Shui Hu Shen Shou

Heaven-guided 108 Stars (天导108星)
Suiko Monster
 Genre
 System
 Release date

**Shui Hu Shen Shou** (**水滸神獸**, lit. "*Sacred Beasts of the Water Margin*"), is a Pokémon-esque RPG developed by Vast Fame and released for the Game Boy & Game Boy Color systems in 2001. It is loosely based off the story of the classical 14th century novel "Water Margin" (水滸傳, *Shuǐhǔ zhuàn*).

## Synopsis

During the early Song dynasty, 108 Sacred Beasts, sealed during the Tang dynasty by the Big Dipper, broke free and returned to the world of humans. The humans soon learned to control these monsters through charms and spells, which quickly led them to become completely dependent on their power. Even in the governmental spheres, officials were now chosen for their ability to control the Beasts above all else. This led to a rapid decline in the quality of life for the general populace, up until 60 years later, when their resentment became so strong it reached all the way to the Heavens.

The Jade Emperor, made aware of the situation, called the Big Dipper in and ordered him to seal the Sacred Beasts back up. However, not wanting to have anything to do with the human world again, the Big Dipper instead forcefully sends his two disciples, Yan Long and Chen Hu, to the world of humans...

## Features

* All 108 Sacred Beasts to find, catch and use
* 23 Demon Beasts, appearing as tough bosses to battle
* A story-driven adventure spanning 6 chapters for around 12+ hours of gameplay
* Mini-games to switch things up
* 140 moves to use in battle
* 2 equipment slots per Beast, allowing for further strategy
* 13 elemental attributes for Beasts and skills to determine their strengths and resists with a more complex weakness/resist system than in Shi Kong Xing Shou
* Various skills to learn and use on the overworld
* Fishing

## Characters

### Main characters

* **Yan Long**: The main character. An Immortal living in the Heavens, and disciple of the Big Dipper. Although he might appear airheaded at first glance, he is very skilled and got a very good evaluation from the world of Immortals and has a good heart. Even though he starts off as self-centered, petty and needlessly competitive, he slowly matures during his time in the human world.

* **Chen Hu**: Yan Long's junior, also a disciple of the Big Dipper. He is distant, taciturn, and likes to have everything planned out before acting, causing him to often be at odds with Yan Long's carefree nature. Although he cares for his senior, he's jealous that Yan Long has a better evaluation than him and constantly tries to prove himself to be better.

* **Big Dipper/North Star**: Yan Long and Chen Hu's master, a divinity from the Celestial Court. He tends to brag a lot, but rarely follows up with actions. He's the one who originally sealed the Sacred Beasts, but has absolutely no wish to have anything to do with the world of humans ever again. He shows blatant favoritism towards Yan Long and spoils him quite a bit, which might have been the cause of his behavior.

* **Master Luo**: A taoist master who likes to travel across the world on his white crane, Whitey. He tries to guide Yan Long and Chen Hu in their quest when they first descend from the Heavens.

* **Gao Qiu**: The game's main antagonist, an influent man who has a close position to the Emperor. As he is the most powerful official in the Court, he managed to keep his position for a long time, his dark ambitions growing all the while. Because he controls a mysterious and very powerful Sacred Beast, no one dares to stand up to him.

### Other characters

* **Chao Gai**: Leader of the bandits in the Liangshan Marsh, he's the Song court's most wanted man. Although he's a bandit leader, he has a righteous and brave heart and hopes to revitalize the crumbling and corrupt Song dyasty one day. He also seems to know quite a lot about the Sacred Beasts.

* **Song Jiang**: A benevolent and compassionate man, originally occupying an official post in the county of Yuncheng, and deeply loved by the people.

* **Wu Yong**: Known as the "Resourceful Star", his delicate appearance hides incredible wisdom. His acute mind allows him to easily get insight when faced with a crisis, and can achieve amazing things.

* **Shi Jin**: The adoptive son of the leader of the Shi family village. A righteous young man who will not stand for injustice. He's nicknamed the "Nine Tattoed Dragons" because of the dragon tattoo on his back, and is close friends with Wu Yong and Lu Zhishen.

* **Wu Song**: Working as a constable in the town of Henghai, he is respected as a tiger-slaying hero and will not hesitate to come to one's aid. However, he is very depressed due to his elder brother's death.

