Disaster Report

HP is the character's health and QP is the amount of energy the character has left. QP can be restored by drinking water. If the character becomes thirsty from running or other strenuous tasks, the player must provide the character with drinking water. If the player does not do this, the character begins to slowly lose health.

Water can be drank from clean taps or from bottled water filled up along the way. It is possible to give the character's companion water.

In 1991, the Japanese government commission Terry Stiver (Yoshitaka Shinzaki) to construct a man-made island out in the Pacific Ocean, using revolutionary new engineering technology. Ten years later, in 2001, Japan unveils the newly completed island, named Stiver Island (Capital Island in the Japanese version), complete with a state-of-the-art metropolis called Capital City.

In June 2005, Keith Helm (Masayuki Sudō) travels to Capital City for the first time, after gaining his dream job as an editor for the city's newspaper, the Town Crier. Shortly after he leaves the airport for the city, an earthquake strikes Stiver Island. After regaining consciousness, Keith works to reach the city, as the bridge he is on begins to collapse. Making for safety, he find rescue workers evacuating people, but is unable to reach them in time before they depart.

Designer Kazuma Kujo has recounted that the game's setting was inspired by the disaster novel Japan Sinks, its film adaptation Submersion of Japan and the accounts of those who present for the Great Hanshin earthquake of 1995. Kujo had sought to "take advantage" of the PlayStation 2's processing power to replicate the feeling of living through a disaster, "and I thought it would be entertaining if I made a game where it wasn’t aliens and monsters attacking, but the city itself being a threat".

The game received "average" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. In Japan, Famitsu gave it a score of 32 out of 40.

A sequel, Zettai Zetsumei Toshi 2: Itetsuita Kiokutachi, was released in Japan on March 30, 2006, and later released in America and Europe as Raw Danger!. A second sequel, Zettai Zetsumei Toshi 3: Kowareyuku Machi to Kanojo no Uta, was released for the PSP on April 23, 2009. This game was not released outside Japan. A fourth game, Zettai Zetsumei Toshi 4: Summer Memories, was scheduled for release on PlayStation 3 in April 2011, with 3D and Move support. However, the game was cancelled after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake.