Last Armageddon

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Last Armageddon
In this screenshot, a grim reaper and a minotaur peek out to see the chaos.
Developer(s)	Braingrey.Mind
Publisher(s)	Yutaka
Platform(s)	Famicom, TurboGrafx-CD, MS-DOS
Release date	JP November 10, 1990 (Famicom version)[1] JP August 30, 1990 (TurboGrafx-CD version)[2] JP 1988 (MSX version)[3]
Genre(s)	Console RPG
Mode(s)	Single player only
Rating(s)	n/a (not rated)
Media	6-megabit Cartridge or 3½ floppy disk
System requirements	MS-DOS version 4; 386 processor or above
Input methods	Famicom controller or PC keyboard

Last Armageddon (ラストハルマゲドン, Last Armageddon^?) is a Japanese post-apocalyptic game for the Famicom, MS-DOS personal computers, and TurboGrafx-CD.

The introductory story deals with life after humans are wiped out by a mysterious force. Those humans who breathed the toxin-filled air in the Earth's surface became one with the Earth and kept dissolving. The history of humanity ended and dominion of the planet returned to the demons. These mutant creatures didn't depend on oxygen to survive. Therefore, they were able to breathe the air and use the land. Meanwhile, an army of robots wage World War IV against the demons in order to conquer what is now known as Makai - the Demon World. These robots came to the planet on a wave of energy that created an explosion that turned the world into a wasteland.^[4]

Can the demons gain dominion on the humans' old planet or will robots enforce impose a millennium of logic and dictatorial force throughout Makai? Playing as the robots is not an option that is open to the player. Therefore, the player must take advantage of his or her mutant army and crush the robot invaders. This game builds on the fear of robot domination of the world that has been featured greatly in movies like The Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. The gameplay is similar to Final Fantasy as the turn-based fights are viewed from a third-person perspective.

[edit] Might and Magic

Both the demon soldiers and their enemies may cast magic spells or physical attacks. Some magic attacks have the ability to inflict poison damage on any of the player's creatures. If a creature is poisoned, then the player must return his or her creatures to the home base in an attempt to find a cure for the poison. Letting the creature remained poisoned for a certain amount of time eventually will lead to a creature's death.^[5]

The game plays like a console role-playing game and the graves of fallen demons by the player's home base remind him or her of the situation that is going on in the game. When a player first starts the game, he or she should not go right because experienced monsters lie to the right in a stadium that is in the southeastern corner of the game. It will take a foursome of level 5-10 characters in order to defeat the robots inside the dome.

[edit] Thematics

Much later in the game, concurrent themes including Adolf Hitler, war, creating a perfect race of people, and the destruction of humanity in the year 1999^[6] are revealed to the player inside one of the robot's main bases. These themes were allowed because Nintendo's guidelines for its Japanese games were much more lenient than the guidelines that Nintendo gave to its North American and European games. Compared to Last Armageddon and other Japanese Famicom video games, all Nintendo games released in either North America or Europe had to undergo an extremely strict censorship process.

These strict guidelines that only applied to North America and Europe eradicated all references to violence, death, politics, the Holocaust, most religious references, and mature content for more than a decade. Roman and Greek gods were the only exception to the strict North America guidelines against religion in video game. By censoring all forms of religion and death (which is an inevitable part of life), the American and European censors generally emasculated most of the games into becoming the equivalent of G- or PG-rated movies (while Japanese games were more like PG-13 and R-rated movies).

It was not until the establishment of the ESRB ratings system in 1997 that finally persuaded Nintendo of America to relax their censorship policy. While Nintendo's North American and European departments still self-censors their games, the censorship is done due to image reasons rather than preventing moral outcry among parents. For example, Japanese Wii games do not work on Wii console systems that were purchased in North America or Europe due to a regional lockout chip. This implanted chip prevents North American and European gamers from playing "uncensored Japanese Wii games" on their system and forces them to purchase games from their local retailer. The implanted chip also has the side effect of discouraging people from importing video games from other countries.

[edit] References

1. ^ Release date (NES). GameFAQs. Retrieved on 2008-04-28.
2. ^ Release date (TurboGrafx-CD). GameFAQs. Retrieved on 2008-05-15.
3. ^ Release date (MSX). GameFAQs. Retrieved on 2008-05-24.
4. ^ Summary. Moby Games. Retrieved on 2008-04-28.
5. ^ Database of items and spells. Media Wars Japan. Retrieved on 2008-04-28.
6. ^ Game content. Moemoe. Retrieved on 2008-04-28.