The JRPG Spotlight thread series has been dead for over four years, but I thought it might be a good time to revive it with a game Ive always enjoyed, but is not very well known: Oriental Blue: Ao no Tengai.
Title: Oriental Blue: Ao no Tengai (The Blue Beyond)
Platform: GameBoy Advance
Developer: Red Entertainment / Hudson Soft
Release Date: October 24, 2003
Official website (Japanese)
Whats this game?
Oriental Blue is a GBA RPG developed by Red Entertainment, with assistance from Hudson, and published by Nintendo in 2003. It is loosely related via themes and some gameplay mechanics to the more well-known Tengai Makyou series, which has sadly yet to see any sort of English release to this day. This game fuses many locations and mythologies from around the far east (i.e., Japan, China, Thailand, Mongolia) to present a story that is decidedly dark, particularly when contrasted against the Tengai Makyou seriess more lighthearted tradition.
The basic setup is familiar: top-down 2D graphics, first-person battles, random encounters, world map, etc., but it has plenty of unique aspects to make it a noteworthy experience.
Whats so interesting about this?
So if the basic setup is so traditional, why is this game worthy of the spotlight? Well, theres several things about it that stand out, particularly when compared to other Japanese RPGs.
The main thing about the game that sets it apart from its peers is what the developers call a free scenario system. This is a fancy name that was also associated with Romancing SaGa which really means that you are free to tackle events at will. Unlike Romancing SaGa, however, it is much more intuitive, and also includes a journal feature that makes a note of all of the important things that happen to you, highlighting the important details, and when and where they happened.
Before you begin the game, you can choose your characters gender. This is not just a sprite swap; it actually dictates where you begin the game, and which plot threads you are exposed to first. As the game opens, youre given enough exposition to get you curious, and then from where you begin, you are given a trail for a couple of the games main tasks, and speaking with people around you will lead you in other directions. From here, you can do whatever you wish, and how you go about doing those things, when you do them, what order you do them in, who you have with you when you do them, and so on will all have an effect on what happens in the game. So while the game has only one ending, there are very many different ways you can reach it.
Time goes on, as well. A girl who is sick in bed may eventually die if you dont help her, or a town beset by monsters may be overrun if you do not step up to help. As an extension of this, the game does not have the usual idea of a death penalty or a failure state. If you fight a boss and lose, the story will continue, taking your loss into account. In some cases, this can result in a major branch in the storyline, and in some cases it may be even in your favor to lose.
Your party is also determined by your choices in the game, and they all bring something unique to the table, not only through unique battle abilities, but also through story interactions. My personal favorite thing about this is that there is an ancient script in the game, and several of the characters are able to read it, but the translations they offer to you may not always be the same. One character might be more interested in getting the technical details correct, completely missing the subtleties, while another might be more interested in certain details and only focus on those. Its also not possible to get all characters on a single playthrough, ensuring further that each playthrough will be that much more different from the last.
Oriental Blue also features a fairly interesting system for using magical abilities and modifying equipment. As you explore and win battles, you come across magic stones. If these stones are used directly, they will be consumed to cast a spell for an MP cost, provided the user has high enough wisdom stat to actually cast the spell. However, they can also be taken to a modder who can imbue them into equipment. Imbuing a stone into a piece of equipment ordinarily results in raising various statistics on it, with each stone imbued increasing the likelihood that the equipment will break in battle. However, certain combinations of stones will infuse the equipment with an ability which is cast when that piece of equipment is used as an item in battle. These abilities cost no resources to use, and can be used as many times as you wish as long as the equipment doesnt break. The risk/reward at play here is quite interesting, and there do exist many pieces of equipment that will not break at all when imbued, although they tend to cost more and have lower base stats. The game also features a magic stone synthesis system, which allows you to combine some magic stones to create others.
Its quite a nice-looking game, with an interesting world and interesting inhabitants. It also has a wonderful soundtrack.
Who made this?
Oriental Blue was developed by Red Entertainment, a company perhaps better known for the Sakura Wars series, the Bonk series, and of course the Tengai Makyou series itself. It was also co-developed by Hudson, whom Id hope everybody is pretty familiar with in general, despite their recent death.
I wanna play it!
Well, I have good news for you, then. In 2013, The Romhacking Aerie released an extremely high-quality fan translation. Having only ever played the game in Japanese, personally, I picked up the English translation a few days ago and started replaying the game. Im very impressed with their work, and I would whole-heartedly recommend it to everyone.
Screenshots
Video
Below is a video released by the translation group which shows one of the games four possible introductions, including a potential starting area for the male hero, up through the first major main story point of the game. Highly recommended watching for those curious about the game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POpIsCh9OS8
JRPG Spotlight Archives
JRPG Spotlight Vol 1: Dark Half (SFC)
JRPG Spotlight Vol 2: Radia Wars Chronicle (FC)
JRPG Spotlight Vol 3: Emerald Dragon (Multi)
Title: Oriental Blue: Ao no Tengai (The Blue Beyond)
Platform: GameBoy Advance
Developer: Red Entertainment / Hudson Soft
Release Date: October 24, 2003
Official website (Japanese)
Whats this game?
Oriental Blue is a GBA RPG developed by Red Entertainment, with assistance from Hudson, and published by Nintendo in 2003. It is loosely related via themes and some gameplay mechanics to the more well-known Tengai Makyou series, which has sadly yet to see any sort of English release to this day. This game fuses many locations and mythologies from around the far east (i.e., Japan, China, Thailand, Mongolia) to present a story that is decidedly dark, particularly when contrasted against the Tengai Makyou seriess more lighthearted tradition.
The basic setup is familiar: top-down 2D graphics, first-person battles, random encounters, world map, etc., but it has plenty of unique aspects to make it a noteworthy experience.
Whats so interesting about this?
So if the basic setup is so traditional, why is this game worthy of the spotlight? Well, theres several things about it that stand out, particularly when compared to other Japanese RPGs.
The main thing about the game that sets it apart from its peers is what the developers call a free scenario system. This is a fancy name that was also associated with Romancing SaGa which really means that you are free to tackle events at will. Unlike Romancing SaGa, however, it is much more intuitive, and also includes a journal feature that makes a note of all of the important things that happen to you, highlighting the important details, and when and where they happened.
Before you begin the game, you can choose your characters gender. This is not just a sprite swap; it actually dictates where you begin the game, and which plot threads you are exposed to first. As the game opens, youre given enough exposition to get you curious, and then from where you begin, you are given a trail for a couple of the games main tasks, and speaking with people around you will lead you in other directions. From here, you can do whatever you wish, and how you go about doing those things, when you do them, what order you do them in, who you have with you when you do them, and so on will all have an effect on what happens in the game. So while the game has only one ending, there are very many different ways you can reach it.
Time goes on, as well. A girl who is sick in bed may eventually die if you dont help her, or a town beset by monsters may be overrun if you do not step up to help. As an extension of this, the game does not have the usual idea of a death penalty or a failure state. If you fight a boss and lose, the story will continue, taking your loss into account. In some cases, this can result in a major branch in the storyline, and in some cases it may be even in your favor to lose.
Your party is also determined by your choices in the game, and they all bring something unique to the table, not only through unique battle abilities, but also through story interactions. My personal favorite thing about this is that there is an ancient script in the game, and several of the characters are able to read it, but the translations they offer to you may not always be the same. One character might be more interested in getting the technical details correct, completely missing the subtleties, while another might be more interested in certain details and only focus on those. Its also not possible to get all characters on a single playthrough, ensuring further that each playthrough will be that much more different from the last.
Oriental Blue also features a fairly interesting system for using magical abilities and modifying equipment. As you explore and win battles, you come across magic stones. If these stones are used directly, they will be consumed to cast a spell for an MP cost, provided the user has high enough wisdom stat to actually cast the spell. However, they can also be taken to a modder who can imbue them into equipment. Imbuing a stone into a piece of equipment ordinarily results in raising various statistics on it, with each stone imbued increasing the likelihood that the equipment will break in battle. However, certain combinations of stones will infuse the equipment with an ability which is cast when that piece of equipment is used as an item in battle. These abilities cost no resources to use, and can be used as many times as you wish as long as the equipment doesnt break. The risk/reward at play here is quite interesting, and there do exist many pieces of equipment that will not break at all when imbued, although they tend to cost more and have lower base stats. The game also features a magic stone synthesis system, which allows you to combine some magic stones to create others.
Its quite a nice-looking game, with an interesting world and interesting inhabitants. It also has a wonderful soundtrack.
Who made this?
Oriental Blue was developed by Red Entertainment, a company perhaps better known for the Sakura Wars series, the Bonk series, and of course the Tengai Makyou series itself. It was also co-developed by Hudson, whom Id hope everybody is pretty familiar with in general, despite their recent death.
I wanna play it!
Well, I have good news for you, then. In 2013, The Romhacking Aerie released an extremely high-quality fan translation. Having only ever played the game in Japanese, personally, I picked up the English translation a few days ago and started replaying the game. Im very impressed with their work, and I would whole-heartedly recommend it to everyone.
Screenshots
Video
Below is a video released by the translation group which shows one of the games four possible introductions, including a potential starting area for the male hero, up through the first major main story point of the game. Highly recommended watching for those curious about the game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POpIsCh9OS8
JRPG Spotlight Archives
JRPG Spotlight Vol 1: Dark Half (SFC)
JRPG Spotlight Vol 2: Radia Wars Chronicle (FC)
JRPG Spotlight Vol 3: Emerald Dragon (Multi)
