This one is pretty out there. Hope you guys like it, I thought for a really long time about what the best game to cover would be, and then I found this at the last minute. Check the description for songs used and instructions on how to download the game yourself. Yeah I know I'm still working on SMT 2
Crawling the web in Japanese looking for some obscure old game "dead link" "dead link" "Oh hey an entire fucking forum dedicated to it, aaand they're all dead links on a near dead forum" You don't know how painfully familiar i am with that All I can say is god fucking bless the datahoarders and god bless the skull and crossbones flag for usually coming in clutch
The fact people were commenting on the dev's last work before GU-L and the fact that it was part of a competition makes me wonder "what were the other entries in the competition like?", "what were the other dev's games like?", "are they lost media as well?" and "can we track down and find them all?". We can't let more of these games go to waste!
That's the sad reality of indie/obscure games from non Western countries. Even with so many people translating manga and anime, we have barely scratched the surface of content available exclusively in Japanese. The same goes for videogames as well, there are a lot of games that never got an official translation nor even a fan made one
@@RiderWithTheScarf There were a couple other things in there where I was wondering if it was an example of different people making the same narrative leap or if this game inspired the other people, since it's the older piece of media.
@@RiderWithTheScarf ngl. I wrote this comment as soon as Takaya put his eyepatch on. Only to realize seconds later this was literally just tokyo ghoul. This game truly is something else. Tokyo ghoul, Japanese atrocities, the energizer bunny. It's a shame this game didn't end up getting more traction in the states when it first came out. This is exactly the sort of wild experience a good rpg maker game should be
the sprite art in battles is truly some unsettling stuff. the takashi's sprites becoming more grotesque over time is a much more "enjoyable" scare than surprise deaths and chases. idk if i just didn't look hard enough back then, but i really wish more rpg maker horror games did stuff like that.
oh shit bubbletea! good taste in videos haha, love your content, man had to take a double take when I was scrolling through comments and recognized your pfp
Gotta say though, the scientist with the iv machine that doubles as a scythe goes hard as fuck, bravo to the artist who woke up that morning and decided to make the most early 2000s design possible
The part about Unit 731 really caught me off guard. Japan avoids talking about the atrocities that were committed during WW2 because doing so is considered strongly tabboo. From what I have seen, a lot of Japanese people aren't even aware of Unit 731 existence.
It is most certainly known by a lot of Japanese Indy devs. Hell, it is basically a trope for the weird old Japanese scientist to be a former member of the unit.
@uchytjes10 Typically, from what I've seen when they have a crazy scientist character, they're a nazi. That does make a lot sense, though. Since Japanese indie developers can use games to more freely reference and criticize the taboo aspects of the culture.
@@evilevilcritterExcept Florida. Yes, it's part of the bigger part of the landmass that is America but at this point, Florida is the modded GTA server of the United States.
@@ProfessionalNamielleLewder69 I mean, given how Florida reports on damn near everything and turns it into an article, it makes me wonder if people lick doorbells for 3 hours for attention, for example.
Alright alright...So....this game went from being corpse party, to mad father, to resident evil, to the boogey man, and back to resident evil, and at the same time it was all a giant tokyo ghoul reference. Goddamn language barrier, it negates us the opportunity to meet and play gems like this one. Excellent video. One final thing, who needs bazookas and rail guns to defeat a final boss when a cup of tea is all you need!?
Marsh please use your silly horror game searching method more often. I wanna hear more about Japanese RPG maker games with funny names. Also this is genuinely good for media preservation.
Same here, I hope this becomes something that happens more, not that Marsh couldn't do something different and we wouldn't like, it's more from the fact that this was fantastic, I've never saw someone go through these lengths for a topic so interesting as this, also, if it wasn't for Marsh I would never even know about Peret em Meru, which I'm currently playing!
I just wanna hear more about japanese fan games that never make it here for some reason, like, have you ever heard of any japanese fan game of anything at all? I haven't, even though most shit I'm interested in comes from there, who knows what stuff we're missing
@@ESALTEREGO I mean it works relatively fine here lol, the only way it wouldn’t is if absolutely no one played this game, which if that was the case we wouldn’t be watching a video on it. So I’m sure there’s a small subset of people who enjoyed it at one point, even if most likely forgetting.
I just saw that and it was totally bullshit 🤣🤣 All the gods of anime and jrpgs helped on that one HOLYY 😂 Haruhi Madoka and Nakajima (as we saw in the last game he became God) all 3 helped here 🤣🤣😂
Also I think I know what happened to Izumi in terms of her “parasite” She’s probably the victim of kodoku, a ritual type magic from Japanese folklore where you mix several insects in a jar, and let them kill one another until only one survives. The fluids of the insect that survived would be used to poison/curse the victim that would control them, cause them misfortune, or kill them.
Another Japanese work that references Unit 731 is surprisingly mainstream. In Bleach, the Arrancar Szayelaporro Granz, as well as his brother, are *heavily* insinuated to have been members of Unit 731 in life in the novels (which are all canon btw, so go read them if you're a fan), which makes sense when you remember the kind of "attacks" he used in the show. Like that one where he made voodoo dolls of his target's internal organs? Yeah.
I really wanna believe this was the Tokyo ghouls author and artist highschool project he did before drawing manga. The parallels and some key plot points are almost uncanny and the art looks like a really really early version of their art.
Considering the similarities like the names (GU-L sounds a lot like Ghoul), the growing limbs that maul and kill other people easily and the fact that Takashi looks and acts like Tsukiyama...
@@gothicanimeangel96Andreas of Team Psykallar released the original Afraid of Monsters mod when he was barely a teenager, like at 13. If you can develop an award winning Half Life mod in the GoldSrc engine as your breakout project before truly reaching puberty, it’s not impossible to do the same in the RPG Maker engine. An engine is that is *a lot* easier to work with in comparison to GoldSrc.
I have to say, I'm genuinely impressed by how sophisticated the narrative of this game is. I'm also very surprised to see a piece of Japanese media that directly references Japanese crimes against humanity, because typically those topics are quite taboo and are typically brought up through metaphors and less direct references. I'd wager that most Japanese people wouldn't have known about those experiments, so it's clear that whoever made this did so with the intent to make people more inclined to look into it. It's a shame that the game is so obscure, though I guess that there are a lot of examples of people who created something like this when they were younger and weren't able to continue making similar projects due to having to work a regular job, or just feeling that they were under an obligation to put their hobby aside in the name of becoming an adult with responsibilities.
Hm, a story where one of the main characters is a ghoul with one eye that turns red when under extreme duress/thirst and wears an eyepatch to cover it up? I wonder if Sui Ishida ever played this game…
@@MegaDeathRay10 Specifically from the "Don't Fuck With This" armory. The same one where they keep the Ark of the Covenant, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the actual body of Christ.
Wonder if the game's creator still out there, making games, the person has some really fun ideas. Edit: i looked it up, according to a tweet from years ago by a japanese fan who was also looking for the creator's whereabouts, Yubu-san was working on a remake of GU-L around 2003~2007 it seens, but then went radio silent and their blog (that was linked in the tweet) isn't working anymore. Now it really is a mystery. Storywise, kinda sad Takashi didn't get to see his mom... But i doubt he could be properly introduced into society after what father dearest did to him
I've also seen it, there was also a trailer or some sort of demo video on Nico nico. Even found a link from 2021 but it just brings me to the login part...
The puzzle at 1:14:52 is supposed to line up with the Chinese zodiac, I think. Twelve spots and four of them are zodiac animals. I believe the answers you chose even go in the correct order.
1:15:00 snakes are often associated with immortality, which can be seen as a form of overcoming death. theres ouroboros, the snake that eats its own tail and is basically a cooler, more metal version of the infinity symbol (its also associated with alchemy, the end goal of which was the creation of the philosopher's stone, which could in turn be used to make an elixir of eternal life) and the end of the epic of gilgamesh has a snake stealing and consuming an herb that grants eternal youth which the titular gilgamesh had meant to consume himself to escape mortality
@@KeremyJato oh right completely forgot about that one! yet another association with immortality, as asclepius god of medicine and wielder of the caduceus was so good at making drugs (in the pharmaceutical sense) that he made a cure for death, and was summarily executed by the gods for treading into their territory.
53:28 Every time he says "kill" here it's pronounced the same: "kiru", but spelled in different ways. 切る is a generic word for cutting, 斬る is to cut someone to death, and キル is a transliteration of the English word "kill"
Holy hell, I've never been as glued to the screen during any obscure videogame coverage as this one - this is the ideal lost videogame experience right there. Genuinely obscure, genuinely interesting. Thank you for covering this! I hope you backed the game up somehow, stuff like this really should not disappear. Hope you'll end up covering more RPG maker obscurity!
For another obscure horror game, might I suggest Re: Kinder? It's pretty sad considering what happened to the creator, and the game seems to be a look into what he felt when making it. The game takes place in a setting where mental illness is something that people don't believe exists. I feel this game needs to be talked about more just because of the subject matter.
@@denjidenji9162 He unfortunately took his own life. The game itself about mental illness and not being believed it's real from others makes me feel his game was based on his personal experience.
I hate it when some D rate UA-camr says, "take as look at this spooky game I found, this is some messed up stuff!" and then talks about some game we all know about all while sounding like the type of guy who'd piss himself if he ever read a page of Berserk, or whine about it being unsavory. You actually showed off something really cool and obscure and I love your style of presentation! Love your vids man, keep up the great work!
The whole 'Fire allowing you to transform your appearance' concept has recently been a major plot element in the Chainsaw Man manga. While it's possible they're both taking inspiration from a similar interpretation of fire in Japanese mythology, I also would not put it past Fujimoto to have played this game as a teenager during the 2000s and taken this idea from it, the whole plot kinda does sound right up his alley.
Between the video on Peret em Heru and this one, I can confirm that if you want to do more videos on these kind of niche unknown indy games, I'm all for it.
the process and explanation of hunting down this game, to then make a movie-length video about this obscure find is fuckin' incredible. preserving this extremely obscure RPGMaker game in this fashion is really cool. i greatly appreciate the chance to see a game like this being shown off to the public after being tucked away in a corner for decades. another banger video. thanks, man.
Hey marsh, don't pull yourself into a knot trying to out-do yourself, but this kind of video is fantastic and completely unique in it's style and feel. This is fantastic and i hope you continue doing similar things in the future.
This is why we watch you Marsh. Obscurity made seen. Thanks friend. (Also heard some music from OFF. That game really shaped me as a kid, so I appreciate you giving it a little love) Sidenote: This game was right up my alley, and just wanted to say thanks for bringing it to light Marsh. Please continue with the RPG maker experiences
1:11:43 I've seen two other games reference Unit 731 to some degree- Spirit Hunter: Death Mark and Spooky's House of Jumpscares. In the former, there is the Kannon Soldier. Unit 731 isn't directly mentioned, but it's a very obvious inspiration for the ghost as she was the victim of Imperialist Japanese scientists who grafted her body onto several others. Spooky's House of Jumpscares has Specimen 9, a skull thing that kills you if you afk for too long. It's also the final boss of the game. Prior to fighting it proper, you go through a room with a radio. This radio says "I'm taking all those 'logs' they keep throwing out. And I'm nailing them together.", and you see 731 on a wall nearby. That should say it all. ...it's some messed-up shit.
@amergingilesit was reasonably worthwhile though. There's knowledge like how frosbites worked and the treatments for it, how certain injuries affect the human physiology, and more. Mad scientists are cruel, and their methods are usually nonsensical. But with the quantity of tests these people do, they're bound to find something new eventually. A broken clock is still right twice a day, something like that.
@@anothun9216there are more humane ways of discovering these things. Unit 731 regularly tortured people with the excuse that it was for research. Like they just straight up raped folks and sliced them open cuz they could. There is no excuse for their research, and the "helpful" results they had could have likely been discovered through more human means.
I've played a lot of RPGmaker games. Ever since the Ao Oni days, pretty much. I'm surprised this one slipped through the cracks! I half expected it to be an unfinished mess, but was pleasantly surprised. Hopefully we'll get that fan translation sooner rather than later. Just goes to show... big, crazy mansions really are a timeless setting.
wow, the reveal that the project came out of unit 731 was shocking as hell. i’ve never seen something from real life as fucked as that ever make it into any media, much less video games
Apparently there was an uproar in China about the evil scientist from MHA initially being named Maruta in reference to the 731 experiments to the point where major Chinese publishing companies like Tencent flat out banned it until both Shounen Jump and the Writer both issued apologies and changed his name in future publications.
This is actually the first time (I can remember) that I've seen Unit 731 referenced by name in fictional media, and I'm quite surprised it was in a _Japanese_ game in particular.
@@supremelystupidmoron4120 small correction: his name was not actually a reference to that, at least not on purpose. The names of MHA characters are usually some sort of pun, his was one too, the reference to Unit 731 was accidental.
I wish this game had a translation but unfortunately it probably never will have one . This game reeks post world war 2 japanese traumas and i really appreciate the fact it had the courage to mention unit 731 . It looks really interesting to play but yeah unfortunately as a non japanese speaker i'll have to stick to this video :'( (wich was amazing btw like always)
I'm so hyped that games like this are and will continue to be part of the Marsh arsenal. No exaggeration, you're doing incredible work helping preserve fascinating works of art. Nothing on youtube excites me more than seeing one of your videos drop, keep up the good work, and I'm wishing you well.
I have actually heard of this game in an old Gamefaqs thread about ao oni. So crazy after playing rpg maker games again, I INSTANTLY REMEMBERED ABOUT THE COVER PHOTO. Had it as a walkpaper once on my old iphone in blury quality Game reminds me faintly of Black souls 1 and 2 I love this preservation of old rpgmaker games and thank you for your effort. Been on a binge of these forgotten games and dear god the amount of works Ive witnessed that deservingly need to be preserved
Came for the SMT content, stayed for the awesome in-depth obscurities. I absolutely love how it feels like a friend telling me about some cool shit they came across. Thanks for all the hard work as always.
This video was great, Marsh. It's awesome to see obscure games that are not only interesting by themselves, but also capture the SMT nature of teenagers with guns killing monsters. I'm all for unqiue stuff like this.
Love this kind of stuff. Sure the game seems a bit amateur but just some guy like 20 years ago spend a lot of his free time making what he wanted to make and finished it only for everyone to forget. Bringing it back with a video just feels genuinly nice, i hope he somehow sees this
I've only finished the "Tracking down" section and I can already tell this is going to be wild, like I doubt anyone has even thought about this game in a long time let alone documented it.
I think transitioning into obscure old games like this and the pyramid one you also played are perfect once for your channel once you finish the Megaten games off. The fascination for Megaten's weird and quirky nature is shared by these.
By the end of the video I started thinking about the RPG maker community of a particular central european country that had its heyday back in the early 00s. The games weren't good or even original by any means, but I must have played this game called Amnézia (Amnesia) like a dozen times from beginning to end when I was a child. I remember the game leading me to the website of the devs that had a once pretty lively forum which was kind of my first exposure to the "real" internet. By the time I happened upon it it was effectively dead for years, but I think it gave me a taste for the obscure and the half-forgotten that never quite left me since then. Just going by my knowledge of the dozens of these kinds of games that were out there only in my language (most of which I didn't ever get around to playing), it really is a staggering thought to consider the immensity of the amount of media that never had audiences larger than a couple hundred, or even a couple dozen. Just how much effort is buried under obscure languages no one would care to learn and thousands of links long dead?
@@frankblazer6377 It might be a little longer than that, but yeah I am working on one right now. Edit: To be clear, because someone thought it would actually be around 3 months, it will be a lot longer than that. This is a project I'm doing just for fun in what little free time I have. I can't really give an accurate estimate, but please don't be disappointed that it won't be done within 3 months.
Update, still here. Still working on it. Although, I do work a full time job, I have been working hard in some of my free time to edit this script. I've also sent some screenshots to Marsh and offered to help him with these types of games, if he decides to cover more of them in the future. It's gonna be a long project, but I'm here to try to help out the community I love.
I think the snake orb's riddle is a reference to one of these: 1) the Epic of Gilgamesh, where the elixir of immortality is stolen by a snake? 2) Ouroboros? 3) The Asclepius staff, a symbol of medicine and healing Snakes in general seem to be associated with healing and immortality
since cryaotic left the internet (for a good reason) and manlybadasshero hasn’t touched a classic-style rpgmaker horror game for over a year, seeing marsh play them is both unexpected and welcoming edit: this probably didn’t age well
I've been spending the past few years showing RPG Maker games to my partner since he hasn't seen them and it's been a nice way to make new memories to replace the old ones with Cry.
kind of unrelated but as someone who used to be a huge fan of manlybadass im really not a fan of the direction his channel has gone :( which isnt too bad because i get that content creators grow and their tastes change, but manly only seems to be interested in 3d horror as of late
@@wpbn5613 I mean, this is just easily verifiably false. like half of his recent stuff has been 2D games, and if we want to get technical the original comment is also false because he uploaded a video a little over a month ago of the game "Case 03: True Cannibal Boy" which is made in rpg maker, although it's done more as a visual novel so it doesn't really fit the same vibe as rpgmaker horror normally does.
@@frog1405 yknow what, ill go watch that. i think what i should've said is that i enjoy his taste in the games he used to play a lot more compared to the ones he does now
After watching to the end, I gotta say that your videos covering obscure RPG Maker games are definitely my favorite! I love seeing what kind of projects and ideas small indie devs can come up with, and appreciate you sharing it for others to see
1:15:05 Bit of a stretch, but the other animals for each question kinda make sense; - Snake: One who overcomes death; Ouroboros, the snake swallowing its own tail endlessly - Horse: One who can fly the fastest; Pegasus, the horse from greek mythology - Dog: One who is determined to overcome suffering, related to the moon; Hachiko (you should know why) -- and Laika, the first dog in space This is amazing, and someone who can barely read japanese, I really appreciate your work on this video :D
Very interesting that this game essentially has two main characters for how old it is. Keisuke making sure the group stays alive and Takaya with his gu-l predicament.
The rpg maker era really was a time of creative dread. Cant believe after experiencing things like Yume Nikki, Mad Father, Misao, Stray cat crossing, Off, ReKinder, etc throughout the years there are still cases like Gu-L.
This video has made me nostalgic. I remember spending hours upon hours combing through countless forums and sites, coming across weird and unknown games. I'm glad this video exists.
Aaah this was a cool-ketsu video all the way. I got a theory that the reason why Daniel and his girl were able to just burst into the Nagata room out of a sudden is because they perfected the Teleport project that one of the diaries spoke about. Also, in my opinion there's no doubt that this game inspired (at least a bit) the series Tokyo Ghoul, heck I haven't even watched that thing and still can see the paralelisms. Thank you for another video Marsh, I was expecting it since the previous-to-halloween announcement. Someday I'll create videos like this myself, the first one possibly being about Phantasy Star.
Excellent video as always, I do love me some Marshkino. I was really surprised by this game because the beginning act feels like an extremely standard "survive the shenanigans with as many of your friends alive as possible" but then it goes into this wild science horror direction. Really interesting, especially when you look at it as a sort of companion piece to Peret em Heru and how they're very similar until they aren't. Good shit and looking forward to the next video - Megaten, niche horror, or otherwise.
I just realised UA-cam unsubscribed me from the channel months ago and upon checking up on the channel via this recommended video, discover there's literally hours of amazing content that awaits. Thanks Marsh!
I've seen so many "deep dive" videos that barely scrape the surface of the subject matter lately... And you just put together this masterpiece, not even using a clickbait title. Congrats.
You should check out Forget Me Not Palette. This is an old RPG Maker horror project that was actually officially released on the PS1 by enterbrain as it was the winner of some competition iirc. Very rare and Japanese only thougg
Forget me not Pallete is actually a re-make for the PS1. The original version for PC has been translated by VGperson. I played it sometime last year, was a bit hard to figure some stuff out and the colors I had some trouble working with, but the game was very fun! There are some differences between the original and remake, but as far as I am aware, it’s mainly just graphics and added artwork.
I'd make a joke about "What do Japanese indie horror game devs have against fat people?" but I know it's the same thing everybody has against fat people - we're fat. At least it was possible to save the guy in Peret Em Heru, I can't imagine what you could do differently to prevent Sutomu from dying.
