Boards.ie Game Club#1 Wonder Project J

Retr0gamer

So the votes are in and the first game chosen is Wonder Project J. I'm shocked it won, really thought Crypt of the Necrodancer would have won it but good to see people picking the weirder option!

Use this thread to discuss the game as you play through it.

For anyone that doesn't know what the game club is, 3 games are chosen randomly each month with the winner being chosen by a vote. That game is then played by anyone that wants to take part. The objective is that you'd play games you wouldn't normally think of playing and try something out of your comfort zone.

List of games: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1BXV4JxQ05pTB0mlvwpJJElcUThIYV7ZbVv9-4TrUxoY/htmlview?pli=1

Suggestions list (feel free to add your own suggestions): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1eajLXCLKLN45Cg44WQeJ5us50MqMRBip_prw5GyTCEE/htmlview?pli=1#gid=514501563



Wonder Project J

Release date: 1994

Platform: Super Nintendo (English is available through a fan translation)

Retr0gamer

Ive played up to act 4. My robot boy has kicked 2 dogs, kicked a cat, fallen down a well and keeps jumping on stuff to sing. but I'm getting the hang of the game. There's a lot going on under the hood with all the various stats and how different items can affect them positively and negatively. However it manages to be quite simple to understand and so far not overwhelming.

The robot boy has a lot of personality, he's made me laugh a few times with the goofy stuff he does when he is left idle. It's fun teaching him new things and it so far hasn't gotten repetitive.

It's a real technical showcase for the SNES. Graphically it's gorgeous with some of the best pixel art I've ever seen. The SNES usually has a problem with cartridge storage space leading to shortcuts in animation but everything in this game is animated fluidly. There's even a few snippets of cel animation in the intro. I like the storytelling in the game, there's been a few hints dropped about the history of the island which I'm sure will be important later.

I voted for this one as I thought I'd played every SNES game in existence and was shocked that I've never even heard of Wonder Project J.

I played to act 4 too. Fell down the well THREE times. The first was my fault; the other two times I left him to his own devices near the well and, what can I say, he (we) didn't learn. Once he jumps up, its too late. He kicked the dog of course. The worst thing he did so far was instantly rip up that book upstairs. It's quite funny how he does exactly what you don't want him to do. I hit him way too many times then he refused to do anything for other than tell me he hated me. We've since got over it.

My only qualm so far is the soundtrack has been grating on me from the very start. It fits sometimes in short cut scenes (saving the robot helper) but the vast majority of the time its simply annoying. I may have to put on my own music soon.

I highly recommend changing the input to "Use SNES Mouse" if you are using snes9x. Double click executes the encourage/discourage commands. Haven't figured out how to check his stats with these controls though.

Retr0gamer

Pino ate the treasure chest I was trying to use to teach him unlocking skills... Twice... Then he ate the cat when I told him to pet it.

super_furry

Perfect timing got a Shield TV loaded up and ready to go. Will get stuck in on Monday.

Retr0gamer

Act 4 finished. Game starts to get much tougher around now. Training for the sports festival was easy enough but the treasure hunting quest was tough. You have to balance your smarts against building up aggression for the sword to even get to do it, both those decrease the other stat. It wasn't helped by Pino eating the bloody treasure chests.

Once you get to go adventuring you need to build up luck to get to the dungeon at the end of the quest. It's worth going on a few quests before that though you can get some really great items.

Building up luck is difficult, didn't find a good way of doing it but I eventually got a turtle statue from an adventure. I got Pino to learn to use it, he prays to it and gets stat boosts one of which is luck. (He also threw the turtle statue through the air once shouting 'Gamera!', well played fan translator)

Anyway once I got to the dungeon it was a fun distraction. My advice is to bring a sword and a health restoring item with you. I didn't and nearly game overed but lucked out and found them in the dungeon.

I got extremely lucky with the dungeons. I found the place on my second attempt. I found a health potion there which massively helped. His aggression and confidence was so low, with high sensitivity, meant he refused to pick up a sword once in the dungeon. I had to burst through all the enemy while attempting to dodge them.

I think I've broken the game now though. He keeps saying he hates me and refuses to do anything I ask; I haven't been scalding him at all so I don't understand. He won't even go into his sleeping pod. He's also no afraid of the dog outside of the house so I can't go anywhere. He eventually tires himself out and sits there telling me he hates me. Literally nothing I can do from here. I started hitting him until his health got to zero to see if that might reset something. Nope. Stuck in this loop.

Retr0gamer

happened to me. Just put down an item and keep clicking on it until he does it and praise him. After 2 or three his trust will be enough he will start obeying.

Retr0gamer

Played through a good bit today. The fighting tournament was quite tough, requiring a lot of training and a bit of luck to beat the final opponent, if RNGesus is not on your side you can get devastated by critical hits. It's worth checking the computer with high enough intelligence as it gives you hints as to what stats are needed.

The next chapter I had to train for the circus. Pino's aggression was so high that when I went to the policeman he gave him a kick and pulled a legger. When he came back from the police station his trust was 0 so he wasn't obeying anything I told him but I managed to build up some trust but not before he ate the chicken outside.... The actual circus mission wasn't so bad once I figured out the stats for singing well. The ending of that whole quest was a very cute moment.

I'm now helping out the games version of team rocket. This isn't going to end well.

