Welcome to my blog, traveller.
Chapter 1: Introduction
Somewhere in Europe there's a somewhat mythical place where the local pop culture seems to be existing in a bubble of it's own, isolated from the outside, untouched and unexplored from anyone who doesn't understand the nuances of it's language and that place is also one that -in the past- has managed to influence the whole Europe with his ancient culture stemming from past history. I'm talking about no other country than Italy, a place where local comics are still being sold despite foreign products such as american comics and japanese manga being widespread and where other products such as toys, movies and music exist only to satisfy the demands of the local italian population (plus other products that aren't mentioned here). This place not only has managed to build a cultural landscape that appears opaque to the eyes of outsiders, but also posses a sort of creative power that the local industry uses to appeal to the local tastes of the people, it is always been a rarity that such products will become able to globalize and enter foreign markets (including but not limited to the whole Europe and North America). Certain products such as Winx Club (that have recently gotten a modern live action Netflix adaptation) and Gormiti (which continue to be produced to this day, albeit, in a very different shape and form to satisfy modern audiences) are some example of a local intellectual license that managed to get famous and exported to global markets outside from Italy (their country of origin) and Europe.
But what about the least popular local products that have not managed to go big? What happens when a product fails to gain enough popularity and performing so badly in sales that it literally gets forgotten and dismissed as just a child toy that will most likelly gather dust over the years or even get thrown into the trash without a second tought? I'm talking about "Behero: Be Your Legend" an half-console, half-collectible toy videogame that was published in the year 2010 advertised as being integrated with physical playing cards to enhance gameplay (kinda like some old card scanning games of the 90's such as barcode battler). Well, we can say that the 90's haven't really died at all here in Italy (until very recently) and that there are still some people who are still interested to scan and collect cards like in the old days (keep in mind that this was just in a time where Android phones where still not quite as widespread as they are today and the internet was still in his expansitory phase).
Chapter 2: Made in Italy J-RPG
The game was advertised on italian television as being a child toy set in a fantasy world where people scanned and collected cards to use them during gameplay, or even play it as it where any other trading card game on a table with friends. Whats more interesting about it is that the game resembles more of a japanese roleplaying game (yes, you heard that right) where the main character fights randomized battles against monsters, drakes and other villains to gain experience, the far eastern influences are in fact really apparent in the game as it draws it's inspiration from other large videogame franchises such as Final Fantasy and other japanese and fantasy troopes with the artstyle being remiscent of Manga and Anime drawings. The card collecting aspect of the game was not only relegated to trading or dueling like in the case of other popular card games like Magic: the gathering or Yu-Gi-Oh, it's an essential part of the game that determined how well your character could perform during gameplay, how quicker your character attacked, how well it defends from enemy hits, what sort of equipment it carries etc. The game was made by an italo-hong kong company called "Giochi Preziosi", the same creators of the notoriously famous Gormiti franchise (does that ring a bell to you?) that whas once betting for the creation of another (possibly more successful) franchise by combining videogames with phisical toys (something that they have already done in the past with many other different products) in turn creating a sort of hybrid product that could provide an unique experience to children of all ages (and possibly other fans of JRPGs).
Chapter 3: More than a game
The Behero game console was packaged inside a large box with all the accessories needed to play the game plus a charger and a few cards (9 in total, as for what I know currently), the game also managed to receive a comic book adaptation that narrated the events of the game. Since there aren't many informations available in the internet about this game, my goal is to dedicate this blog towards the discovery of this rare hidden gem of a game that is really, really hard to find nowadays without going to Italy to hunt for any storage leftovers that have remained unsold to this day (or even scout for a copy on certain marketplaces such as Ebay). In order to preserve this game memories to modern generations or any curious game collector that may not know anything about the existence of such a game I plan to write more articles in the future describing the game in more details as I deepen my knowledge and undertsanding of this elusive game, blogposts will be getting some small incremental updates in the future and more images will get added as time passes on and I get more time to play the game. Stay tuned for more.