Underplayed Gems

MGG: Manic Game Girl (2002)

MGG: Manic Game Girl cover
Developer
Joycast Co., Ltd.
Platforms
PlayStation
Genres
Role-playing (RPG), Hack and slash/Beat 'em up, Adventure

How it feels

A scrappy, ambitious beat-em-up RPG that feels like a passionate but rough first attempt at something bigger, carrying the earnest energy of a country's nascent game industry finding its footing.

action-heavyscrappyambitiousjankysci-fi tingedbrawler-pacedpioneeringrough around the edges

About

Manic Game Girl is an action-adventure RPG with 3D brawler mechanics created with the help of Han Jong Lee, one of the main programmers on Parasite Eve and part of the engine development team for Final Fantasy 8. "The first self-developed PlayStation game in Korea." The games development was started in 1999 and was originally planned for the Dreamcast but later switched to the PlayStation. There was trouble with the games development as the market for video games was just starting in South Korea which lead to a lack of people with experience making games at the time. The game was released at the end of the PlayStation's production cycle after the launch of the PlayStation 2 earlier in the year. This was reflected in it's marketing at the time which mentions how it will run just as well on the newer system. There were plans to release the game internationally by the end of the year with the North American publisher Conspiracy Entertainment but that was eventually canceled.

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