Video Game / Hoshi wo Miru Hito

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It all starts in 1987. A company called Hot-B sees how well a certain little RPG is doing sales-wise, and decides they want in on that action. Taking inspiration from a PC RPG they made some time back, Hot-B hired a low budget company called Another. Another itself only consisted of one guy named Naoki Morishima (as listed here), who created a science-fiction RPG known as Hoshi wo Miru Hito (星をみるひと), translating as Stargazers. It's the gripping tale of a dystopian future, where an evil supercomputer known as Crew III has brainwashed the last of the Earth's population into subservient slaves, slowly driving themselves to extinction without realizing it. The only people immune to the treacherous computer's mind control are Psychics, who are quickly captured and killed by the computer's team of bounty hunters, the Death Psychics. All would be lost... were it not for the fact four psychics remain, four children with great power who are the only line of defense standing against the evil computer.

Sounds thrilling, right? Well, hope you enjoyed that story, because none of it is ever brought up again in-game. As soon as you press start, you're in the middle of an empty field in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by enemies that can kill you in one shot. Oh, and you're at level 0 and can do about... 1 damage, if any at all. Good luck.

Hoshi wo Miru Hito is known as "densetsu no kusoge" (伝説のクソゲー), translating to "legendary shitty game", and for good reason. It would take an entire wiki (or at least a whole page) in and of itself to cover all the glaring flaws this game has to offer, but... that's how the Japanese fans like it. A patch was actually released to balance the game and improve the graphics, and there even exists not one, but two fan remakes, STARGAZER and Romancing Stella Visor respectively, that actually takes advantage of the story, adds some clever puzzles, and makes the gameplay more akin to the SaGa series.

In May 2020, it was revealed that the game would receive a digital Updated Re-release on the Nintendo Switch in the summer later that year, and was released on July 30th. The re-release did remain Japan-only, however.

All games provide examples of:

