ROOMMANIA＃203 | January 27, 2000

 ROOMMANIA#203 was released by SEGA on January 27, 2000, for the Dreamcast console.

The player becomes a "god residing in an apartment room" who watches over the resident Taihei Neji and changes his mundane life into an event-filled story. This is a Life-Intervention Adventure Game. The title is a coined word combining "Room" and "Mania," and is unrelated to the Eastern European country of "Romania."

• It was remade for PlayStation 2 in 2002, and a sequel, Nu-Roommania Porori Seishun, was released in 2003.

Unique Game System: God's Intervention

The player intervenes in the protagonist Neji's life by advancing the calendar. There are mainly two intervention modes.

1. Peeping Mode is the mode where the player "interferes" while observing Neji's room via a fixed camera. It is a system where the player throws a ball to guide Neji's attention or adjust his priority of actions to advance the scenario (triggering a "Navi").

2. Rummage Mode is the mode where the player peers into the room while Neji is out. Within a time limit, the player can observe the room in first-person view and play "pranks" by moving or changing objects, which sometimes fulfill the Navi conditions.

Key Characters and Terms

• Taihei Neji: The Voice/Motion Actor is Kiyoshi Shimizu. He is a very ordinary university student whose life is made eventful by the whim of the god. (The setting is that he will die alone if there is no intervention).

• Serani Poji: A musician whom Neji is a huge fan of. Though initially a fictional in-game artist, actual CDs were released, with lyrics and music by Tomoko Sasaki.

The Four Scenarios

There are a total of four scenarios in the game, each with a different story depending on the initial "Navi."

• Scenario 1 "Wonderwall": It is a story where the sound of a child sobbing is heard in the middle of the night.

• Scenario 2 "Mail from the Past": It is a story where a mysterious email arrives from a chat member named Elena.

• Scenario 3 "Circle Game": It is a story about joining the university drama club and falling in love with a woman.

• Scenario 4 "As in a Mirror": It is a story where a strange world begins to reflect in a mirror bought at a flea market.