. You can see in the video that this game was duplicated almost exactly on plain old IBM MS-DOS machines in Korea. These were the same machines everyone was using in the U.S. So, there was nothing really "light years ahead" about the graphics here. It's just well-drawn pixel art, that's all. Glad you enjoyed the video though. Thanks for watching!
Ever since watching these videos, Ive been collecting different types of Falcom games. I even just received my Windows copies of Legend of Heroes 3, 4, and 5! I can't wait to experience these games.
I don't know how you lads do it, I really don't. Every episode really does feel like going over to your house and having you gush to me personally about a game you love. It isn't just a review, its so much more.
I love the Kiseki games, which are arguably completely different games that just share the name, so great to see you doing retrospectives of the pre-Kiseki LoH games!
This makes me really wish I could play the original PC-98 version. Im a big fan of early jRPGs before they really got into cutscenes and constant dialogue so that version of LoH4 appeals to me a lot, the idea of the big open world, the side quests to take on with less interruptions and the optional but natural content like going back to Miles village seems really appealing to me. Ill have to keep an eye out for an English translation since I cant read Japanese.
Thanks for covering this one. It's nice to know that your thoughts pretty much mirror my own. Playing through the PC98 version has largely been a chore for me, but I do appreciate what it tried to do, and though I haven't played Windows yet, I have a feeling that the expanded storyline is going to feel a bit more padded in ways that I'm not entirely sure I'll like, but I suppose we'll see. As always, I appreciate the fact that you're one of the few people covering these kinds of games for English-speakers. I look forward to when more people have the opportunity to experience them.
Another great video :3 I find it interesting to learn that The Legend of Heroes IV was so open and freeform in design on the PC-98, than later versions would end up being. I think I would prefer to play the Windows version myself, as I do rather enjoy a good well-developed story, though I can see myself attempting the PC-98 version too.
Oh my god, Tear of Vermillion was the very first JRPG that I have ever played back when i was just 9 years old. The version that I played was the PSP version which had a whack localization. I still love the game to this very day though and do replays of it from time to time. After finding out back then that ToV actually goes waaaaay back before the PSP version, I was always curious how the original PC-98 release was like. Thanks to this video, my curiosity that has gone on for more than a decade has finally been sated. You've earned yourself a sub! :)
Thank you once again for making these great overviews of the earlier games in the Legend of Heroes series. I only played a little bit of the PC-98 version of Vermilion but seeing this video makes me wish even more that we can someday play these games in English (whether it be the 98 or Windows version).
What surprises me most is that pets were a new addition to the PSP version. That's the version I played, and the pet system was so crude and barely-there that I took it as a sign of the game's primitive beginnings!
Absolutely not a chance. The pet system in the PSP versions is a relic of the mid-2000's e-pet revival. Back when the original games were made in the 90's, no one had even thought of adding such a thing to an RPG. Even the original Tamagotchi wasn't released until 1996 in Japan - the same year that LoHIV was released on PC-98!
Very interesting to learn that this version planted some seeds for next installments to come (sidequests and such, lengthy conversations etc.). The open world concept I find to be quite appealing as well.
The lengthy conversations are from the 2000 Windows version though. The PC-98 conversations aren't particularly long. They're maybe about as lengthy as long as III for PC-98, but not much of a step up. Thanks for watching.
Love the new video! I don't know if you take ideas for PC-88/98 vids, but one day I'd love to see you do a video on Silver Ghost since I've always wanted to learn more about that game when I heard it was the inspiration for Shining Force.
I love your videos. So helpful for people like me who were always curious about these Japanese computer games but never got to play them. I'll be sure to check out the soundtrack for this one.
I definitly like your style of reviewing games with detailed talk about plot or gameplay and showing box with stuff inside, game booting routine or it's ports for other systems. It was so interesting that i watched every PC-88/98 video like some good documentary tv show, icluding this new episode. And now i really want to try play some Falcom games.
Never really looked into how different the Windows version I played a little of was compared to PC-98, always thought it was just newer graphics and some improvements. Always forget which LoH PSP game I played in the trilogy. Thanks for the nice video.
Enjoyed this video more than I thought I would. Even though I only experienced Falcom through ports on Nintendo consoles, that go through the filter and on to shelves in Europe, I always thought of them as quality. Love the audio/visual style of this, and I kinda like it if it's true that they kept system requirements down to reach a wider audience and maybe respect fans.
This was great. ♥ I would love if you made an exception and covered The Legend of Heroes V even though it wasn't on PC98, to finish the trilogy. Since it's a related game, you could call it PC-98 Paradise Gaiden or something~
I love these pc-98 videos. All these RPGs I've never heard of or anything. Love learning about them and trying to play some of them. Player the SNES version of Xak ATM.
10:32 There's another slightly non-legit (but commonly used even back in the day) way to save the game, which is to access the ED4_S99_.DAT created by quitting the game and to rename the file to a regular save file format (like S001, S002, etc.). This creates a normal save as if you had used the tent!
Awesome to know! Weird that they made it so easy to get around. I thought also about making the ED4_S99_.DAT read only. That's similar to how people used to get around temp saves in older games like The Screamer (make the userdisk read only).
