LifeSigns: Surgical Unit



An adventure game series for the Nintendo DS following the wacky misadventures of Tendo Dokuta, a young medical intern working at Seimei Medical University in Tokyo.

There are actually two Lifesigns games, though the first, Kenshuui Tendo Dokuta, was never translated from Japanese.


 * The Alcoholic - Tange likes to drink, and Suzu is known to knock back a few shots.
 * All Myths Are True: The Kijimuna Elves, which actually exist.
 * Big Eater: Aoshima, who eats about 20 separate dishes in one sitting.
 * Big Screwed-Up Family: The Tamakis are a mild case, with daughter Kaori and her parents. Tendo's family is notoriously more screwed up  So are Kouichi and Asuza Inose, brother and sister, from the second game's first case
 * Blind Idiot Translation: There is the occasional typo, text wrapping issue, parenthetical placeholder, mangled grammar, and unresolved Pronoun Trouble in the English version. Also, the translation in general is a bit on the literal side; while not necessarily a defect, it frequently results in the use of medical terminology that may fly right over your head.
 * Cannot Spit It Out: Hoshi has a crush on Tendo, but can't get it out, and simply makes him meals. Sora is this way to Hikaru.
 * Character Development: Ueto. She becomes much nicer and kind in the second game.
 * Cloudcuckoolander:
 * CPR: Clean, Pretty, Reliable: Tange has a heart attack and Tendo revives him fairly easily just with CPR.
 * Crystal Ball: Miyuki owns one in the second game. It actually does let her see into the future, as proven by the fact that Heikichi can't pinch her bum while she has it.
 * Defrosting Ice Queen: Ueto.
 * Driven to Suicide:
 * Fair Weather Mentor: Suzu and Sawai.
 * Fiery Redhead: Aoshima, Kaori
 * First-Name Basis: The only one who ever calls Tendo by his given name, Dokuta, is Hikaru. Even when he
 * Gamer Chick: Hoshi loves the claw machine, giving Tendo a pig she won from it.
 * Happily Adopted: Subverted. Tendo lived with his mom, but was very close to his firefighter stepdad, respecting him and fully appreciating the things the man did for him. His mother died from cancer when he was a boy, and his stepdad took care of him, and worked himself raw to make sure Tendo could go to med school. He even says to his real father, Sawai, that he considers his stepdad his true father.
 * I Gave My Word: Tendo does this twice, and both times it's a promise to Hikaru, his little sister. The first time is a simple vow that once he operates on Higure, he'll come back to the hotel for her. The second time is more dramatic, when
 * Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Well, it wasn't a villain, but I mean, damn.
 * Infant Immortality: Averted 'hard' with
 * Littlest Cancer Patient: Hikaru in the first game.
 * Loony Fan: Naoko.
 * Lovable Sex Maniac: Heikichi.
 * Luke, I Am Your Father: Sawai.
 * Meaningful Name: Dokuta is a rough romanization of "Doctor", so Tendo's title is basically "Dr. Doctor."
 * Chief Nurse Florence was named after Florence Nightingale, despite everyone else's Japanese names.
 * Ms. Fanservice: Eri, complete with nurse's outfit.
 * Multiple Endings: If you take too long during an operation, or fail convincing, there can be a separate ending It usually involves Someone dying.
 * Mundane Made Awesome: The first game has it the worst, but the second doesn't get off scot free either. Particularly notable is the head of the hospital, who is surrounded by a platoon of worshipping nurses and who gets dramatic cutaways when he walks down the hallway.
 * Nonstandard Game Over: The only time you can game over during a diagnosis is with the androphobic patient. Easy to avoid if you actually pay attention to the conversation leading up to it, minimizing the number of times palpation is done to 1.
 * Press X to  patient: When working on 's heart, at one point the game will bring up the usual interface to do something with the prompt being to " touch the heart".  The correct action, obviously, is
 * Sequel First
 * Sink or Swim Mentor: Suzu. Just... Suzu. She was fully prepared to harshly discipline Aoshima when she made a mistake. She also has her, within one week of her internship, perform brain surgery on a ten-year-old girl, with no backup aside from her perioperative nurse.
 * Sour Supporter: Masui.
 * Team Pet: Cookie becomes one. Aside from the cute factor, he's directly responsible for an exceedingly heartwarming and an exceedingly awesome
 * Those Two Guys: More like those four guys. Kanae, Masui, and Keiichi are like this from the start, and Ueto joins their ranks in the second game.
 * Timed Mission: Each surgery has one or two different timers counting down at any given point.
 * Unwanted Harem: Practically every girl save Ueto flirts with Tendo at one point or another. Sort of subverted with
 * Vacation Episode: Played with. Tendo takes his little sister Hikaru on vacation, and it ends up being just work for him.