What is the origin of “Uncle from Another World”‘s favorite Saturn game?

For many players, a large part of the highlights of the topic animation “Uncle Returning from Another World” in July this year comes from the identity of the uncle’s deep Sega fan. In the original comics, the author just right to let the uncle’s cognition of the game stay in the era of Sega Saturn – the era of Japan’s most fans of Sega.

In this work, Saturn’s game memes are everywhere. One OP of the animation allowed my uncle to Cosplay many famous works, but the most famous one is “Guardian Hero” written directly in the title of the second episode.

In the words of my uncle, “it perfectly integrates the fighting system into the type of beat-up action, with a high degree of innovation and completion”, but the reputation of “Guardian Hero” in that era was far less than that of the beautiful girls who were popular on Saturn. game.

Yesterday, we pushed a video: [Disappeared Archive] “Guardian Heroes” by uncles . If you haven’t seen it yet, here, we’ve put together a text version for you:

“Guardian Heroes” and “Youyou Baishu: The Unification of Demons and Powers”, which are most familiar to MD players, are also developed by Sega’s Wannian younger brother-Taibao Club, and the production staff have a great overlap. Although it has become a beat ’em up action game, there are many similarities in the system.

It is different from the general beat-up action class that can move up and down freely, but adopts a system with three axes in which characters can jump and switch. In this way, the protagonist and the enemy remain on the same axis, and the gameplay of the fighting game can be realized. The characters can defend or squat, hit the enemy from the ground to the sky, and then perform a floating combo, and each character is equipped with a lot of nirvana, which makes the fight very lively.

The protagonist of “Guardian Heroes” is a typical fantasy adventure team. The members are Hahn, a warrior with a big sword; Randy, a magician who uses stick skills and has a magical pet; Nicole, a natural monk who can attack enemies with a flat throw, and Ginjiro, a squinting ninja who is unsmiling. Along with the plot, an average red-armored female knight Serena will be added, and the tank, milk, and output are all ready.

Such RPG elements are not superficial. The game not only has experience value settings, but also can be upgraded and assigned points by yourself. In particular, increasing intelligence can strengthen the range of magic, making people want to point them into glass cannons every time. When it comes to magic, this is the biggest feature of “Guardian Heroes”. Except for the warrior Hahn, who is a Muggle who can only shoot small fireballs, the magic of other characters is very powerful. For example, Randy’s thunder can directly exceed the screen after strengthening; Ginjiro’s thunder palm can suck the enemy and can’t move, and the hit count is directly Hundreds.

The most special is the monk Nicole, her magic has healing, but also has a completely invincible shield, and she will drop a smiley emoji from the sky. It is the only auxiliary profession among the five people. In order to highlight the characteristics of natural sluggishness, the types of its healing magic are random.

Because of her weak attack power, playing alone seems like a prison job, but the strongest attack magic is hidden in her shield. As long as the intelligence point is high enough, this shield will become very huge, clip the boss with the shield to the edge of the board, and the health bar will be cleared all at once.

Of course, the magic in the game also needs to consume the character’s MP, and the game’s method of replenishing MP is also very simple and crude. If you hit the enemy with a normal attack, you can return it. All in all, it is the back and forth between the physical attack and the magic attack. In addition to attacking or attacking, it can be said that life and death are on the line, wealth and wealth are in danger. However, players who are familiar with the game are absolutely disdainful of using the method of selecting magic, but directly rubbing them to make instant shots, and being able to pick up the whirlwind of →←↓↑+Z every time, even if they are masters.

The fight is cool enough, the moves and systems are rich enough, and it is enough to prop up the facade of an action game, but “Guardian Hero” is not sloppy in terms of plot.

Lots of branching routes, 30 levels, and finally a total of seven different endings. The story has twists and turns, and each level can have a reversal. Every faction appears to be a Rashomon. Players often don’t know who to believe in the game. Only through all levels and routes can you see the full picture of the event. .

