Bokosuka Wars, created by Kouji Sumii and published by ASCII, put the player in command of a leader advancing in real time across the battlefield alongside an army that grows as it frees and recruits soldiers, while each unit gains experience in combat. Born on the Sharp X1 and brought to MSX in 1984, it's now recognized as one of the foundations of the tactical role-playing or "simulation RPG" genre that later flourished in Japan. Its influence was felt far beyond its own commercial success: it laid down ideas — troop formation, unit progression, advancing toward the final castle — that later genre series would refine throughout the entire 8- and 16-bit era, making it an unavoidable piece of archaeology for understanding where Japanese strategy games come from.
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