Summary
: The game starts with a short intro movie. For now, I’ll just post a couple of shots from it.
: It uses stock footage, but so did a lot of stuff in the PS1 days.
: The first thing the game asks you is who you are. I put in Timrod for this recording, but I’ll change it to whatever everyone wants if I get responses.
: The game immediately throws us into Case 0, which is the first part of the TRANSMITTER arc.
: There’s a square cursor that moves to “type” the text, accompanied by very loud typewriter noises. What they’re talking about here is the setting for most of the game - the 24th Ward of Tokyo.
: In reality, Tokyo only has 23 wards.
: By the way, if you’ve played Travis Strikes Again, you might recognize this text layout. Suda51 ‘created’ an entire system for this game he calls the “Film Window”. We’ll see that in a bit.
![TheSilverCase 2022-01-21 22-43-14-22|690x380]
(upload://ivm9RxPEh1GqeSWgWaLxcBYhh7t.png)
: All of the people we saw in the intro cutscene are members of the Heinous Crimes Unit. There’s a manual that comes with the Steam version of the game that shows how the unit is organized.
: It’s more or less directly based on the structure of the police in Japan in reality.. at least, as far as I know.
: This is the Film Window. It’s more or less omnipresent and resizes to accomodate dialog portraits.
: “Fuckin’ radio. Playing nothing but shit.”
: Fuckin’ Hashino. Writing nothing but shit.
: “On nights like this, weird shit happens. That’s just the way it is.”
: The game will highlight the portrait of whoever is talking with a blue rectangle, which we’ll see used heavily in the next scene.
: “I got a bad feeling… a real bad feeling.”
: “The hell is that? Aah!!”
: “He took a shot! That fuckin’ punk.”
: Right away, you can tell that Suda understands cinematography and also how to write, and I fucking love it. I guess the way I’d put it is like this.
: When I played Death Stranding, I immediately got the sense that Hideo Kojima was kind of desperate to prove that his game was art.
: Suda instead goes “No, fuck you, my game is art and I can use the medium to do things I could never do anywhere else”.
: The downside is that Suda’s stuff doesn’t always pan out (see: Michigan) but at least he tries.
: “Where’s Sumio?”
: “He left.”
: “Oh.”
: “Something happen?”
: “A man with a gun just fired shots and fled near the river in E Ward. Call in the closest units.”
: “Where to?”
: “He’s heading west in E3.”
: “Got it, we’ll pinpoint him from here. Have you been injured?”
: “Nope ---- I dodged the slug, watched it whiz right by.”
: He may as well be saying “No, I’m cool, I swear.”
: “Huh?!”
: “Nothing yet?”
: “Got it!”
: “Where? Is it within our jurisdiction?”
: “Hold on — ‘Public Safety’? Those covert op guys..”
: “Natsume’s guys, huh… OK, call them in.”
: “Got it!”
: “Shit… ‘TGIF’ my ass…”
: “No pinpoint yet?”
: “Target pinpointed: ‘Cauliflower’.”
: “The private railroad satellite… perfect place to lie low. I’m gonna rush to the spot. Send the location to Natsume for me.”
: “Got it!”
: Random shots of the moon are a thing in the Kill The Past games.
: The manual has an organizational chart for these as well. As far as I can tell, they’re all NGOs that eventually became the government for the 24th Ward.
: This guy is Natsume, and he heads what’s basically the black ops team for the Public Safety Department.
: “We’re currently closest to the scene. We need to pretend we just happened upon the scene. HQ confirmed the target and made the decision to get us involved.”
: “That means this is a Secret Security-authorized case. Keeping our movements under wraps is our top priority, but unfortunately a jurisdiction detective happened upon the scene, making things a bit difficult.”
: “We need to keep the amount of info let out at a minimum. You may come into contact with the detective. But avoid any unnecessary contact at all costs.”
: This is Sakamoto.
: “Disposal will be a problem. Keep it at Level Y or below.”
: “Got it.”
: “I’ll explain the plan simply. Save questions for afterward. Armament of level X or below has been approved. What you carry is up to you.”
: “After entering ‘Cauliflower’ in E3, lead the target to the ‘Cauliflower’ roof. Proceed with disposal. That is all. Any questions?”
: “Chief, how should we carry out disposal?”
