Quarter Circle Forward: Popful Mail By GeorgieBoysAXE

I recently did a Quarter Circle Forward for most recent episode of Press Pause Radio for an over-looked gem that may have unfortunately been over-looked because of the format it was released on in here in the states yet contrary to popular belief, we received the best version of the original PC-8801 & PC-9801 original that was ported to the PC Engine CD & Super Famicom.

The plot of the game as I touched on before is about an elfish bounty hunter by the name of Mail, who's simply out to make it rich & get her due, however she just happens to be a terrible bounty hunter & though she's skilled with a sword, her bounties are always one step ahead of her, her most recent attempt was at the infamous Nuts-Cracker, as she collectedly self deprecates through her defeated trek back into the nearest village, she finds her new bounty goal listed on the board being Muttonhead, a skilled & powerful wizard who has recently become evil & has been guilty of misdeeds & evil doings, thus starting off your adventure. As I finish up the premise of the game's into & lead into how the  game plays out, I need iterate that this was all introduced through high quality cut scenes which proves my point over the attention that Sega CD could have received through the western releases only seen here where the shitty glaucoma inducing lego-Esq cut scenes pale in comparison to all of ported Mega CD releases that we were able to enjoy here like Sonic CD, Lunar, Popful Mail, Dark Wizard, & the Ecco titles. Falcom placed the same care into the visuals & cut scenes to where not only are they presented in the clearest resolution that the Sega CD can produce but the animation can really be comparable to what you would expect from anime in 1994.

Popful Mail is a side-scrolling platform game that utilizes Metroid-vania aspects through it's stage layout but the stages are still split into selectable stages on an over world map to where not all the levels are completely connected though there will be certain secret exits that allow you to appear at an earlier are of the world map presenting this short cut so again there are pseudo Metroid-Vania aspects as well as the later gameplay objectives resemble back tracking in a similar fashion. As the game progresses opening up the plot & enemies, the game will become a much more in depth experience then simply hack'n slash & platforming as you will have two other characters join you in a party like fashion being the apprentice wizard Tatt & the annoyingly adorable smaller breed of dragon Gaw which both have a different play style then Mail. Tatt is able to attack through projectiles which when equipped through different magical staff allow his attacks to be elementally imbued with fire or ice or even allow an after control of altering the trajectory & flight path of the launched projectile attack which helps his favor to towards hard to reach enemies or specific bosses that allow him to fight from a distance as opposed to Mail who is mostly close-quarters sans her throwing weapons. Tatt is much weaker then Mail though in terms of offense & defense making it very easy for him to receive heavy damage or die fairly quick if you make the wrong decisions. Gaw is a mixture of both strengths being he has some strong attacks depending on his equipment & projectile fireball attacks or claw swipes & he has an incredibly high jump, allowing him to reach certain platforms that the others can not reach at all, however his jump is all height & no distance so I highly recommend against using Gaw for any chasm crossing which attributes to his biggest weakness in being is he's so God damn slow. This will be a big issue if you like switching between the two but you'll notice that you won't use Gaw as much other than areas that demand for his skill set.


The three playable characters will be selectable anytime their skills are called for from what I also attribute to the very Pokemon-styled menu accessed accessed from one of the buttons which still act as a way to pause the game with out actually being the pause button which is always nifty to me but anyway it allows you to access your status increasing items, equipment, & healing items as well as a Save & Load function that can be used ( granted if you're using a Sega CD Model 2 which for fuck's sake all of you who own a Sega CD should be using, ) which can literally be done anywhere & at any point in the game attributing to a very Pokemon-styled save system sans the fact that you do have more than one save slot for Popful Mail, & if you are unfortunate enough to have a Sega CD model 1 then there is a password that you can use to access at the beginning of the game but it will allow you to start from the beginning of the stage you're in which is extremely inferior to the save system alternative if you have the correct hardware. The game also pays incredible detail to it's presentation even though the game's story itself is extremely hokey & very tongue-in cheek when it comes to the dialogue but I really enjoy that the dialogue changes up with the NPCs that you confront depending on which character you have selected to confront them. The dialogue itself, whether you're speaking with NPC's in town or any across the stage you find are actually very rarely presented in just text, this game boast several hours of voice acting which are all really well done especially for a pre-32 bit era release where this sort of thing was extremely rare & only seen with the Sega CD or Turbo-Grafx 16 CD releases which were...not done well. Here's where the game does fall short & there are flaws that can not be simply looked over.

Everyone is aware that in any game, even more modern ones, that when you're damaged there is usually a temporary post damage time time to where you're invulnerable to any other further damage giving you time to recover in the dangerous situation that you have been in whether it was an obstacle or enemy, this is not the case with Popful Mail. if damaged you will immediately be ready to continue & if placed in that shitty predicament ( which you will be in later levels ) ready to receive more consecutive damage meaning there can be times where you're at full health & after making a mistake or mistep against a group of enemies or a lethal obstacle, you'll watch in horror which as your character flails & ricochets against bouts of damage to their death, & regardless of the equipment that you'll receive to boost your defense, you'll still take stupid amounts of damage, that will constantly have you attempt to keep a stock health items, which isn't hard because I may have failed to mention that acquiring gold is extremely easy from enemies & most enemies are actually guaranteed to carry a certain amount of gold so you can simply exploit a respawn of said enemy after their previous defeat & build up your early digital retirement fund & stores are abundant both in towns & the action stages themselves. Again I can not stress that this key flaw will really become maddening as you progress in the game especially against bosses which, despite this huge disadvantage against your recovery & vulnerability to stupid amounts of damage, can be defeated, however the way I've done it & seen it done, it's done through these set strategies which almost make it like you're breaking the game or exploiting it in order to win (Ala the Dead Rising series ) so it will take it's toll on you at time & the Game over screen is overtly animated which I know I was giving kudos for this game in terms of it's presentation, but seeing that fucking screen over & over again really wears on you. Also I thought I should bring up the annoyance of jumping down to a platform from a great height will stun the character which doesn't reduce your health but it will stun them in a fashion that can ricochet you into the same fuck fest I mentioned in my earlier gripes.

The light-hearted RPG elements are all done through the game's equipment system to where it will add to your strength, defense & dexterity, the dexterity comes in the form of the projectile weapons the characters use to where you will not be able to spam your attack constantly as your attack meter will go down & it will take time to slowly recharge back up meaning that you have to make your decisions wisely when you attack & do so precisely. The better the dexterity the more you can attack with the said weapon though, but melee weapons do not use the attack meter so you can spam those away but again this gets to be difficult later on in the game. the equipment never adds any additional heat to your hit points though, you will always have 100 which I feel does make the simple where it can be simple & adds to it's accessible approach.

Overall I recommend this game, but it's difficult, however through it's amazing presentation & charming story, I really feel it's worth it & it's quite a gem, enough to make it a staple in any Sega CD library. it shouldn't be too expensive so seek it online & get it complete so you can get the gorgeous package that Working designs put together with this release, see you guys around as usual & I'll be adding a Quarter Circle forward thread within the forum so we can discuss any differing opinions.