Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
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Hammerin' Hero Game Sample - PSP
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![Marionette Company [マリオネットカンパニー] Game Sample - Dreamcast](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/dhDwBp9QLSw/mqdefault.jpg "Marionette Company [マリオネットカンパニー] Game Sample - Dreamcast
Marionette Company (MC) is one of several offbeat games developed by the iconic team at Microcabin (best known for the Xak/Fray series, Illusion City and Riglord Saga 1 & 2), being dubbed a Situation Adventure Game. Originally released for PlayStation and PC in 1999, it was released a few months later for Segas Dreamcast and also saw a few re-releases in the early 2000s where it earned a reputation as a rough gem and saw some popularity in South Korea. At this time, Microcabin was unfortunately near deaths door and not the juggernaut they once were during the 80s and early 90s, releasing few games after MC and its sequel (which was not well-received for a multitude of reasons, but thats a conversation for another day).
While all versions have the same core content, the PS game is not as polished as the PC and Dreamcast game due to several QoL additions and improved visuals, and the Dreamcast version includes the Heartful Catch VMU mini-game. First print copies of the Dreamcast game included plastic slides of the main heroine. Long before titles like Detroit: Become Human, games have been exploring the heavier themes of existential robots blurring the line between man and machine with Givro and Enixs earlier Wonder Project J series, Xboxs N.U.D.E., so on and so forth. MC, at the end of the day, is a raising sim thats somewhat comparable to Doukyuusei / True Love 95 but caters to those who want a true Mecha-Musume / Cyberdoll experience as technobabble, inventing and a ridiculous amount of metrics all contribute to the experience.
The Story: The 24-year-old protagonist (a nameless man who works for a foreign company) lives in a world where Marionettes are a part of Japanese society as cutting-edge artificial companions. He had always dreamed of being a Marionette Engineer himself but believed the path to that dream would be too difficult, so he abandoned his ideals until his moms best friend and genius engineer, Yuuki, inspires him to consider it. He ultimately gives in to his desires when an abandoned marionette in the outskirts of town cries for help, where he sympathetically repairs her over a six month period. While her origins are unknown, she is special as she has a heart and develops emotions similar to humans, and the player spends the next six months juggling multiple jobs with Yuuki to determine if hes truly cut out to be a Marionette Engineer.
MC as a whole is a game that is ingenious but burdensome. Ill start with the basic gameplay description. The player has work from the morning until 16:00 (4pm) during weekdays but gets more time during the weekends and holidays for activities. Moving to different areas in the game typically takes 30 minutes (this is skewed if you meet another character or recurring event to 45-60 minutes) but will take longer if theyre limited-time event areas (the beach, amusement park, etc.). The player is forced to retire to bed once you reach or exceed midnight. Naturally, depending on what youre doing, you can take advantage of the in-game clock to get an extra interaction past the normal timeframe. The primary goal of the game is to increase your KIZUNA (bond) with your marionette and gain elements (bits and pieces) to create parts either freely or with blueprints which impact everything from weight, fuel capacity and consumption, endurance, durability, CPU capacity and memory, bust size, hair color and more. All parts are ranked from [E-A], and getting elements and parts all with [A] ranks is highly expensive but have dramatic performance improvements.
The player can kill time in a multitude of ways from taking orders or part-time jobs from Yuuki (elements and blueprints are already provided), traveling around town for events, selling A-Rank parts for profit, etc. The most important use of time is Communicating with your marionette, which covers a multitude of subjects and keywords which expand conversations; doing right by her raises you KIZUNA value and is essential for event flags and multiple endings. There are also three sub-heroines, although only one is truly developed (and Yuuki isnt romance-able, which is criminal). The graphics and sound are mostly typical for the genre but I enjoy the artwork by Madoka Hirayama (best known for Magic Knight Rayearth, Sentimental Journey and Eiyū Shigan: Gal Act Heroism) and the voice of the marionette by Chiaki Maeda (Kaedeko Sakura from Tokimeki Memorial 2 and this are her prominent roles).
