Sega Saturn Japanese Advertisements

What are the sorts of things that draw you into a game? Is it a known franchise? Watching someone play a pre-release online at an event? Just knowing it’s going to be good like… **ahem!!!** Cyberpunk 2077 was?

What about print ads? Or the game’s covers?

It’s kind of silly nowadays to think that people would really care about a video game’s advertisement or any sort of packaging or box art, but there was a time period where how a game was portrayed in print and to media led to the video game crash of 1983. Print advertising can be mundane screenshots and text, and on the other end they can be shock and awe. Packaging can be an emblem such as with Skyrim, while others can even generate controversy in 2021 for being altered for different markets, such as Neptunia ReVerse having cleavage covered in the North American release.

Regardless in America at least many companies during the 1980s and 1990s learned that you couldn’t be completely ambiguous as to what you were selling. Japan on the other hand was often a complete flip, and nowhere was it more apparent than the emerging ‘moe’ culture of the 1990s.

As my focus has been on the Sega Saturn, I thought I would go through some of the various games I have and/or played on the console, and look at how they were portrayed in print. A recurring theme you’re going to see is that for a console that often put big bucks into what were fairly simplistic titles a lot of their advertisements similarly didn’t tell you exactly what you were getting into and relied heavily on cutesy visuals. Of course, most all of these games also did not make their way out of Japan.

You could chalk a lot of it to being that gamers knew the sort of games they were buying, but also keep in mind a lot of these games weren’t cheap. While the 32 bit era had mostly agreed on $40-$60 purchase prices, most Sega Saturn games in Japan often eclipsed the equivalence of $65 and well above. Imagine paying ~$75 for a visual novel that you might beat in ten hours while just reading text.

And without further ado – and in alphabetical order – random ads for various Saturn titles from Japan featuring mostly sexy waifus and girls! Enjoy:

3×3 Eyes. A visual novel from a company called Nihon Create based on the decently popular anime series of the same name that has somewhat fallen out of fandom in modern times.

6 Inch My Darling is a forgettable circa visual novel that deals with the MC handling Pim, Etosera, and Minty; 6 inch girls that live with him, hence the title.

Advanced Variable Geo was Senran Kagura before Senran Kagura. It was a strip fighting game that saw some modest success in the 1990s among a sea of similar waifu fighting games. I particularly like that there are no game screens whatsoever in this ad.

Sunsoft’s well-known “gaiden,” or side story, of the Albert Odyssey RPG games. A decent RPG for the time with character designs by Toshiyuki Kubooka. I was rather impressed by Sunsoft taking out a full page just to show the cover art, with the second page that I didn’t include here having screenshots and a synopsis.

I couldn’t locate a full ad for Angel Graffiti S, but it is another circa visual novel produced by Astrovision (not the same company as the arcade game publisher). This was the company’s first game, their only Saturn visual novel title, and the game itself being ported for the PS1. Astrovision made six simulation games before folding. Notice how all you’re shown is key screens; no any real game play.

Koei surprisingly threw their hat into cutesy anime girl games quite a bit in the 90s and this is Angelique Duet; a visual novel/simulation game in the vein of typical Koei titles that served as what is often considered to be the first ‘otome’ genre game – a dating sim type game aimed specifically at girls.

A lot like Angel Graffiti S I couldn’t find a print ad for Another Memories. This game is a simulation/RPG game made by Starlight Marry. The company produced around half a dozen Sega Saturn visual novel/simulation titles. Most of which weren’t very well received until the company released Devicereign.

Arcana Strikes is an RPG title with a card battling system. There were a few of these on the Saturn and we looked at one, Blue Seed, already. Made by the game company Takara, which produced quite a few titles across various consoles on modest budgets.

Bakuretsu Hunter, or Sorcerer Hunters as it’s known in the West, received two visual novels on the Sega Saturn. Weirdly enough I couldn’t locate print ads, but in the 90s it would have been the sort of game that sold on property alone.

Same with Battle Athletes, another decently popular anime series produced by AIC. This was a visual novel based on the more popular TV series, which was largely more accessible than the OVAs.

Rapyulus is a ‘bishoujo variety game’; literally in it’s title. What that meant was it’s a game that features a ton of mini-games. The objective being you beat one and you advance onto the next. It’s… different for sure, and compared to say the strip mahjong games is a nice change of pace. The instruction manual for the game is incredibly unique. It’s in jewel case format like normal, but it’s a fold-out poster, with each girl highlighted and the basic control scheme for each game; the instructions really didn’t need to say more.