@@BasementBrothers Yeah, and interestingly this particular entry had no shortage of save file sharing and editing tools all the way into the 2000s and even today. My guess is that the higher difficulty and more repetitive gameplay played a role. Heck, even Falcom included almost debug-like features like an in-game turbo button (activated by using an item in front of the scarecrow in the starting area), or the "quick revert" button F10 which takes you back to the last time the game loaded in a map.
Wish I had talked to you before making the video. I looked for file editors but found only ones for the Windows game. What item do you use in front of the scarecrow, and how does the F10 thing work?
@@BasementBrothers I know there is at least one extensive editor out there but it might have been for the Korean MS-DOS version. If I find one for PC-98 I’ll let you know! When you use カベッサ in front of the scarecrow, you should hear a beep which indicates that the optional turbo toggle key has been activated. The key should be the hiragana-katakana switch button on the keyboard. As for the F10 thing, the game apparently does an autosave whenever you see a complete map transition (black loading screen). This autosave is separate from the other save files, Japanese sites call it RAM save since it disappears when the game closes. Pressing F10 should prompt you whether you want to go back to the previous autosave. I did not personally use it a lot, but it can be a quick little way to go back to town without having to face random encounters if you forgot something.
Awesome! Yeah, I figured it was the Capessa that you use in front of the scarecrow. I also found a description of how to do it on a Japanese site now. Would have been nice to know when I first started the game. I should collaborate with you on these videos in the future. Could you drop me a PM on one of our socials like Facebook or Instagram?
love the graphics on this system.. the limited bits and color palette lend the visual style some kind of comic book/or wood engraving vibe or something. it's a very visceral look.
Would love to see them re-release this trilogy, maybe with a better western translation (apparently Namco did a bad job), as I missed picking it up when I had the chance a decade or so ago when it was out on PSP. Switch would easily be the ideal console for it right now. Not sure if they'd need to get the rights from Namco to someone else though and knowing Namco they won't re-translate the game either.
"A tear of vermilion" was Renamed for Windows version, in 2000. In 1996, English tittle for true The legend of Heroes IV were "A little bead of the scarlet".
Outstanding review, as always! I've actually never finished any version of this game, or V -- I only ever played all the way through the Japanese version of III on PSP -- and sadly, part of the reason for that was the English release of IV on PSP. It came out while I was in the middle of playing the Japanese version, and the translation in it was SO ABHORRENT that it not only made me stop playing it in English, it made me retroactively less inclined to play it in Japanese as well. ;) I seriously think Bandai's translation of Tear of Vermilion for the PSP release may be one of the worst-translated RPGs of all time. All sense of drama, emotion, and nuance was just tossed out the window, and it became more like a comedy game, where you'd continue playing just to see how bad the dialogue got in the next scene. It was really quite remarkable, and it definitely tanked the reputation of the Legend of Heroes name in general in the West for quite some time -- it took the Trails games, which IMHO aren't even as good as the Gagharv games (unpopular opinion, I know!), to reshape public opinion, but even to this day, you'll see a lot of RPG fans unfairly roasting the Gagharv games for their shoddy story and characters, not knowing the problem came SOLELY down to Bandai's localization, which was not at all reflective of the original Japanese. I really should play through this trilogy in full some day, as I can't tell you just how much I loved White Witch -- the story, characters, and world of that game enchanted me like little else ever has. I knew the PC-98 version of Tear of Vermilion was quite different from the Windows/PSP version, too, but I don't think I realized just HOW different -- seeing it covered in such great detail in this video was extremely fascinating! Thanks again for what you do!
Sorry to hear the bad translations ruined the games for you. I don't usually opine on the quality of the translations, since I prefer to just play Japanese games in the original language, but yeah from what I saw the English in Tear of Vermilion for PSP looked pretty bad. There were noticeable typos and so many weird sentences that sounded like they were translated a little too directly. I'd say it was probably done by an English native who just didn't bother trying to convert some of the Janglish into natural-sounding English. So yeah, if you're expecting actual dialog that sounds like a real conversation by native speakers the game won't deliver. If you loved White Witch, then you will love V "(Cage)song of the Ocean", though. It really feels like they set out to make another White Witch. Tear of Vermilion is kind of a different beast (even on Windows and PSP), but man I think you will love V...
@@BasementBrothers I've heard that from a number of people, and I do intend to finish playing through both games at some point, given my undying love of White Witch! The one thing that always struck me about all three games (from what I played of them in Japanese, that is) is how natural and free-flowing the dialogue is. This was not the case when the Trails series began, as suddenly the dialogue throughout was riddled with exposition -- characters pulling the whole "As you know..." thing, or "Ah, my brother whom I haven't seen in three years, how are you?", or what-not. ;) And that problem only got worse with Sen no Kiseki/Cold Steel, along with the pacing taking a sharp nose-dive off a cliff and the characters becoming more anime trope-y than ever, making that particular sub-series my least favorite of all. It becomes really clear, even just looking back on your footage of Tear of Vermilion in this video, but also thinking back on my time with White Witch, just how much the writing has fallen by the wayside over the years, sadly. I think that may just all be part of a pet peeve of mine, though, that the Trails games and onward happen to touch upon a little too firmly. ;)
I loved this video and the game especially the legend of heroes 4 graphics that impressed me, but the next video in this series could be translated into Brazilian Portuguese because I am Brazilian and would like to see the video with subtitles so I can understand. I loved the content and a happy 2023 for the channel and for you, a big hug for the people in Brazil!