That said, this game has a serious problem with RNG which almost destroys the enjoyment; besides the obvious, even item ranks are randomized and as you need multiple parts and going in/out shops consumes time, the game is notorious for save scumming. It is also extremely repetitive and there are few locales (The Temple, Hospital and Community Center mainly serve as flags besides the limited-time events). There are numerous exploits and differences will be pinned in the comments.")
![Space Invaders 95: The Attack of the Lunar Loonies [あっかんべえだあー] Game Sample - Arcade](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/eQblKxbIW-U/mqdefault.jpg "Space Invaders 95: The Attack of the Lunar Loonies [あっかんべえだあー] Game Sample - Arcade
Space Invaders 95: The Attack of the Lunar Loonies [あっかんべえだあー] Game Sample - Arcade")
![LarsGadiel [ラースガディエル] Game Sample - PC/Indie](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/enh_R6XcbcM/mqdefault.jpg "LarsGadiel [ラースガディエル] Game Sample - PC/Indie
Ahhh... I needed a little break after being waste-deep in Japan-only imports.
So, we finally get a new game from the folks (led and primarily developed by one guy, Daniel Fernandez Chavez) at Diabolical Mind Games and its... not quite what I was expecting, but its a fun game nonetheless. LarsGadiel is the latest release from DMG (who often collabs with COWCAT Games on console ports of their games, they are best known for Riddled Corpses Xenon Valkyrie and Demons Tier) that serves as a prequel to 2017s Xenon Valkyrie. I enjoyed their previous games for their modern retro vibes and LarsGadiel has been a long time coming since their last major release in 2020. LG was originally in development for the NES but eventually shifted to PC (Steam) with quality of life improvements. Whereas XV was more of a Rogue-Lite Action Platformer, LG veers more in the Metroidvania direction with teleporters, a sprawling map, a town hub and myriad secrets blocked off by switches, varying weapons, bosses, and more.
The story takes place on Lemure, an isolated moon in the solar system where a gang of space piratescalled The Skullbrands have found and stolen an ancient weapon that could threaten the entire solar system. Renna, a moon agent, is eavesdropping on the enemys plan and sends an SOS to the her agency where soldiers get in contact with a reluctant valkyrie, Eloen, to save Renna and the people who inhabit the moon. She is transported to the closest coordinates of Rennas transmission, the outskirts of Gadiel Castle, and their reasoning is that Eloen is the only one alive who knows the terrain well enough to stand a chance... there are a few minor issues with the game right from the outset. Eloen not only does NOT know the terrain very well (the map is blank and you have to fill it in), but shes asked to save the moon and isnt even given a starting weapon... who does that!? Im glad we get to revisit characters from XV and expand on the lore a bit, but the plot has never been a particular highlight of the games.
Anyway, I digress as it wouldnt be much fun to start with a full map and you can find a weapon within the first 5 minutes of gameplay. The game tasks you with exploring Lemure where traps are plentiful and instant-death pits are constant. Eloen can utilize different weapons with pros and cons that grow in proficiency as you use them and level them up, but the most important weapon in your arsenal is a gun that can destroy certain obstacles (it has ammunition which can be refilled at teleporters along with health and healing items, but all enemies will also respawn). There are signposts and cryptic hints scattered throughout and items that will increase your overall health pool (usually guarded by significant traps or bosses) and relics that upgrade your abilities as well, such as granting a double jump and statue to remove your death counter (mainly tied to achievements).
As I bought the game at launch and upgraded to 1.0.2 during recording, some of the glaring issues have been alleviated such as improved play control (centered around iffy collision, improved double jump characteristics and climbing ladders which led to unintentional damage and/or deaths), improved qualities of items such as the Thermal Suit protecting from Acid/Lava and an item to destroy spikes (how the game functioned without these prior is kinda funny, but doable), increased weapon damage and other QoL improvements. While the game has a Map Completion statistic, it follows in the footsteps of games like Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and exceeds 100% to truly finish everything in the game. Visually, the game is designed, through and through, to be an 8-bit NES/FC game with some anime influences. While there are some who state the game is not possible in its current state to run on an NES, the Steam version added minor flourishes after the fact when development shifted. The game looks fine in this regard and the chiptune soundtrack (using the original NES 8-bit sound chip), while not evocative of the eras best, still gets the job done.
