tigerwolf

Here's a stack of some my guides so far. Not a huge collection, but it's because I collect with a limited budget so I move slowly. My fave is the one on the Beatles. I never expected to see a Koei book about the Beatles. Part of the "Koei Cult Club" (whatever that is!)

Glad to meet a fellow Dragon Quest fan! As for me, it's been a pleasure collecting Japanese imports and obscurities like @DefaultGen This year with all the Wata/HA hype zaniness happening it's been a nice to ignore it while I continue to focus on collecting things that most people likely aren't collecting. Yahoo Auctions is so much more fun than eBay! And while I've been focused specifically on Koei games, my favorite thing to collect from Japan right now are video game music CDs. For years I knew there Final Fantasy CDs, but I didn't realize just how many other game companies released not only "Original Sound" versions but Arranged and Orchestral versions as well. I've spent the last week cataloging Koei CDs in Airtable and it's been a strangely satisfying 10,000 piece puzzle to solve.

Since my goal is to build a Koei Collection, I have a healthy number of their Japanese strategy guides. I also have a few non-Koei ones for games like Destiny of an Emperor 2, Secret of Mana, Final Fantasy VI, etc. The super cool thing about the Japanese guides is that most of them are in that cool 'mook' format. Colorful like a magazine but the smaller form factor of a paperback novel. Like the one I attached for Romance of the Three Kingdoms 2 They're the best. Maybe one day I'll actually learn to read Japanese

Pleased to say I passed the 50+ Import Games milestone recently! While it's probably just a bunch of import junk to most... To me, it's a decent start towards my personal goal of building a Koei-focused collection.

Thanks for the fun, folks! This was a great diversion from work and life stresses. I do love a good mixtape, and you all picked some awesome tracks. Here's my slightly-belated "best of" mix for the final day. I picked one track from each person's playlist that jumped out at me the most: AverageOliver98 - Hollow Knight, “Main Theme” fox - Cadillacs & Dinosaurs, “The Forest Poachers” Sumez - Sexy Parodius, “Vic Viper & Lord British’s Theme” Aguy - SNES Classic Menu ZeldaFreak - Final Fantasy VI, “Dancing Mad” (aka Mozart - Dies Irae) nesmaster14 - Shatter Hand, “Final Area" sp1nz - Dragon Warrior Monsters, “Never-Ending Journey” AstralSoul - Chrono Trigger, “Secret of the Forest” rdrunner - Final Fantasy Legend 2, "Heroic Tune" acromite53 - Sesame Street 1-2-3, “Ernie’s Magic Shapes" 0xDEAFC0DE - The Messenger, “Bamboo Boogaloo II (Bamboo Creek”) PII - Jackie Chan’s Action Kung Fu, “Levels 1-4, 1-5, 1-6, 5-3 & 5-5” koifish - Wario’s Woods, “Practice Mode” And here is a playlist with all my selections (including the ones above): Looking forward to the next one!

@AverageOliver98 How many tracks should we pick for this second list? And do we post them as a new comment/response to this thread? N00b here trying to understand the process. Apologies if this was covered somewhere and I somehow missed it

Makes sense, okay!

Can people earn the Beat Every NES Game Participant badge if they participated this year? I contributed Destiny of an Emperor recently. And the NES controller is cool so I'd love to have one on me profile! Many thanks

Thanks, glad to participate! Yep, I'm a diehard Koei collector, so either of those two have potential for me. But they would take a long time to slog through, so I may need a shorter palette cleanser first

Thanks! Yep, I want to play through the fan translation at some point, too. There's also the other Capcom titles based on this manga license, like the Super Famicom one (where they attempted a Koei-style strategy game) and the two awesome beat 'em ups Dynasty Wars and Warriors of Fate. After beating this one I need a change of pace, I think

Destiny of an Emperor Completed! My very first 100% playthrough of this game! I used this forum thread as my motivation to finally complete this classic Capcom RPG. It is a marriage of two games I adore: Dragon Quest and Three Kingdoms. Man alive, it took me way too long to realize how to play this thing. There are some seriously UNFAIR tactics (spells) like instant death, instant 100% healing, and the ability to block ALL physical attacks from your ENTIRE party. I don't often want to throw a controller in disgust, but several of the later boss-like generals were just too much. Sima Yi was the most frustrating, which is probably fair as he ends up being the end boss of the game. The ending is very anticlimactic. But hey, at least they include the entire dev team in the end credits! How awesome is that?

