TEAM INNOCENT
Release Date: 23th December 1994
Developer: Hudson Soft
Platform: PC-FX
Developer: Hudson Soft
Platform: PC-FX
In 1994, the PC-FX console was released in Japan. The life of this console was short but bright - about 50 games were created for it. And the most memorable exclusive was the strange sci-fi horror game "Team Innocent: The Point of No Return".
It became one of the first Japanese survival horror games and even influenced Resident Evil in some ways (the developers of RE1 borrowed some ideas and story elements from it). So the game can be considered one of the forerunners of the "Survival Horror" genre.
For almost 30 years, "Team Innocent" was only available in Japanese language. But in December 2024, fans made a patch with an English translation for the game.
Let's check out this game and find out what's interesting about it. And why thousands of Japanese gamers were willing to buy an expensive $500 console for this game.
Weird Anime-Style
Survival Horror
The first thing that immediately catches the eye in "Team Innocent" is its strange style. The game is made in a futuristic anime style that is very unusual for Survival Horror projects.
There are cute bishoujo heroines, fights with bloodthirsty zombies, and wanderings around deserted space stations. It would seem that these are all mutually exclusive things - but Team Innocent manages to combine these elements in an interesting way.
The game also has a lot of anime cutscenes. And there is even an epic opening video with a cheerful song in the spirit of 1990s anime. And of course, there are some light erotic fanservice elements (although there are no outright hentai scenes here).
The PC-FX console was advertised as the "best console for anime fans". That's why even the only Survival Horror game on this platform was created with strong anime vibes.
Story
The events of the game unfold in the distant future. The story begins with a biologist named Cronus conducting illegal genetic experiments - and creating three little humanoid girls with modified DNA.
As a result, the police arrested the scientist and rescued the children from his laboratory. But it soon turns out that the girls have special abilities - so the police leadership decides to secretly use them for their own purposes and form a special squad called "Team Innocent".
15 years have passed since that incident. And now our heroines are sent on a mission - they need to figure out what happened on a space satellite, with which the connection was suddenly lost.
But the girls do not yet know that during this mission they will have to face terrible monsters and the living dead. And also learn the whole truth about their past and about the person who created them.
Characters
There are 3 main heroines in the game:
Saki
Our main heroine - 90% of the time we will play for her. This girl was one of the three "artificial children" created by Dr. Cronus. In personality and appearance, she is very similar to Rei Ayanami from the anime "Neon Genesis Evangelion".
Ariel
A strange mutant girl with a cheerful personality and long tentacles that grow from her back. She is the main techie in the team and specializes in repairing all sorts of complex devices. We will be able to play for her in one of the episodes.
Lilis
A three-eyed girl with genius hacking talents, but almost devoid of emotions. She is able to hack the most complex program - but is completely unadapted to life and can't even figure out how to properly use the shower in the bathroom.
Scenario Impressions
The strongest point of "Team Innocent" is the scenario. In 1994, this was one of the best stories among horror games. And even now, it can still pleasantly surprise.
There are quite a lot of unexpected plot twists - and I especially liked the twist about "Dream Fly" towards the end. Fans of psychological horror games like Silent Hill and Rule of Rose will certainly appreciate this moment.
It is also nice to see that the game tries to give food for thought and touch on complex issues such as the influence of genetic engineering on the fate of humanity and the moral responsibility of biologists. I can't say that the game is particularly deep - but for 1994, this was something new.
Another unusual feature of the game is that all the main characters are girls. Before the release of "Team Innocent" there were almost no horror games about female heroines. And such a selection of characters was an original idea.
The personalities of the heroines are memorable and well developed. Each of them has her own quirks, and the characters evoke sympathy. Also, the game has a lot of dialogue, so you can talk to the characters to your heart's content.
And it is also nice how the game explains the meaning of each monster near the end. In the computer network, we can find a whole database with interesting information about all the creatures. This is also a cool idea.
Gameplay and Interesting Ideas
In terms of gameplay, the game is very similar to "Alone in the Dark" and "Resident Evil". We wander around the locations, fight monsters, save ammo/medkits, look for useful items, and solve puzzles.
At the same time, there are many original ideas here that are rarely found in other survival horror games:
1) The game is divided into 3 independent episodes. Each episode lasts 2-3 hours, and then they can be replayed again. This reminds me of the idea with missions in "Forbidden Siren" and "SlitterHead".
2) The developers allow us to freely explore all the locations and do not lead us by the hand. There are three huge locations - each consists of 5-7 floors (the game was quite large for its time).
3) Unlike all other survival horror games, Team Innocent uses 2D sprites instead of 3D models for characters and monsters.
4) The game has traps and scenes of instant death, like in "Demonophobia" (but not so bloodthirsty). And for each instant death, the developers made special cutscenes.
5) Each episode also has several secret scenes (there is even an erotic scene in the shower). They are cleverly hidden, and it is interesting to find these scenes.
6) You can scare away some monsters by using a sound generator. Although this device quickly runs out of battery.
7) You can temporarily freeze a monster by spraying it with liquid nitrogen. In this state, the monster will not be able to move and attack you.
8) Some monsters have secret vulnerabilities - and instantly die if you throw a bottle of formalin at them or pour alcohol on them.
9) I was especially impressed by the fact that you can find a bottle of shampoo here - and then spray this shampoo in the eyes of monsters. A really strange idea.
10) You can also temporarily blind and knock out the enemy with a bright flash of light. But this only works with one type of creature.
