This game has regional differences. Some of these really have to be seen to be believed, such as the cluster of four Wizard enemies just above Namo's cell in Treesun. There's a good possibility that Working Designs didn't get the original backing tracks from Falcom, just the finished versions with baked-in Japanese voice-overs, and they ended up having to remake them from scratch in order to get the English dub in. I started playing with the original Nintendo but quickly fell in love with the arcades as well! This applies to both player characters and enemies. Along the way Mail will meet new friends; Muttonhead’s former apprentice Tatto, and flying dragon creature Gaw. Falcom Music Channel 1,831 views. http://kihaku01.web.fc2.com/md/mdura.html, http://www.gamefaqs.com/segacd/587980-popful-mail/faqs/8276, https://tcrf.net/index.php?title=Popful_Mail_(Sega_CD)&oldid=796284. In order to be able to play this game you need an emulator installed. It's such a tragedy to live with the fact that the Sega CD had its difficulties surviving and therefore this game never got the overwhelming popularity it deserved. Popful Mail + Strategy Guide: $375 SOLD. It tries to offer Metroid style exploration, but the developers only went halfway with this resulting in an unbalanced package. Today I’m going to take a look at one of their more curious releases; Popful Mail: Magical Fantasy Adventure (or just Popful Mail for short). Looks like the manual was in contact with moisture at some point due to "waviness" and stiffness of the pages, but no major damage and generally looks solid. Enchanting Extensions 29,744 views. Actually, she is in the game as well. A side-scrolling fantasy action game with light RPG elements created by Nihon Falcom that is best known for its Sega CD incarnation, published in the US by Working Designs. The enemy designs are a bit sub-standard but that’s forgivable. These CD-ROM² systems, beginning with the appropriately titled CD-ROM² would take a number of forms over the coming years, complementing the base system and its range of games on HuCard.. Popful Mail for the Sega CD is a port/remake of Falcom's 1991 side-scrolling … The Status subwindow has been expanded to incorporate the time elapsed on the current file. Ad-free browsing; Rom recommendations tailored to you (the more roms you rate or add to your collection, the better the recommendations become). From a side view you walk left, right, and jump. Each of the three characters has their own unique set of tools. After the publisher logo, this new splash screen featuring the title logo shows up. The damage done by passive hazards (spikes, lava, etc.) 14 images of the Popful Mail cast of characters. Register now and enjoy:. Please consider supporting The Cutting Room Floor on Patreon.Thanks for all your support! He manages to escape at which point Mail returns to town to find a new target. The game was later ported to Various consoles including PC Engine CD, Super Famicom and Sega CD in 1994. To see it, well, crash the game. Factor in that player invincibility time after getting hit is only 40 frames, that the player's maximum HP is permanently fixed at 100, and that Amulets and healing items are much more costly to get in the US version, and perhaps you get the picture: for the average player, the US version is so frustrating it borders on unplayable. The ending theme was rewritten into English. Sega CD. Important!! More seriously I'd love a Ys V remake but I hope Falcom retires the PartYs style first. Per Working Designs' highly idiosyncratic localization practices, the vast majority of the enemies in the game received boosts to their stats...very, very large boosts. The story is told through a significant amount of voice acting and few animated sequences that really pop. DOWNLOAD Popful Mail (U) ROM (Download Manager) DOWNLOAD Popful Mail (U) ROM (Direct) PLAY Popful Mail (U) ONLINE. It’s nice that they have differences, but for the most part I found myself sticking with Mail because of her versatility. Let's start with the more innocuous additions and work our way down. The US version reduces this to just New Game, Continue, a new "Utilities" option, and Quit Game. This was a remake of an earlier title in the franchise (yes, this was an actual franchise) which took advantage of the Sega CD’s large new software medium by offering up plenty of voice acting and animated sequences. In the US version, they have an Attack of 60, meaning the player takes 45 damage per hit from them and their projectiles, not to mention that their HP has been more than tripled from 25 (2 hits to kill) to 80 (4 hits). Since the lower-end items are easily obtainable by backtracking, this means it's a massive waste to buy those items in the US version! Each of the three protagonists animates quite nicely for a 16-bit game. In the US version, this is much more complicated: The US version significantly reworks the main menu, for whatever reason. the one after save. There’s an overworld map wherein select you destination ala point and click. Interestingly, most of these were commented out of the US version. The US version reformats the Save and Load menus slightly so that they display the amount of time elapsed on each file. RETRO 'Popful Mail', analizamos la versión para Mega CD y su curiosa