LifeSigns: Surgical Unit
Encyclopedia
is an adventure game for the Nintendo DS
set in a hospital. This is the second game in a series that redefined the sim genre to make way for other medical games games such as Trauma Center: Under The Knife
. Following the success of Trauma Center, LifeSigns was released in North America on November 6, 2007, and is released in Europe on July 25, 2008 under the name LifeSigns: Hospital Affairs. LifeSigns: Surgical Unit is the second game in the Kenshuui Tendo Dokuta series, but its predecessor has not been announced for foreign release.
The game is commented as being "like Phoenix Wright
crossed with Trauma Center
", unlike Trauma Center, this game also placed emphasis on the daily life of the characters rather than surgeries.
LifeSigns received mixed reviews from critics. Some reviews had praised the game for the realistic hospital setting and large amounts of character interaction, while others had criticized the game for "a heavy dose of conversations," unbalanced gameplay, and the feel of the game being "less like a game." Metacritic.com, based on 17 reviews of the game, holds an average critical score of 61 out of 100.
A second-year intern at the prestigious Seimei Medical University Hospital. He is studying Emergency medicine
. He can be a little naive but he is very talented. He devoted his life to helping people after seeing his mother die of cancer. In the first game, he misdiagnosed a patient, which nearly ruined his career. His surname is derived from the English word "doctor", transliterated with katakana
.
Sachi Hoshi(Age 22, Female)
A nurse who has been working at the hospital 1 year before Tendo. She seems to be careless at times, but nonetheless, she is a talented and devoted nurse. She seems to have a crush on Tendo. She is one of the girls Tendo can date later in the game.
Suzu Asou (Age 36, Female)
An extremely gifted surgeon, Asou is Tendo's supervisor and mentor. She recently got over her alcoholism
after a disastrous break-up with Prof. Sawai (first game). She is the head of the 3rd Surgery Department, which specializes in heart diseases. Tendo seems to have a crush on her. She wears a bell choker around her neck.
Kyousuke Sawai (Age 52, Male)
A world authority in the field of immunology
, and head of the 1st Surgical Department of Seimei Medical University Hospital. A cold and callous man who only seems to be interested in results. In the first game, it was revealed that he was Tendo's biological father and arranged his transfer to the Seimei. He is involved in the cancer
treatment research and recently developed a miracle drug that might cure cancer called SPX (Sawai Power Plex). He also dated Suzu Asou for a short time which ended disastrously a few years ago. He is operated by Tendo in the final chapter, after a ballpoint pen pierced his heart in a car accident.
Yuma Aoshima (Age 24, Female)
The newest intern in the Seimei, Aoshima is an ambitious and stubborn girl who seems to enjoying eating more than anything else in the world. Because of her inexperience, she makes many mistakes at the beginning of her career in Seimei. She is one of the girls Tendo can date in the final chapter.
Ai Ueto (Age 26, Female)
A pediatrician who started her internship a year before Tendo. She was Hikaru's doctor when she was treated in Seimei. She recently switched to glasses after deciding her shades were giving her a cold appearance. According to Florence, it is rumoured that she has a new boyfriend.
Keiichi Kashiwagi (Age 47, Male)
A fat, balding doctor specializing in internal medicine
.
Florence Makiko Sakurada (Age 60, Female)
Chief Nurse of Seimei. She loves gossiping and seems to know whatever is going on in the hospital. Her nickname "Florence" is obviously a reference to famous nurse Florence Nightingale
.
Sanae Kurai (Age 28, Female)
An operation room nurse who has a gloomy and mysterious personality. Despite her initial impression, she is one of the three girls Tendo can date in the game.
Utsujiu Masui (Age 30, Male)
An eccentric anesthesiologist
who is interested in Hoshi. He is married and has children but was recently kicked out of his house by his wife for some unknown reason.
Hikaru Sawai (Age 10, Female)
Prof. Sawai's daughter and Tendo's stepsister. Hikaru was diagnosed with leukemia
in the first game and was being treated in the Seimei. She recovered and returned to school when Tendo donated his bone marrow
to her. Despite the tension between Prof. Sawai and Tendo, he and Hikaru are quite fond of each other.
