But you're still hungry.

I really tried to get through this game! I swear! PPSSPP says I have 22 hours on it (I'm playing the Tengai Makyou Collection there) and when I think about how I am still only about halfway through the game, I feel only a sense of impending doom. I will admit that most of those 22 hours were probably spent on fast-forwarded grinding, which is why Jiraia is level 45 despite having just beaten the spider woman boss thing, but let me try to explain some other reasons why I don't feel the game is fun anymore, some self-inflicted and some not:

As far as I can tell, this game is famous for its production value – it has voice acting (crazy considering it's 1989), animated scenes (and important characters and conversations feature animated portraits and voice acting), really nice enemy and background designs, and lists Ryuichi Sakamoto in the composer credits – and its setting of a fantastical Japan that weaves together Japanese folklore with foreign misconceptions of Japan. I already knew the second part would totally fly over my head because I'm not familiar with Japanese mythology or various Age of Exploration depictions of Japan (I did read somewhere that Jipang was Marco Polo's name for Japan). I would find it interesting if I knew more! I also feel like the game actually didn't lean enough into these themes – for example, the manual tells you that Jipang is the creation of some foreign author, and you (the player) should view the foreigner Hoteimaru as a “shadow protagonist” because he represents that author in-game. But you...don't actually see Hoteimaru all that often? And he kind of is just another NPC to push you in the right direction, but with a foreign accent?

As for the first part, I feel like all the production value in the world can't really fix that the game plays like a pretty bare-bones RPG. The combat is text-based (because it's 1989) and your attacks aren't animated, you have the usual set of skills (heal, buff, debuff, deal damage, and you find out when skill effects are applied/wear off via text only), and a number of bosses end up being “one person uses the special item or skill, everyone else defend or heal”. Although the world is very large, it is also extremely linear. You show up to a town, they tell you that their local spirit needs unsealing or that a Daimon Cult boss has taken over nearby, point you in a compass direction, and off you go. Voice acted conversation becomes pretty old when it's “ha ha ha! I am boss N out of 13! [some more evil villain text] Prepare to die!” or “Help us! [some more explanatory text]“. Also, you can only hold 9 spells and 9 items per person; 4 of those items are taken up by your equipment and consumables don't stack, while you can't see what an item does or its benefits until you've actually bought it and replaced some other item...and banks are few and far between, so you spend a lot of time doing inventory management and being like “which jutsus should I bank now and hope I don't need for the next 5 stops on my journey?” or “is this weapon I got from an enemy drop stronger than the one in this shop? who knows???” And considering how much MP Orochimaru's offensive spells cost vs. his starting MP (he can fire off Hyouryuu 6 times without restoring MP) and how little MP items restore when you get him, he's kind of only good for casting buffs during boss fights until he levels up (which takes a hella long time, because his first level-up needs 390K XP, so presumably you get through a couple bosses before he even levels up once). As for Ryuichi Sakamoto, as they tell you in the manual, it turns out he composed like, 3 songs. I had fun watching Jiraia float on the ferry while his song played. Nevertheless, the actual music that you listen to during towns and combat was not composed by him, so I felt a bit cheated.

Now that I'm done complaining, let me say some good (or just funny) things: – I navigated through the game by stitching together screenshots of the world map (until I became really impatient and just wanted to finish)! It's the first time I've mapped something myself. – I appreciated how the Daimon Cult managed to cause a distinct problem (presumably related to some Japanese myth) in each town. The one where the mice stole all the rice and you had to join the cult to get (your own) rice back; it seemed an especially diabolical plot. Generally, the focus on different animals, both as enemies and allies, is probably just because of this “foreign misconceptions of Japan” setting, but. I like animals. Even when they are really evil looking monkeys and lizards and mice, OK? – Fast travel is great! Not that I used it that much because of the linearity of the game and how close the towns and dungeons generally are to each other, but I appreciated it. Also, having a cute frog companion who sometimes attacks in battle is always a plus, even if I haven't talked to him since he joined up with my party. – Recovering all your HP and MP when leveling up is great! It makes grinding way more convenient ::::)))) – I may or may not have defeated the mummies without the item (a hairpin) you're supposed to use...I was fast-forwarding through all the text and/or not talking to townspeople on the plane, and totally missed that conversation, and when I hit the mummies I was like, huh! these hit kinda hard and have lots of HP! Guess it's time to grind more! When I picked up the game again after getting over my jet lag, I talked to everyone in my current town, who mentioned the hairpin, but I had no idea how to obtain it. I caved and checked a walkthrough, which informed me I was supposed to have talked to a person in the previous town. Oops. – I read the text by putting the kanji into a dictionary and summoning what grammar knowledge I had; it worked pretty well (in the sense that if I talked to all the townspeople, I didn't get lost, even if I presumably missed some of the formality/humor, and I did pick up some new words) and I feel way more confident about playing more non-English-translated games. I punctuated those reading sessions with grinding in-between objectives, though by the end it was probably more that I punctuated my grinding with some reading...

Overall, I had a lot of fun at the beginning. I was mapping stuff out, learning new words, marveling at the voice acting, and leveling up. Actually fairly early on (maybe at boss 2?) I realized that since I was ONLY on boss 2 out of 13 (which, presumably, doesn't include Masakado), I had a really long way to go, and then I think my enthusiasm really dampened. I stuck it out and beat boss 7, but I am exhausted. So I'm gonna stop. I'll try again with Tengai Makyou II.