Totally agree with you. Although to be honest as a fat person I’d rather go out pigging out on some grub than live through a crazy traumatizing death game
@@Homodemon tbf sumo wrestlers have an extremely strict diet that they practice from like age 6 to ensure that they strike a balance between a *lot* of muscle growth and a protective layer of fat outside it. it's not simply that they eat a lot. that's why there's a stigma around normal fat people and not sumo wrestlers. sumo wrestlers are practicing an extreme amount of restraint and fortitude to achieve their diet, it's genuinely absurdly hard. but from a societal perspective they view normal fat people as just people with no willpower
What a great start to November with more Marsh. Your non-SMT videos are just as good if not better than ur usual. Thanks for sharing these hidden spooks
Hi, Marsh! I really recommend you trying Linda Cube, because it really feels like the kind of trippy forgotten JRPG stuff you'd love. Also, loved the video and excited to see more content apart of your SMT series
@@shinoataya I'm lowkey obsessed with the aesthetics of this game and would love to play it in English- do you have a source or link where I can follow for when it's released?
I should add this thing to TV Tropes if I remember it later. Gotta preserve this stuff to keep it from becoming Lost Media. If I forget and you're a troper, you know what to do.
I love rpg maker games, those were a big part of my teen years (Ib was my favorite alongside Wadanohara and the great blue sea), and I'm a fan of obscure japanese games no matter the genre so this is a gem to me! A treasure! The fact the story throws itself off a cliff just like the buss just make it better, I love crazy passion projects, amazing game and amazing video
I appreciate hearing that SMT music in the background throughout this video and I LOVE you doing these obscure games I’ve never heard of and wouldn’t be able to experience without your videos.
Id love to see this have a full face lift honestly to maker MV it could be made a lot more scary with updated art and graphics maybe also clear up some story chunks
It's so fascinating to see the types of games that end up as lost media over the years. this one's not perfect, but it's pretty solid; if it had an english translation, I don't doubt it'd be another one of the well-known rpg maker titles known to this day, glad you were able to find it and shine some light on it
This whole game is really fascinating...i been wanting to see some new japanese obscure rpg maker game again, and your video came in the right time i was looking for, it's a shame myself don't know much about japanese and can't play the game myself alone, hope GU-L gets a small fandom that will keep the game alive and not forgotten by time as it was.
This one is pretty out there. Hope you guys like it, I thought for a really long time about what the best game to cover would be, and then I found this at the last minute. Check the description for songs used and instructions on how to download the game yourself. Yeah I know I'm still working on SMT 2
SMT II is freaking insane. I still haven't finished it. Now that I think about it, V is the only one I actually beat!!
Banger as always Marsh
It's great, your really taking us into the obscuritory now. Bless your google image skills and dedication.
Love your vids
Know anyone who does translations, would really love to play this myself.
"dudes go 30 seconds without their juuls and don't know how to act" yo😭😭😭😭😭
Crawling the web in Japanese looking for some obscure old game
"dead link" "dead link" "Oh hey an entire fucking forum dedicated to it, aaand they're all dead links on a near dead forum"
You don't know how painfully familiar i am with that
All I can say is god fucking bless the datahoarders and god bless the skull and crossbones flag for usually coming in clutch
The fact people were commenting on the dev's last work before GU-L and the fact that it was part of a competition makes me wonder "what were the other entries in the competition like?", "what were the other dev's games like?", "are they lost media as well?" and "can we track down and find them all?". We can't let more of these games go to waste!
I'll have to look into more of the contest entries, there are dozens and dozens on there. Not much horror but interesting stuff regardless
@@MarshSMTsomething bizarre like yume nikki would be cool to see
I really like dreamlike and weirdcore stuff
That's the sad reality of indie/obscure games from non Western countries. Even with so many people translating manga and anime, we have barely scratched the surface of content available exclusively in Japanese. The same goes for videogames as well, there are a lot of games that never got an official translation nor even a fan made one
@@alanmonteros6432It is why I'm learning Japanese since there is a lot of obscure media that probably never getting translated lmao.
@@antimatter3084Who knows? Perhaps you’ll be the one who would be translating them in the first place.
Dude literally covers up his evil eye to contain his dark powers. He's living every chunibyo's dream.
Takaya literaly does the whole Tokyo Ghoul shit before Tokyo Ghoul, right down to covering his one right eye and it being red. It's amazing.
@@RiderWithTheScarf There were a couple other things in there where I was wondering if it was an example of different people making the same narrative leap or if this game inspired the other people, since it's the older piece of media.
@@boobah5643 third option. They share a common inspiration
@@RiderWithTheScarfthey’re even called ghouls!
@@RiderWithTheScarf ngl. I wrote this comment as soon as Takaya put his eyepatch on. Only to realize seconds later this was literally just tokyo ghoul.
This game truly is something else. Tokyo ghoul, Japanese atrocities, the energizer bunny. It's a shame this game didn't end up getting more traction in the states when it first came out. This is exactly the sort of wild experience a good rpg maker game should be
The deadlinks was the real horror we met along the way
What the- It's you?!
rapidshare link be like: 💀
the sprite art in battles is truly some unsettling stuff. the takashi's sprites becoming more grotesque over time is a much more "enjoyable" scare than surprise deaths and chases. idk if i just didn't look hard enough back then, but i really wish more rpg maker horror games did stuff like that.
oh shit bubbletea! good taste in videos haha, love your content, man
had to take a double take when I was scrolling through comments and recognized your pfp
i wonder what you think about fear and hunger then
Gotta say though, the scientist with the iv machine that doubles as a scythe goes hard as fuck, bravo to the artist who woke up that morning and decided to make the most early 2000s design possible
The part about Unit 731 really caught me off guard. Japan avoids talking about the atrocities that were committed during WW2 because doing so is considered strongly tabboo. From what I have seen, a lot of Japanese people aren't even aware of Unit 731 existence.
It is most certainly known by a lot of Japanese Indy devs. Hell, it is basically a trope for the weird old Japanese scientist to be a former member of the unit.
@uchytjes10 Typically, from what I've seen when they have a crazy scientist character, they're a nazi. That does make a lot sense, though. Since Japanese indie developers can use games to more freely reference and criticize the taboo aspects of the culture.
almost like every fucking nation doesn't talk about the atrocities they've committed..........
@@evilevilcritterExcept Florida. Yes, it's part of the bigger part of the landmass that is America but at this point, Florida is the modded GTA server of the United States.
@@ProfessionalNamielleLewder69 I mean, given how Florida reports on damn near everything and turns it into an article, it makes me wonder if people lick doorbells for 3 hours for attention, for example.
Alright alright...So....this game went from being corpse party, to mad father, to resident evil, to the boogey man, and back to resident evil, and at the same time it was all a giant tokyo ghoul reference.
Goddamn language barrier, it negates us the opportunity to meet and play gems like this one. Excellent video.
One final thing, who needs bazookas and rail guns to defeat a final boss when a cup of tea is all you need!?
And remember this came out around 2001, 10 years before tokyo ghoul and mad father were even things. Cool stuff.
if you want to play it, i’ve seen some people playing the game in english so it shouldn’t be impossible :)
@@snartboy5000 wait really?? where- id love to see more of this game :)) like all the endings n events n stuff :)
@@134f1n47r33 I am pretty sure that this was an inspiration for tokoy ghoul.
