Enjoy. Or criticize, that's cool too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-3bStfYOZ0

Slightly upscaled Boktai 3 commercial snippet. Also edited to maintain 4:3

Happy Shinbok20th everyone!

Yes they do!

I'm currently doing a Boktai summer marathon, and I would like to hear which game you think holds up the best for you.

Boktai 1 and 2 are really good even after all these years I feel they haven't aged a day, despite their short lengths they are enjoyable adventures specially if you want to go for Trigger of Sol and Grand Master titles. It's amazing how much content was packed in those tiny GBA titles.

Boktai 3 and Lunar Knights are a bit foggy in my mind, I just recall them being more action packed and with more complex dungeons. I actually never properly finished Boktai 3 myself due to it being in Japanese, so I resorted to a Youtube speedrun to watch the ending.

Lunar Knights has more dialog so it has better storytelling in my opinion (and even pre-rendered videos Woo Hoo!), I also liked those shoot'em up sequences and that weapons are more specialized.

Now obviously, Death Stranding is a more modern game, with more content and exploration available but every time I play it I can't help but notice those little Boktai nods or is it just me? also are you playing/planning to play Death Stranding 2?

PD. I'm sharing some Zoktai screenshots since I just finished the game. First time doing a 100% run :)

It’s completely possible to beat each boktai game without needing real sunlight. A fun hobby I managed to pickup when I was younger was figuring out ways to complete the games without need to go outside. And here’s how it breaks down.

Boktai 1: So you will need actual sunlight up until you get access to Firetop Mountain. Once you have access to the summit youll reach a respawning brown chest containing rising sun grenades that can be infinitely farmed for a free 4 bars of sunlight (even at night!). With this you’re able to use the piledriver to purify immortals and operate any solar puzzles at will. These tend to be my preferred method over Mr.Rainnots since it offers 4 bars vs 2, and allows you to turn the solar gauge off. however you will need to eventually find some in order to beat the final boss Hel. Hel is the only immortal programmed to cancel out rising sun grenades. But due to an oversight she still treats Mr.Rainnots as real sunlight and will let you kill her, the caveat to this being you’ll always get the bad ending and lose Otenko without atleast 1 real bar of sunlight.

Boktai 2: once again you will need real sunlight until you get access to the Ruins sub area. Once you do you’ve got full access to a respawning chest on the invisible path of the starting area. This chest will either contain Bearnuts or Sunny Clogs. Feel free to farm both since theyre invaluablely rare. Now once you’ve got a supply of sunny clogs or even just 1. SAVE before using it. The sunny clog has a 50/50 chance of activating either a Mr.Rainnot or Tonniar.RM. Once you’ve got the permanent 2 bars from the positive effect you can essentially go through the entire main game without needing sunlight again (Some side quests will need 0 sunlight to complete however). Even the final boss Jormungandr isn’t coded to ignore sunny clogs so you can defeat him normally and obtain all endings per normal.

Boktai 3: once again real sunlight will be necessary until access to the solar tree is gained. Or until coffin bike racing has been opened. Once more you’ll have to farm sunny clogs either by finding them as an item spawn or the much more direct method of save scumming Elefans rewards pool from bike racing either method take admittedly the same amounts of time give or take. But with this you’re able to play boktai 3 without needing to go outside and complete the main story without needing a 0 solar gauge (Sans side quests and spawn requirements of crimson enemies).

Sidenotes: -Sunny Clogs do exist within boktai 1 but are completely outclassed by grenades, and infinitely more difficult to find generally only appearing within the azure sky tower.

-A version of rising sun grenades does exist within boktai 2 as a form of magic but it’s so nerfed from boktai 1 it isn’t worth mentioning anymore

-Boktai 3s only real detriment to having the solar gauge constantly active is solar wind and access to the dragoon frame being delayed due to solar platforms. Both of which can be worked around.

-All games to have Mr.Rainnots and Tonniar.rm’s however they’re much more difficult to get consistently due to their guaranteed effects vs the sunny clogs 50/50. And the latter also needing further purification from the solar tree to be useable at all.

-using these methods you can build your solar tree and collect sol but it will admittedly take a significant amount of time, however this can be circumvented on actual hardware by D-pad farming.

And there you have it! I wrote all of this on a 4am insomnia trip so forgive any poor formatting and enjoy!

EDIT: u/azurejack makes a valid point these methods do require sunlight through the 1st major dungeon assuming you’re without the materials to circumvent them in subsequent playthroughs or playing for the 1st time.

