Zeliard - A classic metroidvania from the makers of Lunar & Grandia? (PC-88 Paradise) also on MS-DOS

[@TevorTheThird]

It really cracks me up that they put the stone princess out in a temple. The King: "Guards, please move my daughter out to the gazebo. That thing creeps me out, I won't be able to sleep with it in the castle." You'd think you'd keep her locked up in a safe room under guard and full of mattresses. Instead there's this image of a dark stone room out in the open. Something's going to make a nest in her.

[@BasementBrothers]

Well, to be fair there is a guard in front of the temple, but yeah it is weird that they decided to "enshrine" her there. Guess they were half expecting she would never return to normal and would become a permanent statue on the castle grounds.

[@Your_Degenerate]

If nobody had saved her she could of become a great tourist attraction.

[@daisukegori2112]

She always did love thd garden. Now she can rest in piece. One piece that is. Wait this is the One piece.

[@VixXstazosJOB]

You seem to be an adult riht?... how come you still don't think that it's completely normal to not be near somethin painfull? ( your daughter in stone ) Yes, even if it's your daughter. I wouldn't take my children out, BUT, i would stay away from them becuase of the pain. My point is that you seem to attack that attitude to the point "it cracks you out", when in reality it is actually completely normal to have that attitude in such case ("take her away from me") Idk, it just causes me trouble though

[@incaseofimportantnegotiations]

@@BasementBrothers she serves as her own tombstone, very practical

[@40zed]

sir, that is not a chicken. that is a cockatrice.

[@BasementBrothers]

It's a chicken! Did you hear the way it crows? Oh wait, it's a rooster!

[@blackdragongrief]

Love Zeliard, my parents knew someone who worked for IBM when I was a kid and we got a lot of DOS games through him, this was one that always stood out to me even though we had to listen to it with the built in pc speakers. Can't believe I played this before I knew about Lunar and then Lunar ended up as one of my favorite games.

[@balancejustice10]

This is nostalgic.　Zeliard is a game released in conjunction with the PC-88MA and FA sales. I was 16 years old at the time and played at 88-MA.　 PC-88-FA and MA have a slightly faster internal processing speed than PC-88FH and MH at the same 8Mhz, but the screen still flickers. Still, at the time, it was impressive to see a big boss character on screen. Soundboard II was standard equipment from PC-88FM and MA, but in this game, the BGM is 6 FM sounds SSG 3 sounds sampling rhythm sound source 5 sounds, does not use ADPCM, and uses synthesized sound to reduce the capacity. There are a lot of tones, so the sound effects and BGM were good. Back then, most action games were played with keyboards. As I played the game, I became able to move the keyboard with my right hand, and as someone who plays PC games, I was able to move my left hand using the controller. Computers were expensive, so only a few people owned them, and even though I was at a private school, I secretly worked part-time and saved up money to buy a PC-88mk2SR, and then traded it in and bought a PC-88MA. In Japan, the issue of copying software became a social issue at the time. Software manufacturers have also introduced protection programs into their games. However, a bug occurred where the protection was too strong and the game would not start. It is a memory that makes me laugh now. Thank you again for this nostalgic game video.

[@ereviscale3966]

How hard was it to secretly work? It sounds like it wouldn't be easy. My parents let me have a part time job since I was 14

[@balancejustice10]

I wore a uniform at school, so I changed into civilian clothes in the station bathroom and worked part-time two to three days a week to steadily save up money. In the past, it was difficult to buy a computer as it was the mainstream. (*^-^*)

[@DuelPorpoise]

I was 8 when I played it, the bosses scared the hell out of me back then!

[@sebc255]

What interests me most about this game is its use of Spanish words, both in alphabet letters and katakana. The devs probably thought English wasn't cool enough for certain names, but they're unintentionally hilarious for native speakers like me.

[@BasementBrothers]

Yeah, I came close to including this in the video, but I found it funny the way they kind of combined Japanese + Spanish in a few places. The first town "Muralla" is from the Japanese word "mura" (village), and the second town "Satono" is from "sato" (hometown). I was frequently saying, "Gotta hurry up and get back to the muralla!" while playing this game.

