NES Longplay [681] Lagrange Point (Fan Translation)

Played by: Reinc In the 22nd century, mankind has begun to emigrate into outer space. Constructed at a Lagrangian point between the Earth and the Sun were three huge space colonies: the Isis Cluster (two artificial biospheres, named Land-1 and Land-2, and a satellite). In the year Isis 0024 (55 years after the cluster was constructed), however, a biohazard outbreak occurred on Land-2. After that, all attempts at contact were unsuccessful. A reconnaissance team was sent to investigate but contact with it was lost as soon as it reached Isis. A cyborg unit was sent with the same results. Now, the third recon team is sent... Lagrange Point is an equipment-based Japanese-type role-playing video game in a space opera setting developed and published by Konami for the Family Computer. The game was released exclusively in Japan on April 26, 1991. The title of the game references Lagrangian points, the five positions in space where a body of negligible mass could be placed which would then maintain its position relative to two existing massive bodies. Lagrange Point has the distinction of being the only game ever released with Konami’s VRC7 sound generator integrated circuit, which allowed for a drastic improvement in the quality of the music and sound effects used in the game. However, it drastically increased the price of the game to around 8500 yen. Konami involved the gaming community in Lagrange Point’s development. As part of the “Game Workshop“ project, in conjunction with Family Computer Magazine (Famimaga), they polled readers for input about various elements, including the title, the details of its plot, monster designs, and even NPC dialogue - similar to what Capcom did for the robot masters in the later Mega Man games, but on a much larger scale, and with better results. In addition to the Konami Kukeiha Club, the soundtrack was also composed by members of the popular 80s Japanese rock band REBECCA. Character design was done by cartoonist Fujihiko Hosono. The gameplay tropes are pretty typical of a role playing game developed during its time period. It has a high random encounter rate and the battle system is simplistic allowing you to use items, choose special attacks and swap between individual members of your party. There is an auto combat system that allows you to beat a lot of encounters just by hitting the A button. Additionally you are able to change your lead party member at any time through the menu, which influences the tactic used in auto combat, as well as allows to see different speech lines from some NPCs. The environments are well varied, although in typical style for the time the level design itself is pretty much a labyrinth with minor navigational puzzles designed to impede your progress. Saving can only be done through terminals you encounter in the game world, and can’t be done manually through the menu. In this longplay I try to go for maximum completion while keeping backtracking to a minimum. A few things could have been done better, and I didn’t show what the sound pulser does (one-time use, disables random encounters for a minute or so). The game was never localized for the North American or European market, however, a fan translation was released by Aeon Genesis in October 2014. It is very well done, not counting some rough spots here and there, but it seems to miss some details, like when it calls Jitterbug Sally just Sally, or makes it look like Sander doesn’t remember his son’s name (Pierre). Other questionable name translation choices include Sander instead of Thunder, Oda instead of Order and Dennis instead of Denis. - Disclaimer: Most videos by World of Longplays use SaveStates!