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The unidentified FDS RPG ("Nobunaga") - A theory

 
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Brain Breaker



Joined: 15 Mar 2013
Posts: 19

PostPosted: Thu Jun 18, 2015 2:27 pm    Post subject: The unidentified FDS RPG ("Nobunaga") - A theory Reply with quote

Anyone who's interested in unreleased Famicom games is undoubtedly aware of this nameless, incomplete FDS proto. If not, read up here:

http://famicomworld.com/workshop/protos/unreleased-game-i-proto/

http://murakun5555.at.webry.info/201011/article_54.html

Obviously, this is hardly breaking news, so why am I posting about it now? Well, I recently stumbled across a rare mention of this game:

http://mikethegamerguy21.wix.com/pulsewavegaming#!Famicom-Mysteries-Follow-up-on-Development-Disk-Card-Vol-0/c7ba/DDBD9AE2-1E5F-4218-AB5C-055AFFCBA7E9

Seeing this reminded me of a long-held, half-baked theory I've had on this game, so I thought I'd throw it out there, just for the hell of it.

Which is... That it might be some form of Scorpion Soft's eternally delayed Rekishi Daibouken. This particular game (which was never listed as more than a working title) haunted the "Coming Soon" lists of the era's game mags for literally years after its initial Fall '87 announcement, along with its also-unreleased Scorpion Soft brethren Nihon Chiri Daibouken/Chiri Daibouken and White Paper/White Card. Like most of Scorpion Soft's scanty output, it was initially planned as an educational game ("learn just by playing!" was the phrase used in an early Famimaga mention, if I recall correctly), but I have the feeling that this concept may have mutated into a more conventional RPG/strategy-oriented one as time wore on in its long development hell and the Famicom market radically changed around it. In 1987, a FDS edutainment title might have still seemed like a good idea, but as the 8-bit market peaked over the next couple of years and the RPG and historical strategy genres exploded, it's possible that this small company may have shifted gears in a last-ditch effort to keep up with the times.

So far this is all just speculation, but the strongest evidence may lie in the few screens posted on Murakun's blog. If you read them carefully, you'll notice that these (presumably) introductory scenes are quite historically accurate, showing Nobunaga first learning of his father's sudden death, and using his mother and younger sister to set up the ensuing power struggle with his brother and Oda Nobutomo. So, it seems that we're dealing with real history here, rather than a fantasized version of it. This doesn't prove anything of course, but I find it interesting nonetheless. You might also notice that the stats window lists "troops" and "ammunition" with numerical values, indicating a probable strategic element to the battles.

In the magazines of the time, there were often very early, vague game rumors along the lines of "I hear that Company X is planning some kind of strategy RPG game for sometime next year, but there are no details yet. Stay tuned!" If you go through these chronologically with a fine-tooth comb, you can usually sync them up with an eventually announced title, although some never seemed to materialize. However, I've never been able to properly link one of these vague rumors to "Nobunaga", so as a long-in-development, historically based game for the FDS during the right timeframe, by a small company who probably couldn't pull it off, this is my best guess. It's most likely a dead end, and the game is something completely different, but just maybe...?
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shawnphase



Joined: 22 Dec 2005
Posts: 216
Location: baltimore, md

PostPosted: Mon Jun 22, 2015 7:20 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

INNNNNNNNNTERESTING...thanks for sharing this info.
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neomerge



Joined: 12 Feb 2006
Posts: 351
Location: Woodstock GA!

PostPosted: Thu Jun 25, 2015 7:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've never heard about this game. Now I will lose sleep thinking about a day when it gets released.
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