Patlabor: Operation Tokyo Bay is a city builder/turn-based combat game for the NEC PC-98 platform, and was released by Banpresto in 1994. In it, the player is tasked with building artificial islands as the manager of the Babylon Project, while also commanding patlabor units in altercations with various criminals, terrorists, and other opponents.
Gameplay[]
The game primarily revolves around the city builder portion, which is where the actual progression takes place. The labor battles, while sometimes time-consuming and requiring some degree of strategy, are primarily for show.
City Builder[]
The city builder element of Operation Tokyo Bay revolves around strategically developing the artificial islands to balance their populations, resident retention, and money. It is important to note that the player starts a game with 100 billion Yen, and the smallest denomination in the game is 100 million Yen, so while the costs of land, construction, and other expenses may seem high, they are rather manageable in context.
Islands[]
Islands 1-5 are rectangular in shape, each twelve tiles tall and sixteen tiles wide. Upon the creation of a new island, the player is required to place four tiles; an electrical substation, a gas tank, a water facility, and a garbage disposal site. These can be placed anywhere on the island, except for on the first island created at the start of a new game, where the top left tile is occupied by a project management office. The player also has the option to select a transit network for a new island, of which there are six choices. The transit networks appear to take the form of elevated rail, and each layout offers different connectivity options for the island. In the selection menu and in the game, a transit line is blue and a station is a yellow square.
For the remaining four islands, the player will also be required to place a large project somewhere on the map. These projects consist of the Tokyo Teleport, a new Tokyo stock exchange, an international trade center, and an amusement park called "Banpreland". A large project takes up a four-by-four square of tiles and cannot cross a transit line. Large projects, like regular land tiles, affect nearby property values. To build islands 2-5, the player must first have filled each tile on their current island, met the required population on the island, and have at least 3 trillion yen. To move on from island 1, the player must have a resident population of 100,000 people. To move from 2 to 3, they will need 150,000 more, and from 3 onwards they will need to increase their resident population by at least 200,000 to advance.
Land Tiles[]
As mentioned, each artificial island is comprised of 192 land tiles. Every unused land tile can be interacted with by the player, who can either sell it or build something on it. Selling land tiles is the only way to make money in the game, but opting to build on them offers benefits to nearby land tiles.
When building on a land tile, the player has seven options. They may build a department store for 2 billion Yen, a school for 500 million, a park for 100 million, a hotel for 1.5 billion, an entertainment center for 1.5 billion, a hospital for 1 billion, or a government office for 500 million. These buildings affect the values of nearby tiles in different ways.
Should the player opt to sell a land tile, three buyers will offer to purchase it, each with two different planned uses for the land. Schaft Enterprises will offer to build either an office or a mixed-use apartment/office building, the latter having a 30/70 split between uses. The other two companies are Shibishi Real Estate and Nishikiyu Real Estate. Shibishi will offer to build an office or a mixed-use apartment/office building split 50/50 between each. Nishikiyu, on the other hand, will offer to build a 70/30 apartment/office building or a regular apartment building. In general, the companies will pay more for a building with more office space than apartments, so the Schaft and Shibishi office buildings tend to pay out the best. However, under certain circumstances, offers to build apartments will be higher than usual, even surpassing office prices.
The price of the land tiles themselves varies based on what is constructed near them. Every month, the value and attractiveness of each land tile on the player's current island are updated. Offices (including government ones) and business-oriented projects (The Teleport, stock exchange, and trade center) increase nearby land values, so over time, tiles near these structures will increase in sale price. On the other hand, department stores, schools, hotels, entertainment centers, hospitals, and Banpreland will decrease nearby land values. The value of a tile naturally impacts its sale price, but it is also important to consider the population of the island when developing it. Offices and business projects decrease the attractiveness of nearby tiles, meaning that apartments built nearby will have lower occupancy than otherwise. However, department stores, schools, entertainment facilities, and Banpreland increase the attractiveness of nearby tiles, so apartments built close to these structures will be fuller than if they were not. Hotels and hospitals decrease both land values and attractiveness nearby, though the former offers a significant boost in employment on the island, while the latter reduces the impact of medical emergencies.
Project Management[]
During a game, events will happen at random that impact the funds available to the project. Emergencies such as fires and medical crises will cost the player some money, typically between 500 million and 7 billion Yen. Typhoons can also be a factor, though they have a chance of straying off-course so as not to impact the player. News pop-ups will appear throughout the game, offering the player a glimpse into its world through the lens of a reporter. Pop-ups will also inform the player of labor crime on the islands. There are three types of pop-ups for these circumstances; regular crime, terrorism, and a "story battle". Regular crimes and terrorism can occur on any of the player's islands, and if they have a patlabor unit stationed on the island of the crime, then a battle will automatically be started. If no patlabor unit is available to respond to a crime, the battle is automatically lost. A "story battle" will happen regardless of where the player's patlabor units are stationed, and are thus unavoidable.
In addition to having land values and attractiveness updated, the end of every month brings a more detailed report on the project. The report details expenditures and revenues over the month, and can show the player trends in land values and population figures. The report menu is also where the player can take out loans and repay debts. The player may take out a loan of up to 5 trillion Yen, but may only be up to 5 trillion in debt at any time, so if they choose to take all 5 trillion at once, they won't be able to take out any more loans until they have repaid some of their debt. Loans are interest-free and can be repaid at the player's leisure, but if they attempt to progress past island 5 with debt, they will trigger an immediate game-over.