At the beginning of the game, the protagonist group got a legendary sword after some adventure. The four of them talked a lot before reaching a consensus. They saw the hotel where they were staying was on fire, and a red-armored female knight, Serena, rolled in in the pose of a Contra, indicating that their party had been hunted down by the kingdom, and the other party asked It is this legendary sword that he is looking for.

The soldiers started fighting without saying a word, and the group could only flee to a tomb for shelter. Unexpectedly, a thick-skinned magic mecha stood in front of them. When nothing can be done, Hahn raises the legendary sword, but unexpectedly resonates with the tomb, awakening an undead warrior and destroying the mecha with one move. What is the origin of this man?

It turned out that the female knight Serena was the real royal princess, and the current royal family is just a fake puppet. The royal family she belonged to was slaughtered by the traitor Kanon a long time ago, and this undead warrior was the last warrior who guarded the royal family. Now that Canon is in power behind the scenes, he is turning the country into a Sorcerer Nation, causing the people to complain. In this way, Canon should be the big boss behind the scenes?

Not also. Seeing the murderous spirit of the protagonist, Canon also threw out his own difficulties: in the ancient times, there were two hostile forces in the world – the heaven and the earth. . However, the people in heaven saw that human beings were the key to this war, so they taught the human beings magic and sealed the people of the earth in darkness.

The heavenly people who solved the old enemy now have a grudge against humans, and those with magic pose a huge threat to them, so they sealed up magic and wizards again, and led humans to open the era of swords. Canon was the surviving wizard at that time. He revived the magic era of mankind, cleaned up the royal family in the era of swords, and established the Sorcerer Kingdom, precisely to avenge the heavenly people.

But at the same time, the king who was supported by Khanon in the kingdom also has an inside story. His real identity is actually a land person. Her cooperation with Kanon is only a temporary move, and she holds a grudge against the humans who sealed her. At the right time, she will Kick away the canon and lead the troops to take revenge alone. As for the people in the sky, it will also show the player that the people of the earth are the culprits of everything, the leader of the devil, and if you defeat her, you will achieve permanent peace. Players go through various branch routes, and the final bosses to be defeated include earth gods, heavenly people, and artificial soldiers out of control after Canon’s death, etc., but what can be called the true ending is undoubtedly the “ideal town” that will eradicate the culprit. And the two endings of “Knight of Light”.

In these routes, players will learn from the people in the sky that whether it is the seizure of power by Canon, the undead warrior, or the appearance of the legendary sword, they are actually the result of the Creator’s single-handed control. In front of it, the world is nothing but an experimental field. And the purpose of all this is to let players go through many trials and finally give birth to an ultimate warrior. The people in the sky are its lackeys, while the people in the earth are the failures in the process of cultivating the ultimate warrior. At the end of the story, the protagonist group will eventually destroy the creator and usher in a new chapter for mankind.

That’s not all “Guardian Heroes” is all about.

After the clearance, the battle mode that supports up to 6 players is still waiting for players to tap. In this mode, you can choose all the characters in the game, such as the gods of the sky, the gods of the earth, the golden man-made soldiers and other final boss-level characters are available, and the performance of the moves is a little bit more. The most outrageous thing is that even the villager NPCs that act as background boards in the game can also be used. They are also divided into thin villagers, fat villagers, female villagers, child villagers and old man villagers. Of course, these characters are just for fun, the combat power is not even 5, balance and rigor are completely absent, but it can’t be kept alive, and six players play together, it is difficult to think if it is not fun.

Having said that, you must all feel the same way about the roar that my uncle made in the second episode. Such a good game is also one of the best among the thousands of games on Saturn, but the players of that year did not give corresponding evaluations, and it only ranked 197th in the readers’ poll of Saturn magazine.

However, the sales of “Guardian Hero” are not low, and as time goes on, its reputation has also risen. After the second episode of “Uncle in Another World” was broadcast, many players took the opportunity to improve the game on Twitter, and the voice actor Fukuyama Jun even made the voice of “I vote for the guardian hero”.