Im not really sure why the game had such scathing criticism at launch, especially centered around its difficulty (Im not sure how many of those people played games from the 80s and 90s, but LG is pretty tame by comparison... some Japanese players even considered it a kusoge), but what I can say is that the game is relatively short if youre of a moderate skill level, about 3-4hrs. At $10, theres better offerings for the money on Steam, but its not a bad way to kill a few hours... there will most likely be a + version in the coming years. This is a video of the game in action. You can get it at:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4341810/LarsGadiel/
Enjoy.
- ADDITION -
Visit Us At: http://www.gamingsanctuary.org")
![Battle Tank SWORD W [バトルタンク・ソードW] Game Sample - PC/Doujin](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/fBMXAVPquPg/mqdefault.jpg "Battle Tank SWORD W [バトルタンク・ソードW] Game Sample - PC/Doujin
Battle Tank SWORD W [バトルタンク・ソードW] Game Sample - PC/Doujin")
![Astonishia Story Refine [어스토니시아 스토리 리파인] Game Sample - NS](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/g0zf_BTpau8/mqdefault.jpg "Astonishia Story Refine [어스토니시아 스토리 리파인] Game Sample - NS
Yall probably didnt expect to see this game again... 20+ odd years after the PSP release of one of South Koreas premium RPGs, Sonnoris Astonishia Story is back, and it just wont die! AS was originally released way back in 1994 for ol MS-DOS by Sonnori Co., Ltd, one of the premier creators of Korean games. While it was rough around the edges and (visually) behind the output from games in most other parts of the world at the time, it was an ORIGINAL work with inspirations from Western and JRPGs of the time, most prominently titles like Pool of Radiance, Traysia and Shining Force, and enjoyed much success as their first game. I cant stress ORIGINAL enough here, as Korea, China and Taiwan made quite a reputation for themselves back in the day for taking or modifying other companies source code and graphics to make knock-offs of various games, especially prolific ones (Street Fighter, Fatal Fury, Maan borrowing aspects from Chrono Trigger, etc.).
This game, however, does not exactly bring good tidings... as something of a stealth release towards the end of 2025 by Daewon Media and Waycoder, this remake of AS (given the updated Refine moniker) was cursed even before it officially launched. Promos for the game initially stated the game would release for the Nintendo Switch and Steam, but early testing was rough, constructive feedback was not addressed swiftly and early reviews from the press were overwhelmingly negative with comments covering everything from the games graphics (which struggle on a NS1 and is still sub 30FPS in spots on the NS2, its 60FPS~ on PC), poor optimization, high price tag, controversy over the physical media (with the Switch and PC version having separate contents but being priced the same), high degree of bugs in handheld or docked (crashes, terminations in certain towns, constant sound bugs, slow motion FPS bugs, frequent graphics glitches, garbled text, increased latency, basically unacceptable stuff in a modern and unassuming 2D game), almost total absence of QoL features and sluggish gameplay... etc.
While the game used Astonishia R / PSP as a base, it lacks animated cutscenes and actually removed almost all the unique items you could find through the world, and attempted to replicate the HD-2D style of games like Octopath, DQ/DW, etc., but did it so poorly that the game had to get multiple patches after launch for alternate graphics settings as things were blown out and over-saturated. The game switched from Steam to Purple prior to release (through a deal with NC Corporation but also to avoid review bombing and easier refunds). In spite of ALL THESE THINGS, the game was playable by the time I got my hands on my L.E. (it was borderline unplayable without those 4+ patches)... while its exclusive to Korea, it has a better English localization than the game we got 20~ years ago from Ubisoft too and is delightfully self-aware with numerous weird references (Kenshiro from FotNS, Solid Snake and Big Boss from MGS, Kratos from GoW, etc.)! The game is unapologetically old-school, which is fine by me, but the issue is that its systems were a bit unpolished even in 1994 (this game DOES attempt to fix some fundamental things). If you want to know the basic gist, check out my PSP video as this game is about 80% the same (Ordinary knight goes on quest to save land from twisted elves). Ill talk about whats different here.