[@AJ-po6up]

@@BasementBrothers I love it when Japanese devs try to be original and use ideas and concepts from other cultures specially the languages, nothing is more boring to me that seeing English in Japanese media on everything and seeing it being used like it was "cool" or original or foreign/exotic for the trillionth time, when everybody uses English on everything it stops being cool, unique or novel. Just that aspect alone makes Zeliard pretty unique and a breath of fresh air even to this day.

[@RICHUNCLEPENNYBAGS77]

@@BasementBrothersmuralla is also Spanish for wall fwiw.

[@carlcouture1023]

Zeliard absolutely holds up to other DOS games from 1990. It took a few years for the VGA standard to really catch on (probably because it wasn't a standard at first) and most games were made for EGA graphics. Consider that the first episode of Commander Keen didn't come out until the very end of 1990 and that game was considered revolutionary. I can definitely see why this would have been well received by critics. There simply wasn't anything quite like this on DOS.

[@Seikent]

Commander Keen improved a lot the scrolling compared to all the previous games where the scrolling felt pretty clunky (way worse compared to NES scrolling) and the graphics weren't good as far as I recall.

[@incaseofimportantnegotiations]

commander keen is made by the supergroup of industry professionals geniuses launch it and zelard back to back zeliard runs the same as every other computer game, xanadu, captain comic etc. keen runs like mario, that's their achievement the technical masterpiece that broke new grounds for the entire industry

[@alexanderfreeman]

What do mean it holds up to other DOS games from 1990? There were VGA games from 1989! It looked a bit primitive for game released by a mid-sized company by 1990 standards.

[@JoystickVersusMachine]

The DOS version of Zeliard is probably the biggest reason I own a Roland CM-500. The MT-32 soundtrack in this game is god tier.

[@poofygoof]

came here to make a similar comment. I played mostly with Adlib but a friend lent me his MT-32 for a few weeks in high school and it blew me away. This and Silpheed have held up really well.

[@Hitoritaka]

Whoever was doing these back then KNEW what they were doing. Sorcerian's what I grew up with and woooooow it's good.

[@StevenCusic]

@@poofygoof i did a remake of that silphheed, all those game arts MIDI soundtracks are slamming kzbin.info/www/bejne/qIaudnyfatKVq6csi=rTBm75f1HZZG1Yor

[@Grimfarrow]

One of the best soundtracks ever on the PC, IMO. So glad I managed to have an LAPC-1 and experienced the game in its full glory back in the 90s. I still listen to the OST to this day.

[@StevenCusic]

@@Grimfarrow it's like darkside of the moon of video game music it's an experience

[@zed-xr4353]

Oh man, those floppies are awesome. Not sure I've ever seen disks like that before. Great episode as always.

[@AlexGorskov]

We called them "disc B" with my granddad.

[@johnsimon8457]

Konami’s x68k releases had very nice packaging and charged a heck of a premium, but even they never opted in for custom color and printed floppies.

[@Conan_the_Based]

I love the sound of the PC-88 booting up. It's like the sound of old, giant gates opening into an ancient ruins.

[@KAISERNE0N]

Absolutely great way to put it. That's how I felt about my 486 too, listening to it growing up and hearing the system disk crackle and spin.

[@brooksington4696]

I played this game when I was SUUUUUPER young, it was in a bin of cheap PC games available at the dollar video store in my local supermarket and I grabbed it because of the box art. Seeing the art in this game gave me some serious nostalgia, and the one thing I do remember to this day is that this game was HARD for an 8 year old me.

[@statesminds]

Game Arts were so great. Wish they still made games. We also need Lunar 1&2 ported

[@dragoneye6229]

As a Falcom fan who was able to attend the anniversary event I'm happy someone out there likes these old games enough to cover them.

[@Isteak80]

Wow this game is surprisingly advanced for its time; I'm impressed.

[@stealthmexicans2214]

This was a random algorithm pick for me. I got the Arcade Action Five pack from Sierra for my 6th birthday with, of course, Zeliard as one of the games. I hadn't thought about that in decades, but it was directly responsible for my interest in gaming as a whole. My dad never let me try Zeliard, and now I know why. What an insane nostalgia rush.

[@DrakeDarkHunter]

One of my favourite things things to hear when watching an episode of PC-88 paradise is that there is a English version available. The game itself seems like a interesting reminder that side-scrolling action-RPGs weren't invented by Zelda II or Ys III. Also it's cool to see a earlier game from the devs who would later give us such classic RPGs.

[@siveon298]

Still Falcom tho, lol (in regards to Ys III). I wish Falcom's earlier titles were made in other languages, they're incredibly historically relevant to modern gaming.

[@jcmh74]

There is a hidden characteristic of this game. Each store in town sells different items. So, if you really need something but the town doesn't sell it, you have to go back to the previous town to buy it. However, once you sell that product to a store that does not sell that product, that store will also start selling that product from then on. This feature saves you from having to go back to a certain town to purchase some items.

[@BasementBrothers]

Ah, I understand now. The way the English walkthrough explained it didn't make sense to me. Thanks.

[@trippdavidssen3350]

OH THAT'S KICKASS!! I was thinking about embarking on another playthrough, this feature is gonna save my life. Thanks!!

[@skeetssaer2018]

I see like me you thoroughly enjoyed this as a kid

[@corgibuttz2550]

Wow, shocked to see anyone talking about Zeliard. I loved this game as a kid. Played it on my Tandy 1000. Never finished it back in the day, but I beat it a couple years ago on my old original Tandy 1000TX. Was real fun. Challenging. Always happy to see anyone talking about.

[@ConfusionDistortion]

Imagine going on a long winded adventure, rescuing the princess, than denying her snu snu, opting to instead ride off toward the sunset because some spirit said so. Yeah, I'd say that's a unhappy ending lol.

[@joshfacio9379]

Kinda like Adol from Ys lol. Him riding off into the sweet sunset with dogi..

[@JoeMusashi1987]

Hey Mike go rip on DJ Medina and David Rover's god awful lolita complex platformer FX Unit Yuki and make sure you tell people that they are supporting a game made by an abusive father who makes his kid go out in drag. :)

[@crackaasscracka]

I think he looks like gigachad

[@Conan_the_Based]

Adol's reason is that he loves Feena, who ascended to Godhood out of his reach. Duke is just like "Girl, you're a 7 at best. I can do better."

[@mikemurphy5898]

You gotta remember, no razors back then... huge bush. 😟

[@Chris-Courage]

You had me at "Veigues Tactical Gladiator".

[@starlightrevenant]

I remember playing the DOS version of this on my PSP years ago, out of nowhere.

[@trippdavidssen3350]

Thank you for reviewing my favorite game of all time!

[@OneLotJason]

My god I loved Zeliard growing up on DOS. Such an awesome game.

[@dillonandon]

I really love all the packaging of old games you show off, especially how good they look after all this time. You, and the people you bought them from, took such good care of them. Thanks for the video as always.

[@BasementBrothers]

...except when for some reason they decide to throw out the manual! Argh!

[@PixelReality1]

Ну наконец-то ты добрался до этого шедевра!!! Классная игра. Мое первое знакомство было ещё в школьные годы с версией для ПК. После узнал и о других. Groovy

[@Leoj305]

I very much enjoyed watching this. Grandia is my all time favorite RPG, so it was fascinating to see the roots of what I consider to be a great video game studio.

[@tomw7225]

Fun fact about Zeliard on MS-DOS. If you set it to the right graphics mode, it will display the original graphics mode and art of the pc88 version. It's been awhile since I played so I don't remember which one it is. But it's a neat little option.

[@khyrox1]

Yep if you play it in EGA mode, you'll get PC88-esque graphics. That's how I played the game as a kid since I didn't have VGA at the time.

[@MaxDrawsStuff]

Zeliard was awesome. I played it way later, in the late 90s, and still enjoyed it a lot. For the time of release it probably was really groundbreaking.

[@Nemo2342]

Those really are some gorgeous disks; I'd have been happy to own them as a kid just for the art.

[@RonJDuncan]

I beat this game in '92 or '93 without maps or the internet. (MS-DOS version) Loved it.

[@GranMaese]

I just love this channel. Is always a pleasure to spend some time watching a new vid and the humor is great! 6:27 did crack me up.

[@DrNiper]

This game! I remember that red armor and that first stage crab boss! I played this game on dos in my elementary school as little, and have allways wanted to try it again, but couldn't gather enough vague memories to google what it was called. Funny to think it was by game arts, given my love for grandia 😮. Thank you so much!! 😊

[@JimLeonard]

This was a fantastic overview. One note about the dos version: You can get exactly the same graphics as the PC-88 version if you choose EGA for the graphics mode.

