Missed Classic: Urotsukidoji (うろつき童子) - Won (And Summary)

 Written by Morpheus Kitami

Last time, we finished a meeting with Kudo, and we were going to go to class 3-C. Probably.

That's Akemi, but it isn't anyone I recognize. Wasn't she missing? Oh, it is Nagumo, but wait, who was the guy the first time? I guess a member of the student council? Jaku asks about the Choujin, Nagumo says he always asks about that, when in the world is he going to get new material? Now two different people are stealing my lines...I have Jaku talk to Nagumo again, and again, Nagumo mocks him and now Akemi is joining in on the fun. I'm going to click on talk to Nagumo again, Jaku, are we going to talk to him normally? He asks him what's going on, nothing much. How about Akemi? Well, she asks Jaku if he's seen Kumiko, he says yes, but he's cagey about it. Probably because she's dead. Jaku tells Kuroko to watch Nagumo.

Yuuchi is in 3-B. So if Kudo isn't in 3-B or 3-C, where is he? Yuuchi is still pinning over Akemi, and to be honest I sort of don't care about this plotline much. Seemingly, it might just be carryover from yesterday, hopefully that's not a technical issue. I briefly search the rest of the rooms on the third floor, before deciding to speed things along. Which is good, because I didn't examine the Information Room on the third floor enough. Examining it three times reveals that Jaku can hear someone's voice, and because this is the only way we're getting any plot right now, we search the LL room, then I have to go to 3-A, 2-C and 1-B. A green voiced person is saying something about making war in 24 hours...and then eating a bento. On the first floor, Jaku then gets an ominous atmosphere.

To the school infirmary, where a yellow voice says something ominous, and another, this time purple voice, says something mysterious. Jaku enters and...

It's a good thing this guy isn't supposed to be a high schooler.

Oh, its just Kudo and a bunch of chicks. Kudo says something about the Four Heavenly Kings from Buddhism, and the last two characters, while nothing direct came up, did seem to relate to Rakasha, a demon from Buddhism. Something tells me this guy is a bit above Jaku's paygrade. He asks Jaku if he knows about the Choujin. Jaku says he doesn't and says they should get to know each other first. Kudo says too late, you're already on a blacklist. Jaku says thanks, if you're concerned about that you can write out your name in the standard syllable order. He is able to write, right? (This is considerably more hilarious in the original language)

Jaku insults him; Kudo says join me or die. Blah, blah, blah, demon sex, blah, blah, blah, cannabis, blah, blah, blah, shoot you full of pain. He also implies the Choujin is going to be far more destructive than he thinks. He then says that Nagumo isn't the Choujin. Understand that Nagumo is an example of destiny. They argue over whose world is the strongest. Kudo says why don't they fight? And now the option is for Jaku to leave, because he has to find Nagumo.

The music changes and I only get the option to go find Nagumo. Kuroko pops up and he informs him that Nagumo is in danger. They go to the park.

"I'm going to stand here menacingly while the couple there watches!"

A screen showing a transition, which is odd considering how much this game could have used a screen elsewhere, and we're in the park. Also, Jaku's head moves sometimes. First we look around and then we look at the bench twice because...? Then Jaku hears a scream and I have to find follow some directions. I'm not really sure how you'd figure this out on your own. They're literally, here, there and over there, and when you arrive Jaku says nothing that reveals where you're supposed to go.

After the second one, Jaku is supposed to look at another bench, then ponder the nearby thicket. Which has another one of those scenes. More exploring, then Kuroko pops back up and tells Jaku to follow him...and its another of those scenes. Jaku is surprised, as said by the guy who just peeped on another couple, and Kuroko is proud of his achievement. Jaku breaks off, only after one more move, Kuroko tells him to come again, and we find Akemi and Nagumo, like the other couples. I'd show you the picture if I could, their faces look like something straight out of Dare to Dream.

What are these facial expressions?

There's some funny dialog I can't translate. The gist is that Jaku is angry at them because he couldn't find them at all and begins explaining everything to them. That is, the demon world, that Nagumo is the Choujin, that demons killed Ozaki and Kumiko, and that demons are coming to kill him; They find it hard to believe, but trust him. Kudo is also a teacher, which I'm sure we'll find informative for his remaining lifespan. Nagumo seems resolved to kill Kudo after hearing about the cause of death for Ozaki and Kumiko.

