Houshin Engi (封神演義), released 9/10/1998, developed and published by Koei

Houshin Engi is the Japanese title of the 16th century Chinese novel usually translated as Investiture of the Gods. It’s very loosely based on the fall of the Shang dynasty and the rise of the Zhou, but has a lot of mythical and fantastical elements and many of the characters are fictional. There was a popular manga based on the story running in Shonen Jump from 1996-2000, and I feel like it was not a coincidence that Koei chose to bring out this game during the time. This game is not based on the manga — I cannot find enough detailed information on the novel’s plot to know for sure, but my impression is that this game is also a very loose adaptation of the novel and is mostly an original story.

The game came out in 1998 and then there was a second version (“aizouban”) released in 1999 with minor improvements; I played that version instead.

The basic setup is the same as the novel — the last King of Shang has been bewitched by his concubine Daji. Daji was already known in historical records as the evil, sadistic woman who had caused the downfall of the Shang dynasty, and after that was thought to have been an evil fox spirit. In the novel, Daji is killed and replaced with a fox spirit that then uses magic to control the King, and this is how the game works as well.

The main hero character is Taikobou, a name for Jiang Ziya. He is also a historical figure who assisted in the defeat of Shang, but in legend (and later in the novel) he becomes a Daoist apprentice of a Kunlun mountain master. In the game, the master sends Taikobou to Earth to investigate a disturbance, which turns out to be Daji’s enchantments.

The characters in the game are a mix of historical figures and characters from the novel, and it’s possible there are characters original to the game as well (I don’t have enough information to track down each character and find out).

The game is divided into five chapters and a total of 53 maps. I believe that you play all 53 in order with no alternate paths. Between most maps you can access a “camp” where you can do the usual equip/save/etc, but you can also visit the Daoist retreats. This allows you to do training battles for XP, but also to challenge the various Daoist masters in 1-on-1 combat to win items. I haven’t managed to beat any of these yet.

Each chapter starts with a small voiced sequence (it’s not actually animated, it’s still pictures). Some of the dialogue has voicing. One welcome feature is the furigana on the Chinese words and names:

They appear every time the name/word is used, which is helpful in remembering the unusual words.

I only played the first 16 stages this week, so I’m not making very fast progress. The first battle of chapter 3 (stage 17) requires you to split your party across two battles and use most of the characters, and I need to do a bit of training before I can handle the battles. The story so far is still more or less in the early stages. Taikobo finds out that Daji is a fox spirit bewitching the king, and gets thrown in prison. There he meets Kouhiko, who was once a follower of the king, but his wife was killed by Daji’s machinations. After escaping, Taikobo and Kouhiko head to the Zhou lands to seek help in fighting against Shang. Most of the stages so far are just gathering various allies who have their own grudges against Shang, and being opposed by a number of underlings of Daji, particularly the three women who serve under Daji. Meanwhile Daji is being commanded herself by Tongtian Jiaozhu, a brother of Taikobo’s master.

One of the chief antagonists is Bunchu (Wen Zhong) who is one of those classic “honorable warrior who is fighting for the wrong side”; at the moment he has been tricked into thinking that Taikobo is leading an effort by the Daoists to overthrow Shang so they can rule instead.

By the end of chapter 2, we’ve reached Zhou and are trying to get them to join us, but first we have to take care of some other enemies they are fighting.

The battle system has a smattering of typical features from different games. There is height and facing. Turns are speed based. There’s elemental compatibility (in the above screenshot it’s wood vs fire, if one has a specific advantage the element will glow).

You get a lot of characters and it might seem annoying at first because you’ll have 18 but will only send out 4 or 5 on a battle. However, if one of them dies, Taikobo can bring in another one from your stock. (If Taikobo dies it’s game over).

Each character gains normal experience, and also experience in weapon and magic levels. Each character has a maximum in each, with a * indicating max level. You earn peaches after each stage that you can use to increase people’s maximums (or even let them use a new ability they can’t use). Each level will grant a new power in that type of weapon or element.

There are also special powers that are individual to some characters, and also these magic shell items that can be used with particular weapons to do additional powers as well. So there’s a lot of variability with each character, and they do change noticeably as they level, which is something I always appreciate in a game.

I’ll stop there for this week — I’m not even sure I will finish this game by next Saturday but we’ll see. I’ll write more about the abilities and characters next week.