Finally, after literally 15 years of looking...

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Dark_Fairy
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Finally, after literally 15 years of looking...

Post by Dark_Fairy »

So, 15 years ago when I was a kid, I had bought a magazine that on one page had this mail in thing where you could purchase games. One of those games listed happen to be Magic Knight Rayearth on the Sega Saturn. Now, this was a tiny bit before I knew about Lunar or Working Designs. The only thing I knew is that I wanted Magic Knight Rayearth really bad, because Magic Knight Rayearth was my very first manga, so naturally I wanted the game.

Because my mom didn't have a credit card or anything at that time, I never even asked. Years passed and the price just kept going up on it. I thought I'd never even get it because of the price.

Well, today I went to a local game shop. I was talking to them telling them how I appreciated how their prices were reasonable compared to a store literally right down the road that was trying to sell Chrono Trigger for $99. They were all laughing their butts off that they were trying to sell Chrono Trigger for $99.

As we were talking, the manager told me that he had to show me the awesome game he had in the back that he had just gotten in that day. He was talking about that if he hadn't of just bought a really expensive game, he would have bought this one. What does he bring out to show me? Magic Knight Rayearth on the Sega Saturn. I just...couldn't believe it! That was the LAST thing I was expecting him to show me. I asked him how much it was, and I knew it was going to be a lot...but the game was such in excellent shape. And I knew that I would NEVER see one of those again. It also didn't help that I've been wanting that game FOR 15 YEARS! So I bought it. I just had to.

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Anyway, I'm done with my little rambling story, lol! But I had to tell somebody about this, I'm just so excited to finally have this game! :lol:

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Kizyr
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Re: Finally, after literally 15 years of looking...

Post by Kizyr »

That's awesome!

I really liked the game when I played it. Hopefully you do enjoy it. If my backlog of games I haven't played yet wasn't so large I might replay it just for the nostalgia. KF
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AkagisWhiteComet
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Re: Finally, after literally 15 years of looking...

Post by AkagisWhiteComet »

Very nice. I bought Magic Knight Rayearth new back in 1998.

I was actually a big Rayearth fan before that. I found out about Rayearth through a very random web ring that I believe I found through the Anime Web TurnPike (Anipike.com) back when it was one of the places to go for anime and manga. I then came across some VERY early scanlations of the manga and screen grabs.

Ultimately too it may have just been my favoritism towards nerdy girls with glasses, so instantly Fuu became my favorite character.

I eventually did my Rayearth fandom the old-school way of fan-subbing that many younger people probably don't know, as in before you could stream or download fan subs online you used to send blank VHS tapes to fan-sub groups to get your fan-subs. I also got a mess load of Rayearth memorabilia from eBay back in it's hey day in the mid '90s. Doujins, mags with Rayearth in it (the oldest is an Animage from Nov 1994), yes the Kodansha dolls that go for a ridiculous amount of money, anything Rayearth I could afford I got. When MixxZine (what became TokyoPop) serialized the manga in the MixxZine mags I got most all the ones I could. Also bought all the anime when AnimeWorks obtained the license in 1999 (I got the dubs, since I had seen a good deal of the sub through fan sub, up to where Fuu and Ferio battle the monster in the desert and awaken Fuu's power).

At the same time when I found out the US was getting Rayearth in a game mag '96, GamePro I believe in their section where they previewed RPGs from the East, I was pretty stoked.

Then it got delayed.

Then again, then again, then again, then again.

Then it was supposedly released, but I couldn't find it anywhere locally.

Around November 1998, I remembered all of those cards I got in my other Working Designs Sega Saturn games and simply called the number listed. A lady picked up, said yes this is Working Designs, took my credit card information, and a week later it was in the mail at a cost of around $68 if I remember right. I then promptly opened it up, played the mess out of it, and beat it fairly quickly.

The game for sure had aged pretty bad by 1998, but my fan dom for the series did cloud me a bit. I had up until that point again only seen very little from the fan subs in my possession and read most all the manga from MixxZine so I knew the story for the most part. I enjoyed the play through well though, although I did have some qualms about the overall design of the game. But I didn't have any regrets buying it.

Strangely enough last year I dug it out and played through it again, although I didn't acquire all the Rainbow Amulets this playthrough.

