0 to Z of Playstation 1 Games - Angel Blade: Neo Tokyo Guardians

      

Angel Blade: Neo Tokyo Guardians Is a Sci-Fi themed turn based strategy game developed by Nippon Ichi Software and published by On DiMand Games and, Hamster Games and released exclusively in Japan for the Playstation 1 on the 3^rd of July 1997

The combat conditions are different between each scenario, each character have is own weapon and a different attack range and special moves. The game also features character voices and 2d anime style cartoon graphics.

Set in Tokyo the player takes control of a special police commando and the fight against and evil corporation the game is broke up into 17 different stories each with a story element and tactical battle part, Shota Midorikawa is the main protaganist with characters Natsuki Akatsuka, Reiko Aoyama, Misa Momoi, Makoto Kouga and Saeko Shiraishi making up the remainder of the Special Police Commando unit.

This being a very early Playstation release and a Japanese only release reviews for this game are next to impossible to find, so we head over to GameFAQs for their user data, with the game currently sitting on 3.14/5 from 14 user ratings, with a wide range of player ratings with one user rating the game a full 5/5 with a good number rating the game either a 4/5 or 4.5/5.

At the other end of the rating scale a couple of users gave the game just a 0.5/5 with another user giving the game just 1/5, the remainder of user ratings have this game at between 2.5/5 and 3.5/5. When it comes to difficulty a total of 13 users rated this game with 8 of those users rating the game as tough, with the remaining 5 rating the game as having just the right difficulty.

The lifespan of this game seems to be pretty good with a total of 8 users rating this, the minimum playtime for the game coming in at 12 hours, with the majority clocking in up to 40 hours with the game with a couple of people spending 60 hours with the game.

This is the part of 0 to Z where is visit four online retailers and see what the availability of the title is, and what price you would be looking at if you wanted to pick this title up, the sites that I will be using for this are Amazon.com, eStarland.com, retrogames.co.uk and Gamedude.com I know the last one is very location specific, but from a podcast I listen to I’ve heard they have a huge stock of older games, Ebay has now been dropped

So lets get down to business with Gamedude who unsurprisingly along with Retrogames.co.uk and eStarland.com do not stock this Japanese only release, so we quickly head over to Amazon.com where we find the imported version of the game available with a good number available, starting with a complete very good quality used copy available for $8.60 this comes with free shipping from Japan as well.

For a like new used copy of the game prices do take a substantial jump up supplies of like new copies are scarce with only one available at the time of writing and is priced up at $24.38 which is about £18.58, this again comes with free shipping from Japan. It would actually be cheaper to buy a brand new copy of the game with prices starting at $17.09 for a brand new copy with several copies currently on the market which comes with free shipping,

Written by

P J Gibbon