Tokyo Wakusei Planetokio

Tokyo Wakusei Planetokio is a sci-fi action-adventure and role-playing PlayStation game developed by Outside Directors Company and published by Asmik Ace Entertainment on August 26, 1999. It is the sixth game Osamu Sato developed in his game developing career, and it is the second PlayStation game he collaborated with Asmik Ace, with it being the last game Hiroko Nishikawa worked with him.

Plot

"２０世紀から宇宙人の存在は広く人々の興味対象でしたが、ついに地球に外宇宙生物が現れました。アキハバラ電気街に現れた宇宙人は大量の電化製品を強奪した模様でございます。"
"Humans were interested in the existence of aliens since the 20th century. However, these extra-terrestrials have now appeared on Earth. The alien sighted in Akihabara’s electric streets has been robbing a large number of electric appliances." - Newscaster in the TV -

One day at Rairai Ken ramen restaurant at Nerima Hikarigaoka island, a TV showed breaking news about an extraterrestrial attacking Akihabara island. Behind the closed door of the fridge in the kitchen, lies the headquarters of an anti-alien organization known as "Planetokio Defence Force". The leader, Dr. Hokin and his pupil Iken, together are making a supreme gun (To fight against aliens invading Planetokio) called “Naru Naru MK1”(ナルナル１号). In order to make sure it works, Hokin sadistically tested on poor Iken both standard and energized punches. As Hokin explains the usage for the gun, alarm calls and Dr. Hokin assigns Iken to fight the alien in Akihabara island. As Iken was about to leave the restaurant, the owner Lailai order Iken to deliver the “Brainiac Ramen” (頭脳ラーメン）to the bald man of Rouden electronics in Akihabara island. As Iken arrives at the parking lot and walks towards the exit, a thief bumps into him, steals the ramen, and leaves. Iken managed to capture the thief, only to find it was too late as he ate all of the ramen, and so to make up for it he gave Iken a one hundred yen coin. Iken then used the coin and the trashed robot he found in the landfill along the way to defeat Biribiri and brought it back to the lab.

As Dr. Hokin investigates the alien's body, he finds a molecule that turns out to be a collect virus, the source of all troubles. Dr. Hokin then awards Iken his invented brain so Iken can create his own robot. As he installs the brain to the body, he realizes it needs a headshell to cover the brain and so he called Naomi of Uomasa fishmongers for opinions, and then she suggests Giddy Park of Shibuya Island and took him there. As Iken and Naomi are at the store, a different alien known as Fuwafuwa destroys the store and kidnaps her. Iken then seeks the Pigeon gang who gave him the strength to defeat Fuwafuwa and rescue Naomi. Iken then finally brings the robot to life, and Naomi names the new robot Boro. Meanwhile at Naomi's house, her dad Dr. Campbell invites Iken and Naomi to his laboratory to witness his masterpiece, GyororinRX035beta when suddenly a different alien, known as Nurunuru barges in and steals Gyororin. Iken chases Nururu at Asakusa Island and defeats him, freeing Gyororin and allowing Naomi to accept him on a date at the fireworks festival. After the events of Asakusa, Boro is in Iken's apartment, working as a cleaning maid. He accidentally steps onto his own cord, and he laments how he wishes to be cordless. Boro then wakes up to find out he's in a gorilla suit. Iken claims that animatronics are the trendiest thing in the robot world and that Boro is the type of robot Naomi likes. Iken brings Boro to Iken's workplace when Lailai suddenly appears and orders Iken his meal delivery, leaving Boro with the professor. As Dr. Hokin explains Boro about his wig, Choki-choki the alien appears and attacked the restaurant. Iken returns to the restaurant after delivery only to find a place in ruins. Dr. Hokin appears from the fridge bald; Hokin explains while Iken was in errantry, the alien appeared and stole his wig to protect his genius mind and Boro and escaped off to Ueno Island. Hokin tied Iken to a rocket catapult and launched him to Ueno Island. Iken landed on the island unsuccessfully as he was on the train tracks but was able to jump off as the train reached the station. There, Iken again seeks help from the beggars and the protest group to retrieve weapons to defeat Choki-choki. Iken rescues Boro and retrieved Hokin's wig and returns to the restaurant, exhausted. Dr. Hokin offers Boro to recharge his battery using Biri-Biri's body as a power generator. Things didn't go too good as the alien instead, electrocutes Iken and Dr. Hokin.

