| TwinBee RPG | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Konami |
| Publisher(s) | Konami |
| Year released | 1998 |
| System(s) | PlayStation |
| Series | TwinBee |
| Japanese title | ツインビーRPG |
|---|---|
| Genre(s) | RPG |
| Modes | Single player |
| Rating(s) |    |
TwinBee RPG (ツインビーRPG? fully titled TwinBee Role Playing Game on the game's packaging) is an RPG for the PlayStation released exclusively in Japan on April 2, 1998. It is a spin-off of the TwinBee shoot-'em-up series featuring a storyline based on the TwinBee Paradise audio drama serial.
Game System[edit]
The player controls a new protagonist who is summoned to Donburi Island to serve as a temporary pilot for TwinBee following the mysterious disappearance of TwinBee's regular pilot Light. Although the TwinBee series had previous installments that were not shoot-'em-ups, such as Pop'n TwinBee: Rainbow Bell Adventures and TwinBee: Taisen Puzzle-Dama, TwinBee RPG featured an entirely different illustrator and developing team. Konami developed TwinBee RPG primarily to cater fans of the TwinBee Paradise radio and anime series who were not good at playing shoot-'em-ups. Although Konami hoped to use the popularity of the radio and anime voice cast to promote the game, the game's sales were not enough to cover its production values and TwinBee RPG became the final game in the TwinBee series (excluding later ports and mobile applications). While TwinBee RPG is primarily a role-playing video game, it features a dating sim-system similar to Konami's Tokimeki Memorial series in which the protagonist tries to gain the favor of various girls. The endings vary depending on who is the girl most impressed by the protagonist.
The experience points obtained from defeating enemies are acquired at a fixed rate (160 points from small fry enemies and 600 from bosses), which are then raised or lowered depending on the level differences between allied and enemy characters (there the weakest members of the player's party are given more experience points from defeating the same group of enemies). Moreover, the party member who delivers the finishing blow to an enemy gets extra experience points. Regardless of the current level, each party member must acquire around 5,000 experience points in order to level-up (although TwinBee is not restricted by this limit at the start of the story). In addition to combat, the player can also gain experience by doing assorted favors to townspeople in villages. Money (called "en" in this game) dropped by enemy tend to be very few, instead the player acquired profit by selling fruits and items left behind by defeated enemies. The fruits that can be found includes (from least valuable to most valuable) satsumas, apples, grapes, cherries, and peaches.
Although the game features full voiceovers, the protagonist's name is never mentioned in any of the dialogue.