Some of my import games. I also have a huge pile of import game guides and music CDs, but I'm assuming those don't count. 25+ Import Games

Romance of the Three Kingdoms 2 Complete Started on Friday, finally finished it up. Played on SNES9X on Vita so I wasn't monopolizing the TV. For the three people who care about this game, here are the details: Scenario: 1 Difficulty: 2 Province: 5 Ruler: New Ruler, Female with Female Follower Final Ruler to Defeat: Ma Teng Items Earned: Black Dragon Sword, Moon Sword, Amulet (don't remember which one), Book (don't remember which one), Red Hare. Did not earn any rare items, unfortunately. But I did behead Cao Cao in the first 2 years

31-Day Challenge Hard Mode Inindo: Way of the Ninja, "Oath of Tomorrow" It's such a strange game and most of the soundtrack is lacklustre. But there's something intriguing about the prologue and music you get when you do not hit Start. Somehow it just draws you into the story with just music, text, and still images. I wonder how many people tried this game but skipped the completely optional prologue. After all, you only see it when you do not press Start. The track in question is #3 on the arranged CD: https://youtu.be/gjq6zKsrRcs Mega Man 2, Title Screen - I had to veto my wife and daughter here (they voted for Dragon Quest). I wanted to pick something more obscure or less predictable here, but this track is just too irresistible. This track starts out so poignant and introspective, then quickly kicks into action, setting the pace for one of the best platformer games of all-time. A true classic. I also love the Mega Ran track that uses samples from this one. Soul Blazer, "World of Soul Blader" - when you search for level select music on YouTube, you tend to find an acre of Mega Man music. While that music is great, I prefer the world map music in Soul Blazer. The harmony is so unique, and the melody gets stuck in your head for days. I adore the score to this game. There's a melancholy to this music that makes it more memorable than Actraiser's score overall to me. Faxanadu, Track 7 - the second overworld music that kicks in. I need to dig to see if there's a title for this one or an audio CD released in Japan at some point. All uploads seem to have been removed from YouTube. Found it. As of current all I can find is that the uncredited composer was Jun Chikuma. This track just feels like the ultimate hero adventure music. So infectious. I adore this piece. Secret of Mana, "What the Forest Taught Me" (Hiroko Kikuta) - I'm sure this is probably a predictable choice that many others will pick, but it's just too good. It should be on every list. I replay this game JUST to get to the stage with this music playing. One of my favorite pieces of video game music of all-time. Cybernator, "Asteroid Run" (Masanao Akahori) - Yes, I know, I know. I'm a bad person. I will catch flack for this one, but I don't care. When I was a teenager, I had a limited budget for video games. I'm not sure what I was expecting the game to be, but I was drawn to the cover. It looked so intriguing. But after shelling out a ton of cash and finding the gameplay tedious and slow as an action game (I was used to Genesis), I was hugely disappointed. It's not until recent years that I've opened myself to the possibility that this game could be cool. Being an old laggard is hard sometimes. Romancing SaGa, "Beat Them Up!" (Kenji Ito) - Seriously, this track rocks. Ito is such a great composer, very much one of my favorites. The pace of this one is great. It's tense and gets you pumped up for a battle. I have this on some random SaGa Battle Music CD, and it creates that instant sense of anxiety that you look for in battle music. Mario is Missing, "United States" (Sam Powell and Rob Wallace) - it seems like the only original piece of music throughout the entirety of this flaming turd of a game, but even this one is derivative. Anytime I have a conversation at work about "edutainment", this horrible game comes up. At least it's like a 2D Mario walking simulator game? The musicians behind the score did a really nice job reinterpreting the classic Mario music (as long as we forget about the horrendous psuedo-Asian Mario theme for the Japan/China level). FEZ, "Majesty" (Disasterpeace) - Words cannot begin to describe how strongly I feel about the score for FEZ. It was that moment that converged all of the things I love in video games and folded it all into a single, cohesive, intellectually-stimulating, and at times, emotionally-gutwrenching package. There's a good reason this game is rated so highly and why the music continues to endure so strongly. The music is the core heart of this game. It takes something that could just be a simple pixelated puzzle platformer and utterly transcends it to a mystical, almost spiritual place. Breathtaking. Paperboy, Main Theme - this was hard, cuz literally every single underrated title either isn't underrated now and is apparently a "hidden gem" on the internet. I thought about Nobunaga's Ambition, but Yoko Kanno has a cult following. But unfortunately, the only thing that came to mind was this little ditty from one of the most dull ideas for a game ever to grace a microchip. Wonder if anyone has tried to make a new "newspaper route simulator" game for 2021... Could be a missed opportunity for a game designer to become a billionaire with a killer game theme like that! Uncharted Waters New Horizons, "Mast in the Mist" (Yoko Kanno) - Nothing says open sea quite like the Uncharted Waters series. Only recently did I learn that composer Yoko Kanno has a fan base of music collectors who snatch up all her work, including the arranged Koei Soundware CDs. As a Koei collector it sucks because the Yoko Kanno fans drive up all the prices. In any case, this is a beautiful, wistful piece of music that makes you contemplate while staring out at sea. Aoki Densetsu Shoot, Title Screen - while I'm sure I won't care too much about the gameplay of this title, I am definitely intrigued due to the outstanding music. I first heard this one on a YT video that features short clips of every single SFC/SNES game, and the music jumped right out at me. Atmosfear, "Hellin's Toyworld" - I have no idea who composed this, but it's all kinds of creepy wonderful. In high school we used to go to one guy's house at lunch to close all the blinds and play Nightmare, the VHS board game. "ANSWER ME, YOU MAGGOTS!" became our running joke. So to see that this game almost became a video game is super fascinating to me. Though