Sengoku Turb

Description

Sengoku Turb is one of the Dreamcast’s strangest early RPGs, a 3D remake of a PC‑98 shareware title by the doujin group Bio_100%. The game takes place on the planet Raiyon, locked in a perpetual conflict between feline and ovine tribes. Players control Jino, a young woman who stumbles into this world and allies with the cats to repel the sheep menace. The presentation is deliberately crude: characters are built from chunky polygons, environments repeat simple textures, and dialogue is delivered in backwards‑sounding gibberish. This aesthetic, combined with designs by Yoko Kuroyanagi (best known for Tamagotchi), gives the game a childlike, scribbled‑together charm that contrasts with its biting, often absurd tone.

Gameplay unfolds on large battlefields where the player fights alongside AI cat soldiers. Combat is straightforward: hack, slash, and shoot until the enemy herd is cleared, yet spiced up with eccentric weapons like ice cream cones, pellet drums, and flags worn on the head. Players can capture animals such as bears and rabbits, then attempt to convert them into cats to bolster their army, sometimes producing deformed but endearing allies. Stat‑boosting fairies called “tainyan” are consumed rather than befriended, parodying RPG conventions. The result is a game that feels like a parody of both musou‑style mass battles and traditional fantasy RPGs, never quite clear whether its awkwardness is intentional or accidental.

Despite its rough edges, Sengoku Turb has become a cult curiosity. It stands out for its sheer eccentricity, looking like a half‑finished toy, playing like a simplified Dynasty Warriors, and yet charming with its offbeat humour and unapologetic weirdness. It’s certainly what dragged me to it at the time. The experimental spirit of the late 1990s Japanese indie scene colliding with Sega’s then‑cutting‑edge console.