Rise of the Dragon

Released in 1993 by Dynamix, Inc. and ported to the Sega CD by Game Arts, Rise of the Dragon is a graphic adventure game set in a dark, futuristic, cyberpunk world

I recently played through the incredible Snatcher for the Sega CD. Once I finished and reviewed that great game, I didn't want to leave the realm of Sega CD cyberpunk graphic adventure. I kept hearing Rise of the Dragon mentioned in the same breath as Snatcher, so I decided to give it a try. Is Rise of the Dragon anywhere near Snatcher's league?

Hmm..."Blade Hunter" sounds an awful lot like a certain Ridley Scott cyberpunk movie I love

Nope. Rise of the Dragon has its moments, but contains several frustrating elements that sap the fun away. This 1993 game takes place in a 2053 Los Angeles that doesn't look much different from a slightly dystopian 1980's Los Angeles. The player takes control of William "Blade" Hunter, an ex-police officer, who now works as a private investigator. Blade is tasked by the mayor to investigate a deeply personal matter. Apparently, the mayor's hard-partying and rebellious daughter was experimenting with exotic substances, and died from a drug that mutated her into a horrid looking beast. Blade finds the Chinese Mafia was involved and must hit the streets looking for info...and also win back his angry girlfriend, Karen, who works at City Hall and can provide Blade with valuable info.

 

Turns out the fate of the world rests on you getting this lady to chill the hell out

On paper, this game should work. However, the execution is wanting. Rise of the Dragon is essentially a point-and-click adventure game. The player must pick up items for later use, solve puzzles, and navigate conversations with non-player characters to progress. An intuitive, well-designed interface is key in this type of game. It is immediately apparent that Rise of the Dragon's is neither intuitive, nor well-designed. The player must move a cursor around the screen, to navigate through an area, and to look for objects with which to interact. If the player grabs an item either from their inventory or that can be placed in inventory, but doesn't drag that item to their inventory, then accidentally leaves that area of the environment, the item leaves their inventory...sometimes permanently. And if that item is necessary to progress...the player can't progress. Yes, one wrong step, and Rise of the Dragon is hard-locked--there's NO WAY TO PROGRESS.

 

Yep, that about sums it up

Losing an item isn't the only way to suddenly render Rise of the Dragon unwinnable. Like most graphic adventure games from this era, conversations with non-player characters involve dialogue trees. Unlike most graphic adventure games from this era, telling an NPC the wrong thing can completely stop the player's ability to progress. The NPC will refuse to talk to you again, and there's literally no way to move on in the game. Rise of the Dragon does remind the player to frequently save, which can be done at any time, but the problem is, you don't alwas KNOW that you've made Rise of the Dragon unwinnable, and you might just save after you've done so...meaning your save file is basically a dead file. It's infuriating. Even with three save slots to back up your progress throughout, it's still tough to tell just where you went wrong...and naturally, this is one one of those games that gives absolutely no direction as to what you're supposed to be doing.

That's all I was looking for with this game too, Blade

As to the actual story, there's not really anything innovative or thematically deep here, just a drug lord intent on world domination. The only really futuristic element here is the mutagen drug. Most of the game's settings are dingy alleys and clubs that, as I've mentioned, just look like dingy 80's alleys and clubs. As for graphics, they're stylized and look pretty cool. The Sega CD version (this was originally a late 80's PC release) tints everything green, and while some players have reacted negatively to this, 90's sci-fi (and cyberpunk) did definitively climax with The Matrix in 1999, so I'm fine with it. As for sound, there's a lot of voice-acting, and it's overall not bad. I particularly enjoy the legendary Cam Clarke (Leonardo from TMNT, Kaneda from Akira, Liquid Snake in Metal Gear) as the snarky Blade. The music is hit and miss, a few solid tunes mixed in with some clunkers whose drum tracks sound like they're running into each other.

 

I guess this could technically be Neo's apartment

In a perfect world where certain random actions DIDN'T render Rise of the Dragon permanently unwinnable, I still don't think this would be a great game. Making progress is fun, but several of the puzzles aren't intuitive, and the game also features a timer that rushes experimentation. Yes, not only can you render the game unwinnable by making the wrong decision or losing an inventory item, but you can also run out of time! The joy from these types of games is generally in TAKING YOUR TIME, experimenting and trying to enjoy the world the game presents to the fullest. There are a few gnarly story branches in Rise of the Dragon the player can pursue and some big rewards for lateral thinking, but the time crunch, as well as the possibility of taking a dead end track you can't turn around from, discourages the player from ever discovering them!

 

Let me into this game, game!

