The Fascinating & Infuriating Voice-Controlled Game | Lifeline
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- Опубліковано 25 чер 2024
- Lifeline is fascinating, frustrating, and a unique title that I can compare to only a few other games.
Released in 2003 in Japan, and in 2004 in the West, Lifeline is a voice-action adventure title for the PlayStation 2. A game in which you guide a character through voice commands.
Sounds frustrating, doesn't it? Well, Lifeline is.
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My Lifeline streams:
• Part 1: ua-cam.com/users/liveULWpetDXpus
• Part 2: ua-cam.com/users/liveGmOgWUJwkT0
A guide to getting Lifeline to work with the PCSX2 emulator:
• / fv7wxrz
But there's something utterly fascinating with Lifeline. There are interesting and clever systems at play within Lifeline, like the combat system. The story and character you're guiding take a whole different shape and feel compared to a more traditional game.
With how much technology has advanced in the last 20 years, I would love to see how a game like Lifeline could be done today
Lifeline is a game where the technology was not quite there with the ambitions they had. This results in goofy moments, and some downright frustrating ones, but there are plenty of moments where its charm shines through in Lifeline. It's a fascinating and unique title that I can only compare it to a few other experiences.
Timestamps:
• 00:00 - Video Intro
• 00:59 - Getting Lifeline to Run on an Emulator
• 03:26 - Game Intro
• 05:58 - Rio & Voice Commands in Lifeline
• 12:03 - Combat in Lifeline
• 14:36 - Highlights & Major Beats of Lifeline
• 31:20 - Voice Recognition Technology: 20 Years Later
Additional Footage:
• 4playerpodcast Lifeline Engrish: • The RifeRine Tutorial
• Dumb and Dumber
• Jerma Lifeline Stream Archive: • Old Jerma Streams [wit...
• Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake - • Metal Gear 2: Solid Sn...
• Speed
• Speedwerd Speedrun of Lifeline: • Lifeline Any% Speedrun...
• Snatcher: • SD Snatcher (MSX2) Pla...
• Team America: World Police
• Xbox Live: • halo 2 legit talk with...
#lifeline #lifelineps2 #boulderpunch - Ігри
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A guide to getting Lifeline to work with the PCSX2 emulator:
• www.reddit.com/r/PCSX2/comments/gpfvce/comment/fv7wxrz/
half Japnaese and half german like Asuka from Evangelion
@@tiagopereirasantossilva556 hilarious because both of these girls look 100%German 😋😋
"My sign is no parking let's get a move on" is a great line to shut down people
Truly but… it’s kinda of a risk to shutdown and annoy the person that you need to survive 😊
The gameplay seems frustrating as hell, but at least the Rio VA did a great job. I imagine if they hired someone with an annoying voice, it would be an all around miserable experience.
For real, her voice acting in this is superb. I'm surprised this is the only game she ever did VA for.
Well all they needed to do was adjust and translate the original Japanese version.
Give some props to her too!!
Like Michigan Report from Hell!
@@planescaped The character actually looks like the VA in real life (she was in She Spies TV Show). She was getting some good mainstream roles back then so probably no need to dabble in video game VA. That and I imagine they must have had a mountain of dialogue for this game which would put a lot of people off.
Rio's voice actress is amazing. I really felt for her when she was distressed over her destroyed belongings
She’s also hot.
wow your standards are shockingly low
@@TerryFGM
Your standarts are retarded.
@@TerryFGMmaybe yours are too high?...
@@TerryFGMwow, ur standards are predictably, annoyingly, unnecessarily high
You have to give it to these early '00s games, big companies were willing to give developers A LOT of money for weird concepts like these...I never played this game, but it reminds me of Seaman.
God, the PS2 era was genuinely the peak of videogame aesthetics. So many PS2 games upscale to HD flawlessly and look better than modern games due to their focus on art direction and design.
yeah, honestly i think the games industry would've been better off if it focused on innovating gameplay over graphics once it got to the point of being able to render PS2 games in HD.
Yeah tha kfully we have many geeat i die gsmes modders making games complete.conversion mods. :) we have daggerfall unity. Morrowind thing that adds multiplayer amonf various things.
Totally agree.
This is why the art (and other things) of shadow of the colossus was completely shat on in the remake.
