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Thanks for doing these medical drama games, ivantod. Probably wouldn't have known they existed without your LP, and I'm glad to have seen 'em.
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Apr 17, 2018 01:13
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Geizt posted:Thanks for the LP, Ivantod. This whole thread has been a drat ride, even if the closing game was a bit lukewarm for most of it. I agree with this post. the total uneven quality of this game's cases really makes me want to know what the development cycle was like but I doubt there's any post-mortem anywhere on it. Did they have really grandiose plans they had to scrap? Did they just not know what they were doing until they got to case 4? Who knows!
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Apr 17, 2018 18:19
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Psion posted:I agree with this post. To be honest, if I had to guess, I would say this game probably had an extremely compressed release cycle in order to meet the release date of the TV show so, in another guess, I'd say that probably at least some of the writing was done by different people in parallel. I didn't really bother to check in the credits, but the extreme unevenness does make it look like that. As for the grandiose plans, I honestly doubt it. This conclusion I draw from a stunning fact of which I only became aware more recently when I decided to look around the website that hosted the walkthrough I was following for Batista. And the stunning fact is that in Japan apparently making game adaptations/tie-ins of TV shows for handheld consoles like DS is surprisingly common! I couldn't believe it, but here are a couple more examples that I found by browsing around on that website:  "Partners" (相棒): Wikipedia (English)  "The Negotiator" (交渉人): Wikipedia (Japanese, couldn't find anything in english)  "Galileo" (ガリレオ) Wikipedia (English) So, apparently this is a thing in Japan, I had no idea! Based on this, I doubt any of these are shooting for any kind of masterpiece level, but it would be nice to have a bit more consistency in quality that in Team Batista... ... ... Although to be honest, that last one (Galileo) is looking somewhat interesting... Oh, why do I do this to myself...
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Apr 17, 2018 19:09
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ivantod posted:
oh no you don't
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Apr 17, 2018 19:13
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ivantod posted:Although to be honest, that last one (Galileo) is looking somewhat interesting... You do it for us.
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Apr 17, 2018 19:43
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I'm kinda digging this one, it has a chintzy charm to it 
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Apr 17, 2018 19:52
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Well, there's no rule that says a tie-in game has to be terrible... If you think there's something worth seeing I definitely look forward to seeing it, though.
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Apr 18, 2018 01:59
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Ok, so since apparently I have absolutely no self control whatsoever, I have started looking at one of the games mentioned above, specifically "Galileo". Weirdly enough, it's again based on a TV show that's based on a series of books! The books are about a police detective and an eccentric university professor who together solve weird crimes which at first often seem like they have been caused by something supernatural! The quality of the stories should be better as apparently all cases in the game are based on the TV episodes, and not written separately for the game! This sounds pretty interesting to me, and the base game mechanics appear similar to those of Batista, so that shouldn't be a problem. Also, unlike Batista, this game features quite a bombastic intro animation which I have uploaded here (make sure to turn on subtitles, as there are a couple of lines of Japanese text shown). Oh yeah, the MPEG compression artifacts on the video are already present in the original as they didn't want to have it take too much space on the DS cartridge, so nothing I can do there! So have a look and tell me what you think, but I think I'll go ahead and do at least the beginning of the game so we can see what it looks like... and if it's worth proceeding.
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Apr 18, 2018 20:51
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*dramatic pan* = sin(θ)/cos(θ) = tan(θ) I'm fuken down for intense trigonometric investigations. At least our protag is looking p cool. EDIT: So this is basically Japenese gender-swapped Bones (the tv show)? Seraphic Neoman fucked around with this message at 22:18 on Apr 18, 2018 |
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Apr 18, 2018 22:15
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I hope Yukawa is as much of a dork as he looks. I'm excited to find that out.
