A Questionable Grasp of Botany: Let's Play Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom!

That's fantastic work by Mr Fox. This thread just keeps giving.

Congratulations!

This LP was awesome. Percy is made of nightmares.

My god, is that a Dr. McNinja reference-reference, or is that a reference to the original reference?

It was intended as a reference to the original source material, but more people seem to recognize it from The Good Doctor.

So I'm cool with it either way.

Extremely late to the LP, I know, but I just read through this thing a little while ago to see what I missed by renting but never finishing this game back in the day, as well as more good ol' intel on that creepy Percy pic's wherabouts.

Looking back, this graphic adventure is so, so Japanese in its structure and references.....and in spite of the message to not play it, I'm tempted to play it for how fucked up it is.....and because I'm in a mentally masochistic state after that read, I'm tempted to play it in Japanese to spot the differences. SHOOT ME PLEASE. @.@

That Banan-orochi monster is freaking awesome, now that I recognize the reference.

OH GOD, FLASHBACKS

We should sticky this LP as required reading for newcomers to the board and/or for use against our enemies.

I know I'm just striking the corpse of Octopus Prime's Let's Play with electricity again, but I found some stuff of interest when searching for Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom under its Japanese name, "Salad no Kuni no Tomato Hime", mainly Japanese boxart. First, there's this boxart for the Famicom version.


Hey, Boss! I'm all red and feeling up your leg!

And also, there's apparently an MSX version, predating the Famicom Disk System port by three years. Here's its boxart.


Awwwwww, I'm not in this picture, Boss!

Anyway, thought that was of interest. Dunno why I'm finding hunting for info on this game so appealing.....OHWAITDIFFERENCESRIGHT.


Boss, let's use the fake grenade to coerce ol' Squidbot into suffering through raw Japanese MSX hell!

No, we can't do that. Because you dropped it. Like you drop everything.

Credit goes to GameFAQs for the boxart rips.

EDIT:
Looks like the old plum lady's a cigarette dealer in the Japanese version. Mrs. Plum just became ten times more awesome, and I bet Mr. Garlic's "donut" probably glass-shaped and filled with alcohol.

Oh, 80s and early 90s Nintendo of America censorship. You so crazy. =P

And that'll be why she's so wrinkled.

Here's some additional side-by-side comparisons of a few areas of the game. Japanese shots and Juice bar pic taken by me, other pics from Prime's LP.



The localized version has ground textures in the Melon Patch, while the Japanese equivalent is just solid color. Advantage goes to US ver. here.



Good ol' censorship at work here. Already shown this one before, but taken with a different emulator now.



More censorship. In Japan, Miss Eggplant of the liquor store juice shop is a smoker, and has an ashtray and a bottle of booze laying on its side on her counter. The US version's editing makes her right arm look ridiculously tiny in its new position.



In the Japanese version, the exit to the jail's in a different location onscreen and is one of those Japanese gates instead of just an open door. Don't really see the point of this edit when they didn't touch the Japanese guards, though.

Some more minor stuff worth noting so far is that the Celery Cabaret sign and the pharmacy's red cross sign have some Japanese text on them, and the deli shop has a Yen sign instead of a $ sign on its leaflet. Oh, and if you look at the main shop strip, while Cigarette Lady's shop may have been changed on the inside, it remains shaped like a pack of cigarettes in the US version.



Right, that building in the lower right with the smokestack smokes and the cigarette box is fruit. Riiiiiiight.....


But Boss, cigarettes are my favorite fruit!

Goddammit, Percy. >_<

Anyway, this only covers the first three chapters. I've got other things to worry about now, but I thought some of you would find this stuff interesting. Also, don't try to play through this in Japanese. If not for the gameplay and menu options basically being in the same places, this would be an even bigger hell.

Hooray! More differences! Once again, English shots by OP, Japanese shots by me.


The Melon Patch after the harvesting. Japanese ver.'s got some shoeprint textures on its lame orange background now.


Saladron's scary tree lair lacks a sign and has what appears to be beads rope around the tree in the Japan, which presumably prevent entry. US ver.'s tree looks much better without the gaudy things sacred Shinto ropes.


Looks like the pricetag on General Cantaloupe's hat was an original addition to the US version, which makes him much more awesome in English. His tile composition's also a bit different as well, Japan's General looks a bit bigger but with a jagged left shoulder.


Pointless color palette change between versions, Japanese looks better with red. Also, the mushroom man's smoking, but that's not really a surprise by now.

And then there's the shower scene. The change between versions isn't what you were thinking, though. The orange girl looks exactly the same when poking out of the shower. However.....


Yes, the orange girl is at a different position in the shower, and there appears to be two people in there. Commence with the lesbian jokes now. =/

Anyway, I think that's about it. There might be another change or two, but it was hell enough finding all this stuff in a visual novel whose language I fail at understanding. Hope you enjoy the differences. Or get freaked out by this fucked up produce adventure even more now. ;P

the thing around the tree is a rope, which is standard for sacred trees in the shinto religion.

Wow, you know your stuff. Thanks for the info.

Every time I think this thread is gone and buried, as it should be, it keeps coming back!

Percy, the horror that would not die.

I started playing this at work the other day. It was a slow day. The day was saved.

AAAAH, the thread is still alive! Kill it! Kill it with fire!

Someone (i.e. not me) should LP the fan remake. You know it makes sense.

If the remake was ever finished, I've never been able to find it.

Uh, I didn't shock the thread back to life this time. >.>; But I'm gonna reply anyway. <.<;

Fixed, though I wouldn't mind seeing the remake with Nightmare Fuel Percy done, either. This produce game really caught my interest when I lost my mind and did screen comparisons and all.

Princess Tomato is awesome and you all know this!

At the very least, it's charming. Come on, it has a veggie mecha fight!

Veggie Mecha Fight does not forgive it for its crimes, sir!

...it helps, mind. But it does not forgive.

It would be interesting to see all the changes that were made between versions, as well as how much nicer things would be without Percy (who, as I'm sure has been noted elsewhere, was a new addition to the Famicom version).

What? I don't know if I want to live in a world where this game doesn't include Percy.

Of course, I want to see what it's like. But I don't have to accept that world view.

This appeals to my morbid curiosity.

It has a crucified strawberry.

That sealed the deal.

At this point I can't be sure whether or not you are joking.

BAM

Also this is on the Japanese Virtual Console.

Also lookit this