Wacky Japanese Police Quest 2

[OmerMor]

(cross post with the ScummVM forums)
I recently got 4 Japanese PC98 Sierra games: PQ2, QfG1, KQ5 & SQ4.
Out of these, PQ2 proved to be the coolest.
Here's what I learned so far:
The SCI0 games (QfG1 & PQ2) both have 2 display modes: 640x400x8 colors & 640x400x16 colors. The 8-colors mode is a dithered version of the 16-colors mode that use the high resolution for dithering (like the EGA640.DRV driver does for 256-color games). In the 16 colors mode the high resolution is used just for the Japanese text. The resources use 16 colors in 320x200 resolution.
(My version of) PQ2 came with a driver only for the 8-colors. I used the 16-colors driver from QfG1 with PQ2 and it works.
Here are some pictures:

16 Colors

8 Colors (Dithered)



Now for the really fun part:
PQ2 has slightly different views than the english version: They've drawn the faces in Anime style (like the japanese Zak Mackracken).
Here is an example:

English version

Japanese version

Cool, eh?

m_kiewitz from the ScummVM forums even uploaded a short video from this game to youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHJbeTlARA4

[Tawmis]

Okay. Seriously. That HAS to be some kind of custom mod. I would imagine the only thing different would be the text into Japanese... because the artwork (for the material within the game) still came from Sierra here in the United States (so far as I know anyway). So I wonder if someone modified the art within the game and repackaged it in Japan to give it that anime style?

[DeadPoolX]

The strangest thing I see is that, if redrawn in anime style, Marie isn't sporting an impossible pair of breasts and doesn't look like jailbait. If you've watched anime in the past, you'll know what I'm talking about.

[OmerMor]

Tawmis: I can assure you - this is the real thing. From what I understand, Sierra had some sort of division in Japan called "Sierra Online Japan", which produced games for the PC-98 and FM-Towns. However the only game I noticed that got the Anime-treatment is PQ2.
Most of the game characters have been altered to look that way. If there's interest I can upload more images.

[Tawmis]

That's wicked. I am VERY surprised then that Leisure Suit Larry never got the anime treatment...

[envisge0ne]

Same here. If there is no policy against asking, I'd love to get a copy too if possible

[Rath Darkblade]

Sorry to use thread necromancy here, but... wow. I can't see the images any more, naturally, but the video is still on YouTube.

This is very strange...

As for why Larry never got the anime treatment - maybe there's no Japanese equivalent of a leisure suit?

[OmerMor]

Now there's even a complete playthrough of this version.
I especially like this scene:
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and compare it with the same scene in the original version:
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[Rath Darkblade]

The Japanese version is... wow.

Originally, Sonny was blond; Marie was a brunette; Keith had light brown hair and moustache; and the captain was black, with black hair.

In the remake, let's see... Sonny has a sort of blond-green spiky hair (not ideal, but it'll do). Marie changed her hair colour to black; Keith somehow grew a goatee; but hold on... the police Captain has pink hair and a pink moustache?

By the way, the start of the "celebration music" reminds me very much of the Leisure Suit Larry theme. Coincidence? I don't think so!

As for the sequence on the plane - wow. The original actually shows Sonny and Marie kissing, but in the Japanese version - that's a very quick kiss between Sonny and Marie. Blink and you've missed it.

As for the final shot... in the Japanese version, Sonny is grinning like an goofball. Hilarious. True, he was doing that in the original version too, but it was not as overstated as the Japanese version!

What's your view?