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Apr 18, 2018 22:20
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SSNeoman posted:EDIT: So this is basically Japenese gender-swapped Bones (the tv show)? Huh, I didn't really think about it in that way, but I guess you're right, it does look a little bit like that! ivantod fucked around with this message at 23:26 on Apr 18, 2018 |
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Apr 18, 2018 23:24
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ivantod posted:Ok, so since apparently I have absolutely no self control whatsoever, I have started looking at one of the games mentioned above, specifically "Galileo". Bless you, ivantod Consider me stoked for this!
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Apr 19, 2018 00:08
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The Galileo drama (except episode 4 for some reason) is available on Crunchyroll.
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Apr 19, 2018 00:13
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I feel like there may need to be an intervention at some point.
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Apr 19, 2018 02:34
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Mraagvpeine posted:I feel like there may need to be an intervention at some point. We may need to get a doctor after all of this is over. Preferably, one without Parkinson's.
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Apr 19, 2018 02:46
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Blaze Dragon posted:We may need to get a doctor after all of this is over.
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Apr 19, 2018 04:42
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Great job showcasing these interesting Japanese medical drama games, especially going back to recap the first LifeSigns. I've been following the thread for what must be a couple years now and was ready to say goodbye to it, but now I have to see at least some of Galileo since I've read Higashino's Salvation of a Saint and some of The Devotion of Suspect X (which admittedly I didn't really get into but I should pick it up again). For your sake, I don't know whether I should hope that it's interesting or if it's bad enough that you decide to drop it quickly...
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Apr 19, 2018 06:26
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Pine Bamboo Plum posted:Great job showcasing these interesting Japanese medical drama games, especially going back to recap the first LifeSigns. I've been following the thread for what must be a couple years now and was ready to say goodbye to it, but now I have to see at least some of Galileo since I've read Higashino's Salvation of a Saint and some of The Devotion of Suspect X (which admittedly I didn't really get into but I should pick it up again). For your sake, I don't know whether I should hope that it's interesting or if it's bad enough that you decide to drop it quickly... Oh, by the way, thanks for reminding me! In case anybody gets interested in this, unlike in case of Batista, these books HAVE been translated and properly released in English! Here are the English editions so you can search for them in your favourite shop! Incidentally, the translation is by Alexander O. Smith, of all people!
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Apr 19, 2018 06:58
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Haifisch posted:You fool, then we'll just get one involved in organ trade! It's fine, I know a guy who works for an unscrupulous land owner. The local shaman checks out too.
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Apr 19, 2018 07:13
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That ending escalation certainly got incredibly Life Signs. I would not be surprised to find Tendo tasked with a sudden multi patient transplant operation. Also all the talk about tv show games and medical stuff is making me think that if some of the older combo genre medical shows like Diagnosis Murder had happened in more modern times, we'd almost certainly get game tie-ins with them, too. ivantod posted:Even though in the end maybe it turns out to be a little simpler than expected, to me in an Ace Attorney style game, this would have been a solid second case just after the tutorial (where the already existing first case in this game could still remain), possibly even introducing a thread that will be revisited in the last case (governmental corruption, etc.). Thinking about it and considering the first Ace Attorney's 2nd case, these two do share a lot in common. Mentor from first case gets ousted, but returns at the end to finish their personal arc. Female investigation partner gets in trouble, but joins up permanently at the end. Corruption and secrets are uncovered, but some things are left unknown to be later plots. High-placed pressure puts the heroes in a bad spot, which they overcome through perseverance. Murder and extortion, though to a lesser degree in this game.
