Hummingbird Soft's PC-88 horror RPG Diable De Laplace is coming to Nintendo Switch next week, as part of D4 Enterprise's EGGCONSOLE series of retro reissues.
First launching in 1987, Diable De Laplace (which is also referred to in various places online as Laplace No Mia and Laplace's Demon) originally debuted on NEC PC-88 and PC-98 computers, and is basically a first-person dungeon crawler, albeit with the dungeon switched out for a mysterious mansion that players are tasked to explore.
The story takes place in the 1920s, in Newcam, Massachussetts, a fictional port town modelled after H.P Lovecraft's city of Arkham, and sees players take control of a group who go to explore a series of murders and disappearances that have taken place at the nearby Weathertop Mansion. Upon starting a game, players will need to create a party, picking a name for their characters, an occupation, and a birthdate, in addition to designating stats (like strength, charm, will, etc).
Once they have everything sorted, they will then be able to embark into the mansion itself, where they will do battle against slimes, bats, skeletons, and other horror-themed baddies on their quest to discover the mansion's secrets.
"Take on the role of a ghost hunter and challenge a mysterious haunted mansion," the game's official description for the game reads. "A high-difficulty 3D dungeon RPG that once puzzled players of its time.
"This first-person 3D RPG has players from a party of unique characters—detective, journalist, scientist, psychic, and dilettante—to challenge the haunted Weather Top Mansion. It features turn-based combat with physical and mental attack elements, some enemies vulnerable only to the latter.
"At the start, you find yourself suddenly trapped inside the mansion, and your first challenge is figuring out how to escape. The mansion is full of traps that can drive you insane, and you can take photos of monsters and sell them in town. With its strong horror elements and puzzle-solving game, this title offers a rewarding challenge for those looking for a deep and atmospheric 3D RPG experience."
In addition to being released on the PC-88 and PC-98, the game also ended up getting several ports to other platforms, including the MSX, Sharp X68000, PC Engine Super CD-ROM², and Super Famicom. Sadly, though, all of these releases, much like the PC-88 and PC-98 versions, were exclusive to the Japanese market, meaning if you wanted to play the game back in the day, you would need to get your hands on an imported copy from somewhere.
A fan translation patch for the Super Famicom version was released in 2001, but was voluntarily pulled offline supposedly due to not meeting the developer's quality standards. This was later replaced with a more accurate translation, released by the translation team Aeon Genesis in 2018.
As with all EGGCONSOLE releases, this new commercial release does not feature any extensive localisation, besides an English main menu and "how to play" sections. As a result, your mileage with it will probably vary, depending on your knowledge of Japanese or how determined you are to wrestle with translation apps.
Diable De Laplace launches on the Nintendo Switch eShop on August 21st and will cost $6.49.