is a

role-playing video game Role-playing video games, also known as CRPG (computer/console role-playing games), comprise a broad video game genre generally defined by a detailed story and character advancement (often through increasing characters' levels or other skills) ...

released by

Konami , commonly known as Konami, , is a Japanese multinational entertainment company and video game developer and video game publisher, publisher headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, Chūō, Tokyo. The company also produces and distributes trading card ...

for the

PlayStation is a video gaming brand owned and produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), a division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. Its flagship products consists of a series of home video game consoles produced under the brand; it also consists ...

in 1998. Released exclusively in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, it is a spin-off of the ''

TwinBee is a vertically scrolling shooter released by Konami as an arcade video game in 1985 in Japan. Along with Sega's '' Fantasy Zone'', released a year later, ''TwinBee'' is credited as an early archetype of the " cute 'em up" type in its genre. I ...

'' shoot-'em-up series featuring a storyline based on the ''TwinBee Paradise'' audio drama serial.

Gameplay

The game is a 3D RPG, and not a shooting game like the other ''

'' titles. The player controls a new protagonist who is summoned to Donburi Island to serve as a temporary pilot for TwinBee following the mysterious disappearance of TwinBee's regular pilot Light. Although the ''TwinBee'' series had previous installments that were not shoot-'em-ups, such as '' Pop'n TwinBee: Rainbow Bell Adventures'' and ''TwinBee: Taisen Puzzle-Dama'', ''TwinBee RPG'' featured an entirely different illustrator and developing team. Konami developed ''TwinBee RPG'' primarily to cater fans of the ''TwinBee Paradise'' radio and anime series who were not good at playing shoot-'em-ups. Although Konami hoped to use the popularity of the radio and anime voice cast to promote the game, the game's sales were not enough to cover its production values and ''TwinBee RPG'' became the final game in the ''TwinBee'' series (excluding later ports and mobile applications). While ''TwinBee RPG'' is primarily a role-playing video game, it features a

dating sim Dating sims, also known as dating simulation games, are a video game subgenre of simulation games with romantic elements. While resembling the visual novel genre in presentation, true dating sims utilize an additional statistical and time manage ...

-system similar to Konami's ''

Tokimeki Memorial is a dating simulation series by Konami. It consists of eight main games in addition to many spin-offs. The games are notable in the dating sim genre for being highly nonlinear. Their nickname amongst their fans is the contraction ''TokiMemo'' ...

'' series in which the protagonist tries to gain the favor of various girls. The endings vary depending on who is the girl most impressed by the protagonist. The experience points obtained from defeating enemies are acquired at a fixed rate (160 points from small fry enemies and 600 from bosses), which are then raised or lowered depending on the level differences between allied and enemy characters (there the weakest members of the player's party are given more experience points from defeating the same group of enemies). Moreover, the party member who delivers the finishing blow to an enemy gets extra experience points. Regardless of the current level, each party member must acquire around 5,000 experience points in order to level-up (although TwinBee is not restricted by this limit at the start of the story). In addition to combat, the player can also gain experience by doing assorted favors to townspeople in villages. Money (called "en" in this game) dropped by enemy tend to be very few, instead the player acquired profit by selling fruits and items left behind by defeated enemies. The fruits that can be found includes (from least valuable to most valuable)

satsuma Satsuma may refer to: * Satsuma (fruit), a citrus fruit * ''Satsuma'' (gastropod), a genus of land snails Places Japan * Satsuma, Kagoshima, a Japanese town * Satsuma District, Kagoshima, a district in Kagoshima Prefecture * Satsuma Domain, a ...

apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

grape A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus ''Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of grapes began approximately 8,0 ...

cherries A cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus ''Prunus'', and is a fleshy drupe (stone fruit). Commercial cherries are obtained from cultivars of several species, such as the sweet ''Prunus avium'' and the sour ''Prunus cerasus''. The name ...

, and

peach The peach (''Prunus persica'') is a deciduous tree first domesticated and Agriculture, cultivated in China. It bears edible juicy fruits with various characteristics, most called peaches and the glossy-skinned, non-fuzzy varieties called necta ...

es. Although the game features full voiceovers, the protagonist's name is never mentioned in any of the dialogue.

Plot

The unnamed protagonist is the player's alter-ego whose name can be decided at the start of the game. He is summoned by Princess Melora from the real world in order to save the TwinBee world. His distinguishing characters includes an outfit consists of a cap, knee-long trousers, and a vest, and an androgynous face with shoulder-long hair. His personality can be changed by the player from serious to rebellious or even perverted depending on the player's actions. Although the protagonist was designed so that his age and gender would be ambiguous according to interviews with the developers, the game's supporting cast such as Madoka and Vieren refer to the protagonist by male pronouns.

Development and release

The game is based on the radio drama ''Twinbee Paradise''. It was released on April 2, 1998, and was re-released for the Konami the Best in December 1999. It was later released again for the PSone Books in November 2003.

Mariko Kouda is a Japanese actress, voice actress, J-pop singer and radio personality. She graduated from Kasukabe Kyōei High School and went on to major in Communications at Tamagawa University in Machida City, Tokyo, graduating in 1990. Kouda has had at ...

performed the ending theme song of the game.

Junko Kawano is a Japanese game designer, game director and writer. She helped Yoshitaka Murayama create the ''Suikoden'' series of role-playing video games. Initially a character designer and illustrator, she helped the series for Konami following Murayama' ...

was a planner for the game, and she had previously been a character designer for ''

Suikoden is a series of role-playing video games developed and published by Konami. Created by Yoshitaka Murayama, the games are loosely based on the classical Chinese novel '' Water Margin'', whose title is rendered as in Japanese. Each individual g ...

''.

Reception

Famitsu , formerly , is a line of Japanese Video game journalism, video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly f ...

'' upon release gave it a score of 24 out of 40. Three reviewers in ''

Dengeki PlayStation was a Japanese video gaming publication by ASCII Media Works (formerly MediaWorks). It primarily features information pertaining to the PlayStation brand. ''Dengeki PlayStation'' was originally founded as a magazine in 1994 and ran until 2020, ...

'' gave it scores of 55, 50, 65, and 85 for a total of 255/400. ''Gamers' Republic'' gave it a B−. ''Joypad'' gave it a 5/10.

References

External links

{{Twinbee series 1998 video games Japan-exclusive video games PlayStation (console) games PlayStation (console)-only games Role-playing video games Single-player video games TwinBee games Video games developed in Japan