I’m not going to write about Machi today – I’ve already written something about it four years ago. But that was a long time past, and my Japanese skills weren’t as good as they are now (note: they are definitely still not good, but at least better than they used to be). So in April, spurred by that lockdown which left me with very little to do, I’ve taken it upon myself to play the game again and document my experience on Twitter.
This project took me longer than I expected: after all, my first time through the game, skipping quite a bit of text and just giving up on what I couldn’t quite understand, took me “just” two months. This time I made a proper effort to try and understand every word, every phrase. And it was a better experience for it – everything from the bomber’s hints, to Sunday’s machinations, to Ichikawa’s struggles is so much better when it makes sense (yes I realize this sounds obvious). Even if it took me eight months to see it through, playing mostly on weekends.
The result is a 1500-odd tweets long thread, which isn’t anywhere like a proper translation, but could at least give people a vague idea of what the game is like. It starts here:
Well then.
I'll make it a thread. The longest thread ever. I wonder how long can I add replies to a tweet before it eventually collapses the internet. pic.twitter.com/908nUs5eL1
— Malek not really getting his hopes up about stuff (@malek86) April 9, 2020
Five days, eight people, one city.
I doubt anyone will actually bother to read such a long thread or my inane rantings inside. But given that the game will probably never see a localization, I wanted to at least give something to non-Japanese speakers. And, for those who are skilled enough in Japanese, hopefully give them something of a nudge toward experiencing it for themselves.
By now everyone knows, I’m certain, that 428 is going to be localized by Spike Chunsoft next year. This event, the magnitude of which has been unseen in decades, has consequences twofold for me. First, it gives me a chance to experience the sequel to my personal game of 2016 (yes, Machi came out in 1998, I know). Most importantly, it means I can drop my plans to use the on-screen translator on the emulated Wii version.
On the left, the ultimate villain of Machi (probably not featuring in 428)
I’m somewhat worried, though. I can’t help but think that the sheer amount of effort required to play Machi while translating on the fly, trying to interpret those words the OCR couldn’t recognize, and overall spending a very long time with the game, has been instrumental in my enjoyment of it. Now that 428 is going to be easily available, that crucial element is going be missing. Perhaps… perhaps I should translate it myself again, instead?
Another thing that required a lot of effort was War and Peace, which I finally finished a few days ago. Started in December, finished in March… not bad. At least now I know that Tolstoy was totally a Napoleon hater, and Kutuzov fanboy. The first half was really good, and one of the best written books I’ve ever read. But the second half, when the war starts, quickly goes downhill. Even the writing falls in quality, with Tolstoy often repeating himself five or six times in the same paragraph. It doesn’t even feel like I was reading the same book. Too bad, because it had started so well. Oh well, the hype can’t always be real.
Of course, there’s a new book in the pipeline already. Did you doubt it?
Another year comes to a close, and once again everyone makes their GOTY lists. I always feel awkward when I have to do one of those. I’m too stingy to buy games in the same year they are released. I do buy some, of course, but inevitably not as many as everyone else. So I ultimately end up putting some fillers in there, just because I have few choices.
I liked Dead Rising 4, I’d say it’s in my top five. Of course, without knowing how many games I’ve played from 2016, it doesn’t mean anything. Who knows, maybe I’ve played exactly five games.
So I propose something different. My Game of the Year should be the game I liked the most this year, regardless of release date. The only rule: I must have played this game for the first time in 2016. If you think you can just go “I finished OOT/FF7 for the 54th time this year, and it’s still the best game ever!”, I have bad news for you. Let’s at least keep it restricted to new experiences. I’ll list 5 games. Not necessarily in any order, and not necessarily the best ones: just five games I especially liked.
Machi (Saturn, 1998)
Masashi, amateur blackmailer and professional butt-monkey.
I’ve been bothering you, and all of my Twitter timeline, with Machi for most of the summer, of course it was going to take a spot, right? With so many visual novels being generally predictable affairs that almost always follow a set pattern of visual and story tropes, it is refreshing to see something with so much humanity in it. The peculiar live-action look and its refusal to focus on a single protagonist or delve into harem material is welcome. And it’s damn long, to boot. I’ll have to start 428 at some point, but I can’t muster the courage to do so. It would be another very, very long ordeal.
Final Fantasy XV (PS4, 2016)
It’s the experiences you share with your friends that matter. Even if you had to focus on the controller for like 20 minutes in a really crappy minigame to fish out that thing.
