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Trauma Team is a 2010 simulation video game developed and published by Atlus for the Wii. It is the fifth and current final entry in the Trauma Center series. The narrative of Trauma Team follows six protagonists who operate in different sectors of the medical profession, and their united conflict with a virulent infection dubbed "Rosalia". The gameplay combines medical simulation with visual novel-style storytelling through motion comic cutscenes. The different storylines focus on simplified versions of surgery, emergency medicine, endoscopy, diagnosis, orthopedics and forensic medicine.

Beginning preproduction in late 2007 following the completion of Trauma Center: New Blood , the development team's aim was for Trauma Team to be both a "conglomeration" of the series and something different. The wish for variety after multiple titles with similar gameplay resulted in the different playable medical professions, which each required a dedicated designer. The story was influenced by the 2009 swine flu pandemic, and reduced the usage of supernatural and science fiction elements prominent in earlier entries to create a more grounded narrative.

While it met with low sales, reception was generally positive. Critics praised the narrative's grounded tone, presentation, and greater variety compared to earlier Trauma Center games. Criticism focused on the control and pacing issues of some gameplay modes. A pilot episode for a live-action series of the same name was produced, but the series was not taken up and the pilot received no official release.


Trauma Team is a video game that combines simulation gameplay with non-interactive visual novel storytelling using fully-voiced motion comic segments. The campaign is split between six medical-themed disciplines; surgery, emergency medicine, endoscopy, diagnosis, orthopedics and forensic medicine. Each of the six main characters have episodic storylines that interweave to form a larger narrative, with a seventh chapter involving all the characters once all six storylines are completed. Across each campaign, players control the action with the Wii Remote and Nunchuk.

Surgery and emergency medicine follow the gameplay pattern of earlier Trauma Center titles, with characters working under pressure to save patients. In the surgery segments, players operate on patients using a variety of tools, including scalpel, antibiotic gel and sutures. Players must perform a number of tasks to complete the operation while keeping vital signs stable. During the emergency medicine segments, the player must treat a number of patients with a basic set of tools while each patient loses health. The types of injuries include surface burns, wounds and broken limbs that must be reset. Tools include cotton pads, splints and scissors to cut clothing and expose wounds.

Endoscopy and orthopaedics are also invasive surgical professions, but have different gameplay to surgery and emergency medicine. Endoscopy has players guiding the endoscope through a patient's internal organs and carry out operations on small injuries such as ulcers, located using a radar. Players navigate using the Remote functions to mimic the endoscope's motion, while the Nunchuck is used to steer, move the camera, and select medical tools. Orthopaedics, which almost exclusively uses the Remote, has players performing scripted skeletal operations, including bone reconstruction and replacement. Tools are provided depending on the operation, with successful use creating a score chain which continues until a mistake is made. Rather than patient vitals, the player has five hearts represented on-screen, depleting when a mistake is made.

Compared to the other professions, diagnosis and forensics play very differently, being based around dialogue-based investigation and deduction with gameplay elements similar to point-and-click games. Diagnosis has players asking patients questions and examining them for symptoms. Between these sections, the player looks over the described victims and medical reports which include X-rays and CT scans to deduce what the patient is suffering from. Forensics sees players investigating crimes, going between the crime scene and the lead character's offices where the body and evidence ranging from clues on the corpse to witness testimony are collected. The player gathers clues represented as cards, with different cards combining to create either new clues or solid evidence. These trigger question-answer segments which can produce further clue cards and evidence.

Two difficulty levels are available from the start, "Intern" and "Resident", with a higher difficulty dubbed "Specialist" are available after the game's completion. Depending on their performance during each chapter, players are ranked and higher ranks unlock new content. The "XS" ranking is only achievable on the post-game "Specialist" difficulty, In addition to single-player, a second player can join in for local cooperative multiplayer during surgical levels; players can either take turns with actions, or work together in real-time.



Trauma Team is set in the same fictional universe as the other Trauma Center titles, although there is little to no narrative connection. Most of the game is based in and around Resurgam First Care, a fictional hospital in the United States which many of the protagonists work at or visit.

The storyline follows six protagonists working at Resurgam. "CR-S01" is an amnesiac prisoner convicted of bioterrorism; due to his surgery skills, he begins working at Resurgam to take years off his sentence. Maria Torres is a bombastic paramedic whose perfectionism and independence has isolated her from her colleagues. Gabriel Cunningham is a diagnostician whose troubled personal life gives him a pessimistic view of humanity, and during the game he is reluctantly partnered with the AI system RONI. Hank Freebird is an idealistic former soldier who changed careers after growing sick of violence, becoming Resurgam's resident orthopaedic surgeon. Tomoe Tachibana is an endoscopic surgeon from a wealthy Japanese background, having rebelled against her family's control and moved to America. Naomi Kimishima returns from Trauma Center: Second Opinion ; following Second Opinion , she was infected with a fatal disease, which left her with nothing in life but her work as a coroner at the Cumberland Institute of Forensic Medicine, but also granted her the ability to hear a dead person's last words.


The story opens with six interweaving plotlines involving the game's six main characters. CR-S01 is called from prison to perform a risky heart operation, done using the authority of Cunningham to save a key politician, and due to its success CR-S01's deal is struck. Naomi's storyline has her investigating multiple cases, alongside her growing relationship with a young girl named Alyssa. During her final case involving a serial bomber, Alyssa is almost killed by a bomb meant for Naomi, killing Alyssa's family. CR-S01 escapes from his observers to save Alyssa, forfeiting his deal. After the case is resolved, Naomi decides to adopt the orphaned Alyssa. Alongside these events, Maria confronts both her difficulty working with others and visions of Rosalia, a girl from her childhood; Tomoe successfully defies the restrictive heritage of her clan and saves her father from a life-threatening condition; Hank juggles his dual life as doctor and masked vigilante, in addition to helping a woman who attempted suicide to rediscover her love of life; and Cunningham struggles with the difficulties of his work and clashes with RONI, ultimately diagnosing his son's emerging Wermer's syndrome.

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