Soul Edge

Most gamers might be familiar with the Soul Calibur series, the first Soul Calibur game being one of the main reasons a lot of people got the Sega Dreamcast back in the late nineties.
Not as many people might know that Soul Calibur was actually the second game in the series, the first one being titled Soul Edge.
Soul Edge was originally released as an arcade game in 1995, and later ported to PlayStation 1996 in Japan, and 1997 in North America and Europe, although in Europe, North America, and Australia, it was renamed Soul Blade.

It was the second entirely weapon based 3D fighting game in history, the first being Battle Arena Toshinden (1995).
In my humble opinion probably one of the best fighting game for the PlayStation, and it easily has one of the best intros of a fighting game to date. Just look at this intro!

It was already very much what we have come to expect of the series.
A 3D fighter with an ensemble (although not that many characters for those used to modern fighters) of interesting characters, each with their own ambitions and motivations, and different playstyles. And, compared to most other fighting games of the time (and contemporary, for anyone who played SFIV, for instance), it had a deep storyline (at least in "Edge Master Mode"), and the ability to get new improved weapons.

Story

The year is 1584.

Legends tell of the ultimate sword, "Soul Edge".

It has been given many names throughout history, such as "The Sword of Salvation", "The Sword of Heroes" and "The Ultimate Sword".

The sword appeared mysteriously in an auction, and was taken by the pirate Cervantes de Leon, who shortly thereafter disappeared.

Now nine warriors from around the world all seek the sword for their own reasons.

Hwang Seong-gyeong 

A man with a great sense of justice.

He grew up hardened and eventually enrolled himself in the Seong Dojang to learn to use the long sword. It didn't take him long to become the best student in the dojang and was eventually deemed good enough to be taught a private lesson by the master himself, Seong Han-myong.

Facing increasing incursions from Japanese raiders, a coast guard was quickly formed and led by Admiral Lee Sun Shin, with Hwang as the first to volunteer. Rumors of Soul Edge, deemed the "Sword of Salvation", spread to Korea, and Lee Sun Shin sent him to go and find it in order the protect their country from the Japanese.

Seong Mi-na

Growing up in the famous Korean Seong Dojang headed by her father, Seong Han-myeong, Mi-na had always been surrounded by weapons, many of which she learned to use quite well, even surpassing her father with the wol-do.

Facing increasing incursions from Japanese raiders, a coast guard was quickly formed and led by Yi Soon Shin, her father's childhood friend, with Mi-na desperate to join in the military; but she was denied on account of her gender. 

Overhearing rumors of Soul Edge, deemed the "Sword of Salvation", while eavesdropping on a private conversation between her father and Hwang, she decided that she could prove herself by finding the fabled sword for her country. This prompted her to pack her belongings and run away from home, not knowing that Hwang had already been sent out on his own official quest for the weapon.

Li Long

After the death of the great Eirakutei, the Ming Dynasty was left open to plundering by pirates from southern Japan. Li Long was hired by the emperor on a private mission to assassinate the leader of the pirates and bring Soul Edge home with him. Instead he decided to not only assassinate the leader of the pirates, but the daimyo feudal lords as well.
An attack on the head of a powerful family in Honshū failed horribly. Left badly injured, he was rescued by a young girl named Chie, the daughter of the former leader of the Fu-Ma clan. She devoted herself to Long's care, and they eventually fell in love. One day, while Li Long was out, a fight had broken out and Chie was thought to have been killed. Long was told a wandering swordsman had started the fight and left. Witnesses thought that it may have been Heishiro Mitsurugi. Long set out for revenge on Chie's behalf, learning along the way that Mitsurugi was looking for Soul Edge.

Heishiro Mitsurugi

Mitsurugi was a powerful force on the battlefield, and rumors of him spread like wildfire, he was noted by Uesugi Kenshin and Oda Nobunaga as a great warrior. 

