one of my favorite things i've learned about from this channel is how there was, as i understand it, much less friction between amateurs and big time game-makers during this era -- all these cool little coding contests in print magazines, want ads where some 20-year-old could start out at some company, hobbyists having their proto-homebrew-doujin pc game get remade in a bigger venue... i know similar things happen today, game jams etc, but just by necessity of the scene being vastly smaller and the systems being simpler back then, it seems like if you had a even a little bit of knowledge, you could probably help make something pretty ok. i know that there are only a couple of miyamoto/horii/sakaguchi types out there (and that's not getting into music and art and coding etc) but it still seems like if you had the capability, you could really do something, and not get buried under all the other games out there like it is today. obviously there was a bunch of terrible crap on the famicom but for the people who cared and knew what was up, you could do it? the kind of thing where everyone who went to the first sex pistols show also went on to make massively important bands
I have always felt this way as well and it wasnt just in Japan this was happening. You have instances of devs on microcomputers of the era in Europe and America that able to make a real name for themselves despite just essentially being bed-room coders.
Hot take time: this is actually the best SRPG on the system. And not just that, it's one of the best console SRPGs up until the end of 1992. I played through it a couple times and enjoyed it more than Fire Emblems. Fun gameplay, interesting if simple story, very good presentation. Huge shame that it didn't sell better, but at that point in time its understandable. Enix is surely one of the most important publishers, but more so in Japan than in the West. Just Breed is... a rather unfortunate title though. :P (I get what their intention was, but... the double-meaning is just too prominent here for an English speaker)
I LOVE Just Breed. If it weren't for the color depth, the game looks and plays like a competent early SNES game. Such a level of professionalism. So happy this got a fan translation.
The font size doesn't line up with the usual 8x8 tile size, and it makes the game look like it runs on the master system or some computer that I never heard of. And there's a lot of kanji for an NES game! It all looks very professional.
Enix once again brought to the Famicom an impressive RPG that is not Dragon Quest, and while it was good, it came out at the very wrong time and so not a lot of people know about this. On the Super Famicom it seems like Enix is still going strong with many solid titles, though not just strictly RPGs. I happened to like the two platformers based on two mangas that Enix published, and they tried a lot of other genres which had some success.
Looking at the financial bloodbath of the Famicom market in '92, and the Atari shock crash in '83, it's no wonder why Sega seemed a bit too eager to leave the Megadrive behind...
I don't think Sega were so much trying to leave the Mega Drive behind, rather they were trying to cover too many bases: The Mega CD existed to cover the CD-ROM2, the 32X to cover the 3DO & Jaguar and the Saturn to cover the N64 & PlayStation. Given how fast the industry was moving at the time, these projects did make a degree of sense, but the fact they (and the Game Gear) all failed one after another was ultimately too much to recover from.
@@sjake8308 You should look at Sega's financial reports. The Genesis had become a black hole of a money pit that risked destroying them, thanks to a completely insane bargain with retailers.. Essentially, Sega had to both create as many carts as stores wanted, and buy back any unsold stock. When stores overestimated demand for late release 16-bit titles? It was a bloodbath, and what followed wasn't too far off from what Atari faced. Fortunately, for Sega of Japan, their abused workforce remained loyal, their products were still cutting edge, and management really believed in the company. But Japan was very eager to move on from their greatest success. (Ironic, given how obsessed they became with the system later.)
This type of game is right up my alley. It looks really good too, it's such a shame it was released on the wrong system. In retrospect, what Enix probably should have done is to stop development on this project and hold it over for a SNES release, which would have given this game a much better chance of succeeding.
Strategy RPGs are not my thing, but I can tell this game is a masterpiece with all the talent behind it. The budget must've been massive, and that price tag of nearly 10,000 yen is because this game comes on a whopping 6 megabit cartridge with an MMC5 chip and battery back-up. Usually games of this girth on the Famicom are the realm of Koei... this is not the last time we'll see a 6 megabit game on the Famicom though, as Koei's got one more, and Nintendo's got one in them too. We'll even get one in the US!
