Does anyone remember the Boktai series?

[We_care_a_lot]

Man I'm so jazzed thinking about this game now. A true classic with the design sensibilities of Zelda, metal gear and castlevania. Im almost tempted to track down a copy with an sp, although there is no way I'd bother playing it until the summer lol. Sunshine is definitely a must. I remember tricking the sensor with a black light, it works half decently if I recall.

 

[mattiewheels]

1 is > 2?

 

[Unicorn]

Sucked because even playing near a window would block UV rays. I don't think I made it past the 2nd boss of the first game.

 

[shoptroll]

I still own both of the first two games, although I accidentally overwrote my "game beaten" save file for the first game with a hard mode run so I never started the sequel because I think there was a Golden Sun style password feature to carry something over to the sequel? I really should dig them out this summer and fire them back up.

I also remember trying them on the SP and the sensor didn't seem to work nearly as well with the relocation of the cartridge slot to the bottom of the device :(

There was something in the air last spring regarding this game with both Jeremy Parish doing a livestream of the game and Ars Technica running an article about it within weeks of each other which I thought was a hell of a coincidence.

Kojima’s GBA experiment—and the sunny island childhood it changed forever

Puerto Rico wasn't a gaming hotspot, unless a game required constant sunshine.

arstechnica.com

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

Click to shrink...

It looks really neat! I'm glad to see someone trying to continue forth with the concept and moderninzing it to use weather data instead of pure sunlight :)

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.

Click to shrink...

There was also Molyneux's Black & White in 2001 which would check for weather data if you were connected to the Internet, but it was really finicky if I recall correctly.

 

[AnimaRize]

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.

Click to shrink...

if the trademarks ran out why don't you make it official game, sort of spiritual successor to boktai like freedom planet is to classic sonic, and try to get released on steam. or other type of places, it's rare fangames can do that and yours seems like the perfect opportunity to do it? that's just my opinion of course you don't have to do it if you don't want to

 

[LordHuffnPuff]

Which one is that, 3?

Click to shrink...

Yep!

I still own both of the first two games, although I accidentally overwrote my "game beaten" save file for the first game with a hard mode run so I never started the sequel because I think there was a Golden Sun style password feature to carry something over to the sequel? I really should dig them out this summer and fire them back up.

Click to shrink...

Hey now, there's a username I recognize! The first game is actually beatable in a few hours and to get the absolute "Best" password you need to do NG+ including Hard Mode, so if you care about save import then you did the right thing... though importing only changes one line of dialogue and gives you a few bonus items/stat points. I have a visual guide here if you're curious.

 

[CatsFromMars]

I still own both of the first two games, although I accidentally overwrote my "game beaten" save file for the first game with a hard mode run so I never started the sequel because I think there was a Golden Sun style password feature to carry something over to the sequel? I really should dig them out this summer and fire them back up.

I also remember trying them on the SP and the sensor didn't seem to work nearly as well with the relocation of the cartridge slot to the bottom of the device :(

There was something in the air last spring regarding this game with both Jeremy Parish doing a livestream of the game and Ars Technica running an article about it within weeks of each other which I thought was a hell of a coincidence.

Kojima’s GBA experiment—and the sunny island childhood it changed forever

Puerto Rico wasn't a gaming hotspot, unless a game required constant sunshine.

arstechnica.com

It looks really neat! I'm glad to see someone trying to continue forth with the concept and moderninzing it to use weather data instead of pure sunlight :)



There was also Molyneux's Black & White in 2001 which would check for weather data if you were connected to the Internet, but it was really finicky if I recall correctly.

Click to shrink...

Oh, THAT one I didn't know about, neat! Its a technology thats not too hard to set up but it takes some effort to have it work well. It maybe could have been done in Lunar Knights but their compromise was to have the boktai gameboy paks work instead. With only a year between Boktai3 and LK getting done I don't really blame them. Making games is hard.

if the trademarks ran out why don't you make it official game, sort of spiritual successor to boktai like freedom planet is to classic sonic, and try to get released on steam. or other type of places, it's rare fangames can do that and yours seems like the perfect opportunity to do it? that's just my opinion of course you don't have to do it if you don't want to

Click to shrink...

I have considered this in the past, right now I'm having too much fun extrapolating on boktai's setting for it to be a full original title. At the very least I want it to stay a hobby project for now, making it an official game and then selling it would be stressful.

 

[shoptroll]

Oh, THAT one I didn't know about, neat! Its a technology thats not too hard to set up but it takes some effort to have it work well. It maybe could have been done in Lunar Knights but their compromise was to have the boktai gameboy paks work instead. With only a year between Boktai3 and LK getting done I don't really blame them. Making games is hard.

Click to shrink...

The DS was also just getting started with Wi-Fi Connectivity around that time which probably played a role in that decision as well.

 

[CatsFromMars]

The DS was also just getting started with Wi-Fi Connectivity around that time which probably played a role in that decision as well.

Click to shrink...

Yeah the technology behind weather ip stuff is most viable with a phone because of its built in location tracking.

Based on some interviews from around that time the general vibe is that they focused less on the live aspect of LK and was more trying to figure out how to make use of DS gimmicks in lieu of the solar sensor because of how divisive the feature was. "We'll put the digital sun/moon on top and go from there".

 

[mrmickfran]

I remember the Mega Man Battle Network crossovers but I never played the games

 

[AnimaRize]

Yeah the technology behind weather ip stuff is most viable with a phone because of its built in location tracking.

Based on some interviews from around that time the general vibe is that they focused less on the live aspect of LK and was more trying to figure out how to make use of DS gimmicks in lieu of the solar sensor because of how divisive the feature was. "We'll put the digital sun/moon on top and go from there".

Click to shrink...

Lunar knights will always be that weird younger child,l of the franchise. Not only with the gameplay changes but also the weird localization, like not only did the change the name the name of the characters and artwork. But the reason given if I remember reading this correctly the localized believed that it wouldn't sell if the average consumer thought it was connected to boktai. That was a weird thing to say about the reboot of your franchise

 

[Cosmic Schwung]

Disappointed that I never got to play 3. Used to ask a friend to keep an eye out for it whenever they went to Japan, but no luck. At least it's easy to spot all the bootlegs on auction sites.

 

[leder]

I picked up the first one new for like $8 when I was a kid, not knowing anything about it. I quickly got HEAVILY into the game. The solar sensor is kind of a hindrance, but when you're a kid trained on camping out under lamps to play your non-backlit handhelds, you don't care about dealing with that level of bullshit to play something.

I loved the gameplay and visual direction of these games, an interesting blend of Metal Gear and shounen action. I eventually grabbed everything in the series, and it's a good thing I did back then, because holy shit the prices are insane. According to pricecharting, my MIB copy of Boktai 2 is worth like $300. Wish I kept the box for the first game ;_;