Tengai Makyō

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Tengai Makyo
Far East of Eden logo - circa Zirca 2010.png
Genre(s)Role-playing
Developer(s)Red Company
Hudson Soft
Publisher(s)Hudson Soft
Creator(s)Oji Hiroi

Tengai Makyō[a], also known as Far East of Eden, is a series of role-playing video games released in Japan and Taiwan. The series was conceived by Oji Hiroi and developed by Red Company, debuting on the PC Engine CD-ROM² System in 1989.[1]

The series became popular in Japan, where it was one of the most popular RPG series during the 16-bit era[citation needed], along with Enix's Dragon Quest and Squaresoft's Final Fantasy. Its success was partly because the original Tengai Makyō was the first RPG released for the new CD-ROM format, which it utilized to create a bigger game and introduce fully voiced animated cut scenes and CD music to the genre.[citation needed]

Though originally intended to be only three games[citation needed], it has grown to encompass a number of remakes, gaidens and genre spin-offs across a variety of platforms. Despite selling over 2.2 million copies in Japan,[2] the series is largely unknown in other territories, with only one game released overseas.

Overview[]

The main series is composed of three separate games within the land of 'Jipang' (a fictional feudal Japan using the name given by Italian merchant Marco Polo), each follows a descendant of the 'Fire Clan' and supporting cast in battles against a range of often comical villains. The stories of the games, though primarily of 'fantasy' fare, are inspired by and a parody of misconceptions about Japanese culture by Western societies.

The first game Tengai Makyō: Ziria (1989), released for the PC Engine CD-ROM² system, was notable as the first RPG released on CD-ROM and the first in the genre to feature animated cut scenes and voice acting. The plot and characters were inspired by the Japanese folk tale Jiraiya Goketsu Monogatari (with the protagonist's name deliberately misspelled, per the fantastic theme). The music for the game was also composed by the Academy Award winning musician Ryuichi Sakamoto.[1] The game was previewed in the November 1990 issue of Computer Gaming World. The writer Roe R. Adams (also a co-developer for the Wizardry games) described it as "a truly gigantic game" that "seems to be about the size of 2 or 3 Ultimas put together." He suggested that, if "NEC can handle the mammoth translating job, Ziria could be the game hit of 1991" unless, "of course, Nintendo counters with Zelda III or Dragon Warrior III, and Sega with Phantasy Star III."[3]

The sequel Tengai Makyō II: Manjimaru (1992) was reportedly the most expensive game ever made up until that time;[4] the game's lead programmer Hiromasa Iwasaki later revealed the development budget was about ¥500 million ($4 million at the time, or $7.4 million adjusted for inflation), making it possibly the first AAA game production on CD-ROM.[5] The music was composed by Joe Hisaishi, known for composing soundtracks to Studio Ghibli's anime films such as Castle in the Sky (1986), Princess Mononoke (1997) and Spirited Away (2001).[1] There were plans to release Tengai Makyō II in North America, but due to the TurboGrafx-16's failure in that market, no Tengai Makyō games would be released there up until Far East of Eden: Kabuki Klash (1995).[1]

Creators[]

The games are largely the creation of Hiroshi Adachi (under the nickname "Oji Hiroi") and Red Company (today Red Entertainment). Virtually all publishing tasks have been handled by Hudson Soft.

The series is purported to be based on a book entitled "Far East of Eden" written by a Paul Hieronymus Chada (typically written as P.H. Chada), who is presented as a 19th-century Smithsonian professor of oriental studies. The book and P.H. Chada do not exist, and 'P.H. Chada' is actually derived from 'Prince (Ouji) Hiroi Adachi'. This is part of how the setting is supposed based on the misconceptions Western societies held with regard to Japan in the past.

