Ok Goons. Where we left off, Taro was lying dead in the middle the floor, having just been shot by a pistol.
Or not…
:
It’s warm…
:
Oh, you noticed.
:
I was surprised when you collapsed outside.
:
It doesn't seem like a big deal.
It doesn’t seem like a big deal? We were just shot with a pistol!
… I guess it must have been one of those realistic looking BB guns we were talking about…
:
Oh, and about my part-time job pay…
:
I called the doctor and paid the consultation fee, so I've cut today's pay in half.
Taking our pay because we were shot with a pistol in our duties??…I feel like this is violating several labour laws…
:
Yes, it's 20,100 yen.
20k yen? That’s like… $200… That was not worth getting shot over!
:
Oh no, I've lost all my part-time job wages…
Well. With that out of the way, let’s revisit what we just saw. Yes, it's a return to that old faithful game mode that's been in every game thus far, the security guard RPG mode!
These modes have always worn their Dragon Warrior / Final Fantasy inspiration on their sleeve, but this one takes it one step further.
We've lost the first person view from Z4C 1&2 in favour of a top down view, with a chibi version of Taro. The Japanese here says ‘Floor 1’
We find the area surrounding Taro is dark, as if he can't see more than a few feet in front of him.
Just who the hell owns these buildings anyway? It's clearly an office environment with computers, break rooms and potted plants. Did they not pay the electricity bill? Can't they put their lights on?
Stumbling around in the dark, we find that we're likely to trigger a random battle encounter.
The game then goes into an isometric battle mode!
Here we’ve been accosted by a ‘Thief’, armed with a knife.
I'm not exactly sure this creature is actually human. At first I thought it was a balaclava, but those are some very large glowing eyes and a very long tongue…
In fact, I'd go as far to say that is an alien lizard in a hooded sweatshirt.
We have three options for dealing with this extraterrestrial: Fight. Run Away and Items
Beepers are used to represent Taro’s health and attack power on the bottom left and top right respectively.
I guess this game continues the tradition of giving our protagonist a user interface for magic powers when he doesn't have any.... Maybe we’ll get some later.
What we do have however is a baton, which can be seen in our items screen.
With a liberal application of the baton to the thief's head, we've won the battle!
...This is much more effective than a super forehead flick.
Gained 2 experience points.
Get a 700 yen bonus.
Total bonus: 700 yen
Continuing along, we trigger more random encounters and enemy types.
The Delinquent is an odd looking fellow in a cloak with sunglasses and a Mohawk. He doesn't look like he quite belongs in his skin. I don't think this guy is entirely human either.
But, he goes down like one when we hit him with a baton.
Not every enemy is an alien. The humble Mouse makes his return here too!
Amusingly they only do about a single point of damage to us, but they mash up real good when we hit them with our baton.
Now, in the video, I just showed three battles, but in reality this lasted much longer, with several repeated enemy types as I went from room to room.
Occasionally in various rooms we can find chests that contain items. So far they all contain Energy Drinks, which act as a health boost. I'm able to top up a couple of times, as we make our way around the floor.
As we explore, a little mini map fills in the top corner with the areas we've already seen. The aim is to visit all the rooms, and when everything is complete, the entire thing turns yellow as a signal to head back to the elevator.
In one of the final rooms we come across the Thug.
The video made it look like it happened earlier, but I did some selective editing so not to repeat the same enemy types and have a really long video.
The Thug appears to be the boss of this floor, and is much more powerful with his attacks, and seemingly has a lot of health..
I admit, I did stretch the truth a little bit in my video - he doesn’t actually kill us straight away in a single shot.
… it actually took two shots.