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Apr 19, 2018 21:38
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Hey everybody! I am already working on the first update for "Galileo"--it's almost done and it will be posted tomorrow! However, since the game looks really good and way better than Batista, I thought I would give you already a small preview today. So here it is, just a small bit from the beginning of the game, and come over and visit tomorrow for the rest! ----------------------------------------------- Let's begin!   For some reason, the game menu is actually in English. I guess this is a good moment to mention that this will work in the same way like Batista, i.e. that I will try to "edit" the translated text into the actual screenshot whenever possible (which should be most of the time) in a way that makes it look similar in style to the original text that was in the game. I feel doing it like that makes for an easier time while reading and is not really a big extra effort on my side to do so--normally I simply put the translated texts and other necessary info in a text file and run a script that converts the screenshots that I took from a gameplay video, therefore once the scripts are done this is actually faster to do than it would be otherwise! What I'm trying to say is that the rest of the game is of course Japanese-only and the usual caveats apply regarding the quality of the translation. In the end, we should be able at least to follow the story if nothing else! And now, let's finally click that "New Game" button! Incidentally, there are five chapters in this game! So, here is the beginning of our fist case. The game has quite a cinematic intro!      Well, this looks like some kind of audio recording setup?       But, his recording session...   ...is suddenly interrupted by two youths cruising by on an extremely noisy motorbike.    Our nameless friend is not very happy about this.     Number 2 is the jerk on the left, just for reference.   As you can already probably tell, this game has much more expressive character portraits than Batista! In general, artistically this game is definitely far ahead. Also, let's not forget about our mysterious person whom they have disturbed by their noise. It's not conveyed here, but in fact, they are throwing around firecrackers during this conversation! Yes, I know, there is no way of even knowing this if your only exposure to this story is the game!         Suddenly he pulls out a phone (with an apparently cracked screen?) and dials a number.    At this moment, there is a sound of something igniting, like a match being lighted...  ...and it's Youth #2's head that ignites, in fact! Shortly, he falls on the ground, dead.  Well, at least we know the name of the first guy now. On an even more positive side, at it also puts and end to that inane conversation.       This game has occasional bits of naration like this, by our main character... who we are about to meet.  She's just running down this hallway!  And here she is, just slightly out of breath! By the way, the game gives you these nice title cards whenever a new character appears! Neat! Speaking of which, I should mention that, as before, without exceptions the names will be shown in the Japanese order--family name first, given name second. There is no particular reason for this choice, but I had to pick something to be consistent!      As mentioned, Kaoru is a rookie detective, so she's going to be getting a fair amount of attitude from her superiors. On the other hand, forgetting your mobile phone when you're on duty is a bit of a silly thing to do. Nevertheless, she's not nearly as incompetent as Murakami and certainly far far less annoying.   Sometimes, I will also use the quote icon to signify narration to avoid repeated screenshots, like here! Incidentally, in the TV show, Utsumi is portrayed by Shibasaki Kou, and looks pretty much exactly the same as the character in the game:  In fact, this time around, the game characters have been modelled on their real-life counterparts!  On the way to the incident scene, Utsumi is driving...   Talk: "About the case".     And so we got our first item for our ----------------------------------------------- Hopefully, this seems interesting to you too... in which case, please come back tomorrow for lots more! It will be one of my typical monster updates! ivantod fucked around with this message at 21:39 on Apr 21, 2018 |
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Apr 21, 2018 21:35
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Looking great! I'd been interested in the TV drama but never got around to watching, so this should be a fun ride.
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Apr 21, 2018 23:04
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ivantod posted:
Normally I'd make fun of her for this, but a guy dropping dead almost instantly just from having his hair set on fire does seem pretty weird, not to mention the question of how the fire started in the first place.
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Apr 22, 2018 06:30
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Yeah, people don't just burn to death, they get burned to death. In a fire usually.
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Apr 22, 2018 08:13
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This looks like a step up from the Batista game for sure!
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Apr 22, 2018 13:16
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Yeah this looks cool! The art style looks way better.
