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The Journey Home: Quest for the Throne

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The Journey Home: Quest for the Throne
Japanese box art
Developer(s)Wolf Team
Publisher(s)Telenet Japan
Composer(s)Yukihiro Takahashi
Platform(s)Super Famicom
Release
  • JP: March 26, 1993
Genre(s)Action role-playing
Mode(s)Single-player

The Journey Home: Quest for the Throne, released in Japan as Neugier: Umi to Kaze no Kodō,[a] is a 1993 action role-playing game developed by Wolf Team and published by Telenet Japan for the Super Famicom. The game was scheduled to be released in North America in late 1993 prior to being cancelled.

Gameplay

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Duke, the main character, fights in real-time battles on his quest to save Neugier. He can jump and equip armor in an RPG fashion. There is also an ability to push objects, or enemies, into a wall to break them.

Development and release

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The Journey Home: Quest for the Throne was developed by Wolf Team. This was one of the first games worked on by programmer Yoshiharu Gotanda, who later helped develop Tales of Phantasia and founded tri-Ace, the team behind the Star Ocean series.[1] The music for Neugier was composed by Yukihiro Takahashi of Yellow Magic Orchestra. He was assisted by Hiroya Hatsushiba, who was responsible for sound programming and sound font creation for the game's audio. Motoi Sakuraba, Shinji Tamura, and Ryota Furuya took the track sequence data from Hatsushiba to create the sound effects.[2] The game was published in Japan by the developer's parent company Telnet Japan on March 26, 1993.[3] The cover features an illustration by manga artist Kia Asamiya.[1] The game was re-released on the Project EGG Japanese emulation service in July 2012.[4] A soundtrack was published to commemorate the game's 30th anniversary by Cassetron in Japan in October 2023.[5]

Telnet Japan's North American subsidiary, Renovation Products, planned to publish an English version of the game and was previewed at the 1993 Consumer Electronics Show.[6][7][8][9] The Journey Home had a planned North American launch for October or November 1993.[10][11] The project was completed, ready to be shipped, and reviewed by a few United States gaming magazines, but was ultimately cancelled when Renovation was bought out by Sega that year.[1] A physical prototype of this version was submitted to the Video Game History Foundation in May 2021. The ROM image contained a new title screen, publisher introduction, and English text.[12] The game's central location Neugier (meaning "curiosity" in German) was changed to Nogal in the English localization.[1][10][13][14]

Reception

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The Journey Home: Quest for the Throne received average scores from media outlets between its Japanese and projected North American releases. Reviewing the import, a quartet of contributors for GameFan all offered similar opinions to one another. They praised its overall presentation and competence as an action game but discounted its RPG elements as weak and its length as too short, with magazine's editor-in-chief Dave Halverson (under the alias "E. Storm") saying that the game is more suited for the players of action games than for RPG players.[15] The staff of Nintendo Power categorized The Journey Home as an adventure game and remarked that even though it contained the involving story of an RPG, the graphics suffered for looking "more like the typical stunted figures of an RPG" rather than an action or adventure game. The magazine also considered its battles "fairly challenging due to the quickness required" while criticizing the difficulty of controlling the player character due to his speed.[13] GamePro writer Lawrence of Arcadia criticized the gameplay for lacking depth and that the amount of jumping required makes the game too hard. The reviewer found that the overhead graphics and sprites failed to meet the standards set by The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, but was complimentary of its music and sound effects.[10] When previewing the English release, Electronic Games positively noted its overhead visuals as "excellent" and called the music "very atmospheric" which "dovetails with on-screen action".[17]

Notes

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  1. ^ Japanese: ノイギーア〜海と風の鼓動〜, "Neugier ~Pulse of the Sea and Wind~"

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Zverloff, Nick (November 8, 2010). "Neugier". Hardcore Gaming 101. Archived from the original on December 7, 2023. Retrieved February 25, 2024.
  2. ^ Shimada Natsuhiko (October 25, 2023). Neugier: Umi to Kaze no Kōdō Original Soundtrack (Media notes). Sakuraba Motoi. Japan: Cassetron. CTN-26.
  3. ^ a b Famitsu staff (April 2, 1993). "NEW GAMES CROSS REVIEW: クライムクラッカーズ". Famitsu (in Japanese). No. 224. Enterbrain. p. 43. Archived from the original on February 26, 2024.
  4. ^ 4Gamer.net staff (July 10, 2012). "レトロゲーム配信サービス『プロジェクトEGG』にて2012年7月10日に『ノイギーア ～海と風の鼓動～（コンシューマー版）』をリリース" [The retro game distribution service "Project EGG" released Neugier: Umi to Kaze no Kōdō (Consumer Version) on July 10, 2012]. 4Gamer.net (in Japanese). Aetes Inc. Archived from the original on July 13, 2012. Retrieved March 3, 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  5. ^ 4Gamer.net staff (August 16, 2023). "「ノイギーア ～海と風の鼓動～」のサウンドトラックCDが10月25日発売に。桜庭 統氏へのインタビューなどがブックレットに掲載" [The soundtrack CD for Neugier: Umi to Kaze no Kōdō will be released on October 25th. Interview with Motoi Sakuraba included in booklet]. 4Gamer.net (in Japanese). Aetes Inc. Archived from the original on August 16, 2023. Retrieved March 3, 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  6. ^ EGM staff (June 1993). "CES Preview! The Journey Home: Quest for the Throne". Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 47. Sendai Publishing. p. 147. ISSN 1058-918X.
  7. ^ GameFan staff (August 1993). "Summer CES '93". GameFan. No. 9. DieHard Gamers Club. p. 107. ISSN 1092-7212.
  8. ^ Total! staff (August 1993). "Coming Soon..." Total!. No. 20. Future plc. p. 9. ISSN 0964-9352.
  9. ^ Nintendo Power staff (August 1993). "Pak Watch: CES Update". Nintendo Power. No. 51. Nintendo of America. p. 111. ISSN 1041-9551.
  10. ^ a b c d Lawrence of Arcadia (November 1993). "Role-Player's Realm: The Journey Home: Quest for the Throne". GamePro. No. 52. IDG. p. 251. ISSN 1042-8658.
  11. ^ West, Allie (July 1993). "Review: The Journey Home: Quest for the Throne". Super Control. No. 2. p. 66.
  12. ^ Wata Games, Inc. (July 26, 2021). Prototype Evaluation Report (Report). Video Game History Foundation. Retrieved February 25, 2024.
  13. ^ a b c Nintendo Power staff (November 1993). "Now Playing: The Journey Home". Nintendo Power. No. 54. Nintendo of America. pp. 103, 107. ISSN 1041-9551.
  14. ^ Nintendo staff (1993). Official Super NES Game Guide. Nintendo of America. p. 25.
  15. ^ a b GameFan staff (May 1993). "Viewpoint". GameFan. No. 6. DieHard Gamers Club. pp. 21, 78. ISSN 1092-7212.
  16. ^ Olivier (June 1993). "Super Nintendo: Neugier". Joypad (in French). No. 21. Yellow Media. p. 106. ISSN 1163-586X.
  17. ^ Worley, Joyce (September 1993). "Rating the Fall-Winter Video Games". Electronic Games. No. 12. Decker Publications. p. 35. ISSN 0730-6687.
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