Marsh please use your silly horror game searching method more often. I wanna hear more about Japanese RPG maker games with funny names. Also this is genuinely good for media preservation.
Same here, I hope this becomes something that happens more, not that Marsh couldn't do something different and we wouldn't like, it's more from the fact that this was fantastic, I've never saw someone go through these lengths for a topic so interesting as this, also, if it wasn't for Marsh I would never even know about Peret em Meru, which I'm currently playing!
I just wanna hear more about japanese fan games that never make it here for some reason, like, have you ever heard of any japanese fan game of anything at all? I haven't, even though most shit I'm interested in comes from there, who knows what stuff we're missing
I just realized that any touhou fan game counts cuz it's touhou so the logic above sounds silly but ignore that
Bros is unknowingly SINGLE-HANDEDLY reviving a WHOLE ENTIRE fandom with a 1 hour video.
You have zero understanding what the word fandom means, dont you?
@@ESALTEREGO I mean it works relatively fine here lol, the only way it wouldn’t is if absolutely no one played this game, which if that was the case we wouldn’t be watching a video on it. So I’m sure there’s a small subset of people who enjoyed it at one point, even if most likely forgetting.
@@didybopintitys name at least one person except that youtuber who played the game 🤣
Dont bother, you cant XD
@@ESALTEREGOmarsh literally showed other people who played it in the video shut up fool
@@ESALTEREGO you must have a lot of friends with how fun you seem to be.
Gul more like marsh sniffed some glue before finding this game
1:15:45 It was Nakajimas hands guiding you through the puzzle, he'll always be out there watching you
You guys let Nakajima’s name rest😭
I just saw that and it was totally bullshit 🤣🤣
All the gods of anime and jrpgs helped on that one HOLYY 😂
Haruhi Madoka and Nakajima (as we saw in the last game he became God) all 3 helped here 🤣🤣😂
HE CANT KEEP GETTING AWAY WITH THIS!
his hands a comforting
this joke is prolly funny as hell if i got the reference
Also I think I know what happened to Izumi in terms of her “parasite”
She’s probably the victim of kodoku, a ritual type magic from Japanese folklore where you mix several insects in a jar, and let them kill one another until only one survives. The fluids of the insect that survived would be used to poison/curse the victim that would control them, cause them misfortune, or kill them.
Or, considering the name, it's probably based on the Chinese gu jar, which is the same.
It also creates ridiculously OP fighters
I think there was a manga based off of that premise.
Yup, it's called Doku Mushi, but I wouldn't recommend reading it because of its disturbing and rather questionable content.
Holy shit is that a Raidou Kuzunoha reference
Another Japanese work that references Unit 731 is surprisingly mainstream.
In Bleach, the Arrancar Szayelaporro Granz, as well as his brother, are *heavily* insinuated to have been members of Unit 731 in life in the novels (which are all canon btw, so go read them if you're a fan), which makes sense when you remember the kind of "attacks" he used in the show. Like that one where he made voodoo dolls of his target's internal organs? Yeah.
that's pretty much in-character for the pink hair freak, do you have excerpt where it's hinted?
that is quite literally not possible because szayel died hundreds of years before the main storyline. Stop spreading misinformation online chuzzo.
@@intergalactictitanium Ulquiorra is the one that died hundreds of years ago and lived as a tree for most of his time
Wait, is this states in CFYOW?
@@intergalactictitaniumits true. Read the novel. Kubo also said the LNs are canon to the manga.
48:31 "You wanna guess what the rabbit's name is?"
At this point I genuinely would not be surprised if he was named Akemi Nakajima
Crawling through the countless deadlinks and scouring early 2000s Japan internet is how you get cyber ghosts. Do you WANT cyber ghosts?
I really wanna believe this was the Tokyo ghouls author and artist highschool project he did before drawing manga. The parallels and some key plot points are almost uncanny and the art looks like a really really early version of their art.
considering Sui would have been 13 or 14 at the time of making the game, that's pretty unlikely, but who knows.
Considering the similarities like the names (GU-L sounds a lot like Ghoul), the growing limbs that maul and kill other people easily and the fact that Takashi looks and acts like Tsukiyama...
@@gothicanimeangel96that’s literally the prime age for a creative to make something like this lol
@@gothicanimeangel96Andreas of Team Psykallar released the original Afraid of Monsters mod when he was barely a teenager, like at 13. If you can develop an award winning Half Life mod in the GoldSrc engine as your breakout project before truly reaching puberty, it’s not impossible to do the same in the RPG Maker engine. An engine is that is *a lot* easier to work with in comparison to GoldSrc.
@@gothicanimeangel96Japanese pursue creativity outlets earlier because they don’t have the time before the grind starts.
I have to say, I'm genuinely impressed by how sophisticated the narrative of this game is.
I'm also very surprised to see a piece of Japanese media that directly references Japanese crimes against humanity, because typically those topics are quite taboo and are typically brought up through metaphors and less direct references. I'd wager that most Japanese people wouldn't have known about those experiments, so it's clear that whoever made this did so with the intent to make people more inclined to look into it.
It's a shame that the game is so obscure, though I guess that there are a lot of examples of people who created something like this when they were younger and weren't able to continue making similar projects due to having to work a regular job, or just feeling that they were under an obligation to put their hobby aside in the name of becoming an adult with responsibilities.
Hm, a story where one of the main characters is a ghoul with one eye that turns red when under extreme duress/thirst and wears an eyepatch to cover it up?
I wonder if Sui Ishida ever played this game…
honestly i think he really did lol
Could just be a common source. I heard someone referencing Most Dangerous Game as a possible inspiration
Theory Time...
He made the game using an alias, Tokyo Ghoul was the final version of the story.
“These games are comfy”
*Witch’s house gameplay in the background*
Hmm…
Man that sure looked like a persona 5 calling ca- *Shot to death*
You never saw it coming?
@@autobotstarscream765 Guess it was their Last Surprise
@@FaeSleepy Perhaps they're done in.
Marsh going all "Indiana Jones and the Lost RPG Maker Horror" is something I never knew I needed, but goddamn do I want more of it.
"It belongs in a hard drive!"
Imagine his games folder (the real one) like the warehouse they store the Arc of the Covenant in
Ok
@@MegaDeathRay10 Specifically from the "Don't Fuck With This" armory. The same one where they keep the Ark of the Covenant, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the actual body of Christ.
Wonder if the game's creator still out there, making games, the person has some really fun ideas.
Edit: i looked it up, according to a tweet from years ago by a japanese fan who was also looking for the creator's whereabouts, Yubu-san was working on a remake of GU-L around 2003~2007 it seens, but then went radio silent and their blog (that was linked in the tweet) isn't working anymore. Now it really is a mystery.
Storywise, kinda sad Takashi didn't get to see his mom... But i doubt he could be properly introduced into society after what father dearest did to him
Damn, that's a shame. I hope they're still working on it
Project FLAME got to him its truly over
Dude's probably still around, people change identities online all the time
I've also seen it, there was also a trailer or some sort of demo video on Nico nico. Even found a link from 2021 but it just brings me to the login part...
