XZR - The Lost Prequel to Nihon Telenet's Exile (PC-88 Paradise) X-Z-R
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- Опубліковано 9 лип 2024
- In this episode of PC-88 Paradise I take a look at XZR, the very first game in Nihon Telenet's "Exile" series, and a game that takes prior to Exile on the TurboGrafX/PCE CD and Sega Genesis/Mega Drive. The game was released on the Genesis under Nihon Telenet's US brand "Renovation" and localized by Working Designs on the Turbo GrafX. (The game is also often written "X-Z-R" instead of "XZR")
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00:00 Non-spoiler section
15:29 Spoilers
18:24 Review and wrap-up - Ігри
I grew up with Exile as a rental for me as well.
XZR: The game where your allies love to get captured and you end up fighting the Perestroika.
At first I was like "oh is this a historically accurate Assassin's Creed that I've never heard about" and then you get into the LSD and oil refineries and I couldn't stop laughing. For God's sake man, make more of these videos!!!
Even with their flaws I always appreciated Telenet's dedication to making action-platformer RPGs on such limited hardware. Even Valis 1 I forgive some issues based on how ahead of its time it was in a few areas.
Yeah I have Valis 1 too. Which areas would you say it was ahead of its time in?
Valis series on Megadrive sure isn't even of it's time lmao
@@breno855 Oh boy... The Megadrive Valis games are masterpieces compared to the PC versions of Valis 1 and 2... at least in my opinion. (I know many liked them in their time.)
You're doing the lord's work, man. Thanks for sharing all of this info on untranslated stuff!
I love how your channel plays through all these games that stayed only in Japan. I played Exile on the Genesis but thought the story was limited by the huge fonts and limited text. I wonder if the Turbo version is better.
This is such a neat idea for a game, incredibly creative for that time period as well in both setting and systems. A shame it didn't all coalesce into a cohesive whole. Sadler has such an awesome character design too, this is a series I would love to see come back in some way.
Bro, how hasn't your channel blown up? FANTASIC content
I agree
XZR....
XZL...
EXILE...
Man, someone over in Japan really dropped the ball on that whole R/L thing...
Finally, something from Telenet Japan- one of my favorite Japanese PC game developers. It is too bad that every gamer sees them as nothing but a bunch of "black sheep".
Really enjoyed this video. When I first bought a PC Engine CDROM2 briefcase on Ebay it came with a few burned games, one of which was labeled XZR. When I went to play it I recognized it as Exile. I never knew there was a prequel actually called XZR. Thanks for the info!
Although the PCE game says only "exile" in katakana on the cover and the title screen, for some reason on the spine it says "XZR" in addition to the katakana. So there was probably a period of time they were planning on calling the PCE game "XZR" or something, and somehow it was left on the spine. That's probably why that person wrote "XZR" on the CDR, they were looking at the spine.
Excellent review! I have this game on MSX, and played a fair bit into it, but soft-locked the game in a dungeon because I happened to be in a shallow pit with a treasure chest... and since "up" is both jump AND examine, pressing up just examines the treasure chest over and over again, telling me it's empty, but never letting me jump to get out. I had to reset, losing all my progress, and the fact that I got soft-locked by a treasure chest and a poor control decision made me lose all faith in the game and decide not to continue playing it.
There is one other Telenet game I own on MSX, however, which I really, really like, and it happens to also have a PC-88 version (which happens to be the original version!). I'd highly recommend checking it out, as it seems 100% up your alley, and I'd absolutely LOVE to see you review it in full and introduce it to more people. It's called "Sa-Zi-Ri."
It's... a comedic platformer... but also an RPG? Sort of? It's pretty brilliant, in that you can fight your enemies platformer style (by hurling angry words at them!), OR you can choose to engage them in a turn-based RPG battle. Literally, at any time, you have the option of fighting your opponents RPG-style instead of fighting them with projectiles. And not only that, but you kind of have the Shin Megami Tensei ability to speak with your enemies instead of fighting them, which you kind of have to do, since that's the only way to get hints as to how to complete each stage. Because each stage is an endlessly looping ratchet-scrolling horizontal gauntlet with a day-night cycle and some scattered collectible screws... and in order to complete the stage, you need to collect all the screws, then position yourself at a very precise spot at a very precise time of day in order for the boss to reveal itself.
As if all of this weren't complicated enough, the game's enemies sometimes give you hints when you talk to them... they sometimes just smack-talk you... and they sometimes say some extremely questionable, sexually suggestive things to you that are 100% out of left field and just endlessly bizarre. Especially when you consider that a lot of these enemies aren't humans, but anthropomorphized inanimate objects.
Oh, also, you can heal yourself at any time by whipping out a goemon-buro and bathing, though you leave yourself vulnerable to enemy attacks by doing so. If you can find a spot where enemies won't attack you, though, it generally behooves you to goemon yourself back to full health there before continuing, since a lot of the enemies hit for a TON of damage.
If this description doesn't intrigue you enough to track down a copy of Sa-Zi-Ri for a future Basement Brothers video, I don't know what will. ;)
Wow that sucks that you managed to get that stuck in the MSX version. But it doesn't surprise me much really. The game definitely lacks polish, and it wouldn't be weird if it has some major bugs. Hope you decide to give it another try someday, but I totally understand if you don't.
Sa-Zi-Ri is a title I am very familiar with. It was actually released the same year as XZR by Telenet! Yeah, I don't have it in my collection yet but it is not too hard to find. Maybe someday, certainly. Thanks so much for watching!
@@BasementBrothers I likely will give it another try at some point, as there was a lot I DID like about it. But as you said, it's just not a very polished game, and it was starting to really get to me. Now that I know what to expect, though, I think I'll be able to play past that point and enjoy myself a bit more.
Games whos soundtrack I've been listening to for years but never played:
Interesting! Thanks for watching!
I love that one of the drugs you can use is literally heroin.
This is right up my alley. Easy sub
Nice vídeo! Keep up the good work. (haven't finished watching it yet, but I know it's good due to the channel's track record)
Very good Video and Thankful you covered this Gem ! Loved it back in the day !
Great video! I know nothing of PC-88 games, and I've never heard of Exile. Now that I have the XZR backstory, I look orward to playing Exile on the Genesis
I just instantly like all your videos. They are always gonna be good so why wait.
As always, excellent video!!
Watching this video again, for some reason the side-scrolling gameplay reminds me of the NES Ninja Turtles game.... the first one.
Haha. I can see that.
It's bedtime for bonzo's Bonzo with Reagan as the final boss!?!
I love how wacky old games can be. They are sometimes much too wild for me to try them by myself, but thankfully there are great youtube channel where i can watch how someone do this while telling about japanese gaming of the past :D
Hey, thanks for looking into my suggestion! Would be cool to look into other Telenet stuff, like the earlier versions of Valis.
Yeah it was a good suggestion! As I mentioned in the video, it was near the top of my most wanted list, and I happened to finally find a copy. Glad I could finally talk about this game!
PC-88 FOREVER
Обожаю эту систему, только всё никак не могу за адекватную цену её приобрести на Yahoo, а в последнее время вообще цены выше обычного. Благо игры успел приобрести за довольно низкую цену, которые сейчас стоят раз в 10 дороже, что с ценами происходит я не знаю. Надеюсь мне однажды повезёт.
Groovy
You deserve many more subs! Keep it up!
As a social studies teacher, history lesson and outright zaniness is my MO
I think they mean the Seljuk empire? Excellent video once again.
What a great looking game. Love the style. As great review video. Subbed!
The developers of this game clearly used LSD while programming it.
I was always curious about this game. Interesting to see a detailed explanation.
Who would have thought that being born in ancient Baghdad, your fate would be to fight Ronald Reagan and his mutant monster minion.
It turns out Sadler is not a bad enough dude to save the president.
5:04
amazing name for sure
Oh! That's interesting to know Alec. Your brother Mr.Jakes did a fantastic job and excellent to know that he enjoys video games just as much as you and I do bro. Looking forward on seeing and listening in from him in the near future for sure. 8^)
Anthony..
X-Z-R really said bedtime for bonzo.
Always in the mood to listen in on what Alec has to say. So much so, that I actually eat my supper while being informed on what he has to say folks. 8^)
Anthony..
Hey Anthony. I can't take credit for this one. This series is made by my brother, Mr. Jakes. Glad you enjoyed it. -Neo-Alec
Oh snap. I never realized exile was part of a series.
Yes they had guns back then. Even in the 10th century. But it was more like a canon held by hand.
XZR хорошая игра на ряду с XAK, Ys, Yaksa, Legend, ARGO, Zeliard, Sorcerian, Bouken Roman, Demon Crystal 1-2, Emerald Dragon и ещё куча потрясающих и эксклюзивных серий.
"She allowed herself to be captured on the purpose" - Some real Lois Lane energy, that one.
I think that's her way at saying "notice me senpai" lol
Interesting video, I'm going to subscribe.
lmao they actually referenced bedtime for bonzo as the final boss? How obscure
16:00 Omg fricking nightmare fuel right there
What an entertaining wacky game. Great material for a review. I'm glad I got to experience the game without having to actually play it. Quick question-what version of Exile would you recommend playing? PC Engine or Genesis? I've wanted to play that game and Beyond Oasis for years.
Definitely PC Engine if you have a choice! The physics in the Genesis version feel a bit more "floaty" and not as smooth. The colors in the PCE version also look significantly better in this game. Of course the PCE version has the cut scenes and CD audio so for most people it's probably a no-brainer. If you have time, play them both and compare! A lot of the soundtrack in the Genesis version is completely different, and of course I love FM synth as well.
For this video I did another play through of the PCE (JP) version and my brother Neo-Alec played all the way through the US Genesis version and captured footage for me. Both versions are worth playing, but gotta give it to the PCE version overall.
@@BasementBrothers cool. Thank you so much. I figured it was going to be the pc engine. I'm about half way through popful mail right now. When I'm done with that I will give exile a try. That genesis box art looks awesome. Genesis had really good box art.
This sounds like a prequel to death stranding
By the way, did something happen with Neo Alec? Its been a while since the last Neo Geo video.
Hell yes. More obscure shit!
I miss renting games .
( mine were more PSX…) i liked finding the obscure Japanese ones ( not as obscure as the ones you show.)
You said megami tensei at the beginning. Any chance that series will end up on your channel some time?
Is there any ability gating like in Metroid or Zelda?
No, this game isn't nearly that clever. It's simply a series of events that need to be triggered before you can go to the next part of the game. Thanks for watching.
I'm tempted to theorize all the weirdness with time travel is actually supposed to be a hallucination induced by all the drugs, but then you said you didn't bother taking any during this playthrough so.... withdrawals?
I like this game a lot but it could've been improved by making the game less cryptic and use more music for the sidescrolling levels and the overworld.Anyway i think it would be interesting to see you take a look at the Thexder games for the PC-88 like you did similiarly with Silpheed but i'm not forcing or begging you to do it it's just my suggestion,nice video!
Have you played all the way through the game too? I agree entirely that it's too cryptic and uses the same music too much, as I said in the video.
And good suggestion. Thexder is classic, of course, and the sequel is a really good more modern improvement on it in my opinion. Hope I get around to covering them some day.
@@BasementBrothers Yeah i did play it(not complete it though since i found the game to be too tough for me)my criticisms about the game were mainly backed up by your video,by the way i found this game by doing what a certain youtube channel was also doing basically:playing through PC-88 games from A to Z,for some reason i found the graphics in this game to be really appealing to me and i thought the sidescrolling gameplay was a lot of fun.By the way i also like Thexder a lot
I feel like they may have intended ファキール to be "fakir" based on how they're just throwing random middle eastern references Japanese people might know everywhere
Yes. In fact I feel like I saw his name spelled that way in one of the Japanese manuals or something. The way I pronounced it in the video is from the Working Designs version on the Turbo CD.
One thing I really dislike about the PC-88 and PC98 is the double high pixels, I feel like so many games would benefit from standard 1:1 pixels.
"Magick" is pronounced the same way as "magic".
PC-98 doesn't have double high pixels, but PC-88 does. It's an unfortunate effect of the 640x200 resolution. PC-98 is 640x400 instead, but some games like this one just have the PC-88 graphics ported straight over, leading to the same double high pixel look.
@@BasementBrothers Some PC-98 games have double high pixels without PC-88 versions, such as 4.6 Billion Year Journey.
Assassins's Creed on LSD
Magical? Don't you mean Magickal?
Can we please put this saga on consoles?
That plont explains a lot the drugs mechanics!
HAHAHAHAH WTF
It seems a lot of old Japanese computer RPGs have a lot of unclear puzzles to solve. I can appreciate anyone who has the time to figure that shit out lol.
I've tried valis on my 9801UV2, the cutscenes are cool and all but holy cow is that game awful to play. Valis 2 is far superior.
Made for pc88va?
A lot of PC-8801 games have "PC-88VA" displayed large on the case, but that doesn't mean they actually use the VA's capabilities. It usually just means that it's compatible with the VA, using the VA's backward compatibility with 8801 software. Only a handful of games are actually VA games that use the VA's capabilities, and aren't compatible with the 8801. Thanks for the question.
I spell it like magik lol or majik. 😂
After a lifetime of watching subtitled anime and being familiar with Japanese phonetics, I completely understand why XZR would be pronounced *Exile* x)
to throw it out there, in case no one else said it, X-Z-R is pronounced Exile. Or, Egg Xile.
I also said it in the video too, of course. So, there's that...
Egg xi ru
Seriously, WTF was up with that time travel thing at the very end. Why does Sadler attack Gorbachev and Reagan? Why not Saddam since Saddam is in power in Iraq in 1988. Honestly based on the drug use from eariler in the game I feel like that part was just a bad trip.
Yeah. Definitely feels like a bad trip.
I believe Saddam Hussein was not very famous around the world until the US-Iraq Gulf War in 1990-1991 and the events immediately leading up to it. That's probably why they didn't use him in 1988. Not well-known enough.
12:30 Yes, oil as in "lamp oil" used as source of light for like a millennia.
Yes, very true but did lamp oil have refineries with spherical tanks and smokestacks in the 12th century? (The spherical tanks at the bottom of the screen are definitely out of place.) Also, the Japanese word used is コンビナート, which literally means like a refinery for gasoline and jet fuel, etc. The writers were clearly messing around. Thanks for watching!
@@BasementBrothers to be honest I squint at this kind of things in video games and take it as artistic liberty.
Not to sound snarky but poor observations remind me of avgn and it was funny like a decade ago.
Watch Technology Connections on youtube he may have more information on it, as for me probably as the developers before the internet days have superficial idea of the middle east. Other example is gun usage in 12th century, like i know arab jezail muskets are around since forever so i take it as "it might be true" 😂😂
I love Technology Connections! Yeah, but the oil refinery in this game is literally supposed to be a modern oil refinery, not for lamp oil. The writers of this game were just fooling around, and that's fine. The two Japanese "play diaries" I mention in the video are basically long rants about all the things that don't belong within the historical setting of this game, even more than they are information about how to beat the game, and I can't really blame them. Some things they commented on like the use of the $ sign for the money in the game can be given a more charitable interpretation I think - that the $ sign is just shorthand for money. Some people might like the game's craziness I'm sure. My personal opinion is what I said in the video - it comes off feeling a bit tonally dissonant. I happen to prefer the atmosphere of Exile where the wackiness seems a bit toned down.
I really appreciate your opinions though and I'm glad to see a slightly differing opinion. So glad you chose to watch!
...it's amazing how the end of this game feels like both anti-communist and anti-capitalist propaganda.
Please do neo Geo games instead
I've been busy with family stuff, but the next Neo Geo video is almost ready to record. Do my brother and I need to have separate channels to post new videos to? --Neo-Alec
@@BasementBrothers Alec don’t listen to this guy. Your channel is perfect as is, the neo stuff along with the other obscure Japanese stuff is perfect keep up the great work