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Apr 22, 2018 17:54
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And so, as promised, here is the full first update of Galileo! It's a monster, so make sure you're comfortable. Let's begin! For some reason, the game menu is actually in English. I guess this is a good moment to mention that this will work in the same way like Batista, i.e. that I will try to "edit" the translated text into the actual screenshot whenever possible (which should be most of the time) in a way that makes it look similar in style to the original text that was in the game. I feel doing it like that makes for an easier time while reading and is not really a big extra effort on my side to do so--normally I simply put the translated texts and other necessary info in a text file and run a script that converts the screenshots that I took from a gameplay video, therefore once the scripts are done this is actually faster to do than it would be otherwise! What I'm trying to say is that the rest of the game is of course Japanese-only and the usual caveats apply regarding the quality of the translation. In the end, we should be able at least to follow the story if nothing else! And now, let's finally click that "New Game" button! Incidentally, there are five chapters in this game! So, here is the beginning of our fist case. The game has quite a cinematic intro! Well, this looks like some kind of audio recording setup? But, his recording session... ...is suddenly interrupted by two youths cruising by on an extremely noisy motorbike. Our nameless friend is not very happy about this. Number 2 is the jerk on the left, just for reference. As you can already probably tell, this game has much more expressive character portraits than Batista! In general, artistically this game is definitely far ahead. Also, let's not forget about our mysterious person whom they have disturbed by their noise. It's not conveyed here, but in fact, they are throwing around firecrackers during this conversation! Yes, I know, there is no way of even knowing this if your only exposure to this story is the game! Suddenly he pulls out a phone (with an apparently cracked screen?) and dials a number. At this moment, there is a sound of something igniting, like a match being lighted... ...and it's Youth #2's head that ignites, in fact! Shortly, he falls on the ground, dead. Well, at least we know the name of the first guy now. On an even more positive side, at it also puts and end to that inane conversation. This game has occasional bits of naration like this, by our main character... who we are about to meet. She's just running down this hallway! And here she is, just slightly out of breath! By the way, the game gives you these nice title cards whenever a new character appears! Neat! Speaking of which, I should mention that, as before, without exceptions the names will be shown in the Japanese order--family name first, given name second. There is no particular reason for this choice, but I had to pick something to be consistent! As mentioned, Kaoru is a rookie detective, so she's going to be getting a fair amount of attitude from her superiors. On the other hand, forgetting your mobile phone when you're on duty is a bit of a silly thing to do. Nevertheless, she's not nearly as incompetent as Murakami and certainly far far less annoying. Sometimes, I will also use the quote icon to signify narration to avoid repeated screenshots, like here! Incidentally, in the TV show, Utsumi is portrayed by Shibasaki Kou, and looks pretty much exactly the same as the character in the game: In fact, this time around, the game characters have been modelled on their real-life counterparts! On the way to the incident scene, Utsumi is driving... Talk: "About the case". And so we got our first item for our Talk: "Do we know the name of the victim?"   Talk: "Are there any eyewitnesses?"          But then...     Talk: "What are you doing here at this time of night?"    Talk: "Where is your mother?" Talk: "What's your name?"      Well, that was certainly weird.    Wait, you just said...     And not a moment too soon, we have arrived back at the station!      At this point, the game finally decides to introduce its menu options. I'm not going to be spending too much time on it right now, we'll cover it as we go, but suffice it to say, if you know how the gameplay in Ace Attorney works, then you know how gameplay in this game works. The basic options are there, like moving around and presenting stuff, and the rest we'll cover as it appears. Just as a side comment, so far this feels so much better than Batista. The story is actually moving and the game seems to be avoding getting into endless conversations that lead nowhere! For now, though, we'll go back inside the station.  Oh, yeah, here's what the move screen looks like. As you can see, it's basically identical to Ace Attorney. Normally I will convey verbally or in some other way when we are changing location, so you won't really be seeing this screen very often!      Denenchoufu, Kamata and Haneda are all places in and around Tokyo. The Haneda one is actually a bit funny because, as you might know, that's where one of the Tokyo airports is located, so it's only fitting that that's where the levitation case happened. Oh, and just to allay any fears. There is nothing supernatural in these stories--the whole point of these cases is that they look supernatural, but then turn out to have a natural explanation for what happened! Talk: "About the work of a detective."    