11) If you run out of ammo, you can try to beat the monster with your bare hands and legs. The heroine is able to fight even without a weapon.
12) The game shows the location of most monsters on the map. But it likes to make surprises when a zombie is suddenly waiting for us in a room that was marked as "safe".
13) Our heroine has the ability to jump - so we can jump over traps and chasms. This is also a rare idea for a Survival Horror game.
14) Instead of the usual diaries and notes, here we find CDs with video recordings. The story is revealed mainly through these videos. These discs can be viewed on special terminals.
Flaws of the game
Since Team Innocent was one of the very first survival horror games, the gameplay here is quite janky:
1) The game uses "tank controls", but here they are somehow strange and inconvenient. Even the old-school Resident Evil fans will need some time to get used to such controls.
2) The combat in the game turned out to be especially clumsy. It is extremely difficult to hit monsters with a gun here - and because of this, you often have to waste precious ammo in vain.
3) When examining rooms, our heroine gives almost no comments on objects. Exploring locations could have been more interesting if she had commented on everything around.
4) It's very easy to miss an important key or a medkit, since they're often not visible at all. So you just have to randomly poke around in all the cabinets and drawers in each room.
5) There are very few enemy types in the game - only 5 or 6 types of monsters. But I probably shouldn't criticize the ancient 1994 game too much for that. After all, even later survival horror titles like "Resident Evil" and "Silent Hill 2" had about the same number of enemies.
Graphics and Cutscenes
The game uses the classic survival horror trick with fixed camera angles and rendered background pictures.
The designers were able to draw several hundred backgrounds with computer graphics. They are not as beautiful as in Parasite Eve or Countdown Vampires, but for 1994 they look pretty cool.
However, the 2D sprites for characters and monsters look kind of weird. They have very few animation frames, low resolution, and they sometimes shake and twitch strangely when walking (apparently due to sprite scaling).
The developers paid a lot of attention to the cutscenes in the game - during the game, you can see about 20 videos.
Half of the cutscenes are made with 3DCG graphics, and the other half are in anime style. I really liked the anime cutscenes - they are well directed and quite large (some scenes last as long as 3 minutes).
By the way, the character designs for the cutscenes were drawn by a man named Toshiyuki Tsuru. He also created the famous opening video for the Serial Experiments Lain anime, and also served as the director for the "Gungrave" anime. It's nice to see familiar people on the team.
Music and Songs
The music for the game was written by composer Kenji Kawai - he is known for his work on such anime as "Ghost in the Shell" and "Higurashi no Naku koro ni". And he also worked on the survival horror game "Deep Fear" for Sega Saturn.
Overall, the soundtrack in Team Innocent is quite good. I especially liked the sad and melancholic track that sounds while wandering around the locations. It reminds me of the music from the "Ecco the Dolphin" game, and creates a strange atmosphere that's hard to describe in words.
The game also has two songs with real vocals - you can hear them in the opening video and in the final credits. This was also quite unusual for 1994.
Team Innocent was one of the first horror games where you could hear real songs. And a few years later, many other Japanese survival horror games also began to use similar idea with songs - for example, Resident Evil 1, Silent Hill, Parasite Eve, and Fatal Frame.
Voice Acting
Another important feature of the game is the large amount of voice acting. There are many dialogues between the heroines (they constantly communicate via radio, like in Metal Gear Solid), and all lines are fully voiced.
Moreover, the quality of the voice acting is very good - professional actors with a lot of experience in the anime industry were selected for all roles. So it is always pleasant to listen to the dialogues.
Again, it should be noted that "Team Innocent" was one of the first horror games with voice acting. At that time, it was quite innovative. And even now you can rarely find horror games with such a large amount of high-quality voice acting.
Atmosphere
Team Innocent has zombies, monsters, and light elements of psychological mindscrew - but overall the game does not try to scare much. So don't expect much in terms of scariness from it.
But the atmosphere of melancholy and loneliness is conveyed very well here. You really get into this feeling when you slowly wander through the deserted space stations while listening to sad music.
This reminds me of such games as Echo Night Beyond and Planet Laika, where there were also a lot of lonely melancholic wanderings through the abandoned sci-fi locations.
Pros and Cons of the Game
Pros:
+ Interesting story.
+ Memorable characters.
+ One of the first survival horror games.
+ Many original gameplay ideas.
+ Three large locations to explore.
+ Lots of secret scenes.
+ Nice soundtrack.
+ Melancholic atmosphere.
+ High-quality voice acting.
+ Unusual sci-fi horror anime style.
+ Cool cutscenes.
+ Epic opening song.
+ Length around 7-10 hours.
Cons:
- Very janky combat system.
- Inconvenient controls.
- Almost no comments on items in the rooms.
- 2D sprites look so-so.
The Verdict
Team Innocent is an interesting example of early Japanese survival horror. The game is quite janky, but it is full of original ideas, and a lot of talent was put into it. Even 30 years after the release, the game still remains an enjoyable experience thanks to a strange melancholic atmosphere, a great story, and an unusual style.
Other interesting articles
about horror games on our website
>> Horror Game Reviews <<
>> Articles in English <<
>> Horror Games Museum <<
Also, you can subscribe to our
YouTube channel and Telegram channel
YouTube channel and Telegram channel
Author of the article: SilentPyramid
Publication date: 26.02.2025
If you like this article,
share the link with your friends:
share the link with your friends:
