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+--- Thread: Policenauts: Ultimate interactive reading and listening resource? (/thread-2540.html)
Policenauts: Ultimate interactive reading and listening resource? - activeaero - 2009-02-12
Since all of us here are constantly looking for enjoyable learning resources outside of our sentence mining (reading manga, watching Japanese movies, playing import games), etc I thought I would share what I believe could be an incredible resource that combines a little from all three.
That thing is Policenauts. What is Policenauts? Policenauts is considered Hideo Kojima's "masterpiece" game that was due for release here in America but got axed with declining Sega Saturn sales (the console it was going to be released on here in America). However, after nearly 5 years of painstaking work a masterful translation of the game has been achieved by independent translators and programmers and is set to be released as a patch in the near future.
So of course your saying "ok it's a game, big deal ActiveAero" but this isn't some normal game. This "game" plays out like a graphic novel/movie in the point and click PC adventure game style of old. What makes it notable however are a few things:
1. It is considered to have one of the best story lines ever put into a video game.
2. Insane amount of detail. You can analyze and reanalyze nearly everything in the game.
3. Tons and tons of dialogue with high quality voice acting, all of which is subbed in Japanese.
4. Full english translation.
Instead of me blabbing on for days just scroll down this thread a ways and take a look:
http://forums.junkerhq.net/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1889
For the lazy here's a quick example of the gameplay (obviously the English translation version):
http://www.viddler.com/explore/slowbeef/videos/45/
http://www.viddler.com/explore/slowbeef/videos/55/
IMO this would be an awesome thing to work through as it doesn't require any real game "skill" in the traditional sense, has constant dialogue and voice acting all subtitled (in both Japanese and soon to be English) and tons of context word relations due to the investigation aspect of the game.
Policenauts: Ultimate interactive reading and listening resource? - yukamina - 2009-02-12
Hmmm, well it sounds like something that would be neat to play...but how do you play it? On the computer? Buying some obscure import?
Policenauts: Ultimate interactive reading and listening resource? - activeaero - 2009-02-12
Well there were several versions made. 3D0, Playstation, Sega Saturn and one for a Japanese home computer. The game is easy to find on ebay. If you want to play it on your PC it would be best to grab the PS1 version which has plenty of emulation. Heck you could even play it on a PSP that way.
The patched translation will be for the Playstation version as well.
That being said I bought mine for the Saturn but will probably grab the PS1 version too.
Policenauts: Ultimate interactive reading and listening resource? - mikankun - 2009-02-13
It's also on the Japanese PSN for ￥600 which is pretty cheap.
Policenauts: Ultimate interactive reading and listening resource? - wccrawford - 2009-02-13
mikankun Wrote:It's also on the Japanese PSN for ￥600 which is pretty cheap.Ding ding ding! We have a winner!
Hehe, thanks mikankun! I wouldn't even have thought to look there, despite how many games I've already bought from the JP PSN. I think my account will be down 600yen tonight.