Mitsurugi continued to fight in every war in Japan as a hired mercenary. It was during this time that he had learned of a new weapon that was said to be changing the way wars would be fought: the rifle. He originally dismissed this weapon as a novelty, but he soon learned that it was capable of obliterating the Takeda cavalry at the Battle of Nagashino. He decided that the only way to combat with this was to find a stronger weapon: the enchanted sword of legend, Soul Edge.

Taki

Taki had suspicions about her foster father, Toki, was being influenced by an evil force resonating with the Mekki-Maru, his magical blade. Hearing rumors of the cursed sword, Soul Edge, Taki felt certain that this was the source of evil and thus set out on journey to find the blade and destroy it.

For some time, Taki had noticed that her favorite sword, Rekki-Maru, had been acting strangely. Its once considerable power had weakened. When she had been called in to slay the Fury demons which had been confined in a temple, she was barely able to defeat them and seal the gates back. Taki was sure that Soul Edge was affecting her own sword as well. Thus, she now had two reasons for going after the legendary blade.

Siegfried Schtauffen

Siegfried became the leader of their band of thieves known as "Schwarzwind". The band ambushed a band of knights who ran away from the crusades, too tired to retaliate. Siegfried even managed to kill the commander himself; but as he held the commander's severed head he realized it was the head of his own father.
He came to a point at which he convinced himself that his father's murderer was actually someone other than himself. Hearing rumors of the invincible Soul Edge, Siegfried came to believe his father's killer could only be killed with said weapon.

Sophitia Alexandra

One day, as Sophitia bathed in a forest spring, a bright light appeared and took the shape of a man. He revealed to her that he was the Olympian god of fire and forge Hephaestus and told her of the evil sword Soul Edge. Hephaestus ordered her to come to the Eurydice Shrine and receive a holy weapon, the Omega Sword, so that she could destroy Soul Edge. At first, Sophitia was reluctant to take the holy mission; as she told Hephaestus, she was but a baker's daughter. However, Hephaestus insisted she could achieve the goal, and Sophitia relented. Upon gaining her equipment, she ventured forward.

Nathaniel William "Rock" Adams

Born the son of Mr. Adams, an English curio dealer specializing in rare weapons, Nathaniel William Adams obtained his nickname, "Rock," because of his immense strength. Rock's father had bid on Soul Edge at a secret auction, and was bringing it home on his ship with family on board when the dread pirate Cervantes de Leon attacked. The ship sank, and Rock, the only survivor, washed up on the shore of the New World, where he learned to live off the land. He tried to join one of the tribes in the area, but they were afraid of the "White Giant", and the only one to befriend him was a young Apache orphan, Bangoo. Rock, by this time an adult, became a father figure to Bangoo.

Voldo

The right-hand man of Italian weapons merchant Vercci, known as the Merchant of Death, due to his business with the Spanish Armada. Vercci desired Soul Edge to form part of his collection of rare weapons, and Voldo stood as the head of the expeditions in his search, even contracting the services of the feared Spanish Captain Cervantes de Leon.
Voldo would later be sealed in his masters tomb and money pit, turning himself into it's guardian and slaying those who ventured to steal. Years later, Voldo would hear his master's voice commanding him to search Soul Edge once again, making him leave the tomb to do so.

Endings

Most players felt that the game was pretty dark, largely due to the fact that all characters had two endings, one good and one bad. But to gain the good ending, the player had to push just the right button at just the right time during the ending sequence.

The fact that the game didn't in any way hint what button to press, or even that this was a feature of the game at all, meant that the majority of players (me included) only got to experience the bad endings.

I for one enjoyed the rather dark theme of the game, since it made it stand out from other games, but I suppose some people where upset not to be rewarded by their hard work of beating the game.

Version differences

In the first arcade release Hwang was only available in the Korean versions of the game.

In version 2 of the arcade he was made available in all regions.

The PlayStation version added the intro movie above, and the Edge Master Mode, which added much to the story of each individual character, as well as the ability to choose different weapons.

Edge Master Mode

It also made some minor color changes, and added the bosses of the game; Cervantes, and SoulEdge, as playable characters. (SoulEdge is renamed Inferno in later games, so as not to be confused with the sword).

