Real Sound: Kaze no Regret
Encyclopedia
is an adventure
Adventure game
An adventure game is a video game in which the player assumes the role of protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and puzzle-solving instead of physical challenge. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based media such as literature and film,...

 audio game
Audio game
An audio game is an electronic game played on a device such as a personal computer. It is similar to a video game save that the only feedback device is audible rather than visual....

 created by WARP, Inc.
Superwarp
WARP is a now-defunct video game developer. Founded by Japanese musician, Kenji Eno, WARP was composed of five members and was dedicated to creating interactive cinema. Their most successful series of games, the D series, featured the same lead character, Laura, and were known for their musical...

 for the Sega Saturn
Sega Saturn
The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console that was first released by Sega on November 22, 1994 in Japan, May 11, 1995 in North America, and July 8, 1995 in Europe...

 in 1997. The game was intended to provide equal access to both players with sight and to blind players.

Production history

WARP's president, Kenji Eno
Kenji Eno
is a musician and video game designer based in Japan. He is best-known for his cult survival horror series, the D games and his audio game series, Real Sound.-Childhood and early years:...

, created the game after receiving numerous appreciation letters from blind fans of his games in Japan. Eno visited a number of his visually disabled fans to learn how it is that blind people could play the visually rich action game
Action game
Action game is a video game genre that emphasizes physical challenges, including hand–eye coordination and reaction-time. The genre includes diverse subgenres such as fighting games, shooter games, and platform games, which are widely considered the most important action games, though some...

 genre.

In a 2008 interview with 1Up
1UP.com
1UP.com is a video game website owned by IGN Entertainment, a division of News Corporation. Previously, the site was owned by Ziff Davis before being sold to UGO Entertainment in 2009....

, Eno stated: "I had a chance to visit people who are visually disabled, and I learned that there are blind people who play action games. Of course, [blind people are] not able to have the full experience, and they're kind of trying to force themselves to be able to play, but they're making the effort. So I thought that if you turn off the monitor
Video monitor
A video monitor also called a broadcast monitor, broadcast reference monitor or just reference monitor, is a display device similar to a television set, used to monitor the output of a video-generating device, such as playout from a video server, IRD, video camera, VCR, or DVD player. It may or...

, both of you are just hearing the game. So after you finish the game, you can have an equal conversation about it with a blind person. That's an inspiration behind [Real Sound: Kaze no Regret] as well." So excited was Eno about the project that he used his clout as a first-class game designer to bargain with Sega
Sega
, usually styled as SEGA, is a multinational video game software developer and an arcade software and hardware development company headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan, with various offices around the world...

 such that in exchange for the exclusive right
Exclusive right
In Anglo-Saxon law, an exclusive right is a de facto, non-tangible prerogative existing in law to perform an action or acquire a benefit and to permit or deny others the right to perform the same action or to acquire the same benefit. A "prerogative" is in effect an exclusive right...

s to the game, Sega
Sega
, usually styled as SEGA, is a multinational video game software developer and an arcade software and hardware development company headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan, with various offices around the world...

 would donate a thousand Sega Saturn
Sega Saturn
The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console that was first released by Sega on November 22, 1994 in Japan, May 11, 1995 in North America, and July 8, 1995 in Europe...

s to blind people. Eno, in turn subsequently donated a thousand copies of Real Sound along with the game consoles. In explaining why the game has only been re-released once despite apparent interest in the title, Eno has stated that: "It's been several years now, and of course the contract probably isn't valid anymore, but the reason that I haven't done anything with this game is that I made this promise with Sega back in the day, and it's exclusive because of those conditions."

Plot

The storyline was written by Takamatsu Ogawa to center around two central elements - fear
Fear
Fear is a distressing negative sensation induced by a perceived threat. It is a basic survival mechanism occurring in response to a specific stimulus, such as pain or the threat of danger...

 and love
Love
Love is an emotion of strong affection and personal attachment. In philosophical context, love is a virtue representing all of human kindness, compassion, and affection. Love is central to many religions, as in the Christian phrase, "God is love" or Agape in the Canonical gospels...

 - in a story that unfolds in Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

. Mizu Sakura (voiced by Ryoko Shinohara
Ryoko Shinohara
Ryoko Shinohara is a Japanese singer and actress. She began her career as a singer in the Japanese female pop band Tokyo Performance Doll, and after its break-up, began a solo singing career with producer Tetsuya Komuro...

