Hard-Boiled - Trailing the Suspect

We're moving further into the swamp, luckily we've remembered to pack a torch. After some conferring with Truna and friends, I've decided to write about turning Haruki Murakami's novel Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World into a game.

Let's profile the subject.

Author: Haruki Murakami

Date: 1985, the English version was first published in 1991

Background: (Speculative fiction) Novel that mixes genres of hard-boiled detectives, cyberpunk, pop culture and the works of Kafka.

Themes:
- Identity
- Consciousness and subconsciousness
- Nature of the human mind

Presentation of Themes:
Uses two parallel stories as an allegory for discussing the themes. The stories are connected through the use of unicorn skulls as a reoccurring item. The stories are presented in alternating chapters.

Plot:
The novel is split between two stories, "Hard-Boiled Wonderland" and "The End of the World". [It's one of those books that requires 10 minutes of explanation.]

Hard-Boiled Wonderland:
A detective novel set in a technomagically realistic Tokyo. The main character is a Calcutec, a human encryption device, who works for The System which is a organisation that keeps information safe. His life becomes complicated when an assignment leads him to using advanced (and forbidden) techniques to store information using his subconscious. More problems occur when he finds out that he may have been part of a experiment involving his brain.

The End of the World:
Set in a walled village where no one leaves and unicorns come to die. The protagonist is unaware of how he came to the village but to avoid dying in the harsh approaching winter, he agrees to become a villager and have his shadow separated. He is then given the job of Dreamreader which invertantly removes memories in the village. The man's shadow tries to convince him that they must escape and the main character has to make the ultimate choice.

Style:
I would talk abou the style of the work but there's only so much you can say that isn't this or that. Words like

Connections:
What does the work make YOU think of?

-Everyday the Same Dream
-Don't Look Back
-Today I Die
-ICO
-Flower, Sun and Rain
-Hotel Dusk
-Rule of Rose
-Daymare Town series