Ghost Suburb II: From Beyond Sleep Into The Eyes of Madness

To paraphrase the game, 「No amount of language, absurd- indecent - decent- or otherwise could really grasp the scope of this.」

This time around in a good way though.

This is a short review, one I've been intending to submit for quite a bit of time now. I might as well, only because there aren't enough reviews for this game yet, which is, in my humble opinion, one of Moga's best and at the very least a very entertaining RPG. Incidentally, I may also because it's 6:30am and I can't sleep, and this game knows well what insomnia feels like.
Let's go find out what Ghost Suburb is all about.

Ghost Suburb II: From Beyond Sleep Into The Eyes of Madness is an RPG game revolving around the story of the main character, Okay the nurse with an ingenious name who is going through a personal hell and most definitely not okay, and a Research Hospital Center - that of Midland, which is basically a very eerie place.

Throughout the game we get to find out about Okay's story, her love, the hospital center; Ghost Suburb II is essentially a "mystery" game, although not your typical horror kind - even if the setting is pretty eerie, there aren't as many supernatural events as there are unusual ocurrences and insomnia-induced hallucinations. In fact, thinking a little deeper into it (and this is my job, because being into Psychology I had to study a bit on this stuff) it's a really interesting concept, because it brings out the fact that what was once regarded as "mystical" or "supernatural" is now regarded - by medicine, which is the central topic here, no less - as mental disorders and such. I don't know how much of this was planned, but I had a field day (no pun intended) by drawing this parallel.

Anyway, back to the actual game - it's essentially a story-driven RPG, and the gameplay is quite linear and traditional. One thing worthy of noting is the fact that, yes, there are random encounters. And the game makes it clear that there are going to be random encounters from the beginning. As we all know, those aren't well-seen by the gaming community - or possibly anyone, really - but it's not such a big deal when the game is short and enemies are generally easy to beat. So, there's that, but can be forgiven.
As a whole, the battling system is also ordinary. What makes it a little more interesting than your average is, of course, the fact that the battle isn't just "any battle" - it's you, the nurse, performing surgeries on things. And by "things" I mean "all sorts of weird stuff", from sicknesses to mean people to actual concepts - narcolepsy, to mention one of them. Let's not spoil anymore. The terminology for attacks and status effects is pretty interesting as well. But I guess the battle system is "just there" - at least from what I noticed, it didn't serve any purpose other than entertain and make the game a more full-fledging RPG experience. It works.

But don't let yourself be fooled into thinking you're going for "average" here. What it might "lack" in terms of gameplay, for those who are more into it, it sure pays off in heart and ingeniousity. The story and its presentation are done wonderfully, not without making use of an humor that's even wittier than what we've come to expect of Moga; There's a lot of insightful dialog in there that's hard to ignore, and the graphics help in driving the point across.
If you ask me, I'd say the graphics are one of the strong points of the game. Of course, it takes one a taste to really appreciate the cutscenes - the style is very anime-ish and often psychedelic - but the tilesets are amazing, and the strength of such bright colors and contrasts fits the heavy-but-cute mood of the game very well. It's a bit nostalgic, actually, because the style really takes you back to some RPGs from the Gameboy Color and SNES days. The worn-out font may take a while to get used to as well, but it sure adds to the trippiness of the looks.

In a sense, Ghost Suburb II is a marvelously freaky short experience. If you haven't played it yet, do yourself a favor. At best, it's one of the most interesting modern RM2k3 games. At worst, it's a good source of inspiration. Can't do bad, right?