Would love to know your opinion on the Brandish games. I actually find the first game incredibly cozy. I won't pretend it's perfect or anything, but it's probably subjectively one of my favorite games of all time. I replay it constantly. The PSP and SNES versions, that is.
Thank you so much for the reviews of these cool games. I was wondering about that locked building. I was also under the impression that either Avin or Mile died for real in the original version; it’s nice to have those questions answered! Can you build a grave for Mile in the psp version?
That's actually not really true at all. In the eighties they also released a lot of their PC-88 games on the Sharp X1, the Fujitsu FM-7, and the MSX. They released Ys 3 on X68000, and in the early nineties they also released a few of their games on the FM Towns. The reason they primarily used the PC-88 and PC-98 as the master platform for their games was because they happened to be the most popular PC platforms in Japan at the time. The most interesting thing about the Ys V era is that it was the first time Falcom released any console games themselves. Thanks for watching though.
That frame rate.....wow. Didn't know The Legend Of Heroes went back this far though. The series for me began at the first Trails Of Cold Steel. Now getting to Trails From Zero and the other three over on Steam. Great series!
This trilogy of LoH 3-5 is literally what inspired Kiseki; Kondo started out just as a huge fan with a fansite dedicated to the Gagharv trilogy when he joined Falcom and Kiseki was conceptualized with hopes of creating something as grand as it. It's a shame the PSP ports of it we did get in English are pretty bad, both in redesign and horrible at worst, lifeless at best translation. It's a trilogy that was often described as needing 4 playthroughs: first 3 (The White Witch), then 4 (Tear of Vermilion), 5 (Cagesong of the Ocean), and then bookending with a replay of 3 because the revelations from 5 completely change your understanding of 3.
For a complete working one it can be expensive. Even then I would not recommend buying one unless you really like tinkering with old machines, fixing, and troubleshooting. Thanks for watching the videos!
Finished the PSP version this last summer. It was certainly good, but to me it felt like I just played this version, just with polygons and better scrolling, but with some outdated elements which felt out of place on PSP. Still, I enjoyed it for what is was. Might consider playing this version down the line eventually
It sucks what Bamco did with the PSP version. The translation sucks and the battle system feels like a cheap knockoff of Lunar. It's a real shame, cause I think LoH4's Windows story has some of the best characters and writing in the series.
The Zelda style single screen loading allows for less CPU cycles in assuming what to load next, while freeing up RAM for more complex environments. I personally like the design decision and think it looks great given the hardware.
I think it's more likely they wanted to save disk space by reusing the same modular screens over and over again. The floppy disk version only uses a meager 7 disks. What does it need to save CPU cycles and RAM for? They were already able to make even better looking environments with 4-directional scrolling in the previous game using the same hardware. The game would have looked and played better if they had done that again, in my opinion.
@@BasementBrothers As simple as I can put it: when you move up, you need to move things down, add things that are up and remove things that are down. If everything is in a box you just need to keep track of that box. It makes things really simple.
They did actually re-release them a few times, but not recently. The "Vista version" of LoH5, for instance, was re-released in 2007, but that was the last time it was released. As for why they haven't been released digitally on Steam, etc. I can't say for sure, but they're probably just too old to put it simply. Also, the release of English versions seems to be what spurred the Trails series to get released on Steam (even in Japan), so the lack of English versions for the Gagharv trilogy is probably another factor. (Then again there are a couple Falcom games on Steam that don't have English versions: "Nayuta" and "Reverie".)
Please please please do Cagesong of the Ocean next. It's my absolute favorite of the Gagharv trilogy and the first one I played. It's one of my fave jrpgs ever and I always wanted to see the original version.
I'll be honest, this video really got me wanting to play the PC 98 version like really bad. Since I have no way of obtaining said Japanese computer though I am playing the really crappy Playstation port lol. The quests are really cool but some are really bad though. Like the ones that make you make deliveries to people like 3 or 4 towns away and the reward being so little (I guess there's no shipping costs in El Phildin). There's also a really funny quest with the magic school professor who wants one of your party members to tell him a story and you will get a random bonus depending on who you pick. I picked Rael and he basically told a really bad story about how he behaves in school and the principal was obviously unamused lol. It's stuff like this I wish they kept in the windows version lol
I had Mile tell the professor a story and it gave a pretty big bonus. I sometimes used the delivery missions when I happened to be traveling that direction anyway. But, yeah, the ones where you have to go 3 or 4 towns away rarely make any sense to do. There's no way I'm making a special trip just to complete one of those missions! At the very least, they should have at least set the reward amounts higher, but still even then I probably wouldn't bother doing most of them. Thanks for watching, and I'm glad I got you interested in the game! I hope I didn't oversell the quest system, cause yeah, if there's anything I really needed to get across about the quests is that the vast majority of them are pretty boring.
