Deadly Premonition / Red Seeds Profile (previously "Rainy Woods")

[J0e Musashi]

Why do you need the manual? Man up and play it. The speech is in English anyway.

[charlesr]

I didn't read the manual...... The only thing I missed out on was that once the kid tells you about holding your breath to avoid being detected by baddies, you can do this at any time, not just the raincoat killer QTE sections (allegedly - I haven't tried it).

[Phar]

I didn't have any trouble when I had the Asian version, everything was pretty self explanatory once playing through it, the only thing I recall having to refer to the English operation sheet for was the in game coloured markers, think it was Red for a current story mission, Orange for a sidequest, Grey for when a mission wasn't available yet and Purple for missions that can be replayed to earn the extra collectable cards.

Only other issues I had were some sidequests not being voiced (it's obvious when someone has one as they have an icon above them with the sidequest number), there are guides online for these if you get stuck, also the map which has places written in Kana, although theres now a map on gamefaqs which should make it a lot easier.

Infact the guides on gamefaqs should explain most things, items like med kits are fairly obvious what they do, but things like cigarettes may not be, they help speed up time, handy for missions that are only available at certain times of the day.

[J0e Musashi]

OMG this game is so badass it's untrue!

[112]

lol........... it's SO badass, its goodass! (Isn't that right, Zach?)

112

[J0e Musashi]

Oh man the Zach thing freaks me right out. I'm really digging the whole thing though. At least I can stop playing Demon's Souls for a while now

[Sketcz]

Despite losing the flavour with some things (I'm really glad I have some Japanese reading ability, since otherwise menu options et al would be lost on me), I am absolutely loving this.

The combat isn't nearly as bad as I was expecting. In fact, I'm quite enjoying shooting zombies in the face with a machinegun!

[charlesr]

I've been playing Red Dead Redemption a lot and it's just so polished (apart from a few bugs), but the script and plot pales into insignificance compared to the awesomeness in Deadly Premonition. If only Ignition had had Rockstar's resources.

[J0e Musashi]

(I'm really glad I have some Japanese reading ability, since otherwise menu options et al would be lost on me)

So my good man, what does the very last option do? It's called Cruel Production.

This game is brilliant though. Like Charles says. If it a huge budget behind it it would prolly be the best game ever.

[Phar]

So my good man, what does the very last option do? It's called Cruel Production.

It just switches between purple and green blood for the Zombies, theres a few occassions where you can accidently shoot NPC's so I'd imagine if you set it to off then you'd get green blood with them as well instead of red.

This game is brilliant though. Like Charles says. If it a huge budget behind it it would prolly be the best game ever.

Definately, also the soundtrack to this game is brilliant, I ended up downloading some tracks that were ripped from the game, if they released an OST for this I'd buy it day one.

[charlesr]

The music is great, although a little more variety would have been top. Again, for a budget game, totally awesome.

If you play with the jukebox, you'll see lots of people have their own theme tunes.

[charlesr]

For those of you playing the asian import, I suggest you check gamefaqs for the side missions involving getting the infinite ammo 9mm and shotgun - you need to visit the rocker in the store and buy the maps. Not sure if it's time dependent. Probably quite freely available later in the game.

[Kaladron]

Sorry if this has been asked already but how import friendly is the Japanese version?

[Sketcz]

Oops, when I said menu options, I meant menu as in dining menu. The in-game options menu is English anyway.

The music is awesome - sometimes I sit at the title screen for a while, taking in that cool Simon and Garfunkel style guitar and vocals.

Sorry if this has been asked already but how import friendly is the Japanese version?

Katakana (for words borrowed from the west) reading ability helps immensely. Character names on the map are in katakana, for example, which is essential for side-missions unless you use a FAQ. Otherwise the main game is very straight forward. The chess puzzle wasn't even a puzzle, just a "pick them in the order they're mentioned" thing.

All spoken dialogue is in English, all objectives are shown on the map and in-game, in fact EVERYTHING is shown on the map, from trading cards to characters to special items like the rare flowers.

I'd say that the language barrier mainly loses you some of the basic flavour, and makes side-missions a bit more time consuming. I've had conversations with NPCs, and am only able to understand a few sentences. Anna's mother was at the bar for example, apparently drunk, rambling on for AGES. Also, York will talk to Zach via written dialogue, when examining things. Nothing huge.

Otherwise all important dialogue is voiced. And it's really good. Not so-bad-it''s-good, but genuinely good. The local sheriff seems like a really interesting character - most of them do.

If there's never going to be an English PS3 release, and you don't have access to the 360 version, I'd say it's definitely worth getting the Asian version, which is about £20 on eBay.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Red-Seeds-Profile-PS3-JAPAN-NEW-Worldwide-Shipping-/120580768562

Knowing that you've already played other, more Japanese intensive games, such as Captain Rainbow, I'd say this should be a walk in the park for you. Download the large map with place names of GameFAQs, to compensate for the in-game map being Japanese, and you're away!

(then you can compete against me for trophies )

[Kaladron]

Cheers, John.

Are there any differences between the Jap and Asian releases?