LifeSigns: Surgical Unit

LifeSigns: Surgical Unit (known in Europe as LifeSigns: Hospital Affairs) is a Nintendo DS adventure game that takes place inside a hospital. It follows up on Kenshūi Tendō Dokuta, a 2004 release that never came out outside Japan, though the localized LifeSigns does reference its predecessor. Critics have described the game as resembling a mix of Phoenix Wright and Trauma Center.

The story unfolds at Seimei Medical University Hospital, where the main character, Dokuta Tendo, is a 25-year-old second-year intern studying emergency medicine. He is somewhat naive but highly skilled, driven by a promise to help others after his mother died of cancer. In the earlier game, a misdiagnosis nearly ended his career. His first name is a kanji transliteration of the English word "doctor." Other key staff include nurse Sachi Hoshi, 22, who has worked at the hospital a year longer than Tendo and appears to have feelings for him; Suzu Asou, 36, a brilliant surgeon and Tendo’s mentor; and Kyousuke Sawai, 52, a cold, results-focused immunology expert who is Tendo’s biological father and developed a cancer drug called SPX. Sawai is operated on by Tendo in the final chapter after a piece of glass or debris pierces his heart in a car crash. Other characters include intern Yuma Aoshima, 24, an ambitious and stubborn food lover; pediatrician Ai Ueto, 26, who switched from shades to glasses; internist Keiichi Kashiwagi, 47; chief nurse Florence Makiko Sakurada, 60, a gossip known for her Florence Nightingale nickname; gloomy operating room nurse Sanae Kurai, 28; eccentric anesthesiologist Utsujiu Masui, 30, who is married but recently kicked out by his wife; and Hikaru Sawai, 10, Sawai’s bald daughter and Tendo’s stepsister, who recovered from leukemia after Tendo donated bone marrow.

Gameplay is split into five episodic chapters, each featuring exploration, where Tendo moves through areas and talks to people to advance the plot; mini-games, such as catching fruit or fish, plus a persuasion mechanic that can lead to good or bad endings; diagnoses, which involve checking pulse, breathing, and injuries; and surgery, where the player follows step-by-step instructions (disinfecting, incising, operating, closing) with tools provided automatically. There are nine possible operations, though the number varies by player choice.