[@granderwishes]

"I'm sorry Princess, but your Prince is in another castle" lol

[@Robonauta]

I'm amazed that the DOS version of the game is the one being recommended here! And frankly, even though it took 3 years to arrive, much like you pointed out, DOS didn't have anything quite like it at the time. For comparison, Commander Keen's first debut was in 1990, Duke Nukem would only come in 1991, Jill of the Jungle in 1992. It's relevant that IBM PC clones of the late 80s were deemed "too weak" to have the smooth scrolling graphical effects seen in console games of the time and indeed, only around 1990 those PC owners saw the first such games arriving. From the looks of the video, Zeliard did manage a rather smooth scrolling effect

[@DaiHachiHachi]

Awesome vid, didn't grow up with this era of gaming, but it is amazing to see it recorded and archived!

[@noirlavender6409]

Possibly the best metroidvania ever created covered by the best PC-88 youtuber, thanks m8

[@Brianybug]

I loved Zeliard! I played it way back on my friend's DOS PC and thought it was amazing.

[@daisukegori2112]

Your show is of the height of quality. You should be very proud.

[@ens0246]

Dear lord, thank you for delivering us another PC-88 paradise! 20:03

[@ArkThePieKing]

I played Zeliard for the first time last year, and I was genuinely impressed with how much fun I had with it! I did have to use maps and I stopped around the 4th map I think? I can't remember, I definitely didn't finish it but it's a solid, fun, enjoyable experience. I loved the animations and music especially, the game was chock full of that 80s charm.

[@redalchemy]

I just found your videos and you have quickly taken over all my free time lol I cannot believe you only have 23k subs! Your content is top notch! I have had an interest in so many of these games but was too busy to play them all. These videos are exactly what I wanted! Thanks for making them! Subscribed!

[@skins4thewin]

Dude, I would have LOVED this game back in my early PC days!! Unfortunately I had no idea it even existed.

[@chiefnewo]

Thanks for this video! I had this game as a kid and it took me a full year to complete. Funnily enough the bit that took me the longest was finding the hidden passthrough wall in the last stage, I only found it when an enemy bumped me through it. One other difference in the PC-DOS version is that dying or using the wings item return you to the sage in the FIRST town, meaning a long slog back!

[@BasementBrothers]

Yeah, I probably should've included that fact in the video. Doesn't make much difference I guess if you always load when you die.

[@dbzeh6837]

Your videos are amazing. I'm pretty familiar with the Neo Geo library, I love those videos, but I know nothing about these PC88 games, I'm amazed.

[@carystrunk5771]

For slogging through this, you are a better man than I.

[@SWest-kk9ug]

I remember playing this on my Mom's Tandy 1000. Man, I'm old.

[@_Jay_Maker_]

What's so wild to me is that the Ad-Lib version of this game's OST - the one I grew up with - bangs so hard that every other version I've heard of it pales in comparison. People rave about the Roland version, but it just doesn't compare as far as I'm concerned. It's not even a contest. This game rules.

[@z.s.7992]

In all honesty and fairnes, what I have heard of this games music and its sound design is pretty good. This is right up my alley...I may have to find some way to get a pc 88

[@raziyatheseeker]

Yoooo, welcome back! I've been itching for my Basement Brothers fix, I hope all is well. Pretty cool that the game disks have those cool labels on them. I can imagine why it wasn't done much back then, but it looks cool and stands out. Something about synthesized voices in old games intrigues me, too. Garland looks like something between Adol and the Fighter from the original Final Fantasy. I dig that. The game seems almost like a Zelda killer, except much more inspired by its sequel. Again, I dig that, Zelda 2 was pretty cool. You aren't kidding about those animations too, especially the sword slash. Each enemy also having a separate death animation also catches me off guard in the best ways. Of all the games you've covered on PC-88 Paradise, this one screams to me to find a means to give it a try. ...at least, the MS-DOS version. No wonder it took you a while to release this, if the original's grindfest was the main factor. :x

[@BasementBrothers]

Yep. I had originally hoped to release this video a week earlier, but finishing the game ended up taking much longer than I had anticipated.

[@AlexGorskov]

Soundtrack of my childhood. This, and Warcraft: Orcs and Humans.