Much has been said about FF15. I don’t think I have much more to add that someone else hasn’t already mentioned. For me, it run a wide gamut: from amazing to terrible. The terrible part, however, would eventually end. The amazing parts would last longer, and stay with you until the end. The story might have sucked, but the finale was great. The combat system might have been very approximative, but it was just frantic enough to work. Much has been said about FF15, so I’ll say that it deserves at least a spot.
Disney Fantasia: Music Evolved (Xbox 360 Kinect, 2014)
The Xbox 360 version didn’t quite look this good, of course. But it was close enough.
Among other things, 2016 was the year when I rediscovered the old Xbox 360 Kinect. I’ve been vocal about my dislike of the Xbox One Kinect, and that was because we never really got anything that seemed to justify its inclusion with the console (and the consequent price hike). But the 360 was a different matter, as Kinect was purely optional, and still supported fairly well. There are several interesting games worth picking up now that you can find them for a pittance. But the one that impressed me the most is the one that was available on both platforms: Disney Fantasia, probably the most inventive rhythm game in a long time. With the 360 still doing its job well, did we need another Kinect? Arguably not.
Forbidden Siren (PS4, 2016; originally on PS2, 2003)
Zombies with guns. The scariest thing in the game. Who knew the undead could be such good shots?
Forbidden Siren is a bit like Final Fantasy XV, in certain ways. It’s got some great ideas, and the execution at first is good enough that you could actually put it in more than a few game of the year lists. But just like FFXV, if you keep playing, the cracks eventually start showing. Sightjacking becomes less important than quick fingers, the second half of the story makes no sense, and the mission requirements past the halfway point become increasingly obtuse. Thought you could play without a guide? Think again. But while there are some very big flaws, the overall realization is strong enough that you won’t care for a long while. Nevermind that strange ending.
Terracide (PC, 1997)
This looks great. Well, for late 1997. Actually, didn’t Quake 2 come out in the same year? Oh well… I guess this looks okay.
This was a bit of a surprise. I remember not liking the demo when I first played it, but it was… what, almost 20 years ago? People change, I guess. It’s almost unabashedly a Descent clone, the story is stupid, and the space sections (gotta have something different) don’t work very well. But hey, it’s fun. More than I expected it to be, and that’s gotta count for something. Your shots change direction depending on your movement (think Binding of Isaac), so you can’t just strafe, fire and forget. And the more linear level design is a boon, since it’s less motion sickenss-inducing. Still playing through, but at this point I’m quite confident it can make the list.
I could make a few other mentions too, such as Obduction (PC, 2016); Secret Agent (PC, 1992); Ys Origin (PC, 2006). And more. But I’ve gotta go play the new Shantae. So I’ll end the post here. And when 2017 arrives, I have plans for more games. Of course, most of them won’t be 2017 releases. But that’s what it means to be stingy. You get to be hip.
So it has been quite the ride. But just as every story has a beginning, there must be an end too. And these eight persons have had their fair share of trouble: it was about time they got some rest. More or less.
Trivia: there are 100+ bad endings in the game, but many of them are variations on Shibuya getting destroyed by a bomb on Keima’s scenario.
Perhaps one fault with Machi, is that the endings are relatively disappointing. Perhaps it’s just a side-effect of spending such a long time with the scenarios: there was no way the ending could be satisfying. And yet, there’s something that makes me shake my head.
Spoilers. Not really. It was pretty obvious he wasn’t gonna live through the end. By the way, if you play the crazy extra scenario, you’ll find out he got accidentally shot by the joke character. I’m not even kidding.
Perhaps it was because Numa’s motives for the bombing was a fair bit cliched – simply taking revenge on incompetent or greedy policemen. Ryuji got killed right after he had made his resolve to leave the city and start a new life – and while effective, you could totally see it coming a mile away.
So it was actually the five small men living in his finger who made all that trouble! Ahahah… ahaha.. ehhh?
Ichikawa’s scenario dives straight into X-Files territory as the days go by, and he arguably gets the worst ending of all – at least Ryuji looked satisfied with himself upon dying. Ichikawa cuts off his own left hand, almost dies of blood loss, and yet it looks like his “enemy” simply moved to the right hand. Talk about a downer! But it was fun seeing him go all Bruce Campbell, and then mailing the left hand to the TV producer.
The scene essentially goes as follow. Masashi: “that cult, I thought it was just crazy bull!” and Sunday: “perhaps the same could be said of all religions”. Not only that, but a bit later, Masashi pretty much quotes Alone in the Dark 2008’s ridiculous last line. Truly, Machi was ahead of its time.
