Fire Emblem: Heroes, which made wargames – or more precisely, SRPGs – appear in the market in a very high profile at the beginning of the year, and did well as soon as they were launched. In addition to proving the power of the IP itself, the success of Fire Emblem will more or less have some impact on the trend of handheld games this year.
As a derivative game genre developed from SLG, SRPG very early has now become a classic classification, not very popular, but with a solid fan base. There are many stories about the origin of SRPGs, with the earliest in Europe and the United States dating back to the launch of Genesis 3: Exodus in 1983, and a bit earlier in Japan, where Glorious launched the first game with modern SRPG features, Dragon Princess, in 1982.
After the early initial exploration on PC-88 and other personal computers, SRPG games in the 1990s ushered in a golden period of rapid development, in this decade, the birth of a number of famous series of games. Among them, the most dazzling is the Japanese RPG trio – “Fire Emblem”, “Fantasy Simulation” (also known as “Rangulisa”) and “Royal Knights” series.
In the first game of the SLG trilogy “ELSLID” (ELSLID), released in 1987, the developers designed a grand magical worldview in which swords and magic intersected, with two forces representing “light” and “darkness” respectively. Two forces, representing “light” and “darkness”, fought a bitter war for their faithful. Although it seems a bit rotten now, it was a very fresh setting in similar games at that time.
With the charming plot, “Eluslid” was widely praised by players upon its launch, and Masaya Games soon released an enhanced version of “Eluslid”, “Gaiya’s Coat of Arms”, in the same year.
Gaia’s Crest” shares the same worldview as its predecessor. Unlike its predecessor, “Gaia’s Coat of Arms” includes a “plot mode” for the first time, which allows players to follow the game’s script and challenge a number of levels linked by the main plot in turn. In addition, some levels in the game also require players to gain points to improve the strength to pass. This strong RPG setting was new at the time. It was because of these features that many Japanese players later considered “Gaia’s Emblem” to be a true pioneer of modern Japanese SRPG.
In 1991, the team that developed Erustrid and Gaia’s Emblem released an original SLG game, Fantasy Simulation, on the SEGA MD console. This game abandoned the free choice of levels (through the secret book can freely choose levels), the player can only follow the game plot to complete a total of 20 chapters of challenges, such a setting greatly enhanced the sense of immersion in the game plot, and the game’s protagonist Prince Redding led by a number of handsome characters also let people remember the game’s character setting – The game’s main character, Prince Redding, is also remembered for his character setting.
The appearance of the MD version of “Fantasy Simulation War” has changed the impression of the inherent high difficulty of SLG games. The game’s three types of weapons and the simple and clear system of strengthening the commander’s mercenaries made Fantasy Simulation a rare SLG game that was easy to learn at that time.
Two years later, Masaya Games ported the first generation of Fantasy Simulation to the PCE-CD console. The large capacity of the CD and the improved performance of the console allowed the production staff to add well-made title animations to the game, and the expanded character images on the map and live voice acting further highlighted the rich personality of each character that appeared. After the game was released, a large number of PCE players gave full recognition to the sincerity of the port and the final quality of this work. But this also happened to annoy the SEGA console players who bought the first generation of MD version. Many people think Masaya Games this move is an act of betrayal. There was a heated discussion on this issue in the PC-Engine Fan magazine published by Tokuma Bookstore at the time.
In order to appease the angry MD version users, Masaya Games released “Fantasy Simulation 2” in 1994, which is known as the highest masterpiece of the series. The launch of this generation not only surprised Nintendo who launched “Fire Emblem” and Quest who made “Royal Knights”, but also brought the reputation of the nascent series “Fantasy Simulation” to the peak.
Fantasy Simulation 2 inherits the worldview and timeline of Generation 1, with the story in Generation 2 taking place hundreds of years after the end of the war in Generation 1. Around the legendary symbol of light of the holy sword Langulisa and symbol of darkness of the magic sword Aruhazat, 1 generation protagonist Redding’s descendant Alvin led a group of companions for players to dedicate a more exciting battle between man and God. With the help of the rare 16Mbit capacity at that time, the number of game characters in the 2nd generation almost doubled than the 1st generation. Among them to the protagonist Alvin, the head of the Green Dragon Knights Leon, Carusas Princess Shirley and other characters full of personality is a great joy for players.
System, the number of props that each character can be equipped with the previous work 1 to 3, which greatly enhances the diversity of players in the distribution of equipment, and the new angel and demon soldiers also gives players more options when it comes to game strategy. In addition, for the first time in this work, there are hidden levels that require special conditions to be met in order to enter, in which the humorous performance of Masaya Games’ iconic character Brother Gui, who appears as an enemy character, is a source of great joy for players. So far, “Fantasy Simulation” has become one of the most representative masterpiece series on MD console.
Seeing that MD players are happily discussing the various topics of “Fantasy Simulation War” every day, the SFC console players next door couldn’t sit still. At that time, the SFC game magazine published the “most desired port game” ranking, “Fantasy Simulation” is one of them. In the spirit of player demand is the holy grail, Masaya Games quickly started the porting work, and in 1995 released “Der Fantasy Simulation” (Der is the abbreviation of derive, meaning derived), which further expanded the content based on the MD version of the 2nd generation.