@@BagOfMagicFood it's an obsession, especially looking back on the prices. I consider production costs... sometimes a company is ripping you off, sometimes they can't afford to sell it for less. Only Nintendo is able to sell their games cheaply despite large sizes, like with Hoshi no Kirby next year.
I am honestly shocked that as far as I know there isn't another SRPG where everyone gains experience from one enemy getting defeated instead of the character who defeated them getting some. If this game did better upon initial release, perhaps it would have been stolen more often by other makers of SRPGs.
wow this sounds like an all-star cast of developers out of something like chrono trigger! certainly should've done better but yeah, having to compete against FFV AND DQV there was no way. may have to look this one up I wonder if anyone translated it?
Just Breed is excellent and has a great name, but for a different kind of game. That's what happens when you want to name it Just Bleed, but actually mistake R and L.
without having played it i can kinda come up with a reason for the title -- "just" (with the same roots as the word "justice") can be a synonym for something like fair, even-handed, honorable, righteous.. and "breed" could mean variety, species, lineage, pedigree... so like, the "just breed" is maybe an "honorable people" ....maybe? but also yeah it does sound like someone asking "so when am i gonna get grandchildren???????" lol
Ppl are assuming a translation error completely changed the meaning of the title.. But they DID advertise the game in play boy...
Shinzo Abe's favorite game. RIP.
one of my favorite things i've learned about from this channel is how there was, as i understand it, much less friction between amateurs and big time game-makers during this era -- all these cool little coding contests in print magazines, want ads where some 20-year-old could start out at some company, hobbyists having their proto-homebrew-doujin pc game get remade in a bigger venue... i know similar things happen today, game jams etc, but just by necessity of the scene being vastly smaller and the systems being simpler back then, it seems like if you had a even a little bit of knowledge, you could probably help make something pretty ok. i know that there are only a couple of miyamoto/horii/sakaguchi types out there (and that's not getting into music and art and coding etc) but it still seems like if you had the capability, you could really do something, and not get buried under all the other games out there like it is today. obviously there was a bunch of terrible crap on the famicom but for the people who cared and knew what was up, you could do it? the kind of thing where everyone who went to the first sex pistols show also went on to make massively important bands
I have always felt this way as well and it wasnt just in Japan this was happening. You have instances of devs on microcomputers of the era in Europe and America that able to make a real name for themselves despite just essentially being bed-room coders.
The jokes write themselves
💯👍🏿
Hot take time: this is actually the best SRPG on the system. And not just that, it's one of the best console SRPGs up until the end of 1992. I played through it a couple times and enjoyed it more than Fire Emblems. Fun gameplay, interesting if simple story, very good presentation. Huge shame that it didn't sell better, but at that point in time its understandable. Enix is surely one of the most important publishers, but more so in Japan than in the West. Just Breed is... a rather unfortunate title though. :P (I get what their intention was, but... the double-meaning is just too prominent here for an English speaker)
I LOVE Just Breed. If it weren't for the color depth, the game looks and plays like a competent early SNES game. Such a level of professionalism. So happy this got a fan translation.
This certainly is an interesting title.
I'm not sure whether they actually meant "Just Breed" or whether it was intended to have been "Just Bleed". 😅
@@sjake8308 I think it was meant as something along the lines of “The Virtuous Breed” (or race)
The font size doesn't line up with the usual 8x8 tile size, and it makes the game look like it runs on the master system or some computer that I never heard of. And there's a lot of kanji for an NES game! It all looks very professional.
it helps that the game is 6 megabits where most games are between 2-4.
Played through this game a couple times, well worth it
Those RPG town festivals always bring some kind of trouble! 😅
981 episodes later, this is the best ending credit line
Enix once again brought to the Famicom an impressive RPG that is not Dragon Quest, and while it was good, it came out at the very wrong time and so not a lot of people know about this.
On the Super Famicom it seems like Enix is still going strong with many solid titles, though not just strictly RPGs. I happened to like the two platformers based on two mangas that Enix published, and they tried a lot of other genres which had some success.
fantastic game and one of my favorites in genre
Looking at the financial bloodbath of the Famicom market in '92, and the Atari shock crash in '83, it's no wonder why Sega seemed a bit too eager to leave the Megadrive behind...