It also gets a bit weird in Masashi’s scenario, which in spite of the craziness of the previous four days, in its finale enters a strangely serious discussion about the nature of a totalitarian state and the potential of mankind for greatness. I suppose it’s a good ending though: Masashi manages to understand the whole plot, and while he leaves without destroying the organization, the last shot of Sunday shows she’s not nearly in control as she thought. And Masashi meets Wednesday again. Of course with a punishment. Which is exactly what he wanted. Lucky him.
Yoshiko becomes a Diet Machine. And then flies into space. Really. (bad end)
Yoshiko gets her good ending where Yoichi understand he made a really stupid bet, and apologizes, and they run off into the sunset… to eat donuts. Predictable again, and a bit too short. But the craziness of her scenario, especially the last day, kinda makes up for it.
It had to come to this eventually.
Yohei solves his scenario… except not really. I mean sure, after the wedding gets interrupted (obviously it was coming), he mans up and announces to the world , via megaphone no less, that it was all his fault and he loves all the girls and all the kids. Well, that’s it, pretty much. Everyone makes up to each other and all is right with the world. By the way, Minako had his child too. This guy just can’t catch a break. And to think the game did give out two subtle hints in the first and second day.
Oh, and the fireworks which appear at the end of every character’s route? They were organized by Ryuji’s dad, who apparently decided to give this one last gift to his son – and just to make sure he will see it even if he left the city, he had them launched all over Japan. And hey, he doesn’t know that Ryuji is kind of dying, but at least he managed to see the fireworks lying on the ground and bleeding out. Works for them.
By the way. The last extra scenario, unlocked upon finishing the main routes, follows Aoi’s adventures around some of the main characters and is presented entirely in 90’s anime game style. It’s also very ecchi. I thought it was strange that the game got a Cero D rating. I didn’t bother reading this one, but I did play through quickly to take a few screenshots. Look at that Masashi. Just look at him. This is the closest we’ll ever get to a Machi anime. And hey… technically, even this scenario is canon.
So, what do they say… the most important thing is the journey, not the destination. I really had fun playing through the game, even if I wish the endings could have been more fleshed out. What’s next for Shibuya? From what I kow, 428 is not a sequel (supposedly Machi, despite its cult status, didn’t sell all that well so Chunsoft decided to make 428 an entirely new story), and none of the characters return. So this is the end of their story. A disappointing end perhaps, but a worthy journey.
And hey, the endings themselves might not have all lived up to expectations, but the credits were the best. After so many hours spent with those characters, seeing the cast during the filming was just so much fun.
It was fun, but I’m burnt out on visual novels. Now it’s back to twitch shooters and platformers for me.
See guys, full immersion really works. I managed to finish the 3th day between Saturday and Monday. My neck kinda hurts now. But nevermind that. After all, we are so close to the end.
Contrary to my expectations, none of the characters had the scenario end in the 4th day, so we still have six problems to deal with. However, now we are almost at the climax, several things have come out in the open.
Ichikawa for some reason is a bit of a jerk in Keima’s scenario. Mind you, this is part of a bad end.
Keima has reached a pretty big breakthrough – he found who appears to be the bomber. His plan to lure him out actually worked pretty well, which is surprising because when a plan is explained the audience beforehand, it rarely works. Now they know where the culprit lives, they only have to get him red-handed. I guess the fifth day could still have some surprises though. After all, Machi is a bit like that Schrodinger experiment. You don’t know what will happen until you see it for yourself.
An accurate depiction of his left hand. I wouldn’t want a hand like that. It must be really annoying when he’s… busy with himself *cough*
Speaking of Schrodinger, Ichikawa also drew an interesting conclusion. It looks like he’s convinced his left hand is to blame for his misdeeds. Well, he also meets up with his old flame. Who is like 10 years younger, and apparently had a past with Ryuji too. Of course he acts like a freak during the whole dinner. That’s how you reunite with a girl you haven’t seen in forever.
You’d have to be some kind of idiot to trip like that. Either that, or Yohei. At least it leads to his getting punched in the face.
Ryuji himself doesn’t fare much better. He has no passport, no ID card, no place to go, he punched his dad’s jaw repeatedly so he can’t exactly go home either, he only has his ex-girlfriend left, and what does he do? He acts like an even bigger jerk. Well, he does get to spend the night in prison because of a brawl, so now he truly has nothing left, we’ll see what he decides upon the dawn of the fifth day.