Blue Breaker is a decent JRPG with a lot of visual novel elements, even in the battles themselves. It was the type of game that probably suited the Sega Saturn well, but unfortunately has completely fallen out of most knowledge. It received a sequel of sorts, Blue Breaker Burst, which was a 2.5D fighter that appeared on the PS1. Basically predating game series such as Persona that came out with cross-games that changed genres.

I covered Blue Seed in one of my Saturn compilations. It was another game that sold on it’s property alone.

The same with Can Can Bunny.

And Can Can Bunny 2. You didn’t need to see the game to know what Can Can Bunny was, so instead here’s a HUGE face.

… And Code R that I’ve covered. No screenshots of the actual racing aspects, of course. That’d make too much sense.

Daisuke is a visual novel/simulation that was released by GAGA. I believe this may have been the only visual novel the company worked on, as they mostly produced schumps including Tunnel B1 known in the West. This game is a very poor attempt at these sort of games, although it does have a fairly wide amount of mini-games that were compatible with most Saturn peripherals including the Virtua Gun and Shuttle Mouse. I can’t be the only one that thinks the character designs are a little… odd.

Desire was the first visual novel by Imadio, who also went on to produce the Eve Series. Desire along with Eve were decently popular suspense visual novels in their heyday. The company was very short lived, however members of the team eventually left the company to go to Elf, where the created the immensely popular YU-NO.

Devicereign, as mentioned previous, is a simulation/strategy game by Starlight Marry. It’s one of the better-received titles from the company, and as you can see also cross-released on the PS1.

I’ve covered Dokyuusei. The immensely well-known visual novel by Elf was released by NEC Interchannel on the Sega Saturn, and sold really well. The game below it is Tanjou S Debut, a simulation title produced by Headroom and released by NEC. Tanjou S was not as infamous as it’s predecessor on the PC Engine, AV Debut, which – as you might infer by it’s title – was a “sim” game where you raised future adult video stars. Tanjou S, like Dokyuusei here, received a seemingly forgotten OVA anime.

Dokyuusei 2 didn’t need much help selling either. The game below it is Sotsugyou S, or Graduation, a decently popular simulation game from the 1990s. I’d really like to go in-depth into Sotsugyou at some point; a “raising sim” largely overshadowed by Princess Maker.

DOOM! THE OG WAIFU!! Just kidding. I love the Japanese ad for the Saturn Doom so much, based on the well-known box art used for the PS1 game, also used on the Japanese Saturn port, but NOT used on the US and PAL released version of the Saturn port. Makes sense. Also SoftBank handled the Japanese release. Primarily a book and tech company, SoftBank often handled Japanese releases of various western-born titles. I just had to include this; when the hell else would I talk about it?

How ’bout some more dudes? Dragon Ball Z got a fighting game on the Saturn. I feel more people played the PS1 games however. At least I remember them being imported more. This game didn’t need to tell you much more considering how ridiculously popular the Dragon Ball franchise was during the time.

Eberouge is a wanna-be Princess Maker life simulation/visual novel game. There were a few releases of the title, and a lot like circa games have probably be mostly forgotten.

I’ve covered El Hazard. A decently budgeted title for what it is by Pioneer. Another game that could sell just by showing you it’s characters. The artwork here was used on the “secret” book that came with the game. No screens, of course. Pioneer in the mid-1990s went all out on everything anime, with El Hazard and the Tenchi franchise being two of their big major productions. Pioneer created a full sub-company for anime, aptly called “P-Anime,” that was eventually dropped circa 1998 in favor of just releasing anime through the more recognizable Pioneer name.

EMIT is another game I’ve considered covering in it’s own post. It’s a Japanese edu-tainment (don’t cringe) game series released by Koei, that deals with people aging in reverse. Hence it’s title; EMIT is TIME in reverse. It’s educational as it’s an English learning game, featuring the ability to switch between Japanese and English with text and pronunciation highlights. It also was one of the first voice roles for James Arnold Taylor; FFX Titus himself.

Etude Prologue is one of the later visual novels released on the Saturn, a game that came along way too late in the console’s life to be noteworthy. They were entering the race while everyone else was leaving the track.

