I've always had an unhealthy obsession with the Boktai series, I love those games so damn much. For those who don't know it (or for those of you who might only vaguely know it as "that thing that cameo'd in Mega Man Battle Network"), it's a series by Hideo Kojima about a vampire hunter with a solar powered gun. The crazy twist for the original GBA trilogy is that the cartridges all had ultraviolet sensors on them, meaning you have to go outside to play the game with real IRL sunlight.
The Solar Sensor is such an unusual gimmick, and on paper it certainly sounds like the silliest thing in the world. But it works surprisingly well to create a link between the game and the real world, and is actually a lot of fun to play with. It's certainly something that makes the game so much more memorable and unique. One of my favorite tricks you can do is to find a skylight, cover the solar sensor with your hand to hide it, lure an undead monster under it, and then uncover it to shine a light down and fry them like an ant. (Try doing this to The Count in some of his appearances for an easter egg!)
The obvious downside of the Solar Sensor though is, of course, trying to play without it indoors or at night. The first game especially needs sun a lot, having more sections that literally require sun and since the Gun Del Sol is your only weapon you need to keep your ammo battery charged all the time (though there is a bank and consumable items to alleviate that). 2 and 3 however have very few moments where sunlight is outright required besides the Piledriver fights, and the addition of melee weapons mean you can fight without energy now.
However there are a few workarounds to get in-game sun for a bit. The Mr. Rainnot item gives +2 bars of sunlight for 24 hours, but is very well hidden, usually late in the game, and requires sun to get one in the first place. 2 and 3 also add the Sunny Clog, which randomly gives +/-2 (you can save scum or use another if it rolls face-down), and both games have a hidden spot early on where you can farm them. However there are some places these won't work on, either because you need to toggle sunlight for some puzzles or have more than 2 bars for some sun-based spells. There's also the Rising Sun grenade/spell, which temporarily grants 4 bars - not long enough to do a Piledriver fight or final boss though. And of course, you can cheat the sensor with a blacklight since it's just looking for UV.
The original Boktai: The Sun is in Your Hands is super rough around the edges, it really wasn't until 2 and onward that I really fell in love. It does has some neat stuff going for it like the gun customization, big overworld that has branching paths to go through various mini-dungeons between the main story ones, and a lot of stuff to do in new game+ several times over. Also has the best puzzles and the best bonus dungeon, Azure Sky Tower, though it really sucked that the emblem trading nonsense meant there was no way to unlock the 100th floor and fight the Silvery White Knight unless you have multiple IRL friends to link up with. Why? The heavy emphasis on stealth, even forced in some places, was also a big pet peeve of mine, I always haaaate stealth.
Boktai 2: Solar Boy Django set a new direction for the rest of the series, introducing all the RPG mechanics, melee weapons (you don't get your gun back until you beat the game, and it's heavily nerfed), new inventory system, and a lot of other stuff that would carry through the rest of the series. And no more forced stealth, it's an option but you can also fight as loud as you want. It also introduces some great characters and has IMO the best story in the series, with a twist I won't spoil as one dungeon forces you to play the game in a very different way and then afterwards you can freely switch playstyles. As mentioned above, it also makes a noticeable effort to reduce how much sun is necessary, and is plenty playable in the dark most of the time. Overall it's just a very well polished game in so many ways. My only real complaint is that for some reason this is the only game in the series without a new game+ option, and since there's only one save file you'll have to wipe your old save if you want to replay it. I didn't wanna lose all my Mega Man Battle Network crossover unlocks since I can't find my GBA wireless adapters to link them up again. :(
Shin Bokura no Taiyou: Gyakushuu no Sabata is the one that never came out in English, breaking my heart forever. A translation patch exists, but since it's not like I can get the Solar Sensor onto a flashcart I never got to fully enjoy it the way it was meant to be played. Emulating just isn't quite the same. There's a lot of cool new stuff here, bringing back the old Gun Del Sol with the new mechanics (alongside melee weapons for whichever playstyle you like), the Trance meter which lets you briefly turn into either of two powerful forms once full (though this replaces the spoiler thing from 2), and a fucking motorcycle! There are a few steps back though, no more overworld, no sidequest dungeons at all (not even the trademark postgame superdungeon), the melee weapons work kind of weird, and there are almost no puzzles. I didn't really like the plot either, Trinity was an annoying character and the opening more or less spoiled everything, it should've been saved for a reveal at the end.
Bokura no Taiyou: Django & Sabata (I refuse to call it Lunar Knights) changed a ton, and the localization changed even more for seemingly no reason. Most references to the original trilogy were removed, such as the protagonists being named Aaron and Lucien instead of keeping their ancestors names, and I will never understand who thought Otenko should be renamed fucking *Toasty*. And of course it doesn't explain how this game fits into the timeline, which I guess is understandable since they'd have to explain the events of Boktai 3's time travel stuff. Oh, and all online features are removed, as is the Mega Man Star Force crossover sidequest and unlocks from linking up. I'm not really sure what all online features it had besides the Brother Bands, but just losing those was a big deal as it means there's no longer any way to get your stats above 50 despite the menu clearly showing they're supposed to go up to 99. Of course the biggest change is that there's no more Solar Sensor, instead replaced with an in-game weather system (which is not even real time either, day changes to night and vice versa every 10 minutes). The game is obviously designed around this since you have one character using sunlight and one character using moonlight, encouraging you to tag them out every sunrise/sunset. I will say that the addition of temperature, wind, and humidity to affect the elements is a very neat evolution too. But overall it just isn't the same anymore. They did include an option to slot in a GBA game, but rather than using the sensor the way the originals did it just reads the level of sun once when you activate an item then adds that many bars of sunlight/moonlight on top of however much you're currently getting from the in-game weather. And I miss the Piledriver most of all - while the idea of flying their coffin out into space and jettisoning it into the sun is admittedly hella badass, the minigame isn't fun and they also got rid of the whole coffin dragging thing as you just go straight to space right after defeating the boss. What I did like though is all the new additions to combat, the new weapons feel great, guns are much easier to use with a lock-on button instead of trying to line up your shots from only 8 d-pad directions, shields are a good addition, and dashing is a lot more usable now when you don't have to set it as your current spell. Also there's a new game+ difficulty that makes every enemy level 99, and you can decide whether to reset your own levels or not.
Boktai DS ended with a clear sequel hook, but with Konami's current state I can't imagine that's ever going to happen now, especially since Kojima left. Really though what I had dreamed of most of all was some sort of trilogy rerelease or remake, an opportunity to give everyone another chance to go appreciate these beautiful games this time, and it would've been the only way localizing the third game could ever have been possible. It also would've been really cool to see Boktai 1 remade with the mechanics of the sequels. I guess I have to stop dreaming now though, it can't happen... RIP...
I've been thinking of trying to gather up some hardware to start speedrunning the series. The setup I'm picturing would need a Game Boy Player (already have it but I lost the boot disc...), a blacklight set up such that I could toggle 10 bars on/off at the push of a button (maybe hook it up to a foot pedal?), and of course a capture card for streaming. I don't think I'm gonna try it any time soon, but maybe one day I'll save up to get all that equipment. It could make for such an amazingly silly meme run, I bet the novelty of it would be a hit at something like GDQ.
