The General Purpose Japanese Games Thread!

Hopefully it's not too much of a schlep.

Bah, typos that are real words sneaking by... I did enjoy Wadjet Eye's The Shivah on that topic though...

I went back and finished Disaster Report 4.

It's a fascinating game in some respects, like something pulled out from a time capsule or an alternate reality where you have PS1 and PS2 style elements coexisting with elements created using modern tools.

It is probably the most cruel of the Disaster Report games, the story is an odyssey, or perhaps a disaster road trip as you wander aimlessly, sometimes ending up right back where you started, but time has moved on and the passing of the earthquake is the least of the survivor's worries. There is some of the series trademark goofiness to be found, for a short while you can even be the leader of a cult, but as the veneer of civilisation is stripped away there is also mob justice, social contagion and hysteria, implied sexual assault and even human trafficking of displaced survivors.

At the end most of the perpetrators walk off without consequence leaving me wondering what the game was all about. Perhaps it serves as a sobering reminder that the only thing you can really control is your own actions. Your ability to influence other peoples actions have limits and you have no control at all over earth quakes and floods.

Disaster Report 4 left me feeling a little sad, for the above reasons and also because games like this are disappearing, perhaps forever. Maybe indie developers will come to the rescue if they can just get over their endless, faux retro Metroidvania/platformer phase.

Disaster Report 4, it's kind of depressing. Buy it now.

I can agree re: DR4. It had jank, it had badly done stuff, it was clearly a decade old PS4 game given a quick lick of paint, but it was also pretty compelling. The story beats were all over the place, but it had some interesting stories in there.

I do wonder if Granzella will manage an actual sequel (which would require designing a game unlike this one which was ready for release when it got canned in 2011). I would like to see one though. I suppose a remaster of the first three games could work as a stopgap too.

Reminds me that I need to finish Kyoei Toshi at some point as I am fairly far through it, but it requires me to be fairly awake to play in Japanese with how rusty I am. Weirdly it is technically superior to DR4 which came later.