The VERY DARK sequel to Metajo! (PC-98 Paradise) An epic strategy game for 90s Japanese PCs

[@mousebetr]

You boys be playing with your emotionally devastated train sets down there?

[@Nemo2342]

The opening narration was clearly predicting the rise of Thomas the Tank Engine.

[@fallenafh981]

I think ghost club members is a japanese term for people who join a club on paper but never turn up for club activities

[@BasementBrothers]

Yeah, "yuureibuin" are club members who join on paper and never show up.

[@Mia-dt3gl]

_”The game took me a whopping 35 minutes to install.”_ Oh man, that gave me flashbacks of dial-up internet. If I wanted to watch a 5-minute video, it took _20 minutes_ for the video to fully load. Good times. 🤣

[@Conan_the_Based]

Man, highschool in Japan is tough!

[@notquitee]

This must be why their student council presidents have such broad powers.

[@ZX-Gear]

Try Korea. You get beaten by the student body and the staff.

[@Razamaniac]

you need to be an oriental desperado in order to survive japanese schools

[@Vargr1105]

I love this channel! I'm limited to PC-98 emulation and I can't read Japanese. It's awesome having a spot for in-depth showcasing of the classic games using real hardware. 😊

[@Doppel145]

War... War never changes. Even if you're a Japanese Schoolgirl.

[@drowningin]

I really like the details of the maps, and the art of the battle backgrounds. Seeing Roulette on the maps, then again in the battle screen is great detail. I wish Japanese studios kept making this many strategy RPGs

[@Isteak80]

Amazing that they hit you with that existential dread from the get go. 90's Japan was something else haha.

[@AvalancheReviews]

"電車は悲しい" Very deep. HA!

[@EdmondDantes224]

Oh hey, didn't expect to see you here! Guess all underrated reviewers eventually find each other.

[@fmsyntheses]

Streetcars must be even sadder

[@user-dd6on5cr3u]

Oh wow you actually did end up covering this!! This may be the only gaming channel where I try to watch every upload because the work is so great. Thank you for spotlighting this series!

[@Novapoid]

I think this might be one of if not my favorite videos on the channel. I absolutely love when sequels take this kind of huge risk and it ends up paying off. I wish we had these types of dark & unexpected indie jrpgs instead of something like Neptunia. Granted, nothing against people who like that kind of vibe, but I much prefer this.

[@shuraamano]

Who would buy? You and what army? It's all about cash. Be realistic.

[@mizoreyoroizuka4178]

@@shuraamano He is just expressing his opinion. Why are you being so worked up about it?

[@Unquestionable]

These games looks absolutely incredible! The first already seemed to hit a sweet spot but the sequel looks to have expanded on it in the perfect way. Yet another reason that each video on this channel makes me appreciate the PC-98/88 more with each upload.

[@Razamaniac]

I have never played this game , nor seen it in my entire life, why I feel nostalgic ?

[@ManInBlack634]

I've been watching your videos for a while, but never subscribed until today. I'll probably never play 90% of the games that you talk about, but I find the history of Japanese computers and computer games interesting.

[@bobbyjr.9559]

Thank you for doing videos on this series!! Iam getting ready to try and play it myself and this game is looking like it might be one of my favorites of all time hopefully!! Way better than 99% of the games we get nowadays. On the music alone!

[@ereviscale3966]

Keep em coming! I can't stop watching these and I am fascinated by the whole world of games I know nothing about

[@MaximilienNoal]

Those pc98 games look and sound so good ! Please never stop documenting them. Love the unboxings too ! So bulky❤

[@randommodnar1669]

These videos are great Sunday entertainment. They distract me from everything I need to get done during the work week 😅

[@mcfiredrill]

10:25 wow that stage clear jingle is a banger

[@lhfirex]

This looks like a lot of fun to play, but it needed a random dialogue with god speaking to one of the characters telling them to watch DS9.

[@raze667]

Man I dig those old school clamshell plastic cases. Really rad. They're kinda like old school big boxes for our western PC games, aren't they?

[@morewi]

Commenting for the algorithm hopefully more people view it

[@rifasclub]

A silver haired maiden that takes morally grey decisions in a corrupted world? That girl is Micaiah, she even is a dead ringer in the thumbnail.

[@TrashfordKent]

Just happened upon your channel and the PC98 content series, really enjoying it and a lot more effort in production and script than just a play through 👍

[@BasementBrothers]

So glad you found the channel! Indeed, script-writing and editing for these videos does take a lot of time and effort. That combined with the sheer amount of time it takes just to play through some of these games makes this basically a full-time job, releasing videos at this rate. I love playing the games, though, and seeing the videos when they're finally done!

[@snowStorm2k]

For some reason, the train analogy reminds me of the Trails series. Wonder if any of the creators later worked for Falcom.

[@nimaiiikun]

why were there so many strategy RPGs for japanese computers? there were hardly that many for the SFC or Megadrive sadly.

[@BasementBrothers]

Strategy games are well-suited for PC's, with the point-and-click mouse interface... plus strategy games don't require fast-moving sprites.

[@ksenolog]

I'd say SFC has fair amount. Tactics Ogre and Ogre Battle, SRW games, few gundam ones too, few FE titles, and probably fair amount of other. It was quite popular genre until recently due to relative low strain on a budget I guess. Megadrive however is quite poor in that aspect.

[@blufudgecrispyrice8528]

There are a decent amount for the MD but maybe not as much as the SFC. Of course most are Japan only

[@Deadguy2322forreal]

@@blufudgecrispyrice8528 *of course It is TWO WORDS, not one.

[@blufudgecrispyrice8528]

@@Deadguy2322forreal Lol my bad, thanks for the correction.

[@Blackcrow911]

Very good video as always! I have been enjoying the strategy games and hope we will see more! As always thanks for the great videos you all put out!

[@TonyRedgrave]

Wow, this story was wild. School club warfare was not what I was expecting when I clicked on this.

[@RikouHogashi]

Thanks for showing the authentic PC-98 experience

[@napoleonfeanor]

I'm glad I didn't go to school in Japan ;)

[@akiradkcn]

Lucky you, I always hated when we were just studying and then the gardeding club president comes in handing us armors and swords, demanding us to go to war against the basketball club

[@RandomGuy010]

This game looks sick. Why can't modern games have plotlines like these.

[@JimMorrisonsBathtub]

I love how the ancient philosopher in a world where seemingly no mode of transportation other than walking has been invented took the time to wax poetic about the sad plight of electric trains

[@spacebarisntworking7530]

You thinking a school has school clubs but no classrooms or anything sounds so stupid but at the same time makes perfect sense.

[@Ratralsis]

I don't understand why they even bothered making a sequel if the girl can't turn into a train

[@ShadowWolfRising]

....Why does this school have LITERAL class warfare, complete with death? Who lets their kids go to this school?

[@ShadowWolfRising]

@Necromass-o6d Yes, but Suspension of Disbelief requires things make sense to some extent, that kinda goes beyond mine.

[@akiradkcn]

​@@ShadowWolfRisingthey need to make sense to their own in-universe rules, not our real world rules Otherwise it would be impossible to write fantasy

[@ShadowWolfRising]

@@akiradkcn True, but what is the context of this world where parents would willingly send their children to an academy where their kids regularly get merced?

[@targuscinco]

A new PC 98 basement bros video came out! I hope I love it.

[@e.l.4409]

Metajoey-joe-joe Junior Shabadoo

[@BasementBrothers]

That's the worst name I've ever heard!

[@targuscinco]

It's already over. I loved it.

[@Raccoonpolice99]

Love your content!! Always very cozy and a great time :D

[@RaccoonGrrrl]

With the story and choices (especially end game choices) this game feel like Der Langrisser : High School Club War. Instead of the titular legendary sword, it's the "cannon". Instead of war against or for the empire and the demons it's war against or for the Student council and the astronomy club. LMAO

[@TheTransientOne1]

The ghost club had it coming since the day it was established.

[@darktetsuya]

Love the coverage on these old PC98 titles! Shame about the language barrier though this does seem like an interesting game.

[@PlayerLin]

When you think the first game was very dark, the second game even more darker... ~_~

[@SkyCE9A]

I noticed that in my watch history and my liked video list this video has 2 different thumbnails. I don't know which one I like better, but I enjoyed the video!

[@BasementBrothers]

Yeah, KZbin has rolled out A/B testing for most users now, so I get to make two thumbnails and see which one performs better. I've been wanting this feature for a while now. EDIT: Oh yeah, I should clarify, youtube actually lets you make up to 3 thumbnails, not just two.

