Cell of Empireo - Introduction, Impressions, and Strategy Notes (Exploration x Information Gathering Suspense)

This is an introduction and review article for the free game "Cell of Empireo," created with RPG Maker 2003.
I'd been interested in this game for a while, thinking it looked fun, and now that I finally had some time to play it, I gave it a go.

The story was fantastic, the exploration and puzzle-solving were incredibly well-crafted, and the characters were absolutely captivating.
I thought I'd write an introduction and my impressions, partly to promote the game to people who haven't played it yet.

Game Overview

The story begins with the protagonist, Ato, who works at a detective agency, being kidnapped while searching for a junior colleague who has gone missing.

The immediate objective is to escape from the facility where you were abducted, in cooperation with other survivors.
The basic gameplay involves exploring and investigating within the facility, but it also includes various puzzle-solving, mini-games using key inputs, and escape sequences from enemies.

The game's completion time is listed on the official website, etc.The initial playthrough takes 10 to 15 hours.It says (Route E to B).
(In this game, bad endings are referred to as "endings," and all other endings are referred to as "routes.")

I think the actual amount of time I spent playing was about this much.
and,The time required to complete the game, including seeing the A and S routes, is 15-20 hours; to see all routes, it will take 20-30 hours.That's what they said.
(There are also many bad endings along the way.)

For a work of this genre, this is an exceptionally large volume.

Game content

If I were to compare the game's atmosphere to another game, the early stages have a similar feel to "Resident Evil 1" on the PlayStation.

The roaming creatures, the research facility and puzzles, the fact that companions could die depending on the player's actions, and the multiple endings—all of these elements created a similar sense of tension for me.
The original Resident Evil wasn't a game where you just mowed down enemies; it was a game about how to survive by conserving healing items and ammunition.

Since combat isn't the main focus of this game, resource management—reducing losses and conserving healing items—becomes somewhat important.

While some of the puzzles may be challenging, the official website has detailed walkthroughs, so if you get stuck, don't hesitate to refer to them.

Menu screen

You can check the items you've acquired on this menu screen.
Your health, mental strength, and corruption rate will fluctuate depending on your encounters with enemies and other events.
Since there are limited means to recover these resources, resource management in this area is extremely important.

Game flow

Basically, the flow is: progress through the map ⇒ encounter areas you can't access ⇒ find necessary items or complete events ⇒ explore new areas you can access.

While there are some sequences of event scenes, mini-games such as key-input games are interspersed throughout, preventing the game from becoming tedious and maintaining a sense of tension.

As the story progresses, new actions are added using key controls, and various other features have been incorporated to keep players engaged and prevent the game from becoming merely an exploration game.

This game has many moments, including event scenes, where you can easily get a game over if you're not careful, so frequent saving is extremely important.
It might be useful to make full use of the 15 save data slots so you can go back a little and try again.

However, if you can at least see some route, you'll be able to start from the middle of a chapter, so I recommend clearing it once first.

Impressions (contains spoilers, after first playthrough)

I managed to complete the first attempt (Route E).

I was able to play and enjoy the game from start to finish, feeling both nervous and excited.
Exploring the experimental building in the very beginning of the game gave me chills every time a vase fell or a corpse started moving.

The way the events gradually unfold through the documents on the bookshelves and the researchers' files truly lives up to its description as an "exploration x information gathering suspense" story.

The one-shot escape games that appear here and there are the most nerve-wracking the first time you do them without any practice.
In that sense, I think the first playthrough, without any prior knowledge, was the most enjoyable.

And so, I died many times and got a game over,In the end, we ended up with Route E, where almost no one survived.
Around the time Karen dies, I thought that if I chased after Shinano along the way, Karen would die, so I restarted the game several times, but no matter what I did, she died.
I suspected there was a problem with how I had been setting up the flags up until now, but I didn't realize that I should have anticipated it.
Yanagi and Kurachi died one after the other, so at first I just thought, "Well, that's unavoidable," and continued playing.

After clearing the game, I checked a walkthrough site to see the branching conditions for Route A and Route S, and I realized that these are things you wouldn't notice just by playing the game normally.

It's rather mean that when you're chasing after Hualien, you can't just follow her in the usual way.
I didn't realize there was a time limit for rescuing Yanagi, so I think I was just playing at a leisurely pace.
During the lights-out process, you probably shouldn't press any buttons other than the correct one.
Looking back, I think that's why they went to the trouble of giving a hint about the not-so-difficult solution to Lights Out in the flashback.

However, since there are ways to keep the character alive that you wouldn't normally notice during a regular playthrough, it made me think, "I definitely want to try again!" and greatly increased my motivation for the next playthrough.

Also, I was surprised to learn that Kano has his own unique flag, and will reappear if the conditions are met.
It doesn't seem to be related to the route branching conditions, but I was curious about its origins, so I hope that this will be clarified.

