1994 · Super Famicom · Game story
Daikoukai Jidai II: Six Reasons to Leave Port
A merchant’s calculation, a scholar’s map, a privateer’s grudge and a young noble’s mission set sail from the same 1994 Super Famicom world—but they do not make the same ocean.
In this story
- 01 The ocean is not one story
- 02 Six captains, six arguments with the sea
- 03 A port is a pre-departure checklist
- 04 A fleet is a small organization
- 05 Trade is a chain of observations
- 06 Exploration is a way of reading the world
- 07 Combat has a face
- 08 Renown is the compass that remembers
- 09 Return to port as someone else
The ocean is not one story
Daikoukai Jidai II begins with a generous promise: the world’s seas and ports are open, and a player may choose one of six protagonists whose circumstances and objectives differ. Nintendo places the game in early-sixteenth-century Europe’s Age of Discovery, but it does not demand one official route through that setting. Fight pirates, make money on land, hunt discoveries or build a commercial life—the choices are largely free. The catch, and the reason the freedom has shape, is that every protagonist still has something personally necessary to accomplish. 1
That combination makes the game feel less like a blank ocean and more like six reasons to trust the horizon. Nintendo’s older Virtual Console introduction says each protagonist has a distinct story and purpose, while the means of reaching it remain up to the player; even a decision as basic as raising funds through trade or piracy is left open. The game is not asking, “What activity is allowed?” It is asking, “Which activity now makes sense for this person?” 2
Trivia The Japanese Super Famicom edition arrived on 25 February 1994. Nintendo’s current Classics record calls it a 1994 simulation game, and GameFAQs’ SNES release data independently lists the North American edition later that year. The Japanese SFC original is a six-character game of ports and fleets, with a rhythm and presentation that belong to this release. 1 8
See it in action
Six captains, six arguments with the sea
The cast gives the same map six temperatures. João Ferrero is a Portuguese noble looking toward a legendary eastern land; Catalina Erantzo is an Iberian privateer driven by revenge; Al Vezas is an Ottoman merchant aiming for great wealth. Otto Spinola is an English naval officer, Pietro Conti an Italian adventurer, and Ernst Lopez a Dutch scholar. A specialist SFC catalogue gathers those roles in one place, while Nintendo’s own prologue substantiates their distinct predicaments rather than treating them as job labels. 9 3
Selecting a protagonist is therefore selecting a lens, not a difficulty icon. A merchant can still sail into danger; an officer can still need money; an adventurer still has to provision a ship. Yet the emotional pressure differs. Nintendo introduces João through his father’s diplomatic concern, Catalina through the apparent loss of her brother and fiancé, Ernst through a dream of a complete map, Pietro through debt, Al through a friend’s shipwreck, and Otto through a royal summons. The world changes because the question posed to it changes. 3
Trivia Ernst’s opening is particularly revealing: Nintendo presents him as a geography teacher who wants to see the world and help produce a complete map. Pietro, by contrast, is a capable adventurer left without means after his father’s debt. Their different beginnings make a port visit feel different—one is a chance to measure the unknown, the other a chance to regain the ability to keep travelling. 3
A port is a pre-departure checklist
The romance of a sailing game is easy to picture; the checklist makes it credible. Nintendo’s guide says a ship requires at least one navigator serving as captain (or the protagonist), a specified number of sailors, water and food. Navigators and sailors can be hired in taverns, while water and provisions are stocked at the departure point. The first serious choice is often not which coast to chase, but whether the ship can survive the trip imagined for it. 4
A harbour is a compact drama of readiness. Talk to people for information; decide what money can be spent on; hire hands; stock the ship; perhaps decide that the grand expedition needs one profitable, unglamorous run first. Nintendo says the game moves mainly between port and open-sea screens, with a separate screen for naval battles. Every departure is a choice made after seeing what the port can offer, and every return a chance to reinterpret what the voyage taught. 4
Trivia Time is a port resource too. Nintendo notes that entering shops and travelling at sea pass time, some shops close at particular times of day, and naval battles may not be possible at every hour. An inn can adjust the time. Before a storm or battle, a captain may have to decide whether to wait, resupply, or lose the chance to make a particular stop count. 4 5
A fleet is a small organization
Buying another ship does not simply make a number larger. Nintendo says that once several ships are acquired at a shipyard, they travel as a fleet: the protagonist’s ship becomes the flagship, while appointed navigators captain the others. The player changes from a person who owns a boat into an admiral responsible for assignments. More hulls can mean more possibility, but also more people, provisions, salaries and roles to keep coherent. 4
Those personnel choices stay tangible. Navigators can be hired at taverns or inns; the protagonist serves as admiral and flagship captain; other navigators may be assigned to ships and roles through the character command. Nintendo also notes that their wages are paid on the first day of each month. A talented person is not a collectible portrait: they are a recurring commitment, whose place in the fleet must justify the money and attention it consumes. 4
Trivia If a new ship is obtained, Nintendo says an unassigned navigator is automatically selected as its captain. That modest automation reveals the game’s priority. A fleet cannot be left conceptually empty; it needs a human command structure. The moment a ship joins the flotilla, someone has to step forward and become responsible for it—even before the player has perfected the plan. 4
Trade is a chain of observations
Trade is not just “sell cargo, get richer.” Nintendo describes a repeatable route: buy a product cheaply in one port, carry it to another to sell at a higher price, buy a different product there, and continue. The act becomes a journey because the cargo after the sale determines the next destination. A successful run teaches the player to look at ports as relationships rather than isolated markets. Every hold full of goods is also a guess about where to steer next. 2
