So I have two different copies of Rockman 4 Complete Works for the Japanese PS1 and I thought I'd make a little STEEM post describing this obscure title and its variants. Perhaps I'll make a video some time.
So, for those of you that don't know, Rockman 1-6 were released on the PS1 in Japan under the umbrella of "Rockman Complete Works" and featured multiple additions, especially in 4-6 where they feature entirely new soundtracks and NG+ abilities.
I like collecting, and I LOVE variants, so let's look at the two variants I have of this game. For those that also do not know, "PSOne Books" was a Japanese Greatest Hits re-release moniker where they used really cheap and thin jewel cases with a bunch of stuff cut out for cutting costs.
As you can see the spine is colored in with art and the front cover is full art in the original release, and it's wrapped in a circle in the PSOne Books release. The colors are a bit faded in the PSOne Books release, but it may be from storage light damage, so I won't count that.
Here are the backs, as you can see the PSOne Books release literally has no back art, that's where they cut the jewel case thickness, pretty much.
Here you can see the spines, one is labeled, the PSOne Books release is not. Pretty crappy if you ask me!
So let's open them up and see what we have here:
As you can see the back of the PSOne Books release is re-arranged artwork from the back of the original release, and the back of the original is some really nice artwork of Dr. Cossack.
The PSOne Books release also comes with an extra and weird flappy insert that has a bunch of useless information on it and a mirror of the cover.
As you can see here, the Cossack art is inside the manual of the PSOne Books release and pretty much just swapped around with some info screens that I can't read. Why they decided to reprint and re-arrange the manuals instead of just using the originals and having the meme sleeve for additional info/alternate cover is beyond me.
Also, if you didn't notice before, the discs are bit different. The Rockman 4 text on the PSOne Books release is filled in with the silvery gray and the original is cleared. Very odd decision, not sure why they wouldn't just use the original printings, but hey! It's fun extra variant stuff.
Anyways, I have a few other neat Japanese variant stuff, and want to build a full set of PSOne Book releases for the Rockman Complete Works series, but I only have 2 and 4 for the time being I think. I thought it'd be fun to make this kind of review and showcase, let me know if you want another, because I have many!