[@mateusbertolaccini2224]

Seus vídeos são tão bons que me fazem ter vontade de jogar jogos dos quais eu não fazia ideia sequer que existiam ou em que sistema rodavam.

[@feiwong3634]

Game Arts is one of my all time favorite companies, and i never seen this one!!!!! Man, your channel is pure gold!

[@astrades2601]

I didn't play game, but Zeliard looked for me as a decent sidescrolling RPG when i first saw DOS version on youtube. And music was very catchy! I wasn't suspecting that original was for PC-88 and was so tedious in later half. Still i want to try DOS version sometime in the future. As always thank you for video.

[@grobles1974]

I forgot this existed. awesome I had the PC version

[@technomicah]

I thought this game was lost to time. I managed to get a copy of this online back in the early days of the internet. It was a great substitute for not having Zelda for NES. Was definitely cool enough for young me. Thank you for doing some great coverage on this game. I had a pirated copy, so no sound, or didn't know how to configure it

[@captainspire9094]

I played this game along with Silpheed, Firehawk, and Oil's well practically every day after school. Still play it to this day. They said to beat the dragon, you bring your health to almost nothing. Just before you enter to fight the dragon there is a full heal potion. The trick is to take the potion, run into the battle, and no matter what, the dragon cannot kill you because the potion is forever healing you.

[@BasementBrothers]

Yeah, I saw that trick. I don't know about the MS-DOS version, but when I tried in on the PC-88 version the "forever heal" eventually stopped healing me even before it got to the top of the meter, so it seems that trick doesn't quite work in the PC-88 version... at least from what I could tell. The Dragon is quite beatable though if you have the best equipment you can buy at that point and use a bunch of sabre oil.

[@kagato3]

I remember this game being one of the pack in games on computers in the 90's and playing it on a store's demo computer

[@RiderWithTheScarf]

So, a game that is a metroidvania, has the hero named in the most 80s fashion ever, one step away from "Rex Magnum" or something, has Adol's red hairdo and stars in a game where he and the main bad guy look like Red-haired Seiya and Grand Pope Ares from Saint Seiya? This is gonna be a good one.

[@Lykoskia]

17:17 hey that's MY walkthrough! :D ...which I wrote when I was 13 (and it shows). Man, I love this game to this day. My email has been zeliard-related for the last 15 or so years (now that I actually have an email, unlike when I was 13 and... let's just not talk about it ok). Fun fact: the walkthrough was originally about 100 pages filled with images of everything - mobs, bosses, items... Everything had a screenshot below the title. Things were crazy-detailed. I used to maintain a Zeliard forum (never really saw too much activity, but was fun to sometimes find something new, and that's where we learned of all the attempts of a remake in flash, as a MMO or the other variants through the years -- I don't believe any of them were ever finished though). Pity that when submitting to GameFAQs it had to be plaintext so a lot of the formatting I painstakingly did in Word, all the images; ALL of the rich text was permanently lost. I think the original file might have been hosted somewhere on a Yahoo group that's long gone as well. But awesome video! I had no idea the original game was that much more brutal! Especially shocking is that bosses give no Almas when even lowly mobs give them. Losing xp instead of gaining it on death? Holy crap... But at least you go back to the newest town instead of the first one, even if you do lose all your almas. Also, the Silkarn shoes make many trips back much easier (avoid some of the platforming), and especially the Feruza shoes, if you ever need to go back for whatever reason during the final stage (but there you have Esco with the best exchange rates, all items and discounted prices so I don't know why would you). What a nostalgic blast from the past, I had no idea this many people had an interest in this game. 47K views? 2K likes? 250 comments? That's crazy. But yeah, even after 35 years, I have so much love for this game. It really was ahead of its time. And the music was awesome, especially Bosque, Gold Caverns, Muralla... Bless you for the memories, sir! Subbed. EDIT: Made it through the video, I had no idea that you COULDN'T rest and heal up by standing still in the original. That's crazy.

[@BasementBrothers]

No way, that's awesome! I actually did use your walkthrough a lot more than I let on in this video. Like I said, using the maps "broke my brain" a few times and I couldn't find the way even with them. Your crazy "go left, then go down, then go up..." directions actually helped me at a few points when I just couldn't figure out how to proceed. They were also a bit mind-breaking at times, but I was so desperate it was far better than nothing at several points. Also, reading your walkthrough is what first made me realize that the English version is so different. So glad this walkthrough has managed to survive throughout the decades in some form. Thanks for all your work back in your teens! Glad you enjoyed the video too.

[@Lykoskia]

@@BasementBrothers It's a pleasure and an honor to have it featured like this (though I would really have loved to share the full, formatted and illustrated version -- but that's 99,99% certainly been lost forever -- and delete all the stuff that I wrote as a kid that makes me facepalm in shame as an adult). I'm glad it was useful! And I think I originally expanded on another guide I found there, it was written by NeoZenogias. I can't remember what it contains or what I added, but probably a lot. :) I'm really sorry that you had to read it in that state, though. It's not just lacking images - it's garbled in places, and probably truncated. I'll let you know if I find anything somewhere, if I can get back my old forum account... Cheers for the memories :D

[@sunderark]

Akihiko Yoshida has been around in the industry this long? I never knew. I always assumed it started at Square.

[@BasementBrothers]

He is probably actually not the same Akihiko Yoshida. It is a very common Japanese surname and male first name, and most sources show that the kanji used for the Akihiko Yoshida who worked on Zeliard (吉田 晶彦) is different from the famous Akihiko Yoshida (吉田明彦).

[@sunderark]

@@BasementBrothers It's weird that some sites credits him on that too, but you saying it's probably not the same dude thickens the plot! I am intrigued now.

[@sunderark]

@@BasementBrothers Or wait... yeah probably one of his coworkers responsible for crediting him wrote it wrong, haha. I know that happened to me .

[@blaked7532]

Those are some beautiful disks.

[@Seikent]

Some additional trivia: A lot of the names in the game are in Spanish: Almas (souls), the bosses names, such as Pollo (chicken), Pulpo (octopus) and the abilities are also somewhat related. Also, in the DOS version the red almas are worth 100, not 50. If you look for 'zeliard tripod', you may find the biggest fan site there is. I'd say that up to world 5 the game is hard, but kind of fair. Afterwards, the routing becomes really difficult and maps/hints are required if you don't have time to try every little thing (to find air currents, 'invisible' walls).

[@incaseofimportantnegotiations]

always thought that it were not souls but almazes esp with middle eastern fonts

[@shinecross]

I bought this game when I was a kid. It was really tough game without a hint.

[@TheSocialGamer]

There shouldn't be any thumbs down. Why the hate...! Another fantastic overview. Always appreciate the content on this channel.!

[@kirimusse]

There's a good chance someone else was faster than me to comment on this this, but it'd seem that this game likes using spanish words: Muralla means wall (but, like a big wall often meant for defensive purposes), Almas means souls, Bosque means forest, Dorado means Golden, Helada means frozen (with a female connotation), Tesoro means treasure, Malicia means malice, Cementar means to cement, Llama could either mean the animal or flame, Pureza means purity, Desleal means infidel, and Pulpo literally means octopus.

[@Deathy2D]

I played this a little as a kid but now absolutely wanna replay it. Also, bit information that Almas means Souls (at least in Portuguese), so I imagine that the bank is exchanging how valuable the souls of the monsters are.

[@TheBaca219]

Now I know where that leveling up contrivance from Rance and Evenicle series came from. On that note it would be great to see the original Rance Hikari wa Motome since if I recall correctly it was released on both 88 and 98.

[@khyrox1]

I absolutely love Zeliard. I played the heck out of this game when it was first released for DOS. Japanese action / RPG games were few and far between for DOS gamers back in the day, and I was happy to have this when all my other friends were playing NES. (Sierra and Broderbund made a push to bring some Japanese computer games over to Western computers in the late 80s / early 90s but their efforts only resulted in a handful of titles.) The MT-32 soundtrack is among Sierra's best. If you play the game in EGA mode, it'll look more PC88-esque. :)

[@fmsyntheses]

I wasn't ready for those disks.

[@ARAVideogames]

Great coverage! Keep it up

[@noble_wine]

The game looks good. Good episode.

[@titnesovic4522]

Great nostalgia, thank you for this video!

[@zeliardforty-two4692]

As my handle might suggest, yes I am a huge fan of this game! Thank you so much for letting more people know of this gem. I of course played the MS-DOS game when I was young. No idea how my friend got a hold of it but he definitely didn’t have that box. Absolutely would love a copy! Heck those fancy disks on the PC-88 would be cool! Definitely didn’t have that. We did get a cool poster that showed all the levels. Awe man I always wanted one! Anyone out there who might want to try Zeliard for DOS, its currently abandon ware and can easily be found out there! So have fun playing one of the toughest adventure games I’ve ever fell in love with 😍 Small graphics Easter egg: go into the armour or weapons shop. Open the menu, then close and leave. They will actually get upset at you and have a change in dialogue insulting you! The blacksmith gets so angry! They didn’t have to, but it’s a nice touch

[@BasementBrothers]

Yeah, there is a voice in the PC-88 version when he gets mad. Didn't have time to show all the voices in the video. Glad you enjoyed the video since I know it's one of your favorites. Cheers.

[@zeliardforty-two4692]

@@BasementBrothers awe man I’ll have to look it up. Wish someone took the time to add that into the English version

[@AccessAccess]

There's no shortage of japanese games that were like this (overemphasis on grinding). I remember even when FF7 came out in the US they had to double or triple the xp from battles so that you weren't forced to grind at points throughout the game. The MS-DOS version was big when I was in college and most people I remember enjoyed it.

[@willisjackson3080]

i love the look of this game. It reminds me of Faxanadu, one of my favorite games.

[@JBgolden]

Man, this was a blast from the past. I was definitely proud as a lad of figuring out how to navigate those stages on my own. So much trial and error! I heard you mention Firehawk and am curious if you'll touch on that one at some point. It was deifnitely a beloved fave of mine as well!

[@BasementBrothers]

I really want to obtain a legit copy of Firehawk someday, but it doesn't go for cheap. Guess I will have to bite the bullet eventually like I did with "The Scheme". Of course, before I do Firehawk, I first need to do the game that comes before it: Thexder (which I have).

[@Grimfarrow]

Thank you for covering one of my favorite games of all time, though now I'm super happy I experienced the MS-DOS version after seeing your frustrations. What an amazing job Sierra did it with - the MT-32 godtier new soundtrack, the included map, the complete rebalancing, healing while standing still etc. etc. It made the game super fun and addicting - a truly unsung masterpiece.

[@UnbornApple]

I wonder how well known the Sierra PC-88 ports were back in the day. I certainly never knew of them or saw them anywhere.

[@BasementBrothers]

A lot of people seem to remember this one, judging from the comments. Silpheed also seems to have been pretty well known. I guess there were a bit less people who played Firehawk, Thexder, and Wibarm (which was originally for PC-88 but not by Game Arts).

[@UnbornApple]

@@BasementBrothers well I would have been 10 years old when this came out on DOS, so that probably explains why I wasn't familiar, but I would have dug the hell out of this game back in the day.

[@skcarr4119]

6:26 That was great. Thanks.

[@NevermindThee]

For the time, this looks and sounds pretty amazing.

[@MarquisDeSang]

life is trash but when BB post, it is amazing for 30 minutes.

[@SatansLtlBaby]

i played this on the dos pc, super great game

[@stevethepocket]

Picture disks: not just for records anymore! Actually, 8 Bit Show and Tell did a video a while back about a company that printed those sorts of disks for North American publishers. They were clearly expecting them to catch on a lot more than they did. Ironically the only example he had to show off was a demo disk that had was probably given away for free at the time.

[@paulchapman8023]

I played Zeliard as a kid. I couldn’t get past Vista about halfway through the game, and I think I might have blanked out how horrific it looked to me. (Did the game make me suffer PTSD?) A few decades later, when I decided to try to face my old childhood fears, it was extremely cathartic for me to finally beat that thing.

[@DhinCardoso]

We need a hero team to translate PC88 games! The Americas need this ♥ I NEED THIS

[@incaseofimportantnegotiations]

dos one is already in english

[@Quieresbro]

the intro track is so catchy!

[@SnakebitSTI]

That voice synth is horrifying!

[@michaelwhitacre8499]

I LOVED SYLPHEED on Sega CD! So much that I even bought the sequel on ps2.

[@willkelmanpenapena3551]

What a nice way to end sunday

[@markmedinabattletrix781]

This game seems like a great contender for a remastered revival.

