Toggle Background Color
Update 1: Goodbye, Corlo Island
Music: Siliconian's Shadow
The game opens with this theme, the changes in the opening splash screens lining up with the those long beats.
It's a rather sinister theme, and you might be able to tell why soon.
Enix published this. You may know them as the other half of Square-Enix. While Square put out JRPGs, Enix just kinda published lots of stuff.
They used to kinda be rivals, what with Dragon Quest versus Final Fantasy and all that, but five years after this game's release they'd merge.
Givro Corporation was a small-ish development team behind a variety of games until they quietly dissolved in 1998. Kuno-tachi no Banka (River City Zero/Jailbreak) and E.V.O. Search For Eden were developed by them, as well as the ever elusive Nanatsu Kaze no Shima Monogatari, a game not too different from the Wonder Project games.
They started out with relatively violent titles, but in their twilight years seemed to start focusing on more non-combat based games.
The original Wonder Project J did very well in Japan, selling extremely well, so I can only imagine that the following games simply didn't.
A shame, because I quite like what they've put out.
The title screen comes in, the scarlet J2 seeming rather ominous all things considered.
One would expect something like the box art, with some vista in the background, but no.
The Siliconian Empire
Ridiculous, yet rad branching metal tree city, is what I presume to be the Empire's captial. It's almost like some weird giant reaching out for a glowy hug.
(The text may get wiggly at times, this is an artifact of both the fan translation and the emulation. It's at it's worst outside of text boxes, but it's still readable. The only way to fix this is to submit to the N64's built-in bilinear filtering, which really doesn't do a sprite game many favors.)
Our view descends a massive tower, focusing on some platform hovering in the center.
As it bobs up and down, the view rotates around...
Siliconian, the 13th
...Revealing a figure fully clothed in black, sitting within their massive throne.
SILICONIAN XIII: What?! That cannot be possible...
And following that, a strange cybernetic lined head approaches from the shadows.
SILICONIAN XIII: Then any dream could be achieved?
MESSALA: Yes, that is correct...
SILICONIAN XIII: Where can this "J" you speak of be found?
MESSALA: On a small island in the Corlo Sea... the Gijin girl who owns it lives there.
SILICONIAN XIII: Mmmhmm... I see.
SILICONIAN XIII: Messala, bring me that girl immediately!
SILICONIAN XIII: Use whatever means you deem necessary.
MESSALA: Yes, sir!
Following that, Siliconian the 13th turns away in his superthrone and exits up the tower.
MESSALA: Heh heh heh...
The head rotates around to show a large glowing red eye...
That's... some wicked stitching.
Corlo Island
The sinister music stops at last, and we're presented with gentle sounds of waves. A little island with a small tower of some kind and a big mountain lies in the distance.
As we fade out again...
Music: Theme of Corlo Forest
...We start to hear this lovely ocarina song.
There's a small town on the isle, that weird tower, and some large crescent bay area. Interesting place.
Deep in the forest on the island we slowly move to see a girl sitting up against a grand tree, playing a blue ocarina.
We slowly zoom in...
UNKNOWN:Josette!
A voice calls out from afar as the girl keeps playing.
BIRD: The doctor wants to see you!
Bird is a live bird, although he seems to be mechanically modified, what with the metal collar and red glowing angler lamp.
Josette looks up at him and then we transition again...
Josette walks through a quaint little house up to an old guy leaning on a cane. It's worth noting that every step she makes has this odd little cartoony popping sound.
JOSETTE: What is it?
DR. GEPETTO: Josette... listen very carefully...
JOSETTE: Eh?
The Doctor's name being Gepetto should make this game's inspiration rather obvious.
DR. GEPETTO: You and Bird will depart together to Blueland.
DR. GEPETTO: There, a person called "Player-san" will take care of you.
I guess we're not going to see much of this island then.
JOSETTE: Eh? But why?!
DR. GEPETTO: I'm sorry, I can't tell you right now... anyhow, you staying here isn't good...
JOSETTE: No! I want to stay here with you!
JOSETTE: No! Sniff, sniff...
DR. GEPETTO: Josette... Please...
DR. GEPETTO: Don't be so...sel...fish.
BIRD: Doctor?!
Music: Goodbye Professor Geppetto
JOSETTE: Doctor...
DR. GEPETTO: Josette...
DR. GEPETTO: "Player-san" is from a world you cannot see...
JOSETTE: A world I can't see...?
DR. GEPETTO: From that world, "Player-san" will guide you with the help of Bird...
JOSETTE: Sounds scary.
An appropriate resposnse, I'd think.
DR. GEPETTO: Hoh hoh... don't worry, Josette...
DR. GEPETTO: "Player-san" is a very reliable person... I'm sure you'll be kindly watched over...
JOSETTE: ...
That's kinda up to the thread, as most decisions will be voted on.
DR. GEPETTO: Will you do this for me, Josette...?
JOSETTE: Yes, I will...
DR. GEPETTO: I see... I feel relieved...
DR. GEPETTO: ...Josette...
JOSETTE: What is it...?
DR. GEPETTO: Live your life to the fullest.
Music: Silence
JOSETTE: ...
JOSETTE: Doctor...?
BIRD: Doctor?!
BIRD: Doctoooor!?
BIRD: Uwaaaah!
JOSETTE: Bird... is he asleep?
Oh. Oh no. 
BIRD: Sniff... Josette... don't you understand? The Doctor is...
BIRD: He's dead! Uwaaah...
JOSETTE: Eh?
JOSETTE: Say, Bird...
JOSETTE: Dead... what does that mean?
UNKNOWN: Corlo Island confirmed at 2'o clock! Heading towards target!
We then hard cut to a strange green fighter jet of some kind.
UNKNOWN: Roger!
This fighter jet takes off at an angle...
Followed by another...
And another!
All three take off far into the horizon...
Music: Josette of Corlo Forest
CORLO NO MORI NO
JOSETTE
(Copyright GIVRO/MINT/ENIX 1996)
I don't actually know who MINT is. Couldn't find anything on them.
As the little high notes start playing, we start seeing an aged photograph slowly spins down on the sides.
A strange rock carving, showing evolution from fish, to odd lizard, then branching out to humans and lizardpeople.
A man in the back starts a fire as a lizard in the front holds a big sea shell. I assue they're planning on eating whatever is inside of it.
A pyramid is visible in the distance as one of these lizard people hand a glowing object to a human. Evidently these stone carvings date back a hell of a long time ago.
Hey, I don't remember Harvest Moon having lizardfolk. I guess this is the point in history where we learned how to make tools?
Well, damn it. Looks like we made weapons too, and the peace between humans and lizardfolk went away pretty fast after that.
Holy hell, did they just drop an atom bomb on us?
At least, I assume it's the lizardfolk as they're the only ones to learn the ancient art of wearing cloaks.
Following this, a much shorter lizard sage hands a glowing stone to our good Doctor Gepetto.
He's now working with some large machine, and there's a boy with wires hooked into him. This was the character from the first game.
And now he's almost immediately been destroyed by some sinister emperor looking guy.
And there's another death in just one update.
And now we can see Gepetto working on Josette...
It's worth noting that the other kid and Josette are known as Gijin, very humanlike robots.
The photgraph finally lands, showing the Doctor, Bird, and what seems to be a younger Josette in Corlo's forest.
The music now shifts tone as we see a strange shaped ship traveling through the ocean, sea birds flying by.
Josette stares into the horizon, standing on the front of the ship.
She looks up, curious...
To see the green fighter jet fly slowly above in the opposite direction.
And so it passes, but what of Corlo Island?
Music: First Premonition
And that's the entire intro movie- it just loops back from there.
There's no real title screen to this game, just the opening and the main menu.
The memory pak screen has an odd bug where it gets stuck trying to recognize whatever is inserted/being emulated and it just softlocks on this screen with no text.
Switching to a different memory pak may help on hardware fixed it, but if you're emulating ths game then you'll either have to mess with memory pak settings or find a different emulator.
We're given 7 letters to name ourselves with. Player-san is fine with me, but I don't see why I shouldn't leave it up to the thread to decide. You'll be making most of the decisions after all.
You're clear to vote for something simple and easy like "Player" or "Goon", or maybe even a real name, just keep it reasonable.
Of note is that we do eventually get to declare male/female for ourselves, as well as a few other aspects later on as well.
(Josette can be renamed as well, but the name just kinda fits well enough for me that I don't want to change it. It has some vaguely related etymology to "Gepetto" as well, I believe. Also the intro cutscenes always use "Player-san" & Josette.)
So, uh, yeah. Get to voting! This update and the next one will probably be the longest two for quite a while