Finally Jaku talks to Kuroko again, I have no idea if he's now introduced to Nagumo and Akemi. They're going to go after Kudo, it seems. Its back to the school. Jaku has to sniff out Kudo, presumably to check if he's going into a trap. (Of course he is) We go to the night duty room and...

Nobody's there, it seems, but Jaku tells someone to show himself. A cutscene starts. They give a long and dramatic introduction to...

This guy. I didn't catch the first part of his dialog, probably some sort of maniacal laughing. I don't know what his name means exactly, its Chinese, apparently, and probably means something like evil emperor. They gave this guy quite the effective introduction. He and Nagumo have the same text color, but I assume this piece of dialog is evil emperor calling Nagumo a boy. Jaku says that Nagumo is going to kill evil emperor, good call considering you never killed the heavenly king.

More talking, not fighting. Evil emperor tells Jaku to stop and consider what the Choujin is going to bring forth. Not a utopia. Jaku doesn't want to hear it. They argue about it, and Jaku decides its time to kill evil emperor. The two argue some more and evil emperor tells Jaku to escape, because he'll lose. I have no idea if he tries or if he just fights with evil emperor, because the next scene is somewhere in the city.

At least the evil emperor is one character who remains visually consistent throughout the game.

It is clear that Jaku is on the defensive here, but eventually he manages a proper defense, grabbing evil emperor's arm, which is the opening he needed. I think. They really poorly animated these fight scenes. Now, evil emperor is on the defensive. Kuroko reappears, complimenting Jaku. He informs Jaku that Nagumo and Akemi are safe for now, but Yuuchi now has superhuman strength and they need to go to Tenwa, a mahjong parlor.

Back on the streets. I should think about Nagumo right now, though if I wanted I could assault Kuroko because...uh...I don't know. After some thinking, we find a building with blood red kanji next to it, which Kuroko says is the parlor in question. A bizarre series of look commands, you have to examine the sign twice for some reason, and then smelling. This reveals that it stinks of human blood. We go in, and the first thing we do is turn the light on.

It's a good thing none of his blood got into his hair, that might be bad.

Its a severed head. The music actually stops dead here for a musical sting. We're not playing around anymore. Slowly we search, until Kuroko finds another severed head in a microwave. Kuroko muses that its Yuuchi's parents. And then we find Nagumo.

So they can draw people interacting with one another.

He's not dead, of course. He was brought here by someone, but he's more concerned with how they turned on the lighting. Is this an attempt at humor I don't understand, or his head going funny? Kuroko mocks him, wondering how many dead bodies he'll faint at the sight of. By the way, there are like 12 actions with the screen set up like this, its a bit awkward.

Then Kuroko finds a message in blood. "I have Akemi, come to the material shed alone." Then it goes back to the above screenshot. Jaku and Nagumo argue about it, Nagumo is trusting of the man who committed patricide, Jaku is a bit more suspicious and wants to do it himself. Jaku does note that Nagumo's aura has grown in power, his Choujin power is awakening. He asks Kuroko if he notices it too, and he doesn't believe it. Nagumo is feeling better, he's going to fight and win.
Nagumo shouts for Yuuchi, and out he pops, complete with a stripped Akemi. 

Nagumo asks for Akemi back, but Yuuchi says he only has the power of a human, and whines about his past. Nagumo doesn't want to hear about it, which considering Nagumo was basically like Yuuchi at the start of this game, makes sense. Yuuchi goes on about how he's going to kill and wound her, he's the best and he's going to make her fall in love with him. Before you say he's nuts, in the show to become a demon he removed a part of his body with a butcher knife and replaced it with a demon part. Also, having parents who could be charitably said to hate his guts.

He's saying something like "Akemi is mine now to do with how I please, I have peace of mind and godhood!"

In an animated sequence that went by in about 3 seconds, Yuuchi breaks a support crashing a wall over Nagumo. Jaku tries to warn him, but he gets covered. Jaku gets ticked off at this, and then Yuuchi takes his prize, so to speak. I wish I could show you some of these scenes. I swear, if I didn't know it was impossible, I'd say that Dare to Dream was influenced by the visuals in this, but I guess its just a shared incompetence.

I admit, I'm not the best at drawing abs myself, but I don't think they work like that.

And then Nagumo turns into a demon. Yuuchi says that Akemi is his and he turns into a more demonic form. Jaku then figures out that Yuuchi became a demon became he had an inferiority complex. (Dunno if he means in the literal or metaphorical sense, but no crap either way) And then Nagumo kills Yuuchi in one hit. For some reason Jaku and Akemi decide to help him after all he's done. He apologizes for what he's done and then dies. Jaku then admonishes Nagumo for overdoing it, before Nagumo runs off with Akemi.

Nagumo and Kuroko then muse over these events, mostly the Choujin again. Jaku says something about the demon world returning, which implies that it might have been cut off at some point? It seems this whole business is more complicated than either of them know, and that this is just the beginning. Jaku thinks they should talk to the elder again.

Some animation, then we talk to the elder. He asks Jaku what he wants. Jaku unloads every single thing he's been musing on and been told by evil emperor to the elder. The elder responds asks if Jaku thought the human world would remain the same. Jaku says he didn't think the world would end. (Either I missed something or some word had a meaning I missed) The elder talks of the choujin being able to use all magic powers. Jaku doesn't believe this to be true and insults him. The elder insults him back and attacks him with his powers.

Or not, it just seemed to him like he was dying. Now he's in the future of the human world. Ah, Baltimore, what a lovely city. Interesting, the walkthrough tells me to go east, I have cardinal directions now. Something about getting cardinal directions in a game like this seems wrong, even if its no less unhelpful than in any other graphic adventure. And its the same image. Jaku muses about the Choujin's power, and how powerful it would have to be to do this.

So Jaku ponders about events again, and about how the elder didn't want Jaku to search for the Choujin. Makes sense. And its at this point that following the walkthrough, something should be happening, but it isn't. I'm stuck in an endless loop of thinking and trying to listen for something, only for nothing to happen. No matter where I go, nothing happens. Once again, a Japanese adventure game has put me in an unwinnable state over events I have no understanding of or even the possibility of understanding them short of testing every single action in every single order. Unless something 7 hours back screwed me, the only thing I've done that isn't directly on the walkthrough since then is a few odd look commands.

Three realistic theories as to the reason why this went south. Firstly, something in the game broke, the usual hope, anyway. Secondly, there's a timer, either to actions or actual game time (unlikely) that have taken place, with an amount causing an event to break, starting at the beginning or here and I saved after taking some actions. I don't know why something so far in the past would break something that supposedly takes place in a theoretical future, but there you go. The third is that doing something other than the exact actions required of the player here softlock him.

You can compared this one with the "unfixed" one at the top.

 At this point, I replay most of the game three times. Firstly, I get MAME working with Sharp x68000 games, specifically with a fancy shader in the hopes that it makes it look like the way it should, according to screenshots Laukku linked to last time. Its not entirely correct, and I'm not bothering to edit these, so it is what it is. My first MAME run was cut short because the game froze when I alt tabbed to correct some information about the game. This was just before the beastman world, I missed the part where Nagumo stole Akemi at the end. Secondly, I reloaded a second save I made earlier in my regular emulator, just before killing the hunger demon, but this changed nothing. My final attempt was MAME again, this time with no alt tabbing. It didn't work, so either you have to follow the walkthrough exactly (which is absurd considering you are supposed to waste some time at some points) or the walkthrough is wrong.

One final attempt. There's one flaw between me and the walkthrough, the walkthrough author played it on PC-98, I'm playing the Sharp X68000. I actually want to see this play out.

The music's lower quality, but it sounds better in composition, if that makes sense. On the other hand every time text advances, the character speaking has a sound effect based on what they should sound like. Shame it sounds like a computer noise. You can turn it off at least. I also nearly got screwed here too, most emulators break after killing the hunger demon, but thankfully one actually worked.

Finally, I make it to the next point in the story. A woman is being chased by a demon. Considering I can't show you the picture, you can imagine what it looks like. The demon makes a long speech about how there are strong people and weak people and how he has the right to the weak. Jaku asks where this constitution is. The demons says he won't find out before he kills him. Jaku mocks him and says he can't kill Jaku, which gives the demon pause. He recognizes the name. Jaku tells him to stop babbling and fight him. The monster runs off.

The girl thanks him, and they talk. She mentions that this is Yokohama and Jaku can't believe it. What happened here is that 300 years ago, demons began entering the world and killing humans, and it only stopped recently when in the western desert a stone statue rose up. Now they have hope of a female goddess who will give birth to a savior. Okay...and Jaku asks the same question. The infinity of the world that the Choujin created. Jaku asks about that.

