Does anyone remember the Boktai series?

[AnimaRize]

I remember, playing it when i was younger, i remember the games themselves being rather good games well atleast 2 was, the gameplay was good, the story was decent for a shounen vampire slayer story, the designs were good. It had a decent metroidvania zelda structure. I'd probably call it somewhat of a hidden gem if not one MASSIVE GLARING ISSUE THAT FORCED ITSELF ON TO THE GAMEPLAY that damn solar censor. These games made so you had to play out in the sunlight, so you couldn't control when and where you played it. it had to be outside or by a window and only during the daytime. 2 fixed it so you had the rising sun ability midway through the campaign so you could atleast beat the game( and emulators where you could set your sun level) but yeah it killed a lot of interest in it in the west.

I only bring this up because i have been thinking a lot about battle network recently an 4 on up had these crossovers with this series, and was wondering would these crossovers still exist in the possibly maybe existing collection. even though the boktai game series is totally dead.

 

[Lukar]

I loved the first two games as a kid. I ended up getting a blacklight bulb for my lamp for playing them at night lmao. Really solid MGS-meet-westerns-meets-vampires kinds of games.

I didn't get to play the third one much since it never got an English release (though I think there's a semi-full translation floating around nowadays), and I didn't care much for Lunar Knights since it ditched a lot of the aesthetic appeal of the previous games. Trading a western style for... space vampires. A for originality I guess, but I didn't really care for it.

Someone's doing a fangame called Kura5 that looks kind of promising. It's for PC, so instead of having a solar sensor, it pulls local weather data for your area from the Internet.

Kura5 - Project Boktai3D

3D Boktai Fan Game that uses local weather data instead of a solar sensor. We have a demo, full game...

kura5.tumblr.com

 

[Syriel]

Nintendo even made special prototype carts for Konami so they could properly test the game.

 

[Makoto Yuki]

You mean the other Kojima game that wasn't Zone of the Enders or MGS? Can't say I remember it.

 

[Kurekure Takora]

Never played it, but I remember the game getting pretty big hype on boards back in the early GBA days because of the light gimmick. The commercials are definitely funny.

 

[JustinH]

Something reminds me of it from time to time for some reason or the other.

I remember seeing a coworker play it way back when. I always thought it was a dumb idea (and went back to playing Metroid Fusion and Aria of Sorrow around that time).

 

[AnimaRize]

Never played it, but I remember the game getting pretty big hype on boards back in the early GBA days because of the light gimmick. The commercials are definitely funny.

Click to shrink...

i remember seeing a tv commercial for sun is in your hand, and ended up getting solar boy django by mistake, granted it is the better of the two versions but yeah if it weren't for those commercials and the battle network crossover i would have never played it

 

[Deleted member 33533]

So you're saying they wanted you to play your Gameboy Advance in the sunlight?

That just seems like a bad combo. Cool gimmick though.

 

[AnimaRize]

So you're saying they wanted you to play your Gameboy Advance in the sunlight?

That just seems like a bad combo. Cool gimmick though.

Click to shrink...

it was around the time of the sp but yeah

 

[DiipuSurotu]

You can't play it at night and you preferably need to go outside to play it? Parents must have loved this game

 

[RockmanBN]

Remember it being crossovered alot in the later entries of Mega Man Battle Network.

 

[Giga Man]

I've never played a single Boktai game, but I thought Django the Solar Boy was a really cool cameo in the Mega Man Battle Network series.

 

[Lukar]

Remember it being crossovered alot in the later entries of Mega Man Battle Network.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, that stuff was pretty cool, since you could link the games up and play together. It was weird, but really neat.

I think the crossover with BN4 is what introduced me to Boktai, now that I think about it. It's a shame they removed the crossover content from BN6 and Star Force outside of Japan.

 

[SkyOdin]

I always wanted to give those games a try, but I never ended up buying them. I wouldn't mind a rerelease compilation for the series.

