Rai's Awakening

"Rai's Awakening is one of the best games I've ever played. Everyone should give it at least one try..." - Nintendo Power

Summary
Rai's Awakening (ライの目覚め) was a game released on December 12th, 1989 in Japan and on December 19th of the same year in North America. The game was a turn-based historical RPG taking place in feudal Japan. The game would release on the NES, Famicom, and the new console on the market, the Sega Genesis. Rai's Awakening would be developed by Ocean Games and published and distributed by Taito. It would be released on ROM cartridges.

Rai's Awakening would release to overwhelmingly positive reviews, with many critics noting the state-of-the-art graphics and invigorating gameplay. It would become the most successful game that Ocean Games would release in that generation.

Development
Rai's Awakening was born in the mind of Yoshioka Koizumi, much like many other earlier Ocean Games productions. Yoshioka was thinking back to his childhood when he lived in the Japanese country-side, living on a small rice farm. He remembered running through fields, having almost complete freedom. He then imagined a game, much like his childhood, where players would be able to go anywhere they wanted, at any time they wanted. So, with this sudden burst of inspiration, he began development of a small prototype with a few other coworkers.

When they had finally finished the prototype, Koizumi went to the company heads and presented his ideas to them. Many people believe that Yoshioka Koizumi didn't even really have to give a pitch to the company. They were sold before he even said a word.

The game officially began development on December 17th, just a couple of weeks after the company had released their last game, Pirate's Treasure II. Rai's Awakening had only been being developed for 5 days before the company gave breaks to their workers, however, during the breaks, developers were already dreaming about what they could do with the intimate characters that Koizumi had already created. After the holiday was finished, every employee was bursting with new ideas that they wanted to implement into the new project.

During the games year-long development, there very many different things that had to be cut from the final game because the Famicom and NES memories didn't have enough storage to satisfy the game's massive scope. One of those ideas was the cutting of grass. Much like the Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, players would be able to cut grass with their sword. However, this feature was seen by the developers as unneeded and taking up space, and cut it out of the final game. Another feature that was cut out of the final build was the ability to burn grass, much like the Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures. However, because of how the developers were also planning that the game would release on the Sega Genesis, they were able to include all of the missing features from the other version, for example, with the Sega Genesis version you'd be able to burn and cut grass, and many other things that you normally wouldn't be able to do with the version for the NES and Famicom.

The development team didn't have many problems during development at all. The main problem would probably be that there were too many ideas for the game that they couldn't fit them all in.

Launch
The game finally released on December 12th, 1989 in Japan and December 17th, 1989 in North America. It released to an amazing reception, selling over 1 million units in its first 6 months on the market. Much like older Ocean Games productions, this game would have a manga series released thanks to the gigantic success of this game. Much like other very successful Ocean Games projects, this game would go on to be featured in many different Ocean Games compilations released years later.

Gameplay
The game would have fairly normal gameplay for a classic 8-bit era J-RPG. It would function like any other top-down turn-based RPG, with Rai bumping into enemies to begin a battle sequence, etc. You'd also be able to move up, down, left, and right.

Controls
Move Upward - You'd be able to move Rai upward by holding down the up button on the controller's d-pad.

Move Downward - You'd be able to move Rai downward by holding down the down button on the controller's d-pad.

Move Leftward - You'd be able to move Rai leftward by holding down the left button on the controller's d-pad.

Move Rightward - You'd be able to move Rai rightward by holding down the right button on the controller's d-pad.

Select - You'd be able to select a dialogue option, battle option, etc. with the select button on NES and Famicom controllers and the C button on Sega Genesis controllers.

Pause - You'd be able to pause the game by tapping the start button.

Turn-Based System
The turn-based system that the game would utilize would be very similar to the popular Final Fantasy franchise. Players would be able to choose between attack moves and use Rai's special skills (that the player would've accumulated over the game's story).

Graphics
As you know, the game would release on two different game consoles which were from two different console generations.

As you could probably guess, the NES and Famicom version of the game would not appear as amazing as the Sega Genesis version, featuring 8-bit sprites instead of the more advanced 16-bit sprites used in the Sega Genesis version.

The Sega Genesis version of the game would feature much more advanced sprite-sheets, as Ocean Games now had much more freedom on what they could create.

Story
The game would have a very simple story, even for the time period it initially released in.

Characters
One thing that would bring the game's story up would be the characters featured in the actual storyline. However, some characters in Rai's Awakening would be exclusive to the Genesis version, as the said console's cartridges had much more storage and memory for the developers to utilize with their games.

Good Characters
The characters on the good side of the story.

Rai
Rai would be the main character of the game, in both the 8-Bit versions and the 16-Bit version. Rai would be a courageous, strong character. However, he would be very brash sometimes and only think with his head. His physical form would be slender, but fit. Rai's outfit would be that of a ninja, with a black and gold color scheme in the Genesis version, and a black and blue color scheme in the NES and Famicom version. As the main character of the series, he would appear in all of the upcoming Rai games.

Suzuki
Suzuki would be the damsel-of-distress within the game, being the girlfriend of Rai. Suzuki would look very different between the 8-Bit and 16-Bit versions of the game. In the 8-Bit version of Rai's Awakening, Suzuki would have blue hair and a white dress. However, in the 16-Bit version, Suzuki would have black hair, with a gold dress with white highlights. Suzuki would be a basic girl character of the time, without much personality. She would return in the later three Rai games, with a much smaller role.

Evil Characters
The characters on the evil side of the story.

Sensei
Sensei would be the twist-villain of the game, acting as if he and Rai's girlfriend, Suzuki, were kidnapped by a rival ninja clan. However, this was all a trap, and at the end of the game, player's learn that Sensei himself was the true villain. Sensei would look the exact same between the NES and Sega Genesis versions of the game. Sensei would appear to be a weak, feeble-minded senior, however, at the end of the game, he becomes a cunning, strong-minded individual. Sensei would return as the main villain in all the other upcoming games in the Rai franchise.

Storyline
The game would have a fairly simple storyline along with a fairly simple and predictable twist-villain in the Sensei. The story would begin with simple picture cutscenes outlining Rai returning to his Sensei's dojo after running some errands. When he returns, he finds the dojo in dismay, and his girlfriend and Sensei missing. He finds a note on the ground telling him that the rival ninja clan kidnapped them. So, Rai sets out to save them.

When Rai finally finds his Sensei and girlfriend, he learns a dark truth. His Sensei had stolen his girlfriend and pretended to be kidnapped himself. The reason is that his Sensei wanted Rai to defeat some of the rival ninja clan's members so the others in the clan would hunt down Rai and kill him. However, this plan failed, with the player's defeating the Sensei as the final boss. Rai saves his girlfriend, however, the Sensei escapes imprisonment, setting up an inevitable sequel.

Manga
The manga based off of the game released in 1992, 3 years after the first game initially released. The manga featured all of the same characters as Rai's Awakening, along with a couple of new ones, like the master of the rival ninja clan that players had fought in the first game. The manga would last for almost 6 years, finishing up right when Rai III released for the N64, Sega Saturn, and Sony PlayStation.

Action Figure Line
The game would spawn an action-figure line released in 1990. The action figure line would use the character designs in the 16-Bit versions of the game and would sell incredibly well because of the game's amazing reception.