From the big pile of JRPGs that flooded the market in Japan after the success of both Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy comes this 1990, feudal Japan-themed adventure featuring the son of Musashi and his Tanooki companion, because… well, it's feudal Japan, so there had to be a Tanooki throw in there.
Musashi no Bōken will feel extremely familiar to anyone who has played the aforementioned Dragon Quest and the user interface almost feels straight out of Earthbound Beginnings, but unless you are fluent in Japanese you would still have a hard time navigating the many villages and dungeons on your way to defeat the evil that has been plaguing the Land of the Rising Sun. That changed in 2000 when Gaijin Production and Mahacker released an English fan translation for the game. It was a workmanlike effort, but in order to fit all dialogue in the proper place, most of the game script sounded liked a Shawn Brothers epic poorly (but often hilariously) dubbed to American.
The game has to suffer this indignity no longer. Thanks to the efforts of aishsha and Pennywise (along with a few other contributors) we've got The Adventures of Musashi Jr., anew translation makes the game feel much more like an official English release.
The game might not do anything extraordinary for a 1990 RPG release, but it does have an undeniable charm, along with some earworm chiptunes by legendary composer Masaharu Iwata. All of pieces fall into place when you realize the game was produced by none other than Quest, a legendary studio in Nintendo Life's opinion.
You can grab the fan patch translation from here, including the game manual. Even from humble beginnings such as Musashi no Bōken, revisiting this game makes it clear Quest was destined for many great video gaming deeds ahead.
Comments 8
@MarcelRguez My pleasure.
These retro articles are great
@NinChocolate I find it important to keep the past present. It helps me out sort my current video gaming purchases, looking back and thinking if the game son the shelves are worth their price considering the fun-to-currency ratio. But that's just me.
@TossedLlama My pleasure.
Looks neat, and I like that they translated the manual.
@TossedLlama ...what does Shaw Brothers Studio have to do with this game?
@TossedLlama ...that was the old translation, though, wasn't it? That old one was like a rewrite, now it's got a proper translation, supposedly.
@TossedLlama ...You're a strange one, that's all I gotta say to that.
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