Thank Atlus USA And Shin Megami Tensei For Trauma Team’s Forensics Mode

Forensics is one of the six medical specialties featured in Trauma Team. While Atlus’ team in Japan is developing the game, a request from Atlus USA inspired this addition.

“I had gotten a request from AUI [Atlus U.S.A., Inc.] about it [forensics] at the very beginning. They said they wanted us to not make it like a real autopsy, but more of a criminal investigation type of thing,” Director Daisuke Kanada reminisced in a Trauma Team roundtable column.

Kanada liked Atlus USA’s idea and the demon fusion mechanic from the Shin Megami Tensei series. “I felt there was a similarity between fusing two demons into a stronger demon and combining two pieces of evidence into something that brings the truth closer.” Demons aren’t a part of Trauma Team, but combinable evidence cards are. You can find evidence by surveying a scene similar to a point and click adventure game.

Forensics is the longest part of Trauma Team. Expect to spend over an hour on the first episode compared to around a minute on the first surgery stage. “Thinking about how many lines there were makes me cry! Forensics and diagnosis had so many lines for voice recording that they had to have separate days just for them,” said Kenichi Gotou, emergency medicine planner.

“If you take all the events into consideration, there’s more voiced dialogue than P4! And this isn’t even an RPG,” boasted Mitsutaka Tamari, surgery planner. Trauma Team costs less than most console RPGs too. Atlus just cut $10 off the price which brings the Wii game down to $39.99 at launch.