Ginga no Sannin

Ginga no Sannin (銀河の三人) is a console port of a computer RPG that was originally developed by Enix (currently Square Enix) under the name Chikyuu Senshi Rayieza in 1985. In an unsual move, Nintendo decided to license the game from Enix, and publish a port of the game to the Famicom in late 1987. The game was never released outside of Japan, nor has it been translated to any other language from Japanese.

Though the game is largely a faithful port of the PC version, some arrangements were made, such as the addition of a side-scrolling screen when the player lands on a planet's surface, or Rimi being able to use psychic powers. During the later parts of the game, enemies begin to appear very frequently, and new enemy special attacks were added which can lower the maximum hit-points of allied characters (lowered points return the next time the character's level increases).

The game tells the story of Earth's fight against the evil Garm Empire, who are intent on wiping out all humans utterly. The game begins with a recall of all human forces to Earth and the assignment of your character to a team with the heroic survivor of Mars, Blue. The game's amusing box art, which has little to do with the game's actual content, is by Go Nagai.

Story
In the year 2300, the human race created an Earth federation government and spread out into space to begin colonizing the surrounding planets. However, an alien species from the far reaches of outer space began attacking the human forces, putting the very survival of the human race at stake. Though it was only a matter of time before Earth fell to the enormous power of the enemy forces, the Earth's army commander issued an order calling all of the units dispersed around the colonized planets to return to Earth. The player takes the role of a young soldier who was stationed with the Rayieza unit on the planet Mars. The journey begins as he makes his way back to Earth along with the other members of his unit.

Characters

 * Player: The main character (whose default name on computer versions is Kenshiro). He was originally stationed in Mars, but lost most of his comrades in the battle against the aliens and makes his way back to Earth with the only other surviving member, Blue. Other than an illustration in the instruction manual, his face is never shown.

Gameplay
The player controls the actions of the main character and Blue in typical RPG fashion as they ride in a pair of Rayeizas, robotic combat suits. These Rayeizas can be upgraded with various equipment found throughout the game. Rimi is a spellcaster-type, using psychic abilities to help the heroes or damage the enemy; she is incapable of any other actions.

Garm ships are displayed on a viewscreen in front of the player; most of the space travel is portrayed as being on the bridge of a ship. To navigate from one point to another, a "space map" can be selected and the ship can be directed to move from one point to another; a set number of units determine the distance from one point to the next. Depending on the current speed of the ship (which can be increased by various speed boosters) the player may stop at various increments of units and have to select "move" again; this is when encounters are generally initiated. In addition, the player can land on and explore underground areas on a number of planets. This is necessary to advance the game's story. Enemies can also be encountered in these underground areas. Combat remains virtually identical to space combat.

Combat against Garm Space stations serve as mini-boss fights. The player must advance through a barrage of fire to get close enough to do battle with the aforementioned stations. It's best to level a bit or get a better engine for the ship before attempting to fight even the weakest of the stations. Later in the game there are also more conventional bosses. Human space stations serve as places to get passwords to save your progress and purchase more missiles and pills.