About Zakuzaku Actors (ざくざくアクターズ)
2022-12-13
Notes for English speakers
Please note that Zakuzaku Actors is available only in Japanese as of writing this article. You can still play the game with translation tools.
Character names, game titles, novel titles, and quotations are translated by me, not by their creators.
TL;DR
Download from Vector and play it.
Introduction
This is the thirteenth article of UEC Advent Calendar 2022. Yesterday's theme was 【Bash】I've created an interactive selection menu (【Bash】インタラクティブな選択メニューを作ってみた) by Izurina (いずりな).
I'm toku_san, a M1 student at UEC. These days I am having peaceful days because I've finished a presentation at a conference.
I'll introduce my favorite game, "Zakuzaku Actors" (ざくざくアクターズ), which I started to play last year.
Caution
This article includes spoilers revealed after playing Zakuzaku Actors for 5 minutes and technical spoilers unrelated to the game's story. However, continue reading the article anyway, as these are no longer spoilers.
Overview of the game
Zakuzaku Actors (ざくざくアクターズ, Zakuzaku Akutāzu) is an RPG-style freeware game created by Hamusuta (はむすた) with RPG Maker VX Ace. The game is also called Zakuaku (ざくアク - Zakuzaku Akutāzu).
According to the creator's blog, version 0.71a was released on June 19th, 2012. It is the very first release of the game. After that, it has been continually updated, content has been added even after the main story is concluded, and version 1.82, the current newest version, was released on October 24th, 2022. Note that the link to the blog is on the lower part of this blog because it contains the game's spoilers.
Hamusuta, the creator of the game, also creates an RPG game called Random Dungeon (らんだむダンジョン, Randamu Danjon) previously, and writes a novel called To us in the upside-down world (逆さま世界の私達へ, Sakasama sekai no watashi tachi e).
About the game system
Players form a party of 8 members in general. They involve battles with enemies, but 4 out of 8 do actual combat as the advance guard and the remaining 4 stand by as the rear guard. You can move members from advance to rear anytime, and vice versa.
Also, Zakuaku has the concept of TP (Tactical Point). The point is increased during a battle for various reasons, and some skills consume it.
Both concepts of battle with 8 members and TP seem dull, but they suddenly become attractive if combined. For example, skills to revive characters typically consume TPs. Players can locate characters having such skills in the rear guard after them collecting TPs in advance and guard to revive characters. Also, it is possible to buff a character a lot and attack an enemy in a stroke.
The difficulty of the game is adjusted well. Many characters appear in the game but have different strengths and weaknesses. Thus, the fundamental way to proceed with the game is to use proper characters. Enemies also have different properties, but it is relatively easy to find a way to win because cheat tips are hidden in the game. However, enemies will destroy your party if you try to ignore all the properties of characters and enemies and combat enemies only with high character levels (yes, I tried it and couldn't get it all done.).
About the story
The following is the quote from the narration immediately after starting the game.