 

[Red]

I've been on the lookout for this cart. I love all those unique GB carts. There was some wild stuff. Boktai was solid. I'm surprised we haven't seen more weird Gameboy inspired stuff on mobile devices.

 

[aett]

Cool idea, but releasing it in the Fall (in North America) and after the SP was a bad combo. Never got around to the sequels.

 

[rpm]

NASA Announces That You Won't Be Able to Play ‘Boktai’ Anymore After the Sun Dies

WASHINGTON — Confirming the inevitable circumstances that will eventually come to pass throughout our solar system, scientists at NASA headquarters confirmed in a press conference…

thehardtimes.net

 

[Jakenbakin]

I played Lunar Knights and liked it at the time, but it wasn't anything special. I remember hating done kind of shmup levels or something.

 

[Woylie]

I started a playthrough of Boktai 1 pretty recently actually! I just got past where I was as a kid. I had to play it on an emulator, but using patches or codes to cheese the solar sensor stuff, while it kind of kills the most unique aspect of the game, makes it a lot less of a hassle to play IMO.

Even without needing to go into the sun to play it, it's still a very charming action-puzzle dungeon crawler type of game. I especially find getting all of the upgrades for the solar gun to be satisfying. I think the upgrade/loot aspect is expanded in the sequels, so I'm excited to go further in with the series after this.

Also thank you for bringing Kura5 to my attention, that looks great for a fangame! Hopefully by the time I make my way through the series it'll be in a more finished state.

 

[AnimaRize]

Someone's doing a fangame called Kura5 that looks kind of promising. It's for PC, so instead of having a solar sensor, it pulls local weather data for your area from the Internet.

Kura5 - Project Boktai3D

3D Boktai Fan Game that uses local weather data instead of a solar sensor. We have a demo, full game...

kura5.tumblr.com

Click to shrink...

i know it's a fan game but with a few modifications they could probably release it as a full release sort of like freedom planet

 

[Putosaure]

Good times.
But playing the game under the sun high noon on a silver GBA SP, bad times.

 

[LordHuffnPuff]

Yep. Every time this thread pops up I have to credit this franchise for getting me into game development. The best game never getting an official localization is a real shame.

 

[AnimaRize]

Yep. Every time this thread pops up I have to credit this franchise for getting me into game development. The best game never getting an official localization is a real shame.

Click to shrink...

well now i got to ask did you ever try to make a spiritual successor to it?

 

[LordHuffnPuff]

well now i got to ask did you ever try to make a spiritual successor to it?

Click to shrink...

I did some consulting on Kura5, does that count?

 

[ForKevdo]

I never realized until I saw those commercials posted that Boktai comes from Bokura noTaiyou

 

[Bradford]

Talked about it with a friend literally yesterday. Boktai is an interesting series and one that was really emblematic of the experimentation of the time and in the space. It is a very unique property and one we likely will never see a game like again.

 

[AnimaRize]

Talked about it with a friend literally yesterday. Boktai is an interesting series and one that was really emblematic of the experimentation of the time and in the space. It is a very unique property and one we likely will never see a game like again.

Click to shrink...

Nintendo probably could make something similar, do to the cartridge aspect of the switch the problem is, the series is dead. There isn't any money to be made from it so no one will likely even try to do something like it. A game experiment that will be forgotten with time

 

[Kyrios]

I knew a friend who had it way back in middle school. It was definitely a really cool game from what I was able to play anyway.

 

[TheAggroCraig]

It was a really cool idea but definitely was a bit annoying to play at times, I only played the first game but probably didn't come close to finishing it.

Also mentioned was the MMBN collab which was really cool, and it had a unique VS game for Boktai 2 and either MMBN5 or 6 that only worked with the wireless adapter iirc. My friend had Boktai 2 so we did get to do that a few times.

The collab was because of one of the creator's kids being a fan of the other, I can't say I remember the specifics though, but it was really cool to see two different devs play well together and have that actually make its way to the US, since content like that at the time seemed like it would always get scrapped.

 

[eddiemunstr]

I still cant believe no one else has bothered to make a vampire based game where the sunlight was needed to get rid of them. Just replace the solar sensor with a in game day/night cycle.

 

[AnimaRize]

I still cant believe no one else has bothered to make a vampire based game where the sunlight was needed to get rid of them. Just replace the solar sensor with a in game day/night cycle.

Click to shrink...

I believe bthe reboot lunar knights tried something like that but replaced the pile driver segment with a star fox segment that you used a star ship to fly up to the sun to end them, but I recall it had day night segments or cycle I forget which

 

[RadzPrower]

God, I had a love/hate relationship with these games. Loved the concept, but hated actually playing it at times.

I remember one particular late-game, if not final, purification I had to walk out into the field next to our house to get enough sunlight. I looked like a weirdo standing on top of a hill playing my GBA for no apparent reason.

Like the Lunar Knights mechanics better since the sensor became annoying, but the story/setting/characters were not on the same level as Boktai.

 

[AnimaRize]

God, I had a love/hate relationship with these games. Loved the concept, but hated actually playing it at times.

I remember one particular late-game, if not final, purification I had to walk out into the field next to our house to get enough sunlight. I looked like a weirdo standing on top of a hill playing my GBA for no apparent reason.

Like the Lunar Knights mechanics better since the sensor became annoying, but the story/setting/characters were not on the same level as Boktai.

Click to shrink...

Yep and that was why interest dwindled in the west, I don't see many people enjoy playing their games outside even before the pandemic, unless waiting in line for something

 

[Nachos]

Loved this series, though I never played the third game. I feel like I get closer and closer to trying to make games by the day, and if I ever stick with it long enough to try something more ambitious, I'd want to take a crack at applying all the speed and fluidity of Metal Gear Solid V to an isometric game like Boktai.

Yep. Every time this thread pops up I have to credit this franchise for getting me into game development. The best game never getting an official localization is a real shame.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, I actually remember you from the Boktai message boards on GameFAQs back in the day. I barely posted, but your name was always distinct, and it was wild seeing that you became involved with Twinbeard years later.

 

[RadzPrower]

I really should look into an English patch for the third game and play it. Does anyone know if they ever finished it? I know there was a beta at some point.

 

[LordHuffnPuff]

I really should look into an English patch for the third game and play it. Does anyone know if they ever finished it? I know there was a beta at some point.

Click to shrink...

We finished it except for a handful of small places where the text was stored as an image file and not text, as we didn't have a tilehacker who could manually replace that (so basically just the zone name title cards you see the first time you ever enter a zone and then never again and the title screen and maybe one or two other small places?) The game is fully playable front to back in English.

 

[EvilBoris]

I loved these, I had a great summer holiday in France 2002 playing this in the sun

 

[AnimaRize]

my god i guess it is one of those niche hidded gems just checked amazon for the both are over $100 atleast i still have my copy of sun is in your hand but wow

 

[eddiemunstr]

I believe bthe reboot lunar knights tried something like that but replaced the pile driver segment with a star fox segment that you used a star ship to fly up to the sun to end them, but I recall it had day night segments or cycle I forget which

Click to shrink...

Yeah, I had lunar knights but didnt enjoy it as much due to how different the gameplay was compared to boktai. I just always thought it was a cool idea that seems criminally underused that you had to use sunlight to kill the monsters (strictly speaking from a gameplay perspective, i get the sensor wasnt practical for everyone depending where they lived).

 

[MouldyK]

Kojima's Best Game.

 

[AnimaRize]

Yeah, I had lunar knights but didnt enjoy it as much due to how different the gameplay was compared to boktai. I just always thought it was a cool idea that seems criminally underused that you had to use sunlight to kill the monsters (strictly speaking from a gameplay perspective, i get the sensor wasnt practical for everyone depending where they lived).

Click to shrink...

Lunar knights really wasn't as good as boktai, which is sad because apparently that was the last ditch effort for the series. You probably shouldn't make your franchise savior a reboot

 

[drew1drew1]

Yup! A great series that I am trying to archive all official material of! Though, I doubt I will ever get all the pictures of the commercial settei sheets or scans of the 5th anniversary art book. I only have a couple for each of those.

