Nakayoshi n' Me Information

First, a little background information. Nakayoshi is a Japanese magazine that publishes Shojo (girl) manga (similar to how Shounen Jump publishes shounen (boy) manga). Back in 1993, late in the Famicom's life-cycle, this game was released, based off of six manga properties published in Nakayoshi magaine: Goldfish Warning!, Pocket Park, MinMin!, Taiyou ni Smash, Kurumi and the 7 Dwarves, and Sailor Moon. These manga had varying levels of popularity in their own country (only Goldfish Warning! and Sailor Moon got an anime released), and only Sailor Moon was ever released in America in any form. This game seems to have been designed for a younger audience, as it's essentially a simplified RPG. In the game's universe, the main character is a reader of Nakayoshi Magazine that must visit "Nakayoshi World" , which consists of 6 worlds based on those aforementioned manga, at the behest of Nakayoshi's editor. The character's goal is to meet with the authors of each of the manga, retrieve their pens that have been stolen by the big bad, and find/help the main characters of each manga. As you can probably tell from the plot, this game is essentially fan-service for these games

It is, but I have lended my hacking prowess, however meager, to make sure it gets an English translation. Of course, I could never do it without Frizzy, my faithful translator for the project!

Basically, the game flows as follows: You begin each chapter in the office of that manga's author, who will ask you to retrieve her stolen pen and rescue her main character, who has usually been kidnapped, and will also give you a theme weapon that corresponds to her manga. In some chapters, she will also give you a Wand that allows you to take on the appearance/abilities of that manga's main character. Then you must progress through that world, rescue the heroine, find the author's pen, then the author will take back the weapon she gave you, along with the Wand, and you'll be whisked away to the next chapter to repeat the progress.

Like I said, this game is quite simplified. There are no experience points, no levels nothing like that. There IS HP and MP, though, although the game doesn't display these numerically. You start the game with three hearts and three orbs. These are your HP and MP, respectively. Each heart symbolizes 30 HP, and as your HP diminishes, the heart's appearance changes at each 10 HP. MP works the same way. You start the game with 3 hearts/orbs (90 HP/MP), and after each chapter, you increase by one heart/orb (30 HP/MP). As far as enemies go, the enemies all have the exact same maximum HP as you. In other words, chapter 1 enemies have 90 HP, chapter 2 enemies have 120 HP, and so on.

Apparently, "Gold" isn't cute enough to use as currency in this game, so instead it used "Piichi", which translates to "Peach". I decided to keep "Peach" for singular and plural, as saying Peaches really, REALLY makes it sound like you're talking about the fruit.

You can reach your inventory by pressing the Select button. There are five main categories of item in the game:

Storyline Items: These are never really named, but they can be seen in the upper-left box of the inventory screen. They include bus passes, invitations, phone cards, keys and gold games. These are all just collected throughout the course of the game.

Food: Food is exactly what you'd expect. Each food item will restore an equal amount of HP and MP, and is consumed after one use. At any given time, you can have seven different types of food, and up to 10 of any specific type.

Items: These are located to the right of the food items. These are obtained automatically throughout the course of the game, and tend to give your character special abilities. The only one that's actually usable is the Wand, the others work automatically once you obtain them.

Weapons: These are used to attack in battle. But don't expect swords and arrows in this game! Most weapons are stationary and sports equipment and the like. Like food, you can have up to seven different weapons at any given time. At the beginning of each chapter, you'll be given a theme weapon that is only usable for that chapter, as the manga author will take it back when the chapter is over. However, these weapons behave just like any other weapon in the game.

Gems: Gems are just like weapons, but they are magical attacks. There are three magical types in this game: Fire, Ice and Lightning. At the start of the game, you're given a Quartz (which is later upgraded to a Crystal, then a Diamond), which is used in Fire, Ice and Lightning attacks. All other gems are specific to a single element.

The most unique aspect of this game is its battle system, which is essentially a slot machine. Battles are initiated by talking to NPCs. Since the NPCs don't always look like monsters, this means you will often go into battle while you're trying to just talk to somebody, but it's a fair trade-off for not having any random battles, right? At the start of battle, you have five choices as follows:

: This causes the slots to start spinning. Any magical attacks will be Fire type.