Yoshiko finally snaps.
Yoshiko has probably reached the lowest point yet, after fasting for a few days (nevermind that her weight just isn’t going down), and then seeing her best friend talking with his boyfriend. Weird encounters with a crocodile, a cheerleader casanova-wannabe, and a bunch of aliens who refuse to pick her up for harvesting because she is too fat, eventually push her to the edge. Now she only has to lose 13 kilos in one day. Of course, when the coworker and the boyfriend were talking, she probably chewed him out for suggesting the bet, so I guess she’ll get her happy ending… after some more trouble.
He still hasn’t got the girl though.
Masashi, thanks to some new material, finally manages to extort the last 10.000 yen from Shiramine. Once again, the yakuza boss, despite the appearances, turns out one of the most humane characters in the game. Still, there’s one last meeting with the Shichiyokai tomorrow, so something has to happen. Chances are, Masashi will become the new Sunday. And there’s still the matter of Wednesday.
Dem feels tho.
Yohei’s scenario was surprisingly touching, as Yohei and Ami end up caring for a sick Yuusaku (who’s actually Yohei’s son, but of course she doesn’t know that) and he makes some actual progress in learning the responsibilities of being a dad. By the end of the day, it does look like the situation is solved: the wedding with Minako is tomorrow, Ami reveals that she lied and the child was never actually his son, and Yuki learned about the wedding and decided to leave them alone. Surely however, as even Yohei himself muses, it was all too easy. The wedding will likely have all of the girls coming together, finding out the truth… and hopefully reaching an understanding.
I’m leaving for a vacation next Monday, so I’m hoping to finish the game before that. With six days at my disposal, it should be feasible, unless the last day is ridiculously long for everyone. I hope not, though: it has been a fun ride so far, but now I really want to see how it ends.
So the third day is over, with a few surprises to go along with it. Perhaps the biggest one was seeing Umabe and Ushio’s scenarios end with a good two days to spare. I was expecting all the characters to finish at the same time, perhaps with one big scenario to make them all unite together against some common obstacle or whatever. But then, this isn’t Sonic Adventure 2.
I still don’t know how they convinced that police inspector to just play along. Suspension of disbelief, I guess.
As I said, the biggest surprise is that Umabe and Ushio are now out of the picture, the former after exposing a plot against the Shiramine boss by his underling, and the latter after clearing his name and getting the true robber arrested. Fittingly, it all ended with a play. The last few hours of both scenarios require the player to jump between Uma and Ushi continuously. It was actually pretty exciting.
So, now The Wrong Man is over, how are the other characters doing?
Masashi, jack of all trades. Although some lead to bad ends.
Several of them are now starting to meet more often, but they are still in bigger trouble than ever. Ichikawa is still at odds with his disappearing manuscripts, and probably caught onto the idea that he might have a split personality who is doing all the deleting for some unknown reason. Ryuji reunited with a high school friend and actually had a good time for once, but at the end of the day it’s clear he doesn’t want to involve his friend any further.
This cop has seen everything by now. And he isn’t even a cop, just some random guy dressing like one and going around for patrols.
Keima still hasn’t caught the bomber, and this time Shiori got hurt too, which leads to his doubting himself and his inability to act. Yoshiko keeps trying to lose weight, and keeps failing horribly – at least she told her co-worker friend about the diet, so maybe it will lead to something. But with two days left, how do you lose 17 kilos, short of cutting off your own legs? (I’m not suggesting that she will do that)
Of course it’s just a dream, but being told off by your own thinner selves in your sleep must be kind of grating.
Masashi bites off more than he can chew trying to blackmail the Shiramine boss, and has to run away to regroup. Meanwhile he suffers all sorts of abuse, but then, it was Friday the 13th. Tomorrow can only be better (maybe he won’t keep getting punched in the face, for example). As for Yohei, he still can’t shake off Ami, and his attempts to make her disgusted at him (so she’ll agree to an abortion) fail repeatedly. Not to mention, Yuki just told him that she wants to marry soon. And Shiramine just outright told him that if he should ever make Minako cry, he’ll pay dearly. I swear this guy is so screwed. I don’t even know how this situation could lead to a happy ending – but given the humorous nature of the scenario, a tragic ending is out of the question. We’ll see.
Yohei tries to raise his voice and appear like a violent drunkard. But he is definitely not cut for shouting at a girl.
