Snatcher

[smiths32]

One of the games that I recently played through was Hideo Kojima's Snatcher. For those of you who have not heard of it, it's a text adventure of sorts with occasional shooting sections (where you have the option to use a light gun) set in the year 2047 in the fictional (I believe) Japanese city Ne<i></i>o Kobe. The world has changed over time: a massive nuclear explosin wipes out half of the world's population- predominatly Europeans and those from Eastern Eurasia; and, at the present time of the game, mysterious life forms known only as "Snatchers" emerge during the Winter in Ne<i></i>o Kobe City to kill people and use artificial skin to mask themselves as the one's they kill. The game puts you in control of Gillian Seed, a new member for the JUNKER organisation (an organisation that specialises in terminating Snatchers) who suffers from ammnesia and it is up to you and your robotic companion Metal Gear (not the last reference to previous Konami games) to solve the mystery of the Snatchers.

Snatcher was originaly released on the MSX I believe but only in Japan. It was later ported to the PC-Engine CD (Probably not the console's correct name) and the Mega CD. Both of these ports received major graphical and sound upgrades (including voice acting) as well as an extra act that rounds up the story of the Snatchers, the Mega CD version also made it outside of Japan. It was later released on the Playstation and Saturn with some more graphical and sound upgrades (though I hear that these actually worsened the game) both of these versions are exclusive to Japan however. Currently, you'll have to pay an arm and a leg for the Mega CD version of the game and you won't be able to play the others unless you can read Japanese. Emulation of it is very possible.

One of the best things about Snatcher is how you really do feel like you are Gillian Seed and that you are in Ne<i></i>o Kobe City. Most of this is thanks to the information that you are able to access through the JORDAN computer, which gives you a large amount of information on the Earth's recent history as well as information on Ne<i></i>o Kobe itself, it all seems like a mouthful but it really does make you feel like you are part of the world of Snatcher. In addition, during your investigation you can choose to "investigate" stuff (which is sometimes neccessary to advance your investigation), Metal Gear will give you precise details on what you told him to investigate (which could be anything from drugs to windows). Again, this preciseness makes you feel as if you are in Snatcher's world. Another thing that make you feel as if you are Gillian is simply the predominant first person view which the game takes, as well as that, the fact that Gillian suffers from amnesia means that you only know what he knows.

The story develops quite well, it does get a bit more difficult to understand nearer the end but is nowhere near as bad as Metal Gear Solid. There are also a couple of horror movieish moments, such as an inactive Snatcher mysteriously dissappearing and then suddenly reappearing right in front of your face which gives you a small adrenaline rush and adds some nice suspense. The game's graphics are pretty good, at least for the time of the game's release and the music is also rather strong (particularly the opening theme) and helps keep the game's mood set. The english voice acting is also alright, I don't know how it compares to the Japanese but I certainly didn't have any gripes with it.

Some people would would argue that Snatcher is the kind of game that would be better as a book, but I feel that it's only in the form of a video game that you can fully experience what Snatcher has to offer, since you are making Gillian's decisions in the course of his investigation.

Anyway, if you haven't played Snatcher, then go and download the ISO (no one's going to kill you, I promise). If you have, then it would be great to hear your thoughts.

Edit: Erm, how do I get around the Ne<i></i>o thing?

[Kishi]

The Sega CD version was actually made specifically with Western audiences in mind. <a href="http://junkerhq.net/Snatcher/index.html">From what I can tell</a>, it wasn't even released in Japan.

[Cuckooguy]

Neo

<i></i>N<i></i>eo

Testing

I love Snatcher. It helps that scary movies and suspense still scares the shit out of me. You can definitely tell the game oozes with Hideo Kojima's awesome scanario writing on par with the original Metal Gear Solid, even though his endings can be questionable sometimes. But the rest of the game is usually awesome enough to make up for questionable endings.

Edit: Aha, I bypassed the N<i></i>eo filter! I'm so awesome.

[Delphine]

Fixéd.

