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RTTP: Trauma Team (a.k.a. HOSPITAL: 6 Doctors)

Ilvocare

Member
First off, click here for the game's trailer if you don't know what this is.

INTRO

So shortly after this game was announced for purchase on the Wii U, I got an extreme craving to play this again, and was even all set up to buy the game again. Only problem was that the Wiimotes I had in my house were nowhere to be found (I had two Nunchuks but no actual Wiimotes). So I searched, came up short, and waited. Lost the reserve cash to buy the game digitally again due to familial obligations, but I managed to find my original physical copy of the game instead!

z2w31s6.jpg

After a couple weeks of trying to scrounge up money and generally living life during the holidays, around near the end of 2015 a family member gave me a "Christmas gift" which ended up being one of the missing Wiimotes in the house... that I already technically owned. I was mad for like half a second before I immediately decided "fuck it, I got what I need" and just started playing through TT again right then and there.

It's been a week and I've finished the main game as of today. TL;DR on my impressions: the game has actually aged better than I remember it. It's an amazing experience, and I want as many people as I can manage to convince to play it. However, I have a couple of relatively minor gameplay gripes with the game at higher-level play that I'll try to elaborate upon later.


STORY

Trauma Team's plot, from beginning to end, is deliciously over-the-top, and manages to blend fairly-accurate medical terminology and cases with dumb bullshit like ghosts, ninjas, supercomputers, superheroes, and superjail. It manages to be fairly grounded and emotional when it needs to be, despite the crazy nonsense I've mentioned already. It's a really great blend that just works for me in so, so many ways. I'm not gonna go into specific details about the story because it's much better unspoiled. Just trust me that it's a hell of a ride, with plenty of standout holy-shit moments that I'll mention if prompted. Just not here in the OP.

Instead, I want to dedicate this section to analyzing the vast improvement in the production values that went towards the presentation of the narrative compared to other games.

The previous games in the Trauma series were basically visual novels wrapped around a unique action game that honestly has yet to be replicated by any other series (and I stand by calling the Trauma games "action" games, I'll explain that when I cover gameplay). Serviceable, and the writing isn't terrible, in fact I enjoyed the romps that Under the Knife 1, 2, and New Blood were. But in comparison, TT is in an entirely separate league of presentation.

Of course, this being an incredibly niche series, expecting stuff like full 3D rendered cutscenes is far beyond the realms of reality or practicality for a franchise like this. Instead, the team working on this opted for a comic-book style series of still images to act as the medium to tell the story. This decision alone is a huge jump in the amount of art assets required just to say what's going on. Not only that, but since the action isn't advanced solely by the player's advancing through text, there's now music and sound effects timed to the scenes, as opposed to general music playing through the entirety of a scene as you read. Much like New Blood, the previous game in the series, the story cutscenes are fully voiced (with a pretty damn good English dub, in my honest opinion. New Blood's dubbing pales compared to TT). This might seem like basic stuff for any other game, but you have to understand how niche these games are compared to others.

To make a long, meandering paragraph short, the narrative in TT is a blast to sit back, enjoy, and in some cases even immerse yourself in. It's above and beyond the best single element in the game, with the music being a very, very strong runner-up.

...Too bad the game was balanced for babies.

GENERAL GAMEPLAY

Let me consider the other, older games for a moment. The original Under the Knife has one base difficulty which most people would consider "Hard". I totally agree with that sentiment. Under the Knife 2, New Blood, and I think also Second Opinion have three difficulty modes for main-game operations, which are Easy, Normal, and Hard (color-coded brown, blue, and yellow respectively, with postgame missions normally designated the red Extreme difficulty). In all of those games, the Hard difficulty (not the Normal one) is consistent with the general feel of the first game. In addition, New Blood's optional missions (the ones that aren't postgame) have no selectable difficulty, and might as well default to Hard considering how crazy they are. Hence it's my sincere belief that the Trauma Center series is always balanced gameplay-wise for Hard mode FIRST, and then balanced downwards by tweaking variables like vital loss, miss penalties, clear bonuses and the like. That's fine. I have no problem with providing easier difficulty for players not able to deal so long as the hard stuff is kept intact for crazy assholes like myself.