... A lot of summoned things overflowed this world. (……この世界には召喚された物が溢れていた。)
The summon technology that had been developed at some point in the past brought technologies, people, and things from various worlds, but people intoxicated by this breakthrough technology summoned too many people without particular reasons. (いつ頃からか出来上がった召喚という技術は、様々な世界から技術、人、物を運んできたが、この画期的な技術に少々浮かれすぎた人々は、用もないのに多くの人を呼びすぎた。)
As a result, there remained no jobs. There was nothing to do. Surplus summoned people ―― summonees overflowed. (結果として、仕事もなく、やることもなく。余ってしまった召喚された側――召喚人達が溢れてしまう。)
They somehow tried to get used to the world, but it was not so easy. Finally, some of the summonees who reached the limit of their patience became mobs and committed violence. (彼らは、なんとか世界に馴染もうとの努力はするものの、そう簡単にはいかず、我慢の限界を超えた一部の召喚人達は、暴徒と化して暴れまわった。)
The summoners felt responsible and started to quash the mobs, but what is worse, even summonees who were suppressing them began to support the mobs and to rampage. (これに責任を感じた召喚士達は、暴徒の鎮圧に乗り出したが、あろうことか、鎮圧側の召喚人まで暴徒に肩入れして暴れまくり。)
The scale of the rebellion was continually expanding, and many countries and people got fatigued to suppress them. (反乱の規模は広がり続け、その鎮圧に、たくさんの国と人々が疲労しまくった。)
Certainly, summoners lost their faces. After that, a large scale of restrictions was imposed on summoning. (当然、召喚士達の面目は丸つぶれで、これ以降、召喚には大幅な制限がかけられることになったのである。)
... From this world, this affair seemed to settle down, but from summoned people, it totally did not. (……この世界側からみると、一先ず落ち着いたような事件なのだけど、召喚された者にとっては、全くそうではなかった。)
Those who escaped successfully, those who were not interested in the affair from the start, and those who are planning another riot... A lot of summonees still remain in this world. (上手く逃げ延びた者、元々暴動騒ぎには興味なかった者。もう一騒ぎ企んでいる者……。まだまだ多数の召喚人が世界には残っている。)
Those who were not satisfied with the world where they are summoned and ... those who call them Hagure (ハグレ, the deviated) and disrespect them. The invisible friction between them was unfolding a story, but ――. (呼び出された世界に不満を持つ彼らと……。そんな彼らをハグレと読んで軽視するこの世界の人々とで、見えない摩擦が物語を動かそうとしていたが――。)
The situation of those who had fled to nameless ruins in this frontier was much different from others. (ここ辺境の、名前もない遺跡に逃げ込んだ彼女達の事情は、他の奴らとはだいぶ違っていた。)
... Yeah, the base plot is serious, but not the whole story is related to it. I think roughly 20% of it is connected. The other parts consist of quarrels (or mortal combats in some cases) among characters, a situation where an otokonoko is about to be killed by a father by misunderstanding, a comedy with violence by girls... etc.
The game has quite a few serious parts, but it's not so bitter; often, characters tell jokes, and many scenes of the game ease such atmosphere. Also, the pictures used in the game are cute.
By the way, the "girls" in the narration are those in the screenshot above. The girl wearing blue is Derich (デーリッチ, Dēricchi), and the one wearing green is Rosemary (ローズマリー, Rōzumarī). Players move and control Derich.
About BGMs
A few BGMs in this game are written by mozell, especially from the middle of the story. Also, some of them are newly written for this game. These BGMs are not only high quality. They also match the game very well. They filled me with various kinds of emotions.
So, turn on your speaker and play the game. An average person would do so, but I regret not being able to play BGMs
Conclusion
Anyway, the game is fun; you should download and play it.
Appendixes
Appendix A: about the previous work "Random Dungeon."
As I said above, Hamusuta, the creator of Zakuzaku Actors, had created a game called "Random Dungeon" (a.k.a. Randan - Randamu Danjon). This is also a masterpiece.
You can play Randan before playing Zakuaku. Although Zakuaku contains a few easter eggs derived from it, it is not necessary to understand Zakuaku's story. Still, I recommend playing Randan if you have time; you can play it before or after playing Zakuaku. It's just fun to play and enjoyable because you can find tips related to it in Zakuaku.
Appendix B: Links to websites
The following websites may contain spoilers.
Appendix C: Playing on Linux
While Zakuaku can be played on Linux with Wine, I've ended up running it on Windows because I couldn't make some BGMs play on Linux.
Zakuaku uses WMA format for some BGMs, but I couldn't play them on Linux. Because Wine has just started developing a WMA decoder since version 7.2 released on February 11th, 2022, it's just a guess, but WMA files can only be played indirectly. Therefore, simply running the game on Windows is the best way.
Fortunately, UEC students can install Windows on a personal PC for free. This is also a way to play the game. In fact, you should have at least one Windows machine because you may be forced to use software that only runs on Windows in a class.
DO NOT ASK THE GAME CREATORS EVEN IF YOU ENCOUNTERED ANY TROUBLES AND/OR DEFECTS DURING USING WINE. THE CREATORS DO NOT EXPECT THE USE OF WINE.