not intriguing enough for me to bother spending actual time to research it. Sim City, Village - I've been a fan of calm, relaxing, slow-paced games since the late 80's. Even today, I gravitate towards thinky, turn-based games that feel like board games. The SNES Sim City is a masterpiece of slow gaming, with an equally outstanding soundtrack. But it's the first few city levels I like best. As soon as you hit the big time and your town becomes a city, the music stops being good. Actraiser, "The Beast Appears" (Yuzo Koshiro) - This soundtrack was absolutely mind-blowing when it came out. Nothing in video games before ever sounded this cinematic, this dramatic, or this intense. The ramp up music as you descend from heaven to the first level of Fillmore. And then the moment when the centaur boss arrives, with this killer piece of boss music. I couldn't believe how emotionally intense this experience was when I was a wee lad experiencing this game for the first time. Final Fantasy VI, Kefka (Nobuo Uematsu) - Nothing personifies evil quite as effectively as Kefka, who remains my all-time favorite video game character. I love how when you first hear this tune, you notice the quirky clown aspects of the arrangement. The plink-plink-plink-plink doesn't intially scream "this character is the ultimate evil", so it comes across as questioning with a slight air of concern. It's not until you see Kefka poisoning the river that his true nature starts to reveal itself and the music takes a darker turn, even though it hasn't changed at all. While others may prefer "Dancing Mad," I can't resist this more indirect interpretation of evil incarnate. Shodai Nekketsu Kouha Kunio-Kun, "Shodai Medley" - I have a real soft spot in my heart for the Kunio-Kun characters, especially of the chibi variety. Super Dodge Ball remains a favorite. I love the music in the Super Famicom title in the series, and this medley captures all that rad fun energy of the series. Such a great tune. Street Fighter II Turbo, Ken - I'm used to the SNES version of SF2 as I spent so many more hours with it than any other version. For that reason I can't help but choose this one. Shovel Knight, "Strike the Earth (Plains of Passage)" - this track could easily have been in the #18 position here for "tracks that get me pumped". I love the music in Shovel Knight, as it's so evocative of those classic NES sidescrolling adventures. While the gameplay feels like Duck Tales, the overall vibe feels more like a higher-energy Castlevania-meets-Faxanadu. Off on an adventure, ready to go. This one 'slaps' as the kids might say. E.V.O. The Search for Eden, "Cry for the Past" (Koichi Sugiyama) - Talk about one of the dirtiest tricks a game designer could ever play on a player. You have no choice but to be emotionally punished for playing the game here. You're playing the game, killing enemies, eating their meat, evolving, rinsing and repeating. In this scene you get attacked by some bastard yeti, so of course you do what you've been doing all along. You kill him. And then of course, it's all tears and sadness as you just killed and ate the yeti child's dad. Then you're hit by this tragic funeral dirge music straight outta the Shrines of Dragon Quest. But let's be real - I love this game. Super Off-Road, "Sidewinder" - Had no idea who composed this great music before. Turns out it's the Follins. I'm sure most other people will pick this track, too. Oh well, it's awesome. Aerobiz Supersonic, "Tears in Heaven" "North America" - God this track still makes me laugh every single time it comes on. At the 0:30 mark this cheeze-ball horn-like instrument starts farting all over the track, only to be concluded by the lamest little high-hat 'tiss' afterwards. It almost comes across like a SNES rimshot. I also love that they chose a composition by a British musician (Eric Clapton) to butcher as the music to epitomize America. Hilarious. Was this a Rick-Roll for Koei back in the early 90's? So great. Romancing SaGa 3, "Last Battle" (Kenji Ito) - I had no idea SNES music could be this metal before I imported some old SaGa Battle Music CD from Japan. Holy crap is this ever metal. Double kick drum type stuff. If you want something to feel intense and anxious, just put this on. An easy way to make a menu-based JRPG feel like an intense experience. The most intense menu navigation experience ever. Shining Force II, Town Theme - I could just listen to town themes all day. While I absolutely adore SF2 and think it's one of the crowning achievements on the Mega Drive, I couldn't honestly say that the music stands up against the Final Fantasies or Phantasy Stars. I believe this particular Shining Force remains a Sega exclusive. Club Penguin: Elite Penguin Force, Gadget Room (In-Game Version) (SilvaGunner) - Confession: I hadn't heard of SilvaGunner until this challenge, so it took me a minute to figure out what the heck was going on. When I looked him up, this was the latest video, uploaded an hour before I searched. Small world. I picked this "high-quality rip", as it's the first conventionally-published video game I worked on (CPEPF), having written for the script in the game. My tiny claim to 'fame' as it were. While the Bugsnax track is decent, the original "Gadget Room" tune is better. Tetris, Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy (Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky) - There's only one classical track that I now associate more with the game than the original source, and that's the Tetris rendition of "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy". This little ditty will forevermore be cemented in my little brain as NES music, not Christmas ballet music. Duck Tales, "Moon Theme" - Talk about the most predictable choice ever. But is there really any other choice other than this? I was tempted to pick the totally zany moon music from Final Fantasy IV here, but it still doesn't hold a candle to the Duck Tales moon theme. Ghouls 'n' Ghosts, Stage Five (Tamayo Kawamoto) - It took me ages to finally reach this level when I was a kid. My dad and I had to work together to get to the ending of GnG. What a slog! This game is still brutally difficult to me. Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr.'s Journey, "In the Final DX" (Yoko Shimomura) - Talk about a great piece of music! And tonally unexpected for a Mario RPG game in my mind. Almost feels out of place in a Mario game in contrast to all the Paper Mario music. Final Fantasy IV, Finale - Best endgame music ever. Simple.

