1993 · Adventure · Role-playing

Illusion City

Sega console exclusive

Illusion City is a Japanese-style role-playing game with several distinguishing characteristics. Unlike most games of the genre, it has no overworld, and takes place entirely in a vast city divided into several districts. The player advances the story by exploring the city, talking to non-playable characters, gathering information, receiving missions, and eventually heading into large, complex hostile areas. There are no random battles in the game; all enemies are visibly moving on the field, and many of them can be avoided.

Released: 28 May 1993
Platforms: FM Towns MSX MSX TurboR NEC PC-9800 series PC-9800 Series Sega CD Sharp X68000 Windows
Genres: Adventure Role-playing
Developers: —
Publishers: —
Modes: Single-player
Perspective: Bird view / Isometric Text
Themes: Science fiction
Country: Japan
Languages: Japanese

About

Illusion City is a 1991 role-playing video game originally developed and published by Microcabin for the MSX Turbo R home computer, followed by ports for the PC-88, PC-98, FM Towns, X68000, and Mega-CD. The story takes place in the 21st century after Hong Kong was devastated by a demonic attack, before the crisis was isolated and the region was reformed under new order by SIVA corporation. The game follows demon hunter Tian Ren, gathering information in order to unravel the mystery surrounding the demonic beings and SIVA corporation. Gameplay features a growing party led by Tian Ren navigating the city, talking with non-playable characters, exploring complex areas, and taking part in turn-based battles against enemies.

Illusion City was developed by "Project I", a group within Microcabin which previously worked on Fray in Magical Adventure (1990) under the name "Team Piku Piku". Yasuhiko Nakatsu acted as director, planner, and co-programmer. His motivation for creating the game was because he wanted to bring more world variety into the role-playing genre. The character design concepts were created by Kouji Nakakita under the pseudonym "Hyakkimaru", with Yukio Kitta acting as art illustrator.

›Story

In the beginning of 21th century a terrible disaster, called "demon-coming crisis", devastated the Asian continent. Hong Kong was most affected by the mysterious demonic attack. Terrible diseases turned the once prosperous city into a pale shadow of itself. But once people came back to see what happened to the isolated city, they saw it was ruled by a new order - a corporation called SIVA.

The new order proclaimed New Hong Kong to be an independent state. People's Republic of China and United Kingdom signed an agreement in which they both renounced their claims over the city.

The player takes on the role of Tianren, a "diver" (demon-hunter) who lives in Hong Kong. His place of birth and the identity of his parents are unknown. Together with a girl named Meihong, he was brought up in the house of a wise Master. Traveling through the huge city, gathering information and fighting demonic forces, Tianren will have to unravel the mystery surrounding the corporation SIVA and the supernatural beings from Chinese myths.

Keywords

post-apocalyptic
anime
cyberpunk
turn-based
natural disaster
special attacks
fan translation - english

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Illusion City is a Japanese role-playing game. The player controls the main character Tian Ren, a demon hunter gathering information in order to unravel the mystery surrounding the demonic beings and SIVA corporation. It features a growing party led by Tian Ren navigating the city, talking with non-playable characters, exploring complex areas, and taking part in turn-based battles against enemies.

Story

The story takes place in the 21st century after Hong Kong was devastated by a demonic attack, before the crisis was isolated and the region was reformed under new order by SIVA corporation.

Development

Illusion City was developed by "Project I", a group within Microcabin (known for the Xak series) which previously worked on Fray in Magical Adventure under the name "Team Piku Piku". Yasuhiko Nakatsu (who worked on Fray) acted as director, planner, and co-programmer with Katsumi Ito. The character design concepts were created by Kouji Nakakita under the pseudonym "Hyakkimaru", while Yukio Kitta served as art illustrator and Yasuhiro Jinnai was responsible for the monster designs. Nakakita and Jinnai also contributed as a co-graphic artists alongside Fumihide Aoki, map designer Hitoshi Suenaga (who also worked on Fray), Kenzo Furuya, Yasuaki Kubo, and Yoichiro Kawaguchi.

Masashi Katō, who worked on Xak II: Rising of the Redmoon, is credited as scenario writer. Other staff members assisted in the production such as Etsuko Taniguchi and Rika Niimi.

Reception

Illusion City garnered favorable reception from critics, but the Sega Mega-CD version received mixed response. The Japanese publication Micom BASIC Magazine ranked the game at the number three spot in popularity on their April 1992 issue. Public reception towards the Mega-CD release was more positive; readers of Mega Drive Fan and the Japanese Sega Saturn Magazine voted to give it scores of 22.9 out of 30 and 8.093 out of 10 respectively, ranking among Mega Drive and Mega-CD games at the number 98 spot in a 1995 poll by Sega Saturn Magazine. According to Famitsu, the Mega-CD port sold over 2,164 copies in its first week on the market.

The Japanese MSX Magazine reviewed the original MSX Turbo R version, being impressed with the game's visuals and stating they have never seen a role-playing game of such a large scale on MSX. A writer for MSX Computer Magazine also reviewed the MSX Turbo R release, drawing comparison with SD Snatcher (1990) due to its cyberpunk atmosphere. They praised the game's stereo music, fluid graphical animations for taking advantage of the MSX Turbo R hardware, and overall quality, proclaiming that "Illusion City is big, extensive and above all very beautiful". Reviewing the Mega-CD version, Beep!