LifeSigns: Surgical Unit

Thoracic surgery has never been so awesome.

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.

Tropes used in LifeSigns: Surgical Unit include:

• 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 Especially if you consider Suzu could have been his stepmom, but Sawai refused because Tendo was born. So are Kouichi and Asuza Inose, brother and sister, from the second game's first case He blames himself for his parents' death, since they were picking him up from the police station. Asuza denies this, but after Kouichi gets in a motorcycle accident, she admits she did, and felt guilty about it.
• 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: Subverted. Naoko tries to kill herself after she accidentally stabs Kakkii. You can either save her by distracting her, which lets Cookie get the knife away, or she can stab herself, and Suzu will operate and save her life.
• 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 gets in a relationship with either Aoshima or Hoshi, they refer to each other as "Tendo-san", "Aoshima-san" or "Hoshi-san".
• Gamer Chick: Hoshi loves the claw machine, giving Tendo a pig she won from it. It can be used to make them fall in love.
• 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 he operates on Sawai, he promises to Hikaru he'll save his life. He uses this to convince Suzu to assist, because despite all the hell Sawai put him through, Tendo will heal him.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Well, it wasn't a villain, but I mean, damn.
• Infant Immortality: Averted 'hard' with Little Ran. She dies if you don't operate on Kouichi fast enough.
• 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. Don't finish Kouichi's operation in time, and Little Ran dies.
• 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 kill patient: When working on Miyaki's heart, at one point the game will bring up the usual interface to do something with the prompt being to "not touch the heart". and the timer doesn't decrease. The correct action, obviously, is to wait for the life meter to jump up.
• 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 (helping Miina overcome her fear of men) and an exceedingly awesome Grabbing Naoko's knife from her hand.
• 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. There is also an unseen third timer that can lock you out of certain routes.
• Unwanted Harem: Practically every girl save Ueto flirts with Tendo at one point or another. Sort of subverted with Suzu, who pretends to flirt with him, then reveals she loathes his very existence at the second game's climax.
• Vacation Episode: Played with. Tendo takes his little sister Hikaru on vacation, and it ends up being just work for him.