[@axelprino]

I wonder what's with the random Spanish words. There's "almas" (souls), "muralla" (wall), "malicia" (malice), "correr" (to run) or "corroer" (to corrode), "llama" (flame), "caliente" (hot), "reacción" (reaction), "bosque" (woods), "magia" (magic), "dorado" (golden), "helada" (freezing/frost), "cementar" (to cement), "pureza" (purity), and "desleal" (disloyal). Or at least those are the ones I was able to spot throughout the video since I can't read kana. It sounds like they just randomly translated some words to make them sound extra foreign.

[@AJ-po6up]

They just look cool compared to plain old English ones that anyone would use lol, it certainly added some originality to the game.

[@BasementBrothers]

Definitely the two first towns "Muralla" and "Satono" are named so because they begin with the words "mura" and "sato", which are "village" and "hometown" in Japanese respectively.

[@axelprino]

@@BasementBrothers so I guess they at least tried to make them into wordplay, except they couldn't find any Spanish word starting with "sato"... I actually can't think of any, there might simply not be one. There are a few words with "sato" at the end or middle tho, like "desato" (I untie) and "desatornillar" (to unscrew), but they aren't very thematically appropriate.

[@Lykoskia]

@@axelprinoPossibly sotano (basement)?

[@axelprino]

@@Lykoskia not quite, "sótano" doesn't really start with "sato", the vowels are swapped.

[@nintenjoel]

Duke "Adol" Garland... Time to wash up on a random shore next.

[@Mohammed1000real]

Pretty fantastic hidden gem!

[@lancelnce]

The quality of voices in this game is funny lmao But at least I could understand the *"Amen"* one. 😂 Edit: "Almas" means "Souls" in Portuguese.

[@tarnetskygge]

souls? maybe this game is a soulslike not a metroidvania, haha

[@SkyeWelse]

Great video for a super tough game! I’ve finished the Sierra version but not the PC-88 version. By the way, I own both this PC-88 release and the Sierra version so if you needed to see the manuals for either (I think you said your manual was missing) I would be happy to scan it for you.

[@Wyrdwad]

Man, Zeliard is a game I've wanted to play ever since I found out about it, but would have to play in emulation at this point, no matter which version I decided to try out -- and emulating games somehow makes them lose their appeal a bit for me, for whatever reason! I'd say maybe I can borrow my friend's PC-88 and play it on that, but it sounds like that is NOT the version to play. ;) From the footage, though, I'm pretty sure Zeliard and Fire Hawk share a base game engine -- despite the wildly different gameplay, the scrolling, jumping, and enemy movements all point to Zeliard's engine being retooled for Fire Hawk a couple years later. And since Fire Hawk got an absolutely flawless MSX2 port (genuinely one of the best PC-88 to MSX ports I've ever played, to the point that you'd be forgiven for not even realizing it was a port and not a native MSX2 title), it stands to reason Zeliard could've as well, and would've likely found a pretty good audience on the MSX platform (even in its absurdly difficult original state). Makes one wonder why no MSX2 port of Zeliard was ever made.

[@SullySadface]

Wow I thought I was clever using a Sega pad for my mom's Amiga to play DGalaga 2 player with my brother but I guess that trick goes back further with those connectors.

[@BasementBrothers]

With old Japanese PC's anyway, you need an adapter in order to be able to use both buttons. If you just connect a Mega Drive controller directly you'll only get the second one.

[@23Scadu]

24:07 Hang on, would this be the same Akihiko Yoshida who worked with Yasumi Matsuno on the Ogre and Ivalice games?

[@BasementBrothers]

Probably not. Most sources show the kanji being different. The Akihiko Yoshida who worked on Zeliard (吉田 晶彦) is different from the famous Akihiko Yoshida (吉田明彦).

[@nicholas3354]

Old style banking didn't require electronics. They used special receipts. Forgeries weren't very doable back then, though I'm sure they happened sometimes, but that would be very ambitious and challenging, and getting caught could be severe. During some of the medieval era, there was banking stretching across Europe and into what they called The Holy Land.

[@BasementBrothers]

Yeah but before the telegraph was invented, I imagine they would have had to rely on physically sending paper documents between branches if they wanted to know someone's account balance at another branch.

[@PikaLink91]

I never knew of this game. My world just got bigger.