Angel_Arle Sailor Moon reviews
Part 1: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon for GB
Part 2: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon for Super Famicom & Mega Drive
Part 3: Nakayoshi to Issho for Famicom
Part 5: Welcome Nakayoshi Park for GB

Wait, we are already back on the beat em up genre again? Yeah that was Bandai for ya back in the day. They just loved to rush games whether they were garbage or not. This one came out December 29th 1993 which was only a few months after the first Super Famicom game. This time it’s based off the second season of the Anime which uses the same title. Allegedly this season was made due to Toei wanting more as the series was meant to end with just the first season. Though I can’t confirm that story, it’s just something I’ve heard in passing. Personally I always felt like R was worse than the first season for a couple of reasons but you’re not here for my Anime opinions. Time for the game.

Oh hey look there’s a story this time! It’s very loosely based off the Anime featuring members of the Black Moon Clan wanting to take over but probably due to the season not being over, characters like Wiseman and Black Lady are just not here which you know is stupid considering Wiseman is the main villain! Still it’s better than nothing I guess. You’ll travel through 4 stages as the inner senshi and even Chibiusa has joined the team. Yeah there’s really only 4 stages btw, that’s rushed development for ya.

When it comes to moves it’s mostly the same but I’ll list some new things. Thankfully they actually gave the health draining move its own damn button. You can still do it the old method way but having it be on A is just so much better. It also has a new feature where holding L and R and a direction will let you move with the attack, just make sure you are holding a direction before pressing A otherwise it won’t work. A new screen clearing attack has been added which will do massive damage to any enemy on screen with all the characters doing an iconic move from the series like Sailor Moon’s Moon Princess Halation. You always start with 2 per stage and getting a ribbon will add one to the counter. A new throw has been added and it’s a good one. To perform it, jump while holding someone and then press A in the air to do a powerful attack and it’ll also hit any enemies right next to you. I think there’s also co-op stuff but sadly I can’t test it so apologies for that.

Chibiusa is also a new playable character though she’s only for single player unless you enable a cheat. Chibiusa is short, meaning most attacks can’t hurt her if she’s on the ground. She uses an umbrella as her attack that has a short 3 hit combo but won’t hit as hard as Makoto’s. She can use the umbrella for an air attack and stun attack. She also has her own charge move and uses Luna-P for her screen clearing move. Sadly she lacks throws though this does mean she can’t be grabbed herself. This makes her a rather slow character to use and can make the game kind of boring.

This game doesn’t really do much to innovate the genre or really as a sequel but I can praise one thing and that is the difficulty. It’s a lot more balanced in this one in that you won’t get that feeling of being screwed over by making a few simple mistakes. The game feels a lot more balanced and best of all, a lot of the tricks from the last game are still here like getting easy grabs or using your stun move over and over until they’re dead. It’s even a lot better now for Minako as she can hit characters twice with it. Moves have been updated for some characters and they even gave 2/3s of the roster a pummel which is really nice. The charge move is also a little faster which is nice. Enemies have also gotten slightly improved when it comes to off screen as the game will teleport them a little up or down to prevent cheesing but sadly if you can guess which way they’ll teleport you can still get hits on them. They even added elemental hits though they are just cosmetic differences so now you can see all the girls burnt up or electrocuted which honestly sounds kind of terrifying considering their age though they have been through worse.

The stages are about what you expect as they offer areas from the Anime and offer different variety here like riding a giant raft where you can knock enemies into the water, enemies breaking out of glass doors to ambush you, and actually that’s about it. Yeah sadly I have to admit the game doesn’t actually have as much variety as it could and this is mostly due to its length. It’s 4 stages like I mentioned earlier and the game is really short. It’s also a much easier game then last time and I doubt you’ll ever run out of continues even on the hard mode. Though there is Stage 3 which is awful. It’s a stage with two long sections with some hard enemies that they love to put 4 at a time on you. This is also the only stages with the droids named Jamanen that can grab you with…their boobs (or at least their gelatin looking boobs) and it’s a pain if you don’t know how to deal with them. This stage is probably the only time I’d say it actually feels not well designed for a single player. I can’t even A-rank this stage and I’ve beaten this game so many times. Wait, have I ever even mentioned the ranking system in these games? Well it doesn’t matter anyway cause it does nothing really.

