City Connection announced that it is bringing back the Famicom RPG Hoshi wo Miru Hito for the Nintendo Switch, the first time the game has ever seen re-release since its original release 33 years ago in 1987. The game is well-known classic among those who played it back in the day, but not in a good way – it’s famous as “the legendary kusoge” (crappy game).
Originally developed by Another Ltd. and published by Hot-B, the game released with a 19/40 score from Famitsu and quickly gained notoriety for its unrelenting brutal and unfair gameplay. The game is structured more like an computer RPG from that time, rather than one developed for consoles, with a morally grey story, higher difficulty scaling, and multiple endings. It’s technically a sequel set in the same world as the PC-88 RPG Psychic City.
The game takes place in a sci-fi world where certain humans have become able to use ESP abilities. In Ark City, which is managed and controlled by the Crew-III AI, psychics are captured and killed as they are able to resist the computer’s mind control waves. Minami, a young psychic who’s lost his memories, flees Ark City and begins an adventure which ultimately ends up with the future of the entire human civilization at stake.
While not lacking in ambition, the high difficulty from the start, lack of hints, and general user unfriendliness made the experience of playing the game a chore, to the point where it’s said that “walking” (slow movement speed) and “dying” (high difficulty enemies) are the only things you can do in the game. That said, the game’s story and setting are generally well-liked and cited as the “high point” of playing the game. The story and characters were so well-liked that the game got two fan remakes that improve the gameplay: Stargazer and Romancing StellaVisor.
Mainstream Japanese hip-hop group Kick the Can Crew has released a new track celebrating the highs and lows of the game:
Hoshi wo Miru Hito will be re-released digitally on the Nintendo Switch in Summer 2020. It seems that there will be some new features, as indicated in the official website. While only in Japanese, City Connection has an English page for the game, meaning that it’s possible it will be released overseas as well.