[@sebastianalvarezgomez6650]

Great video! I always thought the name was "Zwei Metajo", and that was how you found it in most of the English-speaking internet. Not unsurprising to know that it was just some Anglo chauvinism! I played both Metajos when I did not know a lick of Japanese, so I completely missed that the cast of the first game are also in the sequel! Both game are my top two in PC98 library, but in the end, I have to give edge to first game, if only for the Sega Saturn cameo!

[@BasementBrothers]

Yeah, I also thought it was "Zwei Metajo" back in the day... though I thought it was weird because "Zwei" is usually written "ツヴァイ" in katakana, not "ツァイ". But, you can clearly see the game itself has filenames like "Zai.bat". I eventually was able to figure out it's supposed to be "Zai" (再) in Chinese.

[@Vulpas]

This game seems amazing, I'm disappointed there's no English version, but thanks for the video.

[@st1ka]

Damn, I NEED to play this! If only I spoke Japanese. :(

[@Acriz.]

18 Japanese only releases that are actually really good. easy new video idea :D

[@akiradkcn]

Never late to learn, a single tiny step per day

[@SuperSupersoda]

"For our second stage we'll have a choice whether we want to investigate an illegal casino being operated by one of the school clubs or act as Masami's body guard while she attends a student council meeting." We're Investigating the illegal casino, obviously. Screw Masami, she can take care of herself. Now then, about that illegal casino, I suspect we'll have to do a lot of surveillance work in the casino before-hand, you know, so that we're all prepared and stuff. C'mon, baby needs a new pair of shoes!

[@BasementBrothers]

You do actually get a chance to gamble in the casino while you're investigating. The game gives you chips and you can try to win as much as you can. Come to think of it, that's probably another place where you can get a secret technique... which I've heard exists (though I never found it).

[@mekman4]

great stuff, as always!

[@Theguywholikedthethinginthevid]

Waifus murdering each other? I am in.

[@akiradkcn]

Boy, it sure become popular for a while *Looking at all the battle royale animes released*

[@goldentiramisu7935]

can't believe masami we're pretty hurt by those decisions

[@surrendering2within]

"spies in the astronomy club??"

[@909crime]

i was literally just thinking about metajo

[@StoneCresent]

I suppose one of these days you will cover the PC-88/98 emulation scene. Naming what the options there are, the differences between them, and how using them compares to real hardware.

[@BasementBrothers]

I'm gonna stick to focusing on the real hardware. The PC-98 emulation scene is not too complicated if you go look it up! Basically if you're talking about strictly PC-98 emulators NekoProject II is the typical favorite. However nowadays you do have some other options like Dosbos-X, and I have heard that RetroArch is getting more popular now for PC-98 due to it's built-in screen translation feature. (Don't ask me about RetroArch though since I've never tried it myself.)

[@StoneCresent]

​@@BasementBrothers The real hardware angle is nice and adds an air of authenticity to the series. I just see the topic of PC-88/98 emulation as something that you could cover one day such as when other projects get delayed or there is a drought of games to cover. I'm sure finding and buying/borrowing non-corrupted game disks for old systems can be challenging. And that's on top of maintaining hardware that's no longer supported by the original manufacturer.

[@BasementBrothers]

Oh I will never have a shortage of games to cover. That's for sure. :)

[@RevHancock]

15:12 this made me laugh. Isn't it just like that with spoilers

[@TrevorClifford-Film]

We all love the installation guide portions of your vids, but id also love to hear about how you secure such complete versions of these physical copies - you always have manuals etc its amazing!

[@BasementBrothers]

They're not too difficult to find. Generally if the owner kept the case, then they also kept the manual in there. There are a lot of loose disks out there though, from owners who would just throw out the cases and keep their games in floppy disk cases that hold like 30 floppies each.

[@goranisacson2502]

Well then. That certainly was a story on how the fog of war and ambitions of (wo)men often lead to wars fought for glory disguised in fanciful reasons, that only leave misery and death in their wake instead of greatness... in a cutesy game filled with anime school girls where the astrology club are stonecold killers instead of star-nerds. That's some GOOD tonal whiplash, I tell ya what. Anyway, seems like this game also has some more interesting character arcs and choices for the characters themselves. A more ambitious game indeed... did this developer do any more games beyond the Metajo series?

[@BasementBrothers]

Unfortunately, it seems that "R-Force Software" only did the Metajo games. I can't even find anything else that either Yokoyama or Terashima worked on.

[@menhirmike]

Not enough High Satanic Metal in this game, but the Sad Trains were great!

[@richardtorruellas2370]

I just found out a game I kind of liked on SNES was actually a port from PC-88 and 98. Inindo Way of the Ninja. I always wondered why it felt like a very primitive game for the SNES and that explains it. But it also raises a good question. Why didn't other PC-88 and 98 games get ported to SNES if they were so popular back then?

[@Retrokid1998]

Fun fact the pc 98 is the successor to the pc 88

[@BasementBrothers]

That's basically true. That's the way I present it in the videos, and good enough to think of PC-98 as being the series that replaced the PC-88 in Japan but... First PC-88: 1981 First PC-98: 1982 In actuality both the PC-88 and PC-98 coexisted throughout the 80s. True though that the PC-88 was the more popular one throughout the 80s, and then the PC-98 eventually overtook it in popularity sometime around the turn of the decade.

[@Retrokid1998]

Uh actually when you think about it the fr and sr are the successor of pc 88 better graphics better sound I would know I grew up with one🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓

[@e.l.4409]

I'm surprised there wasn't a PC-108.

[@Retrokid1998]

Nah there was a pc ps2

[@BasementBrothers]

Retrokid, it's awesome you grew up with a PC-88. I'm jealous! But your analogies are just a little bit off here. The FR and SR are PC-88. They are part of the PC-8801 series. I would say that the PC-88VA is the successor to PC-88... though it was a very short-lived one. PC-88VA was the Supergrafx of the PC88... it was the Hyper Neo 64 of the PC-88... But yeah, your initial statement that PC-98 is the successor to PC-88 is close enough to the truth. For all intents and purposes that is right. I'm sorry I had to add my nerdy "But actually...." reply. Anyway, thanks for watching!

[@exidy-yt]

Man, I wish my high school was 1/10th as interesting as a Japanese highschool apparently is! This is a very impressive looking strategy game for the machine and the time, though it's very hard to top Shining Force III imo, but of course no way could the PC-98 handle something as polygon-driven as that.

[@fmsyntheses]

Looks like they were probably going for Quan Chen but who knows

[@PessimisticTD]

Great video!! Thanks for covering PC-98 games guys!! One quick doubt, where can In buy PC-98 games to import?

[@TheSocialGamer]

I'm here .... pick me! hahaha Thank you for the upload Bros.!

[@raziyatheseeker]

Nine floppy discs? 35 minutes for a CD installation? Literal breastplate armor!? This is gonna be an interesting sequel, alright. Right off the bat, facing off against the original Metajo heroes, and being able to show mercy so you don't vulture a kill sounds great. I'm surprised games where "finishing blow = all the EXP" lack that latter idea. The other additions to combat, like status effects, also seem really cool. I point those two out because I've been replaying a game where the combat is totally mindless, and where the finishing blow gives that character all the EXP. It's frustrating. I prefer some degree of depth to combat in RPGs, not "flail mindlessly till you win". And I'm pleasantly surprised you can win the sting operation fight, heheh. There's a lot of cool ideas in Zai Metajo that I haven't seen as often as I'd like.

[@akiradkcn]

And then she didn't turned into a train Saddest shit I ever seen

[@bodhidaruma2824]

12:24 Well I've met people born and raised in my country who were born to foreign parents and because of that had very thick accents.

[@ksenolog]

More SRPG goodness! Thank you for the video!

[@rashidisw]

They loves reusing powerful cannon blast weren't they? Its exist in the first game, and make reappearance again in the second game.

[@Mohammed1000real]

A different jump in genre in the second game!

[@johnsimon8457]

that people have made “consoleized” HDD images which just boot straight into the game with a given configuration, just like a game console ready for loading on mister I used to be all “Kids these days don’t know their ems from their xms ” but when we’re talking anything other than MS-DOS or Mac OS classic, I’m LOST, and these are Japanese PCs- goood luck

[@BasementBrothers]

Luckily a lot of knowledge of English MS-DOS carries over to PC-98, since PC-98 also runs its own version of MS-DOS, and most of the commands are the same. The HDD images for PC-98 games really just have an appropriate config.sys and autoexec.bat for the game to run properly. And the autoexec.bat includes a line to just start the game right away at startup. Really nothing mysterious and I'm sure you could make one!

[@justinkitton5492]

So it doesn't matter who you join? Seems like joining the heroine of the first game would be the better ending of them all

[@r30413]

All the armor in right places... ;D

[@MrDarkNao]

Poor Thomas he Friends they are all sad. Can't choose own path

[@ZeroBusterXX]

Some of the characters look like Kia Asamiya's work. Did he contribute some character designs?

