The Video Games that Impacted my Life, Part 3: PlayStation - some Dragon Ball, an Overdose of Mega Man, Among Others

This is the third article in my series of posts where I, a visually impaired female gamer, talk about the video games that played an important part in my life. If you haven't read the previous parts, I advise you read at least the first part to get the context. Below are links to the previous parts:

• The Video Games that Impacted my Life, Part 1: NES - Mario, Mickey and Kirby
• The Video Games that Impacted my Life, Part 2: SNES - Mario, Donkey Kong, Lots of Kirby and a Few Others

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In this post, I'll talk about the Sony PlayStation, also known as PSX or PS1.

Image source: By Evan-Amos [Public Domain], from Wikimedia Commons

In 2000, I got a PlayStation. Since I had been used to the Super NES, I got impressed by PlayStation's graphics and more realistic sounds in both the music and the sound effects. Some games even had voiced dialogue! For example, one of the first PSX games I had, which was...

A game with katanas?

Um... sorry, the game was fully in Japanese, and our limited knowledge of the Japanese writing didn't allow us to read the title :P . Even today, I have no idea what that game is called! From what I remember, I think the protagonist had inherited a dojo and the main characters had to train for a tournament, then some suspicious foreigners appeared, and... a lot happened, but I don't remember much of the story.

The game was like a visual novel, where we had to go through dialogue and choose answers when the characters asked something. Except for the protagonist who only had voiced dialogue during battles, all the other characters' dialogue was fully voiced (in Japanese). Between the dialogue scenes, there were the fights using katanas. I never figured out how the battle system worked, and lost most of the fights. Since the story branched out to different paths depending on the dialogue choices and whether we won or lost fights, there was no game over and no way to retry the battles (so, no way to practice and try to understand the battle system better). I gave up on the game after one day when I failed to find the save option, and lost hours of progress (if going through dialogue and losing battle after battle counts as "progress," that is).

Since I don't know the game's title, I can't even look for a YouTube link showing the gameplay! I don't have the game anymore, but I wish I could at least look it up on the Internet and clear my doubts about the battle system. If my descriptions above ring any bells and anyone happens to know what game I'm talking about, please let me know!

Note: I posted a Brazilian Portuguese version of this article, and some readers asked if the mysterious game isn't Bushido Blade. I looked Bushido Blade up, and no, it isn't. So, the hunt continues...

Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Battle 22

It was the Dragon Ball game that worked most similar to the ones I used to play for the Super Nintendo (and even included rearranged music from them), except it had 22 characters (not counting the unlockables) as opposed to the 10 from the SNES games. I was disappointed at the lack of a story mode, and because the only place that had the sound effects from the anime was the opening animation. Still, I had fun practicing moves with all characters.

Here's a link to a gameplay video I found, by YouTube user FranckoSabbath.

Dragon Ball Z: Idainaru Dragon Ball Densetsu

Also known as "Dragon Ball Z: The Legend" in Europe. I liked this one a lot because it went through the whole story from the Dragon Ball Z anime, and had lots of playable characters, spoken dialogue during story mode, and even the DBZ summary narration before each chapter.

Three characters could be sent into battle at once. You could go about the story in different ways, such as doing things that were impossible in the anime like defeating major enemies using "weaker" characters. Or you could leave the computer fighting and just watch while the characters who weren't battling made random comments about what was going on, though leaving the computer to fight didn't always have good results. I messed around a lot with this game, but later I found out that the "right" way to play it was to try to reenact the battles from the anime as closely as possible (such as defeating specific enemies using specific characters, or letting certain characters die), which would trigger some special events and give a better score at the end of each chapter. Since I hadn't seen the whole DBZ anime yet (the Brazilian dub airing on TV was still at the Frieza saga, while the random Japanese tapes I rented were about the end of the Majin Buu saga), there were various parts I had no idea how to reenact.

Here's a gameplay video showing the Frieza fight, by user wajinshu.

Dragon Ball: Final Bout

I had been renting Dragon Ball GT tapes from a rental shop specialized in Japanese TV shows, way before the Dragon Ball GT dub aired around here, and this got me acquainted with the Dragon Ball GT characters. Then, I got this game. Finally a game where most of the sound effects were the same ones from the anime! Blocky characters and lack of a real story mode aside, I really liked this game, and spent several hours of my vacation playing it, either going through the arcade mode, the build up mode, or practicing moves with various characters.