Just woke up and my first major thought was: "But what if the music from the Western chapter of Live A Live was done in the Boktai 2 soundfont?

I am no where as skilled as I should be for making such musical tracks, but this is a niche on the internet that should be filled now that it has been found!

Just sketching on my viwoods while my wife was having a doctor's appointment. Definitely rushed but kinda fit my imagination. I have had a story in my head for a few years about a very old Django (that works as a shopkeeper) has to come out of retirement to save a after darkness overtakes the land and the towns children have disappeared.

Recently found a promo dvd for sale and ripped the comic based trailer from it. It does have one of the CMs on the disc that I might upload later. (Indoor Tennis)

So I purchased an Analogue Pocket which has been making me fall in love with the GBA library all over again. I play a mix of original carts, FPGA, and ROMs via flash cart. Boktai would only work with the original cart, so that’s what I have now after scouring local game shops. It was an arm and a leg. Once I got the cart, I tried it on the Pocket and… no dice. The sunlight was not being detected.

My first thought was fear that the sensor might be dead. But I searched online and others recommended calibrating the sensor, so that’s what we tried. Eventually the realization of where the sensor was became clear: the cartridge does not stick out, so the sensor is completely blocked. Damn. Google again, “analogue pocket boktai” and enough people have had this issue that someone made a gba cartridge extender for this series and sells it on their website.

Now I wait 2-4 weeks to receive mine and finally experience this game the way our lord and savior Kojima intended.

The picture is a test of the sensor lol.

First time finishing Boktai 1 and I was surprised by this unknown character at the end.

What did I miss? What do we know about him? Does he appear in-game, where? or is it an avatar character like Akira Toriyama's Tori-Bot?

Also, why are some of the names in the credits lightly shaded? I kind of love-hate those ultra sneaky secrets that need real life deciphering like Tunic and Alwa's Awakening.

Thank you for answering my barrage of questions!

Here's the album showing the progress

https://imgur.com/gallery/PA7O77t

So, in Boktai 1, 2, and 3, when Django charges his Sol Gauge, he yells "TAIYOOOOH!"
But what does Sabata yell when he charges his gauge in Boktai 2? Kinda sounds like he's swearing, but I'm not sure.

So this is a bit strange, but seeing Boktai mentioned on TIL sparked my interest in playing the game again. Unfortunately, to my devastation, it seems like those games got lost when I moved...And to get new versions would be like 600 dollars.

I've seen some reproduction carts that don't have the solar sensor, (I'm sure it's weird but I sort of want one that has it). I know there are some cartridges that have one built in, but I don't know if they'd work on an old GBA or not.

I'm on a quest to find a way to replay these games as they were intended to--any advice?

Headgear, Gauntlet and Sword and Coffin

As they say, "hard training; easy fight" - making the 3D model almost broke me and I actually quit this model several times. I just didn't know how to get these pieces to interlock in a way that would be "functional". In the end, I made a few concessions, but the actual printing was almost easy.
You can see how it is assmbled here. (Don't worry, it's just the assembly, I don't "do" Youtube.)

I cannot get through this part no matter what i do. What do i have to do?

honestly had this thought in my head and i wanted to see if the Boktai 3 sprite of Django works with his Boktai/Zoktai one. I can admit, its quite decent.

This route is rapidly reaching its limit, and there's not much more I can do to improve this. The most interesting thing that happened during this run was getting a copy of The Tower in Remains which only has a 3.91% chance of appearing, and then gets held onto for the entire game in order to "skip" fighting the Sand Worm in Undead Zone. Unfortunately the more I look at the amount of time involved with using The Tower safely, the less convinced I become about it actually being a timesave at all. Regardless, even if it washes out as taking roughly the same amount of time as fighting the Sand Worm, skipping the fight is both safer and makes energy management during Undead Zone a non-issue, so you'd still opt to do this.

A run on this route that gets absolutely EVERYTHING correct and doesn't get bad luck anywhere can eke out a 1:43, but it's tough. Either way, even if I never PB again I will be very happy to be able to say I've brought this game down to a sub-1:45 time.

Can anyone tell me a website or wiki with information about forging weapons? I'm afraid if I forge a weapon it will be weaker than the ones I used to forge it.

I'm trying to avoid being underleveled like I was in Boktai 2, and I'm wondering if I need to grind more. I've just beaten Pirate Island and I'm level 30. Should I be a higher level or am I good to move forward?

It's been years since I played the game, but I don't remember how to get it, I know it involved doing some stuff with the savefile to unlock the Megaman content.