「Ghost In Mizzurna Falls」

March 1st Cassette Drop

The time has come! The rest of my initial batch of Ghost In The Shell PS1 OST tapes is ready, and they’re coming alongside a new tape for the Mizzurna Falls OST.

I’ve talked a bit in the past about my Ghost In The Shell tapes, so I won’t go too in depth about them, but I’m still so happy with how they came out. The labels inside the cassette shell, so it’s literally in the shell, is easily my favorite idea I’ve come up with lmao.

But I’m INCREDIBLY excited to release these Mizzurna Falls cassettes.

I often find a random obscure PS1 game and just absolutely fixate on it. I truly obsess over these random fucking games that no one gives a shit about. Some of these games are titles like Galerians, Monster Bass, and IS:Internal Section (THANKS Sean Seanson - your fucking obscure PS1 videos have introduced me to so many bullshit fucking games that live in my brain rent free). Anytime one of these games weasels its way into my life, I inevitably end up picking up a copy, and learning everything I can about it, and I think Mizzurna Falls has been the one that I’ve been the most obsessed with. As a MASSIVE Twin Peaks fan, and a MASSIVE PS1 fan - this game was made for me.

I evangelize this game to EVERYONE I know. I can not believe this game existed.

Mizzurna Falls is a game by Human Entertainment, a lesser known Japanese development studio and publisher that was active in the 80’s and 90’s. It likely you’re familiar with SOMEONE that was affiliated with Human Entertainment. If the name doesn’t ring any bells for you, some notable members of the Human team include:
- Hifumi Kono, who directed some of the early Clock Tower games for Human Entertainment, went on to form Nude Maker, a studio that’s done contract work for Konami, Capcom, Platinum Games and Sega.
- Goichi Suda, who directed Twilight Syndrome games and Midnight Syndrome for Human Entertainment, and later went on to found Grasshopper Manufacture and would later work on titles like Michigan: Report from Hell, Killer7, Fatal Frame, and Lollipop Chainsaw.
- Spike, a Japanese game developer and publisher made up of former Human staff that formed the development team Vaill. Spike would later go on to become Spike Chunsoft through a merger with Chunsoft. Spike/Spike Chunsoft are probably most well known for developing the Dragon Ball Z Budokai games.

And some of notable games from Human Entertainment include:
Clock Tower - one of the earliest examples of a survival horror video game released on the SNES, featuring the cult horror icon, Scissorman in the 1995 Point-and-Click horror adventure game that’s had 3 sequels and even more ports.
The Firemen - A firefighting action RPG released in 1994 on the SNES that had a sequel on PlayStation in 1995.
S.O.S. (also known as Septentrion) - a Titanic inspired survival game released in 1994 on the SNES, where you try to save passengers on a sinking cruise ship.

The impact Human Entertainment has had on the games industry might be niche, but it’s absolutely notable if you’re a nerd for this kind of stuff like I am. I’m frequently just mind blown that so many talented developers, directors, and writers were all closely connected with this company that hasn’t existed in almost 25 years.

But enough background of Human. Back to my main focus here - Mizzurna Falls

1998’s Mizzurna Falls released for the PlayStation exclusively in Japan, and never saw an official localization attempt. The game was one of hundreds of Japanese exclusive PS1 games that most PlayStation players in the West or Europe would have never come across; until the game became the focus of Resident Evie, a freelance translator in Tokyo in 2017. She would go on to start the Project Mizzurna Tumblr where she chronicled her playing, translating, and breaking down the game, and it’s oddities. In 2021, game translator, Cirosan, and mobile game developer, Nikita, then developed a patch for the original Mizzurna Falls ROM, importing Evie’s English translated script, making the game completely playable in English for the first time - and it was then that the game truly started getting the recognition it deserved all this time, and it was around that time I discovered the game.

I mentioned earlier Twin Peaks - let me elaborate on that.

