I've never been a fan of Visual Novels, or at least, of the ones I'd always come across. But I'm also a sucker for good cyberpunk, and a good story. When I saw that Snatcher might tick both those boxes, I decided to give it a shot.
Snatcher (nice use of negative space on that cover) is one of Hideo Kojima's earlier titles, originally released in 1988 for the MSX2 and PC-8801 over in Japan. It was only years later in 1994 that it was updated, ported, and localized for English speaking countries, exclusively for the Sega CD.
Kojima's now famous insatiable desire for lengthy cutscenes and dialog lends itself to VNs. As with many of his works, it's heavily inspired by whatever western movies he'd seen at the time. In this case, Snatcher is heavily inspired by Blade Runner.
You play as Gillian Seed, an ex-scientist with amnesia that's now working as a Junker (the equivalent of a blade runner) in Neo-Kobe, a cyberpunk metropolis that's not quite as dark and dreary as Bladerunner's, feeling more like something out of Akira.
The game features a surprising amount of voice acting, some of it actually pretty decent for a game of that era. It also has a particularly fantastic FM soundtrack courtesy of the Genesis' soundchip, and even some redbook audio for the intro (I'd recommend listening to the soundtrack even if you have no intention of playing the game).
The story for the game can get surprisingly dark and gruesome at times, though the overall atmosphere has a more 90's anime up-beat vibe. As an interesting anecdote, the gore in the Sega CD version is actually far more visceral compared to the Japanese versions, but the small amount of nudity that was in the Japanese versions is censored in the English localization.
Unlike some of his other games, this is one of Kojima's more linear and coherent tales; The characters are pretty fun to talk to, and the writing was compelling enough to make me push through some of the more dated design decisions (you sometimes will have to click the same action/dialog 3 times or more, despite the lack of any new information, before something unlocks to progress the story).
The gameplay is a bit more involved than a standard VN, sharing some attributes with an Adventure game.
In addition to being able to move around the city and various buildings (skillfully drawn with some of the finest pixel art of the era), the player has access to an inventory and can investigate various parts of a scene. There's a small combat mini-game that will sometimes spring up that was designed for use with a lightgun (The Konami Justifer), but thankfully the combat works just fine with a standard controller, and is used sparingly enough that it doesn't overstay its welcome.
In fact, I'd say the combat is surprisingly well integrated into the story, adding a bit of tension since you never know when it'll pop up (I imagine it would've been quite immersive back in the day with the lightgun, since you'd have to quickly drop your controller and physically 'draw' the pistol to defend yourself).
Snatcher is a short game, usually averaging about 4 or 5 hours for most people, but that's all it really needs to tell its tale, and by the end I was thoroughly satisfied.
The Sega CD version, or indeed any version, is no longer legally available to purchase anywhere. With physical copies being rare and demanding a premium ($200 or more), I'd recommend emulation to experience it.
In conclusion, I'd have to say that Snatcher changed my views on what a Visual Novel could offer, and opened me up to being willing to try more. I haven't spotted anything that has appealed in the same way Snatcher did, so if you have any suggestions, I'd be interested to hear them!
If you were like me, and generally glossed over this genre, maybe this write-up will convince you to give it a try as well. And if you do: good luck, Junker!