Trauma Team, on the other hand, has two difficulties available from the get-go: Intern and Resident. By beating the main game, you unlock the hidden difficulty Specialist, which is the hardest difficulty the game has. These difficulties are color-coded, in order, blue, yellow, and red. The implications here are apparent if you read the last paragraph: the middle difficulty is supposed to be Hard, and the unlockable difficulty is supposed to give you a postgame-esque challenge for every operation in the game.

In reality, Intern is Easy, Resident is Normal, and Specialist is Kinda-Hard.

As an avid fan of the series, I was no doubt disappointed by this eventual revelation. There really wasn't a good reason to keep Specialist locked away until after the main game was completed if it wasn't even going to completely match up with the challenges of the Hard difficulties with the other games. But that's not all!

In-game, when playing any difficulty, you get a sense that TT holds your hand throughout the entire operation, for all operations, from beginning to end. There's always visual guides appearing on screen telling you how to deal with whatever specific ailment is at hand, for all operations. In Orthopedics you even have indicators always telling you which buttons you need to press and whether you should be moving the Nunchuk or Wiimote in a specific direction. Trauma Team's tutorializing persists even into the endgame, where you're still getting pop-up tutorials for brand new procedures until the very last operation.

All this stuff was clearly done to make the series appeal to a wider audience, as no doubt the extra budget poured into the research of medical procedures and the story scenes required a significantly bigger return on investment in order to succeed.

And considering this is currently still the most recent game in the series, it's easy to see how that didn't work... no doubt due to the abysmal release window for the game.

Despite these naggling quips, Trauma Team plays amazingly, and is without a doubt the best game for entry into the series for those concerned with the difficulty of the series. Hell, most procedures have way more leniency in general than the other games, regardless of difficulty selection. It's just a shame the game's higher-end challenge was sacrificed for these accommodations.

Not gonna lie, I was seriously considering just auto-replacing all instances of "Intern" with "Bitch Coward Mode" but I think that's too mean even for me...

Enough about me difficulty-shaming a no-doubt significant number of people, let me speak my piece on each individual gameplay style.


SURGERY - The patient's life is in your hands

Relatively unchanged from the previous games, for the most part. Why fix what isn't broken, right? The only real new ailment that I can think of in this mode that never really appears in other games would have to be wires embedded in patients that require you to extract them in multiple directions for each bend in the wire. Using ultrasound makes taking them out much easier... but when you try to XS rank missions, you're better off not using it to save on time. If you're careful enough, you can extract those wires without pinging them on the ultrasound.

ENDGAME SPOILERS -
Surgery is the only specialty that has the honor of fighting the game's proper "final boss". Everything about the encounter is amazing: the music is on point, the acting is phenomenal, and it's a pretty emotional part of the game, all things considered. That being said, it's the weakest actual viral threat in the whole series. I'd even consider the first Kyriaki and Cheir missions to be harder than TT's final boss, which is saying something.

Yes, even on Specialist.


FIRST RESPONSE - The first moments are the most critical

This mode is super good. It's frantic but not unprecise, and tends to be accompanied by the best music in the game. No real complaints here.


ENDOSCOPY - You must seek what lies within

Honestly, it's a pretty good mode, and one of the few specialties where ailments can happen somewhat-procedurally if you're not on top of things.

I've heard complaints about the general controls in this mode, and they're not wrong...

...if you're talking about the default controls.

ONE NEAT TRICK! ATLUS AND HARD-TO-GET XS RANKS HATE IT!

1. Beat the first mission.
2. Start the second mission and pass the tutorial about sensitivity controls.
3. Press 1 on the Wiimote (or 2, I forget which) to bring up the sensitivity controls.
4. Crank the sensitivity to max and never fucking look back.

No seriously, the mode plays way better and way faster like this. If you're concerned you can't handle it, then adjust yourself stage-by-stage until you're satisfied.

