Part 14: Meet President Tokugawa

Like the update title suggests, we're going to take a trip back to the Prop.

We're at the Tokugawa Building.
We have to find some way to get to Sadaoki.

So we enter again, and go the the lobby. This time Jonathan remarks that it sounds like something is going on (though the lobby audio doesn't really reflect that.)



Welcome to the Tokugawa Building. We're currently hosting a launch party for Tokugawa Pharmaceuticals, so I'm afraid the entry of uninvited persons is prohibited.
Sadaoki wouldn't miss this.

Ask About; Tokugawa's Whereabouts

We'd like to meet with President Tokugawa.
President Tokugawa is currently attending a party being held in the Garden.

... Can ... Can we attend? I mean we're the police. We have to question somebody, and we shouldn't need permission right? I mean, cops do this. ...If it's okay by you, I mean...

Ask About; The Garden

The Garden is our zero-gravity event area located in the center of the building. It's accessible via linear elevator. There's a party going on at the moment.

Move; Get in elevator

Let's go! Sadaoki's in the Garden!
Stop! The building is off-limits to the general public at the moment.
We're old friends of Sadaoki.
Stop it! I'm going to get angry.
Man, I don't think I wanna test her.

...Ed, you're a cop! What- what is the problem here? Why do we have to solve a puzzle? Just show her a badge! Th- this is nuts, you're police you don't-

Oh, whatever.

Show; Policenauts Photo

This is us right here. We're buddies with Tokugawa from our Policenauts days.
That we are.
Oh, I'm terribly sorry! I had no idea! I recognize your friend, but what about you?
Too young?
I get it. Anti-aging surgery, right? Had your telomeres lengthened?
Nope. Just got a lot of sleep when I was younger.

There's that Jon Ingram wit were all waiting for. Those of you who might've played Policenauts may have noticed I updated the script to the 1.1 version here. We caught some flak for the whole "Internet speech" thing... which to be fair, I think was like 2-3 lines in the whole script total.

So "That we are" used to be "Quoted for truth," but it's fixed now. That's the magic of technology.

It's a little silly, but it's the last possible video of the Act, so enjoy.

Get in Elevator

Let's go.
That elevator will take you to the Garden.
Arigato.
Not at all. The Garden is a zero-gravity environment, so take care in regard to SAS.
I'll be fine. I'm already in heaven after seeing you.
Oh, you're good. Have a nice time, Policenauts.



Unlike the traction or hydraulic elevators you get on Home, this runs on a superconducting motor. That makes it faster, smoother and more accurate.





And so, we get closer to the central axis of Beyond, and Tokugawa. ...And a cool party!

Check it out. Some view, huh?



We created this entire world, right out in the middle of nothing.
We might not be dependent on evolution anymore.
I wouldn't be so sure. Mother Nature's still throwing everything she's got at us. Space is full of disasters waiting to happen. This is a dangerous place to be. And the more defiant we become, the more dangerous it gets.

...

We're in the center of the colony.



Yeah, I know. Look ma, no feet. I wonder if that SAS drug I took on the plane will still work.
That one Tokugawa Pharmaceuticals makes?
Who else.

*** Video covers up to here

Now that we're weightless, the game reflects this by oscillating the game screen slowly up and down. This, by the way, is also how they achieved a realistic zero-G effect in Apollo 18. (Also, screw you, I liked it!)





...Um. Welcome to Tokugawa's party! Haha... um... hmmm.

No fuck it. Anime girls aside, party where you can damn fly? That sounds great, somebody get to building this O'Neill Cylinder shit! Thank you, Mr. Kojima san!

So this is their zero-G playground, the Garden.
This is my kinda party.
Let's look for Tokugawa.

Yeah, this is another one of those "Look at the right things to advance" sections, so let's go with that table in the upper-right.

What are they doing here?



They're from the various Mafias on Home. Why are they here?

