Gokinjo Boukentai (‚²‚«‚ñ‚¶‚å–`Œ¯‘à, lit. Neighborhood Adventure Troop) is one of those many Super Famicom RPGs which never made it out of Japan and also got no big franchise or publisher behind it to make it somewhat well known in the west.

However, the game itself got a little fan-following in it's country of origin, thanks to the popular character designer of the game: Masumi Sudou (�{“¡ �^�Ÿ). She is especially famous for her cute manga stories which deal with everyday stories of cats in Japan or fairytail-ish settings. Gokinjo Boukentai got a present-day setting and is thus often compared to Mother 2 / Eartbound. Getting a fairly small release by Pioneer DLC back in the late 16-bit days, the game is one of the very few RPGs which actually catch higher prices on the japanese retro-game market.

The game tells the story of the young kindergardener Mana who recently moved into a small town (including all stereotypic things a japanese town of the 90s needs) with her family. She is known among the adults for acting a little weird and randomly walking off to strange places, but this is actually connected to a special gift she possesses. Mana is able to see and sense the (to normal people invisible) Youkai (—d‰ö, lit. japanese lesser Gods and Demons) and can also interact with them. Mana gets called out by nobody else but ?God�g to help him fighting the evil Youkai in the town and solving a lot of problems caused by them. Not all Yokai have a bad nature though, some will help Mana along her way. Her sidekick Yuzu the cat will join and leave her party from time to time at own will and acts as an observating narrator beetween each chapter, consisting of one weekend day each. Other friends will eventually join Mana depending on the outcome of the story and a hidden cave next to her familie's house acts as a H.Q. to exchange the party-characters of your party.

At it's core the game is a very traditional RPG. Like in Earthbound enemies might always be visible on the map and can often be avoided, but once they are touched a battle starts in traditional Ego-perspective for some turn-based RPG-menu fighting. The normal battles are all fairly easy & short and seem to exist to experience the goofy enemy-types only, but bossfights will need a little strategy to finish. However, if a battle is lost, there is no game over. Instead the player can choose to extend one battle-related stat and try again which makes the game very beginner friendly and for experienced RPG-players probably way too easy. Putting the non-existant game overs to the side, all the fighting pretty much feels like your standart Dragon Quest-clone. From time to time dungeons will feature small puzzles, but they are nothing to write home about, but they manage to throw some diversity into the mix.

Some features still manage to make the gameplay somewhat unique though: First, there are no magic points and special attacks will cost your characters lifepoints. After each battle, all HP will be refilled and the party will always start each duel with full health. Second, some characters have special abilities on the maps, comparable to Breath of Fire. Two examples would be the ability to run and the ability to use a grappling hook. Third, the leveling of this game is pretty special. Battles will only provide items to the party which can be traded for money and items with the townsfolk, but no experience points nor levels are present. Instead of that, after each chapter the player can choose which kindergarden-courses Mana and her friends have to visit to increase their stats. But the stats won't affect only the fights but also the learning of special attacks and the outcome of the game. At some points of the game the story will branch according to the stats of Mana and other friends will join her and/or other daily missions will open up for the player.

The chapters are pretty much arranged like your typical 90s anime with wrapped up episodes, the player gets involved in a side- or main-part of the story and gets some objective for the day. Once the quest or the baddie of the day is finished the angry mother of Mana will come and get the kids back home which often leads to some funny situations depending on the setting. If a last fight happens sky high, she will come around in an airjet, water won't stop her and her power boat or she might simply break through the wall of a building you are in. Nothing stops a concerned mum, kiddo!

Everything in the game in general is full of wacky details and characters, but other than Earthbound with very Japanese references, which makes it at least understandable why this game was never localised for the west.

Graphically the game is a mixed bag. On the one hand, graphics are really colorful and cute and the environment is full of nice details. As an example, you will find every usual detail in the Convenience store of the town, there are huge amounts of walkable buildings in the town and every place and character seems somewhat unique. On the other hand, the framerate is somewhat uneven. If you use special abilities of your characters or there are many NPCs on the map, the game shows some obvious slowdown. The music of Gokinjo Boukentai is very memorable and features a lot of sweet and characteristic compositions which seem to come straight out of an 90s-anime.

Gokinjo Boukentai is, putting some technical shortcomings aside, everything you would consider to be a hidden gem. It's beautiful depicted, full of quirky humor and interesting game mechanics. The unique setting and the ever-changing town full of interesting characters and small details will make sure the player keeps on being drawn to the title until the credits roll and the different story-branches give enough reason to play through the game more than just once.

This is even accompanied with a "New Game+�g-ish so called V-MAX Mode which unlocks after the first clear. It shows the player which episodes of the story already have been viewed and cleared so far.

The language barrier of the game is quite heavy and players without knowledge of Japanese will probably fail to progress without a guide. There is no fan translation released or in the work at the moment and to be honest, I little bit aim to make this game better known in the romhacking-community with this article, because I hope this way it could be accessible for a wider audience someday.

Omake-wise, Gokinjo Boukentai got a one-shot manga released by Banboo Comics (ƒoƒ“ƒu�[�EƒRƒ~ƒbƒNƒX) alongside with the release of the game, written and drawn by the original character designer Masumi Sudou.