Developed by TamTam and published by Pioneer LDC in 1996, The Mysterious World of El Hazard is a visual novel-style game based on the anime of the same name.
The game plays like an original episode of the anime — you are high school student Makoto, who is suddenly thrust into the world of El Hazard and must find a way out. The game’s still frames are enhanced with a fair number of high-quality clips from the anime, and each character is fully voiced as well. Excellent visuals and multiple endings complete the package.
This is for El Hazard fans, and there is a lot of Japanese to understand here, but those exploring the Saturn’s niche titles will surely agree this is a winner.
There are numerous animes that found their way to South America mainly through their French localizations, and a few other parts of the world.
This is why there are games such as Yu Yu Hakusho: Sunset Fighters, released only in Japan and in Brazil for the Mega Drive and Dragon Ball Legend, Japan and Portugal (maybe Spain too?) for the Saturn.
El Hazard, among many more was one of these anime titles that was popular here in Brazil, channel 9, Rede Manchete.
The premise of this game, a few high school ordinary characters are sucked into the wonderous El Hazard world, caught up against the queen of the giant insects, trying to conquer the human kingdoms in a war, with priestesses of the wind, fire and water, you’d think it would render at least a nice RPG, but it’s still a miracle it ended up getting an adventure Saturn release.
Better than nothing, I guess. But, like many other lesser known animes, this one feels like a missed opportunity.
Just a few corrections, since I can’t edit my previous comment. Yeah, I mentioned South America but also mentioned a game that was exclusively released in Europe, as I forgot to point out that anime, in general, felt more popular in other parts of the world other than in North America, thus, why some games weren’t localized there.
And when I say “The premise of this game”, it’s a typo, I meant, “The premise of the anime’s story”.