Rise of the Dragon also attempts to throw a little variation at the player, by including several side-scrolling platformer segments into the game. Unfortunately, the controls for those segments are exceedingly clunky, and if the player hasn't done things absolutely as the game wanted early in, they're stuck using a lousy gun that makes these segments far more difficult (do things right, and you get a better one). There's also a first-person shooter moment here too that's not only a tiny blip in the overall gameplay, but easily missed if you don't take the longest possible path to the game's ending.

 

Side-scrolling blade maneuvers like a particularly unwieldy refrigerator

Overall, I do appreciate the late 80's/early 90's cyberpunk vibe here, even though there's little imagination in the worldbuilding or futuristic elements. Rise of the Dragon does feature scattered moments that are quite enjoyable, but again, the game's flaws suck most of the fun away. After rendering the game unwinnable several times early in, I nervously looked to a strategy guide to get to the end of the game, just so I wouldn't brick my progress again. That's no way to have to play a game. With just a little more thought toward player experience, Rise of the Dragon could have been a minor genre classic. Instead, it's a frustrating misfire whose positive moments aren't quite plentiful enough to lift Rise of the Dragon to hidden gem status. For me, Rise of the Dragon is just a minor curio to alleviate my Snatcher comedown.

Graphics: 6.5/10.0
Sound: 6.5/10.0
Gameplay: 4.9/10.0
Lasting Value: 4.5/10.0
Overall (Not an Average): 5.5/10.0

Snatcher

Released on November 30, 1994 for the Sega CD by Konami, Snatcher features graphic adventure gameplay set in a futuristic, cyberpunk world

I have more nostalgia for the Sega CD than for any other console, save maybe the NES,SNES, and Atari 2600. I'll never forget watching it boot up for the first time at my cousin's house, stunned by the high quality music, blown away by the voice-acting in the games. I felt like I was watching a high-performing CD-ROM computer game on the television. Later on, I finally acquired my own Sega CD, and immediately researched to find the best games. One game kept showing up near the top of the lists: 1994's Snatcher. There was one problem, though: a copy of Snatcher, which turns out to be quite rare, costs about as much as a down payment on a house. Thankfully, though, I was able to grab a playable copy through...certain means. Is Snatcher worth the hype?

No matter what you think about this game, you cannot deny the excellence of its fonts

Snatcher immediately immerses its player in glorious late-80's/early 90's cyberpunk atmosphere. The opening cutscene feels like Blade Runner by way of a William Gibson novel, as the player is dropped into the skyscrapers and night lights of the artificial island city of Neo Kobe, Japan. Most of the world's population was killed by disease 50 years before, and now that the survivors have rebuilt, they're under attack by an emerging threat called "Snatchers." Snatchers are essentially robot copies of existing people, who have been secretly kidnapped and murdered. No one knows what the Snatchers want, or where they came from, but the opening cutscene features Terminator-like imagery and design in regard to the titular villains, as well as a sense of neo-noir, as the game's heroes, the JUNKER's are introduced. JUNKER's are essentially old-fashioned detectives, tasked with hunting down and eradicating the Snatcher menace. The player takes on the role of the newest JUNKER agent, Gillian Seed, a man suffering from amnesia because this game was created by Hideo Kojima. Yes, THAT Hideo Kojima.

 

Just put Arnie's skin on this thing and give it a minigun

Kojima, the famous Metal Gear auteur, keeps Snatcher's story fairly simple to start. As Gillian, the player is tasked with investigating the Snatcher menace mystery, investigating crime scenes, interviewing suspects, gathering evidence, talking to informers, while also trying to regain his memory. Gillian also attempts to reconnect with his estranged wife (who also somehow has amnesia). The gameplay style here reveals the game's PC roots, as it was originally released there in 1988 ,with less bells and whistles. As Gillian, the player interacts with the world through a series of prompts, including LOOK, INVESTIGATE, TALK, and ASK. Essentially, the player uses these prompts to look around the environment, generally shown as a static, partially-animated screen, as they try to find something out of the ordinary. Conversations with informants, colleagues, and suspects follow dialogue trees, just like in a classic PC adventure game.

 

Not gonna lie...all that robot juice is making me thirsty

While Snatcher doesn't quite fall into "visual novel" territory, this isn't exactly challenging gameplay, either. Truthfully, you can just go through all of the LOOK/INVESTIGATE prompts in order, until you do the right things and progress. There's not a lot to it, but the text and dialogue is so involving and well written (and translated), this portion of the gameplay never gets tedious...and it's also not the only form of gameplay here.

You also get to shoot stuff. *SIGH* This game is so cool.

