We now understand... how cruel the world can be.
It all starts in 1987. A company called Hot-B sees how well a certain little RPG is doing sales-wise, and decides they want in on that action. Taking inspiration from a PC RPG they made some time back, Hot-B hired a low budget company called Another. Another itself only consisted of one guy named Naoki Morishima (as listed here
), who created a science-fiction RPG known as Hoshi wo Miru Hito, translating as Stargazers. It's the gripping tale of a dystopian future, where an evil supercomputer known as Crew III has brainwashed the last of the Earth's population into subservient slaves, slowly driving themselves to extinction without realizing it. The only people immune to the treacherous computer's mind control are Psychics, who are quickly captured and killed by the computer's team of bounty hunters, the Death Psychics. All would be lost... were it not for the fact four psychics remain, four children with great power who are the only line of defense standing against the evil computer.Sounds thrilling, right? Well, hope you enjoyed that story, because none of it is ever brought up again in-game. As soon as you press start, you're in the middle of an empty field in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by enemies that can kill you in one shot. Oh, and you're at level 0 and can do about... 1 damage, if any at all. Good luck.
Hoshi wo Miru Hito is known as "densetsu no kusoge" (伝説のクソゲー), translating to "legendary shitty game", and for good reason. It would take an entire wiki (or at least a whole page) in and of itself to cover all the glaring flaws this game has to offer, but... that's how the Japanese fans like it. A patch was actually released to balance the game and improve the graphics, and there even exists not one, but two fan remakes, STARGAZER and Romancing StellaVisor respectively, that actually takes advantage of the story, adds some clever puzzles, and makes the gameplay more akin to the SaGa series.
In May 2020, it was revealed that the game would receive a digital Updated Re-release on the Nintendo Switch in the summer later that year, and was released on July 30th. The re-release did remain Japan-only, however, which is probably for the best.
All games provide examples of:
- Barrier Maiden: What Misa is to the party. She's the only one in the group who can cross damage floors without taking damage. Not particularly useful in the Famicom game, but needed in the remakes. One TAS of the game totally ignores picking up Misa in the first place!
- Genki Girl: What Aine is implied to be in the Famicom version, and what she is in both STARGAZER and Romancing StellaVisor.
- Multiple Endings: All games. In the Famicom game's case, it was actually an early example (or would have been, if anyone could've gotten to the endings without direct external assistance) of such a thing happening at all. Also, at least one ending is missing: the final battle with the Commander Dolphin wasn't actually programmed in and you automatically lose if you choose the "battle the cetaceans" option.
- New Powers as the Plot Demands: It seems as soon as you need some new power to get past an obstacle, there's a new party member nearby with exactly the power you need.
- Person of Mass Destruction: Arguably applies to the whole party, but especially in Minami's case. His power allows you to destroy obstacles in the team's way.
- Psychic Children: Our heroes are a group of psychic youths capable of using ESP in combat.
- Sapient Cetaceans: There is no evil supercomputer. It's just a front for super-intelligent dolphins who want to either annihilate or befriend the last of the human race, depending on the party's final choice. See it for yourself.
- Telepathy: Aine's main power.
The original Famicom game provides examples of:
- All There in the Manual: The plot described above. As soon as you start the game, you're in the middle of a field with no story or instruction.
- Border-Occupying Decorations: The Switch release fills the leftover space with a wallpaper that has pixel art or illustrations of the playable characters.
- Dueling Games: Phantasy Star, a game with a similar plot beats and gameplay but considerably more competently developed, was released two months after this title released.
- Guide Dang It!: How do you find the Oxygen Pipe, the item that allows you to breathe in space for the final area of the game? Walk on a random tile in a hard-to-reach dungeon with only a beep to let you know when you have it. Good luck finding it without a guide or map nearby.
- Finding the first village, simply because it’s invisible and has zero hints as to where it is. And no, it being invisible isn’t a glitch - the residents outright say it’s intentional.
- Luck-Based Mission: Being able to progress past the beginning of the game is a matter of luck, as dying brings you back to the title screen, and the password "save" system only records your experience in multiples of 4, which is more than you get from some early enemies. Even in the starting area, you have to hope you find the less threatening enemies who won't immediately kill you, and that your attacks actually do damage (which with you starting so weak, can randomly do no damage at this point), and that the enemies don't run away after taking damage. You also have to find the first town, which is right next to you when you start but completely invisible.
- Password Save: The game was released before battery-backed saves were common, so progress was recorded via passwords between 15 and 35 characters long using 131 possible symbols (including letters, hiragana, katakana, numbers, the copyright symbol, a "FIN" end marker, and space). To input the password, rather than using a cursor to select from a grid of symbols, the player must hold up or down to scroll through the 131 different symbols, one at a time, to enter each character in the password. After game over, the player has to enter the password from scratch to continue.
- The password doesn't even save everything: gold is reset to 0, medicine ingredients are lost, and experience is rounded down to the nearest multiple of 4.
- Psychic Powers: All four main characters have these.
- Real Is Brown: In this case, the game may be far ahead of its time.
- The Slow Walk: Literally. Your main character, supposed to be a young boy, moves slower than old men with canes.
- Updated Re-release: The Nintendo Switch rerelease runs on an emulator, thus allowing some Anti-Frustration Features like quick-saving and loading, rewinding, running in the overworld, and New Game Plus allowing adjustment of starting level and gold.
- With This Herring: You start out at level 0 and can only do 1 damage, if any at all. You need 10 experience to reach level 1.
STARGAZER provides examples of:
- Adaptation Expansion: Both the characters and the setting are far more fleshed out here than they were in the original Famicom game.
- Sleeves Are for Wimps: Minami's redesign leaves his arms bare - and he's rather powerful enough to qualify.
Romancing StellaVisor provides examples of:
- Adaptational Dye-Job: Aine, a redhead in both Hoshi wo Miru Hito and STARGAZER, is here a brunette.
- Fighting Your Friend: The boss fight against Marionette involves it possessing Aine, forcing the other 3 party members to face off against their ally.
- Last Episode Theme Reprise: The music for the Final Boss is a fairly rocking remix of the title screen theme.
- Mythology Gag: Both battle and overworld themes may occasionally shift into an 8-bit rendition heavily resembling their Hoshi wo Miru Hito counterpart.
- Signature Headgear: All four party members have a distinct set of headgear telling them apart - Minami has goggles, Shiba has a bandana, Misa has a headband, and Aine has a scrunchie.
