Linkle Liver Story
Encyclopedia
Linkle Liver Story is an Action-RPG developed by Nextech and published by Sega
in Japan
in 1996
for the Sega Saturn
video game system. Although never translated into any other language, the game gained some popularity outside Japan because its relatively simple gameplay made it playable even by those who did not fully comprehend the text.
The story takes place on the planet Mamuuna (マムーナ), a world populated by anthropomorphic
animal
s. In this world, new life is created by the "Mother Flower", which lives at the bottom of the ocean. Someone has kidnapped the Mother Flower. The player takes on the role of Kittchu (キッチュ), a rather reluctant hero who is persuaded to go on a rescue mission by the village chief.
Kittchu is accompanied by Puchimuku (プチムク), a round pink seed-pod who insists he is not a pig. In battle, Puchimuku lunges at enemies from a distance, while Kittchu engages in hand-to-hand combat. The two travel around the world via a tornado-like wind that carries them from continent to continent.
Linkle Liver Story features a rather novel system of weapon upgrades. To gain more powerful weapons, the player must find weapon seeds, then grow these using droplets of water left behind by defeated enemies. Recovery items are obtained by watering special trees to produce fruit.
The game is also notably reminiscent of an earlier game from the same developer, Crusader of Centy
(US) / Ragnacënty (JP) / Soleil (EUR) for the Mega Drive / Sega Genesis. The games are similar in artistic design and gameplay, and both have an animal theme, although there is no connection in terms of storyline.
" or "Japlish".
When the game first came out, many assumed that the title was merely a misspelling of "Wrinkle River". This is doubtful, since the story is not about a river. In a 2001 usenet
posting, Victor Ireland claimed that the game's producer told him that "Linkle Liver" was intended to mean "the people that lived in Linkle".http://groups-beta.google.com/group/rec.games.video.sega/msg/5f65a3d7235ccb37 While it is conceivable that a non-English-speaking person could make that grammatical error, there is no place named Linkle in the actual game.
Aside from the title, the game does not contain any other notable examples of "Engrish", although a few screens do display English words.
Sega
, usually styled as SEGA, is a multinational video game software developer and an arcade software and hardware development company headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan, with various offices around the world...
in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
in 1996
1996 in video gaming
-Notable releases:*January 29 — Duke Nukem 3D, successor to the simple side-scrolling originals, and a genre-redefining title for first person shooters....
for the Sega Saturn
Sega Saturn
The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console that was first released by Sega on November 22, 1994 in Japan, May 11, 1995 in North America, and July 8, 1995 in Europe...
video game system. Although never translated into any other language, the game gained some popularity outside Japan because its relatively simple gameplay made it playable even by those who did not fully comprehend the text.
The story takes place on the planet Mamuuna (マムーナ), a world populated by anthropomorphic
Anthropomorphism
Anthropomorphism is any attribution of human characteristics to animals, non-living things, phenomena, material states, objects or abstract concepts, such as organizations, governments, spirits or deities. The term was coined in the mid 1700s...
animal
Animal
Animals are a major group of multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the kingdom Animalia or Metazoa. Their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later on in their life. Most animals are motile, meaning they can move spontaneously and...
s. In this world, new life is created by the "Mother Flower", which lives at the bottom of the ocean. Someone has kidnapped the Mother Flower. The player takes on the role of Kittchu (キッチュ), a rather reluctant hero who is persuaded to go on a rescue mission by the village chief.
Kittchu is accompanied by Puchimuku (プチムク), a round pink seed-pod who insists he is not a pig. In battle, Puchimuku lunges at enemies from a distance, while Kittchu engages in hand-to-hand combat. The two travel around the world via a tornado-like wind that carries them from continent to continent.
Linkle Liver Story features a rather novel system of weapon upgrades. To gain more powerful weapons, the player must find weapon seeds, then grow these using droplets of water left behind by defeated enemies. Recovery items are obtained by watering special trees to produce fruit.
The game is also notably reminiscent of an earlier game from the same developer, Crusader of Centy
Crusader of Centy
Crusader of Centy is an action RPG game that was released on the Mega Drive/Genesis. The story centers on Corona, a boy who has just turned 14 years of age. It is time for him to inherit his father's sword and fight the "monsters" that threaten the human race's very existence, attaining animals...
(US) / Ragnacënty (JP) / Soleil (EUR) for the Mega Drive / Sega Genesis. The games are similar in artistic design and gameplay, and both have an animal theme, although there is no connection in terms of storyline.
Title
The game's unusual title has been the subject of much discussion. In Japan, it is popular to give products English titles. As most of the population does not speak English, it is not a requirement that the words actually mean anything, as seems to be the case with Linkle Liver Story. This type of nonsensical English is often derisively referred to as "EngrishEngrish
refers to unusual forms of English language usage by native speakers of some East Asian languages. The term itself relates to Japanese speakers' tendency to inadvertently substitute the English phonemes "R" and "L" for one another, because the Japanese language has one alveolar consonant in place...
" or "Japlish".
When the game first came out, many assumed that the title was merely a misspelling of "Wrinkle River". This is doubtful, since the story is not about a river. In a 2001 usenet
Usenet
Usenet is a worldwide distributed Internet discussion system. It developed from the general purpose UUCP architecture of the same name.Duke University graduate students Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979 and it was established in 1980...
posting, Victor Ireland claimed that the game's producer told him that "Linkle Liver" was intended to mean "the people that lived in Linkle".http://groups-beta.google.com/group/rec.games.video.sega/msg/5f65a3d7235ccb37 While it is conceivable that a non-English-speaking person could make that grammatical error, there is no place named Linkle in the actual game.
Aside from the title, the game does not contain any other notable examples of "Engrish", although a few screens do display English words.