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Ghost Train (Short Story)
Ghost Train (Movie)
Ghost Train (Game)

I have finished the Famicom adaption of Ghost Train and thus done with this trio of Ghost Train versions! This one is much later than the original short story and movie, over a decade later being released in 1991. It's a later Famicom game, the Super Famicom had been out for a bit. There's also two notable names that worked on this game. The original art was by Seizo Watase of Heart Cocktail fame, and music by Koichi Sugiyama, famous for being a terrible person who is thankfully dead... and Dragon Quest music. So how did the game end up being?

The reason I was interested in this game in the first place was the control system is pretty interesting! It has full areas that the player can walk around as Uno and Yuuko. There's not much you can do with this other than walking into people to bring up the action menu, making it not that different from other menu based adventure games. It does give the game a unique look from other Famicom adventure games, but can also be a little tiring to have to bring up the menu for every single action. This is on top of the fact that you can't go to any other area from any other area, you have to go from connecting place to connecting place to get to where you want to be. So it's load the next scene, bring up the menu, move to the next area, repeat until you are where you want to be. Aside from that it's your average Famicom adventure, at least from my small amount of experience with them. Getting clues, asking multiple times about the same topic, hoping to trigger the next part of the story, etc. Now for comparisons between the short story/movie/game!

Spoilers for short story/film/game. CW for SA

There's a couple differences here. One is that you can explore much more of the town and meet more of its residents. You get to go to the shopping district and all the shops there. This lets you see people in the town that aren't involved in the murder. Mostly feels like a way to pad out the length of the narrative though since now there's even more people to ask things/show items/etc. The way the 8 people (back to 8 this time from the 7 in the movie) died is completely different with a poisonous herb and all the related details. The lady that works at the inn dies like in the short story, but doesn't in the movie. Kojima the owner also dies in this game, but doesn't in the movie or short story, but he gets hit with the rock in the movie? They're all mixing in my mind now... Also the game removes a lot of the sexual elements of both the short story and movie. Uno doesn't meet Yuuko by accidentally walking in on her naked in the baths (which the movie flashes back to a jarring amount). There's also not the presence of attempted sexual assault in the game either. Honestly a good decision since it felt out of place with the lighthearted comedic tone the story is going for. The only remnants of sexual elements is the porn movie the 8 people watched, but it's referred to a little more euphemistically, same with Uno and Yuuko's sex scene at the end.

Now I've finally finished Ghost Train! I might eventually go back and read the rest of the short stories in the series, the book I read it in has them. This game has been on my to-play list for a couple years now, so it's nice to cross it off. I really should play more Famicom adventure games...