Games of the Abstract: Purikura Daisakusen (1996)

 

Developer: Atlus

Publisher: Atlus

One to Two Players

Arcade / Sega Saturn

 

Purikura Daisakusen is a spin-off, in an entirely different genre, of the Power Instinct fighting game franchise. Developed and published by Atlus, who have been around since 1986 and have found themselves in the decades after cementing their organization through the Persona / Megami Tensei franchises, they dabbled in a lot of genres, such as in the nineties when they created an eccentric two dimensional fighter in the wake of Street Fighter 2’s success, 1993’s Power Instinct. Including a character like Otane Gōketsuji, an elderly woman who, accompanied by her twin sister Oume Gōketsuji, was an accomplished fighter able to transform into her youthful self mid-fight through her move set, Poster Instinct lasted for four entires (and an upgrade of Power Instinct 2), though the subject of this spin-off title was introduced into the franchise in Power Instinct 2 (1994) itself, the magical girl character of Clara Hananokouji who would last through most of the games after. “Magical girl” as, for anyone with knowledge of this story telling trope even if Sailor Moon, she is a teen girl able to transform into a super heroine. One slight different here occasionally as in the original fighting game, she had the ability as well to transform briefly into an adult self, looking like a female rollerblader dressed for Venice Beach, California or somewhere very warm of all appearances.

Starting in the arcade before getting a Japanese only Sega Saturn release, Purikura Daisakusen is an isometric shooter where you can play Clara, a female partner named Kirara, rescuing her older sister, a princes who attempted to defeat the villains only to be captured, or a giant cat named Grey, who is actually a cursed prince stuck in his current form. A kingdom known as the Scrap Empire have invaded Clara’s world of Miracle World, effectively taking Dr. Robotnik’s obsession in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise for forcing small animals to pilot homicidal robots, only adding the touch of turning people into animals at first for more resources to work with. From the get-go, this is a frantic shooter and it is cute as hell as much as it is a challenge. Until you get to the later levels, everything is bright and colourful, with the additional factor that when you shoot enemies, despite what the plot suggests, it looks like you are turning death machines into animals you can rescue for points, which befits the aesthetic as well as looks adorable doing it, even when they accidentally fall off the stage before you can collect them.

Aesthetically nothing is amiss with Purikura Daisakusen, with its vibrant visual appearance; from a winter tundra dodging snowmen thrown in the air down onto you by a crustacean boss to blasting enemies on a giant train track, everything to the game is visually and audibly pleasing. Even when it gets to fighting the Scrap Empire and their leader in the final level it sticks when everything becomes bleaker aesthetically. With a robotic monstrosity for a final boss whose minions include globules of slime which you can only remove with the melee attack, the game looks striking and the Saturn port was able to additional flourishes like voice acting and an animated opening to the package. The game play itself however has a love-it-or-hate it trait. Alongside the difficulty curve, which becomes more and more harder with lives scare and limited as happened with a lot of the Saturn ports, without infinite continues, the decision to make it isometric becomes its most idiosyncratic thing you have to worry about.

A method for visually representing three-dimensional objects in two dimensions in drawing, in video games before polygons isometric visuals would help a game show space and environment, but it presents issues depending on the genre and specifically certain game mechanics per genre. Platforming is one, as can be attested if you try to put the aforementioned blue hedgehog named Sonic in this setting – Sonic 3D Blast (1996) – and a shooter like Purikura Daisakusen. They should not just be dismissed because of this, but an isometric design adds an additional fiddliness some will despise, especially as this could have benefitted from being a twin stick shooter, a concern found as far back as Robotron: 2084 (1982) in the eighties where you could have assigned a directional trigger to fire and not have to worry about getting your magical girl lead in the direction needed to hit targets. Even a simple strife button, with targeting possible when not facing forwards to the enemy, would completely help the game especially as, by later levels, an insane about of visual hazards will come one’s way, even deathtrap obstacles in the final level which chip the health bar’s orbs. Even if there is enough ease to move between hazards, and even a dodge button, this presentation means you have to factor in what is in the foreground and background, something which was more efficient in two dimensional shooters of this era and became less a concern in focusing on the challenge.

This is the one thing of issue with Purikura Daisakusen, a shame if not one which detracts from the gameplay, but does present an awkwardness which with the difficulty curve was unnecessary to also have to contend with. The game if you can accept this was simple, but in a great accessible way with the vibrancy seen from the 32-bit era of sprite games, which became even more elaborate than the great examples from the era before. Power Instinct as a franchise though would close out, with Matrimelee (2003) the last game, developed by Noise Factory for the Neo Geo and the Playstation 2. Atlus themselves, whilst with other games in their careers such as the idiosyncratic Catherine (2011), would find a crossover success in the West with the Persona franchise, a spin-off from Megami Tensei which with the source franchise has been a predominant focus for them into the 2010s including tie-in games. Whether Clara Hananokouji would ever return in a game is unknown, but with some tweaks, Purikura Daisakusen’s entire cute tone would sell in the current day with ease.