Forums > Bounty Board > Any info about the Relics games.
Deleted (15789) on 11/25/2018 6:07 PM · Permalink · Report
Hello again, as the title implies, I'd like to continue improving the Relics entries with as much information as I can find, but, unfortunately, I can't read Japanese and I have to rely on a few online translation tools to get the general idea about any facts I can add. This is where I hope you (the reader) can help!
Things that I would really love to add or see added here are:
Credits for Relics: The Dark Fortress (Unfortunately, clearing this game won't give you the credits), Relics: The Recur of Origin and Rinne
Cover art for any of the games. Bothtec has done a great job with the packaging and manuals for some of the games and it's a shame that I can't showcase any of them. Maybe you own one of the games and can help us with that?
Trivia for any of the games. Any info, bugs, development history (Especially for Rinne as this one is shrouded in mystery and it's hard to tell exactly what Falcom's involvement with it was, apart from the music and Brandish cameos of course) would be nice.
Why should we care?
Honestly, I don't even know what got me so hooked on these games (I guess I really enjoyed Messiah back when it was released so I kept looking for similar games ever since) and I can't offer you anything except for my gratitude for any info about them.
But if you're fluent in Japanese, you've always loved the Diablo games and wanted to see what they would look like in a sci-fi environment, then I think you'll enjoy the last 3 games. The first game had a few interesting ideas but I think the developers lacked the time and experience to properly implement them and make the game really stand out (Regardless of the version you try, they're all quite poorly coded and optimized). The FDS game has a reputation of a kusoge, mainly due to its loading times and it's a real shame that Relics: The Absolute Spirit ended up being cancelled. It looked really promising and I believe Microsoft was going to publish it worldwide.
Thanks in advance for any extra info you can add for these games!
Freeman (65147) on 11/26/2018 5:45 PM · Permalink · Report
Thanks for adding these, I hadn't heard of the series before. I wasn't able to find much information (some here on the FDS Relics), but it was interesting to learn that Bothtec merged with Quest (of Ogre Battle fame) in 1990. Also interesting that Yuzo Koshiro (Falcom/Ancient) did freelance work for Bothtech on The Scheme.
Deleted (15789) on 11/26/2018 8:31 PM · Permalink · Report
It's hard to find credible sources for the history of Bothtec, as well as the exact year when the company was formed (The Japanese Wikipedia says it's 1997 but that can't be right). From what I could find, the first games they've published were dated 1984 and were developed by only one developer. Makes me think that they might have started out just like Enix, running game development contests and outsourcing game production to other developers. I plan to add some of their missing games later.
I found this video and shared it with ăȘă«ă«ăă»ăăŁăȘă in private back when I was working on adding the games. Perhaps someone could find the time to watch it and add any juicy info about the company and the game? :)
Yes, Yuzo Koshiro scored their Metroidvania game. I specifically liked Perpetual Dark from the game, the rest of the tracks are nice, but just weren't as memorable to me.
Freeman (65147) on 11/26/2018 10:21 PM · Permalink · Report
I spent some time adding company history for both Bothtec and Quest. Bothtec seems to have been incorporated as Bothtec Inc. in 1997 but like you say they did development work under the 'Bothtec' label as early as 1984 (and Quest mentions the 1990 merger on their company history page).
I don't actually understand Japanese so much like you I'm confined to what I can machine-translate.
Deleted (15789) on 11/26/2018 11:46 PM · edited · Permalink · Report
I thought that Quest was formed so that Bothtec would have a console-exclusive development team. Quest's only PC game seems to be Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu V (Ranma 1/2 was most likely developed by MiCROViSion) while Bothtec's only console games were Relics: The Dark Fortress, Maison Ikkoku and Aspic for the Famicom. They're all poorly coded (Except for MI, but I'd really be surprised if they managed to screw up a Japanese Adventure game) and, for all we know, these games might have hurt their brand perception so much that they've opted to turn over a new leaf. I wouldn't be surprised if The Uncanny X-Men was developed by Bothtec too. Of course, this is all speculation so hopefully, someone from the companies will reach out to me and give me extra info.
Speaking of speculation, here are some interesting facts I've found which I can't confirm:
Relics got its name from the 1971 Pink Floyd Compilation Album.
Checking the executable of RINNE shows that the game was mostly complete in 2002, as well as references to Relics 4. (I don't quite understand if they are referring to this game or if this means that they've left a hidden message about the cancelled Xbox game)
The last link also points to a 2ch thread where one of the developers from Bothtec was answering some questions. The only thing I was able to figure out from there was whom the characters of The 2nd Birth were named after.