 

[CatsFromMars]

I loved the first two games as a kid. I ended up getting a blacklight bulb for my lamp for playing them at night lmao. Really solid MGS-meet-westerns-meets-vampires kinds of games.

I didn't get to play the third one much since it never got an English release (though I think there's a semi-full translation floating around nowadays), and I didn't care much for Lunar Knights since it ditched a lot of the aesthetic appeal of the previous games. Trading a western style for... space vampires. A for originality I guess, but I didn't really care for it.

Someone's doing a fangame called Kura5 that looks kind of promising. It's for PC, so instead of having a solar sensor, it pulls local weather data for your area from the Internet.

Kura5 - Project Boktai3D

3D Boktai Fan Game that uses local weather data instead of a solar sensor. We have a demo, full game...

kura5.tumblr.com

Click to shrink...

Heyyy, that's my fangame! I work on it steadily as a hobby project. It will probably stay a PC fangame though.

For a modern boktai game, the IP address getting your weather seemed like the natural thing to do at the time, though since I started working on it other games like Pokemon Go have since put in similar features. The only other game I could find that had a similar idea was "Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor" from 2009.

Prior to both of these games there was a game boy color game that contained a plain old light sensor used to discover aliens called "Chee-Chai Alien, which predates boktai.

The trademarks for boktai have since run out so it seems clear that konami won't ever do another installment, but the technology behind it is neat. And even without it, its still a charming adventure to play through.

 

[King Dodongo]

Obligatory:

 

[KDR_11k]

I remember trying to play 2 but not getting anywhere because it requires direct sunlight and that's surprisingly hard to get in a place where you can actually sit down to play for longer. The sun isn't terribly strong where I live, at least not by the game's standards and I didn't want to get a massive sunburn from playing the game either.

 

[Deleted member 36578]

Both games are phenomenal. A pair of the best gba games of all time. Lunar Knights wasn't even close to being as great as the Boktai games.

 

[Indurian]

 

[Philippo]

Bought 1 randomly as a kid and loved the hell out of it. The setting and mechanics were amazing for me, and it was lot of fun to roam around and try to use the sensor. Never got to play 2.

I tried 1 again a few years ago and the Italian localization is comically atrocious lol

Would love to play some more though.

Yep. Every time this thread pops up I have to credit this franchise for getting me into game development. The best game never getting an official localization is a real shame.

Click to shrink...

Which one is that, 3?

 

[We_care_a_lot]

Boktai is one of my favorite games of all time.

The solar sensor was polarizing but brilliant in the same way as majoras masks time mechanic but that unfortunately overshadowed (ha) the fact that it's just a great game wholey unlike anything else.

Easily my favorite gba game.

 

[Garlic]

I remember, playing it when i was younger, i remember the games themselves being rather good games well atleast 2 was, the gameplay was good, the story was decent for a shounen vampire slayer story, the designs were good. It had a decent metroidvania zelda structure. I'd probably call it somewhat of a hidden gem if not one MASSIVE GLARING ISSUE THAT FORCED ITSELF ON TO THE GAMEPLAY that damn solar censor. These games made so you had to play out in the sunlight, so you couldn't control when and where you played it. it had to be outside or by a window and only during the daytime. 2 fixed it so you had the rising sun ability midway through the campaign so you could atleast beat the game( and emulators where you could set your sun level) but yeah it killed a lot of interest in it in the west.

I only bring this up because i have been thinking a lot about battle network recently an 4 on up had these crossovers with this series, and was wondering would these crossovers still exist in the possibly maybe existing collection. even though the boktai game series is totally dead.

Click to shrink...

Honestly the dependence on the sun was what made the game for me. You're playing outside and you're deep in a fortress trying to drag out a vampire and you notice the sun is going down, tension galore. Never had a gaming experience like it. Easy to understand how someone would find it frustrating but to me it was magic.