Now we need to track this guy no matter what
Marsh definitely the only guy to make me care about shit as niche as this
ThorsHighHeels a close second
@@vvmurphyvvi was about to say that lol
@@vvmurphyvv thors kinda mid, ngl
Ross from Accursed Farms is one of the classics in this sphere. Highly recommend
Considering the similarities between this and Tokyo Ghoul and rising interest in lost media,it might not be so niche
Marsh is like that one guy you know who calls you up in the dead of night and says “You'll never guess what I just found.”
Hey I don't know if you noticed but the card at 9:05 looks like a persona 5 calling card! very awesome! I love persona 5!
The puzzle at 1:14:52 is supposed to line up with the Chinese zodiac, I think. Twelve spots and four of them are zodiac animals. I believe the answers you chose even go in the correct order.
Can confirm. They're sorted there like numbers on a clock. Since snake, horse, goat and dog are 5th, 6th, 7th and 11th, can place them accordingly
1:15:00 snakes are often associated with immortality, which can be seen as a form of overcoming death.
theres ouroboros, the snake that eats its own tail and is basically a cooler, more metal version of the infinity symbol (its also associated with alchemy, the end goal of which was the creation of the philosopher's stone, which could in turn be used to make an elixir of eternal life)
and the end of the epic of gilgamesh has a snake stealing and consuming an herb that grants eternal youth which the titular gilgamesh had meant to consume himself to escape mortality
Oh goddammit. Not Ouroboros. Not again. THE ENDLESS NOW.
The caduceus, a symbol of two serpents going around a staff, was also a symbol stretching back to ancient Greece
@@KeremyJato oh right completely forgot about that one! yet another association with immortality, as asclepius god of medicine and wielder of the caduceus was so good at making drugs (in the pharmaceutical sense) that he made a cure for death, and was summarily executed by the gods for treading into their territory.
Or the serpent who tempted Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden fruit, which in turn stole eternal life from them.
And a snake's head may still move/react for some time after being cut off, as if it survived death!
53:28
Every time he says "kill" here it's pronounced the same: "kiru", but spelled in different ways.
切る is a generic word for cutting, 斬る is to cut someone to death, and キル is a transliteration of the English word "kill"
yeah its a pretty funny little dialogue
There is Japanese word for specifying cutting someone to death?!
@@ajflink
yeah, though it is often used to refer to cutting with a sword
Ngl the art has some charm to it despite how wack it kind of looks. Definitely gives me some old RPG maker vibes.
its very unskilled at times but it has a nice, creepy and nostalgic vibe that i really like
Holy hell, I've never been as glued to the screen during any obscure videogame coverage as this one - this is the ideal lost videogame experience right there. Genuinely obscure, genuinely interesting. Thank you for covering this! I hope you backed the game up somehow, stuff like this really should not disappear.
Hope you'll end up covering more RPG maker obscurity!
Take a bit of Marsh, mix it with the most obscure game you can think of and you have a true Masterpiece.
A Marshterpiece if you will
@@versebuchanan512 I most certainly will not
For another obscure horror game, might I suggest Re: Kinder? It's pretty sad considering what happened to the creator, and the game seems to be a look into what he felt when making it. The game takes place in a setting where mental illness is something that people don't believe exists. I feel this game needs to be talked about more just because of the subject matter.
I know about the game, but what happened to the creator? :o
@@denjidenji9162 He unfortunately took his own life. The game itself about mental illness and not being believed it's real from others makes me feel his game was based on his personal experience.
Ohh yeaah, iirc the original Kinder (made by the same dude) got compared to Gu-l
I hate it when some D rate UA-camr says, "take as look at this spooky game I found, this is some messed up stuff!" and then talks about some game we all know about all while sounding like the type of guy who'd piss himself if he ever read a page of Berserk, or whine about it being unsavory. You actually showed off something really cool and obscure and I love your style of presentation! Love your vids man, keep up the great work!
I hope that this gets a fan translation someday, I really wanna add this to my collection
3 months friend!
@@eatmynutsarchmage4883 huh
fck u mean? there a lot of fantranslation of pc games, like a vn and a lot of rpgm games
The whole 'Fire allowing you to transform your appearance' concept has recently been a major plot element in the Chainsaw Man manga. While it's possible they're both taking inspiration from a similar interpretation of fire in Japanese mythology, I also would not put it past Fujimoto to have played this game as a teenager during the 2000s and taken this idea from it, the whole plot kinda does sound right up his alley.
That reminds me of Madoka Magica's ED part where Madoka seems to burst into flames before running after something in the abyss
That's literally the main plot point of Fire Force. Probably the Kagutsuchi myth being the inspiration
Only one man can make me watch an hour and a half video about a game I've never heard of
Between the video on Peret em Heru and this one, I can confirm that if you want to do more videos on these kind of niche unknown indy games, I'm all for it.
the process and explanation of hunting down this game, to then make a movie-length video about this obscure find is fuckin' incredible. preserving this extremely obscure RPGMaker game in this fashion is really cool. i greatly appreciate the chance to see a game like this being shown off to the public after being tucked away in a corner for decades.
another banger video. thanks, man.
Even if the pacing issues are bad, the story and setup is more interesting than some of the commercially sold horror games of that era.
Hey marsh, don't pull yourself into a knot trying to out-do yourself, but this kind of video is fantastic and completely unique in it's style and feel.
This is fantastic and i hope you continue doing similar things in the future.
This is why we watch you Marsh. Obscurity made seen. Thanks friend. (Also heard some music from OFF. That game really shaped me as a kid, so I appreciate you giving it a little love)
Sidenote: This game was right up my alley, and just wanted to say thanks for bringing it to light Marsh. Please continue with the RPG maker experiences
1:11:43
I've seen two other games reference Unit 731 to some degree- Spirit Hunter: Death Mark and Spooky's House of Jumpscares.
In the former, there is the Kannon Soldier. Unit 731 isn't directly mentioned, but it's a very obvious inspiration for the ghost as she was the victim of Imperialist Japanese scientists who grafted her body onto several others.
Spooky's House of Jumpscares has Specimen 9, a skull thing that kills you if you afk for too long. It's also the final boss of the game. Prior to fighting it proper, you go through a room with a radio. This radio says "I'm taking all those 'logs' they keep throwing out. And I'm nailing them together.", and you see 731 on a wall nearby. That should say it all.
...it's some messed-up shit.
The fact I also knew it from both of these beforehand too lol.
@@Poni5hi punishing bird
Higurashi mentions Unit 731 too
@amergingilesit was reasonably worthwhile though. There's knowledge like how frosbites worked and the treatments for it, how certain injuries affect the human physiology, and more. Mad scientists are cruel, and their methods are usually nonsensical. But with the quantity of tests these people do, they're bound to find something new eventually. A broken clock is still right twice a day, something like that.
@@anothun9216there are more humane ways of discovering these things. Unit 731 regularly tortured people with the excuse that it was for research. Like they just straight up raped folks and sliced them open cuz they could. There is no excuse for their research, and the "helpful" results they had could have likely been discovered through more human means.
