Thoughts on Gulliver Boy

[SamIAm]

I just finished Gulliver Boy, and I wanted to share my thoughts about it.

Some factoids:

- It's a 30-40 hour game.

- Your characters' maximum level is 500. You will probably finish somewhere in the 200s, but it's not very tough to get into the 300s. Yes, you level up like crazy compared to other RPGs.

- The battle system is pretty standard. It's like Final Fantasy's Active Time Battle system if you put it on "Wait" mode, with a Dragon Quest-like perspective.

- Your party consists of four members: three main characters plus one sidekick. The three main members never change. They are balanced into a typical fighter/healer/status-magic user group, and everyone can use some normal attack magic.

- The sidekick characters are recruited throughout the game. After recruiting them, you can switch them out freely, and in battle, they fight via AI. There are maybe three that you have to get, and another four or so that you can try to recruit but might miss.

- No random battles! Nearly all battles start when you touch enemies on the screen.

- The game system is very simple. There is nothing to equip on your main characters other than weapons, most of which you find in chests or through story events. Purchased items are only occasionally useful and never completely necessary. In fact, the only thing you really even need money for is staying at inns.

- You don't gain money from battles. You actually have to buy and sell things at different prices in different towns. However, you find money in chests and get it at certain story events, and you can sell some items you find, so it's not necessary to do the buying/selling thing unless you want some very particular expensive stuff.


Now let's dive in.

Gulliver Boy seems to me to represent a kind of ideal for Hudson. I'd say that for this reason alone, it's worth a play for any die-hard PCE fan.

Remember that this game came out in March 1995, which was the middle of a major transitional period for video games. Gulliver Boy was like a statement, or even like a bet. The PC Engine had become something of an anime-fan's niche system in Japan. The PC-FX, which had just been released a few months earlier, was built and marketed all around anime, too. It's clear that Hudson had very particular ideas about how anime, full-motion video and games were going to mix, and Gulliver Boy represents part of their vision perfectly.

You've got the HuVideo, which by the way is packed in large quantities onto a single disc quite impressively. But did you know that this game was released concurrently with a TV anime series and a published manga? One wasn't really based off another, but rather they were all planned together.

Not only that, but in the game itself, the whole structure of the story feels episodic, as if each area can be shoehorned nicely into a "Today on Gulliver Boy". The personalities of the characters were designed in a sort of amplified, TV show-like way, too. They all have strong, instantly distinguishable qualities, the kind that's supposed to make a channel surfer become familiar with them quickly.

I am not enough of a connoisseur of anime to say much more than that, but I really want to emphasize how much anime seems to be the blood coursing through the veins of this game.

With that said, I have to tell you that even in Japan, few people really remember Gulliver Boy. Timing is certainly to blame in part - the PCE faded quickly after the 32-bit systems appeared in late 1994, and the Saturn port that appeared a year later looked too "last-generation" to make a big splash. However, there's more to it than that. I hate to say it, but I'm afraid this game really does have some major shortcomings. I can point immediately at the soundtrack, which is polarized at 30% wonderful and 70% awful - a sin to someone who likes game music as much as I do. However, my deeper criticisms of Gulliver Boy ironically stem from the story and the characters, which will take a little time to explain.

You see, there isn't a lot of character development. I mean, the characters in this game are jam-packed with lots and lots of personality, but they don't change and evolve over the course of the story. There's nothing like a proper character-arc, in spite of some pretty major events and revelations. Not many relationships develop, either, and nobody really plays off anybody else. Everybody is just kind of "there".

Gulliver himself also jumps back and forth between being a silent protagonist and being very forward and outspoken, which is a bit jarring. Then there's your best friend Edison (the green haired kid), who is almost always shouting when he speaks. I bet roughly 50% of people who play this game wind up hating this kid.

What I'm getting at is that the cast just isn't that strong. People play RPGs for a lot of different reasons, but I think almost every "great" RPG has a charming cast. Gulliver Boy has a lot of the right ingredients, but it's missing a few key ones, in my opinion.

There is a little bit of silver lining, though, and that's the entertaining NPC dialogue. There are plenty of risque jokes, for one thing, but there's also just so much variety that it's usually worth it to go around and talk to everybody. The characters change what they say after major story events, too.

Speaking of the story, thought, that's my other major criticism of Gulliver Boy. Like the characters, the story itself also doesn't have a very well-structured arc.

To begin with, although you progress in a strictly linear fashion, you always travel freely in your ship from one town to the next along a fantasy-Mediterranean. There's never a sense urgency or tension because you can go and screw off wherever you want anytime.

When it comes to the locales, while there is a nice amount of variety, they don't tie together in much of an interesting way. There's no build-up to a really fantastic place. There's no "Oh my god, this is it!", just "Oh, so this is where we are now, eh?". At worst, it's kind of like driving between tourist traps.

And finally, the antagonists and the goals they create for you to fight them also don't tie together well. I can't explain this in depth without spoiling the story, but here's the best example I can give: there are three really major antagonists that you take on one after another, the last one being the final boss. The thing is, your motivations for fighting each of them have nothing to do with each other. After you beat the first one, and again after you beat the second one, you the player think "Mission accomplished! Let's go home! Wait, what? We're fighting this other guy now?"


So I can see why Gulliver Boy doesn't get talked about a whole lot even in Japan. It's a pity, because they put so much work into so many different parts of the game. The battle system and the graphics are quite good, if not exactly ground breaking. It takes advantage of the CD about as well as any other game on the system, too. I think that with a tweaked cast and story, Gulliver Boy would have been something like a cult classic. What we got in reality, while fun in many places, just doesn't add up to much.

Anyone else played it? Share your thoughts if you like.

[imparanoic]

I am impressed with huvideo, never seen this before, especially for a system built from 1997, shame other games didn't use it

[SamIAm]

You mean 1987?

[munchiaz]

I would like to see some gameplay. Having issues finding any for the PCE version

[jtucci31]

I would like to see some gameplay. Having issues finding any for the PCE version

I had the same problem. Nec and Chop were talking about this in the chat today when I mentioned (or someone else mentioned) the arcade card an whatnot, and it had my interest. (Same with Xanadu)

I liked your write up. Despite the flaws you mentioned with character development and other things you mentioned, and despite the fact that I don't know the language, I still want to give it a go. It's definitely on my list, but I may need to warm myself up a little to playing JP RPG's first.

[SamIAm]

I would like to see some gameplay. Having issues finding any for the PCE version

Actually, I should have mentioned this. There's an English FAQ for the Saturn version (which is 99% the same as the PCE version), but it's very bare-bones, and it has more than one mistake in it. This video replay is a much better guide. It edits out most of the battles, the grinding, the unnecessary NPC chatter and other stuff to make a very efficient and easy-to-follow walkthrough.

[deubeul]

I find you a little harsh with that game, but hey, I don't read japanese so I can't tell for the story 
I got quite far in the game when I got it shortly after it came out, and I found the graphics awesome, not far from Xanadu2 and on par with AFS. Add to that the videos, and visually, it was a shock 

That's the RPG I'd like to be translated the most, just after The Tengai's (and those which  are WIP )

[NecroPhile]

Other than checking out the opening and some cursory bumbling around, I've not put much time into this one yet.  It's on the pile of goodies to explore..... eventually. 

[esteban]

SamIAm, I enjoyed reading your entire post.

I have not played very far into this game (in not a big RPG fan). But, there's this stuff that might interest folks here:

archives.tg-16.com/Dengeki_PC_Engine_1995_06.htm

If anyone can correct mistakes, I'd be obliged.

[wolfman]

Hey SAM,

great to read about your experience. I haven´t played it yet (though it is waiting for it in my collection), but definitely look forward to it.

[JoshTurboTrollX]

Hi Sam,

Very good write up on a game that I feel pretty much the same about.  I think I always give PCE games a slight edge so I probably rate it a bit higher than you do, but who knows...

I played through roughly 20 hours ish back many many moons ago and just never had the time to really dive in and get back into it.  From what I remembered it was a really fun experience and the HuVideo really blew my mind!  I will move Gulliver Boy a few slots up my queue of games to play now!!

Thank you!

[Ayce]

Might be another one that I'll have to try and fumble through. Right now I'm trying to figure out Neo Metal Fantasy.

[pixeljunkie]

gamefaqs redirects you to the Saturn version's FAQ - I assume this is applicable to play through the PCE one?

[SamIAm]

Yep. It's not like the Lunar remakes or anything. Gulliver Boy on Saturn is exactly the same as the PCE version except for a couple effects, easter eggs, and of course better quality video.

[pixeljunkie]

Yep. It's not like the Lunar remakes or anything. Gulliver Boy on Saturn is exactly the same as the PCE version except for a couple effects, easter eggs, and of course better quality video.

