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[Derek]

Back in the day I used to buy Gamefan and in their previews section I once saw a game called "Tales of Seven Wind Island" for the Saturn.  It was basically a brief blurb and a couple of crappy screenshots, but it really intrigued me.  I think it was essentially a point and click adventure game, but what fascinated me was the fantasy setting the game took place in.  I remember the main character was a bipedal dragon, and I also remember a giant dog with four arms (?) smoking a pipe.  The graphics seemed amazing.

Fast forward to a couple years or so ago, and I brought up the game in the (now defunct) insert credit forums.  I wish I could find the thread again, but someone on there owned the game (Japan only) and said that it came with a CD that contained hundreds of pieces of concept art.  He told me that he was going to try and upload them when he had a chance.  Unfortunately, he never got back to me and the forums are now dead, so...

I remember having found a tiny website about the game around that time, too, but now I can't find it.  There's virtually no information on the game anywhere on the internet, which strikes me as very odd and only makes me more fascinated about it.  Maybe I should be searching for the Japanese title, but I can't figure out what it is.

Any help?  Has anyone even heard of this game before?

Wish I could post a screen or something, but I can't even find one now.  The only other thing I know is that it was developed by a company called Giburo and published by Enix.

Link: Google search for "Tales of Seven Wind Island"

[sega]

Here's the cover:


七ツ風の島物語
Nanatsu Kaze no Shima Monogatari

Segagaga Domain's page for it

This is a beautiful game by Enix.  The backgrounds are all beautifully digitized mat art.  Character animation is also beautiful making this one of the best looking RPGs on the Saturn.  The game is also quite easy to play even for those not familiar with Japanese.  It's probably best to describe this game as Wonder Project J in a way but different enough not to be Wonder Project J if you know what I mean.  The game comes in a double CD case along with a special premium disc which allows you to see many pieces of art from the game in the Saturn's high resolution mode.

Square-Enix's web page for it

Go to this website and go down to this CD to hear some of the soundtrack:

[Derek]

Holy shit... I love you, sega.  Marry me?

Knowing the Japanese title (Nanatsu Kaze No Shima Monogatari), I was also able to find that old webpage I was talking about:

http://www.ncsx.com/www/ncs1208/jrnl1212.htm

Look at this gorgeous character art!!!

One of the best things about Nanatsu are the delightful characters and designs. All of the creatures that you encounter in the game are interesting and beautifully crafted. Enix gifts buyers of Nanatsu with a second CD that contains hundred of images in 640 x 480 bitmap (*.bmp) format of every creature and location that may be found in the game. The artwork is of excellent quality and the detail afforded to each character will warrant close scrutiny. Some of the location pictures are pencil sketches but every creature is rendered in vibrant color. A section on the CD also contains a number of pencil sketches of the characters as they were being developed by the artist. A software trick will allow you to zoom in and out of a picture to check out the details and the intricacy in each image. All in all, a great game and a very nice bonus. The extra CD may also be read by a PC so all of the images may be used as wallpaper.

Someone needs to put these images online...

Also found YouTube videos!







Chapter 2
Chapter 3, Part 1
Chapter 3, Part 2





http://tokyoshadow.com/nanatsu/

Ahhhhhhh, the art is amazing!!!

[sega]

Man, that's some nice stuff.  The flying dude totally looks like a Dr Seuss character.  I love the dinosaur guy on the right, and the moonman in the second picture.  I'll let you know when I'm finished obtaining the second CD .

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

I wonder what that artist is doing today.

[Keops]

Wow. This game sure looks interesting. The artwork is so different from your usual stuff. That fact alone makes it so appealing!

Is there a way to get your hands on this title?

[sega]

Ok, I got a hold of it, and this stuff is gorgeous.  Here's how they translate the title in the Saturn biblography text file:

"The Seven blasts of Wind in island Story"

One sad thing is that while they are uncompressed BMP, the character drawings were saved with indexed 8 bit color, so they use 256 colors max (like GIF).  They are around the same resolution as the moonman and the elephant conductor that Derek posted, but a lot blurrier and more dithered.  That makes me wonder where those NCSX images came from...  Maybe an art book scan?  The official website (not super prevalent in 1997)? Here are a few cropped images of cool characters from the disc:



And here's one of the sketches (oh man, I wish there were tons more of these than there are):



In addition to the low color depth, it appears they resized UP a lot of the assets, instead of starting at high resolution and resizing down (I have a feeling a lot of the character drawings, including the ones I posted above, are resized up)



BUT it's still a really cool disc, and I love seeing all the ideas they put into the game, regardless of the image quality.  There are 354 images total, so there's a lot to look at.

[Chris Whitman]

Is there an emulator about that would play this? The character designs are really fantastic.

[Alec]

Too bad the gameplay looks boring.

[sega]

Is there an emulator about that would play this? The character designs are really fantastic.

SSF might play it.  I'll find out soon, but I'm not sure how much I really wanna play it.  It really does have a different style of character design than most games I've seen.  I also wonder what happened to the designer, rinku.  I wonder how hard it'd be to find out who it was.

[Alec]

I also wonder what happened to the designer, rinku.

He became a hero.

[Derek]

Too bad the gameplay looks boring.

 

[Alec]

uh..

*middle finger*

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

I agree that the gameplay looks boring from those YouTube videos. I'm not even sure what you *do* -- walk around and talk to people?

[Alec]

It looks like an adventure game... I'd rather see an action/adventure combo.

 I just feel like with graphics like that, I want to be flying around the back of a dragon, or climbing up the side of a floating island in the sky - rather than playing as the plodding monster guy.

[Derek]

Sorry, I do agree that the game looks too slow.

I was just excited about having found this game that I've been interested in for years, mainly because of the world and the artwork.

sega (K.C. bless him) just sent me a zip with the art, so I'll put it online for anyone who wants to take a look!

[Alec]

The world and the artwork are awesome.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

Yep, I definately want to see more of the art.

[rey-o]

holy smokes, that is some really creative/crazy character art!!!

i'd love to see more.

[Derek]

Finally got around to putting all of them up!  Now in png format instead of the original bmp:

http://www.derekyu.com/images/extras/nanatsukaze/ (Open dir)



Enjoy!