During certain portions of the story, Gillian is attacked by either Snatchers or their evil little drone minions, and Snatcher turns into a first-person shooter. These segments verge from prolonged 60-90 second shootouts, to what we'd now consider quicktime events. They keep the player on their toes, as a safe-looking crime scene can be invaded by a Snatcher at almost any moment. The player can even optionally use the famous Sega CD lightgun, the Justifier, for these segments, though I found it a bit unreliable, and preferred to just use the regular Sega control pad. With the control pad, these shootouts aren't overly difficult (just keep firing and aim everywhere!), until near the end of the game, when the Snatchers get both more plentiful and more mobile. While these moments only make up maybe 5-10% of the game, the constant threat of them happening adds a bit more excitement to the game.

 

You're terminated...

While I do think both modes of gameplay are fun, they're not quite Snatcher's main attraction. Snatcher's main draw is its neo-noir and specifically 80's/early 90's cyberpunk atmosphere. The towering buildings and spotlights, the 1940's/1950's office interiors of Blade Runner, the weird post-modern architecture of Total Recall, the post-apocalyptic civilization vibe of Akira, the "what even is human" vibe of William Gibson's Neuromancer, it's blended into something special here, and then combined with a sort of weird, goofy, self-referential, fourth-wall breaking sense of humor. 

Even with all this cool, futuristic imagery, the biggest billboard says SEGA!

The characters in Snatcher draw attention to the fact that you're playing a video game several times. Gillian makes a hilariously failed pass at every woman with which he comes into contact. Your goofy robot sidekick is called METAL GEAR! Yes, like Kojima's Metal Gear. As the humor popped up, I was a little scared it would derail the darker, violent (yes, Snatcher is violent), grittier tone of the game...but instead it only makes the game more charming.

Also, look how cute this little guy is! Who's a good robot? Who's a good robot? Metal Gear is! Yes, he is!

I've already touched upon the art design, but Snatcher's graphics are also great, a blend of top notch 16-bit work and early 90's PC graphics. They go a long way toward building the game's atmosphere, though the sound design also does some heavy lifting. Around 1/3 of the game's plentiful conversations are voice-acted, and the work, while not quite top tier, gets the job done; it won't win any awards (and it didn't), but I enjoyed it. However, the voice work, in tandem with Masahiro Ikariko's cool, jazzy soundtrack, and the game's immersive sound effects, helps Snatcher quite effectively transport the player into its world. With all that said, there is one element that keeps Snatcher away from "masterpiece" status, and it's a bit of a Kojima trademark.

 

Uh...not your nose...

Snatcher's plot, though it contains twists and turns, doesn't feel contrived for most of its run, save the amnesia angle. While it may not blow genre conventions out of the water, the story is coherent and fun...up until the final 30 minutes of this ten hour experience. Kojima games are known for overlong cutscenes, and Snatcher avoids these too...up until the final 30 minutes. I am not necessarily saying the end of this game sucks. I am saying that after a satisfying 9.5 hours of gameplay, featuring a fairly uncontrived story, which employs a cool, neo-noir, cyberpunk tone, the final 30 minutes of Snatcher is a convoluted, melodramatic cutscene. The tone shifts, the music gets sappy. Again, this last 30 minutes doesn't ruin the game. It can't. Snatcher is a cyberpunk classic...but without the final tone-shift, it could have been a masterpiece. 

 

Ironically, after its most noirish image, Snatcher turns into a Kojima soap opera

However, as I said, Snatcher is still a classic, ahead of its time, and timelessly out of time. The JUNKER station, Gillian's home base, is so wonderfully realized, a place where the player can bond with engineer, Harry, and office secretary, Mika, pick the JUNKER chief's brain, putz around in Gillian's office, and practice shooting at the firing range. Metal Gear also has a cell phone, and Gillian can makes calls to numbers he finds throughout the game, almost anytime the player wants. Gillian can also take the station turbocycle to almost any location in the game, giving the illusion of a free and open Neo Kobe City, making the game feel even more immersive. There's even a station computer, which not only includes info on suspects, but historical and cultural entries that more fully flesh out Snatcher's world. You can even go home to Gillian's apartment whenever you want, which someone gives the game even more of a cool, weird, Blade Runner/Philip K. Dick vibe. Snatcher is not quite perfect, but it deserves to be played by fans of any of the genres I've mentioned--and I can easily see myself playing through it again. Don't let the ridiculous price point be a barrier keeping you away from Snatcher...just like in any great game...there are alternative ways to play...

Uh...Google it

Graphics: 9.0/10.0
Sound: 9.0/10.0
Gameplay: 9.2/10.0
Lasting Value: 8.0/10.0
Overall (Not an Average): 9.2/10.0