Some reviewers praised the game for having a more realistic hospital setting as opposed to a more fictional one in Trauma Center. Some also praised the large amount of character interaction, which mainly came from Sanosuke of ZTGameDomain, who gave the game its biggest praise, "I'm having trouble typing this today, as my left hand is sore from playing Lifesigns so much yesterday. And when a game compels me to play to the point of arthritis, that my friends, is a good thing.". However, Sanosuke also pointed out how there is "A little less trial and error in diagnosis", and how a few aspects of surgery functionality may aggravate. ZTGameDomain has given LifeSigns an 8.5/10.
Some of the game's criticism had been the fact that it "feels more like an interactive storybook than an actual game." GameShark.com's review states, "It’s like reading a book where you drop paragraphs into order. This is a tremendous flaw after all; this is a game, not a movie." Level (Czech Republic) had noted the unbalanced gameplay and that it "slips to boredom gibberish." Although many reviewers have noted the large amounts of conversations that goes on in between missions, as many conversations must take place before further medical progress will happen. Chris Adams of IGN
stated in a closing comment about the game, "The game needed some streamlining, or at least more pressing decision-making within all these conversations, rather than mindless drag and drop." Games Master UK states, "Heavy on text, low on game, which makes it less fun than "Trauma Center." Nintendo World Report
describes the inability to skip the long conversations as "a tedious and frustrating process." Tracy Erickson of Pocket Gamer UK remarks, "Almost all of your time is spent tapping through conversations instead of actually examining patients and performing operations. This makes for a remarkably boring game, if Lifesigns can even be called a game." GameShark.com concludes, "Finally, the fact you can’t actually do anything to affect any of the game’s outcomes is somewhat ridiculous, and in the end makes it difficult to recommend."
Despite the large amount of negative reviews by video game critics, the game fared better with the public, receiving a 7.0/10 from Metacritic based on public scores. The game was listed #5 on Pocket Gamer UK's "Ten Worst DS Games of 2007."
Nintendo DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...
set in a hospital. This is the second game in a series that redefined the sim genre to make way for other medical games games such as Trauma Center: Under The Knife
Trauma Center: Under the Knife
Trauma Center: Under the Knife, known in Japan as , is a surgical simulation game developed and published by Atlus for the Nintendo DS and is the first entry in the Trauma Center series...
. Following the success of Trauma Center, LifeSigns was released in North America on November 6, 2007, and is released in Europe on July 25, 2008 under the name LifeSigns: Hospital Affairs. LifeSigns: Surgical Unit is the second game in the Kenshuui Tendo Dokuta series, but its predecessor has not been announced for foreign release.
The game is commented as being "like Phoenix Wright
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, released in Japan as , is an adventure video game published and developed by Capcom in Japan, North America, and Europe, and published by Nintendo in Australia...
crossed with Trauma Center
Trauma Center: Under the Knife
Trauma Center: Under the Knife, known in Japan as , is a surgical simulation game developed and published by Atlus for the Nintendo DS and is the first entry in the Trauma Center series...
", unlike Trauma Center, this game also placed emphasis on the daily life of the characters rather than surgeries.
LifeSigns received mixed reviews from critics. Some reviews had praised the game for the realistic hospital setting and large amounts of character interaction, while others had criticized the game for "a heavy dose of conversations," unbalanced gameplay, and the feel of the game being "less like a game." Metacritic.com, based on 17 reviews of the game, holds an average critical score of 61 out of 100.
Seimei Medical University Hospital
Dokuta Tendo (Age 25, Male)A second-year intern at the prestigious Seimei Medical University Hospital. He is studying Emergency medicine
Emergency medicine
Emergency medicine is a medical specialty in which physicians care for patients with acute illnesses or injuries which require immediate medical attention. While not usually providing long-term or continuing care, emergency medicine physicians diagnose a variety of illnesses and undertake acute...
. He can be a little naive but he is very talented. He devoted his life to helping people after seeing his mother die of cancer. In the first game, he misdiagnosed a patient, which nearly ruined his career. His surname is derived from the English word "doctor", transliterated with katakana
Katakana
is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji, and in some cases the Latin alphabet . The word katakana means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana scripts are derived from components of more complex kanji. Each kana represents one mora...
.
Sachi Hoshi(Age 22, Female)
A nurse who has been working at the hospital 1 year before Tendo. She seems to be careless at times, but nonetheless, she is a talented and devoted nurse. She seems to have a crush on Tendo. She is one of the girls Tendo can date later in the game.
Suzu Asou (Age 36, Female)
An extremely gifted surgeon, Asou is Tendo's supervisor and mentor. She recently got over her alcoholism
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
after a disastrous break-up with Prof. Sawai (first game). She is the head of the 3rd Surgery Department, which specializes in heart diseases. Tendo seems to have a crush on her. She wears a bell choker around her neck.
Kyousuke Sawai (Age 52, Male)
A world authority in the field of immunology
Immunology
Immunology is a broad branch of biomedical science that covers the study of all aspects of the immune system in all organisms. It deals with the physiological functioning of the immune system in states of both health and diseases; malfunctions of the immune system in immunological disorders ; the...
, and head of the 1st Surgical Department of Seimei Medical University Hospital. A cold and callous man who only seems to be interested in results. In the first game, it was revealed that he was Tendo's biological father and arranged his transfer to the Seimei. He is involved in the cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
treatment research and recently developed a miracle drug that might cure cancer called SPX (Sawai Power Plex). He also dated Suzu Asou for a short time which ended disastrously a few years ago. He is operated by Tendo in the final chapter, after a ballpoint pen pierced his heart in a car accident.
Yuma Aoshima (Age 24, Female)
The newest intern in the Seimei, Aoshima is an ambitious and stubborn girl who seems to enjoying eating more than anything else in the world. Because of her inexperience, she makes many mistakes at the beginning of her career in Seimei. She is one of the girls Tendo can date in the final chapter.
Ai Ueto (Age 26, Female)
A pediatrician who started her internship a year before Tendo. She was Hikaru's doctor when she was treated in Seimei. She recently switched to glasses after deciding her shades were giving her a cold appearance. According to Florence, it is rumoured that she has a new boyfriend.
Keiichi Kashiwagi (Age 47, Male)
A fat, balding doctor specializing in internal medicine
Internal medicine
Internal medicine is the medical specialty dealing with the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of adult diseases. Physicians specializing in internal medicine are called internists. They are especially skilled in the management of patients who have undifferentiated or multi-system disease processes...
.
Florence Makiko Sakurada (Age 60, Female)
Chief Nurse of Seimei. She loves gossiping and seems to know whatever is going on in the hospital. Her nickname "Florence" is obviously a reference to famous nurse Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale OM, RRC was a celebrated English nurse, writer and statistician. She came to prominence for her pioneering work in nursing during the Crimean War, where she tended to wounded soldiers. She was dubbed "The Lady with the Lamp" after her habit of making rounds at night...
.
Sanae Kurai (Age 28, Female)
An operation room nurse who has a gloomy and mysterious personality. Despite her initial impression, she is one of the three girls Tendo can date in the game.
Utsujiu Masui (Age 30, Male)
An eccentric anesthesiologist
Anesthesiologist
An anesthesiologist or anaesthetist is a physician trained in anesthesia and peri-operative medicine....
who is interested in Hoshi. He is married and has children but was recently kicked out of his house by his wife for some unknown reason.