Look; Rightmost Man

That's what's-his-face Garcia from the Spanish Mafia.

Look; Center Man

He's with a triad, but I don't know his name or where he sits.

Look; Leftmost Man

That's Wakayama-kumicho. He's Yakuza.

Huh. Mafia, Triads, Yakuza, at Tokugawa's party? I'm going to forgo a Grand Theft Auto reference and feign ignorance at what could be going on here...

Look; Cocktail

Must be a cocktail. Alcohol doesn't taste that great in zero gravity, but I guess they're more interested in the effects.

Back

Those guys don't look like the best of friends.
Well, they are from rival organizations. They almost never meet up like this.
Must've been an offer they couldn't refuse.



Look; Mech (on the right)



This is new to me.
Talk about heavy-duty hardware.
Are we looking at a military EMPS?

This is a new version of EMPS called the Von Brawn. The others you've seen are the Goddards, but the Von Brawn is the party-type of mech. The kind that's a little rowdy and hey, you don't know if it's good or bad or what's up! It's the kind of mech, hangin' in the corner that maybe you wanna get to know if you know what I mean. Hey, I'm not setting you up! Haha, just sayin...

(It's a military type mech that Ed's never seen before.)



How about those two broads up top?

Look; Waitresses



Move; Back! Back! Back!

Dammit, I actually have some tech shit to talk about for this scene.

Marc noticed something strange. The script included an option to "Drink". Specifically, you can look at the redhead's drink tray (moonsaults, actually - another Snatcher reference, it's the drink served in Outer Heaven) and see the drinks... but while the script included text for drinking them, there didn't seem to be anyway in the game to ... actually drink them?

So, earlier I mentioned that reverse-engineering Konami's compiled bytecode script was "nearly impossible." Believe it or not... I actually started to get a little of it about halfway to two-thirds through the project. I noticed that the game included "Drink" in the menu for when you clicked on the drink, but... it said there was only 1 option?

It worked like this: The menus bascially specify how many options are in them, then the text pointers to the options. It's basically like:

Drink Tray: [2 options], [pointer to "Look"], [pointer to "Drink"]

It gets more complicated, because looking at things in Policenauts sets flags and increases counters such that it can change the text for other objects in the scene - or even in the game. For example, taking a Relaxaphex from the stewardess on the plane triggers Jonathan's remark on the elevator that maybe the SAS won't bother him. But the point is, I managed to get enough to notice something odd about this scene. (I mean, the Garden scene, proper. Not just this anime girls scene... What? Look, I was researching it for a case!)

Drink Tray: [1 option], [pointer to "Look"], [pointer to "Drink"]

"Weird," I thought. "Why does that menu say one option, but there's really two?" Marc told me about the fact that there was stuff in the script for drinking that you couldn't actually do, so I shrugged and changed GAME0F.SZ's bytecode script to 2 options instead of 1 to see what would happen and lo and behold - it unlocked the drink option, and all accompanying text, so...

Drink

Here you go!
Jonathan! You wanna be drunk on top of SAS?
I feel fine. Besides, this place is full of doctors.

But that's it. There's no differing text beyond that, Jonathan doesn't get drunk and you can do this over and over again. I don't know if it's an unimplemented feature (maybe Jonathan was supposed to puke weightlessly?) or if it was censored after the fact, but some Konami programmer/business analyst/whatever changed the flag to exclude the Drink verb, and we re-implemented it.

So the ROMhack is technically the uncensored version of Policenauts the world was waiting for!!!

...

Actually, it is notable that for being denied the game, the English players get something that the Japanese players didn't...

Anyway.

Move; Back! Back! Back!



Look; Women

So this is fucked up.

They're escorts for the party. I've heard about them. They must be Tokugawa's Rebirthers.
Rebirthers?
Cloned humans. They take the DNA of famous actresses and models and create exact copies of the original person. They're not allowed to "rebirth" someone until 20 years after their death. Naturally they aren't considered the same individual. They're treated as blood relatives of Tokugawa. They don't always talk to people.

