March 2021 Together Retro: Let's Vote!

[PartridgeSenpai]

Hi, everyone! It's time for another Together Retro category poll! You can vote twice, but you can't change your votes, and this will run until the 25th of February (my time, so it might be pretty early in the morning on the 25th for some of us ^^;). Happy voting~

Fit for a King

It's good to be the king. It's good to be the village elder. It's good to be the leader of the cosmos! And presumably it's good to be everything in between those things. This is a category all about exploring games where you play as a leader of a kingdom, nation, tribe, or whatever. There are a lot of games about BECOMING a ruler, but the big rule for this category is that you need to play as a ruler for SOME part of the game. It doesn't need to be the entire game, and you can even be a deposed ruler trying to get back into power, but you need to be playing as the ruler for some period for it to count here.

Possible Entries
- Kings Quest series
- Bokosuka Wars
- Katamari Damacy series


Final What? Dragon Who?

Everyone knows Square Enix has their two big franchises: Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. But what about the lesser appreciated names that Squenix has brought into the world, even before their merger? This category is all about diving into RPGs from Square, Enix, or Square Enix that fall outside of the realm of their two biggest franchises. While this DOES mean that spin-offs aren't allowed (no Dragon Quest Monsters), what is allowed are things like Final Fantasy Adventure or Final Fantasy Legends, where they weren't REALLY a part of the series, and they just had their titles changed to make them sell better in the West.

Possible Entries
- SaGa series
- Seiken Densetsu series
- Star Ocean
- Valkyrie Profile


Japan Studio. Yes, THAT One!

"Japan Studio" is a weird name, to be sure, but it's been one of Sony's golden boys for quite a long time! This is a category all about taking a look at games developed by the first party Sony developer. Finding exactly what games they personally made is a bit of a pain in the butt (their Wikipedia page lists EVERY game that Sony Computer Entertainment has ever worked on or published in any respect as if they're all Japan Studio games), I'm personally going off of their Japanese Wikipedia page (which is easily toggled into English), as it seems to be much better compiled.

Possible Entries
- Ape Escape Series
- Legend of Dragoon
- Loco Roco series
- Patapon series
- Team ICO games
- Puppeteer


One Hit (?) Wonders

Not every game gets to be a franchise. Even for big publishers and developers, some games don't even find enough success to get so much as a single sequel. This category is all about appreciating those games that, despite being from big publishers/developers, have no choice but to stand on their own in the halls of gaming history because they're the only entry in their franchise. As the title of the category sorta implies, the quality of the game is actually pretty unimportant here. All that matters is that it's the only entry in its series (has no sequels, prequels, spinoffs, etc., but games with spiritual sequels are okay) and that they were either published or developed by a big company. I'm talkin' household names like your Nintendos, your SEGAs, your Capcoms, your Microsofts. Companies you would expect likely develop things with the intent of making more, but that "more" just never materializes.

Possible Entries
- Nintendo regional exclusives/flops (Disaster Day of Crisis, Cubeivore, Doshin the Giant, etc.)
- Treasure's Genesis games (basically all published by SEGA)
- Capcom and Konami's PS1/PS2 output (there's a lot of weird stuff there)

[prfsnl_gmr]

Voted! Great topics, Pidge!

[alienjesus]

Great topics. As per usual I've had a think about what I could and would like to play for each of these categories, this is what I've come up with so far:

Fit for a King:

Would Sphinx & The Cursed Mummy (Gamecube) count? The mummy is a dead pharoah I think, so that's kinda kingly? The main character of Crystal Warriors (Game Gear) is a princess and I've been meaning to go back to that too, and the main character of Defenders of Oasis (Game Gear) is also a prince so I could go for a Game Gear double feature. Obviously RPGs and SRPGs are a mine of content to fit this category, but Yggdra Union (PSP) is another one that jumps out at me as it's been years and years since I bought it and I've still never played it.

If you're looking for recommendations, I can't recommend Little King's Story (Wii) enough - it's a fantastic game.

Final What? Dragon Who?

The RPG stipulation here makes this one a bit tougher (Square and Enix were both not keen on localising RPGs in Europe until about the DS), but I could play Vagrant Story (PS1). I also enjoyed Illusion of Gaia last year so I could try and pick up either Soul Blazer or Terranigma (SNES), although they're very pricy. The only other Squeenix games I have are the Wonder Project J (SNES/N64) games, but although they do have stats of sorts, I don't think they'd really qualify as RPGs

Japan Studio:

I have lots I could go with here - Ape Escape (PS1), LocoRoco 2 (PSP) & Patapon 2 (PSP). If you're looking for something a bit different, I'd recommend giving the quirky and mostly forgotten Patchwork Heroes (PSP) a go!

One Hit Wonders:

In terms of stuff I have available right now, I could play P.N.03 (Gamecube, Capcom), Defenders of Oasis (Game Gear, Sega) again, Beetle Adventure Racing (N64, EA) , Rocket: Robot on Wheels (N64, published by Ubisoft, developed by Sucker Punch), Crystalis (NES, SNK), Vagrant Story again (PS1, Square), or Pandora's Tower (Wii, Nintendo) so lots of options here.

Would Crusader of Centy count? It's published by Sega or Atlus depending on region and didn't get a sequel. Doshin the Giant (Gamecube) is a game I've been meaning to pick up too, from Nintendo - it was released on 2 systems but I think they're the same game?

My recommendation for other people in this category would be the excellent and underapprecited Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure for DS, by EA. It is an absolute gem and really outside of the kind of thing EA is known and was known for publishing at the time!


Based on my thoughts I'm going to vote for One Hit Wonders and Japan Studio, but all of them have some good options to play!

[PartridgeSenpai]

Voted! Great topics, Pidge!

Thanks! I had two or three for the longest time (one of which, which was effectively "hard games", didn't end up making the cut, and some others like "Abandonware Games" I didn't feel I was the right person to curate for since I just lack the knowledge base for that), but Japan Studios and One Hit Wonders were ones I thought of in the past couple weeks and I really like those two ^w^

@AJ's questions:

I think a mummy totally counts as a king! A king of a nation that may no longer exist, but a king to be sure! . I may try and pick Little King's Story back up if I can find it. It tends to be fairly cheap around here. It was a game I rented as a kid but couldn't quite beat because of how hard the final boss is. It really is an excellent little game though~

I think the Wonder Project J games prooobably wouldn't count, as they're more sim and point'n'click games from what I understand of them. Granted they're also cool and weird enough that I'd totally be willing to bend the rules a little to let you play them for this. I'd love to hear about them if that category wins~

I've never heard of Patchwork Heroes, but you saying that reminded me that Japan Studio did the absolutely excellent and endlessly charming Puppeteer on PS3 that I've added to my Possible Entries section ^w^

Henry Hatsworth heckin' rocks! I love that game <3 . Definitely recommend it if that category wins. If Crusader of Centy is Sega-published, I'd say that falls within the super arbitrary rules I've set as well~. Also Doshin is indeed the exact same game (so far as I can tell, though it has an expansion of sorts on the N64 DD version, iirc, but that doesn't disqualify it as far as I've made the rules, as that's just still the same game but more), and I hope it counts given that it's in the pile of games I recommended

[alienjesus]

I've never heard of Patchwork Heroes, but you saying that reminded me that Japan Studio did the absolutely excellent and endlessly charming Puppeteer on PS3 that I've added to my Possible Entries section ^w^

Patchwork Heroes had a really crazy name on the Google-translated Japanese page for Japan Studio, so it might be called something very different over there. The name on the page was like 60-Million Tonnes of Dismemberment! or something like that It's a game where you tear apart giant airships by climbing around the hull with a saw and it has a super awesome soundtrack.

[MrPopo]

For the ruler one, would games like Civilization count, or are you looking for a well defined protagonist?

[PartridgeSenpai]

For the ruler one, would games like Civilization count, or are you looking for a well defined protagonist?

While I'd say that certainly fits the letter of the rules rather than the spirit, I'd say go for it anyway X3

[TheEagleXIII]

Great choices/themes!

For the ruler one, would games like Civilization count, or are you looking for a well defined protagonist?

While I'd say that certainly fits the letter of the rules rather than the spirit, I'd say go for it anyway X3

I was wondering the same thing as it would also qualify games like Mega-Lo-Mania (Tyrants in NA) and Tropico. It does feel against the spirit as it essentially means almost any God-type game qualifies. I’m gonna see if I can find any games that fit the spirit that I have access to before voting. Interesting topic but can’t think of many examples off the top of my head.

I’m tempted by the lesser-acknowledged Squenix titles. The past year I’ve started appreciating RPGs and recently played/completed FF IX for the first time. I’ve been having a bit of trouble deciding what to play next so this would definitely give me a nudge - and help me change things up a bit instead of checking out the 16-bit Final Fantasy’s.

One Hit Wonders definitely gets my vote. My first thought was Treasure’s SEGA library and I need a good excuse to finally check out some of those titles. There must be so many other great sequel-less games too.

[Nemoide]

I really like all of these topics, so I'll be happy with any of them! I voted for "Final What? Dragon Who?" and Japan Studio because I know I've got games that fit the bill in my backlog.

[PartridgeSenpai]

Only a little less than one day left to vote! It's a really close race between the Squenix category and the One Hit Wonders! Now's the time to drop those held back votes if you gots 'em~