PS1 Azure Dreams / Other Life: Azure Dreams

[MajesticSiN]

This has to be one of my favorite games on the original Playstation.
It's a real fun town building Rogue-Like.
You pay as Koh (or whatever you choose to name him) as you wake up on your fifteen birthday.
Your father has gone missing in a monster tower when you were young and now that you are of age you can enter the tower and figure out what happened.
Besides the first floor of the tower the rest are randomly generated and following the rogue-like rules of the game if you die in the tower you lose all your items.
I feel its more like the mystery dungeon games than anything else.
There are some items that let you leave the dungeon with all your items if you can find them.
You also can find eggs and if you take them back you can hatch monsters to take with you. While you can only take one with you (2 when you find another collar) they count as items in your inventory.
You can do other things with your runs like save money to upgrade and build stuff in your town and impress various girls to gain their affection.
While this is not meant as a review of any kind I just wanted to ramble and spread the joy of this game.
If you are into the rogue-like genre and haven't played this yet you should fix that right now.

 

[Geass]

Cool thread, love the idea of just making threads of games we enjoy and wanna talk about, saw you post about this game earlier.

This game also has a dating sim element to it as well right? I've heard about this game before and always wanted to try it, might mess with it for a few hours this weekend.

 

[MajesticSiN]

This game also has a dating sim element to it as well right? I've heard about this game before and always wanted to try it, might mess with it for a few hours this weekend.

Kinda sorta. When you save the game it has blank spaces for the girls you get to like you. It doesn't really add much and is super easy to do.

Still worth picking up if you're interested.

 

[Geass]

I was playing a ton of Shiren the Wanderer awhile ago for the SNES and while I never ended up beating it I did find out I looooove Mystery Dungeon games. Pokemon and Omega Labyrinth were 2 other MD games that I enjoyed so very interested to see Konami's take on it

 

[Gorse]

If you're interested in Mystery Dungeon games, I truly do recommend both the original Torneko no Daibouken: Fushigi no Dungeon on SNES (there's a fan translation) and the PS1 sequel, Torneko: The Last Hope. The former is the very first Mystery Dungeon game ever, setting everything in place for the entire format of Japanese dungeon-crawlers going forward, (once you play it, it's easy to see how standard MD enemy types map to Dragon Quest characters) and the latter is what I consider to be the single "best" Mystery Dungeon game, with tons of variety in everything from items to monsters to weapons and more. (It also has a gorgeous stop-motion animated opening cinematic and fully-orchestral soundtrack, which is always nice.)

Unfortunately, I've never played Azure Dreams, so I have nothing else to add in this thread.

 

[MajesticSiN]

If you're interested in Mystery Dungeon games, I truly do recommend both the original Torneko no Daibouken: Fushigi no Dungeon on SNES (there's a fan translation) and the PS1 sequel, Torneko: The Last Hope. The former is the very first Mystery Dungeon game ever, setting everything in place for the entire format of Japanese dungeon-crawlers going forward, (once you play it, it's easy to see how standard MD enemy types map to Dragon Quest characters) and the latter is what I consider to be the single "best" Mystery Dungeon game, with tons of variety in everything from items to monsters to weapons and more. (It also has a gorgeous stop-motion animated opening cinematic and fully-orchestral soundtrack, which is always nice.)

Unfortunately, I've never played Azure Dreams, so I have nothing else to add in this thread.

Oh yeah I'm a big fan of the Mystery Dungeon games.
I partial to the Shiren The Wanderer games myself but I do enjoy them all.

Well now's your chance to give Azure Dreams a try.
It really is worth playing at least once.

 

[GVSE]

do you think the GBC version of azure dreams is also interesting or it is more like a super downgraded simplified version of the game? or is it more a totally different thing?

by the way, i love this cover (GBC soundtrack orchestrated lol):

 

[MajesticSiN]

do you think the GBC version of azure dreams is also interesting or it is more like a super downgraded simplified version of the game? or is it more a totally different thing?

by the way, i love this cover (GBC soundtrack orchestrated lol):

The gbc version is actually pretty damn good
It is a little simplified but not much and I think it cuts any of the dating elements.
I played it a bunch when I learned of it but it could never replace the nostalgia in my heart for the original.

 

[Sayo]

I really like the concept of your thread, I might do the same for other games I played myself if you don't mind :)

 

[_Lorenzo_]

View attachment 677
This has to be one of my favorite games on the original Playstation.
It's a real fun town building Rogue-Like.
You pay as Koh (or whatever you choose to name him) as you wake up on your fifteen birthday.
Your father has gone missing in a monster tower when you were young and now that you are of age you can enter the tower and figure out what happened.
Besides the first floor of the tower the rest are randomly generated and following the rogue-like rules of the game if you die in the tower you lose all your items.
I feel its more like the mystery dungeon games than anything else.
There are some items that let you leave the dungeon with all your items if you can find them.
You also can find eggs and if you take them back you can hatch monsters to take with you. While you can only take one with you (2 when you find another collar) they count as items in your inventory.
You can do other things with your runs like save money to upgrade and build stuff in your town and impress various girls to gain their affection.
While this is not meant as a review of any kind I just wanted to ramble and spread the joy of this game.
If you are into the rogue-like genre and haven't played this yet you should fix that right now.

I agree, Azure Dreams on PS1 is a very interesting game and if you will also quite precursor in its genre. The only thing I found unnerving at the time was the save system: it took up three blocks on your memory card, but that was only the lesser of two evils! Basically when you resumed a saved game your save was overwritten, which forced you to do everything right in the tower. If you died you lost all the items you had accumulated up to that point (if my recollection is good...). The only thing that was saved were the monsters in your possession.... In practice this forced you to make a backup copy of your save on another memory card....?
Otherwise, the GBC version I only tried it once quite a while ago, and it had seemed pretty faithful to its PS1 counterpart...

 

[MajesticSiN]

Ah yes, the only things saved are monsters you brought into the tower with you. I think thats still a neat part of the rogue-like genre.
Also you can't shut the game off while in the tower otherwise your data would be messed with or brought to an earlier time in the game.
Every time to venture to another level it asks if you want to save and then if you want to keep playing.
While it can be a hassle I would consider not backing up the save since it makes the playthrough more fun

 

[_Lorenzo_]

The problem related to the saves you mention made me give up the idea of finishing it. But now, with the advent of savestates, I may consider replaying it!
Incidentally, this game boasts amazing artwork. I ignore its author, but the character design was particularly cute.

 

[Kacho]

I got my mom to buy my Azure Dreams because I liked the cover so much. After playing the game for 20 hours in a row and experiencing my first roguelite I just started crying because I was so confused and really wanted to the enjoy the game.

Now as an adult I tried it again and love it! I might consider giving the GBC version a try someday. I heard it's really well made and what you would like and want from a handheld port back in the day.