[VLP] Let's Play The Legend of the Mystical Ninja, Goemon's SNES adventure!

~Beyond the Border~ > Akyu's Arcade

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dosboot:
One topic I was thinking about is how the Arcade costs money but doesn't offer any potential reward (unlike all the other minigames and special stops). The value you get out of it is just playing it and so in that sense, it simulates real life. Now then, what about minigames in other video games? How often do they let you play something that costs money each time but where no rewards can be won? Zelda comes to mind when I think about fun minigames you'd play just for the heck of it, but they always seem to give you some rupees, consumables or upgrades.

Kirby Super Star has stuff like the Gourmet Race, Quick Draw and Megaton punch. You don't get anything but you also don't pay anything, they are just accessed from the main menu. And in other Kirby games I think you get powers or 1ups.

In Final Fantasy 4 there are a bunch of dancer shows that you pay to see and don't get anything out of, but they also aren't games either. Chrono Trigger's festival has games that you must pay to play, but you get Silver Points as rewards.

Its surprisingly difficult to come up with these. I have a hazy picture of PS1/PS2 era jRPGs as the most likely candidates for these kind of minigames, but I can't say for certain which offer absolutely no reward.

dosboot:
Something else I came across regarding cultural references: The Awaji Burger

You can buy hamburgers in Zone 3, the only place that has a modern looking fast food shop. I know that the pizzas throughout the game were originally rice balls in the Japanese version, but I believe the hamburgers in Zone 3 are unchanged. They are supposed to be special to that one store, so it makes complete sense. It's also probably a local reference:

From kansaiscene.com:

--- Quote ---The Awaji Burger

In Japan, it?s not unusual for a food item to gain cult status, which is precisely what has happened with the Awajishima Burger. Therefore, your visit to Awaji wouldn?t be complete without jumping on the bandwagon to suss out the revered burger for yourself.

Awaji Island is well-known, among other things, for its onions and you can see them hanging up to dry almost anywhere you go on the island. This explains the emphasis on the onion in the Awajishima burger. There are many incarnations of this burger across the island, but the most sought-after comes from Awajishima Onion-Kitchen.
--- End quote ---

I've read multiple times now that Awaji is famous for its onions. It makes me wonder if Konami ever put onions in one of their games. If you find an example from 80's or 90's, I'd suggest taking a hard look and consider whether or not it was placed prominently enough to be a local reference.

dosboot:
Episode 4: meeting up with Yae and a Ninja hideout sojourn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mc7-gqbEHG4

dosboot:
The Buddhist Temple of zone 4's action stage does seem to be a direct reference to the Todaiji Temple in Nara, built in 752. This sounds like a really amazing place, but if you are like me you might have never heard about it for most of your life despite it being a world famous historical structure.

From Wikipedia:

--- Quote ---Tōdai-ji (東大寺, Eastern Great Temple)[1] is a Buddhist temple complex that was once one of the powerful Seven Great Temples, located in the city of Nara, Japan. Its Great Buddha Hall (大仏殿 Daibutsuden) houses the world's largest bronze statue of the Buddha[2] Vairocana,[3] known in Japanese as Daibutsu (大仏). The temple also serves as the Japanese headquarters of the Kegon school of Buddhism. The temple is a listed UNESCO World Heritage Site as one of the "Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara", together with seven other sites including temples, shrines and places in the city of Nara. Deer, regarded as messengers of the gods in the Shinto religion, roam the grounds freely.
--- End quote ---

Which also explains the deer in this stage! The actual location is famous for it's large 15m bronze Buddha statue, but in the game you get several smaller ones. Still I think it's meant to be Todaiji or perhaps this game's fictional equivalent:

As you might expect, if you visit the Temple you can see many of Japan's oldest historical artifacts. I found it interesting that for a long time it was the largest wooden structure in the world (very long, like over 1200 years!). According to Japan Guide, the original main hall was even 50% bigger during those brief first 950 years. (The current largest wooden structure? The Meropol Parasol built in 2011.)

~

Zone 5 is the Ninja Castle, where we meet up with some of our ninja buddies in their tricky hideout. The game tells us this level is located in "the famous village of Iga" when we travel there. Once again, the game is referring to a real region of Japan. But in this case as with the later stages, it is moreso to fit the theme of the level without (I think) trying to exactly depict landmarks in that region. Iga is the name of a former province of Japan whose big claim to fame is being the birthplace of Ninjas (alongside the nearby Koka province). Today there is a Ninja museum called the Iga-ryu Ninja House for tourists to enjoy, which conveniently explains for us some important Ninja hideout knowledge:

--- Quote ---In order to prevent having explosives manufacturing technology stolen by enemies, this typical ninja house had protections such as set traps and fake hallways. The ninja house is a simple farm dwelling, but has surprises, escape routes, hidden doors, places to hide swords, and the above traps and trickery.
--- End quote ---

This Ninja museum even has live shows (trained performance fighting) and what sounds like a movie where their actors play out a ninja infiltration. Or you can throw ninja stars for 200 yen per pack of 5. Here's an article about the place with even more details.

~

Back to the game, I like some of the small background details we see in the hideout here: the lights coming through holes (possibly made during battle), and in general the scuff marks over all the wood beams:

We encounter a lot of Goemon characters in these two levels. I will admit upfront that the wider Goemon series isn't as familiar to me as this game is. As such I only feel comfortable sticking with the basics:

First and foremost is our friend and fellow ninja, Yae. She was rescued in level 4 from the Otafu Army (who "are known to kidnap women", although there's also a clear plot explanation later as well). She's the lead female character in Goemon, and the more responsible one compared to Goemon and Ebisamaru. Sasuke is the badass who fights us from the kite and the wise old man who provides us with cannon travel is "Wise Old Man". He's also known as Monoshiri Ojisan, which is literally "wise old man" (ha!). You obviously don't get a great sense of these characters though in this game, but Monoshiri is an inventor and Sasuke is a combat robot created by him.

dosboot:
Episode 5: over Tengu Mountain and to the Dragon Pond

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfzzIQpQcpE

One comment about cultural references in this episode:
Zone 7 takes place in the real life region of Izumo. The lake is Lake Shinji, which really does have an island in the middle of it.

Once again, the region was chosen to fit the level theme: Izumo is especially connected to the Shinto religion. The region is also known as "The Land of the Gods" and it is the setting where many Japanese myths take place. If you go there today you can see one of Japan’s oldest shrines, the Izumo Taisha.

Obviously, given the boss and plot NPC at the end of zone 7, it was natural for the designers to put the level in Izumo.

~

And finally a note:
Episode 4 and onward were recorded in one big session. As I say at the end of the LP, I'm still new to video LPs and I am still thinking a lot about improvement. I would appreciate reading feedback if you happen have some as you continue to watch. If there is anything in particular that was amazing or terrible that I should take into account for the future, I'd be interested in knowing.

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