Wibarm - The First Polygonal Action RPG (PC-88 Paradise)
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- Опубліковано 28 сер 2017
- On the third episode of PC-88 Paradise I take a look at a rare 1986 gem by Arsys Software, "Wibarm".
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I watched this video before starting this game, so I'd have an idea on how to play it, and as a result, I found myself singing that "Dorky Robot" song whenever I was in the overworld segments.
I actually finished this game a few days ago, and I have a few points I'd like to to make to compare the info provided in this video.
1.) The enemies in the overworld are not infinite. As a matter of fact, it works very much like in Xanadu, in which each enemy on the map spawns a certain number of times (4 times in Xanadu, 6 times in this), and what they drop upon winning are a fixed set of statistics per encounter spawn.
2.) Mental does not determine how much ability you'll get. Instead, it works as a sort of sanity health bar. There are certain enemies that lower your mental in battle, some even attack by lowering your mental in battle. If this hits 0, that counts as death (this happened to me once, when I stopped paying attention). Your mental increases if you gain enough mental to pass your current max.
3.) Aside from the Sonic and Vaster Rifles, the Hyperflame Projector is a great weapon to have for your 3rd extra weapon slot, as it can be incredibly powerful against certain enemies that are otherwise quite resistant to the other 2 weapons.
4.) You actually gain some new extra weapons over the course of the game, 3 to be exact. 2 of these: Psycho Rifle and Gravity Generator, are found in level 5, and is what you'll want to be using the rest of the game. The Psycho Rifle is absurdly powerful and slowly spreads into more bullets, forming a wall of bullets, while the Gravity Generator will take care of whatever the Psycho Rifle can't hurt. These weapons are practically a necessity for the end game (of which all battles become a joke, once you have them).
5.) I did reach the max for the 3 main stats. Ability and Mental max at 9,999, while Energy maxes out at 32,767 (why this number, I have no clue).
6.) There are 6 levels to this game, if anyone is wondering. Of these, the 2nd level is honestly the hardest. Even if you kill everything in level 1, you'll barely be strong enough to handle anything in level 2, and the layout is the most complicated of them all, the cavernous design making this the one area the land cruiser gets any legitimate use. Not to mention, the master unit is actually a real pain to find in this one, requiring use of a very specific teleport, as their connections sort of work one way at times. Don't go destroying teleports unless you absolutely have to. If you can get past level 2, however, the rest of the game is honestly a bit of a joke, difficulty wise. The enemies become easily killable the rest of the way, for the most part, the overworlds become much easier to navigate, and the dungeons aren't too bad as long as you can read the map.
Compared to many other RPGs coming out on the PC-88 in 1986, from what I've tried, this was a really darn fun one. Very impressive for 1986.
Thanks for all that info! This has always been the one video I'd like to re-do more than any of the others. So many mistakes, inaccuracies, and fundamental issues with the way I made the video... and I really only covered the first stage of the game! If I had made it today, it would definitely have been a very different video.
But still, there are so many other games I have never made videos about that I would really like to cover, so it is unlikely I'll be remaking any of my videos in the foreseeable future.
For #5: 32,767 is the integer limit for a signed 16-bit number. There's your answer. :P
Wow, those 3D sections are really impressive. Great review!
Basement Brothers has quite a lot of good songs featured in their videos. Not just talking about stuff like Falcom classics on PC-88 Paradise, but Dorky Robot, among others I've heard in other videos!
ENEMYS NAME: BIGEY SMALL
From looking at this video, I found it's easy to take the pixel fidelity of Wibarm's polgynal area walking animation for granted... until you see how it performs on other systems. The detail on that is almost as remarkable as the polygonal maze concept.
Thank you for playing. ;p
I've really been enjoying your videos! Found them recently when I decided to finally get around to trying Rusty (Haven't yet because EVO demanded my attention first) and I wanted to thank you for making such great, entertaining videos.
Great review! I think the original pc-88 version is better than the DOS port in just about every way, with only one exception: the title screen graphic and music are better in the dos version if playing on a Tandy 1000 system.
I played for 30 hours before getting stuck back in the 80s. I should try finishing it again (I still have my save file).
Interesting looking game. The 3D scenes are very impressive as is the auto map feature. Definitely reminded me of Thexder when I first saw the side scrolling scenes.
Great review. Finally someone talking about classic in details pc-88 game and that is not Japanese on youtube. This game is quiet impressive and Arsys made quiet impressive game at the time like also Star Cruiser that is using 3D again, even if the frame rate is quiet slow. By the way, Plazma Line from Technosoft worth also a check-out since it is the very first game using polygon (1984!)
I can also suggest you to play Zeliard on the machine, a nice action/rpg that was also out for the MS-DOS from Game Arts (not in 3D however).
AFAIK Plazma Line / WibARM / Star Cruiser were programmed by the same person.
And there I thought Phantasy Star was impressive with its FP dungeons (it actually really was, lol), but polygon mazes in 1986? That's seriously rad. Thanks again for your awesome, informative and entertaining content! :)
Maybe the developers wanted something like the Valkryie from Macross where it has 3 modes of transformation: a jet fighter, a robot, and the hybrid mode but not copy it completely hence the land cruiser. I'm just making guesses here.
OOOOH THIS GAME!! I've seen it in a video a few years ago but I never caught the name of the game and I've never managed to figure out what it was or to find the video in which I first saw it again... I thought it looked really impressive with the 3D sections, but I'm not really sure if they're rendered polygons, they look a lot like ray-casting considering it only does 90 degree walls, I wouldn't be surprised if it was... If they really were polygons, I think they'd take more advantage of that and make more angled walls, but maybe they wouldn't for the sake of keeping the map simple? If anything, it's more impressive that it only takes up one floppy...
Great Stuff! As always!
Awesome retrospective, you earned yourself a subscriber! Would be cool to cover Cruise Chaser Blassty at some point I think. As you likely know, it's the very first Square RPG game, and it came out on PC-88 as well! It's not the first Square game of course - that would be Death Trap - but still, an interesting beast to tackle. Keep this series up, it's very cool to watch. :)
The algorithm hates me😂. I gladly watch your videos ☺️. But the algorithm hides them..
The polygons during that era and the third person view dungeon crawling are mighty impressive. Wish somebody would get Masami Obari on board in order to remake Wibarm and package it along with other lost mecha-inspired PC-88 games.
As for the three modes, given the popularity of super robots back then, I believe the three modes reference the three modes a lot of robots had back then, like Daitarn 3, Combattler V, Daimos and others, rather than anything from Macross with its jet fighters.
Is there a reason why all of your pc-88 reviews are so dark?
Please keep doing them, btw. This is truly unique material.
The battle system likely came from Archon, which came out a couple of years earlier.
i love the pc 88 mk! wish i had system and game...
Amazing dorky robot game
Is it me, or this game has a lot of Thexder in it? That's my only reference because I played Thexder as a kid.
Yep. Definitely a copy of Thexder and Xanadu. Thanks for watching.
5:42 looks like Seiya
I'd be surprised if the 3D wasn't actually raycast similar to Wolfenstein 3D and Hovertank 3D. Though of course this one came out earlier, so it's exciting. Maybe i try reverse engineering it someday?
I LOLed at the first sentence
voltron, is that yiu???
Can you move back and forth between cities or is it like separate levels?
Ah well that's a game I'll pass on translating then. Thanks for the summary.
ME [when I see PlayStation 5 graphics]: "Meh."
ME [today, when I see what talented programmers were capable of in the 1980s]: "WTF?!?!"
Seriously...polygons? On a 5-1/4 inch Floppy Disk? In 1986? HOW?
Exactly ! 😊