Can I play Snatcher with no knowledge of Japanese?

[Arkhan]

One thing is that Kojima's artistc vision was for you to sexually harass and grope a 14 year old girl, not someone remotely of legal age.

14 is of legal age in Japan. 

[Black Tiger]

One thing is that Kojima's artistc vision was for you to sexually harass and grope a 14 year old girl, not someone remotely of legal age.

14 is of legal age in Japan. 

What I meant, was that it isn't here, but that the character was meant to be 14. All kinds of crazy things may be technically legal in other countries that are at the very least not considered moral in North America.

[Arkhan]

One thing is that Kojima's artistc vision was for you to sexually harass and grope a 14 year old girl, not someone remotely of legal age.

14 is of legal age in Japan. 

What I meant, was that it isn't here, but that the character was meant to be 14. All kinds of crazy things may be technically legal in other countries that are at the very least not considered moral in North America.

Its not technically legal in other countries.  it IS legal in other countries.

and I don't think Kojima really gave two shits about NA's morals when he made the masterpiece known as Snatcher.



Our morals here are backwards and idiotic half the time anyways.

[SaturdayMorningRobots]

I still think the sega CD's overall presentation is better. (particularly the sound) and I did know about the shower shenanigans before. Also The Sega CD had the lightgun parts. AFAIK the PCE never had a light gun right? but I think I will go ahead and add the PCE version of Snatcher to my library, especially since I don't think I'll find a CDX for a decent price anytime soon, much less a copy of Snatcher... Unless my A-hole friend who's Sega CD is broken stops sitting on his (A broken Sega CD... imagine that! :p).

[CDJ]

The Sega CD version has far superior music. It's the same music, but it's programmed much better. This is important.

PCE-CD

Sega CD

and that's not even the most drastic one.

Also, bear in mind that the US version is the only one released for Sega CD. Curiously, there is no JP Mega CD release.

I agree that (most) of the MCD chiptunes sound better. However, that only applies to the identical songs. Thing is, you're wrong saying it's the same music. While the PC Engine version used chiptune and Redbook Audio renditions of all the music from the original PC-8801/MSX2 versions, the MCD version replaced about half the soundtrack, even some of the CD Audio tracks, and well, the actual compositions of the new tracks are not up to those of the PC88/MSX2/PCE versions.

In that sense, I'd actually say the original PC-8801 version has the best soundtrack, it has all the original tunes you'll also hear in the PCE version and they definitly sound better than the PCE chiptunes. Only the few CD Audio tracks are where the PCE version has the advantage.

PC-8801


Same track in the PCE version


You won't hear that song in the MCD version.

Oh and in the same PCE video a little bit later...


Compare this song, to...


...the one played in the same scene in the MCD version.

Not cool!

[SamIAm]

Interesting. I never played that far into the PCE-CD version, but it seems it does have its own advantages. Maybe someday I'll try and fire up the PC-88 version and check it out, too. Thanks for the info!

[CDJ]

Oh and I almost forgot:

As I said I do agree that the MCD versions of identical compositions are superior to their PCE counterparts, but there are a few exceptions.

This is one of those in my opinion.

PCE


MCD


I really don't like the tinny sounds the MCD version uses here.

I also never really cared for the extra stuff the localization team added to the ending. It's easily the worst dialogue in the game.

PCE


MCD


(Also, again an entirely different song in both versions and Gillian and Jamie were completly redrawn and look really silly in the MCD version.)

But don't get me wrong, all in all the MCD version is still great and if the topic creator hasn't done it already, I really suggest playing the english version first and after that play the PCE version for comparisons sake if you don't speak japanese. The game drives on it's story and I disagree with some comments made in this thread that you can follow most of the plot just through the visuals, especially the whole revelation during the showdown part which goes for about 20 minutes with nothing but non-interactive voiced dialogue.

And you could always do a lot worse than the MCD version.

[Arkhan]

Hey dont forget the MSX one!  Its got a kickass soundtrack


Whole game is Konami SCC glory.  Commence eargasm.

[CDJ]

Well, most of the music does sound better than the PCE songs, not counting CDDA, but it's still not as good as the PC88 version and it's a sloppy conversion with horrible loading times.