@@BasementBrothers I mean, the Windows versions that were released in the Win 95 through the XP era, are they easy to find and run on modern PCs running Windows 10?
I mean... I talked about it a little in the video I think. Generally old Windows games will work on Windows 10, but it really depends entirely on the particular game. Some work but with minor issues. Helper applications like DXWND can be lifesavers. I couldn't get this particular game to display correctly without it. Also, yes, you can just mount an ISO for all of these instead of using a real disc.
Well for the Gagharv Trilogy (3-5), the PSP versions are your only choice for English versions. If you don't mind playing the Japanese versions then probably the Windows versions. For LoH 1&2 probably the TurboGrafX/PC Engine versions.
It's basically a story element that's important not for what it actually does, but for what it makes the characters do. Sometimes it's an object (orbs/crystals in Final Fantasy), sometimes a character (Baby Yoda), and sometimes it's not even there for the whole story (John Wick's dog). It's just something arbitrary that sets the hero on a path he wouldn't follow otherwise. The classic example is the briefcase in Pulp Fiction -- we never find out what's in it because it doesn't matter. It made the plot happen and that's enough.
Shame of Falcom for not re-releasing the older Legend of Heroes games. They milked the crap out of Trails, especially Cold Steel. Would have loved to see an english release of Dragon Slayer II
A Bowl of Lentils did an hour long history video about Falcom's early years. The employment flyer included was due to Falcom's desperation for new talent after a massive exodus of key staff members between 1988 and 1990. As result of that experience, I am told Falcom today has a policy of obscuring who did what on their titles to avoid headhunting.
Yep. Everyone should check out Bowl of Lentils' video if they haven't already. It's excellent.
And the 1988-1990 exodus was far from the only time they needed new staff. This game is 1996, so you can see they still needed new people even 6 years later. In the late 90's and early 2000's Falcom was in fairly dire straits in general and I thought the company was going under for sure. But yeah, they have a fairly regularly rotating staff I gather. Even today, I still see calls for new employees pretty regularly.
Haha youtube recommended that for me the other day after binging your videos. Awesome to get two complementary, in depth, historical takes on the same company/games
FWIW, Falcom wasn't the only company who pulled the obfuscation thing. Sega did it too; the developers of the Phantasy Star games were all credited under pseudonyms, for example.
It was pretty uncommon in general for Japanese game developers to use their real name in the credits until maybe sometime in the early 90's.
Yea for example Keiji Inafune appears in early Megaman credits under the pseudonym InafKing
A tear of vermilion was my first game from Gagharv trilogy. And oh my God it was incredible, the music, the story were simple gorgeous. I started to see where the Trails series comes from. And how many Easter eggs we have in Trails that have their origin in Gagharv, like Muse/Mildine. It'll be nice to have a rerelease of these games on modern consoles with a better translation but alas it's too much to ask considering that even Sky trilogy wasn't ported yet to modern consoles.
The sprite and pixel work in these Japanese PC games has always impressed and fascinated me.
Always looks like the hardware it's running on was lightyears ahead of everything else available from that era.
Glad you like it, but you have to remember, this was 1996. There was plenty of advanced looking hardware and software. You can see in the video that this game was duplicated almost exactly on plain old IBM MS-DOS machines in Korea. These were the same machines everyone was using in the U.S. So, there was nothing really "light years ahead" about the graphics here. It's just well-drawn pixel art, that's all. Glad you enjoyed the video though. Thanks for watching!
Ever since watching these videos, Ive been collecting different types of Falcom games. I even just received my Windows copies of Legend of Heroes 3, 4, and 5! I can't wait to experience these games.
been listening to the pc98 ost pretty regularly for the past month. one of the best fm soundtracks ever.
Agreed!
I don't know how you lads do it, I really don't. Every episode really does feel like going over to your house and having you gush to me personally about a game you love. It isn't just a review, its so much more.
I like that you include the install experience, something I’m very curious about on non-IBM PC systems.
I love the Kiseki games, which are arguably completely different games that just share the name, so great to see you doing retrospectives of the pre-Kiseki LoH games!
I've just sit down to have dinner. I'm so happy there's a new Basement Brothers video for me to watch!
This makes me really wish I could play the original PC-98 version. Im a big fan of early jRPGs before they really got into cutscenes and constant dialogue so that version of LoH4 appeals to me a lot, the idea of the big open world, the side quests to take on with less interruptions and the optional but natural content like going back to Miles village seems really appealing to me. Ill have to keep an eye out for an English translation since I cant read Japanese.
I just love this entry!! the music, story and characters...all of it, Avin and Mile are 2 of the best protagonists ever.
Somethin' cozy about the muted, autumn colors, the scan lines and grain on the pc-98 screen.
Thanks for covering this one. It's nice to know that your thoughts pretty much mirror my own. Playing through the PC98 version has largely been a chore for me, but I do appreciate what it tried to do, and though I haven't played Windows yet, I have a feeling that the expanded storyline is going to feel a bit more padded in ways that I'm not entirely sure I'll like, but I suppose we'll see. As always, I appreciate the fact that you're one of the few people covering these kinds of games for English-speakers. I look forward to when more people have the opportunity to experience them.
