GERMS The Targeted Town (1999) (ENG) | PS1 Open World Horror | 4K60 | Longplay Full Game Walkthrough
1,005Longplay of (fan-made English Translated) ＧＥＲＭＳ～狙われた街～, or GERMS Nerawareta Machi, or GERMS The Targeted Town (very roughly tranlslated), an FPP open world survival horror/action game, released exclusively for the PS1(!), on July 22nd 1999 in NTSC-J region only, developed and published by KAJ. English Translation was made by grundo1561 and his team, I presume. Here it is, played on Duckstation, with rendering resolution set at 3840x2880 (4K 4:3), using PGXP correction, and Downsampled (3D only, 2D was omitted) into a lower resolution, since I thought it looked much better downsampled. Used CPU overclock to force the game to run in a near locked 60 fps framerate. (this game has an unlocked, wobbly framerate) Recorded at 4K60 H.265 HEVC via OBS.
Link to the translation patch by grundo1561, this video wouldn't be possible without it!
https://romhacks.org/translations/germs-nerawareta-machi-english-translation-playstation/
This game... is something else. It's completely japanese. And I mean the design, the idea. No voice actors, only text. xD First things first - it's an open world, on PS1. And yes, as predicted, It runs and looks TERRIBLY, ABSOLUTE DOGSHITE. It's one of the worst looking PS1 titles I've seen in my life, but, I guess this kind of makes sense, with the relatively big open world theme. Emulation helped immensely with all that, here it runs at almost locked 60 fps, very short loadings, and an "okay" visual quality, with downsampling. Music is also completely weird. You can ride buses, ride the metro, go by your car, go on your foot, go to shops to eat something, go to the hospital to get healed, go to the chiropractor, just go chill in your office, whatever. It's also kind of an RPG, you level up the weapons with each use, and there are many weapons, more advanced unlocked when you hit a specific level of the character. I haven't really figured out how it works. xD
And yes, I was using some kind of exploit/cheat included in Duckstation for this game, it made my health infinite, somewhat. Why? Because without it, I died on the first enemy in the game about 10 times, in 3 hits always. Combat is reaaaal bad and janky, and difficulty I found to be absolutely insane in the early game. But still, I have actually died, right at the end of the game? Soooo...
Also, I admit - I didn't venture everywhere possible in this recording. According to the fan-made wiki of this game, there are some side characters that matter somehwat, but I haven't even met them, they are completely optional. I didn't get to the "crater", on the center northern part of the city, didn't visit the closest house to that crater, didn't meet the guy there, didn't go to the dinner at the hotel with that "high school love" Naomi girl, lots of things missed. And well, I kind of wanted to focus on finishing this game, and so I did.
So, what would I rate this game? I rated it 4,5/10, an honest rating. Now, don't get swayed by my rating - this game is not a good game, it is not even average. Instead, it's ultra interesting, innovative, weird, and confusing. It's just one of those hugely obscure, massively ambitious japanese-only titles, that are not well made technically and gameplay wise, but still do have something going on for them. Well, how often do you see an open world PS1 game, AND FPP AT THAT? There is Mizzurna Falls, sure, but that's third person only, and not a "horror".
Timestamps:
00:00:00 - Day 1 - Commotion around the Power Plant, a Meeting at the Central Station, and an Investigation into the Cathedral
01:48:20 - Day 2 - First visit at the Four Seasons Hotel, Arming up at the Weapons' Store, Chillin'
02:08:13 - Day 3 - Reconnaisance around the Docks' Warehouse, Hostile Takeover at the Four Season Hotel
03:24:05 - Day 4 - Strange Happenings in the abandoned Yamasaki Coal Mine, Chillin'
04:15:15 - Day 5 - Unplanned visit at the Jail, Horrors at the Hospital
04:41:28 - Passage through the Sewers, into the Final Fight.
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