Meanwhile, at Uomasa fishmongers, Naomi was testing out different ribbons to satisfy her horn when Dr. Canbell appears and ask what his daughter was doing. Dr. Canbell was shocked in disgust when he saw Naomi's horn and decides to diagnose her and bring the information to Dr. Hokin. Dr. Hokin unfortunate cannot do anything next and suggests Campbell, to wait for her additional symptoms. Naomi woke up one morning only to find out she gotten really fat. Iken visits Uomasa to meet Naomi when shortly, he and Campbell heard screams coming from Naomi's room. Iken and Dr. Canbell rushed to Naomi's room, only to find out she isn't there. The truth reveals, a different alien, Muchi-muchi has kidnapped Naomi and headed off to Ryogoku-Island. With Dr. Hokin's advice, Dr. Canbell pushes the red button on Iken's Naru-Naru MK1 and launched Iken to Ryogoku-Island. After the events at Ryogoku-Island, Dr. Hokin extracts the 2D-fied Naomi from a book and placed it onto a scanning desk, in his lab. Hokin explains the two that the alien changed Naomi's dimension to turn 2D and to turn it back to 3D, she needs a tiny drop of boiled water. Iken poured a drop of boiled water onto Naomi which changed her back to normal. As Iken attempts to give her a fat blasting supplement, she turned away in disgust, but her body went back to slim and she leaves the headquarters, with Iken chasing her.

One evening, Iken visits Naomi's house once again to apologize for what happened before. There were no responses and Iken questions why the store was in a blackout during operating hours. Dr. Canbell meets Iken while carrying a candle; Campbell told Iken his daughter took all the lightbulbs in the house. Iken finds Naomi sitting in the middle of her room, surrounded by lightbulbs and unconscious. Dr. Canbell explains Iken that Naomi was infected by the Collect virus; Dr. Canbell reveals that Naomi was a daughter, created by duplicating the gene of his deceased wife and gestated in the lab. Because Naomi was created artificially, she didn't have the immunity to the Collect Virus, unlike what normal humans do. Campbell explains to Iken that Hokin has managed to extract the virus from her but it is the race against time to create a vaccine to end all invasion. Iken returned home, worried, while Boro questions Iken if Naomi may end up like the aliens. Iken refused to believe that she may end up like the aliens when suddenly the tv switched to breaking news; An alien has been sighted on Higashogaoka-Island. Iken thought the alien would be Naomi when a call from Dr. Canbell reveals that Naomi was once again kidnapped by the alien while she escaped from her house. Dr. Hokin clarifies that the alien is indeed Pika-pika, and it headed off to Haneda-Island and commands Iken to defeat them. He also commands Boro to convert to his flight-mode which transforms Boro into a small plane for Iken to ride. Iken manages to arrive at Haneda-Island with barely any fuel left for Boro and chases Pika-pika across Tokyo until he confronts them on the highest point of Tokyo Tower. As Iken finishes off the alien with the collect virus, the alien dodged the shot and accidentally land onto Naomi tied to a rope which transforms her into a Naomi headed-monster abomination, Puri-puri. Puri-puri flies up to the highest point of the tower, pushes Iken and Pika-pika, and flies off to Planetokio Kenkou-land. Pika-pika, unfortunately, dies from great heights, but Iken survives the fall by clinging onto the tower's steel frames.