Another great video :3
I find it interesting to learn that The Legend of Heroes IV was so open and freeform in design on the PC-98, than later versions would end up being. I think I would prefer to play the Windows version myself, as I do rather enjoy a good well-developed story, though I can see myself attempting the PC-98 version too.
I love your pc-88 and pc-98 series, watched all the episodes, great stuff! Can't wait to see even more :)
Oh my god, Tear of Vermillion was the very first JRPG that I have ever played back when i was just 9 years old. The version that I played was the PSP version which had a whack localization. I still love the game to this very day though and do replays of it from time to time.
After finding out back then that ToV actually goes waaaaay back before the PSP version, I was always curious how the original PC-98 release was like.
Thanks to this video, my curiosity that has gone on for more than a decade has finally been sated. You've earned yourself a sub! :)
I have the psp version of this game which was the first one in Gagharv trilogy in America. Love it! Interesting to see this version
Thank you once again for making these great overviews of the earlier games in the Legend of Heroes series. I only played a little bit of the PC-98 version of Vermilion but seeing this video makes me wish even more that we can someday play these games in English (whether it be the 98 or Windows version).
How exciting, Ive been waiting for your LOH IV video.
What surprises me most is that pets were a new addition to the PSP version. That's the version I played, and the pet system was so crude and barely-there that I took it as a sign of the game's primitive beginnings!
Absolutely not a chance. The pet system in the PSP versions is a relic of the mid-2000's e-pet revival. Back when the original games were made in the 90's, no one had even thought of adding such a thing to an RPG. Even the original Tamagotchi wasn't released until 1996 in Japan - the same year that LoHIV was released on PC-98!
those graphics are pure soul. That soundtrack is pure bliss
Very interesting to learn that this version planted some seeds for next installments to come (sidequests and such, lengthy conversations etc.). The open world concept I find to be quite appealing as well.
The lengthy conversations are from the 2000 Windows version though. The PC-98 conversations aren't particularly long. They're maybe about as lengthy as long as III for PC-98, but not much of a step up. Thanks for watching.
@@BasementBrothers Uuhh.. my bad. those are from the Win2000 version indeed. Anyway you're welcome!
Love the new video! I don't know if you take ideas for PC-88/98 vids, but one day I'd love to see you do a video on Silver Ghost since I've always wanted to learn more about that game when I heard it was the inspiration for Shining Force.
Man this game was one of my all time favorites before Trails in the Sky, and the entire Trails series.
I really enjoy this series of videos around the PC98 and Falcom games in general. Very entertaining and informative.
hell ya! this is the good stuff. can't wait to tuck into this one. love these videos man. thank you!
This is history. Thank you for preserving this knowledge.
I love these videos
I can't wait to see the video on "Mr. Jakes' secret stuff"!
I love your videos. So helpful for people like me who were always curious about these Japanese computer games but never got to play them. I'll be sure to check out the soundtrack for this one.
we can emulate these pc88 with our pc ( ex pc with win 98 ) ? or it's compatible ?
@@pochul Yes, you can do it with emulators. The one I've used is called Anex86.
I definitly like your style of reviewing games with detailed talk about plot or gameplay and showing box with stuff inside, game booting routine or it's ports for other systems. It was so interesting that i watched every PC-88/98 video like some good documentary tv show, icluding this new episode. And now i really want to try play some Falcom games.
The pixelart is so gorgeous! Great video, man
Never really looked into how different the Windows version I played a little of was compared to PC-98, always thought it was just newer graphics and some improvements. Always forget which LoH PSP game I played in the trilogy. Thanks for the nice video.
You series on PC 88 and PC 98 is great,played dozen of the games in early 2000s back then,didn't understand lot of them but the music is the so nice
I just like the way that the PC98 graphics look. Wish these games would get English patches.
why did youtube take 3 days to show me this. love your videos!
I love starting the day with a PC-98 Paradise vid.
Thanks for making the video. Catchy outro music.
This game has a SC-88 soundtrack that's pretty dope.
Fully enjoyed this.
I really enjoy both of your series. So I'm all in on more videos about the Farland Story games.
I love that pc98 aesthetic
Bro, I am hooked on your channel. Thanks
I've been looking forward to this video I read that the story in the PC98 version was very different didn't know the whole game was different on PC98.
Thank you for all these videos. I would have never known about these without you
Enjoyed this video more than I thought I would. Even though I only experienced Falcom through ports on Nintendo consoles, that go through the filter and on to shelves in Europe, I always thought of them as quality. Love the audio/visual style of this, and I kinda like it if it's true that they kept system requirements down to reach a wider audience and maybe respect fans.
my fav graphics on pc-98. and some of my fav in any game ever
This was great. ♥ I would love if you made an exception and covered The Legend of Heroes V even though it wasn't on PC98, to finish the trilogy. Since it's a related game, you could call it PC-98 Paradise Gaiden or something~
great video as always, now i need to play this game
I love these pc-98 videos. All these RPGs I've never heard of or anything. Love learning about them and trying to play some of them. Player the SNES version of Xak ATM.
I played the PSP version, and I think this is the best of this trilogy, the other two are charming, but this is more epic.
I just seen the PSP version at my local retro shop. Only bad part is that it was disc only. I'm still on the fence about picking it up.