: “I’ll leave that up to you. I’ll provide remote support.”
: And this is Inomata.
: “I believe I said that this was a Secret Security-authorized case. Do you need me to explain further?”
: “That will not be necessary.”
: “Anything else?”
: “That is all.”
: “Just because this is your first real night doesn’t mean you need to be overly vigilant. He who masters his own mind smiles in the end. Stay relaxed until you reach the scene.”
: In this shot, Sakamoto is on the left and Inomata is in the middle. The third person is our character. Their names do come up very briefly when they start speaking, but it’s hard to capture.
: “Can’t you calm down?”
: “I’m about to lose my shit here.”
: “Then force it back down.”
: “I can’t. My mind is cutting me off.”
: “If you can’t force it down then at least control yourself. You’re gonna die—”
: “OK…”
: “I’m scared, too, to be honest. It’s my first time in the flesh, you know?”
: “Sorry, but let me focus…”
: “This is totally different from training. Remember, Timrod? Our training maneuvers up north… it was the first time you shot real bullets, yeah? But that wasn’t the first time for me.”
: “Back when I was in the syndicate. Old-school bullets. They gave them to me to take Tsubaki’s head off. Of course, they were modded to the point that they might blow your goddamn hand off.”
: Tsubaki was also the name of the upgraded beam katana Travis could get in the first No More Heroes. I don’t know if there’s some connection, or if it’s just a Japanese name.
: “I’d already thrown my life away, so I didn’t care. No matter what would’ve happened… thinking about it now, being young, I should’ve been full of hope.”
: “But it didn’t matter then. Young, old, whatever.. I got handed a piece and jumped in like a maniac. Just popping caps all over the place… I missed every shot.”
: “All of a sudden I was surrounded, ten guns pointed right at me. That’s when I first met the chief. Why did he choose me? He told me to put my life in his hands, and he took me in.”
: “Same for you too, right, Timrod? Picked up by the chief… Inomata, too. Don’t think about your own life. Believe in him. We’ll carry out our lives. We’ve put our hope in him. Don’t forget it.”
: “I’ll get instructions from HQ over the radio. You guys are basically like guinea pigs. Refrain from acting arbitrarily and prioritize the collection of sample data. Any questions…?”
: Gotta love how the briefing starts with “Yep, you’re all expendable, go out there and die.”
: “That is all.”
: “Ok, sync your watches. Sakamoto, count us down.”
: “Got it. Countdown to zero—”
: “Don’t forget, this is not an exercise. You need to remember that this is the real thing. Again, this is an actual fight. Come back alive. That is all. Good luck!”
: “What a way to win us over. One of your soldiers?”
: “So it was you… I heard you were back in the field.”
: “You too, right? Looks like one final gamble to me.”
: “I don’t gamble. I’m in the Self-Defense Unit. What about you, Kusabi?”
: “I started that thing up, because of the ‘Silver Case’.”
: “The Heinous Crimes Unit, huh?”
: “I thought you’d come, too. I didn’t think we’d meet up like this.”
: “I can never go back there again. I’m not as strong a man as you, Kusabi.”
: “It’s not about that. It’s because they could use you.”
: “That’s strength.”
: “Being young and all… just like your soldiers. You’ve got your young ones to take over the next generation. There’s still plenty of shit you gotta show them.”
: “Kusabi…”
: “Natsume… it’s not just us anymore. Don’t overwork yourself. We still got a long ways to go.”
: “That may be true.”
: “How’s Sakura doing?”
: “She just turned 22. She’ll be graduating college this year.”
: “They get so big… how is she? She become a proper woman yet?”
: Somehow, it’s just like Suda51 that they’re doing this in the middle of a black op.
: “She takes after my wife - real stubborn. You know how she is. She’s not a little girl anymore.”
: “That’s a good thing. Even if she acts like she hates you, your daughter’s still more precious than anything.”
: “Really.”
: “Chief, we’re moving in.”
: “OK. Sakamoto, go in first - then Inomata and Timrod.”
: “Got it!”
: “That’s enough nostalgia for now. I’ll back you guys up, too.”
: “Thanks!”
: I’ll stop here for now, in case people want to decide on a name. Next time, we’ll see how this game actually plays and finish the prologue.