What’s next then? Chances are at least one or two more scenarios will end before the fifth day. I couldn’t say who, though. Anyway, with some characters out of the way, the game will get a bit shorter, and I might even manage to finish it within the next week. But I’m too optimistic here. I keep getting bad endings. I think the last one I saw was Bad End #68…
After much reading and translating very loosely, the second day has reached its conclusion too. Cheers to me!
The first day set up everyone’s personal scenarios, but kept them relatively apart. The second day developed these scenarios further and also set up the connections between the characters. The full tale is now starting to take a somewhat uniform shape, although too many questions still don’t have an answer at all – and with 3 days left, that was to be expected.
Let’s take a quick look at each protagonist’s second day to see how they are faring.
Amemiya Keima
Actually a bad end.
The bomb threat continues. Once again, a race against time… and once again, another dud. But now Keima has become suspicious about everyone around him, including his friends. We saw him being spied by a person in a phone box, but it’s not revealed who it was.
Umabe Kintaro
Those thugs are going to see an actor’s full power very soon.
He was already in trouble with Sanj, now he’s in even more trouble: after an unpleasant encounter with the Shiramine yakuza boss (Minako’s uncle), and now it’s either capture Sanji within the next day, or be executed. Oh, if he does manage that, he’ll get to marry the boss’ daughter, which doesn’t sit too well with the current second-in-command. Also, we discover Umabe gets *really* violent when drunk, and starts spouting quotes from yakuza movies. By the end of the day, he managed to reach the troupe’s hotel, so something will happen soon.
Masami Ushio
If he only knew that’s actually his previous boss’ niece.
Ushio still has it relatively easier than most other characters, though not without trouble. The shooting went on for the whole day, but Michiru secretly proposing to him (thinking he is Umabe) has made the situation a bit more difficult. Now Umabe is in the same hotel, they are probably bound to meet soon. Or maybe something will happen before that.
Ichikawa Fumiyasu
It’s a tangerine. Don’t ask.
Meanwhile, Ichikawa discovers his manuscript is gone. Not knowing what happened to it, he thinks it must have been someone from the outside, and sets up an infrared camera to know for sure. He returns to work, but in the meantime, he’s clearly afflicted by his family situation. The next day we’ll see what the camera sees, hopefully.
Takamine Ryuji
Grand Theft Machi.
Things are still fairly depressing for Ryuji. He reaches his old house, and then beats the crap out of his jerk dad. And then his sister and his mother obviously throw him out (but man, the jerk dad totally deserved that). Now he has nowhere to go, and nothing to do. I suppose his story will tie to the others soon, especially since his sister is the girl Ushio originally wanted to propose to.
Hosoi Yoshiko
Desperate times call for desperate measures, such as buying diet products from a shady company.
Poor Yoshiko isn’t doing much better. Despite some genuine effort, she is nowhere closer to her original goal, though her mood often jumps between utterly depressed (thanks to her empty stomach) and hopelessly optimistic (thanks to the power of one-sided love). Her last blunder was to buy a bunch of diet proudcts… and eat a couple kilos of them. However, at the very end of the day, it looks like she has reached a new conclusion. What is that? We’ll know soon.
Tobisawa Yohei
You can see that he fully understand his mess of a situation.
This guy is probably the unluckiest in the bunch. On one side, he has had to juggle all day between the three girls he’s somehow tied to: Minako’s crazy uncle could cut him up, Ami herself could cut him up since apparently’s she gets into fits of rage when she’s angry (possibly with a scissor). And Yuki (with his own son) appeared at home and looks like she will be sleeping there for the rest of the week. He also had to masterfully handle a chance meeting between Ami and Minako. Oh, if that weren’t enough, he’s promised all of the girls to take them out the next day. This guy keeps on digging his own grave.
Shinoda Masashi
Masashi gets all the ladies. And some gentlemen too.
The Shichiyokai’s tale continues to impress. Funny, touching and mysterious at the same time. Masashi takes care of three targets this time: a drug-abusing barber, a bank clerk who turns out to be a stripper, and a lonely old geezer. Masashi looks like he’s growing quite a bit during this whole ordeal, and some slightly saucy bits add some fun too. An after-dark meeting with the bank clerk possibly sheds a light on some of the mysteries, especially how the whole thing could be a pyramid scheme. But it’s just a theory, however likely, and I doubt that’s all of it. And Masashi’s last target will be the hardest yet: the Shiramine boss.