Omg , great video thanks for sharing
Great video as always! Keep it up :D
Holy crap is that a nice looking game.
Love your videos. Thanks!
10:32 There's another slightly non-legit (but commonly used even back in the day) way to save the game, which is to access the ED4_S99_.DAT created by quitting the game and to rename the file to a regular save file format (like S001, S002, etc.). This creates a normal save as if you had used the tent!
Awesome to know! Weird that they made it so easy to get around. I thought also about making the ED4_S99_.DAT read only. That's similar to how people used to get around temp saves in older games like The Screamer (make the userdisk read only).
@@BasementBrothers Yeah, and interestingly this particular entry had no shortage of save file sharing and editing tools all the way into the 2000s and even today. My guess is that the higher difficulty and more repetitive gameplay played a role. Heck, even Falcom included almost debug-like features like an in-game turbo button (activated by using an item in front of the scarecrow in the starting area), or the "quick revert" button F10 which takes you back to the last time the game loaded in a map.
Wish I had talked to you before making the video. I looked for file editors but found only ones for the Windows game. What item do you use in front of the scarecrow, and how does the F10 thing work?
@@BasementBrothers I know there is at least one extensive editor out there but it might have been for the Korean MS-DOS version. If I find one for PC-98 I’ll let you know! When you use カベッサ in front of the scarecrow, you should hear a beep which indicates that the optional turbo toggle key has been activated. The key should be the hiragana-katakana switch button on the keyboard. As for the F10 thing, the game apparently does an autosave whenever you see a complete map transition (black loading screen). This autosave is separate from the other save files, Japanese sites call it RAM save since it disappears when the game closes. Pressing F10 should prompt you whether you want to go back to the previous autosave. I did not personally use it a lot, but it can be a quick little way to go back to town without having to face random encounters if you forgot something.
Awesome! Yeah, I figured it was the Capessa that you use in front of the scarecrow. I also found a description of how to do it on a Japanese site now. Would have been nice to know when I first started the game.
I should collaborate with you on these videos in the future. Could you drop me a PM on one of our socials like Facebook or Instagram?
Esses vídeos me fazem amar jogos que eu desconhecia. Parabéns pela narrativa bem feita e análise bem roteirizada.
love the graphics on this system.. the limited bits and color palette lend the visual style some kind of comic book/or wood engraving vibe or something. it's a very visceral look.
Would love to see them re-release this trilogy, maybe with a better western translation (apparently Namco did a bad job), as I missed picking it up when I had the chance a decade or so ago when it was out on PSP.
Switch would easily be the ideal console for it right now. Not sure if they'd need to get the rights from Namco to someone else though and knowing Namco they won't re-translate the game either.
i have never played IV, but tear of vermillion is one of the best tracks ever, both ost and electric orchestra.
Highly engaging!
Thank you
I really liked the PSP version! I normally don't like turn based combat but the story drew me in. I haven't finished it, though.
"A tear of vermilion" was Renamed for Windows version, in 2000.
In 1996, English tittle for true The legend of Heroes IV were "A little bead of the scarlet".
Outstanding review, as always! I've actually never finished any version of this game, or V -- I only ever played all the way through the Japanese version of III on PSP -- and sadly, part of the reason for that was the English release of IV on PSP. It came out while I was in the middle of playing the Japanese version, and the translation in it was SO ABHORRENT that it not only made me stop playing it in English, it made me retroactively less inclined to play it in Japanese as well. ;)
I seriously think Bandai's translation of Tear of Vermilion for the PSP release may be one of the worst-translated RPGs of all time. All sense of drama, emotion, and nuance was just tossed out the window, and it became more like a comedy game, where you'd continue playing just to see how bad the dialogue got in the next scene. It was really quite remarkable, and it definitely tanked the reputation of the Legend of Heroes name in general in the West for quite some time -- it took the Trails games, which IMHO aren't even as good as the Gagharv games (unpopular opinion, I know!), to reshape public opinion, but even to this day, you'll see a lot of RPG fans unfairly roasting the Gagharv games for their shoddy story and characters, not knowing the problem came SOLELY down to Bandai's localization, which was not at all reflective of the original Japanese.
I really should play through this trilogy in full some day, as I can't tell you just how much I loved White Witch -- the story, characters, and world of that game enchanted me like little else ever has.
I knew the PC-98 version of Tear of Vermilion was quite different from the Windows/PSP version, too, but I don't think I realized just HOW different -- seeing it covered in such great detail in this video was extremely fascinating!
Thanks again for what you do!
Sorry to hear the bad translations ruined the games for you. I don't usually opine on the quality of the translations, since I prefer to just play Japanese games in the original language, but yeah from what I saw the English in Tear of Vermilion for PSP looked pretty bad. There were noticeable typos and so many weird sentences that sounded like they were translated a little too directly. I'd say it was probably done by an English native who just didn't bother trying to convert some of the Janglish into natural-sounding English. So yeah, if you're expecting actual dialog that sounds like a real conversation by native speakers the game won't deliver.
If you loved White Witch, then you will love V "(Cage)song of the Ocean", though. It really feels like they set out to make another White Witch. Tear of Vermilion is kind of a different beast (even on Windows and PSP), but man I think you will love V...