The world is a sterile desert in the image of the demons. The new world as formed by Akemi's child will be better. Yeah, they're waiting for Akemi's child.  The standard messiah stuff as seen through a Japanese lens. I go through a list of questions, mostly refining these previous statements, but when Jaku asks about Nagumo she is shocked. That's the guy who brought forth the ruin to this world. Right, well, Jaku thinks its a good idea to go to the statue, so he asks her to guide him there.

I hope everyone will forgive me for being a little sloppy and leaving in the window.

Its a dead god. And Akemi is inside it, somehow. Jaku comes back to the present where Mimi asks him if he's okay. She's not as worried about all this as Jaku is, I think she asked him to promise that he wouldn't go back to the human world. Its dangerous and he might die. Jaku says that there might not be a world if he doesn't. She's about to seduce him to stop him from leaving...and Kuroko shows up, interrupting them. Nagumo has become a giant and is destroying Yokohama. The three of them, despite questions of Mimi's reasons, go to Yokohama.

I don't think Jaku can fight his way out of this one. Jaku formulates a plane regarding Akemi. Kuroko says that she was eaten. After looking at Mimi twice, she gets hit by...something. Evil emperor pops up, but his dialog implies he didn't do it. You didn't kill him, Jaku? Why didn't you do that? He says the old world must die for the new one to be formed, and its not for either of them. We can't escape. Is he helping us? He charges off towards the Choujin.

Then it seems a blast is about to hit Jaku, only for Kuroko to stop it. He has a shield, though it seems he's still going to die. Its quite touching for a character who served as comic relief. Jaku briefly mourns him, before telling Mimi that he's going to fight the Choujin. Yeah, by himself. He gets beat up despite going full power. He notices something in the Choujin's stomach...Akemi, who then tells Jaku to stop it. She appears to him in a magical glow.

She now understands everything. The three worlds were once one, but they were cut apart by the Choujin and then destroyed by the Choujin. The Choujin, as far as I can understand this dialog, evolves the lifeforms after the destruction of the world. Because the Choujin isn't Nagumo, its Nagumo's kid. After some more talk about this, Akemi says that Jaku doesn't understand about the future and his attempts to change it are futile. She asks Jaku to promise not to try to hurt them as Jaku loses consciousness.

I'm glad Mimi is fine, but what Jaku is going to do in this situation is going to be interesting. Jaku says they'll return, but he needs her to wait a moment. She, among the usual destruction talk, seems to say that even the beastman world is going to be destroyed. They seem to not know what to do.

Well, I don't need a walkthrough for this last action. Jaku yells to the Choujin. About Yuuchi, the evil emperor, Kumiko, Ozaki, and all the other people who died wagering their lives for the new world, that they'll all meet again in the Choujin's new world. The game ends and the credits roll. A text box appears afterwards, saying something like the promise to unity won't be forgotten....and the emulator dies on me. Doubt there's anything after that anyway.

Total Time: 18 hours

Let's reconstruct the story since this one really suffered for how long it took me to play it.

Jaku comes to the human realm against the wishes of the beastman elder to try to find the Choujin, the supergod who will reunite the realms. He figures that the Choujin is somewhere at...uh...school. He has three candidates, Ozaki, Saomoto, and a third person who I don't think was important to the narrative.

Jaku cannot find Saomoto, so he meets Ozaki and asks about the Choujin. Apparently on Earth there is a cult dedicated to the Choujin. As he leaves he is accosted by Kumiko, a member of said cult, who is creepy towards Ozaki. Later, he finds Kyouko and her cult assaulting a woman named Hitomi, who despite constantly appearing isn't actually important to the crux of the plot. He also meets with Himiko.

In the school itself, Jaku meets Nagumo by chance and Akemi in one of the rooms. A demon has taken over a teacher, who then assaults Akemi, and Nagumo stumbles upon this while Jaku stumbles upon him. Jaku kills the demon and Akemi thinks fondly of Nagumo now. Then we are introduced to Kuroko, an imp companion of Jaku.

Some time later, Nagumo and Akemi are a couple. This results in the jealousy of another student, named Yuuchi.  Jaku tries to cheer him up, but Kyouko, possibly because she's a demon, convinces him that he's a piece of crap, which is important for later. Nagumo then informs Jaku that Ozaki invited them to a hostess club. (Not search for Akemi as I previously thought, this is owing to an assumption I made in a language that tends towards making people make assumptions) Before leaving Jaku meets with Saomoto, who is a demon.

