Japanese publisher Mebius announced that it will launch the MSX2 version of “BURAI Volume 1” on Nintendo Switch in early summer of 2025. This classic RPG from the 1980s is famous for its 40-minute long opening animation and group drama-style story. It was regarded as one of the largest game projects at the time!
Two hundred and forty million enemies VS eight wolves! “BURAI Volume 1” returns as a classic
“BURAI Volume 1” is a role-playing game launched by Riverhill Soft in 1989. It was first launched on PC-88 and PC-98 and was later ported to MSX2 in 1990. The script was written by Takeo Iijima (currently: Takiya Iijima), and the character designs were by well-known animators Shingo Araki and Yoshitomo Himeno. The music was also handled by the Japanese heavy metal band SHOW-YA. It was a heavyweight production in the game industry at that time.
The game tells the story of eight warriors from around the world who face the threat from the followers of the evil god Daar. They will embark on a thrilling journey and fight 240 million enemies. One of the greatest features of this game is the over 40-minute opening animation, which still showed a very high level of production despite the technical limitations of the time, allowing players to immerse themselves in the delicate storytelling and shocking music.
Switch version adds modern features
While retaining the original content, this Switch version will add a variety of modern convenience features, including:
- Instant archive/load (State Save & Load)
- Rewind function (Rewind)
- Changeable game wallpaper
- Built-in digital version of the game manual
- Data-linked with the sequel “BURAI Volume 2 Finale”
This game will run on the MSXPLAYer emulator, which is the official simulation environment jointly developed by Mebius and the MSX Association. It is specially built for the Switch platform to ensure that MSX games can run smoothly.
Takiya Iijima: “The story of “BURAI” is still exciting even 30 years later”
The original screenwriter Takiya Iijima also expressed his thoughts on this remake:
“RPGs at that time didn’t pay much attention to plot, so we tried to create a completely different experience, creating a deeper story through long opening animations, diverse character settings, and villains that were not just ‘simply evil’.
This is a game that was born more than 30 years ago, but even today, I believe that “BURAI” can still bring different shocks and fun to players. “
In addition, the director of this work, Miyazaki Jihiko (now 《ワールドネバーランド》）（World Neverland） Series producer) also recalled the development process that year, saying that “BURAI” was an “imaging technology challenge” in the 8-bit era. The team tried to create the most immersive RPG experience within technical limitations.
Mebius plans more MSX classic ports
In addition to “BURAI Volume 1”, Mebius has also confirmed that it will launch a sequel “BURAI Volume 2: The Final Chapter” in the future, and plans to cooperate with MSX Licensing Corporation to bring more classic games on the MSX platform back to players’ horizons.
In the past, D4Enterprise released some MSX games through the EGGCONSOLE service, but the degree of localization was low. Whether this Mebius port can bring a more complete multi-language version will also be the focus of players’ attention.
Are you interested in a remake of BURAI Volume 1? Are you looking forward to more MSX classic games from Mebius in the future?
source:Famiton