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eveloped by Westone and released in April 1994 for Sega’s Mega Drive, Monster World IV (hereafter MWIV) was intended as the final entry in the ridiculously convoluted Wonder Boy saga. Mild spoiler: after the heart-warming ending and credits, your genie companion congratulates you, stating this is the end of the overall series. At the time it was not released outside of Japan. But in 2012, roughly 18 years later, it received an official English localisation for modern platforms. A sequel (Monster Boy And The Cursed Kingdom) came out in 2018 and now we are about to see a remake of MWIV itself. So how did this socalled ‘end of the series’ come about?
Leafing through the sketchbooks of art director Maki Ohzora (see the We Love Maki Ohzora boxout) reveals drawings for both the genie and Queen Prapril characters dated November 1992. Meaning, at least conceptually, it had been forming for over a year. The studio had finished porting The Dragon’s Trap to Game Gear, and entered a phase of making PC Engine CD-ROM titles. Crest Of Wolf/Riot Zone was released February 1993. After a long gap MWIV on Mega Drive came out April 1994, followed by PC Engine titles Dynastic Hero in May 1994 and Blood Gear in October that year. Looking through Westone’s portfolio dates, provided by company head Ryuichi Nishizawa, shows a tangled web as confusing as the Wonder Boy series itself.