is a

role-playing video game A role-playing video game (commonly referred to as simply a role-playing game or RPG, as well as a computer role-playing game or CRPG) is a video game genre where the player controls the actions of a character (or several party members) immers ...

for the

PlayStation is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a divisi ...

. It is a spin-off of the ''

TwinBee is a vertically scrolling shooter released by Konami as an arcade video game in 1985 in Japan. Along with Sega's ''Fantasy Zone'', released a year later, ''TwinBee'' is credited as an early archetype of the " cute 'em up" type in its genre. It w ...

'' shoot-'em-up series featuring a storyline based on the ''TwinBee Paradise'' audio drama serial. It was released exclusively in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

Gameplay

The game is a 3D RPG, and not a shooting game like the other Twinbee titles. The player controls a new protagonist who is summoned to Donburi Island to serve as a temporary pilot for TwinBee following the mysterious disappearance of TwinBee's regular pilot Light. Although the ''TwinBee'' series had previous installments that were not shoot-'em-ups, such as '' Pop'n TwinBee: Rainbow Bell Adventures'' and ''TwinBee: Taisen Puzzle-Dama'', ''TwinBee RPG'' featured an entirely different illustrator and developing team. Konami developed ''TwinBee RPG'' primarily to cater fans of the ''TwinBee Paradise'' radio and anime series who were not good at playing shoot-'em-ups. Although Konami hoped to use the popularity of the radio and anime voice cast to promote the game, the game's sales were not enough to cover its production values and ''TwinBee RPG'' became the final game in the ''TwinBee'' series (excluding later ports and mobile applications). While ''TwinBee RPG'' is primarily a role-playing video game, it features a dating sim-system similar to Konami's ''

Tokimeki Memorial is a dating simulation series by Konami. It consists of six main games in addition to many spin-offs. The games are notable in the dating sim genre for being highly nonlinear. Their nickname amongst their fans is the contraction ''TokiMemo''. Th ...

'' series in which the protagonist tries to gain the favor of various girls. The endings vary depending on who is the girl most impressed by the protagonist. The experience points obtained from defeating enemies are acquired at a fixed rate (160 points from small fry enemies and 600 from bosses), which are then raised or lowered depending on the level differences between allied and enemy characters (there the weakest members of the player's party are given more experience points from defeating the same group of enemies). Moreover, the party member who delivers the finishing blow to an enemy gets extra experience points. Regardless of the current level, each party member must acquire around 5,000 experience points in order to level-up (although TwinBee is not restricted by this limit at the start of the story). In addition to combat, the player can also gain experience by doing assorted favors to townspeople in villages. Money (called "en" in this game) dropped by enemy tend to be very few, instead the player acquired profit by selling fruits and items left behind by defeated enemies. The fruits that can be found includes (from least valuable to most valuable)

satsuma Satsuma may refer to: * Satsuma (fruit), a citrus fruit * ''Satsuma'' (gastropod), a genus of land snails Places Japan * Satsuma, Kagoshima, a Japanese town * Satsuma District, Kagoshima, a district in Kagoshima Prefecture * Satsuma Domain, a sou ...

apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...

grape A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus ''Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of grapes began perhaps 8,000 years ago, ...

cherries A cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus ''Prunus'', and is a fleshy drupe (stone fruit). Commercial cherries are obtained from cultivars of several species, such as the sweet ''Prunus avium'' and the sour ''Prunus cerasus''. The nam ...

, and

peach The peach (''Prunus persica'') is a deciduous tree first domesticated and cultivated in Zhejiang province of Eastern China. It bears edible juicy fruits with various characteristics, most called peaches and others (the glossy-skinned, non-fu ...

es. Although the game features full voiceovers, the protagonist's name is never mentioned in any of the dialogue.

Plot

The unnamed protagonist is the player's alter-ego whose name can be decided at the start of the game. He is summoned by Princess Melora from the real world in order to save the TwinBee world. His distinguishing characters includes an outfit consists of a cap, knee-long trousers, and a vest, and an androgynous face with shoulder-long hair. His personality can be changed by the player from serious to rebellious or even perverted depending on the player's actions. Although the protagonist was designed so that his age and gender would be ambiguous according to interviews with the developers, the game's supporting cast such as Madoka and Vieren refer to the protagonist by male pronouns.

Development and release

The game is based on the radio drama ''Twinbee Paradise''. It was released on April 2, 1998, and was re-released for the Konami the Best in December 1999. It was later released again for the PSone Books in November 2003.

Mariko Kouda is a Japanese actress, voice actress, J-pop singer and radio personality. She graduated from Kasukabe Kyōei High School and went on to major in Communications at Tamagawa University in Machida City, Tokyo, graduating in 1990. Kouda has had at l ...

performed the ending theme song of the game.

Junko Kawano is a Japanese game designer, game director and writer. She helped Yoshitaka Murayama create the '' Suikoden'' series of role-playing video games. Initially a character designer and illustrator, she helped the series for Konami following Murayam ...

was a planner for the game, and she had previously been a character designer for ''

Suikoden is a series of role-playing video games created by Yoshitaka Murayama. The games are loosely based on the classical Chinese novel ''Water Margin'', whose title is rendered as in Japanese. Each individual game centers on themes of politics, co ...

''.

Reception

Famitsu formerly ''Famicom Tsūshin'', is a line of Japanese video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly formats as well as in the fo ...

'' upon release gave it a score of 24 out of 40. Three reviewers in ''

Dengeki PlayStation is a Japanese video gaming publication by ASCII Media Works (formerly MediaWorks). It primarily features information pertaining to the PlayStation brand. Dengeki was originally founded as a magazine in 1994 and ran until 2020, when it ceased p ...

'' gave it scores of 55, 50, 65, and 85 for a total of 255/400. ''Gamers' Republic'' gave it a B−. ''Joypad'' gave it a 5/10.

References

External links

{{Twinbee series 1998 video games PlayStation (console) games PlayStation (console)-only games Role-playing video games TwinBee games Japan-exclusive video games Video games developed in Japan