Aurora Quest: Otaku no Seiza in Another World (PC Engine CD) Review

Date purchased: Mar. 16, 2015
Price paid: $29.99
Dates played: June 27 to Nov. 17, 2021
Playtime: 300h 0m
Date reviewed: Nov. 18, 2021
Date posted: Feb. 21, 2023
Rating: 7/10

Since I was machine translating it as I went, it took me 300 hrs. I'd guess it's actually in the 20 to 30 hr range.

This is a very generic JRPG with a little bit of "adult" content in the form of being a peeping Tom in a few places (there's only one instance of nudity in the game, and it doesn't show anything that would be a reason for censorship, if that's a concern to you), as well as some really oddball enemies in the first half of the game. The only bad thing I can say about the game is that the version of Blackjack they included is very basic (which is where you can get really good equipment) -- you can't split or double down, and even though "INSURANCE PAYS 2 TO 1" is written on the table, it's not part of the game. The one thing that did impress me is the near lack of load times -- I guess by 1993, they'd figured out how to minimize them. A couple neat little features that I can't think of another RPG that I've played having are 1) when you change equipment, before exiting that character's equipment screen, you can choose to revert back to what he had equipped, and 2) you can "equip" an item another character is wearing to see how it compares, but it doesn't actually equip it. If you like standard, generic 8-bit and 16-bit JRPGs, either know Japanese or are willing to put up with the language barrier (I don't believe it has been fan translated), and are OK with a little bit of perverted content, I'd recommend giving this game a try.