The following is a preview. For a limited time, the full article will be available to read for free on my Patreon, located here.
FURTHER READING
Ore no Shikabane o Koete Yuke and the Limits of Mortality
Translation: Nice Games Vol. 3 – Shoji Masuda Commentary
Preface: In 2008, Game Side published RPG Legends ~ The 1980s Edition (RPG Densetsu ~ Hachijū Nendai Hen), a monograph collecting RPG reviews originally published in the magazines Used Games (Yūzudo Gēmuzu), Nice Games, and Game Side (Gēmu Saido). Game Side would follow up with three more collections that, together, covered the entire decade of the 1990s. More information can be found on Game Side‘s own website, here.
The following article on Ore no Shikabane o Koete Yuke (Alfa System, MARS Corporation, 1999) comes from the last of these books, RPG Legends: 90s Edition Vol. III. The article itself was originally published in Nice Games Vol. 3 which can be accessed on the Internet Archive, here. Commentary from Shoji Masuda appends the Nice Games version of the article which remains absent from the monograph. I have translated these comments in a separate post, here.
Finally, while the version of the article which appears in Nice Games features images, the one in the monograph does not. The images used here come from my own playthrough of the game and serves to contextualize the article at hand.
A Certain High Schooler’s Reflection on Family
When I was still a high-school student, one day, my family received a strange piece of mail sent by direct postage. I call it strange because written in large letters was the following: “Publish and sell your family history and family tree.” It smelled like a scam, but at that time, I was surprised something like this could be made into a business. Although I had never given much thought to my family’s origins beforehand, since that incident occurred, it began to heavily weigh on my mind. If I thought about it, I realized my body, my flesh, and my blood were creations of my parents. My own parents were also children with their own fathers and mothers, and then again…..I myself was at the tip of our family tree which contained a history that I had not experienced. I wondered, within the unknown and distant past, what kind of life did my ancestors live? As they progressed forward in their lives, what were they thinking? Looking back on that moment now, I feel quite moved. That year, attending prayer at a family memorial service, I reflected on the posthumous Buddhist name inscribed on the grave.
The dual curses cast by the oni of Mt. Ōe
Now, it may be a bit late to introduce, but here’s an article on Ore no Shikabane wo Koete Yuke (Oreshika from hereon). Well then, the reason why I have written about my personal high school experience is because Oreshika recalled the emotions I felt at that time. While playing games, it’s rare for me to recall memories of the past. Furthermore, Oreshika is so engaging that I could not stop playing.