Over the years, “Guardian Heroes” has also launched some “spiritual sequels”, such as “Illusion Breaker: Battle Paradise”, “Princess Code”, etc., but you may not know that these games are more or less related, It even goes back to Guardian Heroes and an unknown little company.

Only 197, “Guardian Hero” lying in a small corner

In 1987, a game company called Team Cross Wonder was established in Itabashi, Tokyo, and later changed its name to Fill in Cafe.

The company initially made 3D shooting games such as arcade “Space Harry”, but the platform X68000 computer did not have much response. But in 1994, the company finally ushered in two games that could be called explosions. One is the fighting game “Flying Birds 120% Burning Festival”. All available characters are female high school students, and the character is Aoi Nanase. It can be said that it has opened up a precedent for cute fighting games. More importantly, as a computer game manufacturer. The work is not bad at all, and it also has a unique move-to-kill system and gorgeous floating combos.

The other game is the beat version action game “Mad Stalker”. The protagonist is a robot, but it is still a fighting game. Because this game does not have the concept of moving up and down, the enemy and the enemy are all on one axis. Having said that, you may have guessed that the frequent killings and floating combos are the characteristics of “Magic Power Unity” and “Guardian Heroes”.

This is because Yasuo Ukyo, a program and planner of “Mad Stalker”, went to Treasure Club immediately after finishing the game, and became the main program of “Unified War of Demons and Powers”, as well as the general manager of “Guardian Heroes”. director.

And another planner of “Mad Stalker”, Masahiro Imaizumi, the main process of “Asuka 120%”, stayed at Fill in Cafe and embarked on a different trajectory. Ukyo Axo is like a duck to water on the treasure side. Together with the elites from Konami, such as Kikuchi Tetsuhiko, they have polished the game very delicately, and the quality is far beyond the Fill in Cafe era.

But Masahiro Imaizumi also did his best within his ability. After that, he made several sequels to the “Asuka 120%” series for PS, and also strengthened the transplantation of “Mad Stalker”.

In 1997, a line-changing game “Mecha Hot War” very similar to “Guardian Hero” was released on PS. At that time, I thought it was a cottage product made by a glasses factory. The Imaizumi development of Fill in Cafe is considered a spiritual sequel to “Mad Stalker”, and perhaps his response to “Guardian Hero”.

In all fairness, there is still a big gap between the quality of “Mecha Hot War” and the works of Treasure Club. The biggest problem is that the richness of the game is not enough, and it is easy to get aesthetic fatigue. But the advantages are also obvious. The refreshing feel and dynamic picture performance as always reflect the serious attitude of Imaizumi in making games. You know, it is only a few months before Fill in Cafe closes down.

Over time, the sequel to “Guardian Heroes”, “Advance Guardian Heroes”, abandoned the original system and became a traditional beat-up action, but it received mixed reviews. The “Princess Code” co-developed by Tetsuhiko Kikuchi and Masao Ukyo after leaving the treasure could not reproduce the glory of the year.

On the other hand, “Illusion Breaker: Battle Paradise”, led by Masahiro Imaizumi again, also only handed in an answer sheet that was neither salty nor light. In this game, you can also see the assistance of Yasuo Ukyo. These developers seem to be challenging Guardian Heroes again and again.

But sometimes, classic means it’s perfect enough. No matter how many ideas and the pursuit of breakthroughs, it may drift away from its original charm; no member of the golden team that fought together in the past can be replaced.

Maybe some people will feel the end of the era because of this, but I prefer to open Saturn, put a piece of “Guardian Hero”, laugh like an uncle from another world, and recall the memory fragments related to the game in those days, recalling the deceased. Grandma, when I saw my impatient expression when I was rolling, I recalled the shock of seeing the guardian hero at first, and recalled the arduous process of saving money to buy Saturn. Those are my unique memory of the game.