At the hostess club, some of the hostesses have been possessed by demons, and kill Ozaki, resulting in Jaku's theories all becoming shot. Later that night, Jaku is searching through the school, finding Hitomi engaged in loving with someone, probably Nagumo. A demonic presence erupts in the location, and Jaku discovers that it is Saomoto, who has killed Himiko. Jaku kills Saomoto. Jaku deduces that the Choujin is probably Nagumo.

The next day, Jaku talks with Hitomi and becomes more resolute in his theory. He meets with Kudo, another teacher possessed by a demon. Kudo says he has Nagumo in his grasp, at which point Jaku frantically searches for him, finding him safe. He inform Nagumo and Akemi of the events so far, and then goes back to the school, alone. There, he meets and defeats a figure I have dubbed "evil emperor", but this isn't his actual name.

Meanwhile, Yuuchi has become a demon, and has killed his family, knocked out Nagumo and kidnapped Akemi. Jaku discovers this and takes Nagumo to the meeting place. At first it seems like Yuuchi has the upper hand, but Nagumo turns into a demon and kills Yuuchi. Then he kidnaps Akemi and leaves. Jaku returns to the beastman elder, who sends him forward in time.

In the future, Jaku discovers that demons rule the Earth and a cult has formed around Akemi, who will birth the Choujin who is against the evil Nagumo. Jaku finds a statue of Nagumo in which Akemi is inside. Returning to the present, Jaku tries to fight the Choujin, who is destroying Yokohama. Alas, him, his girlfriend (?) Mimi and even evil emperor can do nothing but futilely try to fight him. In the end he flees, shouting to his effectively dead friend about all those who lost their lives in this matter.

Nothing but class, here, as you can see.

How does this compare to the manga and the movie? Well, to start with, the manga is...uh...miserable. It's nihilism and completely miserable. Everyone is either thinking about or doing sex and violence, and not the pleasant kind. Jaku resembles his character in both the game and movie in much the same way that Shoko Asahara resembles Jesus Christ. Which is inaccurate in the sense that Jaku in this game isn't Jesus, but at least he isn't saving infants from getting hit by semis only to chuck them in a river. This is exactly what happened in the manga and Jaku's not the only one to be turned into some psycho.

The most important change is that there are a lot more demons randomly trying to kill Nagumo and Ozaki, and Ozaki even survives the encounter in the hostess club. Then demons try to kill Nagumo and Akemi. Seriously, this series is practically cliche after a while, murder, sex, murder, sex, murder sex. Maeda, the author, is not the greatest writer on the planet. I'm not really sure his art works for what it is either, but its at least decent art.

Interestingly, the movie doesn't have the nightclub, Ozaki dies in what seems like a random building. Even the manga doesn't have him die there. It also fills in some storyline gaps. Yuuchi's parents were killed because Yuuchi needed to kill two people, and Yuuchi was intended to be the possesse of some great demon. Who incidentally, aren't just causing random chaos like the original and the anime, they're here to stop the Choujin. Jaku doesn't figure into the Yuuchi incident at all, because he's too busy with "Evil Emperor", called Suikakuju in the anime, but using different kanji for some reason.

What might not be a change, is how the film ends. The Choujin controls Akemi, rather than Akemi explaining things herself.

In each format transition, things get milder. The movie, while not exactly pleasant, is a sight better than the manga. This game is practically chaste in comparison. I think there's one or two actual encounters, everything else is weird or mouth stuff. None of them have much length and those that do are awkward. I don't know what that means for the game's reviews, since after the abomination against god and man that was Gram Cats I don't trust Japanese reviews actually care about the game. Do they dislike the game for that reason or are salerymen playing the game anyway? I don't know.

Getting back to the game itself, one thing that isn't necessarily reflected in the ratings is that Jaku Amano is one of the best protagonists I've played as in a game. It's rare for a main character to be competent, especially the most competent in the room. Far too often it seems like the prequel to a game would consist of ensuring the main character wipes his behind after doing his business. Jaku would survive without my help, I am only a passive observer. My opinion is in no way swayed by how often Jaku said something I said right after I said it. Onto the rating.

Puzzles and Solvability

How in the demon world can I possibly rate this correctly? This was never going to set the world on fire, but I don't think what happened is what should have happened. I suspect what I got in one version was just a bad rip. What I think actually happens is you just click on things until you win, with a vague logic to it that kind of works if you're on the same page. Nothing interesting, nothing fun.