Outside of Japan the game is renamed "Soul Blade", and the American version changes the intro movie, by adding clothes to Sophitia's bathing scene (Obviously showing a woman's naked back would be to much to handle for the yanks).

When the game was released in Europe, this seemingly arbitrary "censorship" remained. Also Li Long's weapon was changed to a three-section-staff, because of the ban of Nunchakus and shurikens in the U.K.

Pricing

~€10 Used, Playstation

~€30 Brand new, Playstation

~€400, Arcade (with cabinet)

~€100-300, Arcade (game board only)

Romance of the Three Kingdoms

Box cover of the DOS version (1989)

"Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is a turn-based strategy game first released in 1985 for the PC-88, and the following year for a number of other Japanese home computers.
The original title was "Sangokushi" (三国志), which translates to "Records of the Three Kingdoms", and is also a Chinese historical text  written by Chen Shou in the third century, and covers the late Eastern Han dynasty (184-220 AD), and the Three Kingdoms period (220-280 AD).

Incidentally "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" (which is the English title of the game) is the title of a 14th century novel by Luo Guanzhong.
It is not clear why the title was changed for the English release, but in any case both works covers the same period in China's history.

Sharp X6800 (1988)

The Three Kingdoms period

In Asia the Three Kingdoms period is basically as popular as the Arthurian legends are in the west. (With the obvious difference that there are no definite evidence of King Arthur and Camelot actually having existed in history.)

For those of you unfamiliar with this historical period, here's a (very) short summary.

The oath in the peach garden;
When Liu Bei, Zhang Fei, and Gyan Yu swore an oath of brotherhood.

The Han dynasty was in decline. The de facto power was held by ten eunuchs of the court, not the child emperor.
Led by Zhang Jiao, the religious cult "The Way Of Supreme Peace", whose members wore yellow turbans to identify themselves, rose in rebellion against the corrupt government.

The rebellion was quenched, but some warlords decided to depose of the eunuchs themselves.
One of these warlords was Dong Zhou. He takes control of the capital and deposes Emperor Shao and enthrones Liu Xie as Emperor Xian of Han. Thus essentially making himself ruler of the land.

As Dong Zhou was a cruel and selfish despot the country continued to suffer and a coalition to depose him was created, consisting of several prominent warlords of the land.
When the coalition was successful the they disbanded, and the warlords each returned home.

The chaos of the land continued, but out of the chaos three men, who all desired to unite the land under their own rule, eventually manages to establish their own kingdoms, thus splitting china in to three.
Cao Cao, a former general of the Han, founded Wei in the north.
Sun Ce, a descendant of Sun Tzu, founded Wu in the south.
And Liu Bei, a distant relative of the Han emperor, founded Shu in the west.

DOS (1989)

When was the game first released?

English Wikipedia (and nearly every other online resource) lists the game to first be released in 1985, but was it in fact released in 1986?

The Japanese Wikipedia lists the PC-88 game to be released 10 December 1985, but the loading screen of the game itself clearly states it was released 10 December of 1986.

Loading screen, PC-88 (1986?)

The 13th game in the series was announced as "the 30th anniversary", and it was released in January of 2016.
You could conclude that this fact together with the date in the original game itself would be enough to prove it was released in 1986, not 1985. However the 30th anniversary collectors box containing the 12 first games of the series was released in 2015.
Incidentally the game 三国志ツクール (Romance of the Three Kingdoms Maker) was also announced as "the 30th anniversary" and it was released 10 December 2015!
Furthermore nearly all information online about the series as a whole, and the first game itself, states it was all started in 1985.

I haven't found any articles discussing this inconsistency, so should we trust the makers of the original game and conclude it was made in 1986, or should majority rule and the conclusion be that it was in fact released in 1985?

Considering the overwhelming evidence pointing to it having been released in 1985, I for one think the date in the original game is a simple typo.

