Barver Battle Saga: Tai Kong Zhan Shi

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  • Barver Battle Saga: Tai Kong Zhan Shi
  • Final Fantasy

BarverBattleSaga MDTitleScreen.png

FinalFantasy MDTitleScreen.png

Barver Battle Saga: Tai Kong Zhan Shi
System(s): Sega Mega Drive
Publisher: Ka Sheng, Piko Interactive
Developer:
Sound driver: Data East/High Seas Havoc
Genre: RPG

















Number of players: 1
Release Date RRP Code
Sega Mega Drive
RU
Sega Mega Drive
TW
Sega Mega Drive
US
$49.9949.99[1]
Sega Mega Drive
US
(Cart only)
$39.9939.99[1]
Sega Mega Drive
EU
€44,9044,90[2]

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Barver Battle Saga: Tai Kong Zhan Shi – Mo Fa Zhan Shi (BARVER BATTLE SAGA 太空戰士 魔法戰士) is an unlicensed Sega Mega Drive role-playing game developed by Never Ending Soft Studio and published by Ka Sheng. Originally released exclusively in Taiwan in 1996, the game is notable for its relatively-high production values for an unlicensed title, and later received a popular English fan translation in 2010.

Sometime in the late 1990s, an unknown Chinese company machine-translated the game's text to Cyrillic and published the game in Russia as Final Fantasy. Featuring minor soundtrack changes and different packaging, this version is notorious for its abysmal translation quality.

The official English localization was released by Piko Interactive in 2018 under the title Brave Battle Saga: Legend of the Magic Warrior[3]. They also released a Steam version on 18 March, 2019[4].

Story

Humans and daemons develop civilization independently using technology and magic, respectively. Technology comes to triumph over magic, and the world is destroyed in an technological accident. Survivors continued without technology for a thousand years, until the old technology was discovered and returned to use.

Furthermore, the world is divided into four kingdoms, each representing one of the four natural forces and with four temples: Cruz, whose Moon Temple controls water, Galien, whose Sun Temple controls the earth, Zak, whose Star Temple controls technology, and Lear, whose Wind Temple controls wind.

Now the daemons have returned...

Gameplay

Hit B to open a status menu with various options for controlling equipment and magic spells, checking status, saving, etc.

In towns and houses, A talks to people.

Battles are menu-driven and turn based, making use of an Active Time Battle (ATB) gauge. Other games for the Sega Mega Drive that make use of the ATB gauge are Surging Aura and Tun Shi Tian Di III.

Enemies are visible on the map. Players have to touch an enemy to enter a battle.

Versions

Taiwanese

The first version of the game was released in Taiwan in 1996. The original title translates to The Space Warrior – The Magic Warrior; the game reuses thematic elements from previous Final Fantasy games released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It also implements a battle system similar to the ones present in Final Fantasy IV – IX, with an ATB (Active Time Battle) gauge and summon spells.

Russian (Chinese-made)

A notoriously poor (seemingly computer-generated) translation to Russian by some Chinese pirates was released in some unknown year under the name Final Fantasy. This version received a physical release, with a different title and cover from the Taiwanese version. Other than translating the text and changing the title screen, the Russian release also featuers different music throughout the game, including a different battle theme; the original battle theme from the Taiwanese version was changed to the victory theme in this version.

English localization

In 2010 the game was fan translated to English by djinn and SteveMartin. The patch changed the title to Brave Battle Saga: Legend of the Magic Warrior, what makes this version similar to the Taiwanese original in dropping the connection with Final Fantasy in the title. Nevertheless, thematic elements from the Final Fantasy series are still present, since the gameplay remains unchanged.

Piko Interactive acquired the rights to this game (including the fan translation) and released the official English version in 2017 under the title Brave Battle Saga: Legend of the Magic Warrior.

Development

Despite generally being accredited to Taiwanese developer Chuanpu, development was outsourced to the closely-related Never Ending Soft.

Physical scans

Mega Drive, TW
BBS MD Box.jpg
Cover
BBS MD Cart.jpg
Cart
Mega Drive, RU

Final Fantasy Cart.jpg
Cart
Mega Drive, RU (alt)
FinalFantasy RU Box Front alt.jpg
Cover
FinalFantasy RU cart alt.jpg
Cart
Mega Drive (Magic Drive), RU
Final Fantasy Box.jpg
Cover
Final Fantasy Cart.jpg
Cart
Mega Drive, RU (Silver Release)
Bootleg FinalFantasy MD RU Box Back Silver.pngBootleg FinalFantasy MD RU Box NewGame Silver.jpg
Cover
Final Fantasy Cart.jpg
Cart
Bootleg FinalFantasy MD RU Clarification Book.png
Clarification Book
Mega Drive, US
Brave Battle Saga MD cover.jpg
Cover
Mega Drive, EU
Brave Battle Saga MD EU cover.jpg
Cover

Technical information

ROM dump status

System Hash Size Build Date Source Comments
Sega Mega Drive
CRC32 d37a37c6
MD5 7e0add665a16ce7d9965d8858c4c0ec4
SHA-1 6d49a0db7687ccad3441f47fbc483c87cd6eab53
2MB Cartridge
Sega Mega Drive
 ?
CRC32 879759a5
MD5 dea437cdbc6cff0dfdfc3521592b7dcf
SHA-1 3c4b7ecf379934c8cb1a3b8db257ac828b7dd73f
2MB Two-byte difference with above ROM.
Sega Mega Drive
 ?
CRC32 76e2a07a
MD5 79aa0b7939c10dc39ae6c2dc72e3bdd2
SHA-1 44c5d4f7430d3bd8d6cdac03c71fd9b3d219a215
2MB Referred to as "v0.9" in GoodGen.

External links

References