I'll call it even from what I was going to give it.

1

 

Interface and Inventory

You select from various options. You never see the same things twice, at least until you run out of whatever that thing has to say. Its simple, but it works. My problems are more with the general nature of the way these games are designed, just click on everything hundreds of times and hope you aren't about to get screwed.

5

 

Story and Setting

It was interesting. I actually went to the trouble of replaying this not because I felt I was doing a service to other suckers interested in the game but because I wanted to see how it ended. The twists and turns intrigued me and despite often having long periods of annoying game between them. When I eventually got the narrative clear in my head I found it all quite interesting.

8

Sound and Graphics

Graphically, let's talk about the elephant in the room. This was clearly designed for something that smoothed out the aggressive dithering. There's nothing necessarily wrong with aggressive dithering, but its clear from some of the coloring that this wasn't the way it was supposed to look. I'm not really sure there's a way to make it look like it was supposed to look. While there are shaders around, they clearly aren't designed for this sort of thing.

Nevertheless, discounting this, human characters are badly done. The credited artists are Kinoshita Masayuki and Nanao Anzu. Nanao is a lady, I should add. Both are equally at fault for the janky human bodies if the art on other games they were responsible for is any indication. Nanao seems to be responsible for the more goofy anime eyed characters, very noticeable shoulder bones and some of the nicer backgrounds. Kinoshita seems to be responsible for the more mature looking ladies as well as the big shoulders. If you don't know what I mean between shoulder bones and shoulders, I would remind you that you haven't seen all the art.

Animations are very basic and consist of two, maybe three frames. Two frames of animation isn't terrible if its a small character in a platformer. Having half the screen take up with an animation isn't great.

I liked the backgrounds though. The problem, as with everything, is you spend way too much time at the school. The rest of the art looks pretty sweet, some getting very imaginative, but in general the game did a good job of building these locales.

The music is very nice, albeit something like 10 minutes long in total. The big problem is there's one song that you're going to hear for half the game, two more that you're going to hear for a big chunk of the game, and that's not very good. The songs themselves are pretty good, especially for Japanese PCs, but they needed to be twice as long as they are.

6

 

Environment and Atmosphere

Interactions with the environment are limited by nature of this sub-genre, but what is here is pretty well realized. Dark lonely hallways feel like dark lonely hallways, post-apocalyptic ruins feel like ruins, and of course, the school feels like a school, boring and you spend way too much time there.

7

 

Dialog and Acting

The dialog here feel really well written for some random title of little historical importance. Nearly every observation I made, a character says as well. Funny when the situation calls for it, and appropriately serious likewise. Even non-important characters have their own identity. I don't actually have anything bad to say about it whatsoever. Even voice acting would probably spoil it.

7

 

1+5+8+6+7+7=56.666 or 57.

I debated removing points, but I covered my issues already. I debated adding points, since I did actually enjoy the game, despite frustrations. So, I'll keep it here. The new highest rated missed classic.

Michael got the closest guess in the sense that he had the highest. I don't blame anyone for not getting this right. How could anyone guess this would actually be fun? Especially from those screenshots and its national predecessor.

The problems with this game bring up an interesting theory in regards to MAME. I know for a fact that there are least three Japanese games with bad rips out there. This, Gram Cats and F-15 Strike Eagle on PC-98. MAME requires you to use certain pure rips or it won't work, yet those rips aren't worth the kilobytes on your hard drive.

Now of course, the authors of MAME know that sometimes rips can be bad, because their knowledge of arcade cabinets has evolved over the time MAME's been in development. Assumptions sometimes turn out to be wrong and need to be fixed. Its not unreasonable to apply to reasoning to console and computer games...except that computer games sometimes save to floppy. This isn't a shocking revelation, Wizardry famously does this.

This will be the last Japanese adventure game I talk about for a considerable length of time, as I've been delaying two long games on my own blog because they're also in Japanese.

Speaking of the future, let's try another CAPS guessing game. What is Morpheus's next missed classic? Guess what game I'm about to pull out of a dark corner of the internet from these clues and get 5 CAPs. Depending on the case, you will get the CAPs if you only make a partial guess at the title. If unforeseen circumstances force me to change tracks, I will ensure you get your CAPs anyway. First correct guess wins.

Clue 1) I have mentioned this game before, though only on another blog by name.
Clue 2) It involves a subject that has not come up on this blog before.
Clue 3) It lies somewhere between a text adventure and a graphic adventure.