Hikaru Sawai (Age 10, Female)
Prof. Sawai's daughter and Tendo's stepsister. Hikaru was diagnosed with leukemia
Leukemia
Leukemia or leukaemia is a type of cancer of the blood or bone marrow characterized by an abnormal increase of immature white blood cells called "blasts". Leukemia is a broad term covering a spectrum of diseases...
in the first game and was being treated in the Seimei. She recovered and returned to school when Tendo donated his bone marrow
Bone marrow
Bone marrow is the flexible tissue found in the interior of bones. In humans, bone marrow in large bones produces new blood cells. On average, bone marrow constitutes 4% of the total body mass of humans; in adults weighing 65 kg , bone marrow accounts for approximately 2.6 kg...
to her. Despite the tension between Prof. Sawai and Tendo, he and Hikaru are quite fond of each other.
Gameplay
LifeSigns is separated into five separate chapters, dealing with the main story in an episodic format. Each chapter contains one or more of the following elements:Exploring
The first type of gameplay is common to all Japanese adventure games. The main character, Tendo, explores an area, conversing with other people and furthering the story.Mini-games
There are many mini-games in Lifesigns, which can in some way affect the course of the story. Most mini-games involve simple tasks, such as catching fruit that's rolling down a hill, or catching fish.- Persuasion - On occasion, the story will split, and can follow a different path. It is up to the player, in this mini game, to convince another person to do something. If the player is successful, then the story will continue along the good path. If not, then the episode may have a bad ending.
Diagnoses
When someone is sick or injured, the player may need to diagnose the patient and decide what is wrong with them. Diagnosis commonly involves taking a patient's pulse, listening to their breathing, and examining abrasions, bruises, and swelling.Surgery
After diagnosing a patient, the player must perform surgery on them. During the surgery phase of the game, the player must perform a series of simple steps, one at a time, from disinfecting an area and making an incision, to the surgery itself, and finally closing the patient up. Unlike Trauma Center, the player in LifeSigns is automatically handed the tool they need at each stage. There are a total of nine different operations in LifeSigns.(Though the number of surgeries the player does depends on the path the player takes)Reception
LifeSigns received a mixed reception. Based on 17 reviews, metacritic.com had an average critic score of 61 out of 100.Some reviewers praised the game for having a more realistic hospital setting as opposed to a more fictional one in Trauma Center. Some also praised the large amount of character interaction, which mainly came from Sanosuke of ZTGameDomain, who gave the game its biggest praise, "I'm having trouble typing this today, as my left hand is sore from playing Lifesigns so much yesterday. And when a game compels me to play to the point of arthritis, that my friends, is a good thing.". However, Sanosuke also pointed out how there is "A little less trial and error in diagnosis", and how a few aspects of surgery functionality may aggravate. ZTGameDomain has given LifeSigns an 8.5/10.
Some of the game's criticism had been the fact that it "feels more like an interactive storybook than an actual game." GameShark.com's review states, "It’s like reading a book where you drop paragraphs into order. This is a tremendous flaw after all; this is a game, not a movie." Level (Czech Republic) had noted the unbalanced gameplay and that it "slips to boredom gibberish." Although many reviewers have noted the large amounts of conversations that goes on in between missions, as many conversations must take place before further medical progress will happen. Chris Adams of IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
stated in a closing comment about the game, "The game needed some streamlining, or at least more pressing decision-making within all these conversations, rather than mindless drag and drop." Games Master UK states, "Heavy on text, low on game, which makes it less fun than "Trauma Center." Nintendo World Report
Nintendo World Report
Nintendo World Report is a Nintendo-specific video game website that covers Nintendo's current consoles, the Nintendo DS, Nintendo DSi, and Wii.-History:...
describes the inability to skip the long conversations as "a tedious and frustrating process." Tracy Erickson of Pocket Gamer UK remarks, "Almost all of your time is spent tapping through conversations instead of actually examining patients and performing operations. This makes for a remarkably boring game, if Lifesigns can even be called a game." GameShark.com concludes, "Finally, the fact you can’t actually do anything to affect any of the game’s outcomes is somewhat ridiculous, and in the end makes it difficult to recommend."
Despite the large amount of negative reviews by video game critics, the game fared better with the public, receiving a 7.0/10 from Metacritic based on public scores. The game was listed #5 on Pocket Gamer UK's "Ten Worst DS Games of 2007."