Buta-san Quest
released on Dec 31, 1994
A comedic doujin game which parodies classic RPGs like Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, and Ys. Buta-san must battle through various enemies (all of which are pigs) to collect the three crystals scattered across the kingdom and defeat the dark lord. It was developed by students in a university club primarily to test the X68000's music driver.
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Wanted to make another post separate from my original review to share an English translation I've done of this game on YouTube, for anyone who can't read Japanese or simply doesn't want to bother emulating it:
https://youtu.be/X15BAa2dX6k
The game is simple enough that watching it as opposed to playing shouldn't be too drastically different of an experience. Please enjoy.
https://youtu.be/X15BAa2dX6k
The game is simple enough that watching it as opposed to playing shouldn't be too drastically different of an experience. Please enjoy.
The objective of Buta-san Quest is simple: fight some silly piggy monsters, collect the crystals, defeat the demon pig king, and listen to some hot tunes along the way – all within a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of the total play time contemporaneous role playing games require.
Being a game that was made mostly to test the X68000’s music driver, Buta-san Quest is more concerned with its music than its gameplay. What this results in is a shockingly tight game which can easily be completed in under an hour, poking fun at the RPG genre and stripping its conventions down to an absurdist minimum. The irreverent tone permeating every single line of dialogue and the lack of any strategic options during random combat encounters could get tiresome in a longer game that lavished in its smarm, but everything in Buta-san Quest is so lightning-quick that its simplicity and playfulness remains refreshing and charming for the entire duration of the experience. The game may have just been an excuse for a couple nerds in university to push the sound limitations of outdated hardware, but don’t be fooled by its ludicrous enemy designs and knockabout anti-plot; the elegant momentum of Buta-san Quest’s rapidfire design philosophy sings with the same refined sensibilities as its soundtrack.
Being a game that was made mostly to test the X68000’s music driver, Buta-san Quest is more concerned with its music than its gameplay. What this results in is a shockingly tight game which can easily be completed in under an hour, poking fun at the RPG genre and stripping its conventions down to an absurdist minimum. The irreverent tone permeating every single line of dialogue and the lack of any strategic options during random combat encounters could get tiresome in a longer game that lavished in its smarm, but everything in Buta-san Quest is so lightning-quick that its simplicity and playfulness remains refreshing and charming for the entire duration of the experience. The game may have just been an excuse for a couple nerds in university to push the sound limitations of outdated hardware, but don’t be fooled by its ludicrous enemy designs and knockabout anti-plot; the elegant momentum of Buta-san Quest’s rapidfire design philosophy sings with the same refined sensibilities as its soundtrack.