: This causes the slots to start spinning. Any magical attacks will be Ice type.

: This causes the slots to start spinning. Any magical attacks will be Lightning type.

: Allows you to eat food to restore HP and MP. Unlike most games, selecting this does not use up your turn, and you can eat as many items as you want at any given time.

: Lets you run away from battle. You seem to have a 100% success rate when running away, except with three bosses: Waruji, Kaseet and Rajira. When you try to run from these guys, it won't let you AND you'll actually lose your turn. So don't even try.

Each round of battle consists of three actions from the you and the enemy. You'll peform an action, then the enemy, then you, and so on. The enemies will always attack, and your attacks will be determined by the values that come up on the reels, as follows:

: This command causes your companion to perform an action. Usually, they will just do something silly that will have no effect (stumble, sneeze, etc... think "Goof-off" from Dragon Quest III), but sometimes they will completely restore your HP/MP instead. This icon seems to only appear on the center reel.

: This causes you to miss your opponent. Obviously, this is not a good thing! There are benefits to the star, however. If you get two stars, then a fist, item or magic icon, or one of those icons followed by two stars, you'll perform a continous attack. Basically, you attack the enemy once that round, but the attack is twice as powerful as normal, and the enemy only gets to attack once too. Keep in mind that for this attack to work, the two stars have to be consecutuve. Also, if you get three stars in a row, you'll perform a special attack, which is ultra-powerful, and likewise shortens the round to just one action per character. Also, three stars in a row in the Sailor Moon will summon Tuxedo Mask to attack for you!

: This causes you to attack your opponent. Except at the very beginning of the game, this attack tends to be less powerful than your weapons. If you get three of this icon in a row, you'll unleash a Critical Hit, which IS very powerful, and shortens the round to just one attack. Sometimes the game seems to "cheat" to let you get the Critical Hit more often than you should, which just makes an easy game easier.

: This causes you to use a weapon from your inventory at random. Items used do not go away, so don't worry about that. It's to your benefit to have weapons with the highest power, obviously. If you get three of these in a row, you'll unleash a Megaton Attack, which is ultra-powerful, and shortens the round to just one attack from you and the enemy.

: This causes you to use a gem randomly from your inventory. Depending on which element you chose when you started the reels, the magic will be of that corresponding element (Certain enemies are weak or resistant to specific magical types). There's always a chance that your attack will use your Quartz/Crystal/Diamond no matter which element you chose, though. The more powerful the Gem, the more powerful its attacks will be, but the more MP it will consume as well. If you get three of this icon in a row, you'll perform an extremely powerful attack based on the element you chose.

: This is Sailor Mercury's symbol. This appears on the reels after you rescue her in the final chapter. This summons her to perform one of her two attacks. Understandably, these attacks are extremely powerful.

: This is Sailor Mars' symbol. This appears on the reels after you rescue her in the final chapter. This summons her to perform one of her two attacks. Understandably, these attacks are extremely powerful.

: This is Sailor Jupiter's symbol. This appears on the reels after you rescue her in the final chapter. This summons her to perform one of her two attacks. Understandably, these attacks are extremely powerful.

: This is Sailor Venus' symbol. This appears on the reels after you rescue her in the final chapter. This summons her to perform one of her two attacks. Understandably, these attacks are extremely powerful.

: This is Sailor Moon's symbol. This appears on the reels after you rescue her in the final chapter. This summons her to perform one of her two attacks. Understandably, these attacks are extremely powerful.

Since weapons/gems you use is determined randomly, its not always in your best interest to have a lot of different items in your inventory, and it's definitely not a good idea to hang on to weapons much weaker than the storyline gems/weapons.

If you're ever in trouble, run away! There are only three enemies you can't run from, and you have a 100% success rate when running, so you don't need to worry about the run command not working.

Some enemies respawn, some don't. If you find an enemy that respawns and has a good drop (like 500 Peach or a food item), it may be in your interest to defeat it, get your reward, fight it again, get the reward again, etc.

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