Black Jack Hinotori Hen DS game review/discussion

[Recca_Phoenix]

I have been hooked on the Black Jack Hinotori Hen game for Nintendo DS. Thankfully DS games are not region-locked so if you're willing to shell out 50 bucks at Play-asia.com you can get your own
The game is a nice combo of story and surgery "manga" minigames, where you read manga panels and have to trace arrows [corresponding to various surgery procedures] with the DS pen. If you pass that part, you go on to the minigame (which is unique for each "patient) which can involve everything from an "operation" like trace-the-line-and-don't-hit-the-sides to tapping circles that light up.
If you don't read Japanese you could probably play this game...but it helps a lot if you can.
Every character has their own theme music which can be "bought" in-game and used as the BGM for your "house." Other "extras" include illustrations which can go on the wall of your house and alternate backgrounds for menus.
The most interesting thing is that one or more characters from virtually every well-known Tezuka work makes a cameo, and is integrated into a vast, complex plot. It's a great expansion on the "Star System" idea. But don't be too worried about them messing things up, many of the plots are pulled straight from Tezuka manga. Here are some of the more interesting characters I spotted:

Sapphire - here her name is Sumire. She is supposed to be running the "Silverland corporation" (taking over from her father) but someone else took it away from her. Interesting idea of "updating" the characters from Princess Knight here.

Astro Boy - here his name is U-18 and he is the giant room-size computer prototype to what will (in the future) be Mighty Atom/Astro Boy. Don't ask me to explain why you have to do surgery on a computer....long and complicated story....

Himoto Hitoshi (from "Gringo") - he has a bit part, works for some company in Siberia. I got a little confused because his name is written with the kanji for "nihonjin" (Japanese person) and I was like.....his name is "Japanese?" But I was surprised to see a lesser-known character (and a more adult-type-manga character) in the game.

Tezuka Osamu - OF COURSE. He is a doctor from some government organization. He pays you for stuff and brings in Melmo to see you.

Interesting how a lot of the more "fantasy" type characters are given some kind of medical science (and pseudo-science in some cases) explanations for their problems. Especially hilarious in the case of Don Dracula, Melmo, Leo, etc.

I think the official website for the game has some video and images. Here it is.
http://blackjack.sega.jp/system/

And here is the list of all the characters, from the same site.
http://blackjack.sega.jp/chara/

Here is something I found slightly disturbing....I will try to post some screenshots later....
Emiya (Prime Rose) has a surgery scenario in the game and part of it was blatant fanservice
So yeah....all you Emiya fans out there.....

And for all those Rock fangirls who weird me out with your fanarts and moe-ness and yaoi and whatnot....there's something in the game for y'all too.

[cmoon]

I assume it is only in Japanese though.

[Kuririn]

Hmm...I have been seriously thinking of picking this up, but was kind of offput by the language barrier, because I didn't think I'd be able to find any assistance with it online if I got stuck. My kanji comprehension level is REALLY low. But...if you say it's pretty easy to follow...maybe I should give it a shot.

We could set up a little support group in this topic or something. XD

[Recca_Phoenix]

Yes, it's only available in Japanese now

I have pretty high-level Japanese for a gaijin but even I had trouble totally 100% comprehending some parts of the story **ARGH MEDICAL TERMS***

Most of the game could be played without knowing too much Japanese, but there are times when you have to be able to read it (i.e. sometimes you can't go forward in the game until you go back and get "A" rank on a certain operation, get perfect combos, etc.) But I think if you can read at an elementary school level (or use a dictionary like jisho.org) you can figure out the rest by trial and error. The main story lets you read at your own pace (thank goodness). The surgery manga scenes are a little fast but the information is not really vital to game play.

[maiyeng]

I actually considered this to be like DDR. I've pretty much played through the game with hardly much knowledge of Japanese (and what little knowledge I have of Chinese ) and found it pretty enjoyable.
Achieving S rank at later stages is difficult (should say certain stages).
Oh yes, I know what you mean about Emiya's senario.
Ah~ Alabaster... still can't over that one.