Hyaku no Sekai no Monogatari: The Tales on a Watery Wilderness

"Entertaining fantasy board game/RPG by Ask Corp."

Interesting RPG fantasy board game made by Ask Corp. in 1991. It features a variety of types of games to complete, and plays like Dungeons And Dragons, only with less plot twists. This game was never released outside Japan, but if you manage to find a Japanese version, you can also download a partially translated ROM.

Ratings

Story – 7/10 : Basically, the entire game is just a story that is being told to some pointy-eared boy, by his sister, in a place called, Hyukiria World. This plot though, is only mentioned once, after the credits during the beginning sequence of the game. The plots you actually play through, are divided into three categories, slay the dragon, find the treasure, and rescue the princess. Despite the fact that these three scenarios are far from original, the idea that the entire story is not really happening, is interesting, like playing Super Mario Brother 2 and knowing it’s just Mario’s entertaining dream.

Sound Effects/Music – 7/10 : This game has very few sound effects, but the ones that are used are generally very effective, despite the fact that most of the marks I took away from this category are due to the lack of these sounds. However, many of the games musical scores, made by Masao Asakawa, are quite well composed. They fit the mood of each part of the game perfectly, and although there are only about 10 pieces in the game, I enjoyed listening to most of them, except the theme of the last game, rescue the princess.

Graphics – 7.5/10 : The graphics are a bit lacking in The 100 World Story, compared to other releases of 1991. The graphics are definitely above average, better than Rainbow Islands (Taito, 1991), but not reaching the level of Megaman 4 (Capcom, 1991), and not even touching Battletoads (Rare, 1991). The backgrounds of the towns and people are full colour, and well done, but images of monsters, towns, and people are frequently rehashed. Otherwise though, the average player will find that this does not effect the enjoyment of The 100 World Story’s gameplay.

Originality – 5.5/10 : I can’t say this game is particularly original, since the fantasy themes you role-play in have been used many a time before, and the idea of having the story not really happening has also been explored already. Also, the RPG battles involved in the game are basically the same as the ones used since Final Fantasy (Squaresoft, 1987), and many of the spells have identical names to the magic used in Final Fantasy, and other RPGs. However the style used in the game is unique, and it acts like a board game, with each space in the world you are exploring acting out a different action.

Play Control – 9/10 : There are very few possible move selections in this game, and since it uses the common square-by-square movement of board games, it gets few chances to show its play control. However, the movements available react quickly upon the pressing of a key, so it deserves a high ranking.

Difficulty – 5.5/10 : Generally, the difficulty of this game is decided by how many turns you choose to have for each game. Before each game, you can select the number of turns you wish each player to have, and time restraints are what change the difficulty of the quests. If you don’t mind running errand after errand for the townsfolk to gain experience and money, the first two quests are reasonably easy, the last one is a bit more difficult. Despite this, none of the quests in The 100 World Story are difficult at all if you are patient, and set your turns to 99.

Gameplay Variety – 6.5/10 : Despite the fact this game has three different quests in it, it still does not rank overly high in gameplay variety. This is because in each of the quests you do basically the same thing. On the first one you slay a dragon, and return to the castle, in number two, you slay the dragon, who has the treasure, and then return to the castle, and in number three, you slay the dragon, who has the princess, and return to the castle again. However, I still give this game an above average rating because each quest has different types of items to collect, and different goals you have to complete before you can slay the dragon. Also, the map changes every time you play a quest. One random map of many appear each time you enter one of the quests, so you can almost always expect a new map to explore.

Gameplay/Enjoyment – 8.5/10 : I found this game very enjoyable to play, possibly perhaps because I am a patient RPG fan, but I also believe that this game could attracts a wide audience. It plays like a board game, has a variety of monsters probably inspired by Earthbound Zero (Shigesato Itoi, 1989), like the Skybaby, Tomato and Cannibal Trees, includes classical RPG battles, and has a great variety of maps to explore.

Two-Player Gaming Value – 9/10 : Most will find this game is more fun with a human-controlled second player, since the battles in the game are difficult to win without another member in your party. However, if one prefers to compete, simply do not join party with your other player. The two-player function works usually very well, and deserves a high rank.

Ending – 4.5/10 : In The 100 World Story, each quest has its own ending, but each one is basically the same except for differences in the writing. The ending consists of one scene, with writing underneath that wraps up the plot of that quest. Also, the only scene used in the ending is a background scene used in the beginning of the quest. I will not mention what the particular scene is, but it will be immediately apparent after you have finished any of the three games.

Replayability – 8.5/10 : Once you play The 100 World Story for the first time, I predict you will want to play it through again, at least once again. This is because if you found it easy, you can challenge yourself to a smaller amount of turns, and you can expect a new map to explore each time you do the same quest over. Also, the multiple-gaming option against the computer, or with another player, gives this game a higher score. What prevents this game from receiving a 9 or more is the repetitive ending, and the general similarity of the different quests.

Overall Score – 7.3/10 (Rounded To: 7) (NOTE: This is an average of all previous ratings except, “Difficulty.”) : Overall, The 100 World Story is an interesting, and well-done RPG, board game adventure. RPG fans should enjoy this game for everything except the repetitiveness of the errands one must run for the townsfolk. I may praise this game to some extent, but it is definitely a below average RPG, which many people may not enjoy. I think however, that most people will find redeeming qualities in this game, because of the challenge involved in each similar, but unique quest. Since this game is nearly impossible to find in both North America, and Japan, I recommend buying it if you see it on the open market, but if you do not like RPGs, you will probably wish to learn more about it before deciding on a purchase.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/11/00, Updated 11/11/00