Jisei

Jisei is a murder mystery visual novel about a teenage boy who has the ability to experience someone else's death by touching their corpse. (Kind of like his own personal divination seance... although it doesn't help him much this time.) We don't ever learn why he has this power, or, interestingly enough, even what his name is, so... let's call him Jessie. Over the course of the game we get various tidbits about Jessie, who serves as a neat, minor underlying mystery as we investigate the more pressing murder.

Close Enough to Kill

In the spirit of Valentine's Day, I thought I should review something with a bit of... romance. Unfortunately, all I had was Close Enough to Kill, and there's absolutely nothing to love about it.

Exile Election / 追放選挙

Progress does not happen in a vacuum. Every so often we get a groundbreaking, massively influential video game, and while such masterpieces might have plenty of originality, they’re never completely original, and always build upon previous works in some way. For example, take Dark Souls, which formed the bedrock and namesake of the Souls-like subgenre, and has been used as a point of comparison so often it’s become a meme. It’s arguably the most influential game of the past decade (if we exclude the mobile market). But neither Dark Souls itself nor the underlying ideas that led to its success and influence popped up out of nowhere. Dark Souls very clearly inherited a lot from Demon’s Souls, FromSoftware’s previous game. And if this was an essay on video game genealogy and not a review for a game that I haven’t even mentioned yet, we could dig even further and identify Demon’s Souls’ influences.

My point is that for every massively popular, genre-defining game out there, there are going to be other games that laid the groundwork for it. And that means that other games need to actually lay the groundwork. They won’t be highly-polished pinnacles of perfection, but a unique idea or two in an otherwise ordinary package with an execution that will range from flawed to decent. And that’s what I feel like Exile Election is. It introduces some original ideas to the death game subgenre, but they just... aren’t very good. They’re not bad, but not very good, either. Exile Election seems to me like a game that is underwhelming on its own, but will someday serve as a reference point that someone will use to identify, analyze, and rectify in their own game in order to make it fantastic.

Death Among the Undead / 屍人荘の殺人

Sometimes it feels like orthodox detective stories belong to a dead genre. The "Golden Age" came and went a century ago, and that really does seem like it was the perfect time period for classic puzzle plots. Forensics could provide basic information about a crime, but technology hadn't progressed so far that nearly any physical trace could blow a trick wide open. Plus, as the genre has developed and readers have become more savvy, it's become more and more difficult to develop original tricks that will surprise and delight readers.

But then every once in a while you get a work like Imamura Masahiro's debut novel Death Among the Undead which, through sheer originality and style, kindles hope that the genre can be reanimated.

Murder in the Crooked House / 斜め屋敷の犯罪

At the northern tip of Japan lies an architectural marvel known as the Crooked House, a large mansion built at a slight angle. It is the home of wealthy businessman Hamamoto Kozaburou, his daughter and some servants. One Christmas