SHIRYŌ SENSEN - WAR OF THE DEAD
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死霊戦線 WAR OF THE DEAD
©1988 Fun Project, Inc
©1989 Victor Musical Industries, Inc.
Release : 1989-03-24 (¥5500)
HuCard (2 Mbits) JC63002
Role Playing game
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Shiryō Sensen War of the Dead is a post apocalyptic and dark Role
Playing/Action game by Victor Musical Industries. Due to a series of
mysterious events, the town of Chany's Hill has been cut off from the rest
of the world. People have suddenly gone missing and cannibalistic monsters now roam
the land, killing all who cross their path. The protagonist of the game is Laila Arufon,
the youngest female member of the S-SWAT (Supernatural and Special Weapon Attack Team).
She was born in the small town and has developped strange psychic abilities. Her
Psychic Seal ("PS") and Mind Force ("MF") powers allow her to increase any weapon destruction
power but also to increase her defense capability greatly. Her mission is twofold - she must
investigate the mysterious and supernatural incident in Chaneys Hill and to rescue
all the remaining survivors she can find and lead them to the town's church. Laila comes
equipped with a combat knife and a Hand Gun (SIG/SAUER P226) - additional
weapons appear later in the game including the Assault Rifle (STYER AUG),
Grenade launcher (HK MZP1), Flamethrower (M2A1-7), Bazooka
(M72A2) and so forth. Although most of the game uses a traditional top-down view, battles
quickly drop the game into side-scrolling action phases. There, Laila fights hordes of
monsters to gain experience (blue orbs), life (reb orbs),
MF points (green orbs) or ammunitions (pink cases). She can also
escape at anytime as long as she can reach the edge of the fighting area. The combat items are
complemented by more conventional inventory items such as medic packs, psychic pills,
keys and so forth. Player's progression is saved through a long password system.
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Shiryō Sensen War of the Dead comes with a little pink disclaimer (picture on the left)
that advises
the player on five things to do to win the game. It explains that listening and talking
to people is more important than getting experience points. It even states that Laila
can't gain more that 9999 experience points, and if she does, her stats will go back to
zero and she will die. This is rather interesting, most of the other sites on the web
claim that this is a bug - all of this leaves us to wonder if the developers finally
decided to turn this bug into a feature or if it was deliberately designed this way.
The disclaimer also warns that there is a mistake in the instruction manual, although
it mentions that the player can carry 15 items, he actually can only carry 14 in the
game. They acknowledge and apologize for the annoying length of the passwords and
recommend to directly contact them if you happen to be stuck in the game.
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Shiryō Sensen War of the Dead was first released for the MSX
in 1987 on cartridge (picture on the right). The game, it seems, was well received in Japan and it even spawned a sequel
called Shiryō Sensen War of the Dead Part 2 in 1988 for the MSX
on two floppy disks (picture on the right).
Shiryō Sensen War of the Dead, was ported in 1989 to the NEC PC88
Japanese computer and to the PC Engine (version tested here).
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Here are some hints to get through the beginning of Shiryō Sensen War of the Dead:
The game starts off next to the church, the game's only refuge and this
is where all the survivors will be taken to safety. But first, Laila must
level-up as she's way too weak to stand for long. To do so, select the hand-gun
from the inventory menu (which is a much better weapon than the combat knife) and
start wandering around the church. You don't have to fight all the monsters during each encounter
and you can concentrate on the ones that give experience points (blue orbs) and ammunitions.
Practice also the jump as it is the best technique to take down airborne enemies. Once you've reached
a couple of levels, then the game should be a lot easier to play. Now you should be ready to
start your mission and explore the area (see the map from the instruction book in the Omake section).
Travel south/east, walk
by a small house and carry on until you reach a small building. This is the Town Hall. Enter it
and talk to Wells, the mayor. He should now follow you. Return to the church. Now go back
to the Town Hall and carry on walking. You should soon reach the School. Enter the
building and talk to Janet, the teacher (she's located on the ground floor in the
top-right classroom). She tells you to rescue Carol, a young student. She's located on
the third floor, in the bottom-left classroom. Talk to her and she should follow you. Return to
the church and talk to Carol, your MF power should now be extended to 40 points.
Return to the School and talk to Janet again. She now follows you. Go back to
the church... I now leave the rest to you...
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LK
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Add your Pov here !
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Before I start I'd like to warn you about something particularly
important - Shiryō Sensen is largely unplayable in its cart format
thanks to a dull and complicated fifty (or so) character long password system. I gave this
game many chances in the past but I eventually forfeited... until today.
Thanks to emulation (and to the almighty "save-state" option) I have managed
to play the game and enjoy it to its fullest potential. Shiryō Sensen
is actually good despite its dated feel and unfair difficulty level right off
the bat. Laila is pretty tough to level up at the beginning, not all
monsters give experience and she dies in a couple of hits... But if you hang
in there long enough then the game reveals its charms and unique beauty.
Shiryō Sensen is surprisingly very immersive and the atmosphere really
creepy and suspenseful, such as the hospital with its dead corpses floating in
a pool of acrid liquid or the hard-to-categorize monsters you'll encounter
throughout the game. I'm also impressed by the incredible amount of detail
put into it -
there are countless characters to meet and all the weapons are based on real life firearms.
Shiryō Sensen has aged a lot though (coarse graphics, painful leveling
process and you have to walk back to the church every time you rescue someone), and
it can be difficult later on if you can't read Japanese - but it is a unique
experience and a pioneer in its own time.
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