Another Bible is the fourth game in the Megami Tensei ‘Last Bible‘ spin-off series and was originally released for the original Game Boy, in Japan only, in 1995. An English fan translation, by Aeon Genesis, was released in 2002 and the game is also Super Game Boy compatible, so that’s the version I’m showing here.

Starting a new game you get to name a boy and a girl character and these form the basis of your starting party. New members join frequently and can be selected for missions during intermissions.

The missions themselves feature turn-based movement and tactical combat in the style of the Shining Force games, in that: before each level you choose which party members to take out and what items they’re carrying (each member can carry a weapon and one special item), and then try to win each battle using a combination of fight moves, magic and items to complete a stated objective.

The order of battle is dictated by a character’s speed stat. The fastest characters move first and the slowest last.

After a character has moved you then get to choose an action to take from a menu: fight, talk, magic, technique, item, stats, and check. And when you’ve finished you then select “done” and the next fastest character moves afterwards. When your party’s moves have been exhausted you then end the session and the cycle beings again.

Defeating enemies earns Experience Points (EXP) and these allow characters to level-up. Levelling-up allows you to distribute points to your character’s attributes (power, might, magic, speed and luck), which makes them gradually become more powerful.

The party has a central item store that any individual member can use; the moon phases affect monster strength (they tend to be more powerful when the moon is full), and shops become available between missions where you can buy healing items or special items that boost stats or EXP gathering.

Talking to and recruiting monsters has taken a back seat in Another Bible. It can still be done, but it’s not very effective. My attempts to talk to anyone were mostly met with blanks. This is not a major issue, though, because new characters are recruited automatically at certain points in the story, which bolsters your roster instead.

While Another Bible is an enjoyable JRPG, and a reasonably good entry in the Last Bible series, it does lack the detail and charm of some of the previous games (particularly Last Bible III, which is my favourite). The fan translation is a bit patchy (and buggy) in places too, which is a little disappointing. Another Bible is still worth a play, though, if you like obscure fan-translated JRPGs.

More: Another Bible on Moby Games
More: Another Bible on romhacking.net