• Anti-Villain: Colonel Katsuma is polite to the party and guides them to learn the truth of Ark City, despite being the leader of Guard Force, the military of Crew III. This is because Crew III's master don't actually want to kill the psychics, and Katsuma assumes the party will simply either return to mundane lives in the colony or live with the dolphins on Aqua after their journey is over. Even when the party decides to destroy Crew III in one of the endings, Katsuma tries to convince them that the supercomputer is necessary for Ark City's survival before finally fighting them.
• Barrier Maiden: What Misa is to the party. She's the only one in the group who can cross damage floors without taking damage. Not particularly useful in the Famicom game, but needed in the remakes. One TAS of the game totally ignores picking up Misa in the first place!
• Bolivian Army Ending: In the Colonel Katsuma and Crew III victory ending, the party destroys Crew III to free the population from mind control. This backfires because they have been exposed to anti-psychic propaganda for so long that they scapegoat the psychics for mind-controlling them. Worse yet, the public discovers the existence of Mamus Village, which is supposed to be a safe haven for psychics. The final cutscene shows the party on the edge of a cliff while facing an angry mob.
• Brainwashing for the Greater Good: Colonel Katsuma knows the truth behind the space colony and Crew III's mind control, and he claims this manipulation is necessary to keep the population from warring amongst themselves and jeopardizing the mission to find a new home planet.
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Although psychics are criminalized in Ark City, they are usually captured alive. This is because the true rulers of Ark City, the dolphins and orcas, cannot communicate with regular humans, so they need psychics to serve them. It turns out that Crew III is also keeping people from outright trying to kill psychics, and in the ending where the party destroys the supercomputer, the non-psychics start a pogrom against psychics.
• Chekhov's Gun: In Dr. Elliot's lab, there is a bookshelf that states DNASLEEPER is an important sample that needs medicine to stay alive. This turns out to be about one of the possible Final Boss fights. The party ends up finding DNA and SLEEPER in cold sleep and initiates a Battle in the Center of the Mind to wake them up.
• Enemy Mine: Two antagonist factions, the dolphins and orcas, are normally at each other's throats. However, they are currently working together to manipulate the humans of Ark City in order to terraform Aqua and turn it into a suitable habitat for their species. Even then, they disagree on whether or not they should allow psychics to live with them on Aqua, with the dolphins being more tolerant of psychics and the orcas being disdainful of psychics.
• Defeat Means Friendship: One of the ending choices results in a fight against DNA and SLEEPER, two powerful psychics that were put in cold sleep by Ark City's scientists. This is because the party is trying to wake them up, which requires a Battle in the Center of the Mind. In the credits sequence, DNA and SLEEPER follow the party back to the colony to live in peace.
• Genki Girl: What Aine is implied to be in the Famicom version, and what she is in both STARGAZER and Romancing Stella Visor.
• Hidden Elf Village: Mamus Village is intentionally invisible on the world map because it is meant to be a refuge for psychics. Unfortunately, the non-psychics find and attack Mamus Village in the ending where Crew III is destroyed.
• Karma Houdini: Since the game requires the player to choose between three different Final Boss fights, it's possible for Colonel Katsuma and/or the dolphins to remain unpunished for brainwashing Ark City's residents and kidnapping psychics.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: In the cockpit room, the dolphins and orcas are revealed to be the masters of Crew III, and they are kidnapping psychics because they cannot communicate with regular humans. The dolphins are open to coexisting with the psychics while the orcas despise all humans, psychic or not.
• Meaningful Name: The city that Crew III rules over is known as Ark City, and barring a few small towns, it is the only large city on the world map. It turns out the entire known world is actually an artificial one placed inside of a spaceship that is looking for a new home for the dolphins.
• Multiple Endings: All games. In the Famicom game's case, it was actually an early example (or would have been, if anyone could've gotten to the endings without direct external assistance) of such a thing happening at all. Also, at least one ending is missing: the final battle with the Commander Dolphin wasn't actually programmed in and you automatically lose if you choose the "battle the cetaceans" option.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: It seems as soon as you need some new power to get past an obstacle, there's a new party member nearby with exactly the power you need.
• Person of Mass Destruction: Arguably applies to the whole party, but especially in Minami's case. His power allows you to destroy obstacles in the team's way.
• Psychic Children: Our heroes are a group of psychic youths capable of using ESP in combat.
• Psychic Powers: Many people have psychic powers, though they have different specializations, such as telepathy or jumping through space. The one ability they all have in common is being able to resist Crew III's mind control. However, that's not the real reason they're being captured. In reality, the dolphins and orcas need humans to assist them in terraforming a nearby planet, and psychics are the only ones capable of communicating with them.
• Smart Cetaceans: The evil supercomputer, Crew III, serves super-intelligent dolphins and orcas who want to either annihilate or befriend the last of the human race, depending on the party's final choice. See it for yourself.
• Telepathy: Aine's telepathy allows her to read minds and sometimes even force NPCs to give the party key items.
• Utopia Justifies the Means:
  • The reason psychics are being captured by Ark City is to force them to work for the dolphins and orcas. The dolphins and orcas want to terraform a nearby planet, Aqua, for their species to live in, and they need humans who are capable of communicating with them via telepathy. Establishing a totalitarian government to rule over humanity is a necessary procedure in their minds for the sake of survival.
  • As for why humans like Colonel Katsuma willingly go along with the dolphin and orcas' schemes, they are dedicated to the plan to bring Earth's lifeforms to new planets to survive, and they fear that any infighting among humanity could doom this project. Therefore, they want to use mind control to prevent any chance of conflict whatsoever.
• Villainous Valor: Colonel Katsuma is one of the possible Final Boss fights and stands in the party's way when they try to destroy Crew III. Even when the party destroys his Mini Mech suit, he simply gets out of it and grabs a rifle to make a last stand. To further highlight this trope, one of his attacks is Ark Saver, which indicates that he's dedicated to maintaining peace in Ark City even if it means resorting to mass brainwashing.
• We Can Rule Together: In the cockpit, the leader of the dolphins offers to let the party live on Aqua in coexistence with the rest of their species.
• Well-Trained, but Inexperienced: While all of the possible final bosses have high stats and a variety of techniques, only Colonel Katsuma has actual combat experience, causing him to put up a tough fight despite his lack of psychic powers. DNA, SLEEPER, the dolphins, and the orcas have powerful psychic abilities, but are nowhere near as battle-tested as the colonel. In the dolphin ending, the narration states that the dolphins and orcas lost due to being less experienced than the party.

