Game #4 of my "seasonal game binge"
Beaten in one sitting to celebrate the Sega CD's anniversary. Best game on the system ez and dare I say a contender for Kojima's magnum opus which is saying a lot.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/826960021274492948/920211203924570142/unknown.png
Having just played 3 "Christmas games" in a row where the seasonal setting was a tiny footnote, I appreciated how Snatcher truly felt like a Christmas game. Shopping families are consistently brought up, Santa outfits appear, and somehow Konami got me to rock out to a remix of fucking Jingle Bells, the music was just that well done.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qQ7V-RjpwY
Indeed, setting the game in the season to be jolly really helped emphasize how there was warmth to humanity worth protecting. This helped separate the humans from the SNATCHERs thematically while also helping the player feel bad for the loss of innocent life in the prologue.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/826960021274492948/920212552112275476/Santa.mp4
I don't even know where to start with how impressed I was with this masterpiece. I guess a good place would be audio. The sound design is very top notch. Different characters have their own footsteps such as Metal Gear, a large variety of catchy music comes on for just about any situation even including a groovy remix for Theme of Tara when Metal Gear appears, and the voice acting fits all too well. Even though only 7 voice actors recorded for dozens of characters, they all had enough range to help each character sound unique; it's truly a miracle work of dubbing in this era, especially since they also had convincing lip flaps.
https://youtu.be/2swZCYSRFt8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeUbRd3eIeY (I'm pretty sure this is supposed to be Pressure of Tension rather than Pleasure of Tension, but great track lol)
The sheer amount of facial expressions for each character resulted in each cutscene feeling surprisingly lively. I'm genuinely impressed what could be fit in only 400 MB of data. The CGs are chock full of smooth animations and the Sega CD port makes great use of the colours available on the system to enhance the portraits and backgrounds over the more limited pallet of the MSX2 version while still keeping the soul alive.
Gameplay wise, it's pretty typical adventure game/visual novel fare. Endless reading and constantly checking the same options until new ones appear. A big shoutout to the hidden Neo Kobe Pizza and flirting scenes. I cannot say much about the gunplay except it was too far on the easy side of things. Perhaps it would be more fun if I had a lightgun to use, but it's only a few minutes of a 7-10 hour game so I will not comment much on it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCxiP4blwmo
Regarding the puzzles, they're all pretty logical. I had plenty of fun solving pic related.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/827002109807034388/920170309938716712/unknown.png
Overall the main reason to play Snatcher is for the story, most notably the little tender moments (try calling the freeman's son) and balance of humour with dark themes. While the story can seem silly at times, it's not afraid to pull its punches in regards to how awful nuclear weapons are, a trend for Kojima stories. Yet all the humourous moments show there is more to life than conflict and bloodshed. It even contains Kojima's signature 4th wall breaking jokes.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/827002109807034388/920107712916906024/unknown.png
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/827002109807034388/920134537793634434/unknown.png
I will say act 1-2 are so strong (Random really steals the show <3) act 3 kinda feels like it had trouble following a tough act (a certain revelation is so stupidly handled, you know the one if you played it) but the final cutscene is still strong enough I didn't feel it dragged the game down. After all, act 3 wasn't even in the original version.
One final point of interest is the censorship. People overblow the hell out of it. I dare say some of the gore is even more disturbing and graphic in the English version. I also think the Outer Heaven cameos being changed from Kamen Riders and Xenmorphs to Konami characters is much cooler, sue me.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/827002109807034388/920133791601803264/unknown.png
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/827002109807034388/920133262532296804/unknown.png
Beaten in one sitting to celebrate the Sega CD's anniversary. Best game on the system ez and dare I say a contender for Kojima's magnum opus which is saying a lot.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/826960021274492948/920211203924570142/unknown.png
Having just played 3 "Christmas games" in a row where the seasonal setting was a tiny footnote, I appreciated how Snatcher truly felt like a Christmas game. Shopping families are consistently brought up, Santa outfits appear, and somehow Konami got me to rock out to a remix of fucking Jingle Bells, the music was just that well done.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qQ7V-RjpwY
Indeed, setting the game in the season to be jolly really helped emphasize how there was warmth to humanity worth protecting. This helped separate the humans from the SNATCHERs thematically while also helping the player feel bad for the loss of innocent life in the prologue.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/826960021274492948/920212552112275476/Santa.mp4
I don't even know where to start with how impressed I was with this masterpiece. I guess a good place would be audio. The sound design is very top notch. Different characters have their own footsteps such as Metal Gear, a large variety of catchy music comes on for just about any situation even including a groovy remix for Theme of Tara when Metal Gear appears, and the voice acting fits all too well. Even though only 7 voice actors recorded for dozens of characters, they all had enough range to help each character sound unique; it's truly a miracle work of dubbing in this era, especially since they also had convincing lip flaps.
https://youtu.be/2swZCYSRFt8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeUbRd3eIeY (I'm pretty sure this is supposed to be Pressure of Tension rather than Pleasure of Tension, but great track lol)
The sheer amount of facial expressions for each character resulted in each cutscene feeling surprisingly lively. I'm genuinely impressed what could be fit in only 400 MB of data. The CGs are chock full of smooth animations and the Sega CD port makes great use of the colours available on the system to enhance the portraits and backgrounds over the more limited pallet of the MSX2 version while still keeping the soul alive.
Gameplay wise, it's pretty typical adventure game/visual novel fare. Endless reading and constantly checking the same options until new ones appear. A big shoutout to the hidden Neo Kobe Pizza and flirting scenes. I cannot say much about the gunplay except it was too far on the easy side of things. Perhaps it would be more fun if I had a lightgun to use, but it's only a few minutes of a 7-10 hour game so I will not comment much on it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCxiP4blwmo
Regarding the puzzles, they're all pretty logical. I had plenty of fun solving pic related.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/827002109807034388/920170309938716712/unknown.png
Overall the main reason to play Snatcher is for the story, most notably the little tender moments (try calling the freeman's son) and balance of humour with dark themes. While the story can seem silly at times, it's not afraid to pull its punches in regards to how awful nuclear weapons are, a trend for Kojima stories. Yet all the humourous moments show there is more to life than conflict and bloodshed. It even contains Kojima's signature 4th wall breaking jokes.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/827002109807034388/920107712916906024/unknown.png
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/827002109807034388/920134537793634434/unknown.png
I will say act 1-2 are so strong (Random really steals the show <3) act 3 kinda feels like it had trouble following a tough act (a certain revelation is so stupidly handled, you know the one if you played it) but the final cutscene is still strong enough I didn't feel it dragged the game down. After all, act 3 wasn't even in the original version.
One final point of interest is the censorship. People overblow the hell out of it. I dare say some of the gore is even more disturbing and graphic in the English version. I also think the Outer Heaven cameos being changed from Kamen Riders and Xenmorphs to Konami characters is much cooler, sue me.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/827002109807034388/920133791601803264/unknown.png
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/827002109807034388/920133262532296804/unknown.png
MrGlasses
2 years ago