I've played a lot of RPGmaker games. Ever since the Ao Oni days, pretty much. I'm surprised this one slipped through the cracks! I half expected it to be an unfinished mess, but was pleasantly surprised. Hopefully we'll get that fan translation sooner rather than later. Just goes to show... big, crazy mansions really are a timeless setting.
wow, the reveal that the project came out of unit 731 was shocking as hell. i’ve never seen something from real life as fucked as that ever make it into any media, much less video games
felt the same. damn.
It’s also obliquely referenced in Spooky’s Jumpscare Mansion.
Apparently there was an uproar in China about the evil scientist from MHA initially being named Maruta in reference to the 731 experiments to the point where major Chinese publishing companies like Tencent flat out banned it until both Shounen Jump and the Writer both issued apologies and changed his name in future publications.
This is actually the first time (I can remember) that I've seen Unit 731 referenced by name in fictional media, and I'm quite surprised it was in a _Japanese_ game in particular.
@@supremelystupidmoron4120 small correction: his name was not actually a reference to that, at least not on purpose. The names of MHA characters are usually some sort of pun, his was one too, the reference to Unit 731 was accidental.
I wish this game had a translation but unfortunately it probably never will have one . This game reeks post world war 2 japanese traumas and i really appreciate the fact it had the courage to mention unit 731 . It looks really interesting to play but yeah unfortunately as a non japanese speaker i'll have to stick to this video :'( (wich was amazing btw like always)
I'm so hyped that games like this are and will continue to be part of the Marsh arsenal. No exaggeration, you're doing incredible work helping preserve fascinating works of art. Nothing on youtube excites me more than seeing one of your videos drop, keep up the good work, and I'm wishing you well.
I have actually heard of this game in an old Gamefaqs thread about ao oni. So crazy after playing rpg maker games again, I INSTANTLY REMEMBERED ABOUT THE COVER PHOTO. Had it as a walkpaper once on my old iphone in blury quality
Game reminds me faintly of Black souls 1 and 2
I love this preservation of old rpgmaker games and thank you for your effort. Been on a binge of these forgotten games and dear god the amount of works Ive witnessed that deservingly need to be preserved
Damn Marsh showing me a bunch of footage of creepy pasta games I managed to avoid my entire life lmaooo I respect it
Never stop with the obscure horror. Especially since the SMT-Noose is slowly tightening.
Came for the SMT content, stayed for the awesome in-depth obscurities. I absolutely love how it feels like a friend telling me about some cool shit they came across. Thanks for all the hard work as always.
This video was great, Marsh. It's awesome to see obscure games that are not only interesting by themselves, but also capture the SMT nature of teenagers with guns killing monsters. I'm all for unqiue stuff like this.
This kind of preservation is such an amazing and important thing to me. Thank you for this.
Love this kind of stuff. Sure the game seems a bit amateur but just some guy like 20 years ago spend a lot of his free time making what he wanted to make and finished it only for everyone to forget. Bringing it back with a video just feels genuinly nice, i hope he somehow sees this
I've only finished the "Tracking down" section and I can already tell this is going to be wild, like I doubt anyone has even thought about this game in a long time let alone documented it.
I think transitioning into obscure old games like this and the pyramid one you also played are perfect once for your channel once you finish the Megaten games off. The fascination for Megaten's weird and quirky nature is shared by these.
By the end of the video I started thinking about the RPG maker community of a particular central european country that had its heyday back in the early 00s. The games weren't good or even original by any means, but I must have played this game called Amnézia (Amnesia) like a dozen times from beginning to end when I was a child. I remember the game leading me to the website of the devs that had a once pretty lively forum which was kind of my first exposure to the "real" internet. By the time I happened upon it it was effectively dead for years, but I think it gave me a taste for the obscure and the half-forgotten that never quite left me since then. Just going by my knowledge of the dozens of these kinds of games that were out there only in my language (most of which I didn't ever get around to playing), it really is a staggering thought to consider the immensity of the amount of media that never had audiences larger than a couple hundred, or even a couple dozen. Just how much effort is buried under obscure languages no one would care to learn and thousands of links long dead?
the part where Takashi said "It's GU-Lin' time" and then GU-Led all over the party nearly brought me to tears
fascinating video
Cool! Can't wait for the fan translation in 3 months!
Wait what!
@@frankblazer6377 It might be a little longer than that, but yeah I am working on one right now.
Edit: To be clear, because someone thought it would actually be around 3 months, it will be a lot longer than that. This is a project I'm doing just for fun in what little free time I have. I can't really give an accurate estimate, but please don't be disappointed that it won't be done within 3 months.
@@NicoNikoNickthank you so much
@@NicoNikoNickBased. Fan translators like the guy covering Japan's version of Terranigma deserve some love.
Update, still here. Still working on it. Although, I do work a full time job, I have been working hard in some of my free time to edit this script. I've also sent some screenshots to Marsh and offered to help him with these types of games, if he decides to cover more of them in the future. It's gonna be a long project, but I'm here to try to help out the community I love.
I think the snake orb's riddle is a reference to one of these:
1) the Epic of Gilgamesh, where the elixir of immortality is stolen by a snake?
2) Ouroboros?
3) The Asclepius staff, a symbol of medicine and healing
Snakes in general seem to be associated with healing and immortality
And inversely, snake oil, a term for fake cures.
Ngl my jaw dropped when this game referenced… that. I rarely see Japanese works that even acknowledge that “project”
Man... You really did found a buried game. An entire generation of people are reaching adulthood and this game was there even before their birth.
since cryaotic left the internet (for a good reason) and manlybadasshero hasn’t touched a classic-style rpgmaker horror game for over a year, seeing marsh play them is both unexpected and welcoming
edit: this probably didn’t age well
Wow, this comment hit different. I'm getting old
I've been spending the past few years showing RPG Maker games to my partner since he hasn't seen them and it's been a nice way to make new memories to replace the old ones with Cry.
kind of unrelated but as someone who used to be a huge fan of manlybadass im really not a fan of the direction his channel has gone :( which isnt too bad because i get that content creators grow and their tastes change, but manly only seems to be interested in 3d horror as of late
@@wpbn5613 I mean, this is just easily verifiably false. like half of his recent stuff has been 2D games, and if we want to get technical the original comment is also false because he uploaded a video a little over a month ago of the game "Case 03: True Cannibal Boy" which is made in rpg maker, although it's done more as a visual novel so it doesn't really fit the same vibe as rpgmaker horror normally does.
