If I’m not being blatant enough about it already, you should play Her Story sooner rather than later.Īll in all, it should be no surprise how much of a fan I am of the FMV genre.
Its success is not at all unfounded, and reinforces how this type of game can be used to make a unique and one-of-a-kind experience. Its triumph saw multiple awards and over 100,000 copies sold in just a month, and it single-handedly kickstarted a trend for other companies to start exploring FMV games once again. This game rejuvenated the genre with modern technology, game design and storage capacity, bringing a wave of new fans and interest in the once dismissed game style.
DEATH COME TRUE GAMEPLAY PC
While the overwhelming majority of the genre’s classics are corny and low-budget - just see the infamous Night Trap that received an Anniversary Edition in 2017 for PC and consoles as a prime example - the biggest move made in recent times was by Sam Barlow with 2015’s Her Story. With this in mind, it won’t be a shock to learn that as someone who is heavily into visual novels, FMV titles are exactly my kind of gaming experience. But those are just some of the genre’s many charms to the right player. The titles were typically short due to the aforementioned storage space limitations, the acting tended to be far too over-the-top and cheesy to be taken seriously or enjoyed, and the camera work was rarely up to the standard of “real” movies. This is specifically true with regards to the limited amount of storage space, but the genre also drew criticism right from the beginning for its relative lack of gameplay.įMV games often provide very little in the way of actual game mechanics, instead tending to unfold as a literal “interactive movie” where players are put into its main character’s shoes to decide what they say and do with multiple choices - or sometimes simply pressing the right button at the right time to allow the “movie” to continue.
DEATH COME TRUE GAMEPLAY MOVIE
While the genre started off strong with massive sellers such as the 7th Guest that flaunted how successful an interactive movie experience can be - especially when integrated with solid gameplay alongside its movie-esque presentation - the technical limitations at the time often became all too apparent. But as the ’90s went on, the craze started to die out. Having started in 1983 with the likes of Sega’s Astron Belt and the iconic Dragon’s Lair (and when I say iconic I exclusively mean Princess Daphne, heh), the genre was once believed to be an indication of how far video game technology could go.
DEATH COME TRUE GAMEPLAY FULL
But none of that matters the whole reason Death Come True exists was so that Kodaka and his team could try something new - and for this decision alone it deserves to be appreciated and applauded.īut before we get into the depths of Death Come True, it feels more appropriate to give a run-down of the genre it has based its game on.įMV games, meaning Full Motion Video games, tend to be regarded as a thing of the past.
It has a tight budget, barely any locations, a small cast, and closes it at just shy of 2 hours to finish. And it’s made explicitly clear that this was the intention with Death Come True. It’s a complete shift in style from what he has been better known for in the past, and provided plenty of opportunities he and his new company could explore and experiment with. His decision to make a video game using an FMV narrative is just one example of this. When I say a return to form I by no means intend to suggest that Kazutaka Kodaka has been off his game – he’s the gift that keeps on giving in the video game industry, after all, when he continues to experiment as much as he does. Let’s get into it, and if you have already played the title, then give us your thoughts on it in the comments below or the Rice Digital Friday Letters Page! Will we agree to disagree? A return to form There was obvious potential for something ground-breaking with this game.ĭeath Come True is now just over a year old, and now that I have gotten my hands on a physical copy of it, there was no way we’d miss an opportunity to cover this on Rice Digital - even if we’re fashionably late in giving our two cents on it.Īs a fan of Kazutaka Kodaka and his works, I have a few words of gratitude to say to him for creating a Japanese FMV game playable in English from the get-go! But as Too Kyo Games’ first video game release, it has set a certain number of expectations in place - and it’s not a perfect start, if we are to be honest. And it was an important release for Too Kyo Games, it being the very first video game of an exciting new company - one that consisted entirely of promising names and talents, including composer Masafumi Takada (killer 7, No More Heroes), Danganronpa illustrator Rui Komatsuzaki and Kotaro Uchikoshi (Zero Escape series, AI: The Somnium Files).
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