Dr. Stiles returns to the DS for Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2

Somebody else who even remotely liked Lifesigns?!?!? The much-panned soap opera element did indeed make it less enjoyable overall than Trauma Center, but you got to know your patients so much better and the patient diagnosis segments were great. I actually preferred the 2D surgeries; everything was easier to see and actually felt more realistic. If a Trauma Center game could incorporate the high points of Lifesigns while keeping its standard set of surgical tools, fantasy elements like healing touch, and better plot, it would be the best game on the DS hands-down.

Don't expect a sequel to Lifesigns, though. What we got was the second of two games in Japan's Tendo Dokuta series (the first was probably passed on because the character designs were just so fugly and it was slightly less interactive), the second having come out there long before it was released outside of Japan. Furthermore, it absolutely tanked in sales when it was finally released here.

Good lord, I thought I was the only person who liked it.

Honestly, it probably would've ended up getting much better reviews if they'd actually polished the game more in terms of script/other minor details.

I liked Lifesigns too...
We Lifesigns fans seem to be a rare breed o.O
Or maybe we just don't show it...

One thing that really annoyed me was the whole -san -chan -kun thing... localisation could definitely have been done better. But it was so much more realistic and ok I admit it Trauma Center owned me. >_>; And I didn't feel any incentive to save the patients. In Lifesigns I was like HOMG NO I LOVE YOU DON'T DIE!!!!!!! *restart* *tries again* I mean, I actually knew my patients...

In TC:

*fails for the millionth time*
Ah whatever... *feels no attachment to patient. It's just a body diagram anyway..*
*doesn't play after that... leaves it for her friend to play..*

It was hard, but DAMN if it wasn't satisfying when I beat it.

Oh, and how does this game fit into the overall timeline??

@Josh

Supposedly it takes place after the first game, dealing with the aftermath of GUILT and other mysteries about the virus.

I'm repeating hearsay, though, so hopefully someone with an actual copy of NP will drop by and confirm.

Looks like it. Victor was so cool.

Agreed.

While the first artist's work may have been more generic and less-polished, it was relatively sound. He gave people different faces, and his guys looked masculine. (Cardinal sin in anime, I guess.) I was really hoping they'd bring him back.

This new guy (Masayuki Doi?) makes everyone look disgustingly pretty, and is hoping the style obscures his structural mistakes. It works on people who don't know any better.

(Out before anyone starts screaming THAT'S HIS STYLE and YOU CAN'T DO ANY BETTER SO SHUT UP and other such BS.)