Retro Gamers are Reminiscing About a JRPG that Never Existed
This is something I've always wondered about: Could someone realistically hoax a retro-game? It turns out two indie game-devs accidentally did just that. They created an indie game that recreates a Usenet board for a fictional PS1 JRPG called "Arc Symphony". To promote their game, they created mock-ups of the fictional game's jewel case:
From Kotaku:
"Sophia Park and Penelope Evans initially gave out jewel cases for Arc Symphony, a “classic” JRPG that they made up whole cloth, to their friends so that they would post about it on social media. Park and Evans brought the remaining cases to the Toronto Comic Arts Festival, and found that people wanted in on the fun, and that a few would insist to them that they’d actually played Arc Symphony.
“They saw one of our jewel cases and said ‘Oh. Yeah, I remember this. Didn’t dig into it much though,’” Park said over email. “We were both stunned.”
“One or two people at TCAF mentioned something along the lines of: oh, I think maybe I played this at a friend’s place,” Evans said. “That was surreal. I was really focused on nailing the look of the case, and apparently I succeeded.”
http://kotaku.com/people-are-reminiscing-about-a-ps1-jrpg-that-didnt-exis-1795227061
Bravo to them. The PS1 is probably the best system to pull off something like this: The library is huge and not as throughly covered by Youtubers like the NES/SNES.
From Kotaku:
"Sophia Park and Penelope Evans initially gave out jewel cases for Arc Symphony, a “classic” JRPG that they made up whole cloth, to their friends so that they would post about it on social media. Park and Evans brought the remaining cases to the Toronto Comic Arts Festival, and found that people wanted in on the fun, and that a few would insist to them that they’d actually played Arc Symphony.
“They saw one of our jewel cases and said ‘Oh. Yeah, I remember this. Didn’t dig into it much though,’” Park said over email. “We were both stunned.”
“One or two people at TCAF mentioned something along the lines of: oh, I think maybe I played this at a friend’s place,” Evans said. “That was surreal. I was really focused on nailing the look of the case, and apparently I succeeded.”
http://kotaku.com/people-are-reminiscing-about-a-ps1-jrpg-that-didnt-exis-1795227061
Bravo to them. The PS1 is probably the best system to pull off something like this: The library is huge and not as throughly covered by Youtubers like the NES/SNES.
Comments
That said, this is certainly an interesting effort. Most people don't go to the lengths of faking demo discs and PSN digital downloads.
Even just going by the cover art, this "Arc Symphony" game doesn't look overly convincing. I don't know of any other PS1 games that actually include Japanese text on a USA-released game, much less other languages. The cover artwork also looks a little too 90s cheesy to be real. A lot of PS1 games had boring or terrible artwork, but this game has that "trying too hard" element about it. Lastly, the black PlayStation banner on the left looks off, something not quite right about it. I think the font is a bit too thin.
That said, this is certainly an interesting effort. Most people don't go to the lengths of faking demo discs and PSN digital downloads.
Knowing for a fact that this is a pastiche, I agree with your observations regarding the cover. There is definitely something off about it, not just in the details, but as a whole... It basically looks TOO MUCH like the final fantasy covers of the time. This is fine at first glance, but doesn't really make sense... Why would a company have designed coverart that confuses their title with a very similar but vastly more popular game in the same genre?
Of course, it is very easy for us to say this knowing the full story! If I had just seen that sitting on the shelf at my local gamestore it would simply be another PS title I glanced over before digging into the N64 games!
A lot of poser hipsters out now-a-days
Ya, you know, all the kids are into it, after all, nothing gets the ladies excited nowadays like pretending to remember a PlayStation One game that never existed. I think I saw it it Teen Vogue.
Not knowing about Playstation is my specialty.
you and me both mang.
Reminds me a lot of the artwork on Final Fantasy Tactics on PS1. I bet people were confusing it with that one.
I was thinking the same thing.
Originally posted by: wesr
These are the same hipster types that are driving up prices for us all and Kotaku's where they tend to hang out. These are the same 20 somethings that are driving up prices on vintage 80s clothes because it's fashionable now.
Hey. Hey listen: we're all driving up the prices together.
Originally posted by: Daria
Originally posted by: wesr
These are the same hipster types that are driving up prices for us all and Kotaku's where they tend to hang out. These are the same 20 somethings that are driving up prices on vintage 80s clothes because it's fashionable now.
Hey. Hey listen: we're all driving up the prices together.
It also doesn't help that you have shows like American Pickers pointing out that gaming stuff is becoming sought after and collectible, that just makes folks think everything is worth a fortune.
What this does prove is how easily the mind and memory can be fooled by showing something that seems familiar your mind thinks it's something you played in the past. That said I didn't mean to offend and 20 somethings on here.
IMO the cover art makes it look like a "How to Play the Piano" game.
Why would anyone even do this? It makes no sense.
Because it's fun and led to amusing results?
Remember about a month or so ago when people "remembered" having seen a film with Sinbad called "Shazam"? I think this is someone's unoriginal attempt to do that in video game form.