Imadio’s release of C’s Ware’s Eve Burst Error was decently popular during it’s time and spawned sequels. It actually went on to become the highest-rated game on the Saturn console as noted by players’ ratings by the time the console ended it’s run. Burst Error received an English release in 1999 on PC through Himeya Soft USA, a North American company that released many C’s Ware games. A lot like other physical releases of eroge in the United States prior to Y2K, the physical PC release of Eve Burst Error in English is now exceptionally rare, being the only way it could be purchased was through Himeya Soft’s online store.

Farland Saga was a set of JRPGs produced by TGL. Aside from this tid bit, it was most enduring as the series character designs were by Kazue Yamamoto. Yamamoto around this time founded Studio e.go!, which made a large variety of high fantasy eroge visual novels such as Castle Fantasia (sans Mickey Mouse) and Men At Work. When Yamamoto eventually left Studio e.go!, she – yes, SHE – effectively took the company with her and it folded during it’s 10^th anniversary celebrations. “Thanks for makin’ games, but you all gotta git out bruh!” I enjoyed Yamamoto’s designs immensely back in the day as I was decently familiar with Studio e.go! prior to knowing about Farland Saga.

Farland Saga along with similar JRPG games such as Blue Breaker also help to make my case for missed opportunity with the Saturn in the US; what was stopping these games from being localized? All they needed in most cases were translations and English assets added.

Find Love was a simulation/visual novel set of games by Daiki that you can probably guess what their focus was on based on the stylized title. Find Love 2 had a rather strange circumstance where a retail demo of the game was released under what was actually a different name, then the full retail version of the game itself received a slightly different name. I say strange but other Japanese Sega Saturn games had confusing releases also such as Sentimental Grafitti, whose pre-release game (No, seriously; there was a game released at retail before the actual game.) was called Sentimental Grafitti; First Window, with the actual game being called Sentimental Graffit. Oh.. .Find Love 2?… At least we get some screenshots.

Hokuto no Ken received a Saturn game. It was a “play-the-anime” –type fighting game. A ton of Hokuto no Ken games were released on consoles.

Friends is a slice-of-life ‘life’ simulation game. Another NEC Interchannel published visual novel. Deals with slightly older slice-of-life characters than your atypical school life simulation. This was the tamer of the ads, as later versions featured nearly the entire page filled with key screens.

Galaxy Fraulein Yuna received a few Sega Saturn title and ‘gallery’ games. Yuna is probably most remembered for the concept and character designs by Mika Akitaka. Akitaka has long created works for Gundam under the MS Girls line; effectively mecha designs with cutesy girls. Yuna was opportunity for Akitaka to branch away from relying on Gundam based works (and avoiding potential IP issues), and the entire Yuna franchise remained decently popular in the 1990s. I dig Yuna’s Saturn backpack. At SEGA Joypolis locations you can buy Saturn bags that look similar. SEGA milking you for nostalgia.

Gals Panic SS is a puzzler by Kaneko, and part of the Gals Panic arcade games. Complete a puzzle, see a sexy girl. It’s one of those games that on the secondary market costs way more than it probably should. This was Kaneko’s only Saturn title.

Girl Doll Toy is, as it’s packaging enthusiastically states, a “FANTASTIC ADVENTURE GAME.” This game was created by Xuse, and was not only the company’s first game but also their only console release, and thus their only all-ages release for Xuse as a company. Their all-ages PC sister company, Use (Seriously. See what they did there?), created all-ages games. Surprisingly the company continued until only having shut down just last month in May of 2021.

Sotsugyou Crossworld is an “album” game featuring all the various heroines from the Sotsugyou series of titles that I’ll mention more following this. I do dig the pencil colored characters on the cover art, but they all carry many similarities to one another. Konami did a similar print for the ‘album’ games for Tokimeki Memorial, and no doubt was Shogakukan trying to emulate.

What’s an “album game?” Oh don’t worry; you’ve seen them.

Sotsugyou II (Graduation II) is a simulation game and the sequel to Sotsugyou. This game actually released in the United States for PC as just Graduation by MixxZine through their mail order service, albeit incredibly localized for English markets. The game was never made available direct to retail nor specialty shops, thus the only way to acquire it was through MixxZine’s mail in service. Consequently the PC English release of the game has become incredibly rare and valuable on the secondary market. I’ve always enjoyed Sotsugyou II’s characters immensely. This game would have been as much at home in 2005 as it was in 1995. I’ll probably cover Sotsugyou II at some point..

The original Sotsugyou, released as Sotsugyou S on the Saturn. The entire Sotsugyou series was a modestly popular simulation game series from the 1990s. It received not only an OVA series, but also an alternate-world anime titled Sailor Victory, which put the girls as operators of Mecha. Akin to Kimi ga Nozomu Eien & Muv-Luv before Muv-Luv existed. Yet again, you get a lot of key screenshots but no gameplay screens. Check out Mami’s drill tails; a anime hair style that is near obsolete nowadays.

Grandia received a Saturn release. One of the more under the radar JRPG releases that has remained critically acclaimed by fans. Grandia II was probably more known to fans in the West, particularly as English actors included Cam Clarke (Kaneda from Akira) and Jennifer Hale (so many major roles mentioning even a few wouldn’t do her service).

I love this ad for Haunted Casino. It didn’t have to show you screenshots as if you didn’t get it by the red X rating and character designs as to what the game is then you were probably clueless, so instead here’s what the game looks like sealed at retail. I feel like an American company would have done this as a joke ad.

Highschool Terra Story is a visual novel by KID. There actually was an OVA release of the game, and it went on to receive a sequel titled, appropriately, College Terra Story. The character designs were pretty good for the time period and could probably get by today if it were re-released. This game is possibly most unique for the time period however in that every copy received a unique trading card. Not only can it be difficult to actually get the trading card with a used copy, but not all the possible options have been documented.

Houkago Renai Club is another visual novel published by KID. Similarly to Terra Story, I’ve always felt it’s character designs were a little far ahead of the times, where simplified shading could probably pass for post Y2K characters. This is actually the game’s packaging, which didn’t need to tell you much.

Hyper Securities S is a visual novel/simulation game that was like a cross between You’re Under Arrest and Burn Up (Personally I’m more of a fan of the original Burn Up, not the later W and Excess). You’ve likely noticed in some of these ads that there are portraits of the voice actors/actresses. That’s pretty common with Japanese gaming. If it wasn’t on things in print such as ads or reviews, it was likely on the packaging itself or in a game’s manuals. Any anime fan will tell you voices are often more recognizable than characters. In some extreme cases on the Saturn also existed “idol” games; literally video games that just carried videos and such of either idols and sometimes voice actresses. We for sure weren’t going to get boob-baring strip games, but a “game” with just idols on it was a whole different level of cringe.

I’ve partially covered Idol Janshi Suchie Pai. It was another game series that really didn’t need to advertise what it was, but it’s always great to see some Sonoda character designs. Look at that price; 7,800 yen! For strip mahjong! No bare breasts here however, as noted by the ‘yellow 18’ rating.

You did get breasts with this game however. Idol Mahjong Final Romance, which is also strip mahjong. Hopefully you can guess that by the ad. Large eyes and glasses are always good. And look at this one’s price; 8,800 yen!! Bonkers!!

Initial D, which I’ve covered. This artwork was later used for the jewel’s cover.

Elf created a lot of assets for Kakyuusei, and this multi-page ad is very nice. This is actually the same artwork used for both the front and reverse of the retail packaging, showing key scenes rather than game play. If you had played Dokyuusei you knew what to expect. Kakyuusei was a popular series for Elf, arguably more so than Dokyuusei. It not only received an adult OVA, but also a 12 episode series, along with it’s sequel Kakyuusei 2 similarly receiving adult OVAs and a broadcast series. I feel a lot of people have just forgotten about Kakyuusei, but it was a real early contender for the ‘harem school series’ that were all the rage in the 2000s, along with similarly forgotten series like To Heart and Da Capo (D.C.). I always give the crown to harem-based-visual-novel anime to To Heart, simply because it was more well known that properties such as Kakyuusei.

Keio’s Flying Squadron became somewhat of a sleeper hit in Europe, and the sequel actually released in PAL territories on the Saturn. It didn’t come to the United States. I’m terrible at schmups, so I can’t say much about Keio.

M Emu Kimi wo Tsutaete is a visual novel by Nexus Interact. It was a decent game for the time with more intricate character focus, and a possibly unique game aspect where as a girl liked you more she would write about you in her diary and you did a little diary exchange with her. Miyuki on the left – there seemed to always be a short-haired glasses girl in these games, but I’m not complaining – has a great mystique about her. And look; there’s even a little do-ki do-ki in the game’s tagline. As you can see, this was one of the cheaper visual novels, which came as one disc (and also received a PS1 version). One disc visual novels on the Saturn typically pointed to either very short game play time and/or less spoken dialogue, as it couldn’t be spread across multiple discs.

