GOMIBAKO NO DENSETSU is still lost media despite team’s best efforts
More is known now than ever before about the SICK’s only internationally released game, but the game itself is still lost
by Cian Rice
This article originally ran in Back Alley Games Issue 15, May 2025
The team at Kohococoa Design Works is proud to restore a critical piece of the history of the Chicago-built SICK. This was made possible thanks to a friend and SICK fan based out of Odawara, Japan.
They wish to remain anonymous and apologize for being unable to provide us with a functioning copy of the game (we had hoped to begin an English localization and HD remaster). We are still looking to track down a copy of the game itself.
If you or someone you know has a functioning copy, please reach out!
While primarily understood to have had a release limited to the Chicagoland area, we recently uncovered that there was in fact a trial Japanese launch of the SICK, complete with at least one exclusive title.
That title, released on Feb. 14, 1997, was GOMIBAKO NO DENSETSU, or “The Legend of Trashcan.” It was developed by a Japanese studio known as “Kohococoa INC,” a brand which we revived in 2023 – along with the iconic multi-color coffee mug logo – with the formation of our studio.
Based on the screenshots we were able to restore, promotional website, magazine advertisement, and promotional music video, the game appears to have been the SICK’s attempt at having a Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest-inspired role-playing game.
Given the popularity of Pokémon in Japan, we also believe the game had a heavy focus on monster collecting. The screenshots potentially support this – what one might initially read as a standard bestiary feature could in fact be a monster examination screenshot, perhaps as a player chooses which monsters to add to their party.
Notably, the game appears to use real-time 3-D environments in contrast to the pre-rendered backgrounds of PlayStation era Final Fantasy titles.
These materials were provided to us by a Japanese collector who was eager to help highlight a missing part of not only the history of the SICK but of gaming history at large. We were provided with access to a copy of Famitsu awarding the title a perfect 40/40 score, claiming:
“Despite releasing only two weeks after FINAL FANTASY VII, GOMIBAKO NO DENSETSU has just set a new standard for role-playing games.”
Famitsu staff also noted their appreciation for the protagonist Tornado’s “gunblade,” and in a later review of Final Fantasy VIII noted that Square likely took note of the hero’s iconic weapon, incorporating it into Squall Leonhart’s design.
See the team’s work for yourself here: https://thecianrice.itch.io/gomibako-no-densetsu-restoration-project
