N.U.D.E.@ Natural Ultimate Digital Experiment Game Sample - Xbox
244Okay, we can make any number of jokes about this game, but I'll try and take the high road here; first and foremost, you should know that this game has nothing to do with nudity... it barely has anything that can be remotely attributed to l.e.w.d., r.u.d.e. or even c.r.u.d.e. It's actually a "Learning and Life" simulation title developed by Red Entertainment and Rocket Studio in 2003, published by Microsoft and presented by the legendary visionary, Hiroi Ouji (who is best known for the "Tengai Makyou" and "Sakura Taisen / Wars" franchises, but who has plenty of other credits). It is a curious bit of software that relies on voice recognition technology (as in a Microphone Headset) and is in the same family of titles as Dreamcast's "Seaman", PlayStation 2's "Lifeline / Operator's Side" and "Deka Voice", GameCube's "Odama", and others. Naturally (no pun intended), as the game is exclusive to the Xbox and only released in Japan and part of an incredibly niche genre, the game was doomed to live in obscurity.
The game doesn't have much of a plot: You (the player) are part of a focus group of beta testers for a revolutionary new technology aimed at improving the daily lives of citizens across Japan -- a female humanoid prototype P.A.S.S., or "Personal Assist Secretary System". Created by the A.R.K. Corporation (A.R.K. = Absolute Radiant Kingdom), your goal is to go through a special program that involves expanding your unit's artificial intelligence which is broken up into five main phases. In the first phase, your P.A.S.S. (named 21 by default, so we will call her that going forward) needs to learn basic phrases and objects and you will need to slowly build her comprehension and repeat phrases so she can commit them to memory, but as the game goes on, you will be able to hold whole conversations with her, increase the number of functions she can perform, play mini-games, and more. The game's scenery and activities are based in part to your system's internal clock and each phase is based on the time of your last save. After completing all the tasks in a given phase, you will have to wait for A.R.K. Corp. to come and retrieve the feedback of your results. Ordinarily, if she completes all her tasks successfully, she will be taken back with A.R.K. and undergo a series of upgrades to move towards the next phase of operations. However, this is not always the case.
If you fail to complete all your tasks, she will be taken away and the program will be deemed unsuccessful. You can also fail if you go too long without checking up on her as she will wander off or (when she becomes more sentient) feel neglected and run away. Interestingly, each phase makes her more human in nature as she goes from being very robotic to more lively and animated and can even gain some form of will; her movements and range of facial expressions will also grow as you go through the game. By the end of the main game, she will be a full-fledged personal assistant capable of cooking, cleaning, telling jokes, understanding sarcasm, and exhibit a range of emotions. Another thing that isn't mentioned but is equally important is that, if you're impatient, you can complete all your tasks, save, and then change your system's date and load your game to speed up game progress.
The main portion only takes a few hours, but after doing all the phases, completing all the tasks and reading all your emails (which are mostly tips and junk, though some give cryptic hints about the game's worldview), you can unlock what is dubbed "Eternal Mode" which is when the game really starts. This mode allows you to operate freely and continue to teach words and phrases to 21 which she will commit to memory and recognize in conversations. She will even recognize your name or the name you give her during Phase 2 and what you can teach her is nearly limitless. Your interactions become even more personalized than during the main game and you can, based on previous Phases, change her colors, your room's interior, her personality, how she responds to you and more. At this point, the game almost becomes a relationship sim. I was actually slightly intrigued by this.
You know what's more intriguing though? The game actually has a rather nice and diverse soundtrack, though you can also play your own music if you wish (Note: Don't play music in Phase 1 if she leaves from over-heating, she doesn't know how to turn it off yet) and the voice recognition is pretty solid. As a test, you can hear my friends in the background here and there and she filters them out and hears me pretty well even though I wasn't being loud (deliberately). Overall, this was a pleasing novelty (not the funnest thing to watch), and only on Xbox!
This is a video of the game showing some things with some audio overlay. Enjoy.
- ADDITION -
Like Us On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thegamingsanctuary/
Follow Us On Twitter: https://twitter.com/GS_Vyse_and_Bel
Visit Us At: http://www.gamingsanctuary.com