Story

The game itself doesn't have much of a story, since events unfolds differently once the game is started depending on the players actions.
The instruction booklet does give an overview of the historical events, and an introductions to some of the more notable people, to put the game in context.

The game has 5 different scenarios, beginning at different points in the events that took place during the historical period though.
I found it somewhat peculiar that some of the scenarios (specifically #2 and #3) starts at years in between years of significant events. This may of course be to let the players recreate or avoid similar events during their own gameplay.
(of course I'm not a scholar, and my shallow research might have missed some significant events of those years).

DOS (1989)

1) A Chaotic World

Takes place 189 AD, when Dong Zhou has taken control of the capital, making himself the ruler of the land.

2) The Emergence of Cao Cao

Takes place 195 AD.
This is the year after Liu Bei succeeds Tao Qian as governor of Xu province. 

The following year (196 AD) Cao Cao will find Emperor Xian of Han in the ruins of the old capital in Louyang and bring him to Xuchang, where the new capital is established.

3) The opening of a New Age

Takes place 201 AD.
This is the year after Sun Quan succeeds his brother Sun Ce as warlord of Jiandong.

The following year (202 AD) Yuan Shao dies, and Cao Cao begins his campaign to reunify northern China.

NES (1989)

4) The Battle of Red Wall

The year 208 AD was when the battle of Red Cliff (in other games often referred to as 'the battle at Chi Bi') took place.

The naval battle saw the allied forces of Sun Quan and Liu Bei miraculously defeat the superior fleet of Cao Cao, who was made to retreat, effectively stopping his southern campaign.

5) Age of The Three Kingdoms

Takes place 215 AD.
Liu Bei takes control of Yi Province, and Cao Cao takes control of Hanzhong.

Now the land is effectively divide in three with Cao Cao ruling Wei in the north, Sun Quan ruling Wu in the south, and Liu Bei ruling Shu in the west.

Amiga (1989)

Gameplay

The game was Koei's third game. A turn-based, historical strategy game, in some ways similar to their previous game 信長の野望 Nobunaga no Yabō (1983).

This makes a lot of sense, since both series became part of Koei's "Historical Simulation Series", which came to include a wide range of similar strategy games, including "Genghis Khan" (1987), "L'Empereur" (1990), and "Liberty or Death" (1993), among others.

The game was praised for it's complexity, and the fact that it required following the advise of Sun Tzu's "The Art of War" in order for the player to be successful.
In fact one of the sequels starts with a quote from "The Art of War".

The success of the game lead to it spawning numerous sequels and spin-offs, making the series Koei's flagship title.

MSX (1986)

(For those who never heard of Sun Tzu: He was a military strategist living in China 544-496 BC. He wrote a guide on warfare called "The Art of War", which has remained popular even to the modern day.)

The object of the game is to take control of all of China before the set time period ends. If the time ends whoever is the most powerful wins the game.

The game can be rather slow, and require long-term strategies for the player to be successful. Furthermore the majority of the gameplay will focus on politics rather than battle.
It takes a lot of preparation to wage war, and it is not really possible to fight battle over battle, and trail-blaze through the country to win (as many players of the boardgame "Risk" tend to do).

The battles can take rather long too though, but on average the player will spend more time building up their army and territories, and focusing on politics, than they will fighting.

PC-88 (1985?)

Some people estimate that an average playthrough would take roughly 10 hours. Considering the fact there are 5 scenarios, each with a number of playable factions, that's a lot of gameplay.

To be exact, in the first scenario there are 8 playable factions, in the second there are also 8, in the third there are 7, in the fourth there are 5, and in the fifth there are 3.

8+8+7+5+3 = 31

And if each playthrough takes roughly 10 hours that means potentially 310 hours of gameplay!

(Although I doubt any player would be so thorough as to play through every scenario as every faction)

Something rather unique (especially for the NES game) is the fact that the game supports up to 8 players!

The number of players is restricted by the scenario played though. Only the first two scenarios supports 8 players, where as the last scenario for instance only supports 3 players. This makes since of course, since there are only 3 forces in the last scenario.