Broke the game? Do tell! Yep, the NES one is tre good. Worth every penny of its ludicrous aftermarket price. But the SNES one has all the Hot Keys and you can swap to map with L/R. Much much much faster for blitzing around the menus. I also prefer each province having its own color for the ruler. Easier to see than the little flags. Very very cool to hear that someone else plays it still, too

Playing the same game today that I've been playing since 1992: Romance of the Three Kingdoms 2 on SNES. I've played other games but this one is the gift that keeps on giving.

Good tip, thanks! How on earth does this work? You beat the game, upload the evidence, then there's some sort of contest? I was looking at that and my tiny little brain was confused about how it worked

I wonder how many folks will say a pack-in launch title. I imagine it would be many folks' first? I wanted something interesting or exotic as the first one. Instead, mine is Combat for the Atari 2600. Not a terribly interesting first game, but it was fun

That's cool, very nice! Do you guys let people join as a spectator, or do you mainly look for other players? Might be tricky to attend for me with kids and such, but will keep an eye on these in case I can join in some time!

For sure, I enjoyed Mischief Makers quite a bit. There are a few highlights on the N64. I was just being silly

Nice! Welcome, fellow new member. What's your favorite Ninja Gaiden game?

You're a good person, and she deserves a better, more accepting man like you. It's nice when soulmates find each other As for me, I'm living that polyamorous open relationship lifestyle with my Sega Genesis Model-1 and SNES. We occasionally fight and they get jealous of each other, but overall we make it work. We've been to counselling and talked about the war between the two of them, and I think we managed to really get somewhere together Maybe one night I can talk to the two of them to see if the three of us are ready to open up the relationship to include an N64. But both my ladies love their Koei games, so I don't think they'd welcome a fourth-wheel lady into our special Circle of Love quite yet. Besides, I think they might both secretly have a 'thing' for the X68000 instead. I can't quite put my finger on it, but I think they've been eyeing her up for a while

That's so awesome! I started posting to the board there only recently as I started building an Airtable db of all the ROTK2 generals and had some questions, haha. Thanks for that terrain map, it's so excellent! Well, both of us (me, Tiger and my buddy nate, Wolf) are in Kelowna. So not very far away to have an IRL game! Just have to find some pub where they'd let us plug in a SNES. Shouldn't be a problem, right? We could bring our own CRT ...oh right, Covid and the plague and all that. But hey, at least at one point Canada might get some vaccines distributed!

Fantastic to meet a fellow old Koei fan! I also love the 80s/90s Nobunaga's Ambition games. But to be honest, I very much like Inindo much more, as it's just so original and unique and unlike anything else made by any other game dev. Man, that box art is incredible. All because of the legendary Noriyoshi Ohrai, may he rest in peace. Truly beautiful fantasy painter. His Empire Strikes Back art is my fave

So awesome! Very glad to hear that and very glad to be here, then! Took me too long to join, thanks for making it a pleasant joining experience