historia. The US version alters the control scheme. They’re fully animated and take up a large portion of the screen with scene transitions and nice effects as well as great lip syncing. That's where you all come in! The menu is opened with Start. In the Japanese version, overwriting byte 0x0C of GM00.BIN (which is at 0x11780C in an ISO) with 0xFF should make this show up after pressing Start at the title screen. See the full list of available Sega CD emulators for this game. Popful Mail is a side-scrolling action-adventure game, originally made by Nihon Falcom (developers of the Ys series) for NEC's PC-88 and PC 98 home computers in Japan, and then ported to the TurboGrafx-16 CD and Sega CD systems. With a two million gold bounty on his head he’s an irresistible target for our greedy hero, and so she sets out to track him down and bring him to justice. At the main menu, select Quit Game and leave "No" highlighted at the confirmation prompt. Ive tried getting it from 3 different places, and each time the same thing happens. I have a lot of retro video game knowledge and wanted to share it. It features Mail, an overambitious elven bounty hunter, and her two companions Tatt (a naive wizard's apprentice) and Gaw (a small, bat-like dragon) that the player can switch between as soon as those characters have joined the party. Nihon FalcomPublishers: Sega (JP), Sega CDReleased in JP: April 1, 1994Released in US: February 23, 1995. You start the journey with just Mail in your party but soon into the quest Tatto and Gaw join up with you and from that point you can switch the active character during gameplay. Published in 1991 by Nihon Falcom Corp., Popful Mail was an above-average fantasy title in its time. The game was later ported to Various consoles including PC Engine CD, Super Famicom and Sega CD in 1994. So everything up to here is pretty much window dressing and nice little bonuses, right? It perfectly fits the anime motif and lives up to Working Designs legacy. When I saw it for the SG CD I snagged it. ... Popful Mail Paradise - Destiny - Duration: 3:50. Northern California based publisher Working Designs worked overtime to bring early Sega fans a decent line-up of role playing games from overseas. This game is a remake of an older game, and it's considered the perfect version. As with the cutscenes, the localizers apparently didn't have access to the original backing tracks; the English song has been recreated from scratch, resulting in very different instrumentation and mixing. Popful Mail is a game oozing with originality, and presentation, and the game is just a phenomenal game, one of the Sega CD's best. Popful Mail is a Sega CD platformer released by Working Designs in February 1995. Instances in which a stat changed detrimentally by more than 5 points and constituted a change of 66% or greater from the original amount appear in magenta. Or there's the Melon, which goes for 300 Gold in Japan but 1000 Gold in the States. It was released on the Sega CD in 1994 and was also released on other consoles like the Super Famicom and even released on PC in 2006. The game has a basic crash handler that dumps the main CPU's registers in the event that something goes wrong. In the Japanese version, the game always boots directly to the title screen. Pressing Start now opens this new, animated pause screen, which keeps track of the time elapsed on the current file. I just recently heard about this game, and Id really like to play it, but no emulator will run it. Working Designs worked on the localization for the North American Sega CD version (the one that will be covered in this entry). Both the game disc and the strategy guide are in good condition. The amount of damage done is computed directly from the internal ID of the current stage (the Elf Woods are 0, Treesun is 1, and so on following the game's linear order). Since the Utilities menu doesn't exist there, the Test Mode option is in the main menu. It was later ported to PC Engine CD-ROM by NEC Home Electronics and to the Sega CD by "Sega Falcom", an alliance of the two game companies Sega and Falcom. We’re looking forward to your contributions! It was notable for its voice acting, the quantity and quality of which were great for the time, as well as the typical Working Designs humor. You can buy items in shops from gold dropped by enemies and these include healing items, weapons, armor and accessories. Lifelong gamer and movie addict. Popful Mail has great voice acting, graphics, and at first seems to be a lot of fun. The Utilities menu will now contain a new Test Mode option featuring a sound test, voice test, and cutscene viewer. Basic gameplay is fun. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. In the tables below, instances in which a stat changed to make the game harder have been marked in red. Get ready for a plethora of incoming reviews of horror based games for the month of October! The animated sequences are some of the best I’ve seen on the Sega CD. I have no real complaints when it comes to the graphics here. The soundtrack is also really great, but there isn’t a whole lot to it. Popful Mail kicks off with an animated sequence depicting the titular hero chasing down a nefarious criminal named Nuts Cracker in hopes of collecting the bounty on his head. Some arbitrary tinkering was also done to the amounts of Gold dropped by various enemies. Mail is the most agile and fastest of the three, Tatto has projectile attacks but is slow, and Gaw has the worst handling but can jump higher than the other two. The player takes on the role of a bounty hunter named Mail, but it’s possible to switch to other characters. If you thought Lunar: Eternal Blue got it bad, wait 'til you see this. By the way, here is the old sprite sheet I used way back when I started. Working Designs (US)Platform: In addition to jumps, Mail, the protagonist elf, can choose from several items to defend herself, such as weapons or armors. The game is fun, but it certainly doesn’t deserve the amount of praise I’ve heard for it over the years. Working Designs worked on the localization for the North American Sega CD version. The Japanese version has written narration over each scene, but the US version erases the text entirely in favor of a voice-over by Mail. is a side-scrolling platform game. CiB. The game’s main character is an elven bounty hunter named Mail, who arms herself with a sword. For a game on the CD medium the developers opted to have repeating songs a lot between the stages. ... RETRO 'Silpheed', analizamos el remake para Mega CD de este gran matamarcianos (31/01/2016) the one after save. The US cutscenes have different music tracks from the Japanese version. If you haven't played Popful Mail or want to try this action video game, download it now for free! Description of Popful Mail PC-88. From here every environment is the same side view style area. The Options menu itself is the same as the "BGM" menu accessible in-game. Enemies whose stats didn't change are omitted. Popful Mail: Magical Fantasy Adventure (ぽっぷるメイル, Poppuru Meiru) is a side-scrolling platform game. Popful Mail honestly seems like a fairly decent game, in all its myriad versions, but it's not really for me I think. During the game, Mail is eventually joined by a wizard named Tatt and a winged cave-dwelling creature named Caw. Despite being marketed as an action RPG, the emphasis clearly is on the former. In the Japanese version, B is jump while A and C both perform attacks (they're treated identically). Your email address will not be published. This one had big shoes to fill. It was later ported to PC Engine CD-ROM by NEC Home Electronics and to the Sega CD by "Sega Falcom", an alliance of the two game companies Sega and Falcom. Popful Mail is a very good looking game. FFVII: Remake: $50 (shipped) SOLD. Additionally, the US version will automatically close the menu and return to the title screen if it's left idle for long enough. Ys III is kinda like an Ys themed Popful Mail. With that let’s dive right in for a Popful Mail review. All rights reserved. Submit. Enemies are dispatched by weapons instead of hopping on their head, and they have health bars that appear on-screen when you strike them. There is no leveling system; you have one hundred hit points in the beginning of the game and that’s your maximum factor even as you face down the final boss. Idling there for long enough will play the game's opening cutscene. Popful Mail was a game I saw around in magazines for the TG Duo. This game has debugging material. What we have here is one of those genre bending side scrolling platform role playing games. Today I’m going to take a look at one of their more curious releases; Popful Mail: Magical Fantasy Adventure (or just Popful Mail for short). Popful Mail (Mega-CD) - Advent of the Hero ~ Distant Valhalla by Falcom Music Channel. Popful Mail Released: 1994 Originally produced for the NEC PC-8801 in 1991, this 2D action RPG title shares many similarities with the Wonderboy: Monster World series. This is where she hears about Muttonhead; a once kind (but crazy) wizard who has turned to the dark side. The game is also a little unforgiving with large spans of time wherein you cannot recover or buy healing items. 2:28. He is affiliated with the talent management firm 81 Produce.. The US version adds extra dialogue from the characters on the Game Over screen. Like in a traditional RPG however you can purchase and find new equipment in shops and this will give you new forms of attacks, increase the damage you do, or in the case of armor give you a higher defensive value. A side effect of the repricing is that while all healing items have the same cost/restoration ratio in the Japanese version (3 Gold per HP restored, versus 4.5 Gold per in the US version), the US version actually makes the two highest-end items a worse value for the money (8.125 and 10 Gold per, for the Banana and Melon respectively). After Mail fans petitioned against the remake, "Sega Falcom" (the alliance between Sega and Falcom that would have made Sister Sonic) instead created a version of Popful Mail for the Sega CD, retaining original characters Mail, Tatt, and Gaw. For starters, Mail and friends do not gain experience points. It sounds interesting, but it actually makes exploration a little boring to be honest. Por Alberto Carmona. Such as Kunihiko Tanaka being the character designer on Ys 3 and Popful Mail. It's a remake of other ... 5 Popful Mail ($650) Popful Mail is a side-scrolling platformer game that was released in 1991. 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