Boktai: The Sun Is in Your Hand Review

Greg Kasavin steps in front of the camera to shed some light on Hideo Kojima s solar-powered game for the GBA.
"Boktai would be a great game even if it didn't have a fancy solar sensor built right into the cartridge. That just serves to make it even more interesting."

[@YamiGenesis]

the fact that the guy giving this review would one day be a developer of Bastion

[@panamanian911]

This is a hidden gem. I remember beating this a few years back before i lost the cartridge

[@Joeyplaysguitar1082]

If you're a fan of Metal Gear or Castlevania, you'll love Boktai.

[@LunarEclipseKid]

I love this game. I've played it through a couple of times, and still love it

[@MMaRsu]

Just bought this for my GBA so I'm happy I'll finally be able to play it!

[@JoshyGoodtime1]

I just beat it maybe 10 minutes ago. A real good game for sure.

[@SDWSND]

This game is a slap on the face of emulator gamers. No sun. No progress.

[@totallyfrozen]

I have Boktai and Boktai 2. Both are super fun and everything he said they are-but the whole sunlight thing can be a drag sometimes if you don’t have BRIGHT sunlight. Daytime on a cloudy day isn’t good enough.

[@adamepi8316]

@OldGamerStuff Can you play this game on the nintendo ds? On account of the whole sunlight thing?

[@ludens1526]

the 3rd game was awesome loved the whole series even the ds game too

[@YamiGenesis]

+steveothehulk no u can.. but u gotta find one where you hold the L button and the right on the d pad.... rising sun... i think.. add rising sun to your search

[@tetrakataki]

Actually, Rising Sun is the in-game grenade for the first game that gives 2 guaranteed bars of sun. Sadly, those don't show up until past the first part where sun is absolutely necessary. Now, for ROMs, there ARE patches that exist that allow one to hold down the L button as you mentioned and use the d-pad to adjust sunlight. Most ROMs you can find will come with that already applied from what I found. The third game, however, I had to apply such manually with a translation patch. All of which can be found on a fan forum that I believe is known as San Miguel Inn. It's hosted on Zetaboards.

[@syrelian]

4 Bars actually, and are you sure you don't mean Bokura No Taiyo Online, since thats where I found all of that stuff, though sadly the boards are now pretty much dead

[@tetrakataki]

Four? Well, it's at least two, that much is for sure.~ And maybe they're the same thing? All I know is it's a dead Zetaborads forum. So old, so dusty, yet it has some things hidden in it that we can call gems.

[@animegx45]

I've tried. The sun is not the DS's best friend.

[@unknownninja1]

Really why not I have a ds, and want to get this game?.

[@meowskull]

Holy shit this looks identical to Lunar Knights on the DS, and I LOVE that game. Seriously though it's almost IDENTICAL! It looks like it uses the exact same engine and even universe. I know they're both Konami and Hideo was behind both of them but shit it's like they're in the same series! I wonder if this game is canon with Lunar Knights? Anyways.. GLAD I BOUGHT THIS GAME TODAY FOR 6 BUCKS......

[@meowskull]

WAIT A MINUTE! I just looked up Boktai on Ebay and I saw "Boktai DS: Django and Sabata!" THAT MEANS LUNAR KNIGHTS IS BOKTAI 4??

[@YamiGenesis]

meowskull you catch on fast

[@overdosh]

meowskull dude, its really a good game ! what lucky u r ! FANTASTIC!!!!!

[@tetrakataki]

meowskull Lunar Knights is in the same line as Boktai. It's supposed to be distanced from the main titles. Officially, Lunar Knights was to be an alternate universe. But taking information from the Japan-only third game, Shin Bokura no Taiyou: Gyakushuu no Sabata, ("shinbok") and some of Lunar Knights' own tidbits, we learn it's more of an alternate timeline where Shinbok's villain actually succeeds.