The original Famicom game provides examples of:

• All There in the Manual: The plot described above. As soon as you start the game, you're in the middle of a field with no story or instruction.
• Border-Occupying Decorations: The Switch release fills the leftover space with a wallpaper that has pixel art or illustrations of the playable characters.
• Guide Dang It!: How do you find the Oxygen Pipe, the item that allows you to breathe in space for the final area of the game? Walk on a random tile in a hard-to-reach dungeon with only a beep to let you know when you have it. Good luck finding it without a guide or map nearby.
  • Finding the first village, simply because it’s invisible and has zero hints as to where it is. And no, it being invisible isn’t a glitch - the residents outright say it’s intentional.
• Luck-Based Mission: Being able to progress past the beginning of the game is a matter of luck, as dying brings you back to the title screen, and the password "save" system only records your experience in multiples of 4, which is more than you get from some early enemies. Even in the starting area, you have to hope you find the less threatening enemies who won't immediately kill you, and that your attacks actually do damage (which with you starting so weak, can randomly do no damage at this point), and that the enemies don't run away after taking damage. You also have to find the first town, which is right next to you when you start but completely invisible.
• Password Save: The game was released before battery-backed saves were common, so progress was recorded via passwords between 15 and 35 characters long using 131 possible symbols (including letters, hiragana, katakana, numbers, the copyright symbol, a "FIN" end marker, and space). To input the password, rather than using a cursor to select from a grid of symbols, the player must hold up or down to scroll through the 131 different symbols, one at a time, to enter each character in the password. After game over, the player has to enter the password from scratch to continue.
  • The password doesn't even save everything: gold is reset to 0, medicine ingredients are lost, and experience is rounded down to the nearest multiple of 4.
• Real Is Brown: In this case, the game may be far ahead of its time.
• The Slow Walk: Literally. Your main character, supposed to be a young boy, moves slower than old men with canes.
• Updated Re-release: The Nintendo Switch rerelease runs on an emulator, thus allowing some Anti-Frustration Features like quick-saving and loading, rewinding, running in the overworld, and New Game Plus allowing adjustment of starting level and gold.
• With This Herring: You start out at level 0 and can only do 1 damage, if any at all. You need 10 experience to reach level 1.

STARGAZER provides examples of:

• Adaptation Expansion: Both the characters and the setting are far more fleshed out here than they were in the original Famicom game.
• Sleeves Are for Wimps: Minami's redesign leaves his arms bare - and he's rather powerful enough to qualify.

Romancing Stella Visor provides examples of:

• Adaptational Dye-Job: Aine, a redhead in both Hoshi wo Miru Hito and STARGAZER, is here a brunette.
• Always Accurate Attack: The Awakening State allows the user to ignore the enemy's counterattack properties. Alternatively, Misa's Shield Killer skill inflicts a debuff that removes an enemy's ability to dodge or counter, even if they are using skills that would normally guarantee a counter.
• Anti-Frustration Features: Enemies can still act even when their HP and LP are depleted to 0, potentially allowing them to deplete LP from the party. To balance this out, a mutual wipeout is considered a win for the player.
• Armored, but Frail: Mums Saver has 350 HP (on normal) and 3 LP, which is very low compared to most post-gold ID card bosses. However, she has over 80 resistance to all attributes, likes to use anti-ESP to counter ESP attacks, and has a high chance of countering physical attacks. She also heals herself every turn, making it hard to take even one LP off of her.
• Black Market: There is a black market area that is hidden in the Ark City overworld map, which sells expensive and powerful equipment.
• Boss in Mook's Clothing: Almost every dungeon map has a chance to spawn a stationary white enemy known as a Permanently Awakened enemy. This enemy has no allies, has more HP and LP than the regular variant, and is always in an Awakened state. Although they are very powerful if the player encounters them as early as possible, it's easier to get their rare drop compared to normal enemies.
• Combat Clairvoyance: Instant Telepathy, an Assist Skill from the Telepathy Ring, causes the enemies' next actions to be revealed for the current turn.
• Cornered Rattlesnake: Like in SaGa (RPG), LP goes down if a party member is knocked down to 0 HP, and having 0 LP results in a KO. However, the maximum Awakening gauge is tied to LP, which means a character can use Awakening more often if their LP is lower.
• Early Game Hell: The player only starts with Minami, who must recruit the other three party members one by one. This means Minami won't be able to take advantage of team-based battle mechanics until he recruits someone. Additionally, most enemy mobs come in groups of two or more, making it hard for him to maintain his WP in sequential fights. The early game difficulty is exacerbated if the player does a New Game Plus run with the Romancing modifier, which restricts each party member to one action per turn.
• Faux Affably Evil: Dr. Elliot introduces himself by politely greeting the party before stating that he wants to dissect their brains for his research. After his first defeat, he compliments the party for giving him good combat data, and then reveals that he kept Hashura's brain alive in order to create a Death Psychic clone of her to kill the party, now that their data is no longer needed.
• Fighting Your Friend: The boss fight against Marionette involves it possessing Aine, forcing the other 3 party members to face off against their ally. To make thing fair for the party, they are given 99 turns of Instant Telepathy so that they aren't too hampered by the loss of their telepath.
• Infinity +1 Sword: If the party defeats the Black Market's leader, the latter will sell weapons with attack ratings of 50. Aside from the sword, all of those weapons are the strongest of their type. The strongest sword, which has an attack rating of 55, can be obtained by defeating the healer in Mamus Village. To compensate, none of them have Assist Skills attached, meaning there are situations where a weaker weapon could be better.
• Interface Screw: The Instant Telepathy Assist Skill reveals the enemies' next actions in a window, but some enemies produce garbled text in their windows, making it hard to predict their actions.
• Last Episode Theme Reprise: The music for the Final Boss is a fairly rocking remix of the title screen theme.
• Mad Scientist: Dr. Elliot is a scientist working for Crew III's military, and he has no qualms about dissecting psychics for the sake of his research. Worse yet, he preserved Hashura's brain in an And I Must Scream state in order to create a Death Psychic clone of her.
• Mythology Gag: Both battle and overworld themes may occasionally shift into an 8-bit rendition heavily resembling their Hoshi wo Miru Hito counterpart.
• No-Sell: If an attack is negated, countered, or dodge, the unit recovers additional AP. If everyone in the party perfectly dodges or negates all enemy attacks in a single turn, they recover even more AP and WP.
  • Barrier skills cause the party to negate all damage and ailments from skills of a certain attribute. These are cheaper than Anti skills at 20 AP, but they are also "exclamation" assist skills, which means they cause the party's turn to immediately end.
  • Anti skills cause the party to negate all damage and ailments from skills with specific ailments attached to them. These cost more than Barrier skills at 30 AP, but they don't force the party's turn to end.
  • Enemies can use skills that can negate or counter specific types of attacks, though some of them can be circumvented with Shield Killer.
• Pre-existing Encounters: Enemies on the world map and dungeons are touch encounters. In the latter case, enemies move faster, but can be instantly killed with Minami's Break ESP as long as they aren't purple or red. Once Minami's Break is upgraded with the Lapis Lazuli, he can instantly kill purple enemies, making it easier to skip encounters.
• Rare Random Drop: All enemies have three drops, with a single circle denoting their most common drop, a double circle denoting their uncommon drop, and a star denoting their rare drop. Instead of relying on probability alone, the drop system has the player play a slot minigame to land on one of these symbols. However, there are also X symbols in the slot wheel that grant nothing, and waiting too long to stop the wheel results in only X symbols being shown. To balance this out, the player can hunt down Permanently Awakened variants of regular foes to get a more lenient slot machine wheel.
• Signature Headgear: All four party members have a distinct set of headgear telling them apart - Minami has goggles, Shiba has a bandana, Misa has a headband, and Aine has a scrunchie.