Hoshi wo Sagashite...[a] is a 1988 adventure game developed and published by Sega for the Mark III/Master System. The game uses the same science fiction setting as Sega's Phantasy Star (1987) and is about a space pilot who gets an egg as a gift for his girlfriend, which hatches into the alien creature Mio. The rest of the game involves finding clues about Mio's origin.
| Hoshi wo Sagashite... | |
|---|---|
 Cover Art | |
| Developer(s) | Sega[1] |
| Publisher(s) | Sega |
| Artist(s) | Rieko Kodama |
| Writer(s) | Miki Morimoto |
| Platform(s) | Master System |
| Release |
|
| Genre(s) | Adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single-player[2] |
The game is menu-based and involves the player selecting various options form a side-panel on screen to progress. The games narrative and planning was by Miki Morimoto and was her first Master System game as a planner. The game was released only in Japan, and received lukewarm reviews from publications like Comptiq and Beep. Retro Gamer described the game as becoming "more renowned in recent years" in 2025 due to the English fan translation being released.[3] From retrospective reviews, Steven Barbato of Hardcore Gaming 101 complimented the game for its colorful presentation and relaxing compelling gameplay.
Plot
editHoshi wo Sagashite... is set in a science fiction story set in the same world as the video game Phantasy Star (1987).[3][1] The player controls Roy, a space pilot who gets a gift for his girlfriend Lila from a shady dealer. He choose an egg and not long after getting it home, it hatches Mio, a cute bear-like creature that was believed to be extinct. Roy then travels between planets and searching for any potential leads to learn more about Mio and the secret ___location of Mio's homeland.[1]
Gameplay
edit
Hoshi wo Sagashite... is a menu-driven adventure game that takes place in the same solar system as Phantasy Star.[3][1] The game is controlled with a text-based interface with multiple commands.[1][3] The player chooses and gives commands to a situation which will effect the scenes in the games story through selection or cancelling action options from the right side panel such as "talk", "Look", "Eat" and "Take".[1][2][4] There are several ways the game can end, such as choosing to crack Mio's egg prematurely.[1][5] Some options will lead to an happy narrative endings for characters, while others can allow Shimio to die. The player can quit the game at any point and return via to this point they save via a password system.[5]
Production
editMiki Morimoto, who is credited as "GamerMiki", worked at Sega and her first work for planning a game was for Hoshi wo Sagashite…. [6][7] The story of the game was created by Morimoto.[8] Reflecting on Hoshi wo Sagashite… in an interview published in 1991, she said that she wished she had focused more on raising the Mio creatures within the game.[6] When asked about what was the games true ending from its multiple endings, she responded that she did not believe there was no official one and it was left for players to interpret.[8]
Rieko Kodama worked on the graphics for the game under the name "Phenix Rie".[9][10][11] Kodama first worked with Sega on The Mark III hardware creating graphics for Champion Boxing (1984) and still created graphics for the system as recently as Phantasy Star (1988). She described making graphics for the system as being "a real struggle" as it allowed for very few colors.[10]
Release and reception
editHoshi wo Sagashite... was released in Japan on April 2, 1988 for the Mark III.[12] It was one of the few games for the system that remained exclusive to Japan.[1] Hoshi wo Sagashite... reached the second highest place in Famicom Tsūshin Top 10 Selling Sega games on May 20, 1988.[13]
From contemporary reviews, an anonymous writer in Comptiq found that the game might not be satisfying for players who wanted a more difficult adventure game, but would be perfect for people who want to enjoy graphics and conversations with the characters. They found the ending of the game "quite moving."[14] In Beep, a reviewer commented the game was neither good or bad, recommending it to fans of Sega.[15]
In a 2025 overview of the Master System, Nick Thorpe of Retro Gamer described the game as becoming "more renowned in recent years" due to the English fan translation being released.[3] From retrospective reviews, Steven Barbato of Hardcore Gaming 101 complimented the game for its colorful presentation and relaxing compelling gameplay. Barbato said the games only real weakness was its tendency to rely on unintuitive choices to progress the story that he described as "typical of Japanese adventure games of the era."[1]
See also
editNotes
editReferences
editFootnotes
edit- ^ a b c d e f g h i Barbato 2021.
- ^ a b Sega 1988.
- ^ a b c d e Thorpe 2025, p. 41.
- ^ Sega 1988, p. 4.
- ^ a b Sega 1988, p. 6.
- ^ a b メガドライブFAN 1991, p. 83.
- ^ The World of Phantasy Star, p. 47.
- ^ a b メガドライブFAN 1991a, p. 107.
- ^ The World of Phantasy Star, p. 42.
- ^ a b メガドライブFAN 1991b, p. 77.
- ^ Almaci & Kemps 2004.
- ^ Sega.
- ^ Famicom Tsūshin 1988, p. 11.
- ^ Comptiq 1988, p. 184.
- ^ Beep 1988.
Sources
edit- "SEGA 特集2 愛し て 育て る ス ペ シセガ" [Sega Feature 2: Love and Raise Sega Special]. Beep (in Japanese). Nippon Softbank. May 1988.
- "Sega Spirit". Comptiq (in Japanese). Vol. 42. Kadokawa Shoten. May 1988.
- "セガ Top 10". Famicom Tsūshin (in Japanese). No. 49. May 20, 1988.
- "リレーエッセイ" [Relay Essay]. メガドライブFAN [Mega Drive Fan] (in Japanese). Tokuma Shoten. June 1991.
- "SEGA 懐かしの名作ゲーム" [Sega: Nostalgic Masterpiece Games]. メガドライブFAN [Mega Drive Fan] (in Japanese). Tokuma Shoten. September 1991.
- 星をさがして・・・ゲームの進び方 [Searching for the Stars... How to Progress in the Game] (in Japanese). Sega. 1988.
- The World of Phantasy Star (in Japanese).
- "リレーエッセイ" [Relay Essay]. メガドライブFAN [Mega Drive Fan]. Tokuma Shoten. July 1991.
- Almaci, Hasan Ali; Kemps, Heidi (December 13, 2004). "Interview: Rieko Kodama". The Next Level. Archived from the original on September 16, 2017. Retrieved August 27, 2025.
- "マイカード マークⅢ" [My Card Mark III]. Sega (in Japanese). Archived from the original on June 21, 2019. Retrieved August 26, 2025.
- Barbato, Steven (May 31, 2021). "Hoshi wo Sagashite". Hardcore Gaming 101. Retrieved August 26, 2025.
- Thorpe, Nick (2025). "The Retro Gamer Guide to Master System". Retro Gamer. No. 271. United Kingdom: Future Publishing. p. 41. ISSN 1742-3155.