Alright! Fuck the future! You can look at a couple more people and recognize politicans and "celebrities" (really Rebirthers) until...

When you've examined enough in a particular area, sometimes a new graphic "dissolves" in. It's really dumb looking and for all the polish the game does have in certain areas, it's really awkward.



Oh hey, three new people in the lower-left corner?! How'd they get there?! Weird!

Well, turns out that's Tokugawa, so...

Look

There he is, Jonathan.

Call

Hey! Sadaoki!
Let's head over.





Jonathan...? Jonathan Ingram?

Ladies and gentlemen, the fourth Policenaut, Joseph Sadaoki Tokugawa. And...

Sal! Hey, man!



The fifth: Salvatore Toscanini.

Ed, Jonathan! Holy shiitake.

If you don't recognize her, that's Chris Goldwin, director of BCCH on the right.

Hey, you two.
This is Dr. Goldwin, director of BCCH.
Chris? What are you doing here?
Small world.
What's this you've been up to, Jonathan? I hear you've been poking around places.
Figures you'd know by now.

Talk; Salvatore

How long's it been, Sal? This is the last place I expected to run into you.
When'd you come here?
Gates said you went back Home.
I'm on the Moon these days. Just back in town for the party.
Yeah? What for?
Li'l business with Tokugawa-san.

Ask About; Him (Salvatore)

I heard you quit BCP.
I just wasn't cut out for it. Police work ain't my thing, to be honest. One day I decided I'd had enough. That was 15 years ago.

Ask About; His Work (Salvatore) (couple times)

What are you up to these days?
Tokugawa got me a job at his Moon Plant. I'm the head of security there. Glad I ain't a cop no more, but it's not like I got a PhD or nothin', you know? It's pretty basic stuff. Just keepin' watch over the place. Less pressure since you ain't wearin' a badge either.

Ask About; The Moon Plant (Salvatore)

It's one of Tokugawa's Made in Space factories. We mine Lunar minerals and make drugs and rare metals under microgravity. It's located in Mare Imbrium.

Catching up with Sal is nice and all, but he's not really the man we want to see... but let's act natural and mingle.

Talk; Chris

Imagine meeting you here.
I know! We can't seem to get away from each other.

Ask About; The Party (Chris)

I heard it's a launch party for their new drug capsule. I've seen all sorts of people here. Journalists, entertainers, politicians.... I'm a little disappointed there aren't that many medical professionals, though.

Ask To Dance (Chris)

May I have this dance, mademoiselle?
Ha ha ha.... That's what they would say in the 20th. Sorry, but maybe not right now.
What, you wanna do the tango in zero gravity? There's no floor.
Tango? More like the lambada.

It's the class; that's why I like you, Jonny.

Ask About; Tokugawa (Chris)

Sorry for being so personal, but... what's your relationship with Sadaoki?
Well, he's a business partner, a mentor, and... I guess you could say my main squeeze too.

Hmmm! (If you press her on it, she clarifies that "main squeeze" means paternally. Uh huh.) Chris will also explain the party is for some new capsule that Tokugawa Pharmaceuticals developed. Enough dancing around it, then.

Talk; Tokugawa

One of your employees has disappeared. The 15th of last month, to be exact.
One of my employees? Who?
Kenzo Hojo, of DDS R&D at Tokugawa Pharmaceuticals.
Hojo's missing? That's news to me. So?

Ask About; Hojo (Tokugawa)

What are your thoughts about Hojo's disappearance?
Hojo is one of our employees, yes, but I haven't heard anything about him being missing. I don't really know him that well either.
But he's one of your employees.
Yes, but we have tens of thousands of people working for us on the colony alone.

Ask About; Hojo's Personality (Tokugawa)

What kinda person was Hojo?
I remember he was serious about what he did. Real dependable guy. I ran into him a few times at meetings and parties and such, but that was it. I wonder what's happened to him.

