41 Years Later, NES’ First-Ever JRPG Is Coming to Switch 2 and PS5

If you consider yourself a true specialist of video game history, you probably know that the roots of the Japanese RPG genre are directly tied to the nostalgic Famicom and NES eras. For the longest time, whenever someone asked what started the console JRPG craze, the default answer from most gamers would immediately be the original Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy.

However, history has a funny way of hiding some gems beneath layers of obscurity! Out of the blue, a huge piece of gaming history has just been unearthed, as the actual, technical pioneer of the NES role-playing genre is officially making its way to modern platforms – marking its first-ever official release outside of Japan after a staggering 41-year wait.

A Next-Gen Arrival for an Ancient Classic

The game in question is the forgotten JRPG Bokosuka Wars, developed by Kōji Sumii and ASCII Entertainment. While the title technically got its start on the incredibly rare Sharp X-1 computer back in 1983, hardly anyone actually owned that hardware (not even back then).

It wasn’t until its release on the Famicom in 1985 that it truly cemented its legendary status, eventually getting a brief nod on the Nintendo Wii Virtual Console back in 2008.

But across every single one of those past releases, Western players were completely left in the dark. Now, thankfully, developer Hamster Corporation, the company that currently holds the distribution rights to bring these classic versions to modern systems, is finally stepping in to fix this historical oversight.

In a lovely and nostalgic trailer, the company announced recently that Bokosuka Wars is now officially available on the PlayStation Store for PlayStation 5 and the Nintendo eShop for Nintendo Switch 2 – sadly, leaving the PS4 and the original Switch behind. But if you are the owner of either of the two lucky platforms that were chosen, and you want to dive into this historical curiosity, you will only need to fork over a humble $7.99.

This new release is a direct port of the original Famicom version rather than a flashy, ground-up remake or remaster. However, Hamster has injected some welcome modern features to make the gameplay loop more palatable for modern audiences. For instance, the package comes equipped with customizable button layouts, rapid-fire settings, optional CRT screen filters, multiple save states, and (thankfully) a crucial rewind function to save you from those notoriously unforgiving 1980s difficulty spikes.

In case you’re unfamiliar with Bokosuka Wars, let me help you out! In this retro title, you are tasked with a brutal march to bring peace back to your land, which has been completely ravaged by a ruthless tyrant. You control King Suren alongside his faithful soldiers, but there is a small problem: the tyrant’s dark magic has transformed your entire army into trees and rocks (literally), making your quest much more difficult and time-consuming than you initially thought.

That is pretty much everything you need to know about this ancient classic, trust me! If you possess a deep sense of nostalgia for the early 8-bit era of gaming like me, this is a must-play from a pure preservation standpoint. Personally, I’m definitely excited to see how modern players react to it, and it is always incredibly reassuring to see publishers rescuing these lost relics from regional exclusivity.