@@milkman1649 let's just hope it never happens to ICO too.
"Save it for someone who cares, BiMbO!"
I will never not laugh at the delivery.
This game has probably one of the best examples of Ludonarrative Harmony where the player's gameplay perfectly matches their position to the story. It's interesting to look at especially from a game pre-2010s when realism was all the rage.
Could you elaborate?
@@enoyna1001 Ludonarrative Harmony is when the actions of the player in-game match that of the story, as opposed to Ludonarrative Dissonance which is a common game criticism. That's when the players actions don't match what's being said in the story, i.e. Nathan Drake killing a ton of people despite the game being about adventure with there being a lighter tone. It became a big criticism when games started really focusing on "realism" and how the realistic story doesn't match the more gamelike feel of the gameplay. It's kind of a dumb debate because if games were to have "realistic" gameplay it would probably be unfun and frustrating. This game kinda exemplifies that where it is really frustrating when Rio doesn't listen to you or loses a command within your speech. It's realistic and falls in line with the game's narrative of you being a control operator trying to help her survive, despite the annoyance it causes the player. That's why it's a good example of Ludonarrative Harmony, gameplay actions = story actions. While I don't think it really says anything about the quality of the game, I just think it's something interesting to think about and bring up whenever people talk about Ludonarrative criticisms.
@@radicalsandwich9274 thanks a lot!
@@radicalsandwich9274perfectly summed up
That’s actually an interesting concept for a game
The *concept* is amazing.
And the execution is shitty.
I wish they made a modern take on Lifeline, with the new A.I. technology that we have, I can imagine a virtually pseudo-self-aware A.I. controlled by the player's voice input in a sci-fi survival horror setting could be a revolutionary stage in gaming.
I think there was one where you had to communicate with an AI over text terminals relatively recently. Can't remember the title, but it was also set on a spacestation.
2kliksphilip recently showcased a techdemo with ai npcs you can talk to in his 'AI Actors for Game Worlds' video, worth a watch
Not just controller by voice. Imagine not just voice communication and conversation, but in rooms, the AI would start roaming around and searching for things automatically ... So it wouldn't just be voice command, but more like helping someone on a asymmetric game. Also if the game becomes less "voice command", it could try and add more empathise on conversation like "why do you think this is happening?" And you could get more that way, or enter emotion into it such as trying to talk to her to calm her down if scared, etc. That being said, I don't think we are their quite yet.
@@vmonk722 you probably mean Event[0] , right?
@@FrancisYorkMorganFBI Yes. Currently rewatching the video Game Maker's Toolkit made about it and it's crazy how far AI has come in the 6 years since then.
I really feel this type of game could be done much better now. Voice recognition has a come a long, long way since 2003.
Well, if the game really even needs to be made anyway. But I do miss when devs would experiment.
I like what you said about sincerity in this game, and older media in general as opposed to newer games. I agree and can definitely sense that sincerity in Lifeline - it's very charming. From Rio's voice-acting to the music itself, there's a great earnest and innocent quality to it all that I find really appealing. I think that may be a characteristic of Japanese media in general as well.
Me: "shoot the left eye"
Rio: "Use a healing item?"
Me: "NOOOOOOOOOOO"
Voice control also appears in another Japanese game - Binary Domain, although, commands are simple, like: "Yes", "No", "Fire", "Take cover", etc. But it adds some immersion anyway
Ye I completed that one not long ago. The voice commands were more of a gimmick, since most times you won't have to issue any orders to teammates, and in dialog choices it's just picking the right answer to boost morale. Still a fun game despite that ✌️
Oh that's what the tutorial and booklet meant!! Thank you, I was trying to figure that out when I was playing it a while ago XD
Also I would say that this sort of thing counts for Phoenix Wright games?
fun fact, when playing toung twisters. if you complete 3 in a row Rio heals a bit.
its an absolute life saver that i used a ton when i played it.
overall an amazing video, Lifeline holds a special place in my heart. i played it while streaming it to a friend over the course of a few weeks (every friday night baby!) it was frustrating, but it was so much fun at the same time. unlike some other frustrating games, this one kept me going and it's one that i will never forget.
as of writing this comment i have also found and bought a review prototype build of the game, so i'm excited for that!
i hope lifeline gets more attention over the upcoming months, and will hopefully get a pc and/or console rerelease/remake.
@@fatih7961 what does this mean lmfao
What? You used it a ton of them?! Isn't it kinda frustrating because of the bad voice recognition? I can't even pass the 2nd round of the tongue twisters, and yet you passed it over and over?
@definitelynotcharaznable7749 why yes it is kinda annoying. But at the same time there are alot of things that can make it lesd so. Mic quality and accent. These things can either make it alot worse or better. I have beaten multiple rounds but it took a long time. I believe i beat like 3/4 normally within 1 and a half hour.
At the same time, because i was playing with my friend and we dont got infinite amounts of friday nights and we do wanna play other things. I after that we both agreed to safe scum the rest. But one day i will play it on actual hardware so then i'll probably have to spen hours doing tough twisters.
Also hot tip, listen carefilly first and write them down. It does make it easyer to say 'em out loud that way.
The battle scene and the way she run gives me Parasite Eve vibes.
I remember seeing the review of this on Xplay way back in the day and being amazed at the idea of controlling a game with only your voice. By the time the Kinect rolled around, the idea of screaming commands into a mic while playing a game seemed like the stupidest fucking thing on earth. Great Review!
god the x-play review
All they need is a text command fallback, just like the Mobile Assistants.
Heck, I just made a comment on this without scrolling (which in hindsight, probably should've) remembering this same episode but not the name of the game. It's nice to know that I wasn't the only one who watched XPlay.
So you are a character in 1st person perspective(the operator) but you're indirectly controlling another character in 3th person(Rio).
This means that this game is in second person, right? If it is, it's the first time I've seen a game in this perspective.
Other games to check out that do the same: Moss Chapter 1 & 2, Cruelty Squad and Jak 2 during brief segments
Driver PL does that too.
There is also an old adventure game called 'The Experiment' or 'eXperience112' (depending on region) that did the same thing - you were giving a woman directions through a CCTV network by switching lights on/off on a map.
Also, Republique has similiar concept. I think, Her Story firs into this category as well.
What about that goatman forest game IIRC called Do You Copy? that isnt purely 2nd person but feels very much like so
Honestly an survival horror fixed camera angle game like this were the angles are actually from in world cameras like this today could work so well, specially with the advances in technology
And of course, having the option of having text commands would help a lot if the voice commands are faulty
I hate to bring it up but FNAF has camera systems, just add voice controls and a bunch of tasks you need a character to do, and you got a cool game.
Lifeline is honestly a wonderful experience once you get passed the frustration. Like you said in the video it has a charm that isn't found anymore. There was another game by the name of "Eyedentify" that was scheduled for the PS3 but it was cancelled. It wasn't exactly the same as Lifeline but it had a lot of the same aspects by the look of the trailer along with using the PS3's camera as well. It's a shame it never made it to market since it could have been a fun experience in the same way Lifeline was.
I remember watching speedwerd's speedruns of this game. It's nice to see more people talking about it.
When the waitress shot the camera and the ad started, it played the song "She's a maniac" . well timed
Definitely seems like an interesting concept that could be used for training simulations for 911 operators on how to give commands over bad connection
And how to deal with people who can't hear/understand them and not just going "Ugh fine whatever perish then you jerk your fault for not listening".
"Bark like a dog" - Sessler
Little dog? Arff arff
Big dog? Woof woof
The funny thing is, this same concept of "controlling a video game with your voice" was one of the main selling points behind "Tom Clancy's: Endwar" which came out in 2008. Unfortunately, it seems like the idea was just too ahead of the tech.
Interestingly, I think one of the first to try this idea was "Seaman" for the Sega Dreamcast.
She should have responded to "shoot the meal" with, "You can't piss on hospitality! I won't allow it!"
What a unique game. The PS2 has so many creative games.
Before the restructuring, Konami was known for its experimental approach to videogames even dating back to Contra, or, how do we combine Mario with Aliens and Predator?
4:00 absolutely unforgivable that blue stinger isn’t listed within the christmas games wikipedia category. brb, gonna go correct that
I have neurological dysarthria and I rented this at blockbuster. It was a frustrating weekend.
I thought this game was part of my delirious dream as a teenager, yet you proven that it is not.
Love her voice
I love watching Jerma's stream on this game again and again because it just feels like a downward spiral down to madness.
What an expert move at 18:09, closing the eye that's on the barrel of the gun so your aim is biased on the hypotenuse of the gun & your unopened eye.
This is the sort of game you only make with a dream and a ton of thinking cocaine. I kind of miss that we don't get games this insane that often anymore.
Even considering the upscale patch, I’m amazed at how adorable Rio looks when it’s an old PS2 game.
If they remade/remastered this game with more accurate voice-recognition, it could be an awesome time.
Holy shirt I did not expect the classic "Engrish with Brad" video to come up. That got a good laugh out of me. Thanks Boulder
Mentioning 4pp in this video brings back so much nostalgia.
fantastic videos. really concise, well edited, good choice of footage.
This is one of those games that seem to beg for a re-release/remaster/remake. What it was trying to do could be done so much better these days.
Also, it's great that they killed off your girlfriend so that you and Rio can shack up (eye roll). I absolutely agree it would have been better to just not have a girlfriend at all, or keep Rio and your relationship very purely platonic.
Your streams of the game where wild, you should definitly stream more often. Great video as always!
I remember this game being reviewed on some show on g4 and it seeming interesting but I completely forgot what the game was! thank you for letting me find it again!
Love that sneak in 4PP reference, im shocked people still remember Brad and Pals
Pretty sure the L-R thing is a baseless rumor on incomplete linguistic knowledge.I don't think it would help and even Japanese people playing this game found it difficult.
Right? Because if they had to change the entire system to understand English, then the data set would most likely be designed to understand a clear (probably American) English speaking accent.
So surreal to me seeing an old Brad4pp clip in your video. That laugh is iconic
This is probably the best 2nd Person action adventure game ever made.
Most are pretty awful. Camera based games like Night Trap etc. So in a way this is a low bar to clear, but on the other it's actually really impressive it's as deep and interesting as it is. I love the setting.
Wouldn’t it still be third person? I’m genuinely confused
@@DeathtrapCult not exactly. You're playing as a prewritten character (he's in a space station and has a gf whose gone missing. He wants to find her with the help of Riyu, so he has his own pre-written motivation) and helping or assisting another uncontrollable character, Riyu. You give her commands or suggestions because you have what she doesn't, visual surveillance info. But you can't move. She can so she takes your guidance (commands or requests) and uses her own skills in combat to surpass obstacles and progress. So since there are two characters, one playable which is you, giving the commands and another whose narrative wise unplayable but is steered by using your voice commands; it's definitely a second person game.
@@DeathtrapCult From a visual perspective obviously everything is going to be third person, but it's second person in the sense that you're observing the actions of others. Consider the fact you're looking over the shoulder of the girl while looking through a first person view within a physical camera in the room with her. This combination is what bridges the gap into 2nd person. It's neither a first person game, or a third person game, it's both.
@@Vespyr_ Ahh, I see, this helps.
I'm glad this game is getting some recognition.
Man, the game looks so immersive.
It looks like you can emotionally engage deeply with Rio.
I'd love to play it as frustrating as it can be.
It reminded me of Parasite Eve.
PS1 and PS2 was best gaming era innovation wise
Man, I got this game back in the day at Gamestop for $3 thanks to the 4PlayerPodcast. Miss those guys, introduced me to so many great games like Valkyria Chronicles and Sakura Wars.
It was so much fun watching you stream this!
Great video, Boulder puncher. I was completely ignorant to this title, however, it reminded me the time I played Tom Clancy's End War, voice command was very basic, but it added a different feeling of immersion. Looking forward to any indie dev that takes the glove on voice command 👍🏼
I've been waiting for a remake of Lifeline for awhile now. I also was a watcher of Spedwerd on twitch and his speedruns of the game a long time ago. Now days, technology has improved a ton, especially with AI chat GPT and AI voice mimicking. Maybe a few years into the future, you could recreate this game with a never ending stream of potential replies and conversations that could be had with Rio.
I highly doubt the voice actress would be willing to reprise her role, and as far as I know, hardly no one ever brings it up to her during interviews. It's a forgotten piece of her life at this point I'd imagine. Also, interestingly, the director and designer, Manabu Nishizawa, was never credited by name in any video game ever again, this was also his first project. Also the writer kind of disappeared and hadn't done anything since. There's no behind the scenes information or documentation on the project at all. It's almost like a phantom project.
The whole thing is intriguing to me, and always has been. A game that obviously was considered impossible to make at the time was made about as well if not better than anyone involved could have predicted, no one knew it existed, everyone vanished.
This is amazing for a PS2 survival horror game in which they create a feature where you control the character with voice command. I don’t know why they didn’t add in later games.
Can you imagine if they put a voice command on resident evil or even silent hill. That’ll be awesome if they did that on VR games.
Can you guys IMAGINE how much better games like these are going to be with the onset of AI?
Have you ever played Hey You Pikachu? When Lifeline released, my initial thought was Hey You Pikachu meets Resident Evil
One day I'll get to play it, I remember reading about it in a magazine when it was new.
Probably means taking the physical cartridge we got off Ebay (because it never got released here in the UK but I didn't know that at 12, I thought I just missed it because I never had an N64 until then) to a friend's house in America. Only because I can't emulate it XD
Which is a good reason for emulation to be allowed, for region-locked games.
I'd like to ask Nintendo why it was Region-locked and why they haven't re-released it for consoles with built-in mics, I'm sure the DS could have played it easily. And why they didn't release it here when the English version already existed.
PS2 was quite something...really the golden era of video games
This was fascinating, I didn’t know this game existed! The voice performance is honestly pretty well done. It sounds live in a way that is pretty convincing at times.
Great video 🎉
Rio's voice is good for ASMR.
I loved the voice commands for Rainbow Six 3 on the OG Xbox. Felt good to tell a team to hold then breach when you got to the other door and busted in to get a hostage. Great stuff. I was sad they got rid of the planning stages in the first RS and Rogue Spear, but anyways. It would be great to see voice tech implemented in more games.
32:36 "would there be an audience for such games?" of course it will, imagine an npc that use chat gp´t for example, or like in this story you speak with the protagonist via voice chat and she responds more naturaly?
lol that 4playerpodcast clip 1:40 had me XD I recognize Brads voice anywhere.
half Japnaese and half german like Asuka from Evangelion
The game reminds me of Event[0] in the way it allows you to give free-form input. It might be worth checking it out if you want a less frustrating version of this.
i remember adam from x play playing this and it was so funny. a few things i think could make this better are if 1 it was a co op game where 1 person tell you where the best place to shoot is and the other person has control of the character. also make it sorta like a way out with the camera tricks and stuff. but most of all think of livestreaming the dual video where i person can only hear you in the microphone and the muffled sound of the other players audio like mic distortion. an audience for something like that would be cool like detroit :become human mixed with it takes 2
I was thinking about something like this too, like Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes
I remember.
Man awesome to see some new video, doing my job helping with the algorithm hi from Chile latin america ☀️
Awesome video. Had no idea about this game.
Voice recognition has come really far so it'd be neat to have new a game like this. Especially with a sassy female protagonist :)
omg the fact you showed 4PP video is just great!
Also known as the game with the girl that made both Jerma and Joel even more insane.
Protip for anyone who tries this with the "R/L" thing, you pronounce this letter like the "tt" sound in "butter."
It's closer to a gentle "d" sound.
Holy shit, man. I gotta say, I'm hooked lol I really enjoyed what you showed about the game so far and now I really wanna try it 👏🏻. I like the premise.
Gotta love the PS2 era for gems like this. It might have some flaws, but this got me more hyped than pretty much 90% of current games releasing right now.
There's something so soothing about the music and it feels familiar, but I don't know what it reminds me of. Resident Evil Remake maybe? That is another early 2000's title. Although Lifeline seems more relaxed in its downtime.
@@oriontrips Parasite Eve?
Thank you I was trying find the name for this game for 15 years thank you again
"Oh I dont have a heal capsule" - Boulder Punch 2023
nice video, think I'll peep the vod
I remember being so fascinated about this game when I read articles about it in magazines, but I think the best way to enjoy the gameplay today is via videos on youtube.
I remember seeing BigBangBlitz streaming this on Justin, something like a solid 15 years ago. I'm glad that newer streamers and content creators are discovering it too.
