Ludography
Words Worth cover

1999 · ELF Corporation · Adult · Adventure

Words Worth

1999 adult role-playing video game

Released
1999
Platforms
FM TownsNEC PC-9800 seriesSharp X68000Windows
Genres
AdultAdventureFantasyHaremRole-playingVisual novel
Developers
ELF Corporation
Publishers
—
Modes
Single-player
Perspective
First person
Themes
Fantasy
Country
Japan

About

Words Worth (ワーズ・ワース, Wāzu Wāsu) is a Japanese adult role-playing video game originally released for NEC PC-98 computer systems, and remade for Microsoft Windows. The game's story is linear, with only one story decision near the end, leading to one of five different endings.

A five-part animated erotic direct-to-video series was adapted from the game's story. It also has a side story series, Words Worth Gaiden (ワーズ・ワース外伝) (known as Words Worth Outer Stories in the English release). The anime has the same general story, but the anime cuts out several characters and changes the plot mostly to create more sex scenes. The English dub is notable for featuring real life porn actresses Jenna Jameson and Nikki Dial. The rest of the English cast remained uncredited.

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

The gameplay of Words Worth is similar to other fantasy games of the era such as The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall but with a tongue-in-cheek sexual undertone. It is a remake of the 1993 game of the same name and while the plot is near identical, the graphics, gameplay, and visuals have been greatly improved.

Words Worth is primarily a first-person dungeon crawler. Even though there are a few "friendly" areas, such as the hero Astro's bedroom and a town where the hero can rest and buy supplies, most of the game is spent in dungeon-like, maze-like areas (with an auto-map feature). There is no party in the game: Astro has to face the enemies alone. The enemies appear randomly.

Story

The skill of sword-fighting is known to two tribes, the Tribes of Light (which consists of humans living on the world's surface) and Shadow (largely part-human-part-animal creatures and monsters living in an underground city, who enjoy a lifespan five times as long as the Tribe of Light and age one-fifth as quickly). The two tribes lived in peace and harmony, their domains separated by the "Words Worth" tablet—a huge monolith slab erected by an almighty creator. Although the tablet has writing on it, neither Tribe can read the text. One day, Words Worth was mysteriously destroyed by an unknown entity; its fragments were scattered among the domain of the Tribes of Shadow.

The two Tribes blamed each other for the tablet's destruction, and started a war that has continued for 150 years (100 in the anime). Astral, prince of the Tribe of Shadow, desires to become a Swordsman of Shadow, but his father, King Wortoshika, forbids him to do so. He is engaged to Sharon, a beautiful swordswoman and Astral's childhood friend, who has feelings for Astral but wishes he were stronger.

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
Windows25 March 1999Japan

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Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.