Most murder mystery video games tend to be pretty silly. Maybe it's because, compared to mystery novels, they generally have a younger target audience, or because the visual element requires some extra pizazz, or some combination of the two along with some other things. While there are some novels that are out there, generally they're more restrained than video games.
But then we have a game like Missing Parts: The Detective Stories, which is about an ordinary guy, Magami Kyousuke, investigating ordinary murders in an ordinary city during his ordinary life. While there are some flavorful characters, there aren't any hyper-talented high schoolers or spirit mediums. These murders take place in apartments and alleys, not secluded islands or space stations.
And it's sooooo good.
Actually... I have kind of a hard time expressing my feelings about Missing Parts. Every time I think about the game, my heart starts to float away as I remember how much joy the plot and characters brought me, but then my brain knocks it down with a reminder of how frustrating the gameplay and game design was.
Before starting the review proper, I think a little history lesson is in order. (It will be useful later, trust me.) Missing Parts was first released for the Dreamcast in three parts, "Part 1," "Part 2," and "Part 3," over the course of 2002 and 2003. Each "Part" had two cases, for a total of six. In 2003 and 2004, Missing Parts was ported to the Playstation 2, but this time as "side A" and "side B," each of which had three cases. Finally, in 2012, they released the "Complete" version for the Playstation Portable, which, as the name implies, had all six episodes in one game.
Missing Parts is an old-school adventure game, meaning the vast majority of the gameplay consists of making choices. The game alternates between scripted scenes and open investigations. The scripted scenes tend to involve a fair number of questions and choices, and whenever you talk to someone, you get to choose the topics you bring up. During the investigation segments, you can wander anywhere in Tohba City that you'd like.
Unlike games such as Ace Attorney and Danganronpa, Missing Parts is relatively open-ended. In the former games, your investigation won't proceed until you've tripped all the predetermined flags. When I called them "free" investigations, I meant it; it's up to you to collect all the evidence you can, and the game will move on regardless of how much (or how little) evidence you've gathered. Each investigation segment lasts a certain amount of "time," incrementing whenever you move to a new location. Each character has their own unique schedule, and can be found in different locations at different times. The characters move along the same map you do, meaning it's actually possible to stalk someone through the city.... Anyway, this means that simply visiting a location isn't enough; sometimes you need to visit someone or someplace at a certain time of day.
Additionally, while the typical mystery game has a set path, the scripted scenes in Missing Parts vary depending on the choices you've made up until that point. At the end of each case you receive a letter grade based on you well you performed over the course of the case and how close you got to the truth.
I said that the game leaves you free to collect or miss as much evidence as you please without any plot flags that you have to trigger, but in effect, that isn't entirely true. And this is also where the seams start to show.... There are certain points in the game where, if you haven't obtained a certain vital piece of evidence or testimony, you get a game over. So rather than a flag that you need to trip to proceed, it's a check that you need to pass.
The issue is: the game overs are (usually) not related to the evidence you need.
For instance, perhaps you get a game over where the police discover (planted) evidence in your apartment and arrest you. If you think logically, you might theorize that the way to avoid this game over is to guard your apartment so the culprit can't get in, or figure out how they got a key and prevent it. In reality, the requirement to avoid the game over is probably something along the lines of asking a particular person about a completely unrelated topic.
The worst example of this issue is probably the first place in the game I got stuck. In this part of the game, Kyousuke needs to solve a riddle to deduce a location. If you don't perform the deduction correctly, Kyousuke just kinda uses his gut to select a location, but when he goes to investigate it, he discovers that it was a trap and gets killed. If you manage to solve the riddle, however, you'll discover that the solution is... the exact same place. Kyousuke rushes over to investigate it, and... the game continues as normal. To be clear, these scenes happen immediately right after each other, and only one other person is present during the deduction scenes. Essentially, the only difference between the two paths is Kyousuke's inner thoughts—even if his logic differs, he still ends up going to the same place at the same time—yet the outcome is wildly different.
What this means is that when you encounter a game over, you have basically no hints on how to get past it. As a small consolation, as far as I could tell, these game overs only trigger immediately after your last chance to get the necessary info. In other words, when you get a game over, it means you messed up in the immediately preceding segment; there's no choices that will irreparably screw you over hours later.
While I do like the freedom of the investigations, it still sometimes feels like we don't have quite as much control as would be ideal. The issue is that all you have direct control over is Kyousuke's movements. Meaning that when you encounter another character, it's up to the game to decide whether you can actually talk to them; you might question them, or you might just say hello and walk away (or not even approach them). If you had full, direct control, if you wanted to ask a certain character about a certain lead, you could just call them on your cell phone and ask or set up a meeting. If you wanted to investigate a location, you could just go there and investigate. In Missing Parts, however, you have to seek that person out, hope Kyousuke talks to them, and then hope the lead you wanted to ask them about is one of the conversation topics. And don't even bother thinking about investigating a physical location; that only happens a few times each case, during specific scripted scenes.
Speaking of investigating locations—that actually is one of the few places the game will force you to trip flags to proceed. The problem is that investigations in Missing Parts are simple point-and-click scenes. There's absolutely no indication of the size or shape of hotspots, and some of them are fairly small. This is the exact sort of pixel-hunting that every gamer dreads. While it's nice that the game won't let you leave until you've investigated everything relevant so that you don't end up in a situation where you can't proceed because you missed that last tiny hotspot, it's not very fun when you're being forced to spam-examine the entire screen to find the hotspot.
Don't get me wrong, running around investigating is fine 95% of time. It's just that the 5% of the time you want to do a specific thing or are trying to figure out how to avoid a game over or are being forced to pixel hunt is really, really frustrating.
And this all goes out the window if you're trying to get the "A"-rank ending, though. (Which I didn't do on my own; I played through the game once normally on my own, then followed a guide for the "A"-rank endings.) There's so many options during investigations, and as I've already explained some events can only be triggered at certain times, so it's hard to know what you're missing or what's available. The actions you need to take for an "A"-rank range from "Totally logical and entirely deducible from your available information" to "Absolutely impossible to figure out without hindsight, a guide, and/or blind luck."
While I admit it'd probably be pretty difficult to design the game such that all puzzles end up in the former part of the spectrum, there are still some moments that seem explicitly designed to be impossible to clear on your first playthrough. For instance: every night, Kyousuke checks his email. In one case, he receives an email from a friend that the friend knows someone who might be able to help Kyousuke, but that acquaintance is only available to talk to Kyousuke that day. However, due to story reasons, Kyousuke does not sleep in his apartment the night he receives this email, so he doesn't see it until the next night, when it's too late to reach out to the acquaintance—unless Kyousuke returns to his apartment during the previous day to check his email, in which case he reaches out to the acquaintance in time. Obviously it's possible to do that during your first playthrough, but you have little reason to spend your limited investigation time reading your emails unless you're aware of that email and the fact that you won't read it in time otherwise.
That being said, I think I understand the reasoning behind their game design choices. When you play a "straightforward" mystery game like Ace Attorney or Danganronpa, you just play through it once, and that's it. But Missing Parts was initially released in three parts, and each part was a full commercial product. Would you feel satisfied if you paid $60 and got two Ace Attorney or Danganronpa cases? Designing the games this way means that they require a lot more time and effort to fully clear. This will help the players feel more like they got their money's worth, and reduce the time between beating one game and the release of the next game. Hiding certain events in specific times also allows the creators to release hints and tips, helping with marketing, and can even add a social element to the games. After all, if you aren't sure what to do, you can theorize and discuss the case with your friends, and talk about the various events and scenes you were able to discover.
Unfortunately, Missing Parts is now a niche, 20-year-old game that can be purchased in one package with guides readily available online, so none of the rationales are applicable anymore, yet the frustrating game design still remains....
Phew. With that out of the way, let's get to the good stuff!
If I had to describe Missing Parts in one word, it'd be "unassuming." There are no fantastic places, (overly) ridiculous personalities, or gaudy locked rooms. But the word I chose was "unassuming," not "plain." While there may not appear to be much on the surface, as you dive into each case, it reveals itself to in fact be an intricate, ornate puzzle. The engaging questions presented by the mysteries revolve not around grand impossibilities, but the minutiae of the evidence. Each case takes time to ramp up, but they're all engaging once you get into the thick of things.
Most classic-style detective fiction and games deal with the puzzle of physically pulling off the crime, but Missing Parts is more about uncovering all the surrounding circumstances of the crime. This makes sense, since the investigation system is geared much more towards following up on leads and questioning people than gathering and making deductions based on physical evidence. Getting to openly investigate the case rather than being lead along a set path of deductions also feels closer to a real-life investigation, fitting the realistic style.
As I've already described, each case has a decent playtime (in order to make each pair of cases feel substantive), and not only are the crimes worthwhile, but the accompanying stories have the depth to match the space they're given. The game takes the time to develop itself into something phenomenal, and isn't afraid to go where it wants. The fact that the game overall feels realistic and restrained means that the grandest scenes are really memorable and stand out.
I'm actually restraining myself from gushing too much about the plot, because I don't want to give it away. I know that, given Missing Part's status, the chance of anybody reading this actually ever playing it are pretty slim... but if anyone ever does, I'd feel bad about spoiling the experience. Even when you try to act vague and coy, you can still set up expectations that end up giving things away, so I'm not touching on the things I liked most at all.
(...Wait, doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose of writing a review in the first place?)
The characters are pretty cool. Some of the secondary characters are a bit zany, but overall they feel a lot like ordinary people you could run into, without being boring. I think one of the perfect examples of the grounded atmosphere is the character designs. Compare these designs with those from most other video games. Clothing consists of ordinary shirts, suits, slacks, blouses, and skirts, while hair styles are realistic and colors range from black to brown. Investigating "realistic" crimes by "ordinary" people just made them that much more interesting to me. And it felt that much more cooler when someone got a big moment.
The game has plenty of comedy, and sometimes sacrifices realism for character shtick. While we might expect wacky shenanigans from the students of Hope's Peak, it feels a bit weird in Missing Parts because the game is otherwise grounded. If nothing else, the comedy is built off core, consistent character traits, rather than one-off gags. The shtick is also limited to the comedic scenes and doesn't affect the main plot, so it might feel a bit awkward sometimes, but is ultimately harmless.
Since Missing Parts was originally a Dreamcast game, the art and music is decent, but nothing to write home about. The soundtrack is incredibly synthy, but is bursting with jazzy flavor. Most of the songs are just there to serve as background to Kyousuke's daily life, but there are a few incredibly memorable songs that play during major scenes, perfectly complementing each other. The game has a lot of "CGs," but most of them are just made using composite sprites. Still, while the graphics are all static sprite-based, I was impressed by the way they were able to effectively use the sprites they had to create space and action.
Missing Parts is a fantastic experience with a couple of frustrating pitfalls. If you like mystery games and have the ability to play it, I wholeheartedly recommend that you do so. It's not as flashy or fast-paced as most other games, but it's undoubtedly worth it in the end. However, while it's worth playing, it's not worth trying to clear on your own, considering how many options you have and how obtuse some of the requirements are. I haven't encountered any other mystery story quite like Missing Parts, and I doubt I will for a long time.
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