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Being a bit of a hidden gem, "Eiyuu Shingan" (also known as Gal ACT Heroism) is an unorthodox RPG by the prolific game devs and publishers over at Micro Cabin (who are best known for the "Xak & Fray" titles as well as for International releases such as "Guardian War", "Mystaria / Blazing Heroes" and the incredibly expensive "Lucienne's Quest") and for a development team who has been releasing titles since the early 80s, it's kinda tragic how many of their titles were completely overlooked by the majority. They closed up shop some time ago during the mid 00s, but not before almost 25 years of publishing and developing hits and general obscurities, so I've taken a keen interest in acquiring more of their catalog to share with the masses. That said, let's take a look at this game.

Originally released in 1994 for the PC-98, it was not a major seller for the company but had fiercely loyal fans due to its light-hearted story, whimsical anything-goes worldview (with characters and settings from pretty much all walks of life merged together without rhyme or reason), imposed time limit and a "Free Scenario" system which we will explore more in a bit. In the simplest terms, I would say this game is a race against the clock to see and do as much as you can, but the flexibility of the game is what makes it truly stand out.

MC had long wanted to revisit the game and were steadily working on a more polished remake of the game for modern hardware that would more fully realize the game's vision, but miscalculated by starting much of the game's development on the PC-FX, thinking it would be a logical step forward. However, the lackluster reception of the unit made MC reconsider publishing their game on the platform and it was cancelled in 1996 at the last minute. Their ES remake would be stuck in limbo for two years until its assets were reprogrammed and eventually found a home on the Sega Saturn in 1998.

The game's over-arching plot is a simple one: The game takes place at a centralized adventure academy for girls where aspiring heroes have taken studies on how to complete missions and help citizens around the country. After half a year, these gals are rated based on their actions and the number of deeds they have successfully completed and, if enough prerequisite tasks have been completed, you will graduate and receive a full provisional hero license to continue doing jobs all over the world. There are twenty gals broken up into five teams (fifteen girls and five academy-appointed fairies who aid in battle and act as eyewitnesses to report your actions). As such, the other four teams will pose as your rivals and it's your job to ultimately graduate at the top of your class.

Aesthetically, the game isn't the prettiest to grace the Saturn; it was originally intended for a release in 1996 on a less advanced platform, and doesn't possess the wow-factor of 2D titles designed specifically for the system, but there's nothing inherently wrong with how the game looks or sounds. The game's main events and its many sub-events and missions are almost entirely voiced and it has several reputable seiyu at the helm including Yuu Asakawa (highly prolific from 1996 onward), Konomi Maeda (Tales of Rebirth, Lucky Star, etc.), Chiaki Maeda (Nintama Rantarou, Crayon Shin-chan, etc.) and many more. While the number of enemies and effects are somewhat limited, they are neat enough to look at. The game really shines for its deep gameplay mechanics.

As stated before, the game takes place over a half-year period and utilizes a "Free Scenario" system; the game has no set order in which you tackle it and your performance is ranked based on the main missions and side-missions you tackle. Most missions have quirky mini-stories associated with them, but the game also has several unspoken objectives and side-quests outside of reaching out to guilds, and seeking them out is half the fun. Time is almost always flowing and your job is to find the most practical ways to advance through the game.

For instance, do you walk to a destination which can take as long as a whole month or hitch a ride for only a few days? Do you take bromides of your characters to sell for some daily residual income or take odd jobs outside of the main scope of your objective? Do you go to the spa to relax a spell or go to a beautician to increase your gal's "assets"? There's a cause and effect to everything and its layers have to be peeled away through multiple playthroughs -- the first few may be very short, but the more you adventure, the more you learn how to accomplish more with less, and there are Saturn-exclusive endings and underlying hidden endings too.

Battles are a bit unothodox too, mainly because you have a character who can build an assist mecha and because each character has a pool of TP to use for abilities. If you become strong enough, you can reduce the costs of certain abilities and attack more than once per character if there is enough available TP.