Tengai Makyo is a series of role-playing video games released in Japan and Taiwan. The series was conceived by Oji Hiroi and developed by Red Company, debuting on the PC Engine CD-ROM² System in 1989. The series became popular in Japan, where it was one of the most popular RPG series during the 16-bit era, along with Enix's Dragon Quest and Squaresoft's Final Fantasy. Its success was partly because the original Tengai Makyou was the first RPG released for the new CD-ROM format, which it utilized to create a bigger game and introduce fully voiced animated cut scenes and CD music to the genre. Though originally intended to be only three games, it has grown to encompass a number of remakes, gaidens and genre spin-offs across a variety of platforms. Despite its relative popularity in Asian countries, the series is largely unknown in other territories, with only one game released overseas.
Overview
The main series is composed of three separate games within the land of 'Jipang', each follows a descendant of the 'Fire Clan' and supporting cast in battles against a range of often comical villains. The stories of the games, though primarily of 'fantasy' fare, are inspired by and a parody of misconceptions about Japanese culture by Western societies. The first game Tengai Makyo: Ziria, released for the PC Engine CD-ROM² System in 1989, was notable as the first RPG released on CD-ROM and the first in the genre to feature animated cut scenes and voice acting. The plot and characters were inspired by the Japanese folk taleJiraiya Goketsu Monogatari. The music for the game was also composed by the Academy Award winning musician Ryuichi Sakamoto. The game was previewed in the November 1990 issue of Computer Gaming World. The writer Roe R. Adams described it as "a truly gigantic game" that "seems to be about the size of 2 or 3 Ultimas put together." He suggested that, if "NEC can handle the mammoth translating job, Ziria could be the game hit of 1991" unless, "of course, Nintendo counters with ' or Dragon Warrior III, and Sega with Phantasy Star III." There were also plans to release the sequel ' in North America, but due to the TurboGrafx-16's failure in that market, no Tengai Makyou games would be released there up until .
Creators
The games are largely the creation of Hiroshi Adachi and Red Company. Virtually all publishing tasks have been handled by Hudson Soft. The series is purported to be based on a book entitled "Far East of Eden" written by a Paul Hieronymus Chada, who is presented as a 19th-century Smithsonian professor of oriental studies. The book and P.H. Chada do not exist, and 'P.H. Chada' is actually derived from 'Prince Hiroi Adachi'. This is part of how the setting is supposed based on the misconceptions Western societies held with regard to Japan in the past. Oji Hiroi and Red Company would later become known for creating the Sakura Wars series for the Sega Saturn.
