Snatcher is a unique title in it is considered a visual novel by some, an adventure by others, but loved nearly universally by those that have played it. Me included. It is not unique for those things though; there have been tons of visual novels and adventure games released over the years. It is unique in how it approached either genre, combining them into one package that is rarely seen, even decades after release. Dead of the Brain 2 is very similar to Snatcher in setup.
A Familiar Story
According to Mobygams.com, Dead of the Brain 2 continues from the events of the original Dead of the Brain, translated into English in 2023 by various translation groups. If you missed the first game, this whole horrific saga started because of a scientist wanting to reanimate the dead. Just your normal science stuff. Your character stopped the mad scientist and thought he saved his love interest but, well, now in the sequel not only are zombies still around but now roaming biker gangs trying to capitalize on the turmoil.
Zombies are everywhere and they may be the least of your worries as they are simple-minded and want one thing.
Major Changes Were Made in Dead of the Brain 2
According to Time Extension.com, Dead of the Brain 2 was released in 1993 in Japan. This is still quite early in the visual novel/adventure game combination, so some things are going to be wonky for modern gamers going back.
I am not saying there are major changes by the translation team, no, from what I have read so far, this is a fairly accurate translation of the Japanese release on the PC-98 computer. The changes I am looking at are the interaction with the game world.
They OVERSIMPLIFIED your ability to interact.
Whereas Snatcher, and the original Dead of the Brain, offered options you would find in graphical adventure games, Dead of the Brain 2 leans HEAVILY into the visual novel aspect.
You are given two options here. Move and “System”. Interacting with the environment is simple in you move your cursor over anything on screen and if it is something you can interact with, an alert box will surround the object. Click to interact. No having to choose how you want to interact such as “look” or “pick-up” or “move” etc.
There are also moments where you must compete an action before a timer runs out which breaks up the simple touch everything then move to the next scene mechanics.
Like I said, Dead of the Brain 2 leans heavily into the visual novel aspect of its two genres. I plan to give both games a playthrough this month, time willing, as I am a huge fan of horror and visual novels with more interaction than just hitting next on a text tree and maybe choosing one of two paths every few paragraphs.
#hive #posh