), an elementary student, is moved to a new school where she joins a new class of students and is seated next to Hiroshi Nonoichi. The two fall in love and because they are so young they decide to elope. They arrange to meet at a clock tower to begin their flight, however Mizu never shows up and shortly afterward she is transferred away again. They meet again coincidentally a month later.

Several years later, Hiroshi has now become a college student. Mizu is entering the job market and is having meetings and interviews with company personnel managers. Suddenly there is a disappearance that takes place in the subway system...

The game features a number of secondary characters that employ the vocal talents of such people as Miho Kanno
Miho Kanno
is a Japanese actress and J-Pop singer. Her nickname is Kanchan . She was born in Sakado, Saitama, Japan.- Biography :In 1992, Kanno made her debut as a member of a group called Sakurakko Kurabu Sakura Gumi after passing the orientation for the TV variety show Sakurakko Kurabu...

 and Ai Maeda, and music is composed and performed by Keiichi Suzuki and Akiko Yano
Akiko Yano
is a Japanese pop and jazz musician and singer. She was born as Akiko Suzuki in Tokyo and raised in Aomori, Aomori, and later began her singing career in the mid-1970s...

.

Gameplay

Although a re-make featuring an optional "Visual mode" was made in 1999 for the Dreamcast, both versions of the game rely exclusively on the audio portions of the game with the Dreamcast's Visual mode merely displaying non-essential still photos at certain points of the game.

Constructed as an interactive radio drama
Radio drama
Radio drama is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance, broadcast on radio or published on audio media, such as tape or CD. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine the characters and story...

 or an audio gamebook
Gamebook
A gamebook is a work of fiction that allows the reader to participate in the story by making effective choices. The narrative branches along various paths through the use of numbered paragraphs or pages...

, the player spends the majority of the time listening as the story unfolds. At critical forks in the plot line, a set of chimes will ring, alerting the player that it is now his job to chose the course the plot will take. The choice that is selected is confirmed with the controller and the plot resumes.

Sequels

A sequel to Kaze no Regret called Mists of the Music Box was under development as a second game in what was intended to become the Real Sound series. Mists of the Music Box was to feature a horror theme. Advertisements for the game appeared in in a number of magazines, however it was never released due to problems with voice-compression technology. Story arcs from Mists of the Music Box were later employed by Eno in D2.

The third installment to the series entitled "Spying for Lunch" was planned as a comedy, however planning for this title was minimal and development has not yet begun.

Legacy and influence

The game had mediocre sales and has now become something of a collector's item due to the cult popularity of Eno's other titles. Further driving the collectibility of the game are the variety of feelie
Feelie
Infocom used the term feelie to refer to the extra content included with the boxed versions of their interactive fiction computer games. Feelies differed from game to game and were of the same theme as the game they came packaged with...

s included with the game - a signature move that Eno had become known for. Included with Real Sound were such oddities as a set of instructions in braille, a bag of "Herb seeds," and a transparent box with a cloud motif.

A version of the game representing only one path through the game aired on Tokyo FM
Tokyo FM
Tokyo FM Broadcasting Co., Ltd. is a radio station in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It is the flagship station of the Japan FM Network .-Program:*Countdown Station** DHC Countdown jp** cosmo Pops Best 10...

 in 1997.

A number of Eno
Kenji Eno
is a musician and video game designer based in Japan. He is best-known for his cult survival horror series, the D games and his audio game series, Real Sound.-Childhood and early years:...

's later games such as Enemy Zero
Enemy Zero
is a 1997 video game for Sega Saturn, developed by WARP and directed by Kenji Eno. After its Saturn release, it was ported to Microsoft Windows. It was the second game to star the digital actress Laura.-Gameplay:...

 (1997, Sega Saturn), and D2 (Dreamcast, 2000) have been influenced by Real Sounds unique gameplay. Certain enemies in Enemy Zero were invisible and could only be located by sound, and D2 also drew heavily from the concept of limitations to sensory perceptions, featuring portions of the game where the character is rendered blind (with only a voice to guide him) and alternately deaf (with only vision to guide him).

Real Sound: Kaze no Regret has become one of the most popular games for the blind because it is one of the few commercially released audio game
Audio game
An audio game is an electronic game played on a device such as a personal computer. It is similar to a video game save that the only feedback device is audible rather than visual....

s specifically created with the blind in mind.

External links

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