[@BasementBrothers]

Probably just a coincidence that the style is similar.

[@Maj-zx4xd]

Dankest dungeon

[@alanbalan3539]

No stonehenge secret this time? I wanted an update how much the devs were enjoying star trek TNG...

[@BasementBrothers]

If there is one I couldn't find it. Unfortunately, there isn't a very good walkthrough available for the game (that I can find anyway). I literally had to use video descriptions from niconico douga videos to get the little information I was able to obtain (like how to save Yui).

[@madson-web]

Man that was a brutal journey

[@RozenKrieg]

Wild stuff, like it

[@agaba5500]

these highschoolers are so violent!!

[@Andrew_Erickson]

@6:04 nightmare fuel

[@raziyatheseeker]

paralyzer.mp4

[@yours_truly_]

Utena, is that you?

[@Nukle0n]

SCSI 1 can still do 1MB/s i think? So it's probably more that the drive is slow, if it's only a single or double speed. Is that kanji the one that's read as Kai usually? Like in Dragon Ball Kai?

[@BasementBrothers]

Yeah, the drive is only double speed. My old drive was also double speed, but could use SCSI-2. That one seemed a little faster (when it was working anyway), so I figured the SCSI-2 made a difference. Kai is "改". "再" is pronounced "sai" in Japanese.

[@Nukle0n]

@@BasementBrothers SCSI 2 might be faster when it comes to several devices, I'm not sure. And interesting with the kanji.

[@BasementBrothers]

Yeah, that's a good point. My second hard drive (which is SCSI) which I also had connected most of the time simultaneously may have also made a difference. It's good to know, though, that otherwise my current SCSI-1 CD-ROM drive is probably not any slower than a SCSI-2 drive... at least not when it is the only SCSI drive connected. So thanks for your comment!

[@GreenSunSaturday]

Great video! Just couldn't get the point of the chinese girl at the end of the day xD

[@BasementBrothers]

Me neither

[@SeñorDossierOficial]

I have a question: May the Panasonic msx joypad be used on pc with one of those 9pin to usb Sega Genesis gamepad adapters? Or some special adapter is needed?

[@BasementBrothers]

You would need an additional MSX -> Genesis adapter since MSX pads are not the same pinout as Genesis.

[@SeñorDossierOficial]

@@BasementBrothers thanks for the reply buddies

[@overlordl1]

🎉🎉🎉

[@KamiSanzo]

Thank you sir, also I got a question, I'm trying to play the pc-98 version of popful mail on modern hardware, any ideas?

[@BasementBrothers]

Well, use a PC-98 emulator. :)

[@WillowEpp]

Damn, that was depressing.

[@statesminds]

Trains are sad

[@fiveways]

35 minutes. Still took less time that reinstalling Elden Ring or Cyberpunk 2077 after the endless updates.

[@evionlast]

Iwadrich Jorejore Much like Mq. H Ondore IV a commentator

[@Stavekoff]

great episode, coll that its kind of a downer

[@BlueMageWithSoulEdge]

Nice review but I don't see any grey. Just evil. You were working for a big evil manipulating a smaller evil to f' over the 1st cast.

[@T-ro3lx]

what is this story?

[@GranMaese]

A masterpiece.

[@Jimalcoatl]

Sad girl can't turn into a train? This game is clearly a 0/10 then.

[@Sigismund697]

It takes a lot of guts to basically pin your audience against the characters they already know while controlling newcomers If you do it correctly you get something likes this If you don't you get Star Wars since the last 10 years

[@borkozdravkovic4746]

You know... I dont read Japanese and you saying "and then we just brutally murder them" really has me confused as to do they really die or not? Are you just joking or is the punishment for cheating on a test in alternate universe JP school really death. Also those cute little spinning flame smiliey faces dont help

[@BasementBrothers]

I did go over that in the first Metajo video. Yes, they really die (unless the story demands that they live). The game is actually very clear about it.

[@ReggieMosbyJr]

These high schoolers are doing too much

[@vuetoob3983]

Ah, that annoying over pronouncing "r"

[@ereviscale3966]

Huh?

[@ThePrimaFacie]

Sad Homicidal Train Girl Hours. 😢🚅🚄🚈🚝🚂¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ ͡⁠°⁠ ͜⁠ʖ⁠ ͡⁠°⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