Mizzurna Falls is basically Twin Peaks the PS1 game. While 2010’s Deadly Premonition is often referred to as the unofficial Twin Peaks game, it was preceded in that aspect by Mizzurna Falls 12 years prior; we in the west just didn’t know that yet. The basic plot of Mizzurna Falls is that a small town high school girl is mysteriously attacked, while another girl is missing. You take the role of Matthew Williams, a classmate of the two victims who takes it upon himself to help solve the mystery of the case. The parallels between the victims, Kathy Flanery and Emma Rowland mirror the roles of Laura Palmer and Ronette Pulaski in Twin Peaks, and Matthew is very much a Donna Hayward type character. Mizzurna Falls might not have the FBI agent type character that Deadly Premonition has, but Matthew is a similar kind of intuitive, curious, and capable character as Special Agent Dale Cooper. The Twin Peaks comparison doesn’t end there though. A prominent location is a Diner, run by a waitress with a biker boyfriend, there’s elements of mysticism, a prominent Sheriff character, a similarly deceptive small American town with dark secrets, Emma’s mothers name is Sarah (mirroring Sarah Palmer), there’s a prominent Bar setting, and that Bar even has a singer named Isabella (less Twin Peaks, and more Blue Velvet, but you get the idea). I mean Mizzurna FALLS and Twin PEAKS - even the names are similar. While some of these aspects might feel like I’m reaching in a list form, if you play, or even watch gameplay of Mizzurna Falls, and are familiar with Twin Peaks, you will absolutely see what I’m talking about.

This game isn’t so fascinating to me JUST because of the Twin Peaks comparison though - this game is actually an under-sung marvel of game development.

Mizzurna Falls features a fully 3D open world to navigate, and a real time clock and NPC schedule you have to navigate around to trigger story beats. You literally drive, and put gas in, you car to travel from location to location - on the PLAYSTATION ONE - three years before the release of GTA3. It doesn’t stop there though - Mizzurna Falls features quick-time-events a year before Shenmue popularized them on the Dreamcast. This game, aside from its clearly PlayStation visuals, feels unusually modern because of how ahead of its time it was. I was genuinely mind blown the first time I played the game, and was inside the hospital, looked out a window, and saw my car sitting right where I parked it (horribly I might add). Stuff like cached vehicle locations and a real time schedule to figure out might not sound impressive today, but the fact all this was done on the limitations of the PlayStation hardware in 1998 is nothing short of incredible.

The innovation this game demonstrates doesn’t come without its downsides though. Mizzurna Falls can be buggy as hell. Sometimes your car will just drive into the sky. Sometimes you’ll get softlocked and need to restart. Sometimes the game just fails to load. Sometimes you’ll clip your camera though walls and see NPCs waiting for animations to start and sometimes you’ll drive up to events before they have a chance to load, or fall through the geometry. The game can be a slog to finish, especially with how unforgiving the story can be if you miss even a single conversation. But with a guide, and a little determination, you can see this game through.

And on the note of Twin Peaks games, I HAVE to shout out Twin Peaks: Into The Night, a fan made Twin Peaks PS1 style game. The game only has a demo out right now, but it is so incredibly faithful to the source material - I ADORE it and I’m ANXIOUSLY awaiting what else Blue Rose Team has in store for this project.

If you actually read all that, you’re a real one LOL. I got this far and the thought hit me like, “man, I’m really just going on and on about this game. I hope someone cares” lmao

I just fucking love Mizzurna Falls and Twin Peaks, and tapes.

I know realistically this will be one of my more niche tapes, but this is one I primarily wanted for my collection whether anyone else cares of not lmao

ANYWAY - These Mizzurna Falls and Ghost In The Shell tapes will all be available March 1st, at Noon CST.

If you’ve made it this far too, here’s your lil discount code ;) MMRYFALLS. I appreciate you for checking my lil emails and humoring my ranting about stuff like obscure Japanese PS1 games