@@frog1405 yknow what, ill go watch that. i think what i should've said is that i enjoy his taste in the games he used to play a lot more compared to the ones he does now
After watching to the end, I gotta say that your videos covering obscure RPG Maker games are definitely my favorite! I love seeing what kind of projects and ideas small indie devs can come up with, and appreciate you sharing it for others to see
Marsh, you are my favorite, video game guy, you are the only human being that can pull out something from beyond the memory of almost everyone
1:15:05 Bit of a stretch, but the other animals for each question kinda make sense;
- Snake: One who overcomes death; Ouroboros, the snake swallowing its own tail endlessly
- Horse: One who can fly the fastest; Pegasus, the horse from greek mythology
- Dog: One who is determined to overcome suffering, related to the moon; Hachiko (you should know why) -- and Laika, the first dog in space
This is amazing, and someone who can barely read japanese, I really appreciate your work on this video :D
Damn, the Persona 5 menus look like a GU-L title card ;)
Cracking video again, Marsh; thanks for sharing this obscure gem with us!
Very interesting that this game essentially has two main characters for how old it is.
Keisuke making sure the group stays alive and Takaya with his gu-l predicament.
Another delicious hour and a half to watch over and over until the lore is embedded in my brain, thanks Marshal!
The more I think about it the more this game’s story sounds like a wild love child of Haunting Ground and Tokyo Ghoul
You could talk about almost any obscure RPG Maker game and it'd be enthralling. Thank you for taking us on this journey.
The rpg maker era really was a time of creative dread. Cant believe after experiencing things like Yume Nikki, Mad Father, Misao, Stray cat crossing, Off, ReKinder, etc throughout the years there are still cases like Gu-L.
Wake up, people, Marsh has a new obscure game to talk about!
This video has made me nostalgic. I remember spending hours upon hours combing through countless forums and sites, coming across weird and unknown games. I'm glad this video exists.
*The Character Designs:* EarthBound-like.
*The Story:* Resident Evil meets Battle Royale.
I freaking love RPG Maker games.
Aaah this was a cool-ketsu video all the way. I got a theory that the reason why Daniel and his girl were able to just burst into the Nagata room out of a sudden is because they perfected the Teleport project that one of the diaries spoke about.
Also, in my opinion there's no doubt that this game inspired (at least a bit) the series Tokyo Ghoul, heck I haven't even watched that thing and still can see the paralelisms.
Thank you for another video Marsh, I was expecting it since the previous-to-halloween announcement. Someday I'll create videos like this myself, the first one possibly being about Phantasy Star.
Excellent video as always, I do love me some Marshkino. I was really surprised by this game because the beginning act feels like an extremely standard "survive the shenanigans with as many of your friends alive as possible" but then it goes into this wild science horror direction. Really interesting, especially when you look at it as a sort of companion piece to Peret em Heru and how they're very similar until they aren't. Good shit and looking forward to the next video - Megaten, niche horror, or otherwise.
I just realised UA-cam unsubscribed me from the channel months ago and upon checking up on the channel via this recommended video, discover there's literally hours of amazing content that awaits.
Thanks Marsh!
I've seen so many "deep dive" videos that barely scrape the surface of the subject matter lately...
And you just put together this masterpiece, not even using a clickbait title.
Congrats.
Marsh is secretly a super genius, guessing his way through all these obtuse puzzles first try.
These obscure game videos have been great
You should check out Forget Me Not Palette. This is an old RPG Maker horror project that was actually officially released on the PS1 by enterbrain as it was the winner of some competition iirc. Very rare and Japanese only thougg
Forget me not Pallete is actually a re-make for the PS1. The original version for PC has been translated by VGperson. I played it sometime last year, was a bit hard to figure some stuff out and the colors I had some trouble working with, but the game was very fun! There are some differences between the original and remake, but as far as I am aware, it’s mainly just graphics and added artwork.
@@Kossa-Odessa I never knew there was a translation, time to give it a shot myself!
Finished my last day of work at my job today, and somehow, seeing Marsh release a new one is much more exciting, let's goooo
This is genuinely one of my favourite videos on this site atm
Oh my GOD! The world building and story had me so entranced! I wish a sequel was made covering the other projects!
I'd make a joke about "What do Japanese indie horror game devs have against fat people?" but I know it's the same thing everybody has against fat people - we're fat. At least it was possible to save the guy in Peret Em Heru, I can't imagine what you could do differently to prevent Sutomu from dying.
Totally agree with you. Although to be honest as a fat person I’d rather go out pigging out on some grub than live through a crazy traumatizing death game
@@ducktsu7767 A good point, to be sure
Just checked he's the only one you can't save apparently
Kinda ironic considering that one of Japan's most popular cultural sports is Sumo
You would think they would be a bit more body positive about it
@@Homodemon tbf sumo wrestlers have an extremely strict diet that they practice from like age 6 to ensure that they strike a balance between a *lot* of muscle growth and a protective layer of fat outside it. it's not simply that they eat a lot. that's why there's a stigma around normal fat people and not sumo wrestlers. sumo wrestlers are practicing an extreme amount of restraint and fortitude to achieve their diet, it's genuinely absurdly hard. but from a societal perspective they view normal fat people as just people with no willpower
What a great start to November with more Marsh.
Your non-SMT videos are just as good if not better than ur usual. Thanks for sharing these hidden spooks
Hi, Marsh! I really recommend you trying Linda Cube, because it really feels like the kind of trippy forgotten JRPG stuff you'd love. Also, loved the video and excited to see more content apart of your SMT series
A one and a half hour video of a very obscure RPG maker horror game, covered by the main man himself Marsh Nakajima? Sign me up!
I hope this gets an English translation one day. Crazy weird but cool relic of old, forgotten RPG Maker games.
@@shinoataya I'm lowkey obsessed with the aesthetics of this game and would love to play it in English- do you have a source or link where I can follow for when it's released?
commenting here if anyone finds a link, srsly this game is so cool
What a wild game, story, and final boss. Thank u for sharing Marsh.
I should add this thing to TV Tropes if I remember it later. Gotta preserve this stuff to keep it from becoming Lost Media.
If I forget and you're a troper, you know what to do.
Please no, TVT is cancer
Page up. Feel free to add new tropes if you can, folks.
nah, I pass chief @@fennwenn3317
I love rpg maker games, those were a big part of my teen years (Ib was my favorite alongside Wadanohara and the great blue sea), and I'm a fan of obscure japanese games no matter the genre so this is a gem to me! A treasure!
The fact the story throws itself off a cliff just like the buss just make it better, I love crazy passion projects, amazing game and amazing video
I appreciate hearing that SMT music in the background throughout this video and I LOVE you doing these obscure games I’ve never heard of and wouldn’t be able to experience without your videos.
Id love to see this have a full face lift honestly to maker MV it could be made a lot more scary with updated art and graphics maybe also clear up some story chunks
It's so fascinating to see the types of games that end up as lost media over the years. this one's not perfect, but it's pretty solid; if it had an english translation, I don't doubt it'd be another one of the well-known rpg maker titles known to this day, glad you were able to find it and shine some light on it
Wow I remember playing this back in 2015 and struggling through the Japanese (I was nowhere near as fluent as I am now). What a blast.
This whole game is really fascinating...i been wanting to see some new japanese obscure rpg maker game again, and your video came in the right time i was looking for, it's a shame myself don't know much about japanese and can't play the game myself alone, hope GU-L gets a small fandom that will keep the game alive and not forgotten by time as it was.