I have been trying to scratch my detective itch for years now, and this seemed like a hidden gem I would immensily enjoy. After playing 10 hours of this game, I can give a shaky thumbs up. I enjoyed my time but it definitely left me feeling overwhelmed and underwhelmed at multiple points.
First, the gameplay is pretty middle of the road. Nothing offensive, it works fine enough as a visual novel as you would expect, but still leaves a lot to be desired especially when it comes to the difficulty. The mysteries themselves are interesting and solid throughout, but the way of solving them is dissapointingly straight forward. You check for clues, you maybe get a multiple choice question and you do either well or not well. There very few fail states, as most of "failing" you can do just gets you different flavor text.
The visuals are decent as well, but it took a while for me to get used to it and even then I was not always sold. The music is fine, albeit it a bit too loud, and the visual style was certainly unique. There are tons of different backgrounds, the character designs are all over the place, and my favorite bit of the entire game is how each chapter had an unique introductery visual which were always stylish, especially impressive since there a lot of chapters.
We then get to the most important part of a visual novel detective game: The story. Let me start of by saying this: The characters are solid. Some were a bit more annoying then others, but all were decently fun and very defined. Boring is the last thing I would say about the characters or even this story. The story however, has a lot of ups and downs.
I think in terms of ups, besides the mysteries itself, it is the in terms of escalation it is decently handled. The reveals of the entire story are well sprinkled throughout and there is always something going on. I enjoyed the journey rather then just wanting the answer. But in terms down, there are two major problems and it is both in terms of structure. The first one plagues the whole story while the latter plagues the second to second gampleay. Let's start with the latter:
This game has lots of chapters, a whole lot of them, so that means chapters are often short. The thing is, some of the chapters feel like they waste your time. They either set up things for the next chapter or are a dedicated to a "meanwhile" cutaway that have characters commenting on something other characters are doing. It has a nasty habbit of saying things that are happening rather then showing it happening, making it feel like you are being robbed of gameplay.
Now for a much bigger issue, and here I will dive into spoilers so close your eyes if you have to. The main storytelling mechanic of this game is switching characters. You are constantly switching from different points of view. Sometimes one characters gains a spotlight from multiple chapters, especially early on. The thing is, there are a lot of characters, and a lot of perspectives, and some of those characters just exit the story without ever coming back to them. This makes the time you invest into caring about these characters feel wasted. Some of them make sense, like the first one, but later on it just feels like they are wasting time just so they can do the full competition. In the middle of the story, there is an arc which is intriguing with a plottwist at the end, but by the actual end of the game none of it matters and your time feels wasted. Only by the end does the story seem to figure out how to storytell, but even then you switch point of view again and you are now a character that was sort of relevant but no they are the main character now, good luck!
Now some smaller gripes:
- While the way it tells about mysteries rather then let you solve them is insulting, this "tell, don't show" is all over the writing. "Remember [blank]? Oh yeah I remember [blank]! It was fun!" is said in different variations a lot.
- The game uses a lot of subversive storytelling and it is hit or miss. The hits are very funny, the misses feels like it tries to be oh so smart about it.
- Its way of commentary on real life issues feels... flat. It has characters expositing about the woes of the world, but it doesn't really take a firm stand on any of it or explores any topic. I know a for fun murdery mystery game is not equiped to solve capitalism, but half heartingly suggesting that it is a problem feels like wasted effort.
So, even after all my ranting, why do I still give it a thumbs up? Well, the foundation is still pretty solid. The mysteries are fun and the characters are also often fun. The ending stretch is something I enjoyed too, that mystery was really fun and truly felt like a finaly.
I recommend playing this game, even if I have a lot issues with it.
