428: The World Does Not Change Even So
Wednesday 3 December 2008 @ 12:00 pm | By Random J 2 CommentsThis is a game that got greatly overlooked at this year’s Tokyo game show, but has recently been getting a fair bit of attention due to it having received a perfect score from Famitsu.
Famitsu’s perfect scores are somewhat questionable, given some of the games they’ve dished out perfect scores to in the past. But regardless, the game looks interesting. Even though the video shed little light on how the game will play, I still like the look of it. Plus I’m a J-drama addict, so the live action featuring Japanese actors caught my attention from the word go.
The game gives off a The world ends with you vibe; due to the title of the game and the adventure being set in Shibuya, Japan.
Sega have an official website of the game up and running. Or course it’s all in Japanese. There’s quite a bit to click around and check, but unless you’re able to read Japanese the site will do little to enlighten you on what the game is about. But you do get to hear the cool theme song performed by J-rock loving Aya Kamiki. So be sure to turn your speakers up or down accordingly before you enter the site. Hopefully this game will get translated, have some subtitles slapped on it and get a Western release – but it probably won’t happen. One can hope though. God knows I need a game to look forward to on Wii. I haven’t touched the thing in months.
Take a look around: 428’s official Japanese website
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Abraham 'Velcor' Duarte
David 'KidKobun' Bruno
Ivan 'Nahu' Lozano
Random J
Sol
Man this is so weird, at first I thought this was little more than a graphic novel with live action video and images. But then there’s that very small glimpse of gameplay at the end that seems to show some sort of timeline manipulation. Seems very interesting.
This genre of game is called “Sound Novel”, and it was invented by Chun Soft, the developper of 428, back during the SFC era.First, they released a horror sound novel called Otogirisou, then Kamaitachi no Yoru, a mystery sound novel which became a million seller.
Basically, these games are like gamebooks you read, with sounds and pictures/movies, and usually they have many different endings.
It’s kind of a mix between a novel and a video game.
Here’s an explanattion from Wikipedia about the game system (it sounds quite interactive):
“The game differs significantly from other sound novel / visual novel games in that players read through and switch around multiple stories that take place in the same timeframe, each seen from a different character’s point of view. Decisions made in one character’s story can inadvertently affect the story of another character in unforeseen ways. The format can be compared to films such as Pulp Fiction, Magnolia or Vantage Point.
For instance, the game opens with a detective (protagonist #1) waiting for a kidnapper to pick up the ransom money, which is being carried by a girl. Another character, a young man out for a walk (protagonist #2), happens to encounter the scene. Protagonist #2 now has a choice to approach the ransom-carrying girl or not; If he approaches, his story reaches a dead end by being wrongfully arrested, but not only that, the detective’s story also reaches a dead end by making the wrongful arrest.[3]
The player’s role is to figure out whose actions are affecting whom, and find the right choices to lead every protagonist to the conclusions of their storylines. The game offers a time chart screen where the events of all the protagonists’ stories are listed in chronological order.
Blue-colored text is interspersed within the body text. The colored text, called Tips, can be selected with the controller like a hyperlink. Tips, when selected, provide a short page of explanatory text, much like a tooltip. Tips can reveal the definition of a technical term, provide some insight on the topic, or just provide a short digression from the story at hand. Red-colored text, also selectable, marks the name of a different protagonist and allows the player to jump from one protagonist to another. Jumping from red text is often the only way to make a character’s story move forward.
The game unfolds in an ten-hour period, which begins at 10:00AM of April 28 and ends at 8:00PM. The game is broken up into one-hour segments. Leading every protagonist to the end of the hour unlocks the next hour to be played.”
These games can indeed be good, but because of the amount of text, nobody wants to translate them, a shame. I played Kamaitachi no Yoru 1 and my Japanese is not very good, yet this game kept me glued to the screen, which is proof of the game’s quality, if it can entrance even someone with beginner level Japanese skills.