The third day will start soon. And as apparently it’s contained on both discs 1 and 2, I expect quite a bit of disc swapping. I sure hope I’m wrong though. I don’t wanna go back to the floppy disk days.
I may have spoken a bit too soon. I previously said that, even though Machi is a very complicated game in terms of structure and connections between characters, there’s enough signposting to make one understand when a choice is gonna be important. A red caution sign appears whenever a scenario-changing decision needs to be taken: that will make sure people can never get into too much trouble. Right?
Well, not so quick. Turns out, the red sign was only around for the first day, as a sort of tutorial. From the second day onward, all choices are unmarked. Even the important ones. That will definitely make things harder.
Of course, not all choices are important.
It’s still playable, but it does mean I’ll need to keep a semblance of organization. I can’t just play the game blind anymore. Therefore, I’ve started keeping tracks of all the choice hours and zapping points in the game. I expect the table will look quite busy by the end.
But damn, a spreadsheet file for a sound novel. This is the first time I hear of something like that. The average visual novel just has a couple choices before locking you into a specific route that “overwrites” all the others. Machi has a truckload of choices, zapping points, bad ends, and there aren’t any real routes: it’s a single story that unfolds, all of the characters contribute to it. Truly, Machi was the “innovation of sound novel”.
You’ll have to excuse me, but I’ll be talking about Machi for a while. You know how everyone is playing Pokemon Go and writing about it? Well, Machi is my current fixation instead. With the added advantage that nobody actually knows anything about a japanese-only sound novel released on the Saturn 18 years ago, whereas the latest mobile phenomenon can be (and currently is) played by everyone, so this is at least more useful.
I’ve noticed there are a couple character guides on the english-speaking internet, but they are extremely short and not informative at all. So I put together a primer intended to give people a vague idea of what to expect, should they ever choose to play Machi. After all, it is quite good. Keep in mind I’ve only finished the first day, so who knows what kind of hijinks are gonna happen next?
Amemiya Keima
Keima’s typical flabbergasted expression. You are gonna see it a lot.
I spoke a little about this scenario before, but let’s have a quick rundown again. Keima is a young detective whose job is patrolling Shibuya to prevent trouble, but who seems more willing to spend time at the arcades hiding from his superiors. During his latest round, he ends up discovering a bombing plan, and it then turns into a race against time, as his gaming skills are put into use and his determination tested. The day ends with the bomb revealed as a dud, but the one responsible for sending the notice is still at large, and will no doubt strike again – this time for real.
Keima is the “first” scenario of the game (the cursor defaults to him at the start), and also one of the longest so far. It is a comedic scenario about a detective whose gaming skills and knowledge are somehow the key to solving a seemingly serious incident. He is connected to many of the other characters, with a number of choices influencing other scenarios, and only has one zapping point early on. I’d suggest getting through his story as soon as possible.
Umabe Jintaro
This is from a bad end where Umabe gets 300 million yen and opens up a successful business in Osaka. Some bad end, uh.
A talentless actor, or perhaps just one with very little confidence in himself. He is currently involved in the filming of the latest episode of a popular TV series, where he plays a yakuza boss. Unfortunately for him, he ends up mistaken for a real yakuza and taken along for a ride by petty thief Kojima “Kitsune” Sanji. Said criminal just stole 300 million yen’s worth of jewels, and given he’s carrying around a gun at all times, Umabe has to play along and keep pretending to be a fearsome gang member.
Another very humorous scenario, Umabe’s tale ties very closely with Ushio’s (which I’ll be describing next), so there are several points where one can zap between the two characters. The first day isn’t particularly long, though.
Masami Ushio
Ushio is actualy the guy pinned on the floor. Good thing that inspector is just as dimwitted as everyone else.
The other side of the coin. Ushio is a yakuza who has decided to give up his criminal life to marry a girl. Unfortunately for him (and Umabe…), he ends up accidentally involved in a jewelry robbery and has no choice but to escape, right into a film shooting crew, who mistakes him for their lead actor. Impressed by his great acting skills – mind, he’s a real yakuza – they don’t suspect he’s actually a fake. With the police still looking for the robbers, he has no choice but to tag around the film crew a little longer.
Yet another humorous tale, it plays very similarly to Umabe’s scenario, with many jokes based on identity mistakes and the antics of the eccentric film crew. Many technical words will be thrown around here, so the scenario can be a bit difficult to get at first. Still, it’s also fairly short, and I didn’t even see any bad endings (or maybe I’m just really good).