Image

The crazy thing is I spent just over $100 for this lot. Dragon Force was $30 new and Albert Odyssey was $20 new. Nowadays, you can't even find one of these games used for $100, so I smile every time I take a peek at this lot :mrgreen: I did get the Fuu disk out of the three you could get.

I have obviously kept the game and I plan on keeping it as long as I can. My Rayearth fan dom has watered down a bit though. I did keep some of the big dollar items, such as that aforementioned oldest mag from '94 and a nice compilation doujin that's my favorite (it's called "Tricolor", which was one of the first compilation doujins of Rayearth doujin artists made back in 1995), and I also kept the Kodansha licensed dolls (not the re-release Chara versions, but the actual big box ones). For the most part though the manga and anime is now in digital form.

Although as much as Rayearth or any other Working Designs Saturn game goes for new now, I kind of wish I would of had the extra money to buy and keep a sealed copy...

Oh and on Chrono Trigger on the SNES... I have that too... and the crazy thing? I paid $5 for it; back in early 1998. I was traveling through Missouri and stopped at a random flea market that had some games. In one of the boxes was a loose Chrono Trigger on the SNES marked $5. Needless to say I promptly acquired it.

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Alunissage
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Re: Finally, after literally 15 years of looking...

Post by Alunissage »

I think WD was still selling the game in 2000 or so, as I remember dithering over whether to buy it new from them or buy the $30 nearly-new copy I'd found in a used game store. I didn't find it to be showing its age particularly, but then I don't tend to think in those terms. I remember loving the graphics of the forest near the beginning of the game. Should replay it myself, but every time I consider it I remember how the first 15 minutes go -- slowly, with lots of exposition you can't do much about.

Albert Odyssey did show its age, though. Wasn't it originally a SNES game or something like that?

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Re: Finally, after literally 15 years of looking...

Post by AkagisWhiteComet »

Yeah WD did have Rayearth listed on their page as still being available for quite some time after 1998. It later struck me as being somewhat odd, since I've read from conflicting sources rather different production runs of the game, which are always seemingly low no matter the source. I did never see Rayearth new in a store, and the only two times I have seen it in person was once in a specialty used game store local to me that dealt with rare titles and at an anime convention a couple of years back - both used.

I guess aged wasn't necessarily the best word. Just more that it showed as what was a good game for the early 32 bit era when in came out that it came out way too late. Honestly if Sega of America's policy towards 2D titles during that time was more acceptable and we had received that game earlier in the Sega Saturn's life span it likely would have paved the way for more titles like it to come to North America. Since the Playstation received quite a variety of 2D and 3D RPG titles, Rayearth was seemingly an "odd" title to come to North America due to that vicious policy SOA had at the time. It thus made Rayearth somewhat difficult to compare to against similar titles. I rather lament the fact that now having imported lots of Sega Saturn titles from Japan for the past 10 years or so just realize what the US really missed out on...

Albert Odyssey I will agree with for sure was terribly aged. It wasn't much different graphically than the SNES Albert Odyssey (the original game), other than the Saturn able to take advantage of a much higher palette count, and use CD media for musical score. And for all of that combined the whole experience just seemed that the whole game progressed in a very lazy and tedious manner. I'll be honest; really the only reason I hang onto it is Kubooka's character designs making it like a "faux" LUNAR for me :P

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Re: Finally, after literally 15 years of looking...

Post by Dark_Fairy »

Kizyr wrote:That's awesome!

I really liked the game when I played it. Hopefully you do enjoy it. If my backlog of games I haven't played yet wasn't so large I might replay it just for the nostalgia. KF
I hope I enjoy it too! Given that I love Magic Knight Rayearth and Working Designs translated it, I hope that it will be good. I haven't had a chance to really fully try it out yet though. I just popped it in to make sure it worked given what I paid for it. :P
AkagisWhiteComet wrote:Very nice. I bought Magic Knight Rayearth new back in 1998.

I was actually a big Rayearth fan before that. I found out about Rayearth through a very random web ring that I believe I found through the Anime Web TurnPike (Anipike.com) back when it was one of the places to go for anime and manga. I then came across some VERY early scanlations of the manga and screen grabs.
I remember Anime Web TurnPike! So many hours of browsing random anime websites back then, lol! I didn't get my computer until after Magic Knight Rayearth though. I first got Magic Knight Rayearth because of my sister. She was visiting and we took a trip to the mall. She thought it looked awesome and bought it. She let me look through it, and I thought it was awesome! So the next time I went to the bookstore, I got it as well! I have the really old red cover (instead of the newer gold cover) of the first book from 1998.