@@BasementBrothers I've heard that from a number of people, and I do intend to finish playing through both games at some point, given my undying love of White Witch!
The one thing that always struck me about all three games (from what I played of them in Japanese, that is) is how natural and free-flowing the dialogue is. This was not the case when the Trails series began, as suddenly the dialogue throughout was riddled with exposition -- characters pulling the whole "As you know..." thing, or "Ah, my brother whom I haven't seen in three years, how are you?", or what-not. ;) And that problem only got worse with Sen no Kiseki/Cold Steel, along with the pacing taking a sharp nose-dive off a cliff and the characters becoming more anime trope-y than ever, making that particular sub-series my least favorite of all. It becomes really clear, even just looking back on your footage of Tear of Vermilion in this video, but also thinking back on my time with White Witch, just how much the writing has fallen by the wayside over the years, sadly.
I think that may just all be part of a pet peeve of mine, though, that the Trails games and onward happen to touch upon a little too firmly. ;)
I loved this video and the game especially the legend of heroes 4 graphics that impressed me, but the next video in this series could be translated into Brazilian Portuguese because I am Brazilian and would like to see the video with subtitles so I can understand. I loved the content and a happy 2023 for the channel and for you, a big hug for the people in Brazil!
I like the special effects used here. So different from consoles 😮
Would love to know your opinion on the Brandish games. I actually find the first game incredibly cozy. I won't pretend it's perfect or anything, but it's probably subjectively one of my favorite games of all time. I replay it constantly.
The PSP and SNES versions, that is.
Love the Brandish series, and they are best played on the PC-98 in my opinion.
Thank you so much for the reviews of these cool games. I was wondering about that locked building. I was also under the impression that either Avin or Mile died for real in the original version; it’s nice to have those questions answered!
Can you build a grave for Mile in the psp version?
Nope. There's a whole different event regarding Mile when you go back to the village later in the Windows/PSP versions that doesn't involve a grave.
Turbo mode is best mode! Live like a pigeon, die like... uh... camera shutter.
what an era!
Falcom was really loyal to NEC PC series. Until 1994 -1995 with Legend of Xanadu and Ys V all their inhouse developed games were for those systems.
That's actually not really true at all. In the eighties they also released a lot of their PC-88 games on the Sharp X1, the Fujitsu FM-7, and the MSX. They released Ys 3 on X68000, and in the early nineties they also released a few of their games on the FM Towns. The reason they primarily used the PC-88 and PC-98 as the master platform for their games was because they happened to be the most popular PC platforms in Japan at the time. The most interesting thing about the Ys V era is that it was the first time Falcom released any console games themselves. Thanks for watching though.
That frame rate.....wow. Didn't know The Legend Of Heroes went back this far though. The series for me began at the first Trails Of Cold Steel. Now getting to Trails From Zero and the other three over on Steam. Great series!
This trilogy of LoH 3-5 is literally what inspired Kiseki; Kondo started out just as a huge fan with a fansite dedicated to the Gagharv trilogy when he joined Falcom and Kiseki was conceptualized with hopes of creating something as grand as it. It's a shame the PSP ports of it we did get in English are pretty bad, both in redesign and horrible at worst, lifeless at best translation.
It's a trilogy that was often described as needing 4 playthroughs: first 3 (The White Witch), then 4 (Tear of Vermilion), 5 (Cagesong of the Ocean), and then bookending with a replay of 3 because the revelations from 5 completely change your understanding of 3.
Wow learning about the other end game boss 😮 they really should remake the gagar series.
Would love to get a PC-98 one day, but am sure it's crazy expensive to do so...
For a complete working one it can be expensive. Even then I would not recommend buying one unless you really like tinkering with old machines, fixing, and troubleshooting. Thanks for watching the videos!
Finished the PSP version this last summer. It was certainly good, but to me it felt like I just played this version, just with polygons and better scrolling, but with some outdated elements which felt out of place on PSP.
Still, I enjoyed it for what is was. Might consider playing this version down the line eventually
Yeaaaahhhhh bros, always so instantly watch anything you upload. Love your channel to f'n death!
The PSP version of this game was my first Legend of Heroes game. But man does it have a lot of misspellings and grammar mistakes.
any chance you'll do the last of the Gagharv trilogy to round out the series, despite it being a windows game?
Funny you should ask...
It sucks what Bamco did with the PSP version. The translation sucks and the battle system feels like a cheap knockoff of Lunar. It's a real shame, cause I think LoH4's Windows story has some of the best characters and writing in the series.
The Zelda style single screen loading allows for less CPU cycles in assuming what to load next, while freeing up RAM for more complex environments. I personally like the design decision and think it looks great given the hardware.
I think it's more likely they wanted to save disk space by reusing the same modular screens over and over again. The floppy disk version only uses a meager 7 disks. What does it need to save CPU cycles and RAM for? They were already able to make even better looking environments with 4-directional scrolling in the previous game using the same hardware. The game would have looked and played better if they had done that again, in my opinion.
@@BasementBrothers As simple as I can put it: when you move up, you need to move things down, add things that are up and remove things that are down. If everything is in a box you just need to keep track of that box. It makes things really simple.