Hosoi Yoshiko
Nevermind the crying Yoshiko. Look at that beautician. I don’t want to sleep anymore.
Yoshiko has a problem: she is just a bit overweight. Her boyfriend won’t stand for this, and after a particularly bad eating session, decides it’s over! … unless Yoshiko can lose 17 kilos in 5 days. The bet is on. So the poor girl tries all she can to lose as much weight as possible, such as exercising during work and relying on creepy beauticians, all while dealing with her constant hunger, despite her well-meaning attempts to eat less (that invariably fail and result in self-sabotage).
The only girl in the game, and she gets a scenario about losing weight. Depending on your point of view, this might feel a bit too dated for modern sensibilities. Nonetheless, it’s once again a humorous story (you probably should understand this is the basic trend by now), and even though it’s quite long, the jokes are genuinely funny.
Shinoda Masashi
This is what happens when neither you nor your blackmail target want the police involved. By the way, Masashi is on the left of the picture.
Masashi has just come out of university and is about to start his job at a big company. Life couldn’t be better for him… until he’s contacted by the mysterious and beautiful Sunday, who reveals she has obtained dangerous photos that would jeopardize his future. He blackmails him into becoming Friday, a member of the organization known only as Shichiyokai, whose goal is “to conquer the days of the week”. And as a member of the organization, he has to blackmail other targets into joining as well. He discovers his own hidden talent, and meanwhile develops a thing for fellow member Wednesday. But what is the organization’s true goal? Nobody can say yet.
The real breakthrough scenario of Machi. The story starts out somber and serious, as if we were actually dealing with a thriller plot, Masashi forced to cooperate with an unknown woman who has the means to destroy his future! And then, the organization comes into play, and it all becomes silly again. The members of the organization are almost Sentai-ish, and Masashi’s tactics provide plenty of laughs. I have a feeling this will be one of the most important scenarios of the game.
Takamine Ryuji
Waking up after yet another bad dream. Maybe he just needs to punch someone in the face to feel better.
After a few years in the french Foreign Legion, the time has come for Ryuji to come back home in Japan… but as a deserter. Why did he come back? He himself doesn’t seem to know. He’s haunted by his past, and a chance encounter with a group of teen hooligans just makes him all the more aware of his own violent nature. Perhaps he is looking for a chance at redemption, but what shape could it take? Only time will tell.
The first “serious” scenario of the game. Very few jokes, if any, and the whole thing takes a pretty emotional tone. As if to make it even clearer, this is one of only two scenarios narrated in first person. His first day is quite short, so you don’t get many chances to know Ryuji’s true personality yet, but what is there so far is intriguing.
Ichikawa Fumiyasu
How can someone be depressed after taking a shower? When you are Ichikawa, that’s how. Because it means you hate yourself.
If you were an award-winning writer, would you want to spend your life writing cliched plots for bad TV series aimed at bored housewives? Ichikawa certainly wouldn’t, and has grown extremely weary of life as a result. He takes sleeping pills, has terrible nightmares, and keeps seeing another manuscript next to the one he sends to the TV producer. A second manuscript that perhaps doesn’t even exist. He eventually takes the hard decision to tell his producer that he wants to write some real literature, and surprisingly, the producer agrees. Now he can finally write to his heart’s content… maybe.
The other serious scenario of the game, and accordingly, the only other one narrated in first person. Just like Ryuji’s scenario, his first day isn’t very long. It’s perhaps a bit less serious and more “bizarre” in nature. Some things are quite hard to understand so far, but I believe it will prove interesting, both as a change of pace and for the overall story (Ichikawa writes the plot for the drama series that Umabe is starring in). The first day ends abruptly, so we have to wait and see what happens.
Tobisawa Yohei
If you can read japanese, you can already tell what this scenario is gonna be about just by looking at this picture.
He’s the school idol. Everyone adores him. He’s engaged to the most beautiful girl in school, who also just happens to be the daughter of the president of a big commerce company. And her father wants him to inherit the company once they marry. Perfect, isn’t it? Well, except when another girl suddenly tells him some grave news: she’s pregnant with his child. If that weren’t enough, his old first year sweet-heart also meets him after a long absence… and she’s already given birth to his son. Things don’t sound so good anymore.
The last scenario brings back the humour, if not quite in full force, at least in potential. There are perhaps fewer laugh-out-loud jokes compared to some other characters, but the whole thing is still obviously set up in a very humorous way. This guy seems exceptionally chill given the situation, though.
