Sylvanian Families: Otogi no Kuni no Pendant is a Role-Playing game, published by Epoch, which was released in Japan in 1999.
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(JP-only but I hear there is a good fan translation!)
They (the company making the massively famous (in Japan) Sylvanian Family line of children's toys) made a GBC Moon Remix RPG-like for girls. I found about this by going to a random toy/game store in Shinjuku the other day. I ran into a friend visiting from Northern America, he pointed out the place's stock seemed to have renewed from a week ago.
He pointed out a giant stand that was filled with perfect condition GBA/GBC/Virtual Boy games: someone probably found an unopened shipping box sitting in some warehouse and sold it to this store. In it were various games - Telefang, Sanrio Timenet (all pokemon-likes), hamster-raising games... an interesting reminder of the diversity of that era. Lots of amazing (and mediocre lol) art and games.
But this one, Sylvanian Family caught my eye...
The art and setting make it charming enough: it's set in one of those "far off villages across countless mountains," kind of a idyllic, maybe Christian-y kind of fairy tale world. I wouldn't be surprised if there was some story behind whoever created this line of toys and branding: it has a strange innocence to it (https://www.google.com/search?q=sylvanian+family).
You have free reign each day to explore where you want, you're only limited by the need to be back home by 5 PM ... or else! You die!
Actually... the day is considered a "dream" and you just reload your previous save.
Each morning you're forced to greet your parents before leaving. Between that and the curfew there's something very childhood-y, strict, proper, about it.
But alongside that, as you explore more, find things, complete minigames... you'll level up, which gives you more stamina to explore for longer. (Hence the MOON comparison). I feel like you'll find yourself thinking about wherever it was you grew up, and how big it felt as a kid vs. now.
As you level up, time literally slows down. It's a neat way to make you feel like the character is somehow growing older and more experienced as you get more time to wander each day. Eventually you can make your way out to some mountains and get lost in a surprisingly stark-feeling system of caves that feels out of a pokemon or dragon quest dungeon. Of course, you'll always emerge safely out of the other side.
The level design has a nice variety: you mostly wander small mazes of trees or bushes looking for items to pick up, but they still feel distinct. The winding gardens of the city, the open meadows of the grassland, the confusing forests of the mountain. They're simple mazes but it works for the game.
Fast-travel holes emerge in the ground: I felt this kind of contradicted the power of the 'time slowing' leveling system.
Before the advent of crafting systems and these kinds of games being almost entirely about making small children develop compulsive-level collecting and building habits (see recent animal crossing or like, Fantasy Life), these kids adventure games were pretty tight experiences.
Sylvanian Families even has a furniture buying/placement system, but there are so few items and options that it feels more like a Harvest Moon-esque progression where you just get to occasionally change your home.
Funnily enough, the items you buy are literally real toys that kids could buy at the time. Those sly branding marketers! There's a cuteness to some of the items: a piano in which you can practice at and get better each day. A house upgrade which will surprise your dad who usually only ever tells you to not come back too late.
I'm reminded of 1998's Dokidoki Poyacchio (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msjpAsvJ5XU) which I somehow haven't logged here yet), or 2001's Uki-uki Carnival (I still have the only review here! Who do I have to pay to get this translated... https://www.backloggd.com/games/sakura-momoko-no-ukiuki-carnival/ ).
Ultimately Sylvanian Family doesn't reach the experimental highs of either of those games - but it's still a well-designed experience that stands on its own and establishes an enjoyable fantasy setting, and manages to do a lot with its stamina system, relatively sparse dialogue and events. Curious to see what the rest of the series holds.
Also the music bangs https://downloads.khinsider.com/game-soundtracks/album/sylvanian-families-otogi-no-kuni-no-pendant-1999-gbc/17%2520BGM%2520%252317.mp3
They (the company making the massively famous (in Japan) Sylvanian Family line of children's toys) made a GBC Moon Remix RPG-like for girls. I found about this by going to a random toy/game store in Shinjuku the other day. I ran into a friend visiting from Northern America, he pointed out the place's stock seemed to have renewed from a week ago.
He pointed out a giant stand that was filled with perfect condition GBA/GBC/Virtual Boy games: someone probably found an unopened shipping box sitting in some warehouse and sold it to this store. In it were various games - Telefang, Sanrio Timenet (all pokemon-likes), hamster-raising games... an interesting reminder of the diversity of that era. Lots of amazing (and mediocre lol) art and games.
But this one, Sylvanian Family caught my eye...
The art and setting make it charming enough: it's set in one of those "far off villages across countless mountains," kind of a idyllic, maybe Christian-y kind of fairy tale world. I wouldn't be surprised if there was some story behind whoever created this line of toys and branding: it has a strange innocence to it (https://www.google.com/search?q=sylvanian+family).
You have free reign each day to explore where you want, you're only limited by the need to be back home by 5 PM ... or else! You die!
Actually... the day is considered a "dream" and you just reload your previous save.
Each morning you're forced to greet your parents before leaving. Between that and the curfew there's something very childhood-y, strict, proper, about it.
But alongside that, as you explore more, find things, complete minigames... you'll level up, which gives you more stamina to explore for longer. (Hence the MOON comparison). I feel like you'll find yourself thinking about wherever it was you grew up, and how big it felt as a kid vs. now.