[@syrelian]

Yeah, the reason it was distanced from Boktai was because it was a "Different Game" so to speak, it no longer required the Sun, and Boktai had a bit of a bad rep from the sensor, also, Meowskull, if you see this, you can use a Boktai Game's Solar Sensor with Lunar Knights, and for timeline, yeah, there is 3 timelines, Pre-Shinbok, Post-Shinbok, and Lunar Knights, Pre-Shinbok timeline, Django's grave was never discovered, and so the Solar Guns were never made, and humans were defeated soundly pretty much, Post-Shinbok is the one where Django didn't die in his grave, since he did the events of Shinbok, and Lunar Knights leads off the side-effects that both saved Django, pretty much, a kid from the Pre line got sent back in time somehow, he shakes up Django's grave and frees the not yet dead solar child, cue game, somehow he gets back to his own timeline afterwards, but the events of Shinbok means that he knows where Django died, so while the immortals did win, the Gun Del Sol is recovered, somehow reverse engineered, and you get the Solar Guns of LK, along with all the other fancy tech they end up with

[@CeceliPS3]

I don't know how to feel about this...

[@StiffAftermath]

Black. Light. LEDs. Problem solved. I got two off ebay for $7 each and they work really well. Full sunlight in a heartbeat!! Besides I actually dumped my own rom, patched it, and can play it on PC or on my GCW Zero!

[@totallyfrozen]

Gimpler Da Happenin I have blacklight LEDs. I’m going to test this. If it’s bullshit, I’ll come back here and let the world know you’re full of it. If it’s not, I thank you!👍🏻

[@steveothehulk]

so you will never be able to play a rom of this

[@dudemevill1699]

On cellphones you can if you're still alive

[@the_konami_kid]

can u play this game indoors?

[@totallyfrozen]

cspringhartrun Not really. I mean, the game will function but you literally need actual sunlight to charge your weapon. So if you don’t have outdoor sunlight, it’s difficult because you’ll end up defenseless against enemies. The reviewer explains all this in the review.

[@TXFDA]

The sun thing is a good IDEA..but that just means you can't play it at night..and it's never going to usable on a virtual console or emulation. You're forced to play in the daytime, on a real GBA or DS.

[@TXFDA]

***** And that's the dumbest reply I've seen all day. Congrats on keeping things consistent.

[@losthaze]

txfnero I've gotta say you're wrong on both accounts. He CLEARLY said in the video that you can play at night. I actually have this game for the GBA and the sensor is actually sensitive enough to work under a strong lamp. And as for emulations...they have those working as well. I've got Boktai 1,2 and 3 all on my psp and the ROM is patched to allow you to control the light level. ╭∩╮（︶︿︶）╭∩╮

[@TXFDA]

losthaze I know you can play at night. My point was that there's specific things that require light. Meaning those specific things wouldn't work as well. Not to mention, a fair amount of people that would have had this game were kids. I kinda doubt they'd be able to turn on their lamps at night to play the game when they're supposed to be sleeping. Also "the rom is patched". Which means it's not the official thing. Good job.

[@losthaze]

txfnero You're STILL wrong on both accounts. Boktai 1 was released in 2003 and Boktai 2 in 2004. During this time the only GBA available was the original model which didn't have a backlight. It wasn't until 2005 that the GBA SP was released which had a backlight. So the only way you could have played either game (or any for that matter) at night was in a well lit room or under a lamp. And lastly, of course there isn't going to be an "official" patch for a rom as downloading and using them is "technically" pirating. Did you think Konami was going to release a patch for their own illegally downloaded games? ╭∩╮（︶︿︶）╭∩╮ ╭∩╮（︶︿︶）╭∩╮ ╭∩╮（︶︿︶）╭∩╮

[@NottJoeyOfficial]

+TXF I don't see the problem with getting the actual game either. I actually prefer to buy the actual game over a virtual console or rom.

[@Rihcterwilker]

No legend of zelda game is isometric.