Game:

The Elder Scrolls Online (2014)

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Hmmm... so here's a game that I never thought would officially see the light of day in English... "Sugoro Quest: Dice no Senshi Tachi" (aka "Sugoro Quest: Dice Heroes") was originally released way back in the 90s (1991) by the great folks at Technos Japan Corp. (best known for "Double Dragon", " Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer" and the extensive "Kunio-kun" series) for the original Nintendo Famicom.

As one of the more unique offerings from the company, it was a game of the tabletop board game / RPG variety that are quite the rage in Japan, though SQ had more pronounced RPG elements than your average board game and could be considered one of the early progenitors to said current sub-genre like the "Rune Master" games, "Hyaku no Sekai no Monogatari" (100 World Story), "Dragon Half" (the Turbo CD version, as the FM Towns and PC-98 versions were more akin to "Dragon Ball Z: Super Saiya Densetsu"), "Dragon Master Silk Gaiden" and some of the "Dokapon" games, to name a few. While it didn't receive too much fanfare, it did spawn a sequel a few years later in 1994 for the Super Famicom ("Sugoro Quest++ Dicenics", a game we actually recorded MANY years ago). Technos' IPs have moved around a bit over the years, as they went defunct in 1996 and got acquired by Million Co., Ltd. only for Million to go defunct less than 10 years later (2015) and get acquired by Arc System Works, so seeing some of the more obscure parts of their catalog get any attention is surprising. The game was ported a few times over the years, but it would not see an International release for more than 30 years...

The game was eventually ported to Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X in 2025, but it's not just a strict 1-to-1 port with an English translation and the basic QoL additions (save states, cheat modes, supplemental material, etc.)... courtesy of Shinyuden and Ratalaika Games (the latter of which has brought a surprisingly good catalog of niche games to English-speaking audiences), the game also included a toggle for updated graphics and music, making the game more in line with a 16-bit release than the original 8-bit version! The graphics overlay and text wrapping isn't perfect... specific scenarios cause the text to be wonky (fainting with certain characters) or the graphics to revert back to their original design (such as successfully using the "Search" command) and the game itself does crash occasionally (at least on a PS5 Pro), but these issues are pretty infrequent and doesn't detract from the overall novelty of this release. The translation itself has personality and is competent, the choice to choose the classic or updated version is a plus, and Ratalaika has the game listed for a modest $5.99 price tag. Is the game worth it? Yeah.

With that out of the way and speaking on the game itself, "Sugoro Quest" is a rather fun and polished product of its time and is still fun to play today while illustrating some of the earlier origins of Board Game / RPG hybrids. As a human fighter, dwarf, elf and half-elf, the player goes on adventures as one of these brave souls for the king of Diceland, a place renowned for its many heroes. The fighter wishes to be the strongest and goes to test his strength, the dwarf uses it as an excuse to get clearance to travel to new and unseen lands, the elf wishes to learn powerful magic which can only be learned in the region and the half-elf seeks fame and fortune. This is great because the king knows that a great evil is afoot and you are tasked with helping all the neighboring kingdoms before you're tough enough to face the big bad. Like many games of the era, the main plot is nothing remarkable, but each area is varied and fun with different gimmicks and their own bits of lore. Each character, as expected, have different strengths and weaknesses, wear different gear, and possess different abilities, but two major things shared between characters is the ability to exceed their innate HP/MP (they have default values which determine their recovery rate in said stats, but they can keep recovering and stockpile 999 of each) and the usage of "Dicemen" who take the place of the hero and have different quirks (From 1 to 6, the higher ones are generally better but they are risky as a whole).

The cool thing is that each character can be individually leveled and increase their threshold for dice rolls for physical attacks and magic as well as manipulate different spaces with magic or items. There are also certain quests that require certain characters and certain rolls, so it adds to the replayability of some stages. Dice rolls are used for just about everything, so expect the usual RNG associated with games like this, lol. While the audio, visuals and gameplay are above average for its time, it's worth noting that this is a single player game, whereas most games of this kind have a multiplayer component.

This is a video showing some things in action. Enjoy.