Picked this up yesterday, partly because I had a clear-out of my old games and had plenty to trade in and partly thanks to the review in Consolevania. And it's... different. Not in a bad way, even though there definitely appears to be a lack of anything immediately recognisable as what we'd traditionally define as gameplay - but then, that's what makes it unique.
Being in Japanese, I'm not 100% sure about the plot but it's pretty easy to guess - as the cameraman for a local TV station sent with your news crew to Michigan to investigate the mysterious mist that's enveloped the place, it's your job to document the action. The controls are simple: move with the analogues, zoom with L1 and R1 and examine with Circle, with orange dots appearing in your viewfinder whenever there's something to look at. You've also got a limited amount of tape (Michigan's version of a time limit) so you can't waste too much time dicking around - if the tape runs out, the game moves on and you lose the points you've gathered for that area (I think... not 100% sure about this).
The more things you record, the more points you get - although which type depends on what you film. Suspense points come from record scary events or gathering evidence (including recording footage of your crew telling you things... in Japanese), while Erotic points are earned by generally squatting down and filming your female reporter's arse for a fixed period of time, as well as grabbing any other kind of panty shot or rude material whenever you can.
And that's it. As you can't directly interact with anything, you have to use the 'point and click' abilities of your recording to command the crew, usually the female reporter. There are several women... and they usually die. Horribly. You also have to use your 'morality' to judge when to help people or not - cut-scenes occur where you can continue filming and watch people fall over/get killed, or press X to help and stick your oar in to stop the proceedings. Only had a couple of those though, so I can't go into much detail - the first one ended with either the reporter getting angry with me because I chose to film her falling arse over tit or the cut-scene just ending abruptly depending on what I did, even though I was expecting something more when I actually helped out.
Like I said though, it does all seem a bit lacking in the early stages. I'm at the point where you can start choosing to save your reporter and dictate multiple paths through areas (unlike the opening tutorial, which is entirely linear and could have been enough to put me off if I didn't already know it opens up), so things will most likely get a bit better. But it's supposedly very short.
Doubtful this will make it out of Japan. Bah.
Also got Amazing Island, so will put some thoughts up about that... when I get a chance to play it.
Being in Japanese, I'm not 100% sure about the plot but it's pretty easy to guess - as the cameraman for a local TV station sent with your news crew to Michigan to investigate the mysterious mist that's enveloped the place, it's your job to document the action. The controls are simple: move with the analogues, zoom with L1 and R1 and examine with Circle, with orange dots appearing in your viewfinder whenever there's something to look at. You've also got a limited amount of tape (Michigan's version of a time limit) so you can't waste too much time dicking around - if the tape runs out, the game moves on and you lose the points you've gathered for that area (I think... not 100% sure about this).
The more things you record, the more points you get - although which type depends on what you film. Suspense points come from record scary events or gathering evidence (including recording footage of your crew telling you things... in Japanese), while Erotic points are earned by generally squatting down and filming your female reporter's arse for a fixed period of time, as well as grabbing any other kind of panty shot or rude material whenever you can.
And that's it. As you can't directly interact with anything, you have to use the 'point and click' abilities of your recording to command the crew, usually the female reporter. There are several women... and they usually die. Horribly. You also have to use your 'morality' to judge when to help people or not - cut-scenes occur where you can continue filming and watch people fall over/get killed, or press X to help and stick your oar in to stop the proceedings. Only had a couple of those though, so I can't go into much detail - the first one ended with either the reporter getting angry with me because I chose to film her falling arse over tit or the cut-scene just ending abruptly depending on what I did, even though I was expecting something more when I actually helped out.
Like I said though, it does all seem a bit lacking in the early stages. I'm at the point where you can start choosing to save your reporter and dictate multiple paths through areas (unlike the opening tutorial, which is entirely linear and could have been enough to put me off if I didn't already know it opens up), so things will most likely get a bit better. But it's supposedly very short.
Doubtful this will make it out of Japan. Bah.
Also got Amazing Island, so will put some thoughts up about that... when I get a chance to play it.
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