Title: Firefighter’s Proof/Blaze Squad
Developer: Zukaya Development Team No. 3
Publisher: Zukaya Games (JP), Glowbe (NA), Clairesin (EU)
System: Phonos FunSystem
Release Date:
JP: July 8, 1998
NA: December 2, 1998
EU: April 15, 1999

Hayao Nakamura was the assistant director on the enormously successful Ice Sigil tactical role playing games when he was lured away from Musjido by Zukaya Games, who were looking to launch a tactical game series of their own. Since Ice Sigil IV: Gloaming Dusk, the most recent game in the series at that point, had sold over two million copies in Japan alone, Zukaya hoped that Nakamura could do the same for them, given that the game’s ostensible director, Tsuyoshi Nakano, was widely understood to be a figurehead.

Nakamura agreed to join Zukaya and to produce a tactical role-playing game for them, but on condition that he have complete control over its story, setting, and tone. With dollar signs in their eyes, Zukaya agreed, and gave Nakamura access to Zukaya Development Team No. 3. It was only then that Nakamura revealed that he intended to make a non-violent game with no combat, as he had become immersed in Mahayana Buddhism and a dedicated pacifist during the torturous and stressful development of Ice Sigil IV.

Nakamura agonized over how to create a tactical role-playing game with combat but no violence until he witnessed a small car fire outside his apartment in the Osaka suburbs. Watching firefighters battle the blaze, attacking with hoses only to be driven back by fresh gouts of flame, was a lightbulb moment for Nakamura. Firefighting had all the excitement of combat, but the enemy was fire itself, which was not alive and could be fought and killed indiscriminately.

The result of this was Firefighter’s Proof, released in the United States as Blaze Squad, developed by Zukaya DT3. Players took control of the Onbaru-Mura Volunteer Fire Department, made up of men and women from the local village, as they attempted to control a variety of blazes, ranging from small fires around town to a gigantic forest fire that served as the final boss of the campaign. By deploying members of the firefighting team cleverly, protecting water and pumps, and carefully dousing weaker blazes before stronger ones, players were able to outmaneuver the fire on a tactical level.

Firefighter’s Proof had an additional simulation layer, in which the town of Onbaru-Mura was made up of a variety of buildings that could be damaged by fire. While damaged or destroyed buildings could be rebuilt, this would divert time and resources away from the main firefighting efforts and could be catastrophic to certain tactical abilities. For instance, if the city waterworks were damaged, water pressure would fall, reducing the effectiveness of hoses. Damage to the firehouse itself would reduce the effectiveness of pump and ladder trucks, while characters whose houses were damaged suffered debuffs.

While the different types of fire were functionally identical to goblins and bandits in terms of their ability to inflict damage and status effects, and the hoses and fire axes of the heroes were swords and bows in all but name, the game was still seen as a major and surprising innovation at the time.

Ultimately, Nakamura’s gambit was only a partial success for Zukaya. Firefighter’s Proof was a critical hit but only a modest success at retail, and its USA and PAL release (via Glowbe in the USA and Clairesin in PAL territories) were niche cult hits at best. Ironically, Musjido found a much abler director for Ice Sigil V: City of Sand in Nakamura’s former assistant, art director Takahashi Ito; the fifth Ice Sigil game went on to outsell Firefighter’s Proof by three to one.

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