![]() VICE reached out to two people whose names and backgrounds match Kanai and Kanasawa, but have not heard back. When asked directly about Takeshi and Kouichi, Kurosawa confirmed they were his friends who made The Story of Kamikuishiki Village. Buried in the readme for another Kanai Karasawa game are the names Takeshi Kanai and Kouichi Kanasawa. On Tokugawa Corp-a forum dedicated to retro Japanese video games- fans believe they’ve discovered the identity of the men behind Kanai Karasawa. ![]() The name of the group they went by is Kanai Karasawa, and they made a lot of games together under that banner.” ![]() I recall one of them joining Konami, but I have no idea if they're still there or not. “Unfortunately, I've been out of touch with them for more than 20 years now, so I have no idea what they're up to at this point. “I think they used a lot of new and innovative techniques to create it,” he said. “The experience shook us, so those two ended up creating and I also made a game about Aum on my own.”ĭecades later, Kurosawa remembered the two as talented programmers. Kurosawa said Aum had become big in Japan, and had started running political candidates in elections. “ was made by two of my friends while we were still in high school,” he said over Facebook messenger. When reached by VICE, Kurosawa said that he didn’t make the game, but he knows who did. Hong Kong 97 was developed and published by HappySoft Ltd, the same company listed as the developer of The Story of Kamikuishiki Village in advertisements. It’s a bullet-hell notorious for its poor quality and the inclusion of a picture of an actual dead person in the game over screen. Widely regarded as one of the worst games ever made, Hong Kong 97 was a strange game with a crude and satirical plot about the British hiring a Jackie Chan lookalike to kill Chinese people in Hong Kong. Kurosawa is best known as the man behind the infamously terrible (purposefully so, he claims) Super Nintendo game Hong Kong 97. Japanese doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo members wearing their guru Shoko Asahara's masks parade on Januin Tokyo, Japan. ![]() Both the leapfrogging and underwater breathing competition were routinely mocked in Japanese media at the time. Really, he was using a leg to briefly toss himself into the air.) After that, footage of an underwater breathing competition plays. (Shoko Asahara, Aum’s leader, began his cult as a yoga practice and cultivated fame by claiming he could fly. The game opens with a video of an Aum follower attempting to fly using a meditation practice called Darduri Siddhi. “The game has a satirical tone to it, the intro starts with the cult's most infamous moments on mass media,” Senn told me over in a direct message on Discord. 4 and data Senn pulled from a floppy disc containing copy of the game, it was published around June 29, 1995, just months after the cult killed 12 and injured thousands by releasing sarin gas in a Tokyo subway, and sold direct to customers via underground magazines. The player wins the game by carrying out a sarin gas attack on a Tokyo subway, and loses by mismanaging the cult which leads to Armageddon.īased on advertisements in Gama Urara Vol. According to Senn, the game is a cult simulator in which players control the cult and build up the village. Kamikuishiki was a village in Japan that the real Aum Shinrikyo used as a home base. 4, an underground magazine that advertised the game.Īccording to “Senn”, The Story of Kamikuishiki Village is a homebrew game straight from the 1990s Japanese underground software scene. Senn and his friends had translated the game’s screens, and obtained copies of Game Urara Vol. According to them, The Story of Kamikuishiki Village belongs to a category of interactive visual novels called Doujin games where players navigate screens as they read and watch short animations. Hightower put me in touch with “Senn,” togement2,” and “Metalik,” three pseudonymous associates who collect, research, and translate obscure Japanese video games and culture as a hobby. “Basically everything you see on YouTube about ‘this game will brainwash you’ is bullshit,” Hightower told me via Twitter DM. She also happens to be an Aum Shinrikyo expert and, according to her, the game was not an effort by the cult to bolster its numbers, but an elaborate troll meant to mock them-in effect, a shitpost. Hightower is an independent researcher who studies domestic terror movements.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |