Koufuku Sousakan

Koufuku Sousakan

Released2004
Set in a modern town created in a virtual space in Japan in the near future, this is a simulation game that aims to liberate 100 people who have become immobile and to give happiness to all. The player acts as an officer in charge of managing the virtual space, and aims to normalize the people he or she contacts while observing the life of any "avatar" living there, to protect the avatar from frequent attacks by obstructionists, and to collect and redistribute the feelings of happiness and unhappiness that they emit, in order to achieve a certain level of happiness for all people. Avatar behavior changes in response to happiness and can be influenced by other avatars involved in life. That is, even with the same avatar, life can change depending on the degree of happiness of the other avatars that are actively acting or negatively distressed by the sense of well-being during observation, or are involved with or in contact with other avatars that were previously offline. The interaction between people is called "human scramble" on the package and official website. Each avatar lasts about 20 minutes, and you can watch the same avatar over and over again. The whole story is represented by 3DCG, but the avatar is represented by flat shading (a projection method that looks like an angular figure with fine planes). Avatar conversations and thoughts are expressed as text, and their voices are expressed as indistinct voices.

Details

DeveloperSony Computer Entertainment
ReleasedApril 15, 2004
StatusReleased
GenresSimulator
ThemesComedyDrama
PlatformsPlayStation 2 PlayStation 2
ModesSingle player

About This Game

In the year 21XX, declining national morale has prompted the Japanese government to establish the Ministry of State Happiness. Its solution: a virtual recreation of early 21st-century Japan called the Habitat, maintained inside a cold-sleep network called Clover. One hundred citizens, connected while asleep, live in the Habitat as avatars and generate what the government calls happy energy, which Clover collects and redistributes. One day, all one hundred avatars stop functioning simultaneously — and an unauthorized 101st person is discovered to have connected to a system built for exactly one hundred. The Ministry urgently summons a scientist with authority over Clover: a Happiness Manipulator, tasked with going in and finding out what went wrong.