Oji Hiroi and Red Company would later become known for creating the Sakura Wars series for the Sega Saturn.[1] Sakura Wars adopted various elements from the series, including a pre-modern Japanese setting and the use of animated cutscenes and voice acting.[6]

Games[]

Entries in the franchise have been released for several different console and mobile platforms, including remakes for newer systems, such as the PSP compilation Tengai Makyō Collection, which contains the four main PC Engine titles.

Year Title Genre Original Platform
1989 Tengai Makyō: Ziria RPG PC Engine CD
1992 Tengai Makyō II: Manjimaru RPG PC Engine CD
1993 RPG PC Engine CD
1994 Tengai Makyō: Deden no Den (promo) Maze PC Engine CD
1995 Fighting PC Engine CD
1995 Far East of Eden: Kabuki Klash Fighting NeoGeo
1995 FMV fighting PC-FX
1995 Tengai Makyō Zero RPG Super Famicom
1997 Tengai Makyō: Daiyon no Mokushiroku RPG Sega Saturn
2003 RPG Game Boy Advance
2004 RPG iPhone
2005 RPG PlayStation 2

Canceled games[]

  • Oriental Blue (Nintendo 64 DD)[7]
  • Tengai Makyō: Jipang Seven (browser-based game)[8]

Other media[]

A two-episode OVA titled Tengai Makyō Ziria Oboro-hen[b] was made in 1990.[9]

Tengai Makyō was also included in the two volumes of the 1992 manga anthology Hudson Makyō[c] by Minori Shobo, which featured stories about different Hudson franchises.[10]

Notes[]

  1. ^ Japanese: 天外魔境, Hepburn: Tengai Makyō, lit. "The Realm of Demons Outside Heaven"
  2. ^ 天外魔境 自来也おぼろ変
  3. ^ ハドソン魔境

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Kalata, Kurt. "Tengai Makyou: Ziria". Hardcore Gaming 101. Retrieved 7 September 2011.
  2. ^ "あの「天外魔境」シリーズの最新作が，ついに！". 4Gamer.net (in Japanese). . 2010-09-13. Retrieved 2015-04-24.
  3. ^ Adams, Roe R. (November 1990), "Westward Ho! (Toward Japan, That Is): An Overview of the Evolution of CRPGs on Dedicated Game Machines", Computer Gaming World (76), pp. 83–84 [84], In Japan, there are currently 26 CD-ROM based games already available for this machine, including Ys I & II (scheduled for Christmas release in the U.S. on one disk) and a truly gigantic game, Ziria, which seems to be about the size of 2 or 3 Ultimas put together. IF NEC can handle the mammoth translating job, Ziria could be the game hit of 1991 on the game machines (unless, of course, Nintendo counters with Zelda III or Dragon Warrior III, and Sega with Phantasy Star III).
  4. ^ "Tengai Makyou II (Ziria: Far East of Eden 2)". TurboPlay. No. 12 (April/May 1992). 1992. p. 19.
  5. ^ Szczepaniak, John (November 2015). The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers: Monochrome. SMG Szczepaniak. pp. 85, 97–8. ISBN 978-1518818745. Flagship title for the updated PC-Engine CD-ROM, this was one of (if not the) most expensive game of its day; think of it as Hudson's analogue to Shenmue. (...) Tengai Makyou II was a really big project and perhaps also the first triple-A title on CD. (...) Because at that time, for Tengai Makyou II, we used almost (...) 500,000,000 yen (...) $4,000,000 (...) And perhaps the salaries of these people are not contained within this [original] 500 million figure. (...) So it's even more expensive!
  6. ^ Hetfeld, Malindy (15 April 2020). "An introduction to Sakura Wars, the RPG series created to save the Sega Saturn". Eurogamer. Retrieved 16 July 2021.
  7. ^ "Oriental Blue, Nintendo 64 unreleased game".
  8. ^ Tengai Makyō: Jipang Seven cancellation notice
  9. ^ "Tengai Makyō: Ziria Oboro-hen (OAV)". Anime News Network. Retrieved 11 September 2021.
  10. ^ "Hudson Makyou".

External links[]

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