My cutest game of all time, so original, true to its theme. You feel the pain of the operator which l know can be fixed. l would surely add the concept in my games, if ever. The soundtrack, the theme of the story, just beautiful! 10/10 game, l had handicaps due to my mic but l went through and beyond. l just love this game, PS2 era, Rio and her optional interactions if you wish to learn more about her. Being a voice actor for a game(you, the player) has never been felt better! This game taught me the meaning of pronunciation, using the right words, combination of them and knowing which words to use. Not my mother language but it is fun and educational. It just needs refinement and variety.
I remember seeing this on a really old game review show on TechTV (before it was G4, anyone remember Anime Unleashed at the wee hours of the morning?) that previewed upcoming games and such, but I could never remember the name. I thought it sounded really neat as a concept, but since I'd forgotten the name, I could never figure out how to find it, though I remembered snips of the episode that featured it. Now that I have a name to go with the game, maybe I'll see if I can't dig a copy up somewhere to add to my collection of weird and forgotten games. Thanks for putting a name to it after all these years!
I learned of this game from the 4 player podcast video you showed and always wanted to try it but neverlooked into how to play it.
I vividly remember the episode of X Play this was on and Adam Sessler doing the bark like a dog thing-- I always thought that was them doing a bit lol, never expected it to be real.
This concept is great. More games should be like this
Tom Clancy's EndWar was a seventh generation console RTS with voice command. It also released on PC, so maybe the voice recognition was better
So this is like Seaman meets Pac-Man 2 meets a survival horror game
I remember reading about this game in Playstation magazine probably back in 2003 or 04. The character model and setting were etched in my memory but totally forgot this game's whole gimmick was it using voice commands.
l hope you review Binary Domain, another rare game with voice action adventure, very unlike Lifeline but really, this game is something else.
It is a third person shooter that seems generic but it isn't because it has depth and interesting characters. They made a third person shooter actually good and unique since you can respond with your voice and you don't die instantly, instead you have medkits when downed so no more unfair deaths. It is like l found the dream 3rd person shooter/
Thank you for your service, Boulder.
didnt know this at all, looks fantastic lmao, fun premise
I love the concept of the game. Enough to often watch playthroughs of it.
Great work really enjoyed it. I imagine the relationship you could build with AI partners would be quite meaningful, excluding the misunderstandings...
You say you don't know if there would be an audience for this type of game, and I am here to tell you I want this and quite a few other game remade honestly so there is at least one person hoping for more
"Watch the Lifeline video."
"Leave the room? Okay!"
How did you remove the blurring that PS2 games usually have?
Upping the resolution even to 720p should remove the blurryness.
Somehow never heard of this before. Really interesting!
i thought the game was pretty immersive since you play as a guy in a room sitting in a chair looking at a monitor the entire time.
I am obsessed! this looks so good! It's like she is alive! I hope they keep making this games, we now have crazy AI potential! Imagine a game where you play as a virtual asistance and you gotta look trough some metaphor of the internet!!
Yooo I died laughing when you’re like “it’s not like all her pictures are missing” 😂 the contrast is very stark between someone being dead and her personal property having some slime on it.
I didn't even know this game existed, thanks!
I vividly remember reading about this game in a magazine when I was a teenager, but I never got to try it. I've gotta say thats a fascinating idea for a game.
Funnily, Korea is opposite
15:43
that felt like a resident evil 2 call back. when either claire or leon first meet kendo in his gunshop.
even the name honda sounds a bit like kendo
I really want to try this game, simply to test all the ways English words would get transliterated into Japanese. Yes, everyone knows about the "L and R" thing, but there's so much more, like how almost all consonants are paired with a vowel sound. For example, "left" would be pronounced "refuto," and "right" would be pronounced "raito." "Look at green machine" would be pronounced "ruku atu guriin mashiin".
Also, a less well-known transliteration issue is Japanese's lack of V or P sounds, which all fall under the umbrella of B sounds. So "even" would be pronounced "iben," and "very" would be pronounced "beri." Thus "even the very shadow you cast in sunlight" would be pronounced "iben ji beri shadoru yu kasuto en sanraito."
Oh man I REALLY wanna play now.