Hiouden II

A PC-98 RPG from Wolf Team with an isometric perspective. It later saw an enhanced Super Famicom port.

Like its predecessor, Hiōden 2 is a mixture of RPG and real-time strategy. The player commands one or more teams at the same time. The battles are mostly automatic, with preparation having more weight that the actual commands during battles. There is an option to "stop the clock" and adjust the strategy. Most of the gameplay involves exploring the maze-like isometric location with the player's teams, fighting enemies on the way, gathering treasure, and solving (mostly very simple) puzzles to advance to the next area. RPG element comes in form of character levels. The windows-based interface from the previous game returns, with slight adjustments (point-and-click navigation through the main area instead of clicking on arrow keys; more comfortable menu with items displayed next to the character's portrait, etc.).

Hiōden is a strategy game with RPG elements. The player navigates several teams of characters, mostly monsters (up to six in each team) through isometric environments. Sometimes cooperation between different player-controlled teams is required to advance. The game plays in real time, i.e. enemy parties also move and perform actions without waiting for player's input. The RPG angle is present in form of character levels - characters grow stronger after defeating enemies. It is possible to put the teams on "auto-mode", having some of them move and perform actions on their own. The game has a mouse-driven interface with a somewhat unusual feature for its time: windows. The movement field of different teams, character statistics, overview map, team management screen - everything has its own window. It is possible to enlarge any window to full screen, close it, open several small windows at the same time, and drag windows to arrange them on the screen in any way.