Mirai Shinwa Jarvas

Mirai Shinwa Jarvas (“Future Legend Jarvas”) was published and possibly developed by Taito and released in the middle of 1987, intending to cash in on the then huge popularity for games like Dragon Quest II and The Legend of Zelda. The protagonist is a time-traveler from the distant future who has traveled to the past in order to take over the world in order to avoid a future calamity.

The game plays similarly to the two aforementioned NES paragons: The combat is all in real-time with no screen transitions or anything of the like with a top-down perspective. The player character can enter towns to purchase and sell items and equipment and can also join guilds which allows them to change classes. Each class change is accompanied by a suitable change in the character’s sprite: For instance, becoming a Fencer makes the character resemble a Viking-like warrior.