Introduction
Let's Play Sorcerian! What the hell's Sorcerian?
Sorcerian is a side-scrolling action RPG created by Nihon Falcom in 1987. Sierra translated and released it for MS-DOS in the USA in 1990. Sorcerian is technically (sort of) part V of the Dragon Slayer series, which also includes Legacy of the Wizard. It was a fairly significant cult hit in Japan, spawning a number of expansions and countless arranged soundtracks as well as versions for the Mega Drive, PC Engine CD, Dreamcast, cell phones, and Windows. In the US it went largely unheralded, except for the time SpaceDrake baited me into buying Fortune Summoners by namedropping it.
Although light on plot and honestly kind of janky in the game mechanics department, Sorcerian is not lacking in content and charm. Each of the 15 adventures has its own extensive backstory (in the manual). Your characters grow old as you progress through the game, and they can pass their belongings on to children when they die. The magic/item enchantment system is ridiculously complex.
About the Music
Sorcerian has a fantastic, expansive soundtrack by Yuzo Koshiro and three other people (alright... Mieko Ishikawa, Reiko Takebayashi, and Hideaki Nagata). Rob Atesalp and Ken Allen did MIDI conversion for the Sierra release, and it's fine, but a bit lacking. For the most part I'll be replacing the MS-DOS music with other arrangements. I believe all the albums I'll be using are available on iTunes under Falcom Sound Team JDK.
Can I Buy Sorcerian?
Unless you're in Japan, not really. Sorcerian is available on iOS here but it's $30 and in Japanese (even though the store page says English). You could always bug @XSEEDGames on Twitter or something, they seem to have U.S. distribution rights for all Falcom games.
You can buy a digital download of Sorcerian Forever together with Sorcerian Original (these are remakes) here but I have no idea what their terms are.
Original Japanese PC versions are available in emulator packages from Project EGG but again I'm not familiar with the workings of that site. Seems to be a Japanese GOG basically with some kind of subscription service.
About the LP
The format is video LP with post commentary. Expect roughly 17 episodes (prologue, 15 quests, and ...?!). I'll be including fluff and images from the manual. Folks in the thread will have three opportunities to create a party for me--one for each "scenario."
Table of Contents
- Episode 0: Prologue
- Episode 1: The Stolen Scepter
- Episode 2: The Lost Talisman
- Episode 3: Lucifer's Floodgate
- Episode 4: The Cursed Oasis
- Episode 5: The Tower of Thieves
- Episode 6: Master of the Dark Marsh
- Episode 7: The Dragon King
- Episode 8: Riddle of the Red Jewel
- Episode 9: The Dark Magician
- Episode 10: The Cursed Ship
- Episode 11: The Garden of the Gods
- Episode 12: The Caverns of Ice
- Episode 13: The Curse of Medusa
- Episode 14: The Missing Magician
- Episode 15: The Water of Life
- Episode 16: Fight Dragon