Here's a gameplay video, by Ddd-R845.

Mega Man X5

Mid 2001, I came in contact with Mega Man for the first time at my friend's house (the same friend who got me into Dragon Ball), through the game Mega Man X5. Mega Man (or in this case, Mega Man X) could copy the defeated bosses' abilities, and the controls reminded me too much of Kirby (which I loved playing on the SNES). This was all it took to get me hooked into Mega Man right away.

Here is a video showing the first ever stage from Mega Man I've seen in my life. Gameplay video by user Sliider.

From then on, what I call the "Mega Man overdose" started. I began playing every Mega Man game I could find (even though I was terrible at most of them and had to depend on friends' help). Mega Man 8, X4, X6, Mega Man 1 to 6 for the NES which I played on an emulator because I didn't have the NES anymore (I still love the 8-bit songs), the Japanese arcade games (also on an emulator obviously), Mega Man Battle Network from 1 to 3 and Mega Man Zero 1 to 3 which I also played on an emulator, glad to be able to play GBA games on a big screen (my low vision was grateful).

For those wanting to see gameplay or remember the games, below are some links to gameplay videos I found (listing only PlayStation games because it's the post's topic). All videos are by user MegaQuint:

• Mega Man 8.
• Mega Man X4 (points for the boss and his "Hadouken! Shoryuken!" XDDD).
• Mega Man X6.

And more.

Mega Man Legends 1 and 2

A 3D RPG with an interesting setting, endearing characters - I tip my helmet especially for the Bonnes and their cute Servbots for this (even to those who don't know Mega Man Legends, whoever has played games like Marvel VS. Capcom 2 or Namco X Capcom or Project X Zone will have seen them) -, lots of spoken dialogue, anime-esque humor, and other fun little details.

In Legends 1, aside from playing the main story, I liked to do weird things like climbing onto cars and letting them ride me around town, or kicking cans (the game even gave a little bonus for kicking a can into the trash). I also liked leaving Mega Man with dark armor by turning him into a delinquent and doing bad things (my preferred method was to break the vending machines in town several times). Unfortunately, the only thing locked behind this beyond the appearance change were a few small scenes and that the characters from the island would dislike Mega Man, but this didn't affect anything in the main story cutscenes at all...

Mega Man Legends 2 had a more serious plot and better graphics, but no more cars to ride on, nor vending machines to break. Ah well... :P either way, I liked it a lot too, and played through both games several times. I played the English versions, right when I had been taking English lessons, and these games helped me quite a bit at improving my English.

Here is a gameplay video of Mega Man Legends, by MegaQuint, and here is one of Legends 2, by SoloKnight.

Mega Man Battle & Chase

Or "Rockman Battle & Chase," as the Japanese version (the one I played) is called. A Mega Man spin off car racing game. At first glance, it may look like just a Mario Kart clone with Mega Man characters, but it's much more than that! It has elements reminiscent of Mario Kart, like traps on the tracks and using items to hinder opponents, but the game has a lot of unique features. For example, in the same way Mega Man copies the bosses abilities upon defeating them in the normal platformer games, it's possible to take a part from the opponents' car after defeating them in grand prix mode. Each part has different effects, either for attacking, or for getting advantages in different types of roads (pavement, gravel, ice etc. the tire from Ice Man's car prevents slipping on ice, for example). Parts from various cars can be mixed and matched to customize the car before beginning each race.

The grand prix mode was the game's story mode... in the Japanese version, that is. I've heard that the story elements were completely removed from the international versions. I played the Japanese version, and the story was that there was a robot racing grand prix broadcasting on TV, which had a prize of 10 million zenny (money). Mega Man (Rockman in Japan), Roll, and several Robot Masters decided to participate and get the prize for their own reasons. There was a voiced narration introducing the courses and discussing the race that was about to take part, then a brief interview of each opponent before the race, and then the race was fully commentated. At the end of the race, the commentator would animatedly talk about what a stunning victory it was, then sometimes say things like, "This show was sponsored by Capcom. Thank you for tuning in. Until next week!" I found these things very amusing. But I've heard that not only the story mode, but also all these voice-acted parts/narrations were removed from the international versions, which is a shame.

My favorite character in this game - and every other game where he was playable - was Bass (Forte in Japan). I had gotten all car parts from most characters when I last played the game.

Here's a gameplay video of the Japanese version, by user Retro Rampage, playing as Napalm Man.

Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo

After Mega Man, I decided to try out some other Capcom games. I had played some Street Fighter, but hadn't enjoyed it as much as Dragon Ball. But then, I found this game. Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo, a puzzle game with Street Fighter characters.

It played like Puyo Puyo (which I had mentioned in the SNES post when I talked about Kirby's Avalanche), and we had to match four pieces of the same color and chain combos to disrupt the opponent's playing. The Street Fighter characters stood at the center of the screen, and doing combos caused them to use one of their special moves to attack the other. It was satisfying to hear the glass shattering sounds when matching pieces and doing huge combos.

I played this game a lot, and beat arcade mode with all characters. I liked that clearing the game unlocked a version with vocals of Sakura's theme in the sound test.

Here's a gameplay video, by user faRec.

Marvel VS. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes

Not much to say about this game other than, "It's a fighting game with Marvel and Capcom characters which I spent various hours playing." I played every character, but I don't even need to say which one was my favorite, right?

Here's a gameplay video, by user Rock Universe Gaming, playing as... Mega Man. Done, I said it. :P

Bust-a-Move 4

Now, moving away from Capcom games, there was Bust-a-Move 4. Another puzzle game, but about shooting colored bubbles to match three of the same color, and dropping hanging bubbles to chain combos. I played a lot either going through story mode, or experimenting with level creation in edit mode. Then, I spent too much time playing against a friend in 2-player versus mode. I lost to her more often than not, and ended up getting sick of this game :P .

Here's a link to a gameplay video, by RyoGamestation.

Doraemon 2 SOS! Otogi no kuni

In the SNES post, I mentioned how I became a fan of Doraemon, the popular anime and game franchise about the robotic cat from the 22nd century, and how I had had a Doraemon game for the SNES. For the PlayStation, I eventually got this game called, "Doraemon 2 SOS! Otogi no kuni" (translates to something like, "Doraemon 2 SOS! Fairytale Land"). The story is that Doraemon gets a TV from the future where it's possible to watch anything, and it begins showing fairytales. However, for some unknown reason, it turns out that the villains from the fairytales had left their stories and were causing chaos in other stories. It's up to Doraemon and his friends to enter the fairytales and fix the mess. Sadly, I couldn't get too far into this game.

Here's a gameplay video, by Girarkas.

Animetic Story Cardcaptor Sakura

I got this game at the time I had been watching the Brazilian dub of the Cardcaptor Sakura anime, and my curiosity to know how the events played out in Japanese kept me interested in the game from start to finish. Totally in Japanese, the game had two disks, and was a retelling of the story from the anime. Much to my delight, most of the background music came straight from the anime too.

The game consisted of talking to people during the normal everyday tasks - all dialogue was fully voiced -, and when it was time to capture the magical Clow cards, there were different minigames for each card. It was a cute and easy game, with the characters drawn in chibi form during the RPG-esque segments, and some scenes from the anime showed at the most important events, such as when Sakura captured most cards. My only complaint about the game is that it was too short and didn't have all the cards. In the end, it only told the first half of the story from the anime. I had thought that maybe it had a sequel to complete the last half, but unfortunately it doesn't.

Here's a video showing the game's beginning, by Serkenburg.

Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone

The last game I got for my PlayStation. It had lots of voiced dialogue. It was the European version, with voices and text in English and Spanish (I don't remember if it had other languages too). The game also had lots of puzzles, and I found it interesting that doing the tasks right would grant house points (for the "classes" competition thing they have). It was a hard game, though, and even my friend who was very skilled at games struggled a lot with it. We had to stop playing it because my memory card began acting up. The saves corrupted and erased right near the end of the game! How frustrating... we lost all the progress, and my friend wasn't willing to replay the whole game again from the beginning, not to mention there was no guarantee that the saves wouldn't corrupt again. So, we gave up.

Here's a gameplay video, by DazzlingWalkthroughs.

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That's about it for my most memorable PlayStation games. Quite a lot, actually. Next post will be about the Nintendo 64!