[Green Gibbon!]

Yeah, the US-only Sega CD version of Snatcher is a port of the PC Engine version. That was a fairly common practice in those days being that the TurboGrafx was floundering over here while the Mega Drive was floundering in Japan.

There was also a semi-cool little RPG for the MSX called SD Snatcher, that I don't believe was ever released on any console systems.

It was later ported to the PC-Engine CD (Probably not the console's correct name)

Well, if technicalities are your concern, the proper name of the CD add-on was CD-ROM² (pronounced CD-rom-rom), though Snatcher was a Super CD-ROM² disc, which required an additional RAM card to play on a basic CD-ROM² unit.

Also, there shouldn't be a dash in "PC Engine".

[Zeta]

I've never played the game, and never seen anything but screenshots, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that *gasp* *shock* your main character discovers he's a snatcher himself.

[Cuckooguy]

I've never played the game, and never seen anything but screenshots, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that *gasp* *shock* your main character discovers he's a snatcher himself.

Play it for yourself and see if that's true.

Because it's not.

[Segaholic2]

I like how you suggest that he find out for himself, and then give him the answer right there.

[smiths32]

There was also a semi-cool little RPG for the MSX called SD Snatcher, that I don't believe was ever released on any console systems.

Does SD Snatcher have anything to do with Kojima's Snatcher? If so, do you know anything about it?

I've never played the game, and never seen anything but screenshots, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that *gasp* *shock* your main character discovers he's a snatcher himself.

That's what I thought the first time I played the game as well, and so did my friend. Guess the good thing about Kojima's complicated plots are that they tend to bypass cliches.

Well, if technicalities are your concern, the proper name of the CD add-on was CD-ROM² (pronounced CD-rom-rom), though Snatcher was a Super CD-ROM² disc, which required an additional RAM card to play on a basic CD-ROM² unit.

Also, there shouldn't be a dash in "PC Engine".

I'll bear those details in mind. I'm now wondering how the CD-ROM^2 compares to the Mega CD in terms of power, does anyone know? By the way, did the Mega Drive sell as badly in Japan as the Turbo Grafx did in America? I understood that the PC Engine beat the Mega Drive in Japan in terms of sales but didn't realise that the Mega Drive was quite that unpopular there.

[Light Speed]

He used spoiler tags! He let Zeta make the choice for himself...

Unless you edited those in or something?

[Kishi]

There was also a semi-cool little RPG for the MSX called SD Snatcher, that I don't believe was ever released on any console systems.

Does SD Snatcher have anything to do with Kojima's Snatcher? If so, do you know anything about it?

SD Snatcher <a href="http://www.konami.jp/gs/kojima_pro/engl ... .html">was made</a> by Kojima and company. It's a <a href="http://hg101.classicgaming.gamespy.com/ ... tm">cutesy retelling</a> of Snatcher as an RPG instead of a graphic adventure.

[Green Gibbon!]

SD Snatcher is kind of neat, though I haven't played it extensively. The combat involves aiming a cursor on a grid to try and hit enemy robots. It's easy to figure out and the menus are mostly visual, so it's quasi playable even if you can't follow the Japanese dialogue. You can download the rom anywhere (I recommend BlueMSX to play it on).

I'm now wondering how the CD-ROM^2 compares to the Mega CD in terms of power, does anyone know? By the way, did the Mega Drive sell as badly in Japan as the Turbo Grafx did in America? I understood that the PC Engine beat the Mega Drive in Japan in terms of sales but didn't realise that the Mega Drive was quite that unpopular there.

The CD-ROM² doesn't increase the power of the PCE at all, it just allows for better music and shit that you'd expect of the CD format. So the Mega-CD is significantly more powerful, but in most games that basically just boiled down to advanced parallax scrolling in the backgrounds.

I don't believe the Mega Drive was as utter a flop in Japan as the TurboGrafx was here, but it was always a distant second to the PCE, and when the Super Famicom was released, an even more distant third.