* **Yang Zhi**: A man with great ambitions, but no luck, that has always suffered through many hardships throughout his career. As he was at the brink of despair, he met the head secretary Liang, an important official in the city of Daming, who took him under his wing. As such, he is fiercely loyal to him and does his best to push his career forward.

* **Lu Zhishen**: A brutish, but good-hearted man with incredible strength. He's foul-mouthed, has a short temper and tends to get violent when drunk, but tries his best to do the right thing.

* **Lin Chong**: Wu Yong's best friend, he was once the instructor for the imperial capital's 800 000 guards. He has a deep-rooted hatred for Gao Qiu and his son after being falsely accused by them and imprisoned.

* **Dai Zong**: An odd man who, although impetuous, is not one eager to act. He has the ability to move as fast as the wind, and travelling thousands of miles a day is not a problem for him. He is used by Song Jiang’s group as a messenger.

* **Gao Yanei**: One of the main antagonists of the game. Gao Qiu’s adopted son. A licentious and debauched womanizer that uses his father’s influence to remain unpunished for his deeds. After Gao Qiu rose to power, his behavior became even worse.

## Reception

Shui Hu Shen Shou is one of Vast Fame's most popular games, often regarded as one of their best games as well as one of the best GBC games produced in the Taiwan/China area.

The game was also released officially in mainland China through their partner at the time, Kongfeng.

However, this also led to the game being widely pirated by multiple companies trying to profit off the game's success, causing Vast Fame to lose quite a bit in sales and, in fact, causing the game to not be very profitable for them.

It has however left a legacy of being a good alternative to Pokémon despite its flaws, and is fondly remembered today as a mark of "home-made" GBC gaming.

## Other releases

Outside of Vast Fame's official multicart re-releases and Kongfeng's official mainland one, there were a number of bootleg re-namings and releases over the years.
Notable examples include:

* Waixing's Heaven-guided 108 Stars, released in 2003, which removes the intro & Vast Fame copyright icon, changes the title screen, and adds a third option to the title screen to start the game with all in-game cheat codes enabled.
* Shui Hu Zhuan, of which the developer is unknown, which is a simple, poor-quality title screen hack with the remainder of the game unchanged.
* A port for the Famicom by Waixing, this time using the game's original title. It has redrawn visuals with overworld sprites stolen from various sources and just barely follows the original GBC game through its story and level design.
* Shenzhen Nanjing also ported the game to the Famicom in 2004, stealing sprites from GBC Vast Fame titles and other games. It is considered to be of even worse quality than Waixing's port.
* There is a release of the game by Li Cheng which removes the Vast Fame logo on boot and the title screen copyright, but is otherwise mostly unchanged save from a missing NPC in one of the towns.

Many reproduction carts with either the original Vast Fame version or Kongfeng's simplified chinese release can still be found to this day.

## Translation

A simplified chinese version of the game exists, supposedly being Kongfeng's official release in mainland China. It is now one of the most common versions sold on reproduction carts.

No translation in other languages exists, though a full walkthrough with english and french subtitles was posted on Youtube in 2021.

## Trivia

* The game has a hefty amount of unused content, which might hint at either a rushed development cycle at some point or multiple cuts to the game's scope as it was being worked on.
* Some of the music, especially battle tracks, is reused from Queen Fighter 2000, an earlier Vast Fame game.
* On Vast Fame's official multicarts this game is listed as Suiko Monster on the game select screen. This is in reference to the Japanese name for Water Margin, Suikoden.
* Vast Fame's official guidebook for the game lists a few in-game cheats that can be activated on the title screen (while the "Push Start" text is flashing) by inputting a series of commands, then starting a new game. These include:
	+ **A, A, A, B, B, B, Down, Down**: Starts with 12 Jades of Life and 9999 taels
	+ **Up, Down, Left, Right, Up, A, Down, Down**: Starts with 99 Snow Lotuses, 9999 taels and the Dash technique active.
	+ **Down, Down, A, A, Select, Select, B, B**: Starts with 99 Heavenly Master's Charms, 99 Master Calligraphies, 99 Elixirs (x2), 9999 taels and the Dash technique active.
	+ **Select, Select, Down, Down, Left, Right, B, A**: Starts with 10 Master Calligraphies and 9999 taels

## References

1. ↑  https://twgreatdaily.com/zh-hans/1MDlwWwBJleJMoPMd7cB.amp
2. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPMGUb1qjIE&list=PLXWBjLL29d06DyxuDSA9V026zZKsQ74CN&ab\_channel=WaddleBih