As you level up, time literally slows down. It's a neat way to make you feel like the character is somehow growing older and more experienced as you get more time to wander each day. Eventually you can make your way out to some mountains and get lost in a surprisingly stark-feeling system of caves that feels out of a pokemon or dragon quest dungeon. Of course, you'll always emerge safely out of the other side.
The level design has a nice variety: you mostly wander small mazes of trees or bushes looking for items to pick up, but they still feel distinct. The winding gardens of the city, the open meadows of the grassland, the confusing forests of the mountain. They're simple mazes but it works for the game.
Fast-travel holes emerge in the ground: I felt this kind of contradicted the power of the 'time slowing' leveling system.
Before the advent of crafting systems and these kinds of games being almost entirely about making small children develop compulsive-level collecting and building habits (see recent animal crossing or like, Fantasy Life), these kids adventure games were pretty tight experiences.
Sylvanian Families even has a furniture buying/placement system, but there are so few items and options that it feels more like a Harvest Moon-esque progression where you just get to occasionally change your home.
Funnily enough, the items you buy are literally real toys that kids could buy at the time. Those sly branding marketers! There's a cuteness to some of the items: a piano in which you can practice at and get better each day. A house upgrade which will surprise your dad who usually only ever tells you to not come back too late.
I'm reminded of 1998's Dokidoki Poyacchio (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msjpAsvJ5XU) which I somehow haven't logged here yet), or 2001's Uki-uki Carnival (I still have the only review here! Who do I have to pay to get this translated... https://www.backloggd.com/games/sakura-momoko-no-ukiuki-carnival/ ).
Ultimately Sylvanian Family doesn't reach the experimental highs of either of those games - but it's still a well-designed experience that stands on its own and establishes an enjoyable fantasy setting, and manages to do a lot with its stamina system, relatively sparse dialogue and events. Curious to see what the rest of the series holds.
Also the music bangs https://downloads.khinsider.com/game-soundtracks/album/sylvanian-families-otogi-no-kuni-no-pendant-1999-gbc/17%2520BGM%2520%252317.mp3
very endearing. none of the minigames are very good and the gardening loop is really barebones but that hardly matters in a world this charming and effortlessly cute.
the leveling up for the time you can spend outside of your home and there being a time restriction in the first place can be read as a nuisance but it also encourages you to actually become familiar with its world and be excited by how new pieces of it unlock and how new shortcuts pop up, also adding a bit of tension to its small mazes and a touch of planning wrt where you'll go. also recreates the feeling of becoming more confident with yourself and your surroundings as a child upon learning more about them and what makes each person tick, even if in silly ways like "this guy really loves skiing". while having the pop quiz first happen on day 3 is a strange choice it also highlights how much you absorb of this world through just playing more of the game, with the quiz becoming really easy later on. i love this feeling of actually getting to know a game's world, small as this one's is it's still very rewarding to do the sidequests and fill the photo book up and chip away at making the world's flowers bloom again.
the translation patch is really good translation wise, pretty professional script, but i had some technical hiccups which i don't know what caused them: the frying pan sidequest would just Not turn in, my first attempt at playing this got killed really late into it because i couldn't access the seed/drop combination screen anymore and that etched into the save somehow? then i replayed the game with speedups, not doing as much side content, to try to get to the ending, and that menu didn't break but one optional minigame did for reasons also unknown. maybe it's mgba (though i played it on different instances each time, first through the standalone vita app then the retroarch core), maybe it's the patch, i don't know. but that i had the motivation to spend a couple hours farming just to get to a short ending cutscene speaks volumes to how immediately attached i got to this small, colorful 8 bit world with really nice music. the evangelion shito ikusei of sylvanian families, except with gardening that's more barebones than the angel raising and a more developed world. lol these comparisons are stupid
the leveling up for the time you can spend outside of your home and there being a time restriction in the first place can be read as a nuisance but it also encourages you to actually become familiar with its world and be excited by how new pieces of it unlock and how new shortcuts pop up, also adding a bit of tension to its small mazes and a touch of planning wrt where you'll go. also recreates the feeling of becoming more confident with yourself and your surroundings as a child upon learning more about them and what makes each person tick, even if in silly ways like "this guy really loves skiing". while having the pop quiz first happen on day 3 is a strange choice it also highlights how much you absorb of this world through just playing more of the game, with the quiz becoming really easy later on. i love this feeling of actually getting to know a game's world, small as this one's is it's still very rewarding to do the sidequests and fill the photo book up and chip away at making the world's flowers bloom again.
the translation patch is really good translation wise, pretty professional script, but i had some technical hiccups which i don't know what caused them: the frying pan sidequest would just Not turn in, my first attempt at playing this got killed really late into it because i couldn't access the seed/drop combination screen anymore and that etched into the save somehow? then i replayed the game with speedups, not doing as much side content, to try to get to the ending, and that menu didn't break but one optional minigame did for reasons also unknown. maybe it's mgba (though i played it on different instances each time, first through the standalone vita app then the retroarch core), maybe it's the patch, i don't know. but that i had the motivation to spend a couple hours farming just to get to a short ending cutscene speaks volumes to how immediately attached i got to this small, colorful 8 bit world with really nice music. the evangelion shito ikusei of sylvanian families, except with gardening that's more barebones than the angel raising and a more developed world. lol these comparisons are stupid