About this game
Magical Chase (1991) is one of the rarest and most visually stunning shooters on the PC Engine, starring Ripple the apprentice witch chasing the demons she accidentally released from a forbidden spell book. Its extreme scarcity traces to the bankruptcy of its publisher Palsoft at the time of release. What makes it a collector's icon goes beyond rarity: the game was created by Quest Corporation staff — the same team who would go on to produce Ogre Battle, Tactics Ogre, and Final Fantasy Tactics — and scored by Hitoshi Sakimoto and Masaharu Iwata, two of JRPG music's most celebrated composers.
Key Features
Horizontal scrolling shooter with a unique two-star-companion system: Topsy and Turvy orbit Ripple and can be positioned to provide directional fire coverage. Players can also purchase power-ups at mid-stage shops using coins collected from defeated enemies. The PC Engine version showcases exceptional parallax scrolling — layers of colorful backgrounds that move at different speeds to create convincing depth, a visual achievement rare on the platform. The witch / fairy-tale aesthetic stands in striking contrast to the mechanical or military themes dominating the shooter genre at the time.
The Story Behind
Magical Chase arrived in November 1991, the same year that Street Fighter II would begin reshaping arcade game tastes and just before the 16-bit console wars fully consumed the market. Its publisher Palsoft went bankrupt shortly after release, limiting initial circulation dramatically. A reprint was later handled by PC Engine Fan magazine via mail order — but total copies across both runs remained small, cementing its status as one of the PC Engine's blue-chip collectibles. The development team's later trajectory — building some of the most critically acclaimed tactical RPGs in history — gives Magical Chase a biographical richness beyond its playability.
Tricks & Tales
The game's art director Hiroshi Minagawa later became a designer on Final Fantasy Tactics and Tactics Ogre for Square Enix. Composers Hitoshi Sakimoto and Masaharu Iwata would go on to score Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy XII, and many other acclaimed titles. A North American TurboGrafx-16 version was published by Turbo Technologies Inc. in 1993 — two years after the Japanese release — at a point when the platform was already fading, which further limits surviving copies.
Collector's Guide
Region & Compatibility
Extremely rare in both Japan and North America due to limited initial print runs. The TurboGrafx-16 North America version (1993) is also scarce. Original boxed copies command some of the highest prices in the PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16 collecting market.
Maintenance Tips
PC Engine HuCard — clean the edge connector with isopropyl alcohol. Given the extreme collector value, store in original box with insert. Inspect the HuCard contacts periodically. No battery inside.
Available in our shop
Hand-cleaned and tested units shipped worldwide from Toyohashi, Japan. HP direct purchase exclusive: we include a printed shop owner's note card with every order.
Direct purchase supports this museum directly. eBay Top Rated Seller · 1,750+ reviews · 100% positive feedback.
Unexpected Discoveries
Games you weren't looking for — but might be glad you found.
Memories from around the world
This is a young museum, and this page is still waiting for its first voices. The memories people send reach Taisei personally, and the ones that move him find a home here over time — always with the writer's blessing. Yours could be the very first for this game.
Share your memory ↑