You know, I think the reason I disliked Gameboy so much was because there weren’t very many domestic RPGs released for it. At least, there weren’t when I owned a gameboy. We had the Final Fantasy Legend series, all of which were pretty crappy except Final Fantasy Legend III, because FFL is really SaGa in disguise. I mean, I can understand running out of arrows… but running out of a sword?

But I digress. Oni IV is actually quite neat. If more RPGs like this had come out in the States during the Gameboy’s formative years, I’d probably like the Gameboy a whole lot more…

Anyway, this is a nifty RPG. You are an Oni, a twin Oni, actually–except for the fact that your twin sister mysteriously disappeared one stormy night. So, I assume the goal of the game is to find and rescue her eventually, but right now there’s not enough text translated to tell for sure. And there’s this forest where everything beats your ass to a bloody pulp with a shovel. And the overwolrd is as much as a maze as the dungeons are. Yes, yes. I know that’s crazy. And to be even more crazy–this game has a difficulty setting! I know that the idea RPG’s having a difficulty setting is an outrageous concept, but do try to remain calm and check this game out. It’s pretty cool.

The dialogue translation for a good chunk of the game is complete. However, it appears none of the “townie” dialogue is done, and neither are the monster names that I encountered. However, this patch covers enough to make the game playable. Akujin says he has the rest of the script translated, it’s just a matter of fitting it back in the game. Which may or may not happen in the near future. Akujin has since joined forces with Magic Destiny, so now this project flies proudly under their banner.

• Oni IV - Kijin no Ketsuzoku (Japan).gb - NOINTRO
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• MD5: 399FA899194542C7BD5BA92969795AC5
• SHA-1: 5AF71863E48AFE1FB5F16AEE6FBE7F4E97EF54CE
• SHA-256: CA61B752F44FC0059E6EF328092416A7D62F804E51BF9543941E8B4EA0A24505