Saturday, 21 April 2012

3x3 Eyes Sanjiyan Henjou

Original Title
3X3EYES
三只眼變成
Format
PC Engine
(Super CD ROM)
Genre
Adventure
Developer
Nihon Create
Official Website
N/A
 
Originally for the PC-98 and later ported to FM-Towns, this PC Engine version of Sanjiyan Henjou is nigh-on identical to the computer releases bar some slight censorship and the addition of exceptionally well animated cutscenes, which are further enhanced if the game is played with an Arcade Card in the system (video comparison here).
 
Although it's officially a 3x3 Eyes game Pai and Yakumo are sidelined in favour of Kenichi Yamamoto, a high school student who spends the game trying to overcome an unfortunate demonic problem. Things start out reasonably ordinary but before long ski trips turn bloody, strange masked men are chasing him through the streets of Iran and he's fending off undead skeletons in an underground labyrinth.
 
The game is played using the typical Japanese adventure game commands – look/move/talk, etc; as conversations progress new options open up and the plot carries on. The labyrinth portion of the game is navigated in a manner similar to a first person dungeon crawler and apart from the random skeletons can be freely explored. The game is mostly linear but there are some choices to be made that effect certain events, and the game has three possible endings as well as a few "bad end" situations.
 
The VHS included in this pack is a short promo video for the game.
 
Kenichi reappears in the PC/Playstation game 3x3 Eyes: Tenrinou Genmu.
 
Packaging
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Screenshots
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5 comments:

Bryan Ochalla said...

I remember being very interested in the Mega CD version of 3x3 Eyes back in the day, but that one was more of a traditional RPG, right? This one seems to be an adventure game, which of course means I shouldn't even bother with it. I quite like the graphical style of it, though :)

Kimimi said...

That's right! This one's got a fair bit of choice (relatively) that extends just beyond killing you off for making the wrong decision too :)

Unknown said...

This entry is clearly inferior to the PC-98 version, which gives everything it's own little window as if they were food servings in a TV dinner.

If you want a more unique 3x3 Eyes adventure game, Bryan, try the SFC game 3x3 Eyes: Jyuma Houkan (獣魔奉還). It looks rough at first but it's rather interesting, although you have to keep your eyes open while exploring and check everything to see if it's interactive.

Bryan Ochalla said...

Thanks Kimimi and Unknown! Unknown: Is the SFC game playable by someone who doesn't know any Japanese? If not, I probably won't tackle it. Still, I appreciate you pointing it out to me :)

Unknown said...

well, it's playable with savestates, as I did several years ago, and the only note-worthy losing conditions that I can remember are in the battle sequences, which are rare (there's less than ten or so).

But you should look at GameFAQs - there's both a full walkthrough and a (very) rough translation script. So if you're interested in the game, it shouldn't be hard to get into.