Bokosuka Wars is a real-time action Role-Playing Game released in 1983. The game launched on a variety of 8-bit computers of its time, but debuted on the Sharp X1. The game is widely regarded as one of the first-ever examples of both an Action RPG, and a Real-Time Strategy game, laying the foundation for future games in its genres.
The player takes control of King Suren and leads an army of troops through 600 meters of a tile-based battlefield to assault the castle of the evil King Ogereth. Suren's troops are divided into two types, the very weak pawns, and the very strong knights. The player can switch which type of units they are moving with the press of a button, controlling all units at once, just Suren, or just one of the other two unit types.
King Ogereth's forces stand between you and victory. Anytime you move one of your units into the same tile as an enemy unit, a battle will occur. Which unit wins is determined by random chance, but the higher a unit's power level is, the higher their chance of winning is. If your unit wins the battle, their power will go up, and winning enough battles can allow a unit to receive a promotion. King Suren can engage enemies as well, but his army cannot go on without him, so if he loses a single battle, the game is over.
Bokosuka Wars was ported to the Famicom in 1985. This version changes the game in some key ways, by having Suren start with no extra units at all, and having to search for them by touching different objects in the environment such as trees or rocks to reveal them. In 2016, Japan received a sequel, Bokosuka Wars II, for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, with it being localized to the West the following year.
Bokosuka Wars contains the following tropes:
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: The game over screen depicts a giant version of King Ogereth chasing after Suren and his soldiers. Similarly, the victory screen shows the same scene, but with the roles reversed.
- A Winner Is You: The good ending is the same cutscene you get for getting game over, only with King Suren as the giant that chases after King Ogereth and his forces, along with the caption "BRAVO! YOU WIN!"
- Decapitated Army: King Suren must stay alive. If he is defeated, it's game over, regardless of how many other units you have.
- Field Promotion: The knights and pawns can receive promotions if they manage to kill three enemy units, turning gold and gaining a major power increase.
- Forced Transformation: In the Famicom version, King Ogereth has turned all of King Suren's troops into inanimate objects like trees and rocks. Suren can change them back to humans by touching them to reveal them, at which point they will join him in the fight.
- Gold-Colored Superiority: If one of your knights or pawns manages to win three fights, they will turn into a gold version of that unit, which comes with a major power boost.
- Luck-Based Mission: The outcome of every single fight is determined by random chance. While the unit with a higher power level has a higher chance of winning, it is still entirely possible to be defeated by the weakest enemies in the game no matter how high your power is. This makes things difficult, as Suren cannot afford to lose a single fight, or else you lose.
- One-Hit-Point Wonder: Every character in the game only needs to lose one battle before they are removed from play.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: The main character is King Suren, who fights the enemy forces alongside his army of soldiers. The Famicom version takes it a step further, as he starts with no allies at all, and has to free them from their Forced Transformation in order to get them to fight with him.
- Take That, Audience!: Getting game over in the Famicom version results in the game mocking you by saying "WOW! YOU LOSE!"
- Unwinnable by Design: Later loops have skull traps that block the path in the castle, and the only way to get past them is to sacrifice one of your units to remove them. If you reach them without enough units, King Suren will have no way to bypass them.