Theres no more MP or hidden skills; characters get all skills from leveling and have SP now which charges by one bar through phases and starting SP increases by 1 every 10 levels (all MP items are gone, this is a WAY better system for this game). Experience is equalized here, so no best fighter bonus but a HUGE CARDINAL SIN this game commits is make battles give the same experience and cash based on the area, so if a fight gives 500 EXP in an area, it doesnt matter if theres one enemy or eight, making fights more of a chore than anything. The game changed a few events and added mercenaries that you can hire with different requirements, making the early game a little easier (they have lower stats than the mains, but have some unique skills). Hataik is also a permanent character in this game, whereas he was temporary in the others (he doesnt appear in the story after his initial departure though). Play Score is calculated differently now and theres a New Game + (Money, Lvl.1 Mercs and Hella Gear transfers over, enemies seem stronger and have about 30% more HP... dont know yet if theres a reward, but the main game was already a slog). The game mimics the Break / Kill system if you hit multiple enemy weaknesses straight from Octopath. Super Moves around the LVL25/26 mark seem to be removed, so all main abilities are learned at LVL20, which is a much more realistic cut-off. Game is short if you know what to do and the 1st loop can be cleared in about 7-9hrs.
~4hrs of assorted ENGLISH gameplay... make an informed decision folks! Enjoy.")
![SUNSOFT is Back! Retro Game Collection [SUNSOFT is Back! レトロゲームセレクション] Game Sample - PC](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/gPhC3BPbkfw/mqdefault.jpg "SUNSOFT is Back! Retro Game Collection [SUNSOFT is Back! レトロゲームセレクション] Game Sample - PC
SUNSOFT is Back! Retro Game Collection [SUNSOFT is Back! レトロゲームセレクション] Game Sample - PC")
![Star Maidens Chronicle: Definitive Edition [命短したたかえ！乙女 Definitive Edition] Game Sample - PC/Doujin](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/gc5QyV2uDkc/mqdefault.jpg "Star Maidens Chronicle: Definitive Edition [命短したたかえ！乙女 Definitive Edition] Game Sample - PC/Doujin
Star Maidens Chronicle: Definitive Edition [命短したたかえ！乙女 Definitive Edition] Game Sample - PC/Doujin")
![Magatama [魔牙霊] Game Sample - Xbox](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/hfLovrRFrd0/mqdefault.jpg "Magatama [魔牙霊] Game Sample - Xbox
Magatama [魔牙霊] Game Sample - Xbox")
![Rung Rung: Oz no Mahou Tsukai - Another World [オズの魔法使い～AnotherWorld～ルングルング] Game Sample - PS (PS1)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/iagUWV1rwuY/mqdefault.jpg "Rung Rung: Oz no Mahou Tsukai - Another World [オズの魔法使い～AnotherWorld～ルングルング] Game Sample - PS (PS1)
YT family, Ive a feeling were not in Kansas anymore. an exact quote from the 1939 classic film, The Wizard of Oz (Probably)
There are a lot of works that pay homage to Lyman Frank Baums highly influential childrens novel, The Wonderful World of Oz, released in 1900 and, surprisingly, theres more than one video game based on the property from Japan. Affects 2000 oddity, Rung Rung: Oz no Mahou Tsukai - Another World, is a 3D Adventure game released just shy of 100 years after the Novel was penned, giving you an idea of just how timeless the story is. While essentially a Japan-only release, GungHo Online Entertainment released the game (untranslated) for U.S. gamers on PSN in 2013. Affect is... not well known or well-regarded; while theyve been credited for quite a few games, most of them have reviewed pretty poorly and the few games they did that came to the West were dismissed or even joked (like Phix: The Adventure).