Retr0gamer

Well I took a break from the game and played a load of it tonight since the weather was so bad and have just finished it. It gets rather tricky towards the end. There's a pretty difficult enemy to fight towards the end

but to open a door you have to scream at it. However to get my health up I had to visit the shop to purchase health but at the stats I had Pino as being a dick in the shop which knocked his confidence massively so he ended up just running from the enemy until I figured it out

The final chapter is easy enough except for figuring out what to do with the flowers. It's annoying to go through a big dungeon just to fail at the last hurdle and have to repeat it all, some better game design wouldn't have gone amiss but it's a small niggle. You can also find an item that breaks the game a bit in this chapter but at this late stage in the game it doesn't matter that much.

There's only 10 acts and the final act is basically an extended cutscene ending so it's not that long of a game. The ending was pretty great and got a bit dark as well, the main antagonist really became nasty towards the end. I was satisfied with it and it's cheese!

On beating the game there's a new game plus which ranks you on how many days it takes you to beat each act and if you do well enough you get the true ending. Screw that, I went on to youtube to have a look and the true ending is nice as well. Apparently the sequel takes place after this true ending.

Speaking of the sequel, it's been fan translated as well. I enjoyed this game so much that I've ordered a N64 everdrive so I can play it. I just hope it arrives soon! I've heard the story in that game is really special.

So overall Wonder Project J can be a bit slow which makes it not for everyone but anyone that will enjoy it will find a fascinating game unlike anything else out there on the market. It's got a lot of heart and you can tell it was a labour of love for the development team from how much effort they put into the animations, setting and even just the details in incidental characters. It does some really clever stuff as well such as forcing you to unlearn skills or reduce stats in order to continue and while I feel more could have been done, the game doesn't outstay its welcome. It also looks and sounds great.

The fan translation was also another labour of love. I didn't notice any typos of grammar errors and there were plenty of jokes in there that felt nature and not forced. It's no wonder Clyde 'Tomato' Mandelin's name was in the fan translation credits, he's the guy that created the amazing Mother 3 fan translation.

This got away from me. I'll give it another bash tonight. Did none of the other ~30 or so people who voted get a chance to play it?!

Retr0gamer

I'm hoping the everdrive arrives in time to play the sequel but it's looking like postage from the Ukraine is very slow!

Digital Solitude

Took me like 5 weeks to get my Everdrive from Kirizz or however it's spelled.

I started playing this but quickly lost interest, can't see myself going back to it to be honest, hopefully the next game goes better for me

IvoryTower

Tried it as well and really struggled to get anywhere, just didn't grasp it at all.

yesJME

Yeah it's a great game.

Retr0gamer

So I got my Everdrive 64 today and spent most of it playing Wonder Project J2.

It's an absolute gem of a game. While WPJ had a bit of a Studio Ghibli feel to it, WPJ2 is chock full of it. The characters, locations, gorgeous 2D animation and obsession with airplanes means the game oozes Ghibli like nothing else outside of maybe the Megaman Legend games. Most of the 2D art is exceptional outside of the close ups where the N64's texture filtering looks really ugly. There are some 3D elements but they are mostly hideous compared to the 2D art.

They've changed the base game up a lot for the sequel. Instead of having the one task to complete each chapter you now have about 30 hidden objectives which can be tackled in a non linear fashion. There's also no stat screen which sounds awful but it's much easier to raise stats and apparently you can't level down stats anymore, thank Christ. Josette will even say stuff like I can now jump large gaps to give you an indication of her abilities.

There's some flaws since the game has become more like a classic point and click game than a stat manipulation sim. I couldn't teach Josette how to clean until, it seems, she had contact with water from learning to fish in her submarine. I was doing the right thing except didn't figure to learn to use the submarine first.

One big change is the main character. Pino from WPJ had a lot of personality but rarely interacted with other characters or the player verbally. Right from the start Josette is far more curious and talkative, striking up conversations with characters and even addressing the player and telling you more about herself If you open up to her and answer her questions. While by the end of WPJ I felt sort of an attachment to Pino, I'm becoming a lot fonder of Josette. She just seems more real and lively. She will still eat items at the wrong times though! Storywise it's already much darker than the first game. there's already been the death of a big character from the original and an execution scene.

Apparently this was a launch window title for the N64 and it's a pity there were so few 2D games for the system, WPJ2 looks so much better than anything else on the system other than the terrible 3D sections. I can see why it wasn't localised, Nintendo was pushing 3D on the N64 and it was a weird quirky game that would have looked strange next to the likes of Turok and Mario 64. What a pity because it seems like a diamond in the rough.

BTW: anyone that has taken part in this that wants to take part in the podcast please PM me!

Icyseanfitz

Game Club, great idea might try this WPJ

Retr0gamer

So I finished Wonder Project J2. Really great game and a big improvement over the first. It eliminates most of the grind with the only grindy section being training to become a great fighter. The 3D action sections aren't the best but they aren't awful like some people seem to make out. Most of the 25 achievements you can complete is a great little character story and the 45 minute long ending is a great pay off where all the characters you meet along the way have their stories wrapped up and more of the first WPJ game starts to feed into the story.

There's also some very touching moments in the game, I have to say I teared up a little after teaching Josette about life and death.

At the start of the game her creator dies but she doesn't understand death. After you teach her about it she has a sudden realisation about what it all means and breaks down.

It was rather nicely handled.