Part 3: 2. "... I'll take it!"

2. "... I'll take it!"

Alright, when we last saw Gilian Seed, he'd just gotten his navigator, Petit Metal or Metal Gear Petit.



So presumably, Metal hangs out on Gilian's shoulder the whole time. You never really see him in game.



Yeesh.



Metal Gear Petit's battle reports have a unique function which we'll see later. Basically, in combat if you've fought an enemy that you've previously defeated, Metal will use the same strategy and fight him automatically for you.

It's basically a way of making the RPG battles go on autopilot. More on that in a bit.



Like I mentioned earlier, guns are the main weapon. They differ in shots, strength and speed. Again, I'll explain it in detail when we get to combat (though strength and speed are your typical RPG stats.)



And SD Snatcher introduces a new character, Geoff! Who Harry sounds a little gay for.



According to the kana, Geoffrey's name is pronounced like "Jeffrey," though in my head I call him "Gee-off." ...If, uh, any of you cared how I pronounce Geoff. Never mind.



He actually does less than this. Harry's the person you'll buy weapons from.





This is the equipment locker. Gillian can bring a maximum of three guns and three options with him at a time. The locker is where you pick those out of everything you own.





At the beginning of the game, you only have your single blaster and no options.

Whatever, let's go hang with Geoff!



Uh, I meant Harry!







The Stingray is a laser-type gun and most likely will be your first weapon purchase. As you can see, it's out of our price range - and being that it's the cheapest gun, it means we're predictably stuck with our blaster for now.

We'll go over weapons later as we encounter the money to afford them in game. They're pretty much all just stronger versions of each other. Let's see some options.







The S. Bomb, D. Ball, and Rancher are all grenade type weapons. If you've used throwable items in a Final Fantasy game, you've got the right idea.







The T. Baster (what?), G. Mine, and Comet are all mine type weapons. They're fairly terrible.





Combat in SD Snatcher is either 1-1 or 1-2. When you fight certain enemies, they can use radio to call for backup. Chaff interrupts this from happening.





C. Killers automatically paralyze robots if they work and Flair is a misspelled form of Flare. Flairs don't do anything. Really. (For awhile, anyway.)





Finally, you can buy bullets from Harry. You start the game with 200 bullets in your blaster... which oddly isn't enough for the first dungeons. You'll want about 300 total, but that's okay, because you can return to Junker HQ in the middle of the first dungeon if you run out. Annoyingly, there's no indication of that until you're actually midway through it.



And finally, let's check out the new room, the Medical Room.



Who's this lady? Must be a new character or-



Wait, what?!



Yeah, in another major difference, Jamie doesn't work for Neo Kobe Pharmaceuticals anymore. She works for JUNKER!



And she's all business.



Jamie actually doesn't do very much. Like Geoff, you'll actually be going to Robin for all of your healing and medical supply needs.



Oh goodness.



Like I said earlier, here, "Junkers" refers to healing items.





The white and red pills are Junker's Rush which restore about 50 HP at the beginning of the game. As Gilian levels up, Junker's Rush restores more health, which is convenient.



Here's Gilian's stats. Notice that STR, DEF, and SPD all have their own points. Enemies will give out normal XP which will let Gilian level up and increase his HP max, but also give out STR, DEF, and SPD points while will increase Gilian's stats. STR doles out weapon damage. DEF is sort of like armor - it drops like HP when Gilian gets hit and absorbs a lot of the damage instead of taking it from his HP. SPD determines whether or not enemies dodge his shots.

Anyway, let's meet this new character, Robin.





Newtriz is a typo, I'm pretty sure. It newtralizes any biological agents that Gilian becomes infected with. Yeah, it "newtralizes" them. Maybe it's supposed to be a marketing thing. I dunno.

Jyro restores you from paralysis.

Metal: If you ever get paralyzed, Gillian, I am programmed to administer Jyro.
Gilian: Paralyzed? This job sounds more dangerous than I thought... Well, at least that sounds convenient.
Metal: Keep in mind, if I administer Jyro, that counts as a turn.
Gilian: There's always a catch, huh.







Junkers are the only thing worth buying right now. I recommend buying 5 more in addition to the 5 that Jamie gave you. Note that in upcoming screenshots I neglected to do this myself.



Finally, we get back to Jamie who tells us to go see the Chief again. And he's got a surprise for us.



Why, who's that with him, I wonder?



Jean-Jack Gibson? I mean, Jan Jack Gibson?



In a welcome surprise this time, we actually get to meet Jan Jack Gibson, who is indisposed for the events of Snatcher.

Interestingly, Jean-Jack's French name is unique to American Snatcher. Metal Gear, the only character to ever actually say his full name, pronounces it "Jean-Jacques" and everyone pronounces "Jean" so it rhymes with "Sean". His actual nationality is never stated.





In Snatcher, the Snatchers have little robot helpers of their own called Insectors. Now, they've got a veritable army of robot enemies that Gilian has to take out. These comprise the enemies you'll fight in most random encounters. The game calls them "Metal Creatures".







I'm a little scared. Let's talk to the Chief more first.



Alright, alright!





And now, we're off.







Not this time, though. This time, Jean picks the destination for you. It's off to Pier 17 and our first mission of the game!

Differences between Regular and SD Snatcher Thus Far

- Jamie works at Junker HQ now!

- There's a medical robot named Robin working there too, now!

- We get to actually meet THE Jan Jack Gibson!

- The game's barely started and two of the characters' names have been misspelled.

Relevant Snatcher Media

Equipment and First Assignment