Sailor Moon Gaming

[Sunshine]

Sailor Moon Video Games

Sailor Moon is a massive franchise, pervading all types of media. This also includes video games! Unfortunately, it is estimated that 90% of these games never have seen official releases outside of Japan. However, fans being amazing as we are, many of these have been translated over the years! I have played a good chunk of these myself, but am still working my way through the vast library of these titles. There are also tons of fan-made games for the franchise, many completely worth playing!

 

My current focus is the Super Moon Fighter series that was created by Sprite Team (a Japanese gaming company), for the X68000. There are several versions of Sailor Moon fighting games that this company has created, and through the power of the internet I have been able to experience NEARLY all of them.

 

Sadly, the version of the game that sparked my interest, Super Moon Fighter DX, is the single version that appears to be missing from the internet. Any help in unearthing this version would be greatly appreciated. Below is the character select screen, and some additional sprites for reference. The specifics for this version include that Sailor Moon is now Eternal Sailor Moon, and has Luna as a side kick who can also attack. Also, Super S abilities were added in such as Venus Love and Beauty Shock, Mars Flame Sniper, Jupiter Oak Evolution, etc. It is also the only currently known version of the game to include Sailor Saturn, who is extremely powerful.

 

Super Moon Fighter aside, I would love for this to just be a general Sailor Moon Video Game Discussion Thread. Speak about whatever you like regarding that subject here! I'll start.

 

Of all the Sailor Moon video games out there, my favorite would have to be Sailor Moon Another Story. If you are unfamiliar, it's a turn-based battle style JRPG that was officially released on the Super Famicon (SNES) by a company called Angel in 1995. To date, it has never seen an official English translation. However, there have been two largely recognized translations done over the years.

 

The original fan translation of the game was done by Bishoujo Senshi Translations released in 1999. This translation heavily relies on knowledge of the fan-subtitled Sailor Moon anime, and fansub anime in general. Additionally, the creators had to do some major re-programming to get it to work properly. The translation is not perfect, but is still very well done and does not impede on enjoyment of the game. Some technique descriptions are inaccurate / funny. Example: The link technique that combines Sailor Mars, Sailor Jupiter, and Sailor Uranus is called Fire Thunder Shaking. The description for this attack is "An old man?"

 

Released 20 years after Bishoujo Senshi Translations' initial release, this is a complete English re-localization of the game. Featured are several fixes to issues and bugs in the original game. There is also a version of this that has some small changes to increase quality of life: that being, double EXP per battle and 1/2 enemy encounter rate as well as adding an attack enhancement item to a shop for Sailor Mercury's solo quest. (Because most people had no idea that her Shabon Spray attack is actually the most useful ability in the game).

Both versions of the game are available online. Google search the game title, plus "Fantasy Anime" and you'll find it.

Sailor Mercury - From Useless to OP

Back when all we had was the original translation, and very limited resources, those of us who were able to play it had absolutely NO idea that Sailor Mercury's ability, Shabon Spray, didn't do direct damage. It is even listed in the fan guide  as simply causing minor damage. It wasn't until playing this game as an adult, and becoming obsessed with the fact that her 2 CP cost attack did so much less than everyone else's, and also seemed to have a strange damage limit to it (the numbers never seeming to go higher than 20), for it to just be straight damage. I tested it out, figured out that the numbers popping up are showing exactly how much you are reducing the enemies attack by , and then promptly ran to the internet to find that someone else had discovered the same thing a few years prior. LOL! But still! That was an exciting moment for me, and to this day I do not think it is very well known.

 

Because of this ability, and the fact that Sailor Mercury has one of the highest Defense Stats in the game, Sailor Mercury has successfully taken the spot as Most Useful Character in Sailor Moon Another Story. Feel free to disagree below.

 

Edited June 10, 2022 by Sunshine
Fixed some grammar / wording

[Greyson Merc]

Whoh, I love this post. What are you up to now, sailor scout?