Freeman (65147) on 11/27/2018 11:33 PM · Permalink · Report
There's a 2015 interview with Nihon Falcom's president Toshihiro Kondo where he was asked about Rinne. His answer wasn't that helpful, though.
Q: Changing topics -- when Ys: The Oath in Felghana was released back in 2005, a game called Rinne also came out on the same day. I enjoyed the dark atmosphere and body-switching gameplay. I've heard that the game was a collaborative effort. What was Falcom's involvement with Rinne? What inspired that project?
TK: I wasnât directly involved personally with Rinne, but it was a joint effort with a Japanese game maker called Bothtec. We knew each other because we were both PC game makers and thatâs how the project started. The basic game system, including Body Switch, was originally in Bothtecâs best known title, Relics, which released in 1986. There was a Falcom character in it, and that made it a cooperative title.
Deleted (15789) on 11/28/2018 10:19 AM · Permalink · Report
Thanks for the interest. I've read this interview during my research into the game, but his answer is pretty vague because it doesn't really give a clue what exactly Falcom were responsible for. All I could confirm is that Falcom Sound Team jdk were in charge of the music (And some of the tracks were reused from Xanadu and Sora No Kiseki presentation videos). In one of the forums I've seen somebody post that Bothtec was busy porting Falcom's games to mobile phones and due to that, Falcom completed development of this game as a "favor" to Bothtec (But still no info how much they've had to do to have it done). But a game published on the same day as The Oath of Felghana, with a limited print, without any advertising and even no website or mention of it on Falcom's site was likely to fade into obscurity so I'm not surprised that there isn't much info available about it.
Infernos (44622) on 11/27/2018 5:04 PM · Permalink · Report
Great job documenting the Relics series! A couple years ago I briefly played the X68000 version and I was less than impressed - they carried over the 8-bit graphics plus choppy scrolling. Poor use of the system's capabilities. Interesting concept though.
Covers and manual for the FDS game are available at Gaming Alexandria but, from what I can tell, the manual doesn't have any credits in it either.
Deleted (15789) on 11/28/2018 10:40 AM · Permalink · Report
This is awesome even if there are no credits. I've only seen the 12 page manual, as well as the few pages on the blog post I linked to in the beginning of the thread so thanks a lot for the link!
On a side note, yesterday I tried one of Bothtec's early games titled DIRES -gigeră»loop- and couldn't figure out what I was supposed to do. There's a comment here where the guy speaks about the controls and the objectives of the game. I'll need to go through them so I can point out what needs to be done in the description.
Infernos (44622) on 12/11/2018 1:01 PM · Permalink · Report
While looking for a different game I found this ad for Relics in magazine/catalog called PASS WORD Vol.2 1985 Summer. It also lists PC-6001/6601 and PC-8001 platforms (don't know if it came out for those).
YouTube has Recur of Origin credits. There's a couple clips from Rinne's ending(s) on Niconico, but there's no credits shown.
Deleted (15789) on 12/13/2018 9:10 PM · edited · Permalink · Report
Wow! Just wow! I don't know who this abomi nable person is but they have my respect. I'm going to work on adding these credits. 23 endings... I know that Relics was their first major hit, but still, that's quite a feat for a remake!
I'm not sure that they've actually published a PC-6001 version of this game. They were working on porting the MSX version to PC-60 & PC-80 but even though these platforms were listed on D4's website, according to the Japanese Wikipedia, there's no confirmation that those were ever sold or released (Depending on the meaning of the word çșćŁČ). I've also found a website that seems to document PC-6001 games and the only game by Bothtec which they listed was EGGY.
By the way, the Relics Anthology CD has a picture titled Original.bmp which I think shows a very early prototype of the game. Unfortunately, it looks like it was intentionally upscaled so it's hard to tell things apart, I believe the text in the bottom is Eiichiro Nakazato. I wonder what else they changed during development, apart from the art style?
Deleted (15789) on 4/7/2019 10:41 AM · Permalink · Report
While looking for more info about the original, I stumbled upon an interesting Russian review of this game.
Looks like I'll have to find the time to replay the original and get all 3 endings to expand the description.
P.S. HG101 is interested in having an article about the original game. This could be your chance to help me out with more info and even get paid for writing the article. :P