| Graphics: |   4.5 |
| SFX: |  3.5 |
| Music: | 4 |
| Gameplay: | 4 |
| Challenge: | 4 |
| Replay: | 3 |
| Overall: | 4 |
| Genre: | Platformer/RPG |
| Reading ability: | Intermediate |
| Company: | Falcom |
Background:
Originally on the NEC PC-99/98, Popuru Meiru has also been ported to the PC Engine and the Sega CD. This port to the Super Famicom is one of the few ports that Falcom themselves have been involved with, so purists should have no complaints. The Sega CD version was released as "Popful Mail" in English by Working Designs. Working Designs was both a blessing and a curse: they released many great JRPGs and other games from Japan that other companies would not have considered doing so and as a result we have the legendary Lunar series released in English, but at the same time they couldn't resist messing around with the games' programming to raise the games' difficulty levels, such as Treasure's Silhouette Mirage. They made Popful Mail brutally unforgiving by increasing the amount of damage you take from enemies, causing English gamers to constantly save their game's progress. For the original Japanese version, the voice actress for Mail is Megumi Hayashibara, thus causing plenty of comparisons of Mail to Lina Inverse of the anime Slayers.
This port to the Super Famicom is the only version I own at the moment, so I cannot really compare the gameplay to that of the PC Engine or Sega CD versions. Since I'm playing this game in Japanese, it would be interesting to see how this game was translated into English (one being the name Material was converted to Muttonhead for some bizarre reason).
The Game:
The game begins as the bounty hunter Mail comes into town and learns of the bounty on the theif, Nuts Cracker, and the wizard master, Material Horn. She comes across a boy wearing a red mantle, Tatt, who swears to help his master, and the villagers report to Mail that Tatt went off into the nearby jungle alone to look for his master. And thus the adventure begins.
The game is a fairly straightforward platformer game with some RPG elements (purchasing and equipping new armor and such). The gameplay isn't very advanced. whether you tap the jump button (B) or press hard, Mail still jumps the same height. There's no charge attack by pressing and holding the attack button (Y). Double tapping in a direction won't make her dash, either. This game is a straight platformer with a bare-bones classic gameplay.
Mail can slash forward, up, while laying, and has a powerful down stab while jumping. Her attacks are powerful, but her range is limited to her sword. She can jump high and far.
Tatt cannot jump as high as Mail, but he fires projectiles in all directions, and you can buy different mage staffs that have different abilities: fireball, bounce shot, bomb, and the like. The range his attacks provide come in very useful. Magic attacks are limited to a meter, so if you keep using magic attacks rapidly, your meter will deplete. The meter quickly replenishes, but you must take a rest. So, the stronger the magic attack, the more the meter is used up, preventing you to barrage your enemies with very strong magic spells.
Gau is a little dragon-like monster who can breathe fire and hit enemies with his tail. Holding down the attack button will keep him blowing fire, but just as with Tatt, a meter limits the fire's usage. At a full meter, he has full range of his fire breath. The more you hold it down, the range decreases. He can jump the highest and quickly.
Sometimes, rapidly switching between characters from platform to platform is necessary. Gau can jump highest, but Mail can jump a further. So, in some areas, you'll need to switch between these two characters on moving platforms. And be quick about it, because sometimes those platforms can fall from under your feet!
Graphics:
The graphics are very beautiful and detailed. Levels display parallax scrolling and animated backgrounds, and character animations are nice too. The images of store clerks and townspeople are very beautiful.
Music/Sound:
Music in the game is great. The music repeats often, but it's pleasant and doesn't get irritating at all. Sound effects are decent, nothing special.
Challenge and replay:
This is a very challenging game! While playing this game, I've resorted to asking for help on gaming forums as well as checking out playthrough videos on Nico Douga.
The Good:
It's not hard to see why Falcom has such a dedicated fanbase. They make solid adventure games. Popful Mail has been a great experience to play, and I am interested in buying the PC Engine version too.
OMG, U can see her panties when she dies LOL!
The Bad:
As mentioned before, the gameplay is fairly simplistic, but that's not necessarily a totally bad thing. There are some minor nitpicks with the gameplay though, such as quite often when you jump up to shoot an enemy on a platform higher than your own, the shots will go right through them and you must aim at their feet for the hit to register. Also when colliding with bosses, you'll suddenly find yourself elsewhere as if you teleported. It's a bit confusing.
Reading Ability:
You can definitely can play through much of this game without knowing any Japanese and it starts out rather straightforward, however you will start to get stuck in parts once you get to the cave. I can imagine that the game would be very difficult without some reading ability. For example, figuring out which places to smash with the pick axe (tsuruhashi) may be easy to stumble across, but not knowing to go back to the fort village Miine to talk to the dwarf to get his medicine to help Shachi's son would be pretty difficult to figure out without reading anything. I would have to say that this game does require an intermediate Japanese ability. If you have access to the Nico Douga site, there is a full playthrough of the game here.
Overall:
This is a super fun action platformer. It has an amusing story, which will be absolutely lost on those who cannot read the Japanese language. However, it's not entirely unplayable if you can't read Japanese, as there are walkthrough videos as mentioned above to help you out. This game is definitely recommended. I plan to buy the PC Engine version of this game as well.
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