Completed unfinished Japanese PS1 game, released two decades later

In 1998, a small team of Japanese developers worked for eight months on a game called Magical castle, which they sent as a pitch to seven major publishers, including Sony. It wasn’t going anywhere, but thanks to emulators and the efforts of one of the original team, we can now play it and still enjoy it.

One of the team members, PIROWO, recently found the source code for the project-made on Net Yaroze– and decided to tie the loose ends together and release it to the public. This game looks great not only because of its isometric style but also some very modern touches like a customizable user interface and dynamic music.

This video is from a VHS where the team is in ‘98 to accompany their pitch, which Sony loved, but then also blew by asking the developers to stop Magical castle and start working on something else they weren’t so keen on.

For more information about the background of the game, Just Yaroze Europe have an interview with two of the original developers where they talk about things like how they almost made the game with another “company that produces famous Japanese RPGs,” but Which also fell apart.

You can download the game here.