This review is unfortunately from a free website that doesn't support direct linking. It was apparently originally posted on http://boards.ign.org, which is subscription-only. It is apparently freely repostable under the wishes of the author, "ikachii" aka "Sho". If anyone knows something different, please feel free to say so and/or delete the review from this page.
I'm not sure to what extent I should post detailed impressions of this title, as this may be the first game I've encountered that, assuming that it never gets converted into English for a Western release, is completely impossible to play without fluency in both reading and speaking Japanese. With this out in the open, I imagine that importers will be largely dissuaded from purchasing the game, but here goes...
Famitsuu's reviewers weren't kidding when they called N.U.D.E.@ (Natural Ultimate Digital Experiment) "experimental" and "revolutionary." The same words can be applied to a game like "Tekki," with its massive controller and scale, but mecha simulators have been more or less available for some time, both in game centers and on console. N.U.D.E.@, despite inevitable comparisons to Seaman with its prepackaged microphone unit and voice-based game progresion, is completely, completely different. This game literally has you raising a robot from the ground up through teaching it basic vocabulary (starting with identifying objects in your bedroom), to teaching it how to manipulat those objects, to teaching it more complicated functions such as cooking, and finally, instructing it on how to hold a basic conversation. Each of these stages of the game are divided into individual "phases" that need to be cleared in order to move on to more difficult and rigorous education.
N.U.D.E.@ is the next title since O-TO-GI I've seen with the "Only For Xbox" label on the game case, and make no mistake about this, as of now, this game is only possible on the Xbox. This has nothing to do with the actual aesthetics of the game, however -- in fact, the in-game graphics of the robot and your room are remarkably simple, limited to basic colors and objects. Animation of the robot is very smooth, however, and her lip movements correspond with what she speaks.
The reason this game is only possible on the Xbox at this time is because it takes place in real-time, neccessitating the use of the console's built-in harddrive and clock. This is the only game I've experienced when the game continues even when you're not playing it and the console is shut off! Time is a major factor in this game, as the fictitious manufacturer of the robot, a company called "ARK (Absolute Radiant Kingdom)," sends you instructions via in-game email that give you a certain time limit to teach the robot a given set of words and actions within a predetermined time limit. Should you fail to instruct the robot properly by the time that time limit expires, ARK recalls the robot and disqualifies you from being a "test monitor."
Time is also a major part of the game in that if you try to teach the robot too much or too intensively in a short period of time, she "overheats" and has to rest for ten minutes. Furthermore, every night at 0:00, the robot has to recharge for one hour. Also, when the aforementioned "phase time limit expires," ARK comes to take back the robot for maintenance, and returns it to you with the next set of instructions provided you cleared the conditions for that particular phase.
The great thing about this real-time system is that it prevents you from playing the game too much, and really succeeds in creating the sense that you are in for raising the robot over a long period of time. The bad part about it is that even after clearing the conditions for a particular phase -- for example, Phase 1 requires that you instruct the robot how to correctly identify and pronounce all the objects in your bedroom -- is that even though you've cleared the phase, you have to wait for ARK to recall the robot for maintenance in order to proceed to the next phase of educating the robot. For gamers that want to proceed right away with the next phase, having to wait until the next day (again, in real time) to continue the game might tax one's patience.
Speaking of patience -- this game requires patience in the same way that instructing language to a child requires it. The robot, called P.A.S.S. (Personal Assist Secretary System), is more or less given to you with a blank slate, so it takes multiple repeatings of the same word in order for her to remember it as well as the object the word corresponds to. This can be frustrating in the beginning, as you have to toy around with the pace and pronouncation with which you say the word in order for her to get it right. However, this frustration is offset in a large way by 2 factors:
1) Some of the mispronouncations that P.A.S.S. initially makes are absolutely hysterical! I remember trying to teach it how to say "eacon" (air conditioner) and she said "erohon" (XXX book). Another is when I was trying to teach her how to say "bideo" (video) and she kept saying "Hideo" (a guy's name). Some of these had me laughing out loud so much that they caused me to laugh during the next time I was trying to repeat the word for her, causing her to interpret was I was saying as a completely different word or resulting in a "ninshiki dekimasen" (Unrecognizable) error message. Anyway, this "humor" element is great.
2. "Tasseikan" -- sense of accomplishment. The feeling you get when you successfully make P.A.S.S. remember a word correctly is something extraordinary -- like your patience and hard work paid off, or something. With this kind of payoff experienced in Phase 1 alone, I'm eager to see what Phase 2 holds. Unfortunately, I have to wait until tonight to play Phase 2...
The voice recognition software utilized in N.U.D.E.@, which was apparantly designed by Toshiba, seems to be very sophisticated and intuitive. When P.A.S.S. pronounces a word properly or close to what it's supposed to be, saying "sou, sou" (that's right), or "oshii" (close) brings her closer to remembering it properly. Saying "chigau" (wrong) or "iie" (no) dissuades her from remembering an incorrect pronouncation of a word.
When P.A.S.S. remembers a word for a specific item, she turns toward you, repeats the word correctly, and says "Wakarimashita" (Got it). This "turning around" action comes off as cute and innocent in some way that I found myself unconsciently saying "kawaii" (cute) at one point (I know...forgive me...). At that point, P.A.S.S. repeated "kawaii" just as I said it. Looks like I taught her her first non-object-related word...
Famitsuu mentioned that the game puts up the "Ninshiki dekimasen" message a lot thoughout the game. Although I've only played though Phase 1, I found that the only time I got this "Unrecognizable" message is when something she said made me laugh to the point that even I was unable to pronounce the word correctly, causing the computer to be unable to interpret what I said. Insofar as I can tell, as I mentioned above, the voice software utilized in N.U.D.E.@ seems to be very sophisticated.