On the sidebar, the player can manage their patlabor units. They start out in 1998 with section 2, division 1, equipped with MPL-97S Python labors. At the onset of 1999, division 2 becomes available, complete with AV-98 Ingrams. Division 1 receives their AV-0 Peacemakers soon after, but it is not until January 1, 2007, that the player unlocks division 3 and the powerful AV-5 Magnum. A patlabor unit can be placed on standby, where they will engage only in "story battles," or they can be stationed on any of the player's islands to respond to crimes. Each division can only respond to crimes on the island to which they're assigned, so even with all three divisions unlocked, it is impossible to respond to every crime in the mid- to late-game. The same menu where the player can manage their patlabor units is also where they can view their pilots' stats, as well as the stats of their patlabors and the enemy labors they've encountered.
Combat[]
Labor battles are automatically triggered when a patlabor unit is able to respond to a crime. Battles are usually divided into two phases, the start phase and the rush phase. In each phase, the player is offered different commands to give to their patlabor units. Should no patlabors be available, the battle is automatically lost. A battle is also considered lost if an enemy labor escapes, even if there is a second criminal to defeat. Losing a battle, taking too long to win, or over-using a ranged weapon in a battle will incur monetary penalties on the player, typically between 500 million and 7 billion Yen.
Each labor has its own armor and agility stats, which are expanded upon in battle. In addition to armor points, labors also have individual health bars for their head, arms, and legs. Labors that lack heads (such as the HL-97 Bulldog and HL-96 Tyrant 2000) and labors that lack arms (like the TFV-97EX Crabman High-Leg) will have zero health for these components. Any time a labor attacks, it may damage one of those three modules, or the armor of its target directly. The only way to destroy a labor is to deplete its armor points, so in theory a labor could be defeated even if its modules are fully intact so long as its armor is destroyed. Losing modules, however, affects the combat performance of a labor. Damage to the head impacts its ability to aim and dodge, while damage to the arms and legs can limit attack options. An example of this is a tackle attack like that of the Python or Ingram unit 2, which requires the labor to have intact legs to perform.
When attacked, a labor will automatically attempt to dodge, or in some limited cases, block the attack. The success of such a maneuver is determined by the agility stat of the labor and the pilot, as well as by module health.
Start Phase[]
Rush Phase[]
Pilots[]
Police[]
| Name | Affiliation | Agility | Speech |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tsutomu Gomioka | Division 1 | A | D |
| Masami Yuki | Division 1 | D | A |
| Noa Izumi | Division 2 | B | A |
| Isao Ohta | Division 2 | E | D |
| Kanuka Clancy | Division 3 | C | D |
| Shin Hayami | Division 3 | B | A |
Enemies[]
| Name | Affiliation | Agility | Speech |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drunkard | Independent | E | E |
| Terrorist C | Terrorists | C | A |
| Local Worker A | Independent | B | D |
| Local Worker B | Independent | B | B |
| Terrorist A | Terrorists | D | C |
| Terrorist B | Terrorists | C | D |
| JGSDF Pilot | JGSDF | B | A |
| SSS Pilot | Schaft | C | B |
| Bud Renard | Schaft | A | B |
| Thug | Gang | E | D |
Labors[]
The game has a total of 21 labors, including 8 original ones. Note that on each labor, the "Attack 3" slot is reserved for ranged attacks.
Patlabors[]
| Name | Armor | Agility | Attack 1 Damage | Attack 2 Damage | Attack 3 Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MPL-97S Python | 35 | 40 | 45 | 60 | - |
| AV-98 Ingram | 45 | 75 | 55 | 60 | 70 |
| AV-H98 Ingram Kai | 57 | 90 | 55 | 65 | 70 |
| AV-0 Peacemaker | 45 | 80 | 55 | 65 | 70 |
| AV-5 Magnum | 63 | 95 | 55 | 60 | 75 |
Note: While Ingram Unit 1 and 2, as well as Ingram Kai Unit 1 and 2, are listed as separate labors and have unique sprites/animations, the individual units have been omitted from this list to reduce repetition.
Enemy Labors[]
| Name | Armor | Agility | Attack 1 Damage | Attack 2 Damage | Attack 3 Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HL-97 "Bulldog" | 30 | 25 | 38 | 51 | - |
| HL-96 "Tyrant 2000" | 35 | 30 | 49 | 57 | - |
| HL-98 "Hercules 21" | 40 | 45 | 53 | - | 63 |
| AVS-98 Boxer (ASV-99 "Boxer") | 38 | 55 | 54 | 41 | - |
| SR-70 Saturn | 47 | 65 | 44 | - | 65 |
| HL-109 Chronos 3000 | 40 | 50 | 71 | 56 | - |
| SR-707 Pluto | 50 | 85 | 62 | 0 | 46 |
| TFV-97EX Crabman High-Leg Type | 52 | 70 | 62 | 53 | - |
| TVF-5 Centaur | 43 | 70 | 59 | - | 75 |
| AL-97 Atlas | 60 | 40 | - | - | 71 |
| Type 7 Brocken | 58 | 60 | 59 | 65 | - |
| Type-J9 Griffon | 48 | 85 | 52 | 69 | - |
| Type-R28 Dragon | 55 | 90 | 63 | 71 | 78 |
| Type-A10 Shenlong | 45 | 99 | 69 | 81 | - |