The game asks for attention, not mere repetition. Nintendo mentions shifting market prices and bargaining for a discount when buying goods. Is the price good enough? Is the route safe enough? Does profit justify water, food and salaries? The same voyage can be a merchant’s craft, an adventurer’s way to finance an expedition, or a privateer’s temporary alternative to danger. Koei Tecmo’s operating guide provides a useful original-title documentation cross-check for this port-and-command vocabulary. 2 6
Trivia Al’s prologue turns trade into personal necessity. Nintendo describes him and his friend finding a wrecked ship, needing money for repairs, gathering investment and then heading into town to buy goods and begin business. A damaged vessel leads to a commercial decision, the commercial decision gets the vessel moving, and movement opens the rest of the world. 3
Exploration is a way of reading the world
Nintendo gives exploration an unusually clear reward: discoveries such as ruins build adventure renown. A coast is not merely a hazard between ports; it may be a question waiting to be answered. For a protagonist whose story needs adventure renown, turning away from the most profitable trade lane can be sensible progress. The world map becomes something to interpret, not only something to cross efficiently. 1
Ernst’s story makes that reading literal. Nintendo presents him as a scholar who dreams of circumnavigation and wants a complete map, then gives him the resources to go and see the world. Exploration is not a separate attraction beside commerce and combat; it is a way of earning the reputation that tells the game this captain is becoming who they set out to be. MobyGames’ broad account likewise identifies trade and battle as different means of making money, useful background for the choice without replacing Nintendo’s SFC detail. 3 1 7
Trivia Nintendo’s guide says every protagonist first travels to gather information and funds, then raises renown until events occur and the story advances. Freedom exists, but it has an arc. A discovery, a rumour or a well-funded expedition can be both a memorable detour and the exact thing that makes the next chapter possible. 4
Combat has a face
Nintendo says you can fight pirates at sea or attack other fleets; in naval combat, cannon fire provides long-range attack, while a duel with the enemy admiral offers another decisive confrontation. Its current Classics page identifies victories in naval battles as the source of pirate renown. A battle can be a chosen career move, a funding method, a response to danger, or a route toward the kind of fame a protagonist needs. 2 1
The distance between cannon fire and a duel captures the game’s mix of scale and character. A fleet battle begins with ships, range and open sea; the duel reminds the player that command has a human centre. Catalina’s prologue gives that centre an emotional edge. She hears that her brother and fiancé are presumed lost, connects the disaster to the Ferrero name, and resolves to pursue it even if she must become a pirate. For her, sea combat is never merely a menu selection. 2 3
Trivia Nintendo introduces Otto when the English king summons him after news of the lost Spanish fleet, then charges him with a confidential task. Together, Otto and Catalina show the range inside combat-oriented play: one moves under state pressure, the other through private grief and anger. Replaying a captain changes more than opening dialogue. 3
Renown is the compass that remembers
Daikoukai Jidai II’s smartest idea is to turn reputation into a story trigger. Nintendo names three types: adventure renown from discoveries such as ruins, pirate renown from naval victories, and trade renown from investment that increases allied ports. When the kind appropriate to a protagonist reaches a required level, events happen and the story proceeds. The system does not punish curiosity; it gives each captain a compass that points toward deeds their story most needs remembered. 1
That is why freedom rarely feels directionless. João can chase a mystery while using trade to pay for the search. Al can become wealthy while still crossing dangerous waters. Ernst can chart and discover, Catalina can fight, Otto can serve a mission, and Pietro can turn an expedition into a way out of debt. The goal gives the voyage stakes; the player supplies the route. 1 3
Trivia The three renown categories are not just score columns. Nintendo says the necessary category varies by protagonist. Playing a new captain therefore changes which accomplishments have narrative weight: a discovery, battle or investment that was optional before can become the act the next story event has been waiting to recognise. 4 1
Return to port as someone else
The lasting pleasure of the SFC original is not that it predicts a later open-world game. It understands why the same map can be re-entered with a different purpose. A port that was a trading waystation becomes a source of crew, a place to hear information, a staging point for exploration or a pause before a naval risk. The sea stays recognisably the same, but the captain supplies a new reason to care about its next horizon. 4 2
Nintendo added the original Japanese Super Famicom version to Nintendo Classics on 28 March 2025. Meet it with boundaries intact: six protagonists, personal objectives, three kinds of renown, ports that demand planning, fleets that need people and provisions, and seas where trade, discovery and combat keep crossing paths. It is already an enormous little voyage because it gives one player six convincing reasons to leave port again. 1
Trivia The catalogue copyright reads ©1993–1994 Koei Tecmo Games, while Nintendo’s release date places this SFC edition in February 1994. Those dates mark the work’s context without telling us to merge it with other versions. The final image is simple: a flagship, a hired crew, enough food and water, an unfinished personal purpose, and ports whose meaning will change after the next voyage. 1 8
A few more screens
1 official imagesSources & image credits
Facts were checked against the links below. Official media remains the property of Nintendo and the relevant rights holders.
- 大航海時代Ⅱ — Nintendo Classics Nintendo ↗
- Virtual Console: 大航海時代II overview Nintendo ↗
- Virtual Console: 大航海時代II prologue Nintendo ↗
- Virtual Console: 大航海時代II port and fleet guide Nintendo ↗
- 大航海時代II Wii U Virtual Console manual Nintendo ↗
- 大航海時代Ⅱ operating guide Koei Tecmo Games / Steam ↗
- New Horizons (1993) MobyGames ↗
- New Horizons — Super Nintendo release data GameFAQs ↗
- 大航海時代2 (SFC) Pikopiko Encyclopedia ↗
