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Post by Discoalucard on Dec 16, 2010 0:05:39 GMT -5
www.hardcoregaming101.net/tracememory/anothercode.htmThis is Cing's first DS game, and I think their first game released in the US. It's more along the style of a visual novel, although there are scenes that you control the main character directly. It also has some cleverly meta puzzles. The sequel was translated into English but only released in Europe - this article covers both, of course. Not too familiar with these - only played a bit of the first one - but I have played Hotel Dusk, and I did rather wish that sequel came to the US, too.
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Post by Shellshock on Dec 16, 2010 9:57:50 GMT -5
Very cool! I have been very curious about this series.
What emulator do you guys use to take screenshots? How accurate is the emulation, and do ALL games work with it? Thanks.
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Post by Discoalucard on Dec 16, 2010 10:05:02 GMT -5
I can't speak for the author (for the DS games, anyway) but I use DeSmuME. If offers frame skip and screenshot capabilities, which NO$GBA does not. I haven't run into any major graphical issues that haven't been fixed in a more recent version. I remember trying to grab screens of Devil Survivor on DeSmuME and the text was sorta messed up, while NO$GBA was fine.
I think the screenshots for the Wii game might be press screens, or taken with a capture card.
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Post by Wildcat on Dec 16, 2010 11:49:03 GMT -5
Words really can not convey how much disappointment and resentment I carry for Nintendo of America for skipping over Last Window. *sigh*
I'll have to check this out - I loved Dusk, but this series never really seemed to capture my attention. Might be a good thing, considering that NoA passed over the Wii sequel. XD
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Post by Trickless on Dec 16, 2010 13:05:09 GMT -5
It's more along the style of a visual novel Don't like that term at all. It seems to be only used to distinguish between Japanese and Western adventures. The game doesn't describe surroundings and actions like in a novel. There's a lot of talking, but I don't see it as any different to the long cut scenes you see in JRPGs. There's exploration and puzzle solving, so why not call it adventure? |
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Post by derboo on Dec 16, 2010 13:42:14 GMT -5
Well, "that term" is the description of a genre as it is called in Japan. Originally, that genre is intrinsically different from what the west came to know as adventures (which is mostly identified with point&click, although it allows different approach to controls as well), so there would be no more sense in calling it the same genre as with platformers and shmups.
Another Code (as I understand the article, since I haven't played the game) is strongly influenced by the Japanese visual novel tradition, but it also includes a lot of puzzle solving, making it a hybrid of the two (although once again its approach to puzzle solving is not exactly deeply rooted in the tradition we call the adventure genre). The article takes a stance in assessing which side is more dominant. While your mileage may vary on whether that assessment is spot on or not, there's no room to question a distinction between a classical Japanese visual novel and a classical western Adventure game.
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Post by kaoru on Dec 16, 2010 14:41:32 GMT -5
They also produced Glass Rose on the PS2, if I'm not mistaken. I'm not sure if it fits "these types of games", since it's the only CING game I played, so I've have no point of reference to these others (it has a similar "statements of interest" system though), but it certainly is an adventure game that is heavy on the talking with people and light on item-puzzles (and honestly not very good). And since you are in a mansion and negotiate people about a murder case, I'd say "interactive mystery novel" would fit it.
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Post by Discoalucard on Dec 16, 2010 15:01:08 GMT -5
Oh, that's definitely right, I gotta add that in. I know it was released in Europe, but it never made it to America, which is probably why the author missed it. (It was also published by...Capcom, IIRC?)
I think the term "visual novel" applies almost more to the style than just a genre definition. The text boxes, the close-up portraits, the style of writing and characterization, are all uniquely Japanese and those aspect feel like a traditional visual novel. Cing plays things a bit more differently and allows for more direct control and different types of puzzles, so it falls outside the struct definition of the term, but their games are still rooted in the same place.
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Post by Jave on Dec 16, 2010 15:30:58 GMT -5
I was able to beat Trace Memory, without help, and in a reasonable time frame. Ergo, it can't possibly be an adventure game. 
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Post by bishop on Dec 16, 2010 16:38:53 GMT -5
Hey guys. This is my first contribution to the site, and it will hopefully be the first of many.
It's true that I was unfamiliar with Glass Rose - I knew it existed, but when I looked into it online, it was described as "survival horror" on a few sites, so I assumed it didn't fit into the "Interactive Mystery Novel" genre and left it out. Based on what kaoru is saying, though, it sounds like calling Glass Rose "survival horror" would be... overly generous, to say the least. I'm not sure why that term is getting thrown around. I need to look further into that game to find out some more about it, it seems.
For the record, I used the same emulator already mentioned - DeSmuME. I played through all of the American one (my third time on that one), most of the European one (also my third time with that incarnation) and only did a bit of the Japanese one in order to make proper comparisons across the three versions.
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Post by wyrdwad on Dec 16, 2010 16:57:56 GMT -5
Is this the game that's sort of an unofficial/spiritual sequel to Shadow of Destiny/Memories?
Like, written by Junko Kawano, similar themes, etc.?
I can't remember if that's Trace Memory, or some other DS game...
-Tom
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Post by bishop on Dec 16, 2010 17:13:21 GMT -5
Is this the game that's sort of an unofficial/spiritual sequel to Shadow of Destiny/Memories? Like, written by Junko Kawano, similar themes, etc.? I can't remember if that's Trace Memory, or some other DS game... -Tom That would be "Time Hollow." |
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Post by kaoru on Dec 16, 2010 17:57:23 GMT -5
It's true that I was unfamiliar with Glass Rose - I knew it existed, but when I looked into it online, it was described as "survival horror" on a few sites, so I assumed it didn't fit into the "Interactive Mystery Novel" genre and left it out. Interesting. Wikipedia states so, too. Maybe Capcom tried to sell it as one? The blurb on the back of the German box calls it a mystery adventure too, though. Playing it, I really would never call it anything but an adventure. It actually feels kind of like playing Cluedo - in a mansion, with people and by talking to them you have to solve a murder case. You can die though, if you lose all your "Mentality Points". Which you need for reading peoples minds and also lose from failing at the few quick time events when you get attacked or run out of time (the game is split into segments of 1 hour each, which runs in real time). But yeah, it really is pretty much just finding the right people to talk to and the right infos to press in the conversation. No fighting, no running from a killer. Not very Survival Horror Game like. |
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Post by Trickless on Dec 16, 2010 20:27:02 GMT -5
Well, "that term" is the description of a genre as it is called in Japan. The thing is, I’ve not seen a single Japanese website/media call Another Code, Snatcher, Policenauts etc. a ‘Visual Novel’. It’s always ‘Adventure’. From what I understand, Visual Novels are basically digitized novels, and you get given the odd choice that would change the outcome of the story. Its origins can be traced back to Chunsoft’s series of ‘Sound Novels’... which in itself is a sub-genre of [Japanese] adventure games. |
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Post by Discoalucard on Dec 16, 2010 20:29:13 GMT -5
You're right, but the English speaking audience has adapted the term as meaning "Japanese Adventure Game", because Western ones are quite different. It's not TECHNICALLY correct but not worth committing harry karry over.
IIRC they never had any designation between RPGs before either, but in the English speaking world there's a strict delineation between JRPG and W/CRPG.
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