An expanded game of Snatcher
Snatcher is a cyberpunk-themed graphic adventure game directed and written by Hideo Kojima and produced by Konami. The setting and story of Snatcher is heavily influenced by cyberpunk and science-fiction media, taking place in a large futuristic dystopian city. The story revolves around an investigator named Gillian Seed assigned to investigate a breed of bioroids known as "snatchers", who are killing humans and taking their place in society. The game is set in a primarily first person perspective and uses a menu-based interface that allows the protagonist to interact with his environment. The player can choose to "Look", "Investigate", "Talk", "Ask" and "Move" (in addition to other options) to acquire key items or receive vital information from other characters. The player can analyze items in Gillian's belongings or show it to other characters. During key points of the game's story, the player must pass shooting sequences to defend Gillian from assailants. These shooting segments use a 3x3 grid which the player can target to fire at enemies. A shooting trainer, called "Junker's Eyes", is accessible at Junker HQ that allows the player to measure their accuracy.
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Perfect vibes but the shooting sections can get in the bin. I didn’t love having to play as a literal sex pest.
playing this via RGB on a PVM changed my life
Throughout history, suspicion has always bred conflict. The real conflict, though, resides in people's hearts. This conflict has just begun.
"KOJIMA IS GOD," I say as I pray on my hands and knees while The Man Who Sold The World (Midge Ure version) is played on repeat. This game is peak fiction and I mean it, like there is nothing bad about this game there was NOTHING that I loathed about Snatcher. The gameplay while barebones is still kind of engaging, the story is extremely kino, the art direction is stylish in the sense that it reminds me of 80's/90's anime movies, the music is phenomenal and and another example of how the Sega CD can produce such great sounds, the voice acting while not award-winning has charm to it which leads me to my next point, the characters all have such a pull to them that really makes me invested in the world around them and just them in general. I really wish konami or some other studio does something more with Snstcher like a sequel or remaster. So many clever things are in the game, but I hate doing long logs, so honestly, all I can say is "Play Snatcher".
"KOJIMA IS GOD," I say as I pray on my hands and knees while The Man Who Sold The World (Midge Ure version) is played on repeat. This game is peak fiction and I mean it, like there is nothing bad about this game there was NOTHING that I loathed about Snatcher. The gameplay while barebones is still kind of engaging, the story is extremely kino, the art direction is stylish in the sense that it reminds me of 80's/90's anime movies, the music is phenomenal and and another example of how the Sega CD can produce such great sounds, the voice acting while not award-winning has charm to it which leads me to my next point, the characters all have such a pull to them that really makes me invested in the world around them and just them in general. I really wish konami or some other studio does something more with Snstcher like a sequel or remaster. So many clever things are in the game, but I hate doing long logs, so honestly, all I can say is "Play Snatcher".
Had to emulate this since I don't come from wealth but goddaaaamn this is a fantastic game. Gillian's a dork, though
Kojima is the video game equivalent to those 70's/80's movie "classics" your middle aged father shows you that turn out to be the most unbearable pieces of cinema you've ever seen. Kojima's storytelling and writing consistently receiving universal acclaim is a testament to how low standards for video games are.
Literal hours are spent not developing any character. The story is barely coherent, more focused on hammering in information about the premise you've already been told about in great detail 5 times over. Connective tissue and leads between scenes are so loose the game literally stops to recap how every event in the last hour and a half is connected because they seemingly knew how weak and unmemorable each scene was. Very little actually happens for major chunks...And when things DO start picking up, they actually slow down. Instead of building emotional connections and stakes naturally throughout the course of the story -- it waits until there's time sensitive urgency to ruin with droning, unengaging, one sided info dumps telling you why you should care about what's happening.
I've always been critical of Kojima games but I went into this one thinking his style may lend itself well to a point and click adventure game, only to find even this genre's gameplay is too much for him. Tedious and repetitive, performing the same 2 actions of look and investigate ad nauseam until you get enough dry flavor text for the game to let you move on. Beyond that there's shooting mechanics that get a grand total of maybe 2 minutes playtime in the entire game. Any moment that uses said shooting has to over-telegraph the encounter, killing any tension they may have built up. Which is a shame because if this game does anything well it's having some good vibes and atmosphere in a few scenes.
Under a different director I think there's a lot of potential here for a tense point and click adventure, with an engaging mystery-focused plot. But, we're stuck with Kojima, who's idea of being cinematic is 30 minute exposition dumps combined with almost NO animation whatsoever for almost the entire game. In fact one of the only things in the entire game that's animated is a female dancer in a bikini, so that shows where the priorities lie here.