Kiss Yori was a very late set of visual novels for the Saturn. By “late” I mean this game came out when the Dreamcast was already at retail. The Saturn did have some staying power into Y2K but it became increasingly difficult to release games for the console, as the only Saturn-era games that moved up were often ports themselves.

Langrisser probably doesn’t need introduction. The incredibly popular strategy game series with artwork by Satoshi Urushihara had Saturn ports released in various capacities.

… Langrisser continued. These games released on the Saturn JUST prior to Growlanser being released.

I didn’t mention it in my really old LUNAR piece that I hap-hazardly put together, but Game Arts & Kadokawa put a LOT of money into the LUNAR remakes. For 2D JRPGs there was a pretty large crew working on them. They were frequently covered in various Sega publications throughout their production much more than other games and subsequently well received. The Saturn version is also often more favored by enthusiasts from it’s PS1 counterpart, as with most Saturn titles they handled 2D sprites much better, among other technicalities such as the MPEG version of the game having higher video quality. LUNAR was also just simply a really good JRPG series for SEGA consoles during this time.

Personally I’ve always enjoyed the aesthetics of LUNAR 2 more; the dark ages of the LUNAR franchise in terms of narrative. It’s a shame the series kind of fell off the wagon following this remake.

Macross received a Saturn game that was a visual novel/schmup. I mean, what did you think a Macross game was going to be about? Idol singing?…

I’ve covered Rayearth. Kodansha’s real money pit in the mid-1990s. A lot like Tokimeki Memorial, it’s fairly common to go to places like Mandarake in Japan and find plenty of goods from Rayearth. See the yellow blob? That’s the anime’s air times on YTV (Youmiri TV). See the blue string at the bottom left? That’s “SEGA Enterprises” in katakana without the “Saaayyyyy-gaaaaaa”. If you saw that logo anywhere in print or on a jewel case it meant big bucks was coming from SEGA.

Mahoutsukai ni Naru Houhou is an interesting adventure game from TGL. It also released on the PS1. Unfortunately you’ll forget about it after reading this.

Marriage was produced by HeadRoom & Shogakukan Productions; the same companies that produced Sotsugyou. Shogakukan was well known for producing books, manga, and anime including Doraemon, Detective Conan, and Urusei Yatsura, among others. You can probably guess the goal by the game’s title. Most confusing for the Saturn is that the Sotsugyou series also received a ‘marriage’ title called Sotsugyou III Wedding Bell about… marriage.

When they weren’t working on Shin Megami Tensei, Atlus tried making puzzle waifu games, and here’s My Best Friends; a set of mini-games featuring waifus that strip. You’d think the Japanese are obsessed with making girls strip when losing… A lot like some of Atlus’ other circa efforts I’m certain this is one they would rather forget (Although in Atlus defense, RPG stalwarts such as Square dove into adult games also in their history.).

My Dream: On Air is a simulation/quiz game by Nihon Create. Other than 3×3 eyes these were the only two visual novel –type games the company made.

Sega Enterprises footed the bill for a handful of Nadesico visual novels. Another set of games that could sell on their characters alone, although they were decent for the time. I’ve never got around to watching Nadesico in it’s entirety.

Nightruth is a series of suspense visual novels by Sonnet. A decent visual novel for the time with a surprisingly large amount of animated sequences, that was actually the second Saturn game I imported. Sonnet put a good deal of money into Nightruth.

… which lead to a variety of Nightruth games, mostly being sequels. Such as Nightruth Maria here. The first game used mostly key scenes with dialogue, whereas later games went for a more JRPG-style subdued text narrative display.

I’m a tad surprised Nonomura Byoin no Hitobito (Mystery of Nonomura Hospital) actually had a Sega Saturn port but it did and it’s the only console port of the game. While other Elf titles were likely better known, this game was modestly popular when new. It’s a suspense visual novel about a horn-dog detective that investigates the death of the head of Nonomura Hospital, believed to have been murdered. The game has a pretty high amount of ‘bad’ endings compared to most circa visual novels, mostly ones with each girl. The character designer for the game, Yokota Mamoru, actually had created his own gaming company, Studio Line, which made one Sega Saturn game in 1998, Doukoku Soshite, also a visual novel with a suspense/horror -theme.

