Okay I couldn't resist anymore. I decided yesterday (or the day before) to download PCE Snatcher, only under one condition: to listen to the various CD tracks. But I just couldn't resists, I loaded it up in Daemon Tools and then fired it on Magic Engine and played it. I was pretty impressed with it, basically for the same reasons you guys gave.
One thing that made me happy was that there were shooting scenes. You see, I had this whole "Act 3 system" thing greatly confused. I always thought this referred TO those shooting scenes in the Sega CD one, since on that WebTV site it said the Act 3 system on PCE was more of a sit and watch thing while the Sega CD one gave you more to do, and this line greatly confused me years ago into thinking that the shooting scenes originally started in the Sega CD one, and not the PCE. It's insane, I kept thinking "Act 3" was some cheesy name for the gun system, since it used a 3x3 grid, haha. Now I understand that this refers to the ACTUL Act PART 3 in the game, where as Black_Tiger said you watch cinemas in the PCE one and then in the Sega CD one you have to do some guessing and what not (right?).
On the graphic subject, I think I noticed some things. First of all, we know that the Sega CD one got that nice extra opening with Gillian talking to that chick before they leave, which was a nice addition to add for gamers. Then another obvious difference is that there is one clear building in Neo Tokyo that says "NEC", while the Sega CD one says "SEGA" I think (can't remember if it's Sega, I know there are screenshots for it somewhere). I also caught a couple different message face shots of Gillian in the PCE one which I don't remember in the Sega CD, like when you find out Little John has a bomb in him. And also to comment on the message face art, it seems the PCE one adds more frames of animation for the mouth movement or gestures, I just don't remember it looking that smooth when I played it on Sega CD before, but I could surely be wrong. And also some of the screens are drawn a little different of course. It seems the PCE version has more anime-ish art in a small way.
It's not so bad playing PCE Snatcher in Japanese, I was able to understand it since I beat the Sega CD one twice before and it only takes a little bit to learn the options, plus all the screens, animation, faces gives you a lot of action to put everything together. I played all the way up until you go to that one chick's house (I think her name is Katrina, but I don't remember) and she asks you a question, I believe for her age or her dad's age, but I don't know it. I guess I would have to use the computer in the game and look up the characters to find out. Lucky for me I understand some hiragana and katakana, so it's easier for me to remember the characters as it is for others. My very small Japanese language knowledge surprisingly helps me understand this game too
.
Oh and the voices in the PCE version are pretty dead on, I love them. However I don't like Metal Gear's voice so much, though I didn't think the Sega CD version had the appropriate voice actor either. I guess the PCE voice is better since it does fit a mini Metal Gear robot more, but it's hard to say what would fit Metal Gear. Great PSG and CD sound/music by the way, overall I enjoy it more than the Sega CD version, though there are still a couple chip tunes I like more on the Sega CD one.
I would have to play through the PCE one entirely to say which one I think is better, just so I can check out the Act 3 in the PCE one and stuff. I'd probably say that the PCE version is better overall, but it's worth playing the Sega CD version a lot more if you don't understand Japanese.