I just wish the endoscopic story for the mode didn't end
with a gimmick mission.

In exchange, Endoscopy is the only specialty in endgame to get 3 missions all to itself, as opposed to 1 or 2.


ORTHOPEDICS - Work your marvel with strength and skill

Out of the four action modes, I find this one the poorest. This mode is the most on-rails mode in the game by a wide margin. Not only that, but it has what I've recently realized is the worst controls for a procedure in the entire series, with the hammering sections being unbelievably unreliable as to what they consider a "max power" swing as opposed to a love tap.

Ideally, the mode insists that how long you take to do a procedure doesn't matter so long as you do it precisely. That concept would be fine if a later mission and the journey of XS'ing this field of missions didn't DIRECTLY spit in that philosophy's face. This, ironically enough, makes this specialty the hardest of all the modes in postgame. But it's also the most boring due to the complete lack of freedom you have in attacking the operations. Gotta trace those guidelines. Gotta trace them fast, b-but not too fast, because reasons, I guess...

I think I'd enjoy this mode as much as the others if I could get a handle on hammering properly and if the mode wasn't so annoying chained to it's rails.

Speaking of which, that's another thing: the Chain mechanic normally reserved for Surgery has instead been moved here, and is also a more variable quantity that depends on how well you trace/meet your guidelines, with even BADs/GOODs/COOLs not simply adding +1 (or breaking the Chain in the case of BADs) but rather +0, +50, and +100 respectively. The cool thing about the way it's used in this mode is that as it grows higher, the music amps itself up to reflect how good you're doing, and breaking the chain causes the music to go back to 0. It's a hell of a feedback mechanic, and a really nice detail in a very detail-oriented game.

The problem lies in the fact that the best version of the music is achieved at around Chain 1200 or so, and Orthopedics operations are BY FAR the longest action segments in the game, meaning you'll hit Chains of 4000, 7000, and more listening to the same 15-second loop of music.

This shit drove me insane back then. Orthopedics desperately needs better pacing, and maybe a fifth stage of music performance to tell the player they're on track for that XS later in the operations, since TT has opted to remove the time limit from all
but a couple
of the operations, yet how fast you do the operations still totally matters for the XS.


DIAGNOSIS - Your mind is the ultimate tool

The first of two specialties in the game that are less action-oriented and more akin to adventure games. Honestly, I didn't mind either of these modes that much. That being said, I prefer Diagnosis over Forensics in terms of implementation. The chapters in this mode are much better paced and the back-and-forth in the dialogue is a genuine joy. Not to mention the planner of this mode clearly put the most work into emulating the process. There's an insane amount of detail put into the explanations for each symptom, what they are, and what each possible disease is. Also Gabe is the coolest motherfucker, period. STORY SPOILERS -
Shame that he's arguably the flattest of the six main characters; his situation and its resolution were pretty damn stark in comparison to the others.

GAMEPLAY CONTENT SPOILERS -
Diagnosis also unfortunately has the least missions compared to every other specialty in the game, clocking in at 5, including the endgame.

FORENSICS - The truth can never truly die

The other adventure game mode, and the one with the closest parallels to stuff like the Ace Attorney series. Not gonna lie, I enjoyed my time through each case... the first time through.

The problems start to pop up when you go through them again
to complete all the medal books which literally do not exist until you've beaten the main game, which is nonsense.
Even though I had started a brand new file on my Wii U to play the story from beginning to end again, I couldn't help but notice how much time is spent listening to Naomi and Little Guy (aka 1 of no less than 5 different roles Yuri Lowenthal voices in this game, no really shit's nuts) talking to each other as you the player stare at a gray computer screen almost designed to be the most boring computer background in existence. I couldn't help but notice how many times the quizzes iterated and reiterated information you as the player had found out already upon finding the evidence the first time. The crime scenes, in general, are rather vicious pixel hunts, only slightly alleviated by the ALS tool. Not to mention how infrequently you use the luminol and fingerprint powder in general...