Sweet! Thx

[NecroPhile]

I will move Gulliver Boy a few slots up my queue of games to play now!!

So is it above or below Emerald Dragon now? 

[shubibiman]

I love this RPG. I actually wish that someone could extract the text so I can translate it.

It has nice graphics, fun story, easy to get system, it has everything an RPG needs.

[gbapalyer]

gulliver boy is awesome. it is easly as good as kabukiden and manjimaru, if not better.

[SamIAm]

I was just thinking that Lunar 2 is pretty good to compare this with.

Lunar 2 and Gulliver Boy are both late-era games for CD add-on systems, and they seemed to be similar both in scope and in their use of anime-style art and cutscenes, including lots of voiced lines.

I have to say that to me at least, Lunar 2 is so much better that it's almost a "how to do it/how not to do it" kind of comparison. The soundtracks are polar opposites in terms of quality, first of all. Gulliver Boy's main theme was written by a renowned composer, and it's quite good, but everything else was by some other guy, and it's just bland as can be.

The story and characters in Lunar 2 are also much better written, and this to me is the interesting part. Think of the various transitions that Lunar 2's main characters go through during the course of the story. Lucia's character arc is one of the pillars of the whole story. Gulliver Boy, on the other hand, has none of that. Here's a good way to think of it: Remember Lemina from Lunar 2? Remember how she had lots of personality, but was no different at the end of the game than she was when you met her? That's how every character is in Gulliver Boy.

Now think of any of the memorable climaxes in Lunar 2, and why they are memorable. I don't want to spoil any storylines, but Gulliver Boy just doesn't build up toward magical moments in the same way. It's mostly just a tour through wacky setpieces.

Sorry to be so harsh, but it really is striking how much better the story works in Lunar 2.

The only point in Gulliver Boy's favor is that the colors and art in game are a fair bit better. Lunar 2 isn't all bad, but it has that Genesis dank going on in a bad way.

[gbapalyer]

@samiam: i played through both of them, but i cannot think of any memorable events in lunar 2. on the opposite i still remember the scenes which displayed Judo´s past. creepy stuff.

EDIT: there is also a 50 episodes anime show available. i didnt know that^^

[SamIAm]

Fair enough.

But I still think that the story and characters in Gulliver Boy (the RPG anyway) were very underdeveloped. Those Judo mini-scenes are perfect examples, actually. They aren't built into the story progression itself in any sort of clever way, and they are clearly desperate attempts to shoe-horn in a little expository character development. You see, they do serve an important purpose: without them, Judo is horribly one-dimensional and superficial. He's an extremely critical character in the story, and yet he does almost nothing but evil-laugh at the top of his castle.

I mean, come on, this just isn't good writing.

[EvilEvoIX]

I really wish I knew how to play these games.

[gbapalyer]

I really wish I knew how to play these games. 

it is not that hard, just give them a try. you can do anything with try and error. if you played any classic RPG before you can play them all.

[SplatterTrigger]

I've always been interested in picking this up. Thanks for the personal review.

[deubeul]

I actually wish that someone could extract the text so I can translate it.

I really need to learn how to do that

[JoshTurboTrollX]

I will move Gulliver Boy a few slots up my queue of games to play now!!

So is it above or below Emerald Dragon now? 

Emmy Dragoo is tops on my list.  Matter of fact I've just left it playing on my duo for the past 6 months...  I'm currently level 3 with 4382 hours played!!

[gbapalyer]

I will move Gulliver Boy a few slots up my queue of games to play now!!

So is it above or below Emerald Dragon now? 

Emmy Dragoo is tops on my list.  Matter of fact I've just left it playing on my duo for the past 6 months...  I'm currently level 3 with 4382 hours played!! 

why?^^

i think gulliver boy is equally good as emerald dragon. i played through them both.

[NecroPhile]

why?^^

i think gulliver boy is equally good as emerald dragon. i played through them both.

Josh wants to finish it just so I'll shut up already. 

[gbapalyer]

and why does he not use the save function? oO

[ToyMachine78]

I really wish I knew how to play these games. 

it is not that hard, just give them a try. you can do anything with try and error. if you played any classic RPG before you can play them all.

Very true. I find that using Google translate on the menu screens helps tremendously on RPGs. Just snap a pic of the screen with your phone, and the app will translate it. Once you learn the menus the rest is cake.

This doesnt work on the character dialogue during cut scenes, but you can usually make out what's going on just from the visuals.