While RR Oz has a solid foundation just by virtue of its source material, RR Oz does not do too much to buck their trend of overall middling offerings. If youre familiar with the novel or film(s) the game is based on, you have a general idea of the plot; RR Oz starts with a wicked wizard opening up a portal with profound magic that can pull whole areas from other realms to Oz, stripping them of life in the process. Unfortunately, he picked the wrong time to act when a tornado winds up in a desolate prairie in Kansas, spiriting away the young Dorothy Gale, her dog Toto, and the little farm house her aunt and uncle share. When Dorothy comes to and leaves the house, shes in a land far removed from the one she knows...
As it stands, the world is in a sorry state with lands stripped of color, villagers frozen in stone, and the great Emerald City is in a state of panic. Her house crushes the Wicked Witch of the East (to the joy of basically everyone, although Dorothy is initially mortified). Norte, the Witch of the North, explains that youre in the land of Oz (and shes portrayed as a kind, ditzy woman who likes to speak in song and has no idea what a Kansas is), that you may find help if you head to the Emerald City, and that Princess Ozma is there who may be able to help you return home. She also blesses you with a little magic for good luck (a magic kiss in the original) and advises you to follow the yellow brick road before leaving. Oh yeah, and she has an apprentice errand boy named Ururu. Dorothy is already wearing red slippers, The Lion, Tin Man and Scarecrow are here as well as the Munchkins, Gilkins, etc., but it takes many liberties to keep things interesting.
RR Oz has a simple gameplay loop exacerbated by curious design choices. The overwhelming bulk of the game involves item synthesis through a magic cauldron that belonged to the witch of the east named Gotcha. Every main area along the yellow brick road is lacking color and requires different colors of magic paint to remove prisms and restore the area, including NPCs turned to stone. These NPCs then have to be negotiated with and assisted to improve your trust with them, which opens up new interactions. There are four interactions needed to gain new information and recipes: Kindness, Show, Tell and Exchange. Everyone starts at the Kindness level, which requires you to do a series of fetch quests. Show / Tell opens next with Show granting you information about items you find and Tell giving you knowledge on recipes they know. Exchange is usually a max-trust extra which nets you rare items or frequently used items more easily.
You cant use items that you cant identify, so its basically mandatory to do fetch quests, learn about the items in your arsenal, and gain recipes from every NPC. Searching for items can be done blindly or via a sonar that depletes HP... items in the area also get depleted, so when the area is empty, you have to go sleep till the next day to replenish them. Item space is very limited, areas are small and chock full of loading screens, and the constant repetition is made worse as some items and events are only available on certain days (time is infinite). There are obstacles and mini-games, but theyre few and far between and the game is engineered for a younger demographic (limited violence, younger Dorothy, simpler dialogue). The production values are close to launch PS standards and half the areas dont have music (there are items to plant seeds of music in quiet areas). There arent too many high-profile people involved with this games development, but Hisanao Suzuki would go on to do a lot of work with Square Enix (Trials of Mana, FF: Brave Exvius, Harvestella, etc.) and the talented seiyu, Sakura Tange and Kikuko Inoue voice Dorothy and Norte respectively. The game is a decent length of about 15-20 hours to 100%.
In spite of its shortcomings, this IS one of Affects better games with cute characters and silly dialogue. This is a video of the game in action. Enjoy.")