At least here, the handholding in Trauma Team works to the mode's advantage, as there's almost always a piece of dialogue telling you whether you're done with an area or examining a corpse or not. Which only makes it all the more bizarre that most event flag progression is only triggered by you leaving your computer after analyzing and combining evidence...

Not to mention the correct answers to the postgame medal books have like a 1 in 3 chance of being blatantly wrong, but that's beside the point.

Outside of that, though, the cases here are pretty fucked up. They're nothing if not fascinating to discover how everything goes from bad to worse.

Considering both Diagnosis and Forensics for a moment, I can't help but shake the feeling that these two modes feel like filler in a series centered around action-like gameplay. The weird thing is that they aren't bad, far from it. They just feel a bit misplaced, is all...


FINAL THOUGHTS

I figure I should mention why I'm so crazy about ranking and high performance in this series. Long story short, before I touched Character Action games, I had this series. A lot of the general feeling of optimization and short, intense bursts of near-flawless play are shared between CA games and the Trauma series. The more I think about it, the more the comparison feels apt. And yet, the Trauma games aren't CA: they're something wholly unique, and should be treasured and lauded as such.

I really needed to get all this out there, and to be honest there's a bunch of stuff I purposefully failed to talk about. It's really difficult to throw your unwavering recommendation behind a game while simultaneously picking it apart for things you feel it could have done better. I tried to be as brief with each section as I could, but clearly I failed. That being said, if you actually managed to read all the way to here, then thank you. Thank you for listening to a crazy asshole mourn the last flickering light of a series he seriously doubts has a chance to return...

If you for some reason want to hear me talk about something else that I failed to mention here, by all means ask away. I'll try to be shorter than this original post, at least.

One last time: Trauma Team is amazing, and it's available in the US and Japan digitally for the Wii U as a Wii classic. If you have ANY interest in the game but don't own it, I implore you to get it that way. That's all from me for now.

BONUS DOCUMENT 1: CO-OP

See my RTTP on the first Trauma Center here!
 

Roldan

Member
a family member gave me a "Christmas gift" which ended up being one of the missing Wiimotes in the house... that I already technically owned.

lmao

I only played through the first Under the Knife, and thought it was pretty good. UTK 2 didn't click for me, though.

But you caught my attention, OP. I never checked the Wii entries, will do that now.
 
Loved Trauma Team. They really should just make a new Trauma Center game but utilize just First Response and Surgery as the main two. Then make a side game with Forensics and Diagnosis as the main kickers.
 

Ilvocare

Member
Hell of an OP, ilvo.

I should really pick this game up...
How's the co op?

BONUS DOCUMENT 1: CO-OP

There's no online for it, first off, and second off even if there WAS it doesn't matter because Ninty's Wi-Fi is kill.

Orthopedics and Endoscopy's co-ops are turn-based by action and time, respectively. They do their job, and really that's all you need for co-op in a case like this. Just make sure you have two set of controls, obviously. Of note is that in Endoscopy, the inactive player controls the flashlight, so both players just trade roles of importance with each turn.

First Response involves you picking and choosing which players deal with which patients before the operation starts, i.e. P1 covers patients 2 and 3 while P2 covers 1, 4, and 5. Still works, although transfer is a little clunkier since it's still very much a take-your-turn type of affair in a fast-paced action mode.

Surgery's co-op is the most problematic in my opinion, since it involves you splitting the eight main tools among both players before the operation starts. This obviously ends up with players most likely having to switch off ailments during individual steps of the procedure to resolve them. At least both players can act with different tools at the same time...

It's certainly balanced, but it feels clunky in practice unless you have an insane amount of synergy with your partner.

I honestly didn't play it that much, but you might have a close friend that does.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that even though the Diagnosis and Forensics modes don't have official co-op, the second Wiimote's pointer is still totally active, meaning two people can conceptually play through the adventure-game stuff together and feel like they're both participating.
 

AKingNamedPaul

I am Homie
not to be the only voice of negativity, but this game was the biggest let down on the wii for me. I don't remember too much about why, but I remember putting the game back into my collection and being severely upset that I was excited to play it. IIRC the game play was shallow and the story stuff was god awful.
 