AkagisWhiteComet wrote: The crazy thing is I spent just over $100 for this lot. Dragon Force was $30 new and Albert Odyssey was $20 new. Nowadays, you can't even find one of these games used for $100, so I smile every time I take a peek at this lot :mrgreen: I did get the Fuu disk out of the three you could get.
You're super lucky you got all 3 for so cheap! All 3 of them go for well over $100 on Ebay now. The same store where I got Magic Knight Rayearth had also had Dragon Force, Albert Odyssey, and Panzer Dragoon Saga a couple of months ago. A guy had traded them all in together. The manager showed me all of them from the back as well (he shows me good stuff in the back all the time). He was buying Panzer Dragoon Saga for himself. I wanted Dragon Force and Albert Odyssey, but there was no way I was paying the money for them. The same guy who traded in Panzer Dragoon Saga, Dragon Force, and Albert Odyssey is actually the same guy who traded in Magic Knight Rayearth. I almost want to find out who this guy is, as he must have a nice collection! LOL.

I actually got my copy of Magic Knight Rayearth for a good price compared to what it's running on Ebay. It was still really expensive, but it wasn't nearly as expensive as the Ebay prices. Oh yeah! I also have the Fuu disc! XD
AkagisWhiteComet wrote: Oh and on Chrono Trigger on the SNES... I have that too... and the crazy thing? I paid $5 for it; back in early 1998. I was traveling through Missouri and stopped at a random flea market that had some games. In one of the boxes was a loose Chrono Trigger on the SNES marked $5. Needless to say I promptly acquired it.
That's a really awesome price for Chrono Trigger! The best thing I ever found out of flea markets around here was a complete in box Donkey Kong Country 2 for $3 a year ago, lol. Game hunting is pretty hard around here without going to game stores or Ebay.

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Leo
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Re: Finally, after literally 15 years of looking...

Post by Leo »

Are there any GOOD Saturn emulators yet? I remember having Hell with Cassini.

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Re: Finally, after literally 15 years of looking...

Post by Shiva Indis »

Leo wrote:Are there any GOOD Saturn emulators yet? I remember having Hell with Cassini.
Is SSF available on the platform you want to use? It's very solid.
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AkagisWhiteComet
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Re: Finally, after literally 15 years of looking...

Post by AkagisWhiteComet »

Dark_Fairy wrote: I first got Magic Knight Rayearth because of my sister. She was visiting and we took a trip to the mall. She thought it looked awesome and bought it. She let me look through it, and I thought it was awesome! So the next time I went to the bookstore, I got it as well! I have the really old red cover (instead of the newer gold cover) of the first book from 1998.
I had the three individual graphic novels of the first season MixxZine put out around that time; red for Vol 1, blue for Vol 2, and green for Vol 3. I did cough up the money for the omnibus gold version Tokyopop put out, and subsequently got rid of the MixxZine ones. A bit of a shame since a good deal of the MixxZine graphic novels are now hard to find, but my manga graphic novel collection is nearing 500 books (not counting all the other comic-format manga and the manga I've imported) so often I do a little purging when compilations or omnibuses are released.

Since TokyoPop is gone now too I know Kodansha have got a lot of their licenses back (Kodansha was the original publisher of Rayearth in Japan). However I believe that the current re-releases in the West are by Dark Horse.

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Re: Finally, after literally 15 years of looking...

Post by Werefrog »

This is a really sweet story. Glad you finally found it!

Also, $99 is a lot for Chrono Trigger? I bought it for 60 dollars back in the day, played through it and re-sold it a few months later for $50 to put money down towards a Dreamcast: Clearly a sound investment that lead to years of great games and entertainment (all right: I really enjoyed my Dreamcast. Despite it not being supported as long as I would have wanted, some great games were on it. Skies of Arcadia was great, and I had hours of dumb fun on Phantasy Star)

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Leo
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Re: Finally, after literally 15 years of looking...

Post by Leo »

The Dreamcast didn't fail. We failed the Dreamcast.

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Re: Finally, after literally 15 years of looking...

Post by Werefrog »

Hah... pretty sure that's not true

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