Ginga Fukei Densetsu Sapphire
A PC Engine shooter requiring the Arcade Card RAM expansion.
Ginga Fukei Densetsu Sapphire, often shortened to Sapphire, is a shoot 'em up for the PC Engine CD-ROM² System. Developed by CAProduction and published by Hudson Soft in 1995 only in Japan, it follows an all-female police force in 2092 who travel through time to stop terrorists. Players control a police officer's spaceship against waves of enemies and bosses.
Quick Facts
- Developer
- CAProduction
- Publisher
- Hudson Soft
- Director
- Osamu Tsujikawa
- Artist
- Mika Akitaka
- Release
- 24 November 1995 (JP)
- Genre
- Shoot 'em up
- Modes
- Single-player, multiplayer
- Platforms
- PC Engine
Facts from the source article.
Gameplay
Sapphire is a 2D vertically scrolling shoot 'em up set in 2092, a year when time travel has become routine. Criminals exploit this by hiding weapons and illegal goods in the past, prompting the creation of an all-female police unit to stop them. The game follows this squad as they pursue a single elusive enemy across history. There are five stages, each set in a different era: a futuristic city, the Middle Ages, ancient Egypt, ancient Japan, and outer space. These levels are quite short, while the boss fights tend to be much longer. Players choose from four female pilots, each commanding a ship with its own speed and three distinct weapons: a straight shot, a wide-angle shot, and a rear-facing shot. These weapons can be upgraded by collecting colored gems. Once powered up, two pods attach to the ship, capable of absorbing enemy fire and firing strong attacks. Bombs are also available, though in limited quantity. The game lets players adjust the difficulty and set up to nine credits in the options menu. Extra lives and continues can be earned by achieving a high score. Sapphire also supports two-player cooperative play.
Development
The PC Engine, a console built by NEC and Hudson Soft, earned a reputation for high-quality shoot 'em ups and graphical adventures. By the early 1990s, the popularity of shoot 'em ups had faded as fighting games, driven by Street Fighter II, took over. To keep up with the Super NES and Mega Drive, NEC created the Arcade Card, a RAM expansion that added 2.25 MB of memory for better fighting game ports. Even though the shoot 'em up genre was in decline, Hudson still asked CAProduction to make one, which became the last game to use the Arcade Card format. At the time, CAProduction was developing a third Thunder series title, following Gate of Thunder and Lords of Thunder, when Hudson approached them. Hudson noticed the success of the Galaxy Fräulein Yuna series, a bishōjo adventure line, and thought a mix of the two genres could work. Mika Akitaka, the artist behind Galaxy Fräulein Yuna and known for his mecha girl designs in Gundam, had always wanted to create a shoot 'em up. Hudson brought him in to work with CAProduction on Sapphire, a new game with no connection to the Yuna storyline. Animation was handled by J.C.Staff. The soundtrack came from T's Music, a group of musicians and sound engineers founded in 1990, who also scored Lords of Thunder, Final Fight CD, and the Sentimental Graffiti series. Hudson Soft retained the rights to the music.
Release
Sapphire arrived on the PC Engine in Japan on 24 November 1995, published by Hudson. By then, the Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation were already on the market, and that same day marked the opening of Famicom Space World '95, where Nintendo unveiled the Nintendo 64. This release came so late in the PC Engine's life that only a small number of copies were produced. That scarcity turned Sapphire into a sought-after collector's item, commanding high prices. To play it, you need a Japanese-region PC Engine with a CD-ROM drive and an Arcade Card. The game's notorious rarity also made it a frequent target for counterfeiting around 2005. Because of these barriers, very few players have actually experienced it. On 31 July 2008, Hudson Soft bundled Sapphire with the first two Galaxy Fräulein Yuna games on a PlayStation Portable compilation in Japan, part of the PC Engine Best Collection series. This version added options to switch between the original aspect ratio (which fills half the screen), a slightly vertically stretched mode covering most of the screen, and a full-screen setting. It also included an art gallery featuring Akitaka's concept art and some original artwork.
Reception and legacy
When it first came out, Ginga Fukei Densetsu Sapphire was judged by four critics at Famicom Tsūshin. One of them compared its flashy look to earlier shooters like Truxton and Aleste, while another thought the graphics were impressive for an 8-bit system. Two reviewers found the game too hard, though one disagreed. One critic felt it lacked a sense of speed and wasn't very exciting, and another was surprised by the genre, having expected a raising simulation from the title. Looking back, both Kurt Kalata of Hardcore Gaming 101 and E. Kozo of Hardcore Gamer praised Sapphire as one of the best shoot 'em ups on the PC Engine. Kalata called it the ultimate PC Engine shooter and a showcase for the hardware, while Kozo ranked it among the best shooters ever. Kalata thought the gameplay was average and unoriginal, but he highlighted the graphics and sound as the game's strengths. He noted that some 2D sprites were pre-rendered at high quality and animated so smoothly they looked like 3D polygons, and he also admired effects like digitized holograms, morphing, and scaling. Kozo praised the parallax scrolling and lighting effects, concluding that the style and action made up for any flaws. Both critics approved of the PlayStation Portable compilation Ginga Ojousama Densetsu Collection for making the game more accessible. Kozo felt the compilation offered great value, since original copies cost ten times as much, and he liked the bonus art but criticized the aspect ratio options, finding the original too small, the full screen too stretched, and lacking a proper vertical display. He still called the re-release a top example of a quality game that holds up. IGN listed Sapphire as one of the most important PC Engine shooters, alongside Gate of Thunder, Lords of Thunder, and Rayxanber III.
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