About Tenchi Muyo RPG

Japanese box, manual, and cart The back of the box and manual

Tenchi Muyo RPG is a strategy RPG by Banpresto. It was released in 1995 in Japan for the Super Nintendo. The game carries the same humor and sci-fi action that we all love from the Tenchi Muyo anime. It has everything from Aeka and Ryoko's constant bickering to Ryo-ohki's obsession with carrots. All the main characters are included, with the exception of Kiyone. The storyline and enemies are unique only to this game.

The unofficial English translation was completed by fans for fans, thanks to LNK Translations (more info below). This means the only way you can play the English version of this game is through Super Nintendo emulaton on your computer.

• LNK's Translation
In the year 2000, the translation group known as "Lina`chan, Nuku-Nuku & Filia's Translations" released their finished English translation of Tenchi Muyo RPG. Finally, the English speaking world could play Tenchi Muyo RPG! However, the game was riddled with bugs. The game was still fully playable, but aspects of gameplay were excluded. It wasn't their fault. ROM hacking ("ROM" is a downloadable game that can be played through emulation) wasn't that advanced in the fan scene during 2000.

• Borderline's Release
Nine years after the initial English release, in early 2009 the ROM hacker known as Borderline released his perfected version of Tenchi Muyo RPG. He picked up where LNK Translations left off and corrected all the bugs! Tenchi Muyo RPG's English translation is now finished! View this reference graphic to learn exactly what he corrected. It's perfect and 100% English. Naturally, this version is available in Downloads.

The game begins as a typical episode in the Tenchi Muyo anime with Aeka and Ryoko fighting over Tenchi. Sasami goes to make lunch with Ryo-ohki. Suddenly, a strange girl with green hair appears and challenges everyone to a fight! After the battle, Sasami gets kidnapped by the mysterious girl. This girl also keeps on snapping at Ryoko and her aggressiveness.

Why is she doing that? Where is this girl from? Why did she kidnap Sasami? Where did Ryo-ohki go? Will Ryoko and Aeka ever stop fighting over Tenchi?? Will Mihoshi ever get a clue with anything that's going on?? Muahaha! I won't tell you. You'll have to play this game to find the answers to all of those questions. Well, except for the last two questions. Those will remain a mystery.

The battle system has similarities to that of Front Mission, Shining Force and Bahamut Lagoon. The battles take place in a 3/4 view battlefield of tiles. You move around your characters like chess pieces to defeat the enemy. Most attacks are close range and some are long-range; some attacks damage multiple enemies. You don't equip weapons/armor/items. You rely on gaining levels to increase your abilities. Some characters have a longer movement span than others. Some characters move more often than others. Each character has HP and kiai (a.k.a. MP). Kiai is slowly regenerating itself in each turn. The stronger the special attack the more kiai is taken up, and the longer it takes for it to be restored enough to keep on doing that strong attack. The only means for HP to be restored during battle is through healing moves. Ayeka, Sasami, Washu, and Kimidake have some.

There's a special power that occurs with every character. Once they reach a moderate level and once they stay in the same spot for one turn, an option appears in the menu to transform. If you access it the given character will change into their 'battle form' and will have a different set of attacks. These attacks are usually double the strength of normal attacks. This transformation only lasts a couple of rounds, they revert to their normal forms afterward. Be careful though, characters that have healing techniques will not have them in this other form.

This game is so fun! I find myself coming back to it often. It's loaded with cool and entertaining battle animations. I'm telling you, every character is rich with animation frames for all of their moves! The game's challenge is well balanced, sometimes pushing you to spend a little time leveling up. The soundtrack is good. This is one of those games that are great to play when you just want to relax since it doesn't require much thinking. A common complaint for this game is that it's too short. This is probably the shortest SNES RPG, ever. Still, I would recommend Tenchi Muyo RPG to any fan of the anime or any SNES RPG fan.

As of 2022 that I'm writing this, here's where you can watch the Tenchi Muyo anime.

	Tenchi Muyo OVA The first series. Watch it for free on Funimation
	Tenchi Muyo: Tenchi Universe This TV series played on Cartoon Network in the 90s. It popularized Tenchi Muyo in North America. It was loosely based on the first six episodes of the OVA. Watch it for free on Funimation
	Tenchi in Tokyo Another TV series. It's loosely based on the OVA and TV series, following Tenchi as he leaves home to live in Tokyo. Unfortunately, there are not any places where you can watch it online (legally).
	Tenchi Muyo Ryo-Ohki The OVA series that connects all prior series. Watch it for free on Funimation
	Tenchi Muyo Movies There are three movies: “Tenchi the Movie: Tenchi Muyo in Love” (a story from Tenchi Universe), “Tenchi the Movie 2: The Daughter of Darkness” (a side story), and “Tenchi Forever! The Movie” (sequel to the first movie). Unfortunately, there are not any places where you can watch the movies online (legally).

If you're familiar with torrents, I have places in my links page where you can download all the movies and series.