Since I come from a country where, unlike Japan (or USA) nobody ever plays baseball, you'll have to forgive me if I get any baseball references wrong! Sorry!   And just as this conversation (which is actually directly taken from the TV show!) is threatening to get REALLY uncomfortable, we are interrupted.   Well, not quite... what about the little girl and her funny story?   Well, let's go there then.      (Interrogation start)   And so, this is kind of similar like in Ace Attorney, when judge asks you a question. You have give the right answer, otherwise you lose a bit of your health bar (top left). If it's all gone, it's game over. In order to preserve a more natural feel of the dialogue, I won't bother with stopping to tell you all the choices in every instance (unless there is something funny), but I will let you know when we are in this mode by using the screenshot above with the big letters on it! For this particular question, we have to pick the correct name of the three listed, which would be easy even if we haven't just been told his name!  (Interrogation finished) So this is kind of a bit silly, because the one who is being iterrogated in these sequences is really us, but what can you do. This is a bit of an equivaled of those "reviews" from Batista, except you can fail and it's over a lot faster. Anyway, now on to the real questions here. Talk: "What the heck happened there?"  Talk: "What's your relation to the deceased?"   Talk: "You've been doing drugs, haven't you...?"   We really don't seem to be getting a whole lot out of him... in fact he seems rather shocked at the moment.   Again, there is no animation for this, but here he freaks out and starts trashing the room! A bit later, outside...    Well, it's been a long night. But as the day breaks at the police station...     ...our work continues. Our next destination is the medical examiner's office.                    Let's head to the autopsy room then.   Here we have a choice, we can say "yes", "no", and we can also ask what it's for. Since we don't know, let's first ask what it's for. So, we can then say that yes, we want to use it... but Kusanagi will say that it's not really necessary, so the only way to move forward is to say no. This is kind of funny, because, as already mentioned, he won't let us go with in the first place!     Here, we are spared it. But in the TV show they actually show you the corpse with a charred head.        Well, let's see what else we can find out here. Talk: "Are there any other external wounds?" Talk: "Have you found anyting that might have been the fuel?" Talk: "Is there anything else that you can say about this?"   And, here we get our first Lv.2 information! So, that's a pretty simple mechanic.        This is certainly true to the TV show where Utsumi and Jounouchi easily become friends and confidantes.  We can definitely try to say no to this, but then Utsumi gets worried that this is Kusanagi testing her. So we have to say yes. This game is about as linear as Batista, but it still does a better job about not seeming quite so bad somehow.   And by "beef bowl", I mean Gyuudon, something like this:  By Ocdp - Own work, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25909530     Here, Utsumi has three options. First option is to add some pickled red ginger. Then our bowl would look like this after having added it:  By jetalone from Higashi-Ginza, Tokyo - Flickr, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2181042 The other option is to add some spicy red chilies. Check out this beauty:  And the third option is to eat it simply as it is. This is all a bit of a joke, but the only good option is to add some ginger. If you decide to add chili, it's not really enough and she can still taste the meat. On the other hand, if you eat it as it is, it just causes her to almost throw up. But none of it has any influence on the plot. So, let's just do the ginger.  You know what that means! (Interrogation start) Let's get through this!  Here the game gives us a brief tutorial about the "presenting" mechanic. But since this is exactly the same as in Ace Attorney and all other games, I will skip it.  Suffice it to say that we get this kind of screen with all the possible choices and in this case, of course, we are selecting the little girl's profile.  (Interrogation finished) Well, before we finish for now, there is just one more thing we need to do...           It's been a while since I had to do this, but there is a reason for her puzzlement over the name. The first name Manabu is written with this kanji: 学, which normally means stuff like study, education, science and similar. So I guess it's a bit of a name chosen on purpose.  Well. I guess next time we'll go and see the wizard. The professor. I mean the professor.
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Apr 22, 2018 20:47
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I love that this LP thread has just become all about obscure Japanese games. I'm just waiting for the shoe to drop on this competant-so-far game and the reveal being that it's Parkinson's-induced head combustion.
