For years I thought the Sister Sonic legend was a dirty rumor started by Victor Ireland, maybe related to one of his revenge fantasies or something, but a look into some old magazines reveals how weirdly true it all is.
How could this nonsense have come so close to happening? 🧵
How could this nonsense have come so close to happening? 🧵
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Sega Falcom was the last of the 3, incorporated on July 17, 1991 to bring some of Falcom's popular PC RPGs into the Sega ecosystem, as well as some non-Falcom games and some original IP.
Popful Mail had originally been released in December 1991 for the NEC PC-8801.
It was not actually Popful Mail anymore. Since these games would be marketed globally, Sega Falcom felt it was necessary to do some rebranding to make them appeal to western players.
So no big-eyed anime elves.
All they needed to do was replace the titular heroine.
Sega Falcom marketing director Kazutaka Yano explains: “One of our games is a remake of Popful Mail, ‘Sister Sonic.’ That doesn't mean Sonic's literal big sister, but some kind of girl relative of the Sonic family.”
The title makes more sense in Japanese than English.