Mizzurna Falls (PS1) Playthrough [English] - NintendoComplete
829A playthrough of Human Entertainment's 1998 adventure game for the Sony PlayStation, Mizzurna Falls.
Since the game was only ever released in Japan, I'm playing with a disc that has been patched to play in English. Resident Evie, the dedicated fan who translated the game's reams of text (https://projectmizzurna.tumblr.com/ ), deserves a huge shout out. I'm glad that all her hard work is finally being put to good use. So does Nikitak600, who has been working on inserting the script. While it's not 100% perfect yet, he's made some great progress, and as you can see here, it is already quite playable. You can find the translated image over on his YT channel: https://youtu.be/mSX-UsxUcrg
A warm thanks to both of you guys for making this accessible to English speakers!
Some timestamps for easier viewing:
Day 1 4:00
Day 2 2:21:54
Day 3 4:23:22
Day 4 6:46:14
Day 5 8:25:45
Day 6 9:51:03
Day 7 10:36:14
Mizzurna Falls is often cited as being one of the first truly 3D "open world" games on consoles, and it's a marvel for the original PlayStation hardware, going well beyond anything else of its generation.
Pretty much everyone is aware of Swery65's Deadly Premonition at this point, but I think that many people will be surprised at just how eerily similar it is to Mizzurna Falls, which predates it by about twelve years.
Like Deadly Premonition, Mizzurna Falls is often thought of as some sort of "Twin Peaks: The Game," and it's an accurate description.
You play as Matthew, a high schooler who lives in the titular rural town. A friend of his has gone missing, and he takes it upon himself to investigate what happened. Mirroring point-for-point many of Twin Peaks' plot points, Matthew ends up unearthing several of the town's dark secrets as he races the clock to save his friend.
The game's story progresses in semi-real time, and while you can go anywhere at any time, NPCs follow their own schedules, and if you aren't paying enough attention, you might miss a key plot event. It can make the game difficult to finish the first few times you play, but the mechanic adds a lot to the feeling that Mizzurna Falls is a living, breathing place that doesn't revolve around whatever the player is doing. And it even looks like an American town, which was something that I really didn't expect for a game from a Japanese developer. They did their homework.
I was impressed by the story and the way the game presents it. It's deeper and more mature in tone than most late 90s console games were, and though the game is far from flawless (it's very prone to glitches, the controls are kludgy, and occasionally it crashes the PlayStation outright), all of the pieces come together unexpectedly well.
The 3D engine, though clunky, is effective, and it makes for a vast improvement over Human's Septentrion (a 3D sequel to the SNES game SOS) and Clock Tower games. Human was always great at establishing a mood, and the design of the visuals and music in Mizzurna Falls creates a distinct atmosphere that rivals even the mighty Silent Hill for creepiness.
There's not much in the way of action or traditional puzzle solving, but there aren't many games that have managed to successfully pull off the sort of experience that Mizzurna Falls pioneered. It's a real achievement for a game that was released before Shenmue or Grand Theft Auto III, and for one running on such limited hardware.
I love immersive, story-driven mysteries, and this one is among the most absorbing that I've played on a console. If you're looking for a way to step into the shoes of a teen-aged Agent Dale Cooper, this is a superb choice. I'm really excited to be sharing it.
Happy almost-Halloween!
To get further into the Halloween holiday spirit, you can find my themed playlist right here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3gSj_kh1fHuN8U3j4lnYxDOPIpgoQNv3
(A small note - there is one edit that I made to the video: during the final action sequence the game glitched pretty badly for about 30 seconds, so I cut that bit out. You likely wouldn't have even noticed the jump if I hadn't pointed out, but I wanted to mention it for the sake of transparency. )
_____________
No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
NintendoComplete (http://www.nintendocomplete.com/) punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games!