Famicom (1988)

The players takes turns giving order to each province controlled.
The land can be developed, armies raised and trained, rice traded, the province searched for unemployed generals, alliances made, etc.
If the master has daughters, marriages can be arranged with masters of other lands in order to strengthen the bond between the countries.

Loyalty is an important part of the game. If the people of a province has low loyalty towards their master, they might produce less resources, and even rebel against their master.
In order to raise the peoples loyalty you can give them rice.
A general with low loyalty can easily be swayed to join an enemy, and if that general happens to be a governor of a province, that province will also fall into enemy hands.
In order to raise a generals loyalty he can be awarded a gift, of either a book or a sum of gold.

Rice and gold are the resources of the game.
Gold is used to give to generals, to either recruit or raise loyalty, as well as develop the land of a province, and buy arms for your army.
Rice is arguably the most important resource, as it is used as payment to hire soldiers, as well as feeding your army during combat.

Amiga (1989)

When a combat starts, the invading army must bring gold that can be used to recruit enemy generals of low loyalty, and rice. The rice decreases every turn, and if it runs out the attacking player looses the battle.
The rice must also be placed in the battlefield, and if the defending player manages to take control of the rice, the attacker looses.

Any army that looses all their generals, by having their soldiers reduced to 0, or by fleeing, will loose the battle.
The attacking army is also successful if he manages to simultaneously control all the defending players castles in that province. Different provinces have different amount of castles.

In other words the attacking player have two ways to win (defeat all generals, or control the castles), whereas the defending player have three ways to win (defeat all generals, take control of the rice, or the rice run out).
Clearly it is much easier to defend a province than to attack.

Conclusion

As stated previously the game received extremely positive reviews, and continue to do so.
The sequels differ from the previous entries in the series enough so that each game stands on their own, and isn't just and "upgrade" of the previous, which is probably why the first entry in the series has been remade several times.
For the Super Famicom as "Super 三国志" (Super Sangokushi) in 1994.
For WonderSwan as "三国志 for WonderSwan" (Sangokushi for WonderSwan) in 1999.In 2004 for J2ME in South Korea. In 2016 for Windows, available through Steam, simply as "三国志" (Sangokushi), although this game is actually not a remake so much as a Windows port of the original game.

For such a successful and popular series it's odd that two of the games in the series (#5 and #12) where not released outside of Japan.
And it's a big shame that most of the series was not released in Europe at all.
The first one to get a European release was #8 in 2004 for the PS2 (19 years after the conception of the series). The next was #11 in 2008 for Windows, and the third #13 in 2016 for PS4 and Windows.

Super Sangokushi (1994)

I'm not entirely certain if all of my readers would consider this a rare game, but it certainly is to me, since it was never released in Europe (Not until 2016, when it was released worldwide via Steam, but it appears to only be the Japanese version).

The game might not have aged terribly well (although the Sharp version did have amazing graphics!), but this is a definite piece of gaming history and will certainly appeal to hardcore strategy gamers and retro gamers alike.

Pricing

If you want to buy the game, the Steam edition is set at €12.99.
For the NES game about €7-9 for a used incomplete copy (cartridge only), €16-40 for a used complete copy, €70 for a used complete copy in mint condition, and €100 for a new factory sealed copy.
Famicom for €5.
About €15 for either the MSX (cartridge only) or the MSX-2 version (complete).
€2.5-4 for Super Sangokushi.
€5.5-13 for Sangokushi for WonderSwan.

MSX complete set (1986)

Déjà Vu: A nightmare comes true

Famicom version cartridge (1988)

'Déjà Vu' is an adventure game that was originally released for the Macintosh in 1985.

Originally it was spelled as 'Deja Vu'. Some versions had the subtitle 'A nightmare comes true', and some didn't.

The Macintosh version was in black and white, and didn't feature any music, but some rudimentary sound effects. Several updated version with both upgraded graphics and added sound was later released for different computers and consoles.

