Follow TV Tropes

Following

Video Game / P.N.03

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pn03.png

P.N.03 (short for Product Number 03) is a relatively little-known Nintendo GameCube game developed by Capcom as part of Shinji Mikami's Capcom 5. P.N.03 was the only one of two games of the Capcom 5 not later ported to the PlayStation 2, the other being Dead Phoenix, which was cancelled.

P.N.03 is a 3rd person Shoot 'Em Up starring cybernetic Action Girl and Third-Person Seductress Vanessa Z. Schneider, a mercenary who wears a special sci-fi catsuit connected to her spine that allows her to shoot palm shots and execute energy drives, which she campily performs with acrobatic moves or while standing still gyrating or wiggling her bottom to destroy robots in a range of Apple-chic futuro-minimalist facilities. Impressively, all of her animations were handcrafted.

The game received mixed reviews when it was released on September 9th, 2003 in North America, with many critics and players considering it to be mediocre, but others complimenting it as a fun albeit flawed 3D transposition of an old-school arcade high-score shooter. It commercially flopped, with less than 30,000 sales worldwide. The below-average reception for a Capcom 5 title was due in no small part due to a difficult development process in which project lead Mikami reportedly had a difficult time caring about it and the team couldn't agree on the "true" title (its development title was Jaguar, reflected by a trailer where she makes catlike movements). The features ended up being as minimalist as the architecture, as due to the extended development cycle many features were dropped. The game engine, some music, and some of the mechanics were later used in Resident Evil 4. Despite its lack of commercial success, it is considered a cult game today.

Much of the team later split from Capcom to form PlatinumGames, who developed Vanquish and Bayonetta, which are successors of P.N.03, with Vanquish being the Robot fighting third-person shooter he originally envisioned P.N.03 as, and Bayonetta having a kinetic hypersexual dancing combat style.


This game contains examples of:

  • A.I. Is a Crapshoot: The premise of the game is that Computerized Armament Management robots (CAMS) which humans created to help colonize space have now turned on them and taken over Planet Ode. Vanessa is a mercenary who must destroy them all.
  • All There in the Manual: Little of the background is mentioned in game, but you play a mercenary hired by the military to investigate an AI defense system gone haywire.
  • Amen break: Several tracks are this.
  • And Your Reward Is Clothes: Beating the game with all suits acquired unlocks the "Blackbird" suit, and beating the game again with an overall "Professional" rank, including all trials, unlocks the Papillon.
  • Artificial Stupidity: The enemies spawn as predetermined types in predetermined locations. You know immediately on entering a room through prior experience what you are facing. The enemies also attack in predetermined patterns. Which makes sense, since they are robots.
  • Attack! Attack! Attack!: Skilled players who are familiar with enemy patterns and sound cues and know when/where/how to dodge in the open can ignore cover and play more aggressively.
  • Awesome, but Impractical:
    • Many of the energy drives are super flashy and over the top but do pitiful damage and in some cases can miss the target entirely!
    • The Papillon Suit can access all the energy drives, but turns you into a One-Hit-Point Wonder.
  • Beam Spam: A lot of the bosses and enemies tend towards this. The Final Boss uses a beam spam of Wave Motion Guns when it Turns Red.
  • Beautiful Void: Many of the game's environments fit this.
  • Boring, but Practical:
    • Tengu and the upgraded version, Tengu Pro. Doubles your shot power, but most importantly gives temporary invincibility.
    • The Black Aegis Suit is the first suit that allows for maximum upgrades in all categories and has access to Tengu Pro, Pegasus Pro and Swan Pro, three of the best energy drives in the game.
    • Ducking. Quite a few enemies are incapable of aiming up or down so a simple duck will avoid all incoming fire. Additionally, rooms can have trenches which when jumped into allow you to avoid incoming beam attacks with a duck.
  • Boss in Mook Clothing: The Seerose and Gardenie robots.
  • Bullet Hell: The bosses tend towards this, though unlike pure bullet hell games there is architecture to hide behind. The last boss is a pure example, and beating him involves learning the patterns to his attacks.
  • Button Mashing: The early Aegis Suits require lots, though later ones can be upgraded to fully automatic fire. Through New Game Plus all the suits can be upgraded this way.
  • Campy Combat: Vanessa's skin-tight or revealing suits, ballerina-like dodges and dance animations, and butt-shaking as she shoots.
  • Catastrophic Countdown: Mission 9 has a self-destruct escape sequence at the end.
  • Comm Links: Vanessa and the Client communicate most of the game through Metal Gear Solid-style codec scenes.
  • Critical Existence Failure: You're perfectly fine until that last hit that pierces your remaining shields and kills you.
  • Cut and Paste Environments: The trial missions are a bunch of random rooms strung together. Late in the game the randomizer loves to string multiple T-shaped intersections together, making it very easy to get lost.
  • Cyber Punk Is Techno: The soundtrack fittingly consists mainly of techno, breakbeat, industrial, and jungle/drum & bass tunes.
  • Dance Battler: Even though it's a shooter, Vanessa uses lots of dance-like moves like cartwheels, twirls, and poses when dodging and firing. It gets a little gratuitous when she fires automatic blasts while shaking her butt. Even her idle animation has her bobbing her head and tapping her foot to a steady beat.
  • Dancing Theme: Several trailers showed off Vanessa's dance-like movement. One of the attract videos of the game is a thirty-eight second video titled "dance" in the game's filesystem, showing Vanessa performing all her in-game animations like a dance. The ending credits scene is a similar, longer video of Vanessa performing all her animations like a dance.
  • Defeat Equals Explosion: Applies to all enemies in the game, since they're all robots.
  • Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: Dying simply dumps you out of the storyline or trial mission you were in - you get to keep the points you accumulated before death.
  • Dissonant Serenity: Demonstrated in the game's opening cutscene, when Vanessa grooves unflinchingly as double lasers fly past her face.
  • Do Not Run with a Gun: Vanessa has to stand still to fire.
  • Difficulty by Region: The western release massivelly increases the cost of new suits and suit upgrades, and makes the Blackbird and Papillon suits much more time-consuming to unlock.
    • In the Japanese version, unlocking the Blackbird simply requires beating the game once on Normal difficulty. In the western release, you have to purchase every suits and their upgrades.
    • Unlocking the Papillon in the original release was done by beating the New Game Plus. In the western version, you have to beat all 50 trial missions with a Professional ranking.
  • Difficulty Levels: You really should play the game on Easy to get the hang of the enemies and controls.
  • Excuse Plot: Can apply to the game's plot, since the development team stated they were more focused on the action.
  • Exposition Break: Major advances in the plot come through this way.
  • Expy: Vanessa is somewhat of a futuristic expy of Jill from the Resident Evil series.
  • Hit-and-Run Tactics: You cannot shoot and move at the same time. Gameplay is basically dodging out of the way of enemy fire until they're vulnerable, then attacking.
  • Gainax Ending: The ending is a big Mind Screw and Sequel Hook, revealing that the Client is also a Vanessa clone (after Vanessa already discovered a sleeping clone in Mission 9 that she was forced to abandon in a self-destruct sequence), and the Client says that memories can be faked, even her own, creating an Ontological Mystery. The last line of dialogue is the Client asking Vanessa if she will continue to be a mercenary, and Vanessa responds "Let me sleep on it." The Shower Scene hidden ending also implies a sequel, when the Client approaches Vanessa about a new mission.
  • Gameplay Grading: The player is graded every room based on their max combo, time, and whether they took damage; at the end of every mission and at the end of the game the player gets a rank of "Amateur", "Regular", "Destroyer", or "Professional".
  • Ghost City: Mission 6 takes place in this.
  • Gotta Kill Them All: Every mission begins with a briefing of a giant, sometimes transforming mecha boss you must defeat at the end of the level.
  • Hopeless Boss Fight: Sonnenblume in the first level, or so your employer insists.
  • Humongous Mecha: Certain bosses are several stories tall and tower over Vanessa, especially the last boss.
  • Invulnerable Attack: Much like the super bombs of Shoot Em Ups, Vanessa is completely invulnerable during an energy drive.
  • Jiggle Physics: Plenty of Vanessa's animations cause her butt to jiggle. Whether you're walking around, attacking, or even just standing still (which makes her tap her foot), it almost never stops moving.
  • Laser Hallway: Applies to certain rooms in the game.
  • Level Grinding: Doing the trial missions over and over for points to upgrade the Aegis Suits makes the game much easier.
  • Male Gaze: The only explanation for Vanessa's near-constant butt-shaking.
  • Mecha: Every enemy in the game is a robot. Some robots and bosses transform.
  • Modeling Poses: Vanessa does this in some promotional images and in the game itself.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Vanessa, who wears a skintight outfit throughout with a strong dose of Male Gaze applied.
  • Multiple Endings: Beating the game on Easy gives the standard ending. Beating the game on Normal or Hard adds an additional cutscene after the ending. Beating the game with the Papillon Suit treats the player to a Shower Scene, and the Client reveals her name as "Dominique".
  • Multi-Mook Melee: Used for the end-of-level battle in Mission 4, and some of the Reactor Boss battles.
  • Mundane Made Awesome: The game adds excitement and intrigue into an otherwise mundane mercenary mission with techno music and dancing.
  • New Game Plus: The Aegis Suits you've bought and upgraded carry over between games.
  • One-Winged Angel: Orchidee II transforms from a mecha-centipede to a Spider Tank form. Loewenzahn II changes from a "lion scorpion car" to a phoenix. Alraune starts as an easy robotic skull, then turns into a much tougher humongous mecha scorpion.
  • One-Hit Kill: The energy cannon turrets. You do not want to be out in the open when they fire.
  • One-Hit-Point Wonder: On Normal and Hard difficulty, any hit in the Papillon Suit is an instant game over.
  • Palette Swap: The basic enemy type, the Pilz, all look the same outside of the color. Their attacks vary depending on what color they are. The Aegis Suits themselves are all different colored versions of the same model, with one exception.
  • Point Build System: The Aegis Suits are both buyable and upgradable through the points scored in both the storyline and the side missions.
  • Post-Defeat Explosion Chain: The bosses do this upon defeat.
  • Reactor Boss
  • Recurring Boss: All of the normal bosses are fought twice, and two of them have One-Winged Angel forms in their rematch.
  • Recycled Soundtrack: The "Fourth Mission" track was recycled in Resident Evil 4 as Klauser's mercenary theme.
  • Reused Character Design: Vanessa resembles Jill Valentine from the Resident Evil series, another Capcom property Mikami directed.
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: The game is an allegory of this
  • Robot War: The premise of the game, with CAMS turning against humans and Vanessa hired to destroy them. The director specifically stated in interviews that he wanted to create a "hot robot war" game.
  • Save Point: You are only allowed to save in between missions.
  • Scoring Points: Being inspired by old-school arcade shooters, score is important in P.N.03. Learning to get large combos with No Damage Bonuses is essential to hi-scoring in P.N.03. The score is also currency, which allows you to upgrade or buy new suits, and scoring effects mission rank. In a new game, about 4 million points are required to buy every suit, which unlocks the Blackbird, and on a second playthrough all missions (story and trial) need to be finished with a "Professional" rank to unlock the Papillon Suit.
  • Score Screen: You see this after completing every room, every mission, and the entire game, based on max combo, time, and whether you took damage.
  • Smart Bomb: All of the energy drives are variations on this theme.
  • Shaking the Rump: Vanessa almost always does this when firing—becoming more brazen as she upgrades to semi-auto and fully-auto fire—and also during a few Energy Drives.
  • Shameless Fanservice Girl: Vanessa becomes this with the Papillon Suit on, which is just a tanktop, chaps, and a thong.
  • Shower Scene: Wearing the Papillon Suit through the whole game rewards you with one.
  • Signature Sound Effect: The enemies all have unique sounds indicating they're about to attack. Listening for this is key when trying to dodge while out in the open.
  • Single-Stroke Battle: With the game's Suspicious Video-Game Generosity, and using the right Pro energy drive, you can end most boss battles with a single strike.
  • Sorry, I Left the BGM On: The level music is apparently what she's listening to, thus the toe tapping and gyrations. It turns off when she snaps her fingers.
  • Stuff Blowing Up: A core part of the gameplay is blasting robots and watching them explode spectacularly.
  • Sudden Soundtrack Stop: Happens before certain pivotal moments such as before the Mission 9 clone plot twist, or when approaching the final boss.
  • Spider Tank: Sonnenblume, Alraune, Orchidee's second form, and several of the mooks.
  • Suspicious Video-Game Generosity: There are many rooms that have full health and energy pick ups, particularly before a boss fight.
  • Take Cover!: One of the ways to avoid enemy fire. Skilled players who are good at dodging in the open don't need to rely on this so much and can play more aggressively for hi-scoring combos.
  • Tank Controls: The game uses tank controls like the Resident Evil series, another Capcom title.
  • Theme Naming:
    • The "Blackbird" Aegis Suit is black, like the name implies. "Papillon" is a French word that means "butterfly", signified by the butterfly tattoo on Vanessa's stomach, and "Vanessa" is a genus of butterfly.
    • Everything in the game is named with German words or references; "Ode", the name of the planet the game is set on, means "wasteland". Vanessa's last name "Schneider" is also Germanic, and she has a German accent.
  • Third-Person Seductress: Vanessa is a particularly blatant example with all of her butt-wiggling.
  • Third-Person Shooter: Despite the over the shoulder cam as later used in Resident Evil 4, this is what the game is at heart.
  • Transforming Mecha: Some regular robots and many of the bosses do this.
  • Turned Against Their Masters: The premise of the game, the CAMS robots went haywire killed all human colonizers on Planet Ode.
  • Turns Red: The final boss uses its Wave-Motion Gun Beam Spam when down to a quarter of its HP.
  • Unexpected Shmup Level: Reviewers tended to treat the entire game like this.
  • Unflinching Walk: Applies to Vanessa posing and vogueing as she explodes robots, her curvy frame often silhouetted by it.
  • Wave-Motion Gun: Used by several enemies and bosses, especially the death laser turrets sometimes guarding the reactor bosses.
  • World Limited to the Plot: Standard for a Shoot 'Em Up, there is no world-building or plot outside of the events of the game. The producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi stated from the E3 2003 demo that this was his intention, saying "the story itself isn't too deep" and "we're focusing on the action".

Top