The art of Noriyoshi Ohrai, Koei's master illustrator
After having greatly enjoyed GY Games' Sailing Era, a Chinese tribute to Koei's Uncharted Waters\Daikoukai Jidai series, I've been revisiting Koei's older hybrid franchises especially those published under the Rekoeition line, created to foster hybrids mixing RPG, simulation and strategy elements, sometimes also including adventure traits.
Having just round up my research about Progenitor, a forgotten Koei Uncharted Waters-style sandbox space opera for NEC's PC98, I realized not just those games, but also their cover arts, illustrated by the late renowned master painter Noriyoshi Ohrai, tend to be more than a bit underrapreciated outside of circles focused on Koei itself, and the same could be said for other Koei-reltated artists like Jun Suemi, Zill O'll's illustrator, who also worked on other series like Ys, Brandish and Wizardry.
Ohrai, born in 1935, was an alumnus of Tokyo University's Fine Arts department and, since the beginning of his career, mixed his impressive skills with traditional oil painting with his love for world history and fantasy and sci-fi themes. After having worked on a number of projects in the Japanese movie industry and for literary and magazine covers, he gained international fame when one of his Star Wars fanarts was noticed by George Lucas himself, who then asked him to work on some promotional posters for The Empire Strikes Back, making westerners more aware of his talent and fostering his work on Mad Max 2's poster just two years later.
His skills and passion also made him a great fit for Koei's lineup, with founder Yoichi Erikawa also loving his art. It's no wonder, then, that his work ended up being a fixture of Koei releases for quite a long time, creating some memorable, poster-style box arts for RPG hybrids like Ishin no Arashi, Gemfire, Progenitor and the Uncharted Waters series, not to mention storied franchises such as Genghis Khan, Nobunaga's Ambition and Romance of the Three Kingdoms, also inspiring other artists like Tsuyoshi Nagano, which, in many ways, can be seen as the continuator of his style in the context of Koei games'artworks. Aside from Koei's series, he also graced Konami’s Metal Gear Solid franchise with some of his artworks.
Interestingly, Ohrai’s works also features some European historical figures that have been otherwise seldom or never portrayed in Japanese entertainment, like King Philip II of Spain, Napoleon, Tsar Alexander I of Russia or Francis II, last Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and first Emperor of Austria, with the last three featured in the box art of L’Empereur, a grand-strategy game focused on the Napoleonic Wars which is unrelated to Napoleon, Genki’s 2001 GameBoy Advance strategy game set in the same period.
In this little gallery, I’ve included the late Ohrai’s outstanding work for the covers of RPG hybrids such as Gemfire\Royal Blood, Inindo, Progenitor and Uncharted Waters, series like Gengis Khan, RotK and Nobunaga's Ambition and, also, his Star Wars and Mad Max 2 posters.
Daikoukai Jidai (1988), known in the west as Uncharted Waters, was the main series in the Rekoeition line, mixing simulation, strategy and RPG in an Age of Discovery historical backdrop. UW’s cover also features the only representation of King Philip II of Spain in Japanese entertainment.
Royal Blood (1991) was a fantasy grand strategy JRPG developed by Koei on Famicom, various Japanese home PCs, Super Famicom and Mega Drive, with its console versions also being localized as Gemfire.
Inindo (1991), first released on home PCs and then on Super Famicom, with the latter version also being localized, is a ninja-themed turn based JRPG set in a fantasy version of the early Sengoku era, with Oda Nobunaga as the main villain.
Progenitor (1994) was an attempt by Koei to bring the Uncharted Waters formula to a sci-fi setting, following the adventures of space freebooter Kenny as he fights the Rocka Bats space syndicate while searching for his missing father and discovering the truth of a lost civilization.
Sangokushi II (1989), or Romance of the Three Kingdoms II, was the second entry in Koei’s long standing grand strategy series about China’s Three Kingdoms period.
L’Empereur (1990), released first on home PCs and then on console, was Koei’s attempt to bring its grand-strategy expertise to the Napoleonic Wars period, with Ohrai’s cover featuring many of the key figures of that troubled age, from Napoleon himself to the Emperors of Russia and the Holy Roman Empire (and then Austria), not to mention Empress Marie Louise, Napoleon’s second wife from the Habsburg dynasty, the King of Prussia and Wellington.
Ohrai’s The Empire Strikes Back poster, created in 1980 after George Lucas directly requested his work for the Star Wars franchise after seeing one of his fanarts.
After working on Star Wars, Ohrai’s popularity with the western audience fostered his work on Mad Max 2’s poster in 1982.