It’s being reported today that after an eternity in the wild, new Snatcher-related content is coming home to roost!
Finally, after all these years we surely get to find out what happened to Gillian Seed after he left Neo Kobe to continue his rip roaring cyber-punk escapades in snowy Moscow! Hooray! Many questions will without doubt be answered, like what really happened in Gillians past? Will he and Jamie ever get over their amnesia? And how long into the game will it be before we get another Katrina-esque woman-in-very-thin-towel scene? All things that will surely be revealed when Kojima spills the Snatcher shaped beans in this new adventure!
Except they won’t.
Brace yourself my Grigs. This new Snatcher related initiative is only coming out in Japan. D’oh! But even more bizarrely, it’s a radio show. Double d’oh! And if you needed the wind taking out your sails even more, it’s the very same ‘Project S’ that was announced all the way back in 2007. Tripple, quadruple, quint… er, esson, d’oh with a cherry on top!
For anyone who doesn’t remember back to the aforementioned reveal, Metal Gear man and cut-scene mentalist Hideo Kojima had teased for several weeks about ‘Project S’ – a mysterious project underway headed up by No More Heroes Suda 51. Project S? Why surely that must be Snatcher, we all concluded. The Snatcher fans were well and truly out in force – and then promptly retreated into the shadowy recesses of the Internet once again when the actual truth of the project was revealed.
While the fans speculated on this expected and long overdue sequel, even going so far as to argue over potential platforms as is the fanboy way, there was a nasty sting in the tail for the triumphant return of the series that so many had longed for. With Snatcher having an ending that was a full on unanswered cliff hanger, it wasn’t OTT to hope that it was about time Kojima had temporarily ceased the downward spiralling Metal Gear franchise and gotten back to his original big project! Sadly, it was not to be.
As mentioned earlier, Project S turned out to be a Japan-only radio show written by Suda 51 and that is now ready to air, the content of which will surely never be enjoyed by the western world. Unless Lartens has learned enough Japanese from playing My Japanese Coach on his DS that he can jot down a full Grig exclusive transcript. He’s owned it for a couple of months so I reckon we’re in with a good shout.
But alas, I fear we may never get a true gaming conclusion. The concerning thing is that even a radio show has taken a Duke Nukem inspired age to even come to fruition, so what are the chances of an actual video game? Slim to none, my Grigs. Slim to none. The light of hope dwindles even further.
However, on a more positive note, it’s at least some kind of reassurance to know that the franchise is still on the Kojima radar. And while it’s true to say that the man is too far down the self-indulgent hour-long cut scene path to even dream that Snatcher 2 would be good, I can’t help but pin just a few hopes on the game. You read my hopes for SSFIV Arcade Edition right? Not so much as an official announcement telling me that my expectations of the game are off the mark can crush my hopes, no siree!
But for now, Snatcher 2 exists only in the form of a few dusty old folders collecting dust on an out of the way shelf at Konami Japan HQ. The wait goes on…
Oh what could’ve been… unless this is just Snatcher 1? Who knows. Who cares.