Game:

Ghost in the Shell (1997)

Category:

Let's Play

Duration: 1:09:11

15,210 views

123

Edit: the menu doesn't work anymore, thanks youtube. Skip to 2:13.



This video is more than 1 hour long, so I made you a DVD-like menu. To skip it click on the big "SKIP TO VIDEO" button, it'll bring you at the beginning of the actual video. If you cannot use it, you should enable annotations in your youtube player. The music is "Crazy Train" by Yuzo Koshiro.

Ghost in the Shell PSX game came out in the middle of PlayStation's life cycle. It got some okay reviews, but went largely unnoticed by mainstream gamers, maybe because of its strong arcade roots.
The game is short, but with some replayability, it's very simple to control, but the difficulty stems from how you apply the game rules, not from for how long you have to learn 'em. Basically it plays as Armored Core game (and looks like one too), only much faster and without any customization options whatsoever. But there is a twist: the Fuchikoma we play as can travel on any surface, walls and ceilings included. Sometimes it becomes pretty disorienting, but jumping on a wall at the right time can give you an upper hand in a fight.
A very interesting thing about the game is the anime cinematics, created by Production I.G, the studio who also worked on the first Oshii's movie. The animation quality is surprisingly high though they skipped on the framerate a little here and there, but that's to be expected. There is around 13 minutes of animation, created specifically for the game. Its style, even though the game came out two years after the movie, based on Shirow Masamune's manga, which is very different from both Oshii's magna opera and the TV series in tone, so the characters crack silly jokes and the major is always pissed and does funny faces. The voice-over was done using the same voice actors who worked on the first movie. Though I personally watch my animus with subtitles, thank you very much. :)
The story is interesting if a little convoluted. We play as an unnamed rookie, a new blood in Motoko's squad. They chase a terrorist cell, who apparently have some strange government connections, and there is a nuclear reactor involved.
It's a nice little game. If you are into old games, you probably should get it.

The green-yellow shield stickers on the rookie's Fuchikoma are the Japanese new driver signs. Dunno what others are for, probably cuteness.

If you are a Ghost in the Shell fan, check out Neotokyo°, a free Steam game. Here is the trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bp6I7W10IzM&feature=plcp

You can download the game for free on Steam here:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/244630/

Other Statistics