In the SFC version, the developers of the MD version of a total of 27 chapters of the plot was streamlined, removing a few of the slightly ribbed transition levels, and added a multi-camp branch plot, players can complete the level of the Descendants of Light camp, by joining the Imperial Army, the Demon Army to experience the exciting story from another perspective. Of course, most players believe that the most attractive or not to join any camp of the way of the hegemon route, in addition to access to both the holy sword and the magic sword, the final chapter of the game Alvin and as the ancestors of Redding and love their witch of light Liana showdown is unforgettable for players.
After some drastic improvements, players and the industry’s evaluation of Der Fantasy Simulation surpassed the MD version of Fantasy Simulation 2, and logically became the most acclaimed one in the series. At that time, the Japanese gaming industry was already at the alternate point of the arrival of next-generation consoles, and Masaya Games, which was not satisfied with the existing achievements, ported Der Fantasy Simulation to NEC’s new console PC-FX after adding a lot of animation and voice acting. At this time, “Fantasy Simulation” is no longer the fist product of a certain console, she has grown into a world class game brand with a global reputation.
In 1994, with two next-generation consoles released one after another, major manufacturers also gradually transferred their main products from 16-bit consoles to the new platform. As a representative product of Japanese-made SRPG, “Fantasy Simulation” is naturally one of them. Long before the PC-FX version of Der Fantasy Simulation was announced for porting, Masaya Games announced that it would launch the 3rd generation of the Fantasy Simulation series on Sega’s new console SS. In Generation 3, the timeline of the story will be pulled back hundreds of years to the plot of Generation 1, and players will learn about the origin of the Holy Sword Fantasy Simulation War and the secrets of the respective agents of the Gods of Light and Darkness.
With the powerful performance of the new console, the 3rd generation uses a novel combination of 2D graphics + 3D combat, and the previous PCE-CD version of the same, with the help of large-capacity CD carrier to achieve the wonderful title animation also let the fans of the series exclaim. At the same time, the 3 generation of the first female character good feeling system also allows many hardcore fans drooling at the illustrations of the human figure to fulfill a dream of the hero to hold a beautiful woman. The game’s music and the high quality of Tomochi Urushihara’s play, everyone thought this generation would bring the series’ reputation to a new high point. However, this is just a good wish.
Ultimately, despite having the most dramatic plot and beautiful graphics in the history of the series, “Fantasy Simulation 3” ended up with a mixed review because of the changes made to the system. This also led to the launch of Generation 3 for a long time after the launch of other consoles did not launch a port (finally 3 generation in July 2005 ported to the PS2)
After the 3 generation experienced a roller coaster of losses, in order to restore the confidence of the players lost, the production team quickly began to SS version 4 generation of planning and development work, and the same period, the PS console 1, 2 generation of the production of the collection was also on the agenda. Although there are many players who have been in contact with the “Fantasy Simulation” series since the 3rd generation hope to play the previous works on the same console, but in the era of the gal game is prevalent, all manufacturers are looking for business opportunities with the mentality that they can make a profit. The good thing is that Masaya Games later also launched the same product on SS and added some new details to the PS version, such as the fact that players can eventually recruit their arch enemy Leon to their side in Generation 2, which is exclusive to the SS version.
After more than 1 year of intense production, the 4th generation of the series was released in August ’97. In view of the painful lessons of the 3rd generation, the production team abandoned the questionable semi-instant combat system in the previous work, and returned to the traditional turn-based system, but if only to regress back to the settings of the 2nd generation, I believe that the series players will certainly not buy.
For this reason, the production team referred to the then-popular “Royal Knights 2”, designed a “no distinction between the enemy and me and move in a certain order” system. The order of movement is determined by a value called “judgment”, and usually the higher the movement of the character’s judgment is relatively low, which brings a whole new set of variables for the player’s action decisions.
The magic that was so strong in previous works of the series is also limited to a certain extent in this work: the more powerful the magic the longer the chanting time, which greatly increases the cost and risk of using magic. Like the 2nd generation and the Green Dragon Knights showdown in the level of the enemy before the action was smashed to pieces by meteor magic scene is forever a thing of the past.
In terms of plot, the stage of the 4th generation has been changed from the “Elsaria continent” in the previous 3 games to a new place called “Jerez continent”, and the relevance of the characters appearing in the game and the descendants of Light has also been greatly weakened. The overall worldview of the game has also changed from the world of gods and demons in the previous game to a slightly steampunk style wacky thing. Perhaps the only reassuring thing about this generation is the familiar voice of the Prince of Darkness, Bozanlu. The good thing is, with the return of the highly acclaimed multi-route system in Generation 2, fans of the series have finally found some comfort from the sense of loss in Generation 3.
The 1995 “Fantasy Simulation 5”, the plot and 4 generation is articulated and ushered in the release of the final grand finale news. With a scream from the final boss of Generation 5, Kizarov, the Fantasy Simulation series also came to the end of its illustrious life.
In 1998, Masaya Games’ parent company NCS announced its complete withdrawal from the game market. After that, Masaya Games also released two spin-offs bearing the Fantasy Simulation name on Sega SS’s successor console DC and Bandai’s handheld Wander Swan, but since neither game was developed by the original team, and the characters were not developed by the original team. But since neither game was developed by the original team, and the characters were not played by Tomochi Urushihara, most hardcore fans do not consider them to be works in the “Fantasy Simulation War” series.
The 3DS version of “Fantasy Simulation” lost badly, but that doesn’t take away from the glory that “Fantasy Simulation” once created. The value of the brand is still there, especially this year has a good start – if Fire Emblem Handicap can convey the charm of SRPG to a wider range of users, then this genre may usher in a spring on the mobile platform.