So how about I give you some tips then if you decide to play this. Tip 1 I have is make sure you play as Makoto or Minako for your first playthrough because they are easily the best in the game. For the gold Jamanen enemies, when you hit them they will become this puddle and will do two things, get up quickly or try to surface right on top of you. If you want to get the advantage let it get under you and as it’s rising up try to back away to get a hit on it, you don’t wanna be too close and if you do it too early then it’ll try to go under you once more, it’ll take practice but once you master it then they’ll be a lot more manageable. For the gold Dumbull enemies, make sure you always go at them in a straight line because they can never grab you if you do this, letting you get easy grabs or normal attacks. If you rely on health draining moves then use Minako as she get the most uses of it with a full health bar and avoid Rei as she has less than 10 uses of it. If you want exact numbers I’ll supply them. Usagi gets 9, Ami gets 11, Rei gets 7, Makoto gets 13, Minako gets 19, and Chibiusa gets 18. Make sure you practice stun locks with your stun attack. If you forgot it from the previous review then you just do Y while holding down in the air and you can do this over and over on an enemy, it’s most useful with Minako and it’s great when no other enemies are around or are coming in to hit you. Hopefully these tips will be helpful for anyone if they ever play or replay the game.

Bosses in this game are much better than last time. They no longer have that bs do over half your life attacks and while they still can have some annoying attacks, keeping screen clears or spamming your health draining move can get the job done. The first boss especially is easy since she can get stuck in a throw infinite where you throw her left and then walk till she gets up which gives you a free grab and then throw her to the other side and then repeat this till she’s down. If you’re Chibiusa then just do stun lock, she can’t escape. They are far from the best designed bosses ever but I’ll take them over the poorly designed ones from the previous game any day.

The last thing I have left to add is there is a Battle mode. It’s 2 human players only as you fight till you drop with one of the five senshi. Y does a standard attack, B jumps, A does a projectile, X is a strong attack and a throw if you hold a direction near your opponent, and you can guard with L or R. You can also do a special input move with each girl and press A at the end of the specific inputs to do their health draining move though obviously you won’t lose health from using it here. Honestly I have only played it once and it just kind of exists and it feels more like an early version of a later fighting game that’ll come out for the console. It’s really not worth your time unless you already had a friend with you playing the main game.

Here’s some trivia about the game. Minako’s charge move is Rolling Heart Vibration which was never a move used in the Anime, it was used in the manga. For many years on wikipedia the small blurb for this game mentioned a Mega Drive version with a playable Sailor Pluto, this was never real and I don’t know how anyone got away with putting that on the page, it has been removed nowadays. This game like the previous Super Famicom game, got a commercial and you can view it here if you like. For some reason on the screen where the character you chose finishes transforming and poses, you can pan the camera lower if you want with the d-pad, idk why you can do this.

This game does look a little nicer but really only in terms of the sprites as they use better coloring and the girls have improved sprites. My only issue with the new ones is sometimes their faces look a little odd. The areas all vary in good ways and they all look the part of the source material. The eyecatch from Sailor Moon R is also used though sadly it lacks the second one and only uses the first. There’s even a Chibiusa version if you play as her. The voice quality is about as good as last time even if some of it sounds compressed. The music like last time was composed by the same person who did the Anime’s OST. It has the same problem as last time where the CD version sounds really good and the game music itself is good to okay. Like it’s not awful but it’s hard to not appreciate those CD ones more. This game also has the final level feature a song that’s so much worse in game. Like how did this sound like this on the console, it’s so bad.

Sailor Moon R is the definition of a rushed product. It’s a shame because honestly despite all of its faults, I love playing this game. In fact, playing it for this review made me want to raise its score because it just has that fun fact for me even with all the issues. I even use to do speedrunning for it when no one was doing it back in 2017 though I will forever be sad I never recorded any runs because I practiced so much. I even had like save states for each stage just for practicing reasons. I remember the fastest I ever did was a sub 21 with Makoto. I know I know, I could just be lying to you to sound cool but maybe one day I’ll get back on the grind and prove I can do it again and this time actually record it. Even with my liking for it, I still don’t know if I’d ever recommend it. Even for Sailor Moon fans as it’s missing a lot of stuff, it doesn't even have the Spectre Sisters! It was sadly the last beat em up made for the franchise on the Super Famicom. Next Sailor Moon game will actually be another Nakayoshi game for the Game Boy so I’m sure you won’t all be falling asleep hearing that right guys…guys? See you next time and remember, The Moonlight is a Messenger of Love!