by Note Tue Jan 04, 2022 1:11 pm
It's been great to read about everyone's memories and experiences with the Saturn!
I also did not own a Saturn when it was originally released, as I was already lucky enough to have both a PS1 and a N64 at the time. However, my two cousins who were die hard gamers (and got me into the hobby) had a Saturn and so did my friend from school. My cousins had X-Men vs Street Fighter and Night Warriors on the console, which both looked great to me. I was also amazed to see they had a Japanese game, I wasn't aware of the importing scene back then. I did want a Saturn back then, but I ended up getting a Dreamcast when it was released, and put my Saturn thoughts on the back burner.
My friend had a Saturn with Daytona USA, Virtua Fighter 2, and Virtua Cop packed in, so we played a lot of those games. He also had Nights into Dreams, Virtual On: Cyber Troopers, and Dragon Force, with the later two probably being two of my favorites on the console back then. A lot of fond memories playing Dragon Force and taking turns in battles, passing the controller back and forth. Both these games were grails for me, and I finally picked them up in the past year.
I purchased my own Saturn around 2007. I really liked the look of the all white Japanese Model 2, so I picked up that version of the console. At that time, my main reason for picking one up was to play Shining Force III. I'm a huge fan of the first two Shining Force games and wanted to finally experience the third game, which I also purchased in 2007. I'm really glad I got that game back then. Just a side note, the cover art for SFIII and Shining the Holy Ark are great!
When looking for mod chips for the console so I could play US games on the JP console I bought, I discovered the Racketboy website and store selling chips, which is how I come across this forum in the first place!
More recently, another childhood friend of mine who I'm still close with, saw my white Saturn and became interested in the console. He is a big Dreamcast fan but also never experienced the Saturn. I tried to warn him about the price of games and let him know about the ODE route, but he decided to jump in anyway! And proceed to complain about game prices to me later. Lol. He ended up getting House of the Dead (JP), Virtua Fighter 2, and Daytona USA to start with, and is now challenging me in VF2 and Daytona, so I need to practice for whenever the next time we get a chance to hang.
Currently, I'm playing through Shining the Holy Ark and am about 32 hours into the game. I'm really enjoying it, and it's been one of my favorite RPGs I've played the past year or two. I'm hoping to finish the game in the next month.
There are still a good amount of games I'd like to get for the system, but I'm not in a rush and slowly getting games here and there. So many great titles on the console! It's very underrated IMO, so I'm glad to see it getting some love.