Question about Far East of Eden RPG games

[pixeljunkie]

is there an order I should play them in?

Is one better than the others?

What is everyone's favorite of the series?

[CrackTiger]

Play them in reverse order: Kabukiden, then Manjinaru, then Ziria.

[pulstar]

My favourite would have to be either Manji Maru or Kabuki Den, both are awesome. Ziria is very much the root of the series (being the first) and it sets standards that are refined in later games.

[jtucci31]

Play them in reverse order: Kabukiden, then Manjinaru, then Ziria.

That's what I've read (from the Brothers Duomazov reviews anyway). I guess Kabukiden is more wacky and easier to follow than the others? That's my basic understanding of it. Could anyone elaborate on that?

[johnnykonami]

I've been meaning to play through them at some point myself.  I agree that Kabuki Den was the most accessible in my memory, I can't say why though.. I think the battle system is more like Final Fantasy (side view) in that one, while the other two are more like Phantasy Star style 1st person perspective.  For some reason that always makes an RPG feel extra antiquated to me, even though they're all pretty old now.  I really enjoyed visiting a certain town in that game, but I won't spoil it for you.

[CrackTiger]

Play them in reverse order: Kabukiden, then Manjinaru, then Ziria.

That's what I've read (from the Brothers Duomazov reviews anyway). I guess Kabukiden is more wacky and easier to follow than the others? That's my basic understanding of it. Could anyone elaborate on that?

Kabukiden was the last game released and has the highest production values. Ziria was so early that the cinematics don't look like most PCE style ones do and are fairly crude. Manjimaru's cinemas are more what you'd expect, but don't have perfect moth syncing.

Kabukiden is a Final Fantasy IV style game. The battle perspective is like FF's, except players and enemies actually run up and hit each other, which FF wouldn't catch up to until VII. There are four priest similar to the four fiends in FFIV (they have the kind of presence that they do in IV, as opposed to just being bosses in the original FF). You start out in fictional Japan, but spend most of the game in fictional U.K., where lots of things are in English. Although tricky to figure out without a guide, it's more straightforward than TMII.

Kabukiden is my favorite game in general, but TMII is still one of the best ever made. Ziria is much more enjoyable than it appears in screenshots.

I have detailed guides for each can help anyone who gets stuck.

After finishing Kabukiden you will appreciate Itouryoden.

[jtucci31]

Play them in reverse order: Kabukiden, then Manjinaru, then Ziria.

That's what I've read (from the Brothers Duomazov reviews anyway). I guess Kabukiden is more wacky and easier to follow than the others? That's my basic understanding of it. Could anyone elaborate on that?

Kabukiden was the last game released and has the highest production values. Ziria was so early that the cinematics don't look like most PCE style ones do and are fairly crude. Manjimaru's cinemas are more what you'd expect, but don't have perfect moth syncing.

Kabukiden is a Final Fantasy IV style game. The battle perspective is like FF's, except players and enemies actually run up and hit each other, which FF wouldn't catch up to until VII. There are four priest similar to the four fiends in FFIV (they have the kind of presence that they do in IV, as opposed to just being bosses in the original FF). You start out in fictional Japan, but spend most of the game in fictional U.K., where lots of things are in English. Although tricky to figure out without a guide, it's more straightforward than TMII.

Kabukiden is my favorite game in general, but TMII is still one of the best ever made. Ziria is much more enjoyable than it appears in screenshots.

I have detailed guides for each can help anyone who gets stuck.

After finishing Kabukiden you will appreciate Itouryoden.

I was actually just looking through your Kabukiden guide the other day, mainly just to find its location and see if it's something I'm interested in (not knowing the language that is). Just to be clear, this is it correct? http://www.gamefaqs.com/turbocd/589284-tengai-makyou-fuun-kabuki-den/faqs/9986

I found it in the stickied thread about rpg walkthroughs on the pce. Also looks like you did the other TM games as well which is great. I saw your blurb at the beginning about your cpu crashing or something of the sort but you said the guide will still go through the entire game. I plan on trying to get through this game sometime over the winter/next year-ish. It's on the list, that's for sure

[SamIAm]

Another important point in Kabukiden's favor is playtime. It's literally half the length of TMII. TMII takes at least 50 hours, and to me at least, that would be a really big investment for a series I'm not familiar with.

[pixeljunkie]

This is awesome. Thx

[NightWolve]

Good read, nice to know. I won Ziria (via Terry) and Kabuki Den (via Bernie) from raffles here, and recently bought Manjimaru (via Big Al) to complete my ownership of the series, but my thoughts were to sort of just wait till a fan translation patch gets done some day. No rush for me, I get little gaming done on anything anyways. I didn't know Kabukiden has lots of English parts already though, that's interesting.

Just to be clear, this is it correct? http://www.gamefaqs.com/turbocd/589284-tengai-makyou-fuun-kabuki-den/faqs/9986

What the hell, look at all that ASCII art! Heh. DAMN, that took some work! This is by BlackTiger, AKA satan666.net@shaw.ca ?

Ole esteban liked to roll with the [esteban]666 label in the past too.

[esteban]

^Hahahhahahahahhahaha.

I really have to play this damn series. Every year, I become increasingly interested in it.

[SamIAm]

TM II, TM Zero and AFAIK TM I all have a structure vaguely akin to Super Mario Bros. 3. The game world is broken down into several kingdoms - usually seven in TM's case. In every kingdom, there will be a sort of "final castle" where a big bad boss lives at the end of a difficult area. You can often see this castle as soon as you enter the kingdom. However, before entering the "final castle", you have to wander around a map to explore lesser dungeons and funky surprises. Eventually, after gaining access to the "final castle", beating the boss, and saving the kingdom, you quickly advance to the next kingdom to do the same thing.

Kabukiden doesn't really do this at all, though.

[shubibiman]

TMII is one of the 2 greatest RPG'S I've ever played along with Final Fantasy VI. Need I say more ?

Kabuki Den is great too in its own way.

[CrackTiger]

TM II, TM Zero and AFAIK TM I all have a structure vaguely akin to Super Mario Bros. 3. The game world is broken down into several kingdoms - usually seven in TM's case. In every kingdom, there will be a sort of "final castle" where a big bad boss lives at the end of a difficult area. You can often see this castle as soon as you enter the kingdom. However, before entering the "final castle", you have to wander around a map to explore lesser dungeons and funky surprises. Eventually, after gaining access to the "final castle", beating the boss, and saving the kingdom, you quickly advance to the next kingdom to do the same thing.

Kabukiden doesn't really do this at all, though.

Kabukiden is the same way, except there are only 5 sort of "kingdoms"/areas, and you have to collect the parts to make an item to finish off each area's final boss (so the whole 'waiting-to-enter-that-final-dungeon-you-can-already-see' deal makes more sense). The random battles even cease once you beat a region's big boss.

[SamIAm]

Ah, that makes sense. I never did finish Kabukiden, so its structure wasn't quite clear to me.

[gbapalyer]

great series of RPGs. i played them in the order of their releases: ziria, manjimaru and kabukiden.
ziria took me 28 hours, manjimaru 52 hours and kabukiden 24 hours.