![Gakkou no Kaidan: Hyakuyoubako no Fuuin [学校の怪談 百妖箱の封印] Game Sample - GBA](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/jhY4hU4TOZ0/mqdefault.jpg "Gakkou no Kaidan: Hyakuyoubako no Fuuin [学校の怪談 百妖箱の封印] Game Sample - GBA
Gakkou no Kaidan: Hyakuyoubako no Fuuin is one of many titles in a loosely connected Japanese horror-mystery phenomenon known as Gakkou no, with the main ones being Gakkou no Kaidan (aka School Ghost Stories) and Gakkou no Kowai Uwasa (aka Scary School Rumors, usually featuring Hanako-san as the main point of interest). Gakkou itself simply means School and while GnK and GnKU are not strictly related, they have overarching themes and related mysteries, so talking about them together adds a little context. This is a video for one of the lesser-known GnK games and part of what will probably evolve into a video project concerning GnK as a whole. While GnK has very little relevance in the West, it rose to prominence due to the legendary and hilarious English adaptation of the 2000 anime by Studio Pierrot and Aniplex, known outside Japan as Ghost Stories.
The concept for Gnk originated in the mid 80s from a visionary named Toru Tsunemitsu. In 1985, Toru was a middle school teacher who noticed that his students often shared ghost stories and rumors about various folklore and legends. Out of curiosity, this led him to collect stories from his students, where he accumulated over 150 stories in ten days. Between 1990-1996, these stories were modified and compiled into nine volumes of childrens books which were published by Kodansha. A sequel series, Shin Gakkou no Kaidan began in 2005 and five volumes were released, but the initial craze of GnK spawned a media frenzy with several video games, several live-action movies, animes (as Gakkou no Kaidan SP also exists), manga and associated merchandise.
Gakkou no Kaidan: Hyakuyoubako no Fuuin was developed by Yamaneko Co. Ltd. and published by TDK Core in 2004. For one, Yamaneko has LITTLE experience with actual game development, serving primarily as a Japanese editorial production company involved in the editing and production of game strategy books, related magazines, and books since the 90s. The other matter here is that TDK (Core) published and assisted A LOT of GBC and GBA games and probably saw this title as a quick cash grab to capitalize on the popularity of the GnK lore with both Toru Tsunemitsu/Kodansha being credited. Given these two things, I was intrigued to learn that the game didnt exactly have a good reputation in gaming circles but not entirely surprised either. Curiously, Hiroaki Mizubayashi directed, designed and programmed the game (he was also responsible for the Pocket Kitchen features of the cult PS gem, Purumui Purumui) and the character designs were by Ichio Hayashi (through Hibari Works, although much of his fame was as an in-between artist and animator), but the game has a small staff and shoestring budget otherwise. The sound was by Oka Soyo, who actually has prior experience working for Nintendo on games such as Super Mario Kart, Sim City, and Pilot Wings and freelance work on PS Lagnacure.
The game allows the player to choose a nameless boy or girl who is supposed to go home from school one day. After Football (Soccer) practice, you talk to your teacher, Izumi, who offers you a good-luck charm before leaving and you make your way to the school gate when lightning strikes, narrowly avoiding you and destroying a 100-yen donation box. Its right at this moment that you meet a strange first-grader, Tomoyuki, and learn that his favorite book, 100 Tales of Yokai, has gone blank, indicating that the spirits within have gotten loose and are haunting the school. Youre convinced by Tomoyuki that you have to search the school and return the Yokai to the book, but youre not sure how until you run into your first one: an advanced talking cellphone with camera capabilities that offers hints as you go.
Gameplay in the game is fairly standard adventure stuff where you walk around, search for items, solve puzzles, invoke yokai and play mini-games, but on a grand scale; there are 100 yokai to find in the game and while the first few are essentially freebies, catching them all is extremely difficult and, as some Japanese reviews put it, require the patience of a saint and intellect far beyond the games intended target audience. Indeed. Besides many of the games triggerable events being INVISIBLE (meaning youll be searching tile after tile, and the phone yokai is not especially helpful), some puzzles defy conventional wisdom and there are several death ends, so save constantly. You can also take pictures to fill a B&W photo gallery, but there are basically no hints here either and I basically shot pics in random locations. I wouldnt call most of the game obtuse as the yokai book gives decent hints, but the game is hard to parse even with Japanese knowledge and theres tons of choices to go through.
Beyond the creature designs, the game has few assets, but I dont actually hate it. There are better horror / mystery games though. This is a vid of the game in action. Enjoy.")