Verelios

Member
This game is too freaking hard! I remember it coming out on the DS just as I was entering college. The first few missions were fine but when Sin was introduced they get progressively harder and harder, until the final 'boss' sin. I hadn't given up before that point because it was a really interesting game for that time and I wanted to see it through.

Last Sin completely killed my motivation for that. Regeneration speed/barrier/high damage, the worst part was that I was consistently able to get to the third (last) stage but right before killing the bastard time would run out, or my patients vitals would slip. Just too frustrating.

Love the series though. Went on to pick up and beat the Wii and 2nd DS games. Came back to the first game about 2 years ago and still got chewed out.
 

Ilvocare

Member
Back from work and I thought I should acknowledge a couple of things. First off, all the guys from the EU: if necessary I wouldn't say no to importing a copy of the game and using homebrew to get around the region locking, I totally agree that it's bullshit it never hit Europe!

Also:

This game is too freaking hard! I remember it coming out on the DS just as I was entering college. The first few missions were fine but when Sin was introduced they get progressively harder and harder, until the final 'boss' sin. I hadn't given up before that point because it was a really interesting game for that time and I wanted to see it through.

Last Sin completely killed my motivation for that. Regeneration speed/barrier/high damage, the worst part was that I was consistently able to get to the third (last) stage but right before killing the bastard time would run out, or my patients vitals would slip. Just too frustrating.

Love the series though. Went on to pick up and beat the Wii and 2nd DS games. Came back to the first game about 2 years ago and still got chewed out.

This post is confusing. I assume you're talking about the original Under the Knife's difficulty? Like I mentioned before, that game defaults to Hard and doesn't have any easier difficulties. Trauma Team on the other hand is without a doubt super easy to just BEAT. Easiest in the series to clear. If you're still struggling on the OG DS one, just remember that if you've been clearing the other games on Normal then that's not enough to match up to UtK's end- and post-game.

If I had the recording software I'd totally make a couple of videos on S ranking/ XS ranking certain operations.

To everyone else here, feel free to ask me questions on specific points made in my OP! I welcome it.
 
Finally digging into this after really enjoying the prior games in the series.

Not as challenging as earlier titles, but I'm really enjoying the adventure game stylings of the diagnostics and forensics sections.

I love how dark and tragic the story gets at times, some surprisingly good voice acting and twisted plot lines.

After losing a bit of enthusiasm for the wide open world of Fallout 4 and somewhat overwhelming amount of activities in Yakuza 5 this has been pretty refreshing and I've been compelled to finish it before resuming the other games.
 

Ilvocare

Member
Finally digging into this after really enjoying the prior games in the series.

Not as challenging as earlier titles, but I'm really enjoying the adventure game stylings of the diagnostics and forensics sections.

I love how dark and tragic the story gets at times, some surprisingly good voice acting and twisted plot lines.

After losing a bit of enthusiasm for the wide open world of Fallout 4 and somewhat overwhelming amount of activities in Yakuza 5 this has been pretty refreshing and I've been compelled to finish it before resuming the other games.

Yes good, this game deserves the attention. I'll probably do the first of my post-game wrap-ups soon, actually, but needless to say I'm REALLY struggling with Orthopedics. The hammer controls aren't playing nice and you need to get EXACTLY what you want 12 times in a row in the second op for that XS.

Also the length of the Orthopedics ops in general makes it all the easier for you to screw up and fail to get a COOL.

In comparison, the other specialties are nothing. But pray for me when I try to tackle Love in the Ground and Blade of Resolve...
 

Vecks

Member
I did not know about that sensitivity thing for endoscopy. Might give this a replay just to check that out.
 

ASIS

Member
So I got the game a few days ago on the shop because I somehow missed it during its retail days despite being a massive Trauma fan since Under The Knife.

Needless to say I am absolutely in love with this game. It's so fucking fresh and the adventure modes compliment the action incredibly well. I like all modes really and I can't say which is my favorite at the time.

I hope we get trauma team 2 sometime in the future.
 
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