Snatcher

About this game

The story was unfinished when it first went on sale. Konami released Snatcher for the PC-8801 computer on November 26, 1988, and for the MSX2 computer that December 13, and both versions stop at the end of Act 2. In 1990, Konami's SD Snatcher, a role-playing remake for the MSX2, added a final act. The adventure game itself still had no ending.

PC Engine FAN asked Kojima why Snatcher was chosen as Konami's first CD-ROM title. He says (translated from Japanese):

"The computer versions' story wasn't complete, and we heard it had to be brought to a close somewhere, more from players than from inside the company. There was talk of doing it on computers like the X68000 or the FM Towns, but in the end it was settled on the PC Engine's Super CD-ROM² format."

He says the players of the 1988 game were still in touch:

"Even now, four years after release, there are people who send fan letters and Valentine's Day chocolates, and people who tell me how they're doing every year."

The team had not stayed together. He says:

"The development team on the computer version were quite an unusual bunch (laughs), but they scattered and each went off to a different department. That's why no sequel had come out until now, but by good luck the team's key members have been able to work together as one team again."

This disc added the ending, Act 3. In the text where he tells of the student's letter, Kojima also says, in the shmuplations translation: "The most common criticism we received was about Act 3." He says players told him: "I wish you would have given the player more freedom. Act 3 is like a digital comic." His answer:

"The story required that we restrict the player's freedom to a certain degree. ... Each character was beholden to a fate they could not change. I wanted Act 3 to let the player experience that anger and frustration. ... Perhaps it wasn't conveyed as well as I wanted… that's something for me to reflect on."

The Story Behind

This was the first full Snatcher with recorded voices. Kojima says of the CD (translated from Japanese):

"My projects always have too much in them and I get scolded for it, but this time we developers have something we've never had before: I can do as much as I like without worrying about disc space."

The game's credits list him as director and writer, and also as voice recording director.

The cast included Yusaku Yara as Gillian, Kikuko Inoue as his wife Jamie, Goro Naya as the JUNKER chief Benson Cunningham, and Kaneto Shiozawa as the bounty hunter Random Hajile. Kojima later cast Shiozawa again in Policenauts and Metal Gear Solid. He wrote on Twitter (translated from Japanese):

"Mr. Shiozawa was the voice actor I respected most. When he walked into the studio, the air pressure changed. He always gave an astonishing performance and left like the wind."

Metal Gear Mk. II sounds like Arale, the robot girl from the anime Dr. Slump, because Mami Koyama played both. She recorded it with no robot effect on her voice. Kojima is reported to have said, in the official guidebook from the publisher Shogakukan, that the dialogue and the story were heavy, so he deliberately chose that distinctive voice to give players a change of mood. TARAKO, the voice of Chibi Maruko-chan, was the other candidate. The English version ran the voice through an effect.

In a 2003 magazine conversation, Kojima told Oji Hiroi, the original author of the Tengai Makyou series, that the game sold about 100,000 copies, second among Super CD-ROM² games behind Hiroi's own Tengai Makyou II: Manjimaru.

Tricks & Tales

PC Engine CDs carry a spoken warning for anyone who plays one in a music CD player by mistake. On this disc the warning is a comedy routine between Gillian and Metal Gear. A PC Engine never plays it, so you can only hear it on a CD player.

Konami sold a trial disc, the Snatcher Pilot Disk, on August 7, 1992. It held a playable demo, a trailer, background notes on the game's world and interviews with the makers.

Kojima says of the story, in the shmuplations translation: "We borrowed a lot from Blade Runner. It certainly wouldn't be strange if someone thought we were just screwing around."