Ask About; Hojo's Activities (Tokugawa)

It seems you were the last person to ever see Hojo. On the 15th of last month - right here in this building, as a matter of fact.
The 15th? I've no recollection of that. We haven't had any big meetings down at Pharmaceuticals lately either. I guess it's been... maybe 6 months since I last saw him.

Ask About; Tokugawa (Tokugawa)

I left BCP and took over Tokugawa 20 years ago. It took me awhile to get the hang of things. It's far more entertaining than my previous career, anyway.

Ok, enough catching up.

Ask About; Visitor Log (Tokugawa)

We took a look at the visitor log at reception. On the day Hojo disappeared, the 15th, he came here to the Tokugawa Building. To meet you.
To meet me? Well, I never met him. Are you sure it's not some mistake?

Asking about any of this stuff a second time usually results in Jonathan getting accusatory, and Tokugaway acting insulted... but no new info. How about...

Ask About; The new product

What's this new product?
It's a new drug capsule Hojo developed. A capsule for both Terrestrials and Beyonds. It allows you to evenly distribute a controlled amount of a drug throughout the body in weightlessness. Its osmotic pressure system is more advanced than any other drug on the market. It's also extremely heat- and corrosive-resistant.

So that's interesting. Tokugawa knows nothing about Hojo's disappearance, and doesn't even seem concerned... but Hojo developed the new product they're having a launch party for? Even weirder...

Ask About; The Mafia (Tokugawa)

You mentioned associates. I counted several people from Home's Mafia here.
Ha ha ha.... Tokugawa is a business. Sometimes that involves interfacing with people like them. But you needn't worry, we're not breaking any laws.

Ask About; Lorraine (Tokugawa)

Did you know Lorraine was murdered on Home?
Lorraine? Who's that?
Hojo's wife, and... and my-
Sorry to hear that. He has a daughter, doesn't he? I'll make sure she's taken care of. I'll get someone out there tomorrow.

This triggers the last cutscene of the Act...

If you'll excuse me, Jonathan. People are waiting for me.
Hold on, Sadaoki. You still haven't answered my questions.
I've already told you everything. It's a party, for goodness' sake. Have some fun while you're here.
It just... doesn't make sense.
What doesn't?
Hojo's disappearance, this party... none of it.
And why is that?
Fine, keep playing dumb. I'll spell it out. Your star researcher has vanished. That should be a primary concern for you and your company. Yet... you don't really seem that bothered.
Meaning...?
It stinks. The party, the guests... you not knowing a thing about Hojo's disappearance!
I've had it up to here with your tone, Jonathan. You're talking to the head of -
Exactly. One more turd to top off an already steaming pile.
Get this prick out of here, Ed!
I can't do that.
You what? Was I... not loud enough for you? I'll say it again.



Now!



You afraid of me?
You think you know me, Jonathan Ingram? Wake up. This isn't 30 years ago. I run the Group. The Group runs space.
That a threat?
No. Consider it... advice from a fellow Policenaut.
You're not a Policenaut anymore! All you care about is money and power! You think this is over? Just you wait, Sadaoki!



You wondering why Act 1 doesn't end on a video? It's because there's not really animation here - the two groups (Jonathan/Ed and Tokugawa/Sal/Chris - just sorta float away from each other.














Feeling better?



He's hiding something. I know he's involved with Hojo's disappearance and Lorraine's murder.
But we don't have any proof - or leads.



We have our lead.
Yeah? What?
Now they know we're onto them.



We just gotta live to see "eventually".
Sorry, Ed. I got you into all this.
S'alright. I'm sick of rotting away at Vice anyway. Hey, why don't we get something to eat at my place? My baby's cooking is the best.
You sure?
Don't be silly. You're family. The more the better. The kids will love to meet you too.
Ed, I....







And Act I closes on the mirrored-rimmed highway, toward the suburbs of Beyond.