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Apr 22, 2018 23:52
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Ibblebibble posted:I'm just waiting for the shoe to drop on this competant-so-far game and the reveal being that it's Parkinson's-induced head combustion. He shook so hard he caught on fire, mystery In all seriousness, this is an interesting start at least, characters are properly introduced and from the get-go Utsumi doesn't come across as horribly incompetent on even the most basic of levels and completely unfitting for her job like Murakami did, so that's progress even if it is on a different game.
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Apr 23, 2018 00:23
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It'd be real hard to seem as completely incompetent as Murakami, really. Like, having a basic idea of what your job entails puts you miles past him immediately. Props to this game for going straight to 'there are no laws for a genius' for the guy who's probably the killer for the first case, too. Normally you don't get crazies like that until halfway through the game.
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Apr 23, 2018 00:29
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I dig that this avoids the usual Ace Attorney problem of having everything be too obvious in the first case. Although that's probably because of this game's 'seemingly impossible/magical things have a rational explanation' gimmick. And the fact that we haven't met the Napkin Professor yet.  Ibblebibble posted:I love that this LP thread has just become all about obscure Japanese games. 
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Apr 23, 2018 01:02
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Discussing charred human corpses is ok but swearing is a no-no huh?
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Apr 23, 2018 01:31
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There just seems to have been a little more legwork here, is all, so that the "rookie mistakes" are things like, well, not dealing well with the sights and smells of a charred human corpse, which I imagine are quite relatable for most people playing the game.
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Apr 23, 2018 07:49
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And Kusanagi seems to be shaping up as a rough equivalent of the Shiratori character, except he's slightly less obnoxious and doesn't look like he's going to have Shiratori's tendency to be one step ahead of the protagonist in a way that makes our efforts irrelevant.
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Apr 23, 2018 08:34
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I dunno about crimes, but I could murder one of those beef bowls right now.Geizt posted:Props to this game for going straight to 'there are no laws for a genius' for the guy who's probably the killer for the first case, too. Normally you don't get crazies like that until halfway through the game. I hate those types, but seeing one be busted by a rookie detective on her first case would be pretty gratifying. I like Jounouchi. I guess I've always been fond of the stock character of the ghoulish medical examiner.
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Apr 23, 2018 10:54
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Ratoslov posted:I dunno about crimes, but I could murder one of those beef bowls right now. Jounouchi reminds me of Abbie from NCIS.
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Apr 23, 2018 15:00
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All the characters seem a lot more loveable so far, and I really appreciate that Utsumi shows off she's a newbie in a way that makes sense ('I can't eat a beef bowl after smelling a burnt corpse without disguising it') and not in a way that makes it seem like everyone who let them into the department was straight up asleep at the wheel ('I'm afraid of hospitals and also dumb as a post!').
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Apr 23, 2018 17:03
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Just gonna echo that this is pretty great and already handles plot and characterization way more competently than the last game.
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Apr 23, 2018 18:42
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Leraika posted:All the characters seem a lot more loveable so far, and I really appreciate that Utsumi shows off she's a newbie in a way that makes sense ('I can't eat a beef bowl after smelling a burnt corpse without disguising it') and not in a way that makes it seem like everyone who let them into the department was straight up asleep at the wheel ('I'm afraid of hospitals and also dumb as a post!'). Even having a character that's got issues with entering a hospital isn't a total issue if Murakami actually show him getting over it, instead of needing to be cajoled everytime, but yeah the fact he's incredibly dumb and insensitive is the real deal breaker. Utsumi on the other hand just has new job jitters, and also cripes the poor girl getting used as groper bait.
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Apr 23, 2018 20:51
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A new game is very exciting. I... think I might have watched the first episode of this show. The head burning is very familiar (although I don't remember anything about how it was resolved). I kept forgetting to mention it, but I really like how you do the small dialogue portraits. Putting their name on the side is a really nice touch.
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Apr 24, 2018 01:31
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