for some reason I didn't think this was a cart release.... but nice to find out what's actually going on in the game, although yeah that one part is a king size yikes if I've ever seen one. :( the view kinda vaguely reminds me of mother/earthbound?
Wonder how this game was received in Japan, haven't really checked the reviews. Seems like a very minor Square title; knowing Japan, it probably didn't get much publicity. As for the game itself, I personally thought it was fairly average from what I've played. It's mostly just a giant maze, which is the type of design I'm not usually fond of in RPGs. One interesting thing is that every town speaks its own dialect of Japanese, and there's apparently an (almost?) unbeatable enemy/trap somewhere!
I think the reason why no one had any issue with Jim's design here during production is, Japan has a tendency to do a lot more openly hyper exaggerated carricatures of characters even today, to the point that if that same design was made in the west, people would consider it racist.
I think it's more that some countries are further behind the curve than others when it comes to social issues such as bigotry (particularly where casual or unconscious bigotry is concerned).
While the statement about caricatures is generally true, this is definitely a case where this specific style of caricature is a direct descendant of white supremacist propaganda, even if the people who put it in the game had no idea of that fact. These sorts of Jim Crow-era caricatures of black people were imported into Japan in the form of comics, early Western animation, and toys. RND even referenced this in the end card of a previous episode where he lamented that every single Famicom cart from a developer (I forgot which) had an image of a racist black doll as the company logo, since the company started as a toy company that produced these sorts of dolls in Japan. I would not be shocked if those kind of dolls was exactly what this version of Jim was based off of.
You say bigotry and racism, but that said, I don't thin it can be taken as the devs trying to make a statement on attacking all black people, which it could be sometimes taken as. Not sure if it's indicative of their own casual beliefs either, but to me, it seems like a desperate attempt to capitalize on imagery like Sambo dolls, so I suppose even for worse, stuff like that would have been popular enough by the 80s for them to want to capitalize on it, since business and money don't always care about racism and hurting others as I've come to understand. Really though, if all the characters were exaggerated like Maharaja, then it prob wouldn't be singled out as much as it has been, but the fact that Jim is singled out himself as one to exaggerate on really goes to show their poor management in balancing things out from just a creative standpoint, even if none of the devs were hateful/looked down on black people themselves.
It's weird because Jim looks fine in the anime and that design could easily be adapted into an 8-bit sprite.Still very unfortunate
for some reason I didn't think this was a cart release.... but nice to find out what's actually going on in the game, although yeah that one part is a king size yikes if I've ever seen one. :( the view kinda vaguely reminds me of mother/earthbound?
Wonder how this game was received in Japan, haven't really checked the reviews. Seems like a very minor Square title; knowing Japan, it probably didn't get much publicity. As for the game itself, I personally thought it was fairly average from what I've played. It's mostly just a giant maze, which is the type of design I'm not usually fond of in RPGs. One interesting thing is that every town speaks its own dialect of Japanese, and there's apparently an (almost?) unbeatable enemy/trap somewhere!
1:41 ack I couldn't hear you over the video clip here! It was very loud.
I did hear Tom Sawyer speaking with the voice of Dragon Ball's Son Goku!
0:36 I'm sorry that's so over the top that it's rolled back over into funny
Just found this I'm a huge square nut and I had no idea this existed, I just found it for 10 bucks. How interesting and unique.
I would say a rom hack to rebalance and encounter rate gameplay, then a redesign for Jim to look better, maybe base on the anime.
I think the reason why no one had any issue with Jim's design here during production is, Japan has a tendency to do a lot more openly hyper exaggerated carricatures of characters even today, to the point that if that same design was made in the west, people would consider it racist.
No it clearly just takes from racist artworks from the west. It’s pretty racist.
I think it's more that some countries are further behind the curve than others when it comes to social issues such as bigotry (particularly where casual or unconscious bigotry is concerned).
While the statement about caricatures is generally true, this is definitely a case where this specific style of caricature is a direct descendant of white supremacist propaganda, even if the people who put it in the game had no idea of that fact. These sorts of Jim Crow-era caricatures of black people were imported into Japan in the form of comics, early Western animation, and toys. RND even referenced this in the end card of a previous episode where he lamented that every single Famicom cart from a developer (I forgot which) had an image of a racist black doll as the company logo, since the company started as a toy company that produced these sorts of dolls in Japan. I would not be shocked if those kind of dolls was exactly what this version of Jim was based off of.
@@piratapequeno Takara. Saw it at the end of all their early Transformers ads...
You say bigotry and racism, but that said, I don't thin it can be taken as the devs trying to make a statement on attacking all black people, which it could be sometimes taken as. Not sure if it's indicative of their own casual beliefs either, but to me, it seems like a desperate attempt to capitalize on imagery like Sambo dolls, so I suppose even for worse, stuff like that would have been popular enough by the 80s for them to want to capitalize on it, since business and money don't always care about racism and hurting others as I've come to understand.
Really though, if all the characters were exaggerated like Maharaja, then it prob wouldn't be singled out as much as it has been, but the fact that Jim is singled out himself as one to exaggerate on really goes to show their poor management in balancing things out from just a creative standpoint, even if none of the devs were hateful/looked down on black people themselves.
oh lord, this one...If only there wasn't that awful depiction of Jim.
There might be a ROM hack out there that fixes that. If not, it would be pretty easy to make.
Casual racism? In the 80s??
Seriously though, if it's just one character I don't think I would consider it a deal breaker
Is it really casual if they go out of their way to add it?
@@RndStranger well "casual" in the sense that they likely weren't trying to be edgy or controversial, or thought of it as a big deal.