Macintosh version (1985)

In 1987 the game was ported to the Amiga, Atari ST, DOS, and C64.
All these ports added colors (of various quality). The DOS version added some rudimentary music to parts of the game.

DOS version (1987)

C64 version (1987)

Amiga version (1987)

Atari ST version (1987)

One year later, in 1988 the game was ported to the Apple IIGS, and the Famicom (the original Japanese name for the NES). This version added a lot more sound and music to the game. The music was composed by Hiroyuki Masuno.

Apple IIGS version (1988)

In 1990 it was released for the NES in the U.S.
Notably it the Famicom/NES ports changed the interface, renaming 'Go' to 'Move', 'Operate' to 'Use', and removing the 'Consume' command, to instead add 'Take', and 'Leave'.
The inventory was changed to be pure text rather than the graphical representations of items used in all other versions.

NES version (1990)

There where also some small changes between the Famicom and the NES versions of the game (other than the obvious language translations). For instance the graphics used when the protagonist dies is a somewhat horrifying skull in the Japanese version. but changed to a tombstone in the U.S. and European versions. The dead body was covered in blood in the Japanese version, but the blood was removed in the other localisations. The main menu in the Japanese version featured a glass of scotch, but it was change to three gold coins outside of Japan. The Japanese main menu was probably meant to remind of the games cover, which was also changed for the U.S. and European releases, removing images of gambling, alcohol, and drugs.
Furthermore the glass you can pick up at the bar is rum and soda in the Japanese version, but changed to mineral water outside of Japan. The pack of cigarettes in your coat pocket is changed to a piece of gum ("sugar free of course"). This is only a few examples of a lot of minor changes.

In 1991 it was ported to Windows 3.11, and the Japanese computer NEC PC-9801.
It wasn't until a year later (1992) that the NES game was released in Europe.
This game was actually one of a handful NES games that was translated to Swedish upon it's Swedish release. This was the version of the game i had. It seems to be worth around €100 in it's original packaging, but unfortunately this was one of the games that I lent to a friend and never got back.

NEC PC-9801 version (1991)

Windows 3.11 version (1991)

Being a point-and-click game the NES controller was far from optimal, rather a mouse would be more easy to control with. This of course partly explains the overhaul of the interface.

It is quite likely that this was the first pure point-and-click adventure game, being the first game to use ICOM's MacVenture engine and interface.

It is true that the very first game to use a point-and-click interface was 'Enchanted Scepters' (Macintosh 1983). This game used a text-parser at it's core though, and although it was possible to use only the text-parser and ignore the point-and-click functionality to beat the game, the opposite was not true. The drop-down menu choices where more like shortcuts to do common things in the game, rather than use the parser all the time.
This is why I believe it is possible that 'Déjà Vu' was in fact the first adventure game with a "true" point-and-click interface.

The game starts in a bathroom stall, where the protagonist wakes up with a headache, a puncture wound in the arm, and no memory of what has happened or who he is.

As the game progresses he finds out that he is in fact Theodore "Ace" Harding, Private Investigator (and former boxer).
Someone has framed him for murder and caused him to get amnesia.
The goal of the game is to find evidence of what is really going on and clear his name, all while avoiding the police and members of the mob.

NES version, Swedish (1992)

If you read the headline of a newspaper in the game it becomes clear the game takes place right after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, making the games setting Chicago December 1941.

Some of the events in the game are random, and could get you killed, or robbed of all your money.

It is quite obvious that the inspiration for this game is Film Noir from 1940-1950, and one youtuber (doomsmaster1994) commented that he thought the original Macintosh version is the one with the best graphics, partly because the monochrome graphics makes it remind even more of a black and white Noir movie.

In most versions of the game, upon completing it you where granted a P.I. Diploma that you could enter your name into and print out if you played at a computer with a printer attached to it.

The value of the game ranges from around €10-200, depending on what platform and the quality of the game, if it is complete, etc. For instance the Floppy disk of the Macintosh game goes for €12.68 on eBay, while the complete European nes edition goes for €250.