I wonder why they never rereleased the Windows versions of those games like they did with the Ys and Trails titles.
They did actually re-release them a few times, but not recently. The "Vista version" of LoH5, for instance, was re-released in 2007, but that was the last time it was released. As for why they haven't been released digitally on Steam, etc. I can't say for sure, but they're probably just too old to put it simply.
Also, the release of English versions seems to be what spurred the Trails series to get released on Steam (even in Japan), so the lack of English versions for the Gagharv trilogy is probably another factor. (Then again there are a couple Falcom games on Steam that don't have English versions: "Nayuta" and "Reverie".)
Wish Falcom take "Trails" series to take a break for sometimes or a have a separate team for the LoH franchise to continue.
Please please please do Cagesong of the Ocean next. It's my absolute favorite of the Gagharv trilogy and the first one I played. It's one of my fave jrpgs ever and I always wanted to see the original version.
I hate to break it to you, but there is no PC-98 version of Cagesong. It was originally a Windows game.
@@BasementBrothers eh either way I still wanna see it. I only ever played the psp version.
can we play this cd inside a pc windows ? , or we need emulator for play it on modern pc like windows 98 ?
Great game have it on PSP hopefully they can do a rebuild of the game once again like they are doing for the trails in the sky in 2025.
Does this have any relation to Tales of Vermillion for Genesis?
Other than the fact that both games have the word "vermilion" in the title, no relation.
Interesting in how similar some of this combat and leveling system is to Fire Emblem
Indeed. The battle animations certainly remind of turn-based strategy games. Maybe that was what they were going for. Thanks for watching.
Never heard of the Windows or psp version, never heard of this series and I thought I was fairly knowledgeable about JRPG's
I'll be honest, this video really got me wanting to play the PC 98 version like really bad. Since I have no way of obtaining said Japanese computer though I am playing the really crappy Playstation port lol. The quests are really cool but some are really bad though. Like the ones that make you make deliveries to people like 3 or 4 towns away and the reward being so little (I guess there's no shipping costs in El Phildin).
There's also a really funny quest with the magic school professor who wants one of your party members to tell him a story and you will get a random bonus depending on who you pick. I picked Rael and he basically told a really bad story about how he behaves in school and the principal was obviously unamused lol. It's stuff like this I wish they kept in the windows version lol
I had Mile tell the professor a story and it gave a pretty big bonus.
I sometimes used the delivery missions when I happened to be traveling that direction anyway. But, yeah, the ones where you have to go 3 or 4 towns away rarely make any sense to do. There's no way I'm making a special trip just to complete one of those missions! At the very least, they should have at least set the reward amounts higher, but still even then I probably wouldn't bother doing most of them.
Thanks for watching, and I'm glad I got you interested in the game! I hope I didn't oversell the quest system, cause yeah, if there's anything I really needed to get across about the quests is that the vast majority of them are pretty boring.
As you are pretty knowledgeable and I'm sitting here confused, does this tie into the Sega Genesis game "Sword of Vermillion"?
No. They both just happen to have the word "vermilion" in the title. :) Thanks for watching.
@@BasementBrothers thanks for posting, can't read Japanese or familiar with pc-88,98 games.
Are these 90's Japanese RPGs easily playable on modern Windows PCs? Do they need the CDs always in the drive, patches and so on?
PC-98 games require an emulator to be played on modern Windows. Most of which support using an ISO instead of a physical CD..
@@BasementBrothers I mean, the Windows versions that were released in the Win 95 through the XP era, are they easy to find and run on modern PCs running Windows 10?
I mean... I talked about it a little in the video I think. Generally old Windows games will work on Windows 10, but it really depends entirely on the particular game. Some work but with minor issues. Helper applications like DXWND can be lifesavers. I couldn't get this particular game to display correctly without it. Also, yes, you can just mount an ISO for all of these instead of using a real disc.
i love pc98 graphic
Disculpa soy español ,puedo jugar este juego en idioma Español ?...😢
which versions of the early LOH games should a newcomer play? the psp versions?
Well for the Gagharv Trilogy (3-5), the PSP versions are your only choice for English versions. If you don't mind playing the Japanese versions then probably the Windows versions. For LoH 1&2 probably the TurboGrafX/PC Engine versions.
@@BasementBrothers thanks
Where were you able to purchase the game for PC?
I bought it in 2001 at a used game store in Japan!
Question what is a mcguffin?
It's basically a story element that's important not for what it actually does, but for what it makes the characters do. Sometimes it's an object (orbs/crystals in Final Fantasy), sometimes a character (Baby Yoda), and sometimes it's not even there for the whole story (John Wick's dog). It's just something arbitrary that sets the hero on a path he wouldn't follow otherwise. The classic example is the briefcase in Pulp Fiction -- we never find out what's in it because it doesn't matter. It made the plot happen and that's enough.
16:45 Skyrim?
this is a GREAT GAME, shame it was never translated officially.
Shame of Falcom for not re-releasing the older Legend of Heroes games. They milked the crap out of Trails, especially Cold Steel.
Would have loved to see an english release of Dragon Slayer II