By the time Naomi has turned into Puri-puri, it was too late and this enraged Dr. Canbell very much that Dr. Hokin had to retrain him. Dr. Hokin then orders Boro to return to the HQ to collect the second batch of the vaccine and orders Iken to chase after her. After Boro flew off, Iken meets up with the reporter of Planetokio, Taro Tokio, and asks him to take Iken to Kenkou-Land; Both Iken and the reporter flew off to Kenkou-Land in a flying van. As Boro picks up the vaccine, Iken infiltrates the recreation center, disguised as an employee. Iken reunites Boro in the recreation center only to find out his robot accidentally lost the vaccine. As Puri-puri confronts the weary Iken, and beam of bright light ended the battle.

Iken wakes up to a bight morning sunlight in his room. Unsure if the battle he had was a dream, he walked to Rai Rai Ken, when it turned out it wasn't a dream when he saw the aliens and Naomi in one building. Dr. Hokin explains that the aliens and Naomi are cured of the virus and they're no longer a threat. Boro says the aliens wanted to see Iken's collections and depending on what the player did in the game, they could travel to space to partake the Biennial Intergalactic Collect Exhibition or not.

Spoilers end here.

Gameplay

Overworld

After a prologue cutscene in each chapter, you'll be in the overworld segment. This segment serves as the main hub where you travel around in the city, gathering information from the locals and obtaining items you'll use for the battle segment. Moving left or right on the directional pad makes Iken walk to that said direction and holding down the triangle button while moving, allows him to run. The controls are like walking on ice, which makes Iken prone to crashing into walls. The up and down buttons are used to enter and exit buildings as well as changing paths, assuming the player can see an arrow pointing to a building or path which they can enter. Circle buttons are used to interact with people and items, as well as serving as the confirm command. The cross button serves the opposite, which is the cancel command. The start button assumes you know, is the pause button where you can see items you've collected during each city and stamps.

In each city, which is based on parts of real-world Tokyo Japan, such as the electronic districts of Akihabara, to the old Edo streets of Asakusa, you'll find four places of interest that are important to the journey. The first two places are connected to each other, the left being Paipai Clinic while the right being Rairaiken Ramen restaurant. Rairaiken serves as a saving point where players can record their progress by talking to Lailai, the owner of the establishment. Paipai Clinic, owned by Dr. Paipai, rescues you if you get knocked out from losing a battle against the alien or get hit by an obstacle during the maze part. A convenience store called "One-Seven" where the clerk gives you items and helpful hints if you get stuck during the journey. And last but not least, the stamp robot who stamps commemorative stamps onto the book, which are key items for getting a good ending to the game.

Maze Segments

During certain chapters, Iken must navigate through a maze without getting caught by obstacles patrolling the area, to reach a certain item, or to reach the boss. This is the stealth aspect of the game. The overworld controls still apply to this segment, except the up and down on the directional pad now allows Iken to climb ladders. Obstacles that Iken confronts include police patrol robots, pigeons, and mechanical gorillas.

Boss Fights

At each end of the chapter, Iken must face the alien who is troubling the city. Each alien has different traits and this affects their strength and weakness. The fight will be a first-person role-play mode where each side takes turns fighting. When Iken fights, you are given three options:

The left scroll chooses the item you've collected during the chapter. These items except for the boxing glove disappear after clearing the chapter. The middle scroll decides whether the item would be shot standard or energised. The right button confirms the item selected and Iken would shoot the item at the alien.

Watching Iken's thoughts when using each item is humourous so I recommend you give it a try. The goal of this segment is to bring the alien's health meter down. Bringing more items to battle allows Iken to survive the fight longer.

Characters

Iken
Dr. Hokin
Naomi
Dr. Campbell
Boro
Lailai
Paipai
Tokio Taro

Islands

Hikarigaoka Island
Akihabara Island
Shibuya Island
Asakusa Island
Ueno Island
Ryogoku Island
Haneda Airport Island
Marunouchi Island
Shinjuku Island
Roppongi Island
Planetokio Kenkou Land

Aliens

Biribiri
Fuwafuwa
Nurunuru
Chokichoki
Muchimuchi
Pikapika

External Links

[Tokyo Wakusei Planetokio OSD page] (Japanese)
[Game Revolution Article]