Although KID published a lot of visual novels, undoubtedly if you asked a Japanese game player in the mid 1990s the most well known it probably was Pia Carrot. Pia Carrot e Youkoso!! (Welcome to Pia Carrot!!) is about the titular restaurant Pia Carrot, with some really great character designs. This is like a game version of Wagnaria!! (Working!!), if there was a ton of sex in that series. Pia Carrot was an early precursor to anime girls in family restaurant settings – not the first, but one of the most prolific.

Policenauts didn’t receive much critical reception from the West until well past Y2K, however it did receive a port on the Sega Saturn in Japan. At the time there was some talk that the port may be released in the US as had occurred with the lesser-known (at the time) Snatcher. However this did not occur. Unfortunate, as I’m most certain in retrospect this would have been a crown jewel on the US market Saturn.

Another game that didn’t receive critical reception from the West until much later was Princess Maker 2, the simulation game by Gainax of playing a princess in a JRPG/simulation hybrid.

Princess Quest is a JRPG by IPC that involves solving a mystery of a stolen jewel by a swordsman who befriends a creature that turns him into a girl so he can befriend the five princesses. I’m not making that up.

I talked about SETA in an earlier post but after their works on the Famicom and Super Famicom they also made some strip mahjong games, including this one here, Real Mahjong P VI (as in Part 6; this was the SIXTH game!).

I have an entire post on the Roommate series. Here is the progress report for Roommate Ryouko In Summer Vacation – the second game and one of the series’ many sequels. Weirdly enough this series just did not get advertised much, but I’m assuming Datam Polystar just didn’t have the funds to spare for print ads. I think was continued to impress me about Roommate that I mentioned in my piece is how well Datam Polystar stuck to their guns with Ryouko being in most of the titles. She continued to appear through Datam Polystar jumping to Dreamcast, with that game in particular now being a decently rare release in the Roommate series.

The magical girl series Saint Tail received a variety/visual novel game on the Saturn. The Saturn didn’t have enough puzzlers, so why not one based on a popular shoujo series? This the game’s reverse packaging, which at least gave you screens.

As I also mentioned in a previous piece, Sakura Taisen was big on the Saturn. Screens for this game always showed an RPG segment and Sakura from the visual novel segments. Note the price of the special edition of the game, which was over 8,800 yen – in 1996 money. Regardless Sakura Taisen was a huge seller on the Sega Saturn, and is often referred to as the Japanese Saturn’s “system seller,” being that many bought a Saturn to play Sakura Taisen. The game not only receive sequels but also puzzlers and gallery style games, with ports making their way to the Dreamcast.

Sentimental Graffiti – that I mentioned a ways up – was NEC Interchannel’s Tokimeki Memorial, and you can see it here alongside other NEC releases, many of which I mentioned. A rather unique visual novel for the time period that managed to stay relevant, unlike 95% of the others.

I had a small post on She’sn (Season), another of KID’s visual novels. This visual was used on the reverse of the game’s instruction manual. Notice the character goods you could send off for. I frequently tout that the 1990s was an emergence of “character goods” in anime and manga fandom more than it had been prior, and visual novels were no better of an example. Near every single visual novel released or ported to the Saturn had some sort of items that could be purchased through mail-order, either through flyers included with the games or in ads such as these. Those goods often float Japanese online auction sites, and are the types of goods that virtually no one wants nowadays.

Also as I mentioned in a post, Slayers Royal was a decently funded game for Kadokawa. All you needed to know was Naga was in the game – which was a bigger deal than it sounds – and, boom!, sales.

Sword & Sorcery was a very forgettable isometric JRPG by Microcabin. This would be the only game Microcabin would release on the Saturn other than… Princess Maker 2, which they helped port to the Saturn.

Imagine knowing about Tenchi Muyo and maybe even playing the Super Famicom RPG game, being excited to see this, only to realize it’s a “gallery” game that’s more like a Tenchi compendium. And it was given a red X rating, as it seemed like the girls in Tenchi could never keep their clothes on. Mihoshi will always be waifu-material, no matter how air-headed she is.

Yes, there was a visual novel for the series Those Who Hunt Elves. Similar in vein to the El Hazard title, however unlike it two of these games were made. The game’s company Altron produced its most titles for the Saturn with near all of them completely forgettable. The only possibly noteworthy game was Mighty Hits, not only one of the only third-party games to use the Saturn Virtua Gun, but also when released in PAL territories did so with a cover that had no description of the game on it’s reverse cover. To be fair, this ad doesn’t do much better…

Tilk was a poorly received JRPG series by TGL, and was probably overshadowed by their aforementioned Farland Saga.

