Tengai Makyō Zero


Tengai Makyō Zero is a 1995 role-playing video game developed by Red Company and published by Hudson for the Super Famicom. The game was released exclusively in Japan on December 22, 1995, and is an installment in the Tengai Makyō series.

Gameplay

Tengai Makyō Zero is a turn-based role-playing game, featuring random battles. Battles are fought from an over-the-shoulder perspective, similar to games like Phantasy Star II and Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium. The battle system itself is more akin to the Dragon Quest series of games, with a special twist: unlike previous games in the series, the player does not learn new techniques via leveling up, but must instead seek out the hidden "hermits", which teach new techniques or elemental abilities.
Tengai Makyō Zero was one of the few Super Famicom games to make use of the SPC7110, a data decompression chip that allows for more data to be stored on a cartridge than a typical Super Famicom game. As a result, the game includes a large variety of music, a large amount of text dialogue, and no repetition of enemy sprites whatsoever. The game also makes use of a real-time clock accessed via the SPC7110, which, much like recent games in the Animal Crossing and Pokémon series, results in different special events in the game taking place depending on the time of day, and even the time of year.

Synopsis

Plot

In the feudal Japan-like world of Jipang, an evil prince releases the demon lord Ninigi, who in turn seals the gods of Jipang and suppresses the people of six kingdoms with his demon henchmen. After one of the henchmen attack his village and slay his grandfather, the main character, Higan, learns he is the legendary "Fire Hero" and must set off to save the kingdoms. Along the way, Higan meets several characters, such as Subaru, a fairy and Tenjin, a swordsman.

Characters

Heroes

Higan Subaru Tenjin Mizuki Hisui Genkotsu & '''Binta'''

Divine Beasts

Fire Bear Peacock Crane Turtle Canine God
  • '''Dragon'''

Hell's Army

Ninigi Zettai Reido Doki Sara Juri
  • '''Kingin'''

Other

Akamaru
  • '''Kabuki'''

Development and Release

''Tengai Makyō Zero: Shōnen Jump no Shou''

Tengai Makyō Zero: Shōnen Jump no Shou is a special promotional version of the game, tied in with the Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine. Though it seemingly has very few differences from the original game, the game is extremely rare and is quite possibly the most expensive Super Famicom game. Equally rare is the promotional clock in the style of the game cartridge to promote the use of the Real Time Clock in-game. They removed one building and event from the original game. In one of the towns, they replaced it with the Kodansha office. This version adds an additional character and item that does not exist in the original.

Translations

Tengai Makyō Zero was never officially localized into western languages and attempts at fan-translation were stalled due to difficulties caused by the game's script size and bugs in the hardware graphics decompressor. On October 22, 2017, a complete translation patch was finally released.

Reception

Famitsu gave Tengai Makyō Zero a score of 29 out of 40. Hardcore Gaming 101s Kurt Kalata called it a quality installment in the Tengai Makyō series, praising its graphics as some of the best on the Super Famicom.