Tengai Makyou Ziria Review (PC-Engine CD, 1989)

Tengai Makyou (Far East of Eden as we know it in the West) stands with Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy as the most popular RPG franchises. So why then has almost no one heard of it? That’s because Tengai Makyou was never released outside of Japan. I’ve always been interested in these games, and I finally got the courage to play through using a translation guide. I started with Tengai Makyou Ziria (Far East of Eden Ziria as per the title screen) which is the where it all began. Does this first installment stand up? Let’s find out!

For the sake of ease of reading I’m going to call the games by the Western name; Far East of Eden, from here on out. What sets this series apart from all the rest is the sense of humor. Far East of Eden Ziria is a parody of sorts. The developers wanted to create a world that’s based around Western misconceptions about Japan. It’s pretty goofy, but downright hilarious at times.

The story takes place in the land of Jipang (you can probably venture to guess which real world country it’s based on). Hundreds of years ago a powerful group of people called the fire clan were banished from the land of Eden. They started a new life in what would become Jipang. A great evil rose up in the form of a demon lord named Masakado. The fire clan nearly perished, but finally managed to seal him away.

The game begins as one of the last remaining descendants of the fire clan, Ziria, has finally completed his basic training by the frog hermit. Our young hero is informed that a dark group called the Daimon Cult has begun trying to revive Masakado. It’s up to Ziria, and the two other surviving ancestors of the fire clan to stop them and save the world. Tengai Makyou Ziria puts more emphasis on the gameplay than the narrative, but it has a memorable cast of characters, villains and locales. Everything here has over-the-top anime stylings, and some of the scenarios are hilarious. The group of high pitched tanooki that take over an entire town early in the game has me laughing.

Far East of Eden Ziria is a traditional role playing game. It would be no stretch of the imagination to call this a Dragon Quest clone. It’s pretty clear that this was intentional, and it makes sense because Enix’s franchise was the biggest thing since sliced bread in Japan. Either way, you view the action from overhead and the world is drawn via tile graphics. You travel via the world map which contains within it several towns, castles, caves, dungeons, and various other points of interest. In the various cities you can interact with characters and purchase items/weapons. There’s even a bank to store your money in so you don’t lose it in case of game over. The premise should be pretty familiar to anyone who has ever played a Japanese role playing game.

While wandering on the world map (or inside dungeons for that matter) you’ll encounter enemies at random. When this happens you’re treated to a fancy looking transition as the screen moves to a separate screen. Here the enemies are displayed, as are your stats and various commands. You take turns with the opponents selecting actions and your goal is to drain their hit points. Unfortunately the battle system is a bit slow paced for my tastes (there’s a lot of text and it doesn’t scroll instantaneously). After a while I was able to get used to it and this was barely even a nuance.

The battle system is pretty basic, but perfectly functional. You have your typical commands like attack, defend, item, magic, run etc. There’s not really any innovation here; the only thing that’s slightly different about this game in regards to its battle system is that each character has one special move that’s unique entirely to them. You can swap spells between your trio of characters, and they can use mostly the same equipment (they have different primary weapons though). Each of the three characters have a different focus. Ziria is the all rounder, Tsunade is the best physical fighter but has no magical abilities, and Orochimaru is focused around the use of magic. It’s a pretty standard set up, but it works so I have no real complaints.

Ziria is however one of the few games wherein you’re absolutely required to do some level grinding. Spells allow you to buff your characters and weaken your foes, but this will only get you so far in the game. A few of the boss characters I encountered could not be beat by any other means than to gain a massive amount of experience points. Some players will be turned off by this. It has little to do with the game being too difficult, and rather with how the developers planned the game. I for one have been playing the genre since I was a kid so I had no issues.

Far East of Eden Ziria benefits from some quality of life features that were missing from most other RPGs of this time. For one thing you can dash outside of battle by holding down button II. While the encounter rate does go up it’s well worth the trade off for being able to move faster than at a snail’s pace. Additionally there’s an auto-battle option. You can trigger this in battle and disable it at any time. It really helps with the grinding which is nice considering it’s all but required in this game. These may sound like small features but they make Tengai Makyou Ziria much less daunting.

One of the most unique gameplay elements here is the support characters. Your main party consists of only the three members of the fire clan. A few others will join throughout the quest though. These do not function as normal party members. They have no hit points, defense, or any other stats aside from attack and speed. They serve only one function; they’ll randomly strike the enemies during battle. You have no control over this, and it’s a nice little bonus that adds a random element to each fight. More often than not these support characters are very helpful to your party.

What’s surprising is just how much of a landmark game Far East of Eden Ziria was upon release. This was the first Japanese RPG ever released on the CD format. I can’t help but be a little disappointed that the developers didn’t take more advantage of the storage. The game has a lot of voice acting, and the world map is absolutely huge. It also features an unprecedented number of town areas. Besides these facts the game could easily have been done on a Hucard. Tengai Makyou Ziria doesn’t use redbook audio and instead the composer went with the chiptunes. There are a few incredibly limited animated sequences that barely push the tech. It’s okay, but hardly impressive.

This game has never been translated; officially or otherwise. The only way to play it is by using a translation guide, and thankfully there are a few available online. I was able to complete the adventure with one, and I found it to be far more painless than I expected. The interface is set up in a way that’s easy to memorize the location of commands, and the auto battle option does help a lot. It’s perfectly playable for English speakers, and you’ll only miss out on a minimal amount of story if you’re using a guide. Far East of Eden Ziria is worth the extra effort in my opinion.

Tengai Makyou Ziria is not a very pretty game. It’s clear that the developers wanted to copy Dragon Quest, and didn’t really shoot to surpass it in any meaningful way on the visual front. The tile graphics are pretty antiquated, and the characters/terrain all look pretty basic. On the plus side the battle sequences look absolutely stellar. The backgrounds are simply beautiful with tons of detail (far more than any in any other RPG of its time). Battle scenes are incredibly colorful and full of personality. The enemy designs are pretty good too and have a very distinct art style that I loved. Far East of Eden Ziria is like two different worlds on the visual front, but overall it’s adequate.

I was really disappointed with the soundtrack. The audio hardware allowed for high quality redbook audio. Instead the developers went with the chipset tunes, and it’s disappointing. It has that high pitched bleep and blip funk that PC-Engine games typically suffered from. Additionally the voice acting is super low quality. There’s a lot of static, and the actors are tough to hear over the music. It’s not all bad though. There’s a distinct Japanese flair to the music with a lot of subtle instrumentation. There aren’t really any stand-out tracks though to be honest.

Far East of Eden Ziria is a wonderful little game. Sure, it’s a clone of the original Dragon Quest, but that’s a positive in my book. The stuff it brings to the table, that’s uniquely Tengai Makyou, is enough to help this one carve out its own identity. The difficulty level is perfect, the battle system is fun, and the world is a fun one in which to explore. The game doesn’t take itself seriously and has a wonderful sense of humor to boot. Tengai Makyou Ziria is ripe with parody, and charming from start to finish. The game is a lot of fun and well worth the extra trouble of following a translation.