Daikoukai Jidai Gaiden

About

Daikoukai Jidai Gaiden is a 1997 strategy RPG from Koei where you build and command a seafaring empire. As a captain, you juggle trade routes, naval combat, and exploration across fictionalized New World maps. The game splits focus between two protagonists one seeks a lost civilization while the other rises through Algerian pirate ranks each with their own ship, crew, and story beats. Progress depends on balancing resources, upgrading vessels, and navigating political tensions between rival factions. The game stands out for its simultaneous dual narratives that rarely intersect but share the same mechanics and world design. Players manage everything from cargo prices to cannon upgrades while chasing loosely defined story goals. Though largely unknown outside East Asia, the series built a dedicated fanbase for its blend of economic strategy and pirate fiction. Running on the same engine as 1996’s New Horizons, this PlayStation and Saturn spinoff adds character-driven arcs to a system focused on long-term fleet management and risk-reward decision making.

Storyline

In the games, the player takes up the role of a captain (also called commodore in some translations) and manages a seagoing fleet to participate in trades, privateering, treasure hunting, exploration, and plain piracy. Even though the series is largely open-ended, there is still a loose plot which requires the player to follow certain paths, and deviating from these paths may stall the progress of the story. The two protagonists are as follows: * Miranda Verte: Genoese adventurer who mistakenly thought the treasure hunter, Pietro Conti, had asked for her hand in marriage, and sets off to find him. Her quest eventually leads to a plot relating to an ancient civilisation in South America, which were touched on by Pietro's previous adventure. * Salvador Reis: Pirate and adopted son of Hayreddin Reis (aka Khayr ad-Din). His adventure involves rising to fame as one of the Algerian pirates, compete for domination with enemy pirate clans and also struggle for power within his own clan.