History Lessons: Shiryou Sensen: War Of The Dead

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I’m almost finished with the latest departure from the nominal timeline for this series. It was triggered by finding several interesting Japanese-only games that have been unofficially translated by the team at Nebulous Translations, first Getsu Fuuma Den and then Star Cruiser. This time, however, it’s not my fault! Fun Project’s horror game Shiryou Sensen: War of the Dead (Undead Front: War of the Dead, according to Google Translate) was indeed a Japanese-only title that was translated by Nebulous Translations, but it was already in my list of games to play. The problem is that I wrote down the release date of its PC Engine port (March 24, 1989), not realizing that it was originally released for the Japanese MSX2 home computer sometime back in 1987! I’m trying to play games in original release date order, even if I’m actually playing a later port like the CD-ROM versions of Ys I & II or the Genesis version of Hydlide 3: The Space Memories. So I’m extending my detour to cover the PC Engine version of War of the Dead now.

I can’t find a more specific release date for the original MSX2 version than “1987”, but I’m guessing it was late that year, because Zelda II: The Adventure of Link released in January 1987 and War of the Dead is clearly inspired by it. A common inspiration, it seems, as I’ve already covered the The Battle of Olympus which borrows the side-scrolling action of Zelda II’s town and dungeon areas and turns it into a grand adventure across ancient Greece. War of the Dead, however, instead borrows the top-down overworld sections from Zelda II, complete with random battles in small side-scrolling arenas where players can fight or run away.

The big difference, of course, is the setting. There are no swords or magic here. War of the Dead is a horror game, set in modern times, where players must battle otherworldly monsters with an arsenal of firearms. More specifically, it’s an homage to American horror films. It’s set in the fictional rural American town of Chaney’s Hills, with characters named after famous characters or film directors, like Carrie and Carpenter. Players control Lila Alphon, the youngest member of S-S.W.A.T. (that’s Supernatural & Special Weapon Attack Team) as she investigates the sudden invasion of horrible creatures that are terrorizing the town. It’s good to see another female protagonist, which was still rare in games at the time, even if she does charge into battle in a miniskirt. But I suppose Fun Project were merely copying the way American horror cinema sexualized its female cast.

I was surprised to find this American setting in a Japanese-only game, expecting more Japanese horror elements like those in Getsu Fuuma Den. But I’m not surprised that War of the Dead never got a US release. The PC Engine arrived late in the US (under the name Turbografx-16) and was a commercial failure, so not that many games were localized. But I also suspect the subject matter would have been deemed to controversial for the US market at the time, which remained focused on family-friendly titles suitable for younger kids. Not just for the horror film influence, but also the arsenal of real-world guns that players can wield. It’s hard to imagine that being controversial today, when some of the biggest games in the world glorify modern warfare and are de facto recruitment tools for the US military, but in the 1980s parents would have been very concerned to see their kids getting excited about actual military-grade weapons like the Steyr AUG rifle or SPAS-12 combat shotgun.

The real weapons make a little more sense in the MSX2 original, which is considered by some to be the first ever survival horror game. It’s all about conserving bullets, choosing battles wisely, and trying to stay healthy and well stocked over the day/night cycles. From a few brief YouTube clips, I’ve gathered that the MSX2 version has a grittier tone overall, with lots of zombies (including reanimated soldiers) as enemies. The PC Engine port, however, goes a little more camp. Most of the survival elements are excised, with only the limited supply of bullets and rarely-used healing items remaining. In their place, role-playing elements are added. Certain enemies drop blue orbs when killed, which Lila can collect to earn experience points, eventually leveling up and gaining more maximum health and attack power.

“How is it that Lila’s guns suddenly do more damage when she levels up?”, I hear you ask, dear reader. Well, that’s where that extra “S” in S-S.W.A.T. comes in. Lila has a psychic ability called “PS REM” which she can use on her guns to grant them extra damage. Naturally, as she levels up, her PS REM gets stronger, hence more attack power. Better guns help too, of course, but those are mostly cases of more damage at the cost of increased ammo consumption. The Steyr AUG rifle is a straight upgrade to Lila’s starting pistol (a SIG Sauer P226, if you’re curious), but the rest of the arsenal is very situational. The manual (the Nebulous Translations team offer a simple text file translation of it) talks about single-shot versus automatic fire for some weapons, but in practice enemies become invulnerable for a short time after being shot so rapid fire is not useful. The SPAS-12 shotgun does in fact fire in a spread, which would be nice if it didn’t consume a whopping 9 bullets per shot. Other guns look cool but don’t have any unique behavior aside from damage and ammo use, and therefore are best saved for the toughest enemies. It’s pretty easy to just run away from those instead of spending the bullets, though, so I rarely used anything but the rifle. Which was a bit disappointing. At high levels I could kill most creatures in a single rifle shot, collecting their ammo or experience drops as needed, and run from everything else.

The enemies look cool, though. The PC Engine version swaps out the zombies for more outlandish monsters, each rendered in large, detailed pixel art that shows off the console’s 16-bit graphics chip. Bulbous creatures cling to ceilings and shoot boomerang-like projectiles from their extended snouts. Shelled monstrosities wave tendrils around as they leap towards Lila. Gas-filled blobs swoop down from the skies, and huge beasts emerge from the water to take a bite out of Lila’s boat. Each of these features lovely shading effects that rival consoles like the Famicom simply couldn’t match, due to their smaller color palette (the PC Engine could handle 512 colors, while the Famicom could only muster 54). Add in detailed backgrounds during battles that change based on Lila’s location, and War of the Dead looks really nice for the time.