As a side note, when playing chase with Baby, I would quickly go and press the elevator button and wait there, which made it easy because Baby would get stuck and not be able to come towards me at all (see the location in the image below).
It might have been a coincidence, but even after waiting for a while, there was no sign of the snag coming off (both the first and second encounters).

By the way, is this what happened to the child that Noa gave birth to...?
There were scenes that suggested she had no resistance to having children, so if those babies were indeed hers, and considering the large number of them, I'd say she has a pretty wild mindset.

Impressions (Spoilers included, multiple playthroughs, after reaching S rank)

I completed Route S and reached the destination beyond it.
Unlike Route E, the amount of information was vastly different. Many plot points were resolved, and unexpected facts were revealed, giving me a great sense of accomplishment.

The scene where we all cooperate and fight in the cathedral afterwards was much more lively compared to Route E, where almost everyone died.
Kurachi had a great moment to shine, and I was personally satisfied (by the way, another highlight I think she had was the scene where her abilities manifested after escaping the experimental building).

The deductions about Shinano served as a reminder that the protagonist was a detective, something we hadn't seen in a while.
It was quite challenging because it required a lot of in-depth deduction.
Since there was a lot of information I didn't remember anymore, such as details from documents, I ended up relying a bit on a walkthrough website.

In the subsequent battles against Origin, Utsugi, and the icicle avoidance, I struggled with the Utsugi battle and the icicle avoidance.
The first Origin β battle was relatively easy.
Basically, I could avoid attacks by sticking to the barrier and moving around when the enemy started attacking.

In the battle against Utsugi, there was no explanation beforehand, so I was confused about what to do when the enemy attacked, and in my first attempt, I was just trying my best to get the hang of it.
However, the input isn't that complicated, so I think any player who's made it this far should be able to clear it after a few tries.

I think avoiding icicles is easy once you memorize the patterns.
Basically, it was easy as long as you positioned yourself in lane 4 or 5 and kept track of your position.
If you pay attention to avoiding odd/even number patterns and the 1234+5678 pattern, you can avoid the rest just by randomly dodging them.
I was very grateful that I could immediately continue even after getting a game over.
If I had to start all over again, I might have lost heart and not been able to clear it.

The passageway where the characters stand at a fork in the road on their way to meet Hatsutori in person was very memorable.
I was able to make the correct choices at the beginning, but I made some simple mistakes, and I was ashamed of my reading comprehension.
Combined with the background music playing, it was a truly moving scene.

And I was glad that there was a grand ending (S+) at the very end.
At the end, during the scene where I save Reiji, I was suddenly asked to input something, which made me panic.
I was playing while holding my phone in one hand, thinking it would automatically save me, so I quickly put my phone down and started typing.
I'm glad we made it in time.

After the final credits"You make upcellWith love as one of the things."Those words left a strong impression on me.
In the story, there's a line from Shinano that suggests that all elements, including the past, have shaped who you are today.

Similarly, playing this game gave me a strange feeling that this work had become one of the elements that make up who I am.

Even if I forget the details of the game, I interpret this to mean that this work has become one of the elements that shaped who I am.

When you think about it that way, this work feels like a cell with the will to move players, get them to advertise it, and then reproduce itself.(Just like what Dawkins calls the "selfish gene").

In any case, since I was able to play such an interesting game, I have no regrets even if I myself have been reduced to a "host," "doll," or "creature" in the game "Supreme Cell."

Below, I will recall some memorable scenes, accompanied by screenshots.

This is the scene where Reiji, who disappeared early in the story, finally reappears.
He consistently gave off an unfriendly and rough impression from the start, but I feel like this was the first time he showed a humorous side.
I found this way of speaking interesting because it came up in a conversation between Sou and Minoru.

My first playthrough was a failure, so it's sad to see Professor Yanagi dead beside me.
The scene where you reveal your unknown abilities and gain the upper hand is incredibly cathartic in a battle of abilities.
The same was true for the later battle against Noa.

I love these kinds of plot developments where an enemy character comes to the rescue; it's really exciting (pun intended, since it's about fire).
I'm especially happy because I really like Yo as a character.

There are many scenes where Utsugi laughs, but scenes where she laughs naturally are very rare, so it left a strong impression on me.
Hatsutori himself said that this was the most enjoyable time for him, and it seems that the relationship between the three of them was still good.

This is a sudden scene of deduction.
It felt like choosing options to identify the culprit in a mystery game, which created a sense of tension.
I like scenes where characters are solving mysteries because they usually look cool.

This is the scene where I first confront Utsugi inside the old research building.
I really like the feeling of tension that comes from unexpectedly running into each other and seeing each other through blank message windows.
The fight ends very quickly, but it's interesting how much of what's happening is packed into those short scenes.

She was a very strong character, but when you imagine what was going on inside her heart, she strangely becomes endearing.
While this line may not be a lie, the fact that he's acting more villainously than necessary (presumably) just to get killed by Ato is rather unsettling.

Having seen the genocide route in Route E, this scene truly feels satisfying.
It's an ending where everyone survives, giving the player a sense of accomplishment.