The best way I can describe Murder in the Hall of the Eye is “discount Hiroshi Mori.” Which on one hand feels a bit disrespectful to Ritsu Shuuki, but on the other hand really does feel like the most effective way to convey a general overview of the book. Murder in the Hall of the Eye is a murder mystery with a STEM focus, which is exactly Mori’s wheelhouse. But Murder in the Hall of the Eye adds an isolated, remote mansion into the mix, which does give the book a bit of a different flavor. This is an ambitious novel, and it… kind of pays off?
Why does it have to have “Mercator Ayu The Last Incident” on the cover?? I actually have a fairly rigid hierarchy for how I select the English titles for Japanese works in my blog. First, if there’s an official English translation, I use that name. Then, if an English title is presented by the book itself, I’ll use that. If someone else (read as: Ho-Ling Wong) has covered the book, I’ll use their translation of the title for consistency in the English-speaking Japanese mystery fiction blogosphere. (Well, unless I don’t really like that translation. Sorry, Ho-Ling.) Finally, if there’s absolutely nothing else, I’ll use my own translation.
So I need to title this post “Wings in the Dark: Mercator Ayu - The Last Incident” because as you can see for yourself that’s what it says on the cover. Which is stilted in English! Without that I could easily translate the Japanese title into “Wings in the Dark: the Final Case of Ayu Mercator,” which works perfectly fine. But noooo, I’m stuck with “Mercator Ayu - The Last Incident.”
To add salt to the wound, an earlier edition of Wings in the Dark apparently has “Messiah” as the English title. That would’ve been fine too! But they just had to go and change it. (As I've previously discussed, for my posts I try to use the actual cover of whatever version I experienced, so I can't just use the "Messiah" cover for this post, either. And yeah, there's still that little tiny "Messiah" on this cover, but it's clearly beaten out by the other English.)
Anyway, that’s my biggest grievance with this book.
Detective fiction is a huge genre in Japan. This probably isn’t that surprising, considering the consistent stream of Japanese mystery novels that get published, or the fact that Ace Attorney and Danganronpa are Japanese franchises, or that Detective Conan is a multimedia juggernaut. Mysteries are so popular, they even have TV shows where guests are confronted with a crime that they then have to solve.
Of course, actually finding time to sit down and watch a TV show can be a bit annoying... So what if instead of a TV show, we have a book about a TV show where contestants are given a murder mystery story and need to solve it? It's the excitement of a gameshow with the accessibility of a novel. Genius!
Hence, Mystery Arena was born. Maybe. (Probably not.)
For instance, Yukito Ayatsuji’s The Decagon House Murders, which is often credited with initiating the shin-honkaku movement, involves a university mystery club whose members are nicknamed after Golden Age authors, a set-up that is clearly reminiscent of And Then There Were None, and a culprit who literally hands out roles to the others. Alice Arisugawa is another important shin-honkaku author, and his books also feature a university mystery club. The second book in Ayatsuji’s “House” series, The Mill House Murders, was relatively straightforward in setting, but I suppose Ayatsuji didn’t particularly like that, since his third book, The Labyrinth House Murders, is more meta than all the other books I’ve mentioned combined.
1920s New England. A hardboiled private investigator from Boston travels to a small town off the coast of Massachusetts to investigate mysterious happenings. The villagers are secretive and distrustful of outsiders, otherworldly cults plot dark magics in the shadows, and our hero must battle his own mind as—
Hold on, am I going crazy, or did I already do this review? Let's see, according to my notes, the answer is... both.
1920s New England. A hardboiled private investigator from Boston travels to a small town off the coast of Massachusetts to investigate mysterious happenings. The villagers are secretive and distrustful of outsiders, otherworldly cults plot dark magics in the shadows, and our hero must battle his own mind as he hunts for the truth.
Welcome to The Sinking City.
(Note: In this review I discuss the structure of the game and the nature of the ending. This review doesn't reveal anything that I think would reduce anyone's enjoyment of the game but, because there is technically a discussion of the ending, I want to make this disclaimer to ensure no one feels "spoiled" by the review.)
Maria Arima, having witnessed the brutal murder of several family members, is understandably upset. She spends a few months sulking at home, and then suddenly leaves on a cross-country trip. Just when she thinks she’s going to return home, she pays a visit to Kisara Village and… doesn’t return. Kisara Village is a small settlement deep in the mountains of Shikoku, established by a wealthy retired financier to be a haven where artists can live a simple, uninterrupted life and focus on their work. Maria isn’t held hostage or imprisoned against her will. She can still communicate with her parents (although it becomes more sporadic as time goes on). She just… doesn’t want to leave.
So Maria’s father enlists the other members of the Eito Mystery Club to bring Maria back. Needless to say, the recovery mission does not go as smoothly as hoped…
Hellpoint is not one of those games. Everything in Hellpoint feels like it was either directly lifted from Dark Souls or is a direct response to Dark Souls. Sometimes the developers couldn’t quite compete with FromSoft, but sometimes they knocked it out of the park.