Chitei Tanken (Underground Exploration) is believed to be the first original RPG to be developed in Japan. At the outset, you choose to take five explorers for an expedition (their stats are randomly generated each time) then spend some money to purchase medicine and food. Then you enter the cave to find treasure and hunt monsters which include Japanese movie favorites like Godzilla, Mothra, and Rodan. Unusually, you’re not given an actual view of the exploration, but coordinates and other statistics, which are pretty confusing to parse without a manual. Combat is shown in tiny visuals at the bottom of the screen, if you have a gun, otherwise it is an image of a fist. Chitei Tanken is a simulation game. So much of it is dependent on chance that it is more of a simulation in that respect – but the major aspects of early RPGs – party creation, exploration, balancing of resource consumption, turn based combat – are all found here – even though there is no experience or level gaining.
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