I don't think Sega were so much trying to leave the Mega Drive behind, rather they were trying to cover too many bases: The Mega CD existed to cover the CD-ROM2, the 32X to cover the 3DO & Jaguar and the Saturn to cover the N64 & PlayStation. Given how fast the industry was moving at the time, these projects did make a degree of sense, but the fact they (and the Game Gear) all failed one after another was ultimately too much to recover from.
@@sjake8308 You should look at Sega's financial reports. The Genesis had become a black hole of a money pit that risked destroying them, thanks to a completely insane bargain with retailers..
Essentially, Sega had to both create as many carts as stores wanted, and buy back any unsold stock. When stores overestimated demand for late release 16-bit titles? It was a bloodbath, and what followed wasn't too far off from what Atari faced.
Fortunately, for Sega of Japan, their abused workforce remained loyal, their products were still cutting edge, and management really believed in the company.
But Japan was very eager to move on from their greatest success. (Ironic, given how obsessed they became with the system later.)
Just Breed: Plap Plap Densetsu
ive always found the credits card joke amusing, but this one is the first one to make me LOL :)
When I first heard of this game I thought it was a horse racing game from the title
The RPG adventures of Nnnnn continue!
I enjoy this game, and the cart looks good on my shelf.
This game's awesome. Great SRPG
Gotta be the weirdest just dance spin-off I’ve seen
Maybe it's just me, but this feels more like Shining Force than Fire Emblem.
Yeah, I was thinking that the overworld and the way the game handled random (stranger) encounters reminded me of SF.
This type of game is right up my alley. It looks really good too, it's such a shame it was released on the wrong system. In retrospect, what Enix probably should have done is to stop development on this project and hold it over for a SNES release, which would have given this game a much better chance of succeeding.
Strategy RPGs are not my thing, but I can tell this game is a masterpiece with all the talent behind it. The budget must've been massive, and that price tag of nearly 10,000 yen is because this game comes on a whopping 6 megabit cartridge with an MMC5 chip and battery back-up. Usually games of this girth on the Famicom are the realm of Koei... this is not the last time we'll see a 6 megabit game on the Famicom though, as Koei's got one more, and Nintendo's got one in them too. We'll even get one in the US!
I don't know who else has ever paid attention to game sizes
@@BagOfMagicFood it's an obsession, especially looking back on the prices. I consider production costs... sometimes a company is ripping you off, sometimes they can't afford to sell it for less. Only Nintendo is able to sell their games cheaply despite large sizes, like with Hoshi no Kirby next year.
Do you know if it uses the expansion audio channels? The music sounds nice but it was hard to tell.
@@anactualmotherbear But Nintendo never discounts their games!
@@Ofecks It did take advantage of the MMC5 channels. I remember using some audio tools, and the Justbreed OST was missing a lot on early emulators.
I am honestly shocked that as far as I know there isn't another SRPG where everyone gains experience from one enemy getting defeated instead of the character who defeated them getting some. If this game did better upon initial release, perhaps it would have been stolen more often by other makers of SRPGs.
wow this sounds like an all-star cast of developers out of something like chrono trigger! certainly should've done better but yeah, having to compete against FFV AND DQV there was no way. may have to look this one up I wonder if anyone translated it?
Why is your name in Famicom games always んんんんんん❓❓❓Just wondering
Just Breed is excellent and has a great name, but for a different kind of game. That's what happens when you want to name it Just Bleed, but actually mistake R and L.
They are a just breed that just bleeds money
horrible name for a game
without having played it i can kinda come up with a reason for the title -- "just" (with the same roots as the word "justice") can be a synonym for something like fair, even-handed, honorable, righteous.. and "breed" could mean variety, species, lineage, pedigree... so like, the "just breed" is maybe an "honorable people" ....maybe? but also yeah it does sound like someone asking "so when am i gonna get grandchildren???????" lol