Square's Tom Sawyer
Square no Tom Sawyer | ||
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Composer(s) Nobuo Uematsu | | |
Platform(s) | Family Computer | |
Release |
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Genre(s) | Role-playing video game | |
Mode(s) | Single-player |
Square's Tom Sawyer (スクウェアのトム・ソーヤ, Sukuwea no Tomu Sōya) is a role-playing video game produced by Square that was released exclusively in Japan in 1989 for the Family Computer (the Japanese version of the Nintendo Entertainment System). The game is directly based on Mark Twain's renowned 1876 novel, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and was developed in the role-playing video game niche that made Square famous with its acclaimed Final Fantasy series of video games.
Gameplay
Players control Tom Sawyer and his friends as they join the party, such as Jim and Huck, and they each have RPG game statistics such as health, power, and speed.
Plot and setting
Square's Tom Sawyer is based on
Development
Square's Tom Sawyer was scored by famed Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu, who is described as taking a more "scenic" approach to the game than his previous works.[4] Artist Katsutoshi Fujioka worked on the game title as well.[5] Around the time that Sakaguchi was writing scenarios for what would become the original Final Fantasy, Hiromichi Tanaka decided to make a game based on "Tom Sawyer" at the same time and formed a team to make it.[3] Takashi Tokita developed some of the graphics, and designed Tom Sawyer as well, but working on the game was difficult for Square to do as teams struggled to finish both games at once, and help was given by the different teams to complete the titles.[3][6]
Being released between Final Fantasy II and III, the game was similar to Final Fantasy II in that there was no experience point system.
Reception and legacy
The game was never localized outside Japan, and was noted by
The portrayal of black people as blackfaced caricatures with huge lips has been noted about the game.[11] In GameSpy's retrospective overview of the Famicom, Benjamin Turner and Christian Nutt's Square column concludes that "one of the most amusing Square games that didn't come [to the U.S.] was Square's Tom Sawyer, an RPG starring the happy-go-lucky boy wonder that featured a...racially insensitive...character". Artist Takashi Tokita explained in 2018 that when the game was made, there was not a "standards and practices" department to ensure that games did not contain materials that would be offensive in other cultures.[6]
References
- ^ a b c d e Hiefje, Shin (March 31, 2014). "Six Wild Japanese Games Set In Other Cultures". Game Informer. Retrieved April 20, 2020.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i "「スクウェアのトム・ソーヤ」ガンホーの最新作「セブンス・リバース」の田中弘道氏プロデュースの意欲的システム満載のRPGを大特集!新しいRPG【ゲーム年代史】". AppGet. November 20, 2016. Retrieved May 31, 2020.
- ^ a b c Fumio, Kurokawa (November 19, 2018). "Interview". What’s In Tokyo?. Retrieved May 31, 2020.
- ^ Chris Greening (2011-06-01). "Nobuo Uematsu". Square Enix Music. Archived from the original on April 4, 2013. Retrieved 2013-02-25.
- ^ "The History of Square – 1992 Developer Interview". Dengeki SFC magazine. January 1, 1992. Retrieved May 31, 2020.
- ^ a b Szczepaniak, John (February 2018). The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers. Vol. 3. SMG Szczepaniak. p. 191.
- ^ "『キングスナイト』の曲は『ドルアーガの塔』を意識した──作曲家・植松伸夫が語るスクウェア初期作品の思い出". Den Faminico Gamer. December 14, 2016. Retrieved June 8, 2020.
- ^ Levi Buchanan (2009-03-06). "A History of Insensitivity". IGN. Archived from the original on 2016-02-25. Retrieved 2013-02-25.
- UGO. Retrieved December 30, 2016.
- ^ Dashevsky, Evan (February 4, 2017). "18 Bizarre Video Game Adaptations That Actually Exist". PC Magazine. Retrieved April 20, 2020.
- ^ Tristan Donovan (2010-04-20). Mortal Kombat - A Book Excerpt from Replay: The History of Video Games. Yellow Ant Publishing. Archived from the original on 2013-05-11. Retrieved 2013-02-25.
External links
- Square Enix Square's Tom Sawyer Page (in Japanese)