I already don't agree with Kojima's approach of ignoring the gameplay in favor of "cinematic" storytelling. I think it's a complete waste and insult of the medium to basically say for a video game to have a good movie-quality story you have to just make a movie and not a video game. BUT if the story was actually good, there'd be something to get out of it and enjoy. I'm a firm believer in judging something for what it set out to do rather than what you want it to be. So even if I
prefer a different approach, I try to meet a game halfway and keep an open mind to its direction. With that said, as a movie this game is horribly written and derivative at absolute best even for its time, and that's really all there is to say about it.
Literal hours are spent not developing any character. The story is barely coherent, more focused on hammering in information about the premise you've already been told about in great detail 5 times over. Connective tissue and leads between scenes are so loose the game literally stops to recap how every event in the last hour and a half is connected because they seemingly knew how weak and unmemorable each scene was. Very little actually happens for major chunks...And when things DO start picking up, they actually slow down. Instead of building emotional connections and stakes naturally throughout the course of the story -- it waits until there's time sensitive urgency to ruin with droning, unengaging, one sided info dumps telling you why you should care about what's happening.
I've always been critical of Kojima games but I went into this one thinking his style may lend itself well to a point and click adventure game, only to find even this genre's gameplay is too much for him. Tedious and repetitive, performing the same 2 actions of look and investigate ad nauseam until you get enough dry flavor text for the game to let you move on. Beyond that there's shooting mechanics that get a grand total of maybe 2 minutes playtime in the entire game. Any moment that uses said shooting has to over-telegraph the encounter, killing any tension they may have built up. Which is a shame because if this game does anything well it's having some good vibes and atmosphere in a few scenes.
Under a different director I think there's a lot of potential here for a tense point and click adventure, with an engaging mystery-focused plot. But, we're stuck with Kojima, who's idea of being cinematic is 30 minute exposition dumps combined with almost NO animation whatsoever for almost the entire game. In fact one of the only things in the entire game that's animated is a female dancer in a bikini, so that shows where the priorities lie here.
I already don't agree with Kojima's approach of ignoring the gameplay in favor of "cinematic" storytelling. I think it's a complete waste and insult of the medium to basically say for a video game to have a good movie-quality story you have to just make a movie and not a video game. BUT if the story was actually good, there'd be something to get out of it and enjoy. I'm a firm believer in judging something for what it set out to do rather than what you want it to be. So even if I
prefer a different approach, I try to meet a game halfway and keep an open mind to its direction. With that said, as a movie this game is horribly written and derivative at absolute best even for its time, and that's really all there is to say about it.
One of the most charming games I've ever played. It's more or less a tribute (or ripoff) of several well-known entities. Most obviously Blade Runner and Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Nonetheless it to me feels like it's own thing and it's very engaging throughout. It's also surprisingly violent. Basically every version that has come after this has been censored quite a bit. And I think even modern games would not go to lengths that this game loves to visit.
I'd recommend the Sega CD version. It's the first time the story is told in it's entirety, and in my opinion it's also by far the best looking version. And really, with a visual novel you really want to play the version with the best graphics if you ask me.
Even though I'm completely used to how the game works, it's undeniable the design of the menu and especially progression is not very good to put it politely. Sometimes to progress you have to interact, look or use a couple of specific things before the game allows you to continue. And if you didn't investigate one of the key parts, enjoy going back and checking everything and reading every line again until you finally see some text that hints you can progress now. Like if Gillian says 'let's go somewhere else' and you realize you can finally continue. Luckily during the most intense parts this might only happen a few times. And it's mostly during downtime that you're likely to get 'stuck'.
I'd recommend the Sega CD version. It's the first time the story is told in it's entirety, and in my opinion it's also by far the best looking version. And really, with a visual novel you really want to play the version with the best graphics if you ask me.
Even though I'm completely used to how the game works, it's undeniable the design of the menu and especially progression is not very good to put it politely. Sometimes to progress you have to interact, look or use a couple of specific things before the game allows you to continue. And if you didn't investigate one of the key parts, enjoy going back and checking everything and reading every line again until you finally see some text that hints you can progress now. Like if Gillian says 'let's go somewhere else' and you realize you can finally continue. Luckily during the most intense parts this might only happen a few times. And it's mostly during downtime that you're likely to get 'stuck'.