It sounds nice too. A few PC Engine games have come up in this series so far (specifically Ys I & II and Exile), but they’ve all used the CD-ROM add-on for the console and therefore boasted CD quality music that’s far better than anything a programmable sound generator (PSG) could achieve. War of the Dead is the first PC Engine game in this blog series that used the console’s HuCard cartridges, and therefore relied on the PSG for music. At first, it sounded similar to music from Famicom/NES games, but the more I listened the more it sounded better. A look at the PC Engine hardware reveals why: not only does it have six audio channels to the Famicom’s 5, it also supports custom waveforms, unlike the Famicom’s pre-set pulse waves and triangle wave. I could hear this in War of the Dead, which does an admirable job of imitating an organ for its horror-inspired score, as well as layering more motifs with the extra channel. Unfortunately, the best musical moments come late in each track, and are therefore rarely heard because random battles or scene transitions interrupt them. I stumbled upon these while pausing the game; I recommend pausing occasionally to catch an epic organ solo or two.

So far I’ve talked a lot about the battles in War of the Daad, but of course those are only half of the game. The rest is about exploring Chaney’s Hills, rescuing survivors, and piecing together what’s going on. Lila begins by the church, a safe haven where the survivors gather and Lila can recover her health. Other points of interest like the school, city hall or hospital are scattered around the map (with positions indicated in the manual), and Lila will typically follow clues from survivors as to where to investigate next. As I explored, the top-down overworld felt less like Zelda II and more like a Dragon Quest game. There are no Zelda-like ghostly shadows of monsters to warn of incoming battles, just sudden random encounters as in Dragon Quest. Plus, indoor areas are still explored from a top-down view, instead of switching into side-scrolling mode like in Zelda II.

More importantly, the structure of Chaney’s Hills is reminiscent of Dragon Quest, with early areas connected by bridges that funnel Lila through certain paths, until she finds a boat (really more of a raft) and can suddenly go anywhere she pleases. But where the Dragon Quest series hides secrets and scatters puzzles all over its worlds, there’s not much to find in War of the Dead. The points of interest listed in the manual are all there is. The outdoor map is little more than a means to spread those places out, so players must trek around and get into fights on their way. It doesn’t even look much like a town. There’s a central lake with several rivers flowing into it, and buildings like the school and laboratory are found on their own patches of land, with little else around. Why wouldn’t the residents build these all together, in a town center? There aren’t even any roads. I know that the monster invasion is supposed to have wrecked things, but it’s still odd to trudge across so much barren dirt and grass before finally finding a building.

At least the buildings feel appropriate. Most are small, single-screen affairs, and the larger ones have layouts that make sense: a few floors of classrooms in the school, corridors and patient rooms in the hospital. There’s really only one place that imitates the large, maze-like dungeons of Dragon Quest; everything else is compact and to the point. Lest that seem too simple, War of the Dead has players visit these locations many times over the course of its story. As Lila explores and rescues survivors, more people show up in the church, and everyone has new things to say, often asking Lila to visit a place again to check for new clues. But it’s not always clear which conversations will trigger the next bit of the story. Sometimes I’d follow someone’s directions and search an area, only to find nothing there. Turns out I needed to check on another unrelated thing, for someone else, before that original hint would bear fruit. I quickly got into the habit of going back to talk to everyone, several times, all the time. Yes, even that guy who’s currently hanging out halfway across the map inside a dangerous location.

I got stuck a couple of times, but in both cases it was simply because I hadn’t talked to everyone again, in the right order. Trudging back and forth all over town can get a little tiresome, but I did enjoy the story as it unfolded. Lila’s S-S.W.A.T. compatriots are scattered around, as are some regular soldiers, and more than one stubborn survivor who isn’t interested in joining the others at the church. This cast slowly reveal more of what is going on. The trouble seems to have started after a sleazy politician started eveloping a resort on the other side of the lake, after a longtime resident and staunch opponent of the project finally died. Hmm… perhaps there was more to his opposition than he let on? The tale is full of horror cliches, but that’s exactly what I’d expect from a game that’s this much of an homage, and it sets itself apart from the simpler stories of most contemporary games.

I do wish that battles were a little less frequent, that the more advanced weapons were more useful, that those enticing trails through the mountains actually led anywhere. But Shiryou Sensen: War of the Dead remains an interesting game and something of a precursor to behemoth franchises like Resident Evil. I’m glad I played it. If you want to check it out, your only option — barring finding an original HuCard and PC Engine hardware — is to use emulation, as I did. I used the Retroarch frontend with the Beetle PCE emulation core to run it (you may also need to track down a BIOS file for the PC Engine), although the Beetle PCE Fast core also works fine if you want something less processor-heavy. Grab the translation patch from Nebulous Translations, which also fixes a few bugs, including an overflow error that made Lila die if she collected too much experience. I also highly recommend finding a PDF copy of the original Japanese manual for the PC Engine version, since it contains a nice illustrated map of Chaney’s Hills. The text file translation included with Nebulous Translations’ patch pairs with this nicely.

We’re now all caught up on our timeline! To refresh your memory, the farthest we’ve reached is Clash at Demonhead, which released on January 27, 1989. Next, we will move into March 1989 for another Japanese-only PC Engine game, the very game whose unofficial translation patch led me down this Nebulous Translations detour. Stay tuned!

Next on Console History: watch this space!