Snatcher

Snatcher is a graphic adventure game with visual novel elements. The player takes the role of protagonist Gillian Seed as he investigates and hunts "Snatchers", dangerous humanoid robots disguised as humans roaming Neo Kobe City. The game's visuals are static images with some animations that display at the top of the screen. There is no point-and-click interface, with all actions made through a text menu with commands such as move, look, and investigate. The game's puzzles and dialogue trees are simple, lending to an emphasis on linear storytelling. Sometimes character panels are shown below the main graphics window during conversations to convey their facial expressions.

The game allows exploration of a semi-open world. There are a handful of action segments where the player shoots at enemies dispersed across a 3x3 grid. The Sega CD version supports the Justifier light gun packaged with Lethal Enforcers for these segments.

Snatcher is a cyberpunk graphic adventure game developed and published by Konami. It was written and designed by Hideo Kojima and first released in 1988 for the PC-8801 and MSX2 in Japan. Snatcher is set in a future East Asian metropolis where humanoid robots dubbed "Snatchers" have been discovered killing humans and replacing them in society. The player takes on the role of Gillian Seed, an amnesiac who joins a Snatcher hunting agency hoping it will help him remember his past. Gameplay takes place primarily through a menu-based interface through which the player can choose to examine items, search rooms, speak to characters, explore a semi-open world, and perform other actions.

Kojima wanted Snatcher to have a cinematic feel, so the setting and story are heavily influenced by science fiction films, especially Blade Runner, and other cyberpunk works such as Akira and The Terminator. Development on the PC versions took more than twice as long as the average game of the time, even after Kojima was asked to trim more than half his initial story. The game was released to positive reviews, but poor sales. It garnered a cult following, and was remade as a role-playing game called SD Snatcher for the MSX2 in 1990. This was followed by a remake of the original adventure game using CD-ROM technology, released for the PC Engine Super CD-ROM² System in 1992.

Looking to provide a more interactive experience to gamers in the West, Konami developed a Sega CD version of Snatcher specifically for North America and Europe in 1994. Although it too was released to a poor commercial reception, the Sega CD version received mostly positive reviews for its cinematic presentation and mature themes uncommon in games at the time. Snatcher has been retrospectively acclaimed as both one of the best adventure and cyberpunk games of all time, and identified as a foundation for the themes Kojima explored later in the Metal Gear series. The game was a significant inspiration on Goichi Suda, who worked with Kojima to produce a radio drama prequel, Sdatcher. The English version of Snatcher has never been rereleased, despite desire from fans.