And everyone else
Another big win for the game is the strong supporting cast. From the omniscient kid who pops out at random, the policeman who’s actually just a random guy cosplaying as a cop, the beautician who laughs in the creepiest possible way, the entirety of the Shichiyokai… everyone is well-characterized and makes the story much more interesting.
Now, enough with the first day. Let’s put October 11th behind us. October 12th has started. And the city’s tale has only just begun.
A couple weeks ago, I was given some real good advice (see, social networks can be useful after all). There is a program, called KanjiTomo, which does an on-the-fly OCR scan of japanese writing to give you a quick translation of the kanji. It does have some issues on difficult backgrounds, but it works pretty well for the most part. This discovery has allowed me to keep playing Machi, which I had previously dropped as trying to search for every kanji by radicals was an impossibly slow process.
And now that I’ve completed the first part of a character scenario, I think it’s a good time to look into it and see what makes it thick.
Though people today probably know its spiritual sequel, 428, more than they do Machi.
Machi is a sound novel. You may know the usual japanese PC games where you see through the eyes of the protagonist, with portraits of other characters (often girls) displayed on screen when you are talking. Machi is a bit different though. For starters, the action is always in third person, with the background showing stills of real actors at all times, and not in a standing pose, but replicating whatever action is being described by the text. And most importantly, there are 8 protagonists.
This is one of the biggest points, as the big gimmick of the game is that, while you are following one of the characters, at some fixed points you can be prompted to switch to a different character at that same point in time, so that you may continue their adventure where it had been previously interrupted. This is called Zapping system. Notice however that zapping won’t work if you haven’t already reached that time on the other character’s scenario. In other words, you can’t skip any parts of the story.
Actually I wonder if the actors are all Chunsoft employees, or if they called some casting company, or if they are simply just random passerbys. With no speaking and no motion, anyone could do this, really. Well, it will be a long long time before I can watch the credits, anyway.
At other times, a character’s scenario will always result in a bad end until another character has performed a certain choice. One example: if you select Ryuji’s scenario, it will always end with him getting into a brawl with some hooligans, and eventually being arrested by the police. BAD END. This won’t change until, during Keima’s scenario, you witness the fight and choose not to call the cops (the official reason being that Keima is busy searching for a bomb). The game keeps track of the time passing in scenarios, and an exclamation mark will pop up when there’s an important choice to make, so that you may know when it’s time to be extra careful.
Green or blue text means you can click on those words to get an explanation by the devs. Often they are not necessary to continue the story, but they provide extra insight and occasional fun (apparently Keima stops to look at a model of a plesiosaurus that appeared in the first season of Doraemon…?)
The story takes place during the span of 5 days, but I still don’t know if the days are all entirely separated, or if you can connect a character’s first day to another’s second day. A Keima’s first day scenario ended with “continuing in day 2” with no chance of going forward for now, I think it might be the latter. That and the two discs contain a number of days each, and I don’t think they’d want the player to swap too often.
This kid occasionally pops out during Keima’s story just to explain some difficult word. And then immediately run away as soon as someone asks him about school. Perhaps he will play an important part later! Or maybe it’s just a joke.
As for Keima’s first day story, it’s a detective/comedy story about solving a bomb threat, with a Shibuya twist to it. A lot of contrivances mean that Keima’s gamer skills help him during his mission. Hardly believable, and it all ends up being a practical joke anyway. That is part of the appeal though: with 8 different characters, the feel of each of their stories is very different. Yoshiko’s appears to be a whimsical tale about trying to lose weight. Masashi’s is apparently a drama about being blackmailed. Fumiyasu is a writer who often dreams about disturbing visions and is addicted to sleeping pills (to the point of overdosing in one bad end). Not one character is quite the same.
So the bomb turned out to be a fake, but Keima got to play the hero, and these two are a bit closer now. All is well that ends well. But with another four days, who can say what will happen to the gamer detective next? Or to the other protagonists you will inevitably meet and zap to?
It is a fun story and certainly different from the usual visual novel. But even with KanjiTomo, progress is slow. Yesterday it took me around 5 hours just to finish Keima’s first day, from 10:20AM to 11:50PM (game time, of course) and that’s not counting all the times I had to zap around first. So, if there are 5 days, and 8 characters, assuming all the routes are similar in length, I may be looking at a 200+ hours game.
Well, it’s not impossible, right? Might take a while, but I would just love to see this cult classic to its conclusion.
A Few Steps 