Cube Battler: Story of Anna - Sega Saturn - Tutorial, vs battle and story mode gameplay [UHD 4K60]
16Cube Battler is a cross between a picture puzzle game and a versus fighter. It was marketed as a original video animation (OVA) and there were two games on Saturn, Story of Shou which released first followed by Story of Anna a few months later. The only real different being the story mode telling the point of view of either Shou or Anna, asides from that they are the same game. If you have a save file from both games on your Saturn system there is a hidden Karaoke mode, you can unlock.
This second title Story of Anna, as the name states follows the journey of Anna through the Cube Battler tournament. Anna herself is quite a fun loving character with slight comic tones, she's also had to over come a traumatic event in her past. Something the main villain Dark preys upon when he confronts her at the end of the game. The game has around 20-30 minutes of video, giving you a full on TV episode in length.
Clearly the developed planned for this to become a big series and the animation itself is of good quality. Published by Yanoman Games the games division of the Jigsaw puzzle company the animation and voice acting seems to have been done by Amusement Media Sougou Gakuin and Japanese firm Marubeni also were involved.
The trouble is the game that goes with it is rather lacking despite all the companies that worked on it. Gameplay wise the idea behind it is great, but there just isn't enough meat on the bone so to speak. Each battle is a one round only fight, where you have to either complete the 12 piece puzzle before your opponent or deplete their health bar first. You do this by placing and rotating blocks, you can also attack and block. Successful attacks knock out placed puzzle pieces on your opponent squares and damages your health. While blocking attacks causes chip damage, it prevents you from losing placed block, but does prevent you from performing any other action. The trouble is the battles don't scale up as you progress, you would expect harder fights to have 24 or say 32 puzzle pieces, but you are stuck with the same 12 every time.
The animated puzzle pictures are a nice idea, but as each character only has one, you will be seeing the same animations over and over again. Would a random still photo images for the puzzle have been a better idea, with the characters fighting out below it?
There are only six characters in the game with the main villain Dark unlocked via a cheat code to made seven. With only five battles in story mode you can easily finish it in less than an hour, leaving you with just the versus battle modes against the CPU and a second player. There not even a score mode and the savefile doesn't even save the option settings.
Both Cube Battler titles can be picked up cheaply on the second hand market and the lack of content may well be why. The idea behind it is an excellent concept, but released at a full price of 5,800yen each this was one game not worth the asking price. The idea to release these as two different titles seems like a bad idea to get around the CD space issue and really a two disc game would have been the better option.
The first few minutes cover the in-game tutorial so you get an idea of how this game plays. Jump to (04:48) to see the versus matches and (11:16) to see the story mode intro and first fight. We did not capture the opening intro of the game on boot due to its slightly risqué nature.
Cheat unlock Dark (confirmed working by Randomised Gaming)
Win against all characters in CPU VS mode. Then move the cursor to Miracle Bunny and press L or R to select Dark, the portrait of Bunny in the top left or right of the screen will change to Dark's face. To change back to Miracle Bunny, press L or R again. (This cheat isn't saved once unlocked and requires doing again after the Saturn is reset or powered down.)
For Japanese cheat sites check out the following links:
http://urawaza.in/ss/cubeb.htm
http://www.mitchy-world.jp/game/ss/urawaza/ki.htm
https://uw.netlify.com/details/ss/193
Also known as: キューブバトラー アンナ未来編 (Japan)
Release: 1997
Developer: Yanoman Games / やのまん
Publisher: Yanoman Games / やのまん
Format: Sega Saturn (SS) / セガサターン
Cube Battler: Story of Anna is not available on any modern console system outside its original Sega Saturn release.
Randomised Gaming blog: http://randomisedgaming.tumblr.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/rdmdgaming
Footage is captured directly from original hardware in this case a modded PAL Sega Saturn console, via RGB Scart captured via Elgato Game Capture HD60 Pro using a open source scan convertor (OSSC). Upscaled to 4K to improve the video bit rate.
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