The game successfully immerses the player in its world on a number of levels. One actually gets the feeling that they are instructing P.A.S.S. and raising her, which increases the level of personal interest and enthusiasm one puts in the game (*I just noticed I bounce between referring to P.A.S.S. as "it" and "she"). The motions of P.A.S.S. are very realistic, and judging from some previews of the latter stages of the game, it looks to become even more life-like as time goes by.
A quick return to the aesthetics of the game -- again, don't look for outstanding graphics here. The intro screen, loading screen and the movies played in the game thus far (One shows P.A.S.S. being delivered to your home from Ark) are extremely well done. One can expect that as the robot's actions become more sophiscated, the effort put behind developing it's animation, movements and facial expressions will show through. Sound at this stage is minimal as I haven't taught her how to utilize the stereo yet...
Other immersing elements include makeshift "websites", including that of Ark and another music site that has recommendation of a bunch of CDs. My guess is that these CDs will be availiable for play later within the game. There are a number of mini-games that apparently become available later in N.U.D.E.@ as one progresses, including playing blackjack with P.A.S.S., guessing the weather (the game actually has varying weather, which one will notice when looking out the window), betting on horse races, and other stuff. It is also possible to change the look of the room though the options screen, which more or less amounts to cycling between four different patterns for the floor, walls, ceiling and curtains.
The introductory version of N.U.D.E.@ comes with a DVD that contains the preview movies for game originally shown over the Net, all of which are extremely sophisticated. There are also two bonus movies: one is a series of hints that P.A.S.S gives you that will help you get through the first three Phases of the game. The other is a very well-done CG movie of a situation that might take place in the latter stages of the game -- P.A.S.S., remembering your (actual) birthday, makes you a cake, but tries to hide it from your sight when you ask her what she's doing. This way this video is presented is the perfect example of the "otaku appeal" N.U.D.E.@ has -- I imagine there are some that will become seriously attached to this robot, particularly after it develops to the point that a normal conversation can be held. Furthermore, from judging from the movies shown on this DVD, P.A.S.S. looks to develop a load of motions and facial expressions over time -- some of which are eerily real...
The largest problem with N.U.D.E.@ is, like I mentioned above, that it requires the player to be able to comprehend Japanese and speak it with native pronounciation. Toshiba's voice recognition software, and therefore P.A.S.S. itself, was developed through recognizing Japanese syllables, which will require that players not only know the Japanese names of objects (these are provided on-screen in Japanese), but also know how to pronounce them with correct intonation. It is in this respect that N.U.D.E.@ is probably the most unforgiving game ever made with respect to importers, and I therefore can't recommend it to anyone that does not speak Japanese fluently. Furthermore, I can't imagine a game of this type being converted into English -- the returns on a game of this type in the West would probably not justify the insane amount of money it would take to redevelop the game into English. On top of that, at least in my eyes, developing an actual sense of "association" with a computer-generated robot is something that only Japanese otaku are capable of...with this being the reason that ren'ai/love simulator games are big here and not in the US and other countries.
However, if the game is ported for Western release, or if there are importers out there that do speak fluent Japanese (remembering that just being able to read, being able to say a few words here and ther, and having very "gaijin"(foreign) pronouncation unfortunately won't be sufficient in this case), you'll be in for a revolutionary game that boasts massive ambition and scope. This title was definitely a labor of love on the part of its developers (jointly developed by RED ENTERTAINMENT and Microsoft, from my understanding)
With that...
-Sho
edit: few wording changes, also:
The microphone the game comes with is fairly well put together; nothing sophisticated looking but gets the job done and is not flimsy at all. There is an earphone piece that allows you to listen to your pronouncation of a word closely, and the mic can be place on either the left/right side (it can also be rotated vertically as well). Both components are attached to a mini "head gear" made of plastic and rubber (ear areas)
The somewhat burlier-than-usual packaging has an awesome cover illustration and incorporates a "letter" from ARK that tells you basically to "take good care" of P.A.S.S. as the test monitor
Two versions were released: one with just the tokuten/special goods (DVD/poster) and one with the tokuten and a N.U.D.E.@ telephone card (end of Sho's review; ToothyWikizen discussion starts here) Holding a proper conversation with her? Voice spoken, voice recognised, voice replied? *sweatdrop* Continuing while the console is switched off? Hearing comments the player makes like "kawaii" based on her movements, and repeating them? *sweatdrop* And lots of little things like remembering your actual birthday and doing things on it, based on the system clock... This game sounds at the same time potentially utterly engrossing, and utterly terrifying for its effect on the otaku it engrosses... --AlexChurchill
And in a rather large and bizarre coincidence, having been just reading about something completely different, I found a link to [this page], which has a number of screenshots from this odd game (although a couple of them may be from the opening movies or suchlike). Seeing them helps one to remember that this is an XBox game we're talking about here, and thus the description of the graphics as "remarkably simple, limited to basic colors and objects" has to be taken with a pinch of salt! (See [these][three][images], for example.) For someone like me who doesn't play games on modern consoles much, it's quite scary to be reminded of the level current graphics have got to, particularly on games like this one where they're blatantly encouraging you to get emotionally attached to the "characters" rendered in such detail. MoonShadow's comparison of ParentingSims to Tamagotchi? is seeming more and more inescapable. --AlexChurchill
Weellll... it doesn't seem (from this review, which is all I know) that you have to keep spending money on it past the initial outlay, in the same way as the pages in category KiddyCrack do. NonViolentOtakuElimination?, perhaps? --AlexChurchill
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