Shinbatsu (神罰, Divine Punishment) is a cancelled strategy / simulation game that was in development for the Sega Saturn around 1995. The project was being produced by popular animation studio Gainax, just a few months before the first original run of their cult-series: Evangelion.
Character design for Shinbatsu was done by Kenji Tsuruta, mostly known for his Spirit of Wonder manga. Unfortunately we don’t have much more details about this lost game, but VGDensetsu found a page with a few screenshots and a short preview in Sega Saturn Magazine (March 1, 1995).
If you can read Japanese and could write a short summary of what they wrote about this game, please leave a comment below!
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I'm an Italian gamer with not enough free time to play as much as i'd like to and sadly not enough time to write about cancelled and beta games. Founder of Unseen64 in 2001, i'd like to sleep more than 5 hours a day, but i have to pay the bills. I'm currently working for various italian & international websites for a better User Experience & Search Engine Optimization, you can add me on Twitter, Last FM or contact me by email.
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From google translate:
“The basic idea is that the player takes on a god-like role and interferes with the lives and actions of people living on Earth.
The objective is that the protagonist (actually the grandfather controlled by the player is his ancestor) can achieve a great goal(?), but even a god-like being cannot directly dictate people’s actions.
In other words: rather than giving absolute orders like in a normal SLG (Simulation Game), the protagonist indirectly moves things forward by appearing in people’s dreams to give them revelations or by coaxing them into submission. However, not everyone will obediently listen, and many will act contrary to the player’s wishes. In such cases, the “divine punishment” mentioned in the title is bestowed upon the ignorant masses as a privilege of a god (or a god-like being).
However, some people who receive divine punishment end up becoming twisted, so this is not necessarily the last resort.”
And they conclude with this:
“There are other settings, but I’ll go into more detail next time…”
But that time never came :(