![\"The](\"https:\/\/gamefaqs.gamespot.com\/a\/box\/5\/5\/2\/303552_front.jpg\")
This is the boxart for the first game, Monster Maker: Yami no Ryuukishi, or Monster Maker: Dragon Knight of Darkness as it would be in English. There isn’t boxart for the sequel(s), since they were never completed.\u00a0 The main character, Lia, is pictured, along with her dragon.<\/p><\/div>\n
The Saturn and Turbo CD Games<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n In short, the story is that the first Monster Maker game for Turbo CD was delayed significantly, and still shipped with some significant bugs and with a cliffhanger ending.\u00a0 The sequel got well into development before being unfortunately cancelled because it was late in the generation and they decided cancelling it was better than releasing it so late, or on some other platform.\u00a0 That’s the basics of what happened.\u00a0 It’s an all-too-common story, really.<\/p>\n \nhttp:\/\/ja.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/\u591a\u90e8\u7530\u4fca\u96c4<\/a> Translation thanks to Oare of NeoGAF<\/a>:<\/p>\n “The first half of a two-parts PC Engine game, it was released in 1994 after two years of delay. In an unusual fashion for the time, part of its promotion was conducted through a radio program called “Amusement Party First Avenue”, with hosts Aya Hisakawa and Hiroko Kasahara, which aired on TBS radio. But the program ended before the game was released. To make matters worse, its sequel “Monster Maker – The Ark of Gods” ended up not being released at all, leaving all the mysteries and plots unsolved. In his aforementioned (2003) interview with “Used Games” magazine, (Tabeta) claimed: “the game’s contents ended up eightfold what we had originally planned”, “the graphics, sound and script of the sequel were almost done, but since they had been built for the PC Engine, we would have had to redo everything from scratch in order to release it on a different platform, which is why we couldn’t”.<\/p>\n At the time of development, he said in a PC Engine magazine something to the effect of: “if the game suffers any more delays, I’m going to shave my head”, but to no avail. A photo of him wearing sunglasses and smiling with his hair buzzed down later appeared in the same magazine.”<\/p>\n Note that ‘Tabeta’ is Toshio Tabeta, the games’ director, and a director who worked on multiple cancelled or unfinished Turbografx games.\u00a0 If the game was as far along as this suggests, it’s really unfortunate that they couldn’t manage to finish it… \ud83d\ude41\u00a0 Port it to a newer platform at least, like the Saturn ports of Gulliver Boy and AnEarth Fantasy Stories!\u00a0 That would have been great, leaving people who played the first game hanging with its awful cliffhanger ending is pretty frustrating.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Also, a Saturn Monster Maker game was in development, also directed by Tabeta.<\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u30e2\u30f3\u30b9\u30bf\u30fc\u30e1\u30fc\u30ab\u30fc \u30db\u30fc\u30ea\u30fc\u30c0\u30ac\u30fc Machine translation:<\/p>\n Monster Maker Holy Dagger Getting back to the TGCD games though, here’s more info about the game, with some interesting but almost incomprehensible through machine translation info, from Lia’s Wiki-style Pixiv page. http:\/\/translate.google.com\/translate?sl=ja&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fdic.pixiv.net%2Fa%2F%25E3%2583%25A9%25E3%2582%25A4%25E3%2582%25A2<\/a><\/p>\n Note: Bold parts are bold in the original version.<\/p>\n Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n Was released in 1994 PC Engine hero of “Dragon Knight of Darkness Monster Maker” SUPER CD-ROM ^ 2 game. Not the birthplace, the house grew up was a foundling. From the ear of Kirenaga, half-assed half-elf had been subjected to speculation that or not.<\/p>\n Biggest victim of “fraud to issue out”<\/strong> of multi-poor producer of NEC Interchannel of (at the time). Although it is she who is “a tragic heroine” literally, Name the last time head story<\/strong><\/p>\n It is “Ira” If you read upside down from her name. Uh… yeah<\/em>. Here’s the link to the original Japanese. http:\/\/dic.pixiv.net\/a\/\u00e3\u0192\u00a9\u00e3\u201a\u00a4\u00e3\u201a\u00a2<\/a> \u300c\u5f8c\u7de8\u306eCG\u3001\u97f3\u58f0\u3001\u30b9\u30af\u30ea\u30d7\u30c8\u306f\u307b\u307c\u51fa\u6765\u4e0a\u304c\u3063\u305f\u304c\u3001PC\u30a8\u30f3\u30b8\u30f3\u7528\u306a\u306e\u3067\u4ed6\u6a5f\u7a2e\u3067\u51fa\u3059\u306b\u306f\u5b8c\u5168\u4f5c\u308a\u76f4\u3057\u306b\u306a\u308b\u306e\u3067\u51fa\u305b\u306a\u304b\u3063 \u305f\u300d “The CG, voice recording, and the script for the second game were more-or-less done, but they were done for the PC Engine, and moving the game to another system would have meant doing everything over again.” he said.<\/p>\n If the CG, voice work, and script were all done, it’s a real tragedy that nothing came of it at all!\u00a0 They’d decided on everything, but then scrapped it and nothing was said to the public, or something? I mean, because other articles comment on how Lia’s story was left unfinished, her true origins unrevealed.\u00a0 Cancelled games are so frustrating, finish games darnit! :p\u00a0 And as I said earlier, why couldn’t it just be up-ported like those other two games were?\u00a0 Too bad.<\/p>\n Beyond that I can’t find anything of note about the sequel, but I found some stuff related to the game\/series, so I’ll post that below though it’s mostly about the first game and not the second.\u00a0 This section has three parts.\u00a0 First, some links to sites about the series.\u00a0 Second, some about the main characters.\u00a0 And last, a few links discussing the original Monster Maker: Yami no Ryuukishi for Turbo CD.<\/p>\n This is an interesting site: http:\/\/homepage3.nifty.com\/muroto\/mm\/mmold\/mmcha.html<\/a> – This site has a release list of Monster Maker-franchise titles. The game is originally a card-game RPG, and has various games based on it, but the NEC game is unrelated to the rest — as this chart I linked shows, the main character of the TGCD game (in the last column on the right) doesn’t appear in any of the other Monster Maker-licensed titles, and none of the characters from the other games appear in the TGCD game. I’m not even sure if characters from the source material appear in the TGCD game at all, either; note how the characters shown on the boxes for some of Sofel’s NES\/GB\/SNES Monster Maker games also appear on the guidebooks, but the girl who’s the main character in the TGCD game does not.<\/p>\n Monster Maker fanpage (main page link): old version: http:\/\/homepage3.nifty.com\/muroto\/mm\/mmold\/mm.htm<\/a>; new version: http:\/\/homepage3.nifty.com\/muroto\/mm\/mmold\/mm.htm<\/a> There isn’t much on the site, but it was kind of interesting anyway.<\/p>\n More general Monster Maker (not for the TGCD games) info can be found on the JP Wikipedia page for the franchise: http:\/\/translate.google.com\/translate?depth=1&hl=en&ie=UTF8&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=ja&tl=en&u=http:\/\/ja.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/%25E3%2583%25A2%25E3%2583%25B3%25E3%2582%25B9%25E3%2582%25BF%25E3%2583%25BC%25E3%2583%25A1%25E3%2583%25BC%25E3%2582%25AB%25E3%2583%25BC#.E3.82.B3.E3.83.B3.E3.83.94.E3.83.A5.E3.83.BC.E3.82.BF.E3.82.B2.E3.83.BC.E3.83.A0 <\/a>or in Japanese http:\/\/ja.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/\u30e2\u30f3\u30b9\u30bf\u30fc\u30e1\u30fc\u30ab\u30fc<\/a><\/p>\n http:\/\/monstermaker.jp\/<\/a> – Official site for the cardgame; it apparently still exists, in some level. http:\/\/monstermaker.jp\/mmfc\/index.htm<\/a>\u00a0 Note the characters here:<\/p>\n The usual Monster Maker franchise focal characters<\/p><\/div>\n Sofel made a series of Monster Maker RPGs based more on the cardgame characters, as opposed to NEC’s original lead character Lia.\u00a0 Sofel’s games: http:\/\/www.gamefaqs.com\/gameboy\/569811-monster-maker-2\/images\/box-8026;<\/a> http:\/\/www.gamefaqs.com\/gameboy\/569813-monster-maker-barcode-saga\/images\/box-6897; <\/a>http:\/\/www.gamefaqs.com\/nes\/570619-monster-maker-7-tsu-no-hihou\/images\/box-9951; <\/a>http:\/\/www.gamefaqs.com\/snes\/564317-monster-maker-iii-hikari-no-majutsushi\/images\/box-5156\/box-5156<\/a>; http:\/\/www.gamefaqs.com\/snes\/571169-monster-maker-kids\/images\/box-9955<\/a>. The characters seen on the box covers of all of Sofel’s games are the same ones as in the cardgame art pictured above.<\/p>\n NEC’s game, however, while it also uses the license, seems to be an entirely original title, with a new lead character, Lia, and its own story. So why is it licensed at all? Just to get more sales? I’m sure it uses monsters from the original series, but it’s interesting that NEC decided to focus on a new character, and not the usual ones of the other games.\u00a0 It makes NEC’s game a little more interesting, I think.\u00a0 It’s cool that the game has a female lead character, as well; Monster Maker (TGCD)’s main character Lia is great.\u00a0 The problem is that this means that none of the other games are any help at all with that stupid “to be continued” ending since they are entirely unrelated as far as story and characters are concerned.\u00a0 Ah well.<\/p>\n Actually, upon further review, the original Monster Maker character designs do make an appearance in Yami no Ryuukishi, just not as main characters.\u00a0 I see the blue\/purple-haired mage girl in one of the screenshots on this Japanese blog post about Monster Maker, for instance: http:\/\/ameblo.jp\/memolmemol\/entry-11574780098.html<\/a>\u00a0 Google Translate does an okay job translating the text, but the images seem to be missing: http:\/\/translate.google.com\/translate?sl=ja&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fameblo.jp%2Fmemolmemol%2Fentry-11574780098.html<\/a><\/p>\n Here’s purple haired mage girl on the cover of Sofel’s Monster Maker III (SNES), as linked above: And here she is on the back cover of MM: Yami no Ryuukishi (TCD) in the upper right of the back cover: Also, Lia has a cameo as a card in Monster Maker 4: Flash Card for the GBA, as seen here: http:\/\/translate.google.com\/translate?sl=ja&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fmii5.at.webry.info%2F200910%2Farticle_7.html&act=url<\/a> This is the soundtrack cover: Note that it says “CD II”, but it’s not a sequel, they just put that label on the soundtrack. “I was reading about Monster Maker in Japanese. It’s a tragic story, really. Or a story of incompetence, whichever you prefer.<\/p>\n The project actually started in like 1991 or so, and it had a famous producer who made good stuff but took forever doing it. Wouldn’t you know, Monster Maker got delayed. Then it got moved to the Super CD, and was delayed again. Then they decided to redraw the character art, so they had another massive delay. They said in interviews that they wanted to make the best RPG anyone had ever seen.<\/p>\n Who knows exactly what was going on behind their doors? But I’d guess that the management at NEC Avenue lost their shit at some point and ordered them to finish it and turn it out within a few months or else. The game that came out in late ’94, over two years past its original release date, was loaded with bugs and only half-finished. Seriously, there was supposed to be an equally large part-two in the works, but it was canned. More alarmingly, the game came with a small pink piece of paper saying “once you go into this one tower, don’t come out until you have this one conversation or the event data will get borked and your game-save will be ruined forever.” And that’s just the worst of a long list of bugs.<\/p>\n It looks like it could have been really cool, too. I like the moody piano music and the funky pastel art. What a shame.<\/p>\n Anyone here play it all the way through? There’s a full play on niconico, but speak of the devil, it’s got a Japanese nerd talking over it the whole way (saying the most obvious crap in the world, too).”<\/p>\n Finally, on a mostly unrelated note, Toshio Tabeta, the same guy behind Monster Maker TGCD, apparently was also involved in Strider’s much-delayed TCD port, and also was working on a version of Wardner as well… huh, didn’t know about that last one.\u00c2\u00a0 http:\/\/translate.google.com\/translate?sl=ja&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fja.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2F%25E5%25A4%259A%25E9%2583%25A8%25E7%2594%25B0%25E4%25BF%258A%25E9%259B%2584<\/a> The article claims that TG16 (PCE) Wardner was complete but cancelled because of… I don’t know what, machine translation isn’t good.\u00a0 That it wasn’t good enough, maybe?\u00a0 I have the Genesis version of Wardner, seems like a fairly graphically simple game that the TG16 could certainly handle, and while it’s not a great game, it’s a fun and difficult action-platformer in the vein of Ghosts n Goblins.\u00a0 It’s too bad the TG16 version was canned.\u00a0 This guy had issues finishing games, sadly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Edit: 2026 Update – I apologize about the broken Japanese text in this article that was here for so long.\u00a0 I don’t know when WordPress, and also forums which I link here, broke the text and replaced it with gibberish … Continue reading
\n\u30e2\u30f3\u30b9\u30bf\u30fc\u30e1\u30fc\u30ab\u30fc \u95c7\u306e\u7adc\u9a0e\u58eb
\n\u524d\u5f8c\u7de8\u69cb\u6210\u306e\u524d\u7de8\u306b\u76f8\u5f53\u3059\u308bPC\u30a8\u30f3\u30b8\u30f3\u7528\u30bd\u30d5\u30c8\u3001\u5f53\u521d\u4e88\u5b9a\u3088\u308a2\u5e74\u9045\u308c\u30661994\u5e74\u306b\u767a\u58f2\u3055\u308c\u305f\u3002\u8ca9\u4fc3\u6d3b\u52d5\u306e\u4e00\u74b0\u3068\u3057\u3066\u5f53\u6642\u306f\u73cd\u3057\u3044\u30e9\u30b8\u30aa\u756a\u7d44\u300e\u30a2\u30df\u30e5\u30fc\u30ba\u30e1\u30f3\u30c8\u30d1\u30fc\u30c6\u30a3\u30fc\u30d5\u30a1\u30fc\u30b9\u30c8\u30a2\u30d9\u30cb\u30e5\u30fc\u300f\u3092\u4e45\u5ddd\u7dbe\u3068\u7b20\u539f\u5f18\u5b50\u306e\u51fa\u6f14\u3067TBS\u30e9\u30b8\u30aa\u306b\u3066\u653e\u9001\u3057\u305f\u304c\u3001\u756a\u7d44\u653e\u9001\u4e2d\u306b\u30bd\u30d5\u30c8\u304c\u767a\u58f2\u3055\u308c\u308b\u3053\u3068\u306f\u7121\u304b\u3063\u305f\u3002\u66f4\u306b\u306f\u5f8c\u7de8\u306e\u300e\u30e2\u30f3\u30b9\u30bf\u30fc\u30e1\u30fc\u30ab\u30fc \u795e\u3005\u306e\u65b9\u821f\u300f\u304c\u7d50\u5c40\u672a\u767a\u58f2\u306b\u7d42\u308f\u3063\u305f\u305f\u3081\u3001\u8b0e\u3084\u4f0f\u7dda\u304c\u5168\u304f\u56de\u53ce\u3055\u308c\u306a\u3044\u5c3b\u5207\u308c\u30c8\u30f3\u30dc\u3068\u306a\u3063\u3066\u3057\u307e\u3063\u305f\u3002\u5148\u8ff0\u306e\u30e6\u30fc\u30b2\u30fc\u30a4\u30f3\u30bf\u30d3\u30e5\u30fc\u3067\u306f\u300c\u5f53\u521d\u306e\u4e88\u5b9a\u306e8\u500d\u306b\u5185\u5bb9\u304c\u81a8\u3089\u3093\u3067\u3057\u307e\u3063\u305f\u300d\u300c\u5f8c\u7de8\u306eCG\u3001\u97f3\u58f0\u3001\u30b9\u30af\u30ea\u30d7\u30c8\u306f\u307b\u307c\u51fa\u6765\u4e0a\u304c\u3063\u305f\u304c\u3001PC\u30a8\u30f3\u30b8\u30f3\u7528\u306a\u306e\u3067\u4ed6\u6a5f\u7a2e\u3067\u51fa\u3059\u306b\u306f\u5b8c\u5168\u4f5c\u308a\u76f4\u3057\u306b\u306a\u308b\u306e\u3067\u51fa\u305b\u306a\u304b\u3063\u305f\u300d\u3068\u8a9e\u3063\u3066\u3044\u308b\u3002\u5f53\u6642\u306ePC\u30a8\u30f3\u30b8\u30f3\u96d1\u8a8c\u306b\u65bc\u3044\u3066\u300c\u3053\u308c\u4ee5\u4e0a\u5ef6\u671f\u3057\u305f\u5834\u5408\u306f\u4e38\u574a\u4e3b\u306b\u306a\u308b\u300d\u3068\u3044\u3063\u305f\u65e8\u306e\u5ba3\u8a00\u3092\u3057\u305f\u304c\u3001\u305d\u306e\u7532\u6590\u3082\u306a\u304f\u5ef6\u671f\u3002\u4ef6\u306ePC\u30a8\u30f3\u30b8\u30f3\u8a8c\u306b\u306f\u574a\u4e3b\u982d\u306b\u30b5\u30f3\u30b0\u30e9\u30b9\u3067\u306b\u3053\u3084\u304b\u306b\u30dd\u30fc\u30ba\u3092\u53d6\u3063\u305f\u591a\u90e8\u7530\u306e\u5199\u771f\u304c\u63b2\u8f09\u3055\u308c\u305f\u3002<\/p>\n
\nPC\u30a8\u30f3\u30b8\u30f3\u7248\u3068\u306f\u5225\u30b9\u30c8\u30fc\u30ea\u30fc\u3068\u306a\u308b\u4e88\u5b9a\u3060\u3063\u305f\u30bb\u30ac\u30b5\u30bf\u30fc\u30f3\u7248\u3002\u3053\u3061\u3089\u3082\u767a\u58f2\u5ef6\u671f\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u3092\u7e70\u308a\u8fd4\u3057\u3066\u7d50\u5c40\u672a\u767a\u58f2\u3002<\/p>\n
\nWas expected to be a different story from the PC Engine version Sega Saturn version. This is also yet to be released eventually repeat the postponement.<\/p>\n
\nWe left the village of Ferundo, the journey to reveal the truth.<\/p>\n
\nAble to talk to monsters is possible, was get on the wrong side around therefore.
\nHowever, it is the owner of a bright personality brave in practice.<\/p>\n
\nReleased time of generational change upcoming PC engine when the last line of repeated postponement to postponement, was released at last.
\n(Already Saturn it is time the summary of begins to flow in the streets)
\nAnd content is only “front half”.<\/span>
\n“Ark of Monster Maker Gods” which is the second half was not released at last.<\/strong>
\nFor this reason, the identity of her secret of birth, such as the ability of true was Mai same not told.
\n(However, from the chronology of the Monster Maker world,
\nHer conclusion may not have been the thing which never blessed.
\nIn fact, interviews to give out an odor it was listed in the official guide book of “Dragon Knight of Darkness”)<\/p>\n
\nIt is superb card of TCG in “Monster Maker Resurrection” at the end.<\/p>\n
\nThe name is fantasy of “Ira” is not uncommon creative, and be divided,
\nIn fact I’m also in Monster Maker.<\/strong>
\nProtagonist of the novel “Monster Maker: Dragon Rider”,
\nBoy you are out with a little role to “secret sword of ur 2 Monster Maker” version.
\nHowever, there is no picture in question still currently in pixiv.<\/p>\n
\nHere’s a little bit about the game that was translated by SamIAm of the PC Engine FX forum; he knows Japanese.\u00a0 Note you’ll need an account at the forum in order to view the link. http:\/\/www.pcenginefx.com\/forums\/index.php?topic=16306.0<\/a><\/p>\n
\n\u008d<\/p>\n
\nOther Monster Maker Franchise Information
\n<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n![\"Monster](\"https:\/\/blackfalcongames.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/mm.jpg\")
\n![\"MMIII\"](\"https:\/\/gamefaqs.gamespot.com\/a\/box\/6\/3\/3\/303633_front.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/gamefaqs.gamespot.com\/a\/box\/5\/5\/2\/303552_back.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n![\"Lia](\"http:\/\/abload.de\/img\/124141654098516322502qqb58.jpg\")
\nMonster Maker: Yami no Ryuukishi, the Turbo CD game, also has a soundtrack CD… that’d be nice to have, the music is great. Only 7 tracks, though? http:\/\/www.amazon.co.jp\/%E3%83%A2%E3%83%B3%E3%82%B9%E3%82%BF%E3%83%BC%E3%83%BB%E3%83%A1%E3%83%BC%E3%82%AB%E3%83%BCCDII-%E9%97%87%E3%81%AE%E7%AB%9C%E9%A8%8E%E5%A3%AB-%E3%82%B2%E3%83%BC%E3%83%A0%E3%83%BB%E3%83%9F%E3%83%A5%E3%83%BC%E3%82%B8%E3%83%83%E3%82%AF\/dp\/B00005MST5<\/a><\/p>\n
\n![\"soundtrack\"](\"http:\/\/ecx.images-amazon.com\/images\/I\/51JAk6jLi9L._SL500_.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nMore searching for stuff about Monster Maker 2 in Japanese (“\u30e2\u30f3\u30b9\u30bf\u30fc\u30e1\u30fc\u30ab\u30fc \u95c7\u306e\u7adc\u9a0e\u58eb”) leads to more blog\/article stuff about how buggy the first Monster Maker is.\u00a0 See this link for an example of that: http:\/\/sugiou5.blog.so-net.ne.jp\/2009-06-06<\/a>\u00a0 Many consider it a ‘kusoge’, or very bad\/broken game, as a result, which is understandable really even if the game has some definite strengths.\u00a0 Example of a mention of it as kusoge: http:\/\/translate.google.com\/translate?sl=ja&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fdic.nicovideo.jp%2Fa%2F%25E3%2583%25A2%25E3%2583%25B3%25E3%2582%25B9%25E3%2582%25BF%25E3%2583%25BC%25E3%2583%25A1%25E3%2583%25BC%25E3%2582%25AB%25E3%2583%25BC&act<\/a> The pages I checked also frequently mention that the sequel wasn’t finished and that the game has no ending.\u00a0 If I see anything more with real info about the sequel, I’ll post more.\u00a0 This next review of the game (below) is a bit more positive, but still is critical overall. It mentions the cancellation of the sequel as well. Etc. http:\/\/translate.google.com\/translate?sl=ja&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.geocities.jp%2Fawakway%2Freview2%2Fmonme.html<\/a>
\nHere’s some more from SamIAm of PC Engine FX, this time writing about the first game.\u00a0 This post of his has a bit more about the game, though some of it’s just a repeat of the “watch out for that one tower with the bad bug in it, and the game’s unfinished” bit. [url]http:\/\/www.pcenginefx.com\/forums\/index.php?topic=9456.msg266168#msg266168[\/url]<\/p>\n