 |
 |
||||
 |
 |
|
||
|
Minimum Nanonic |
||||
|
Added 10.22.00 | Review by Kaze Kiri FX (Jake) |
||||
|
I have often heard many PC-FX titles described as being "nothing but pictures accompanied by Japanese voices and text". But there are few FX titles that fit this description more closely than Minimum Nanonic. Minimum Nanonic is the story of three sisters named Hikari, Nozomi, and Tsubasa who wake up in their beds one day, only to find that the three of them have shrunk to the size of an apple, due to an experiment their father was conducting in their house. They also find that their house has suddenly become inhabited by miniature weirdos bent on killing them! You take the role of Michael, a stuffed toy who has come to life. And you have to guide the girls to find their father and regain their original size. Sounds interesting enough, huh? The problem is that the game (if you could even call it a game) has nothing to offer in the area of gameplay. It is literally nothing but pictures, text, voices, and an occasional anime FMV sequence. I'm serious here! I don't hate the digital comic genre, but this is just too much. All you do is watch it and press button I to advance the text. Very rarely, you will get a three-way decision, and if you choose the wrong one, you'll just choose again until you choose the one and only correct one. Therefore, the game is completely linear. You could more correctly say that you "watch" this game rather than "play" it. If you didn't need to hit button I to advance the text, you would hardly need a controller at all.
And for some reason, I was very bored with the concept of the shrunken girls from the outset. The game seemed to act like the player should be fascinated by it, but to me it all seemed very old and tired. It was like a chore playing through parts of this game in order to get to the next point where the game auto-saves so I could finally turn it off having made a bit of progress. The story is pure childishness. Occasionally, there were parts that I found genuinely amusing, but they were few and far in between. One such part was a question in which the characters asked where I, the player, was located. I believe the choices were Japan, inner Asia, or outside Asia. I answered the question truthfully and the characters were not happy, and the game retended to reset with a mock version of the PC-FX startup animation and main menu. Then the game came back, and the characters accused me of lying, but the game continued on after that. Overall, the game presentation isn't great either. The graphics are rather mediocre, and the onscreen characters don't animate beyond moving their lips a bit. (And their lips aren't made to sync with the audio like you'll see in higher quality FX titles.) It's mostly still pictures. The music is all computer-generated PSG and pretty boring. It seems pretty cheaply put together, and simply doesn't try very hard.
Now, having bashed this game throughout most of this review, I have to admit that I did end up finishing the game, and it was extremely long. That's one thing I can say for it. It couldn't have been all bad because I found myself a bit more wrapped up in the story as it progressed. The story and characters were pretty stupid overall, but they had their own weird charm to them somehow. I felt like I knew the three sisters pretty well by the end. The anime FMV sequences are not bad, and there are more than a few of them scattered throughout the game at key points. Also, the ending theme is strangely appealing. I'd say, buy this game for collection purposes. Then, pop it in and see if you like it.. - Kaze Kiri FX (Jake) |
||||
 |
||||
|
|
||||