In addition to their decent visual novels Sonnet made strip mahjong games. Here’s Tokimeki Mahjong Graffiti.

…. And Tokimeki Mahjong Paradise. I’m convinced you don’t actually play mahjong in Japan without stripping. Those poor waifus :’-(

And since we’re on the topic of “Tokimeki,” here’s the defacto simulation game from the 1990s; Tokimeki Memorial. Konami’s huge money maker through the later 1990s. Look at the price of the special edition of the game; 9,800 yen (~$90, in 1996 money). The special edition came in a special slip, and included a green TokiMemo memory cart. Of note – and something I haven’t talked about in many of my Saturn talks on top of character goods – many Japanese Sega Saturn games came with special stickers that allowed you to affix them to the Saturn memory carts, so it was very easy to create your own custom memory cart if you had one or something like an Action Replay. They were also often nice enough to give you two of each! I have quite a few of these decal sheets in my Saturn collection.

Like multi-player games like Mario Party? Tour Party is the super poor man’s version, which carried support for the Saturn’s six player peripheral that no one outside of hardcore Bomberman enthusiasts even bothered buying.

Want a better ‘board game’ game? How about UnoDX? Yes, based on the popular card game Uno, MediaQuest created an Uno card video game with waifus (And some dudes, but girls sell better.). It’s actually decent for what it is, but under all the glam it’s literally digital multi-player Uno. There is NO STRIPPING, evident by the green all-ages rating.

Virtua Call S is a port of the third Virtua Call game produced by Fairytale. Virtua Call (if you’re wondering why there’s so much virtua – Virtua Racing, Virtua Cop, etc – there’s no “L” in Japanese, and “call” is ko-ru in katakana) is about a guy receiving a cart that allows him to access the video dating service Virtual Call. The third game had the best visuals, which is why it was likely the only of the games ported (Although unlike the prior second game, the third game didn’t receive an OVA.). Fairytale was a modestly popular visual novel/eroge company in the 1990s, with members of the company going on to form Elf, and at one point even created a game based on the infamous Urotsukidouji anime. There’s no tentacles here. Just TV love.

Like Code R I have a post on Wangan Trial Love. “Why yes, this is a racing game, so lets only include one screenshot of you actually racing.” I don’t know if it’s because I wrote a piece on this game, but I’ve noticed in recent months that it’s value has rose dramatically getting into the triple digit range. Let me tell you; this is NOT a game you want to pay +$100 USD for. Save that money for Asuka Burning Fest.

This reads Wara Wara Wars and is a strategy game by Shoeisha. It’s almost if Dragon Force, Langrisser, and Civilization all came together into an orgy, and nothing good resulted from it. Stick to Dragon Force.

Falcom’s long running series Ys received a compilation release on the Sega Saturn. It was so popular that it eventually received a ‘Satakore’ (budget) release. I can’t give Ys justice as I’ve not played it as much as I probably could.

Undoubtedly Elf’s most well known visual novel effort, and unlike some of their other efforts handled solely by the company themselves; YU-NO: A Girl who Chants Love at the Bound of This World. If Dokyuusei & Kakyuusei are Elf’s collage of beautiful portraits, YU-NO was their Mona Lisa. Recently re-released on modern consoles by Spike Chunsoft. Ironically both Spike and Chunsoft prior to merging made games on the Saturn as a competitor to Elf, yet here they both are working together to release a re-release of a game made by their deceased competitor. Weird how things work out.

The Saturn release of YU-NO came with over a dozen numbered varieties of insert artwork on the inside of the jewel case, making it a bit of a headache for collectors but also part of the mystique of the title. Gamers chanted love for YU-NO as it sold a quarter of a million copies on the Saturn. As an estimated 5.75 million Saturn consoles sold in Japan, over four percent of the entire console run had YU-NO in it’s library. That’s rather crazy for a visual novel console port.

Alphabetically it was last but it’s also a game I thought about speaking about on it’s own; Zero4 Champ Doozy J Type R. That entire string is the title. This is a visual novel/racing title that’s about drag racing JDM cars. Yes; it’s not about drifting or another Initial D rip off. Zero4 Champ spawned a few titles during this generation of consoles that also crossed to the PS1. Yet notice the ad; where’s the screenshots showing the game play?