Windborn – The Basics
Windborn is a JRPG for the Sega Saturn, published by Namco and devloped by ArkiTek, a Japanese software developer (original to TTL) that got its start producing a few obscure games for the Super Nintendo CD, mostly RPGs and puzzle games. Windborn was also originally planned as a late SNES-CD game, but after ArkiTek realized that the game's advanced 2-D graphics wouldn't be possible on the SNES-CD and that the game might become lost amongst the Ultra Nintendo hype, the company switched to developing for the Saturn and signed on with Namco as a publisher. The game features entirely 2-D sprite graphics with animation and detail unparalleled in any console game before, made possible by the Saturn's 2-D graphics chip. It also features about 15 minutes worth of anime cutscenes and a large amount of fully voiced dialogue (which is performed mostly by semi-professionals, though a few voice actors who dubbed anime at the time like Tiffany Grant and Kimberly Yates also voice major characters in the game). The game also features a large soundtrack including two vocal songs, one performed about halfway into the game and the other performed over the game's credits. The game's battle system is largely traditional JRPG fare. There are eight playable characters in all with four spots in the party, three are open spots and one MUST be filled by the character Hane, the young girl whom the others are escorting throughout the story (occasionally Hane is gone from the party and this spot can be filled by someone else, but when she's there, she must be in the party). She's a decent spellcaster and healer, though she's defensively weak in terms of HP and defense stats. If Hane is knocked out in battle, you have a limited number of turns to revive her, if she's not revived by then (the number of turns you can take increases as the game goes on, however, certain enemy actions can reduce the counter), it's a game over. You can use healing items (fairly plentiful) or spells to revive her, if you don't have any of those, the other party members can all burn their turns to revive her as well (however, this can only be used a limited number of times per battle). However, there is a mechanic introduced about a quarter of the way through the game where Hane will fuse with another party member for the duration of the battle (or until the fused character is knocked out). You can do this in almost any battle with any other party member. The fused party member gains a slight stat boost and a unique ability (or in some cases multiple abilities) only accessible through this fusion mechanic. In most major battles, it's recommended to fuse Hane with another party member to gain these abilities, the power of the fused party member exceeds what Hane and the original party member could do alone.
The game starts by introducing the “People of the Wind”, who are given life by the winds that encircle the world and are tasked with nurturing and protecting normal humans and all life on the planet. They live in small, nomadic tribes, watching over people and protecting the weak. However, a warrior prince named Mizashi became very strong and began to conquer all other nations. When the Windborn began to interfere with his conquests, he began to slaughter them, and used his popularity to convince his people that the Windborn were evil and sought to stop all progress, leading to a wholesale slaughter of the Windborn. Mizashi eventually gained enough power to bend the winds to his will, stopping the birth of new Windborn and killing all the rest until there was only one left... a nine-year-old girl named Hane. Hane, however, was captured by a group of mercenaries from Dokaru, one of the last remaining free kingdoms left after Mizashi has conquered most of the globe. One of these mercenaries, Tengu, is the main human protagonist of the story, and when he realizes that Dokaru's king wants Hane's powers extracted through torture, he decides to betray his fellow mercenaries and run away with her, which starts the action of the story. As Tengu travels, he meets with various other people who wish to help Hane. The heroes are searching for a secret underground palace that Hane says holds the secret of the Windborn's power. Meanwhile, the heroes are fugitives, both from Dokaru's forces and from those of Mizashi, who will stop at nothing to see Hane dead. As the journey goes on, Tengu, Hane, and their allies venture to various places around the world, all the while growing closer to this mysterious and precocious girl. Eventually, Tengu and his friends are able to lead a coup to replace the king of Dokaru with a benevolent princess, Asari. However, the night after the coronation, Mizashi overruns the Dokaru capital, and Asari, who Tengu had fallen in love with, is executed (Tengu is about to lunge at Mizashi but his friend Nara, a young woman who ends up being Tengu's true love later in the game, knocks him out before he makes a suicidal charge). The journey continues, until finally, about two-thirds of the way through the game, Tengu's party reaches the underground palace at the same time Mizashi does. After a great battle, the secret of the fortress is revealed...the fortress was the pinnacle of Windborn civilization and was home to King Shaman, leader of the ancient Windborn...but to the horror of Hane and the others, Shaman was a cruel, conquering king who was just as bad as Mizashi, and was sealed away by the gathered peoples of the world, with those survivors of his empire, the few surviving Windborn, vowing to atone for their deeds by using their power to help the peoples of the world. Now that the Great Windborn King has been unleashed on the world, he is seemingly unstoppable. Over the next part of the game, Mizashi and his armies are beaten back by King Shaman's assault, while Tengu, Hane, and their friends try to stay out of their way while scouring the world for a way to stop Shaman once and for all. Eventually, the entire world is overrun, with only Mizashi's capital city holding out against Shaman's forces. Mizashi, at the end of his rope, makes a deal with the heroes: he will use what he knows about the Windborn to give Hane the power to defeat Shaman. With no other options, the heroes are forced to trust them, and of course, Mizashi betrays them, instead seeking to take Hane's power for himself. This leads the heroes to mount an assault on Mizashi's palace and in an epic battle, the party defeats Mizashi and then Tengu beats Mizashi in one-on-one combat, avenging Asari and saving Hane. However, the turmoil allows King Shaman to break through the walls of Mizashi's city, and though the heroes save who they can, the city is overrun and a good portion of its inhabitants are slaughtered. However, there is one final secret that the Windborn kept, and it will enable Hane to defeat Shaman. The heroes make one final assault on Shaman's grand tower, battling his most powerful lieutenants along the way, including a zombie-like remnant of Mizashi, before finally confronting Shaman and defeating him in an epic four-stage final boss battle with four different unique final boss themes. After Shaman is defeated, however, Hane realizes that to truly annihilate him she must give up her life. Hane, after taking a piece of strength from every one of her friends, ascends to her true form as the Windborn Goddess, obliterating Shaman and his evil once and for all. Shaman is destroyed, but Hane is gone, having given up her life to defeat him. Tengu and his friends, though happy to have saved the world, also remember their friend, who, while no longer alive in her human, physical form, still lives on every time they feel the wind floating through the air.
Windborn is known as one of the best RPGs of the year (and among some critics, THE best RPG of the year). It receives immense praise from critics with mostly 9s and 10s, including becoming the first Sega Saturn game to achieve a 40/40 from Famitsu. The game's sales, while mediocre when compared with mainstream Saturn hits, are still strong for a JRPG, with around 140,000 sales in North America, around 90,000 sales in Europe, and over a million sales in Japan. It's concluded that while the game might have sold somewhat better on the Super Nintendo CD, it would not have been quite as good. The game establishes the Sega Saturn as a viable system for JRPGs, and it's only the first major JRPG to be released for the Saturn that year...
