The Untranslated Lovecraftian PS1 Horror RPG | Mark Of The Mermaid
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- Опубліковано 2 тра 2024
- honey would you still love me even if I was a fish?
shoutouts to Will who let me use some of his footage because he got a funnier shot of some stuff than I did
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i wonder how many comments I'm going to get about the fact I interchangeably called her both "Maeraka" and "Maekara" because I kept getting it mixed up and eventually stopped caring or if this is one of those things people just won't notice. - Ігри
This entire game can be summed up with
“We will defeat you with the power of love and this gun I found!”
This sounds like a great Huey Lewis and the News track
It certainly does showcase the power of love. And guns. And monster girlfriends. ...honestly, there's probably at least one manga out there that has such a premise.
Maybe the real treasure is this GUN i found on the way!
*girlfriend becomes monster*
Keiske: Feature not bug
Keiske is a man after my own heart
Feature and a bug
@@lioneldvaz9879 I mean, going with Lovecraftian rules... being corrupted like that isn't necessarily even bad. The real issue is going insane. And THAT is what the ending hinted at. Mizuki has been trying to act normal, and hoping that she'll actually return to normal, but... she feels it.... the call.... And in the end realizes she's no longer fully Human.
Which makes me wonder.... how many of the party ARE actually fully Human at the end? 2?
>Dude's girlfriend becomes a fish monster lady and he doesn't even care
For once I find myself able to connect on a personal level with a JRPG protagonist.
Hell yea
Based MC.
HAHAHAHA XD UR SO QUIRKY
@@Fazberrygooday
bro 🤨
Truly a man ahead of his time.
I for one audibly cheered when the main character embraced his monster GF
So after this, the three things I learned about Keiske is
1: He is a bloodthirsty, overpowered god through the use of meditation.
2: He is a devoted partner.
3: He would make a biblical angel tell him to be more afraid.
BE NOT AFRAID.
"Try me, you divine bitch."
Imagine your ancestors go through the trouble of making a dark pact with alien gods to get you an immortal fish monster body and the last thing you see is a hairgel-abusing college student drawing down on you.
He's a cultivator.
tumblr sexyman?
I know it's bad for gameplay reasons but the idea of your everyman protagonist becoming an unstoppable god of death through meditation is hilarious.
>turning overpowered monster gf back into regular gf
weak move keisuke
Well, she wanted it, so... he let her. If the locals are any indication though... it's not really needed. but she wants to be normal again,.
@@marhawkman303 oh i know, i was just making a goof
@@freezehorn I do have to wonder.... the ending hints that she really didn't go back to normal and is actually still transformed just more subtly. CAN she choose to turn mermaid again? Is she only looking normal because she wants to?
yees
@@marhawkman303 Maybe it's like her Devil Trigger now.
"No Takeru, don't parry the child!" took me out 😂
Bro the kinda guy to immediately answer “yes” when asked: “Would you still love me if I was a worm?”
Crow might be named after Titus Crow, the protagonist of Brian Lumley's cthulhu mythos novels
this is probably the best theory I've heard so far
@@PunchyYT great video by the way! really love your style of coverage and just finding out about this game was a treat.
Only a minute in the video, but could Crowley be an inspiration? The Japanese seem to reference him more than most in occult storytelling.
If I had a nickel every time I saw a Japanese made video game based on the Cthulhu Mythos with a major character who is a reference to Titus Crow in it, I would have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice.
@@starryeyes1190 Demonbane sure was...something 💀
The protag basically says "monster girl, hot" when his goes green
"Parry the child, Takeru. Corrupt them all."
I can't actually read Japanese, but I do know a bit of katakana and a lot of Lovecraft. I'm pretty sure the dark continent in the last level is R'lyeh, even more mangled by the Japanese language than the average mortal tongue. And the twist ending of Mizuki craving the waters of the island is more or less just a shoutout to the twist ending of Shadow Over Innsmouth.
Very plausible.
My favorite rpg trope is the one random item that nothing is communicated about that either has a crazy Easter egg or the true ending
I hope this video drives enough interest for a fan translation
me too. Probably not though
Maybe even a fan sequel, or game inspired by these themes
Same
I hope so too, this has a lot of things I love: trpgs, Lovecraft, monstergirls, psychodrama...
Man meditates enough to kill god in order to have a monster girl wife. This would be really fun to try if there ever is a fan made translation, though odds sound pretty low on that
I could get a monster girl wife by killing a god through meditation!? Time to get started.
In my head I call this sort of thing a TAG video - Talking About Game. Whatever it's called, it's informative and enjoyable. There's a lot of interesting stuff that either never really left Japan or flew under the radar in Europe/the US.
(Also Koudelka deserves more love.)
Im stealin that.
Ahem
Parry the damn child
New favorite character
the "villagers brainwashed by evil statues" level was a memorable one in vandal hearts too
ptsd intensifys
33:50 I know the devs probably didn't intend on this but hearing you mention how the geography of the cemetery doesn't seem to make sense reminded me of the city Cthulhu was trapped under and that got a giggle out of me. I wasn't expecting the game to pull out actual R'lyeh in the end lol
I felt the call of Cthulhu as soon as the video started talking about the island. I immediately grokked "the planes were pulled here."
I’m a bit unsatisfied about the game not having any description of “cyclopean pillars” or “cyclopean structures” (I mean the UA-camr didn’t point it out).
Of note, the final dungeon (the floating continent) is named R'lyeh, which yeah that's unshocking considering this is a Lovecraftian themed JRPG.
The way you can abuse healing to level up reminds me of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance where you can corner a helpless enemy (or do this on the like one quest that doesn't end when all enemies die) and spam the Boost skill from Archers for like 10 EXP a pop, it's also a game where the EXP to level up remains the same. The speedrun used to do it for like 40 minutes straight to get to level 40, but there's a new route I'm more unfamiliar with now.
Or Grandia with Water Spells.
Or Final Fantasy Tactis where you smack your own team mates and heal them bdsm style. It always was dumb
This is why fire emblem has healing staffs only work so many times before you need a new one.
At least it does most of the time
And that is why I prefer mana or some other mechanic to limit it. Even if it's functionally the same between "using MP potion", "using recall potion to recover your spell slots" and "equipping new staff/book", I just hate losing items.
@@enriquejoseantequerasanche6180 the problem with that is that you can't easily give the player a later game resource early but with limited resources.
I guess some people are allergic to resource management in the same way others are allergic to time limits.
I think of this format as an "overview" rather than and essay or review
"I, for one, have no sense of fair play."
Could you be one of my people?
That feature reminds me of Final Fantasy 2.... you can go into a fight vs weak enemies that have no chance at hurting you.... and have your party PvP each other for Xp..... or whatever weird stat system that game has instead of traditional levels. Thing is... you can do this ENDLESSLY, and there's no downside unless you TPK yourself.
That ending sting in the best ending is especially weird since... they beat the source of the monsters. If Mizuki needs to visit the island every, what, 4 years to stay sane or whatever that should be fine? Just feels to me like it's there because it's the Done Thing in horror to ruin any happy endings with a stinger, post-credits or otherwise.
They already took Dagon and the deep ones from Lovecraft, this is his style of doing things.
I had to play this game for a mystery game tournament (called Tondeuse Dorée). I couldn't read a single word of japanese but I really had fun for the hour my time on the game lasted. I really wish someone releases a translation one day.
i think of videos like this as the video game version of an abridged audiobook. you get the story, you get the vibe, you get the best lines, and you can finish the whole thing while felling asleep. and this was a fun one. cheers.
A horror strategy RPG? I'm so sad it isn't translated because that's basically my dream game
In that case, you should love Koudelka
Or Parasite Eve
video GAMES
Hot damn, I hope you make more of these narrative reviews of untranslated JRPGs!
Also, that reveal of the pun in Mizuki's name almost hurt as much as realizing the power icon is just a 1 overlayed on a 0
12:33 you'd run away in fear too if you're at gunpoint by a teenager
A teenager that has clearly stopped being afraid and is now using a pistol as if he was born with it it his hand.
The randomness of Reiji's death for some reason made me think of Gai's fate in the TV series Jetman, which in turn had me wondering if it is part of some trope in Japan. The character that lost their "true love", and in what is treated as a manly meaningful way effectively choose to "give up" on self-preservation, and thus end up getting themselves killed in the epilogue. You could even argue that Spike from Cowboy Bebop fits this idea.
It's definitely a drama trope, and while it's quite popular in Japan it used to also be popular in western storirs (Snape in the Harry Potter franchise, most of the good guys in Bram Stoker's Dracula, technically even Conan the barbarian has this happen,though he was never too into safety to begin with)
@@enriquejoseantequerasanche6180 I hadn't thought about those examples, but I mean when it happens in the epilogue, or at the least after the main conflict is resolved. Jetman is an example. After the defeat of the main villain, the series jumps ahead three years for an epilogue. Gai's best friend is marrying Gai's "true love". On his way to the wedding, Gai is randomly stabbed stopping a pickpocket. Instead of doing something sensible like going to a hospital, Gai goes to the wedding, takes photos with his friends afterward (telling them he's simply hungover), and dies alone on the bench after sending them off.
@@BainesMkII i know that its meant to be tragic and poignant, and it probably is when consuming the source, but just reading that summary made me giggle
It’s up in the air if spike dies n it’s more of a blade runner thing since spike is a synthetic (his eye is fake “clue”)
@@Georgiaplains I've never heard that fan theory before. Not only does nothing in the story support it, it would actively undermine a driving theme that runs through the entire series, the idea of being stuck in the past (akin to being dead) versus accepting change to live in the present.
Spike's refusal to move on is a defining aspect of his character, and why his death was necessary. It is the tragedy of Spike and Faye's relationship, as he convinced her to move on, but refused to do so with her. It was a theme of the entire Bebop crew, with Jet caught in his own past until he learned to move on, while Ed was the one that always freely lived. It was a key for other characters, like the immortal kid where "living" involved physically dying. It was was a meta theme; the bounty hunter show being cancelled and the actors moving on, the Bebop crew forming and then separating, and even the anime itself ending.
Oh geez, I can super relate to the notion of static EXP gains and thresholds. As soon as I heard that self recovery moves give static EXP, I immediately knew the logical conclusion. "Super Robot Taisen", "Luminous Arc", "Final Fantasy Tactics", "Tears to Tiara 2", "Relayer", "Hoshigami", the list goes on. If given the opportunity to throw all strategy out the window by repeating the same simple action over and over again to over level is given, relatively quickly as that, I'm super taking it for a good laugh.
Granted, you don't really see it that much anymore, due to I want to say improved standards of balancing, but you can still find an occasional SRPG where it's notably exploitable.
But yeah, this was interesting. Not often you get to discover what is essentially a forgotten game. Being an SRPG fan and mildly interested in Lovecraftian works also helps. I actually wouldn't mind to have played this myself...though the specific and janky requirements for some plot things do dissuade me a little. Never really been a fan of that kind of thing.
Seems like you could possibly limit the abusability of such a mechanic by capping the amount of EXP a single character can acquire this way per encounter. It still encourages the player to do it, but hard limits how much it can be exploited to overlevel.
Currently learning Japanese with my main motivation being able to play all of these obscure Japanese games. I'm not sure why, but they fascinate me so much... Great video btw!
Katakana names that could be either EN or JP names depending on how you squint at them are my worst enemy, you are definitely not alone in that 😩
Cool look at a funky little game though! Gotta love those monster gfs.
Feels like these devs were inspired by final fantasy tactics. Yes you can waste turns and level up using buffs or having characters hurt each other and heal in that game. But what makes it better is the opponents in random battles will always scale to be more powerful than you. When when you hit the level cap at level 99 the cpu opponents will be level 115. So it stays fun and can be pretty hard at higher levels.
The guy who hosts the FAQ kind of reminds me of Sword Of Moonlight. That guy/group has maintained that site and kept it updated for like, 30 years! They are finally starting to get some love with all the interest in Dark Souls/Elden Ring.
What a treat! Thanks, Punchy, you're the best.
24:18 some might say having a monster girlfriend is a positive.
Monster transformations, damn. I'm in.
Also "Compressed Let's Play" is a good term for videos like these
When you mentioned that Mizuki’s move that inflicted all ailments on the target didn’t work with the kids, my immediate thought was instant death. Disappointed that wasn’t the case, because would’ve been hilarious.
excellent video!!! this is the kind of content i love most, obscure, niche games. love getting to hear the stories of games i may never have come across otherwise. thank you punchy!!!
Dang, this sounds like the kind of horror game that would have been right up my alley.
The Mark of Mermaid experience.
I have no good name to offer for this type of video. What I really appreciate is that you use your language proficiency so that people like me can learn new unexpected things. So thank you very much! In a way, your like a kind of cultural ambassador to me... which is probably a bit pretentious. What can I say? English is not my first language. Cheers!
Thank you for capturing the words for why I enjoy Punchy's work. I tend to consider games like this a summary or review, but neither are quite right either. The point is it teaches neat little things like the kana meltdown he has with Crow.
Your English is fine, by the way. You got your meaning across, that is all that matters in an informal setting.
24:44 this game is taking the "eould you love me if i was an ant" to the next level 😂
Thank you, I really enjoyed this video! Then I went off and died in a fight against the mafia.
Having one of the characters that helped kill god go off and die in bar fight or something is such a "fire emblem" thing to do
I love strategy rpgs and all things Lovecraft, so it's a shame that this hasn't been translated yet. Thanks for bringing attention to the game.
the bizarre balance choices remind me of summon night. those games try to balance it by giving you optional rewards for only having units below a certain level land kills but that just means you have to ferry in your god unit to land some big punches before letting willy weakman finish guys off afterwards
Been really enjoying these types of vids you've been putting out! And I agree with another commenter, this seems like a "overview" of the game, where you start from the beginning to the end covering mostly the major details. To me It feels like a narrative overview, rather than a typical review, since you're explaining mechanics and story beats while taking us on your own playthrough. Great stuff, looking forward to more!
TF enjoyers eating good tonight
mizuki really is cuter like that lmao
This game seems cool, great video as always
I'm surprised Gideon Zhi hasn't cranked out a patch
Wonderful video! This is my favorite content from you! :D
I love these types of videos. They're incredibly helpful to me in particular since I like to record shitty games for longplays and researching obscure stuff that often has no faq takes a lot of effort.
Nice video! I enjoy these!
Thanks for showing off the game's good art in the thumbnail! It got me interested, and I'm glad I got to learn about a rare game that I'd otherwise would've never. The video was good and entertaining!
Pretty entertaining video! I came across this game myself on a whim due to the cool title, and it's a pretty fun time! Seems like I stumbled into the good ending by accident, lol.
I love having found this channel. Obscure games ftw
very good vid, you have a good narration voice and the game you covered was fascinating. Consider me subbed.
I'm really digging these videos that you do, looking at old Japan only games. Definitely keep it up, I find things like this so fascinating and you're very informative! Voice is nice too :)
Neat video. So many little games like this on the PS1 I would never play but still interesting to hear about.
This was great, I liked the addition of how comprehensible the game is for people of varying skills in japanese. I'm as beginner as they come right now, but an idea of what it takes to play these obscure games and understand them is a nice bonus
Travelogue is how I interpret a video like this. If you let yourself relax and slow down, I'd put this next to Noah Caldwell Gervais kind of thing. I can hear the level of interpetation and analysis being pushed to read faster.
Good video on a very neat and interesting game.
Despite usually avoiding semantics, I think essay is _technically_ more fitting, while what we usually think of as a "video essay" might be more accurately called a treatise, or dissertation. Maybe the "appraisal" might fit?
Great video as always! I love hearing about new retrogames that missed me by. Its an utter shame there's a load Japanese only releases that never got translated (either officially or unoffically) that are either good or have interesting premises. I definitely would have tracked this down for myself as the story premise alone is decent. I wonder the creative choice not to just say "lets try to port it to the PS2 instead" but committing completely to PS1 release that late in the console's lifecycle. Maybe this might be playable with Google Translate on phone but can see that getting tiring fast. At least with text only/subtitled stuff its an option but not always viable.
Like, there's an FMV game that came on 4 discs on the PS2 called "The Fear" and from what I gather has good acting, good production values but has no Japanese subtitles and was never translated. I love that somebody said "we're going to release a 4 DVD disc FMV game, I don't care that the genre has largely died out at this point AND we're not going to release it on PC, which historically has the best market for it, but only on the PS2. Also we're not going to halfass it". Even if it was bad, I still admire the commitment to a goal but sadly I can't play it cause I have zero Japanese and its not subtitled for trying Google Translate.
What an interesting piece of obscure PS1 game. I really enjoyed your vid and now curious what other games hide out there.
Fascinating little dive!
Interesting video, always cool to learn about weird horror games!
This is the Tim Rogers style energy I need! Love seeing someone covering old japanese games like this!
I see Punchy video, I click fast. Also appreciate coverage of games we probably won't even normal find!
I have been fascinated with this game for so long. Something super neat about Anime Lost
Ah one of those hidden gems blast from the past ps1 jrpg we never got, thank you very much for the discovery!
Thanks for the video, it was a great watch. I wish you would've covered the other endings though, I'm curious on the bad endings.
gotta leave something for the inquisitive folks to see for themselves if they're so inclined!
You’re a legend, bro.
Learning about a strange PS1 game that I’ve never heard of from a developer I’ve never heard of, is exactly the kind of content I am here for.
It's like classic Shin Megami Tensi and Endless Blue ram into each other really, really hard.
yaaaay new punchy video and its lovecraft flavored!
5:45 THANK YOU for actually playing the game audio after making a comment about it. It irks the fckoutta me when videos remark on the great OST/SFX and what a banger such and such is just to never play even a clip. Like why mention it all you want me to leave your video midway to see wtf you're talking about? Lol anyways *SUB TO PUNCHY!*
This is hilarious, I love this
it's interesting how the sprites look nearly identical to persona 2 innocent sin/eternal punishment
I wonder if the team also worked on that game
Keisuke going from a regular traumatized teenager forced to kill or be killed, only to completely disregard all normal human psychology and become The Terminator who does anything for his monster GF is so bold that I can't help but love it. This man saw H.P "heemheem nooo I may have non-WASP heritage this is the worst nightmare I can think ooofff" Lovecraft's xenophobia-brainrot stories and decided that is his girl was fish, then he was gonna make out with fish. Undoing all of Howard's' fears with sheer guts. It's silly, but I love it.
Not so sure I love the gameplay being shown here, what with all those plotdecisions that force you to pixelhunt, know in advance what you have to do to not lock yourself out from the best ending, and generally force you to play around in menues in a game that does not seem like it had a lot of QoL-think going into it. It feels like it plays clunky and frustrating, even if you can break the balance in half... but I can't deny that the story and setting is a rarity, so dangit I'll forgive it's clunky nature just for the entertainment value the plot has got going for it. WHat's really got me curious though is what the plot is like as you play it out- I know this was a very compressed walkthrough of the game, but it felt like all the story's antagonists were barely developed at all. Like... did they have plans, arcs, goals beyond just make people crash on this island and call up R'Lyeh and Dagon? It just feels like the game barely bothers developing any of the bad guys here.
Just found your channel and i want more of you covering obscure Asian horror games! Please! ❤️
I'm a simple man, I find a video of great quality that holds my interest, and I subscribe to that channel.
New punchy video ayyy!
edit: Damn, you weren't joking about Keisuke getting that blood lust
Also thanks for playing SaGa Emerald Beyond, so happy I have a new SaGa game to run through now.
I kind of love the overpowered vibe here. Something about stability in times of crisis, etc.
Also I’d call this a summary.
I see you, making this public at the beginning of MerMay.
never heard of this game before but i know if it was translated back in the day it would have been the EXACT kind of thing i would have stared at longingly in game stores for. weird strategy RPGs with a bit of jank really a special kind of sweet spot.
Honestly there is just something about the story and the setting of this game (or at least the way that you describe it) that just clicks right with me.
I can't explain it or put my finger around it. Maybe just the combination of a jungle setting, lovecraftian horrors, monster girls, trying to destroy an evil cult, the overall vibe etc.
It's almost like i'm having a wierd sense of nostalgia for something that I don't know about, like a movie that I didn't even watch or just remember in passing. It's strange... but in a good way.
Even though I doubt that I will play this game (I don't play a lot of RPGs, especially JRPGs), it just sounds so interesting, but does seem to lack polish and balancing as you said.
Also the fact that Keiske doesn't mind his GF turning into a monster and her using her monster form to protect him is just very wholesome and cool in my opinion. Even ignoring my liking for monster girls it's really nice to see such dedication to love.
woooow this unburied deep childhood memories. i never grinded levels so i never finished it (i was a dumb kid who hadn't discovered min-maxing lol) so glad to see the end here finally after all these years
The more eldritch horror the enemy gets the funnier it gets when someone just uses a gun and it works.
Cool game. I grew up playing turn-based jrpgs so it's pretty sweet to see one I never knew about being played and translated. Thanks.
I'd go with "overview" as a term to call it, it doesn't have as much information outside the game to feel like a retrospective and not enough opinionation to fall into a review.
another good phrase would be "Lets Talk About X" if you want to think of it as a lets play but condensed
This is probably the most popular video of Mark of The Mermaid
The ending stinger seems like a joke to my boi MC. What will the girlfriend do after throwing that line? Scare him to death? Even with out her buffs, MC was solo John Wicking people in the island. Can her one liner surpass MC's gun-jutsu?
Warlockracy, another channel I follow, calls these "narrative reviews" which I think is pretty sharp.
That Korou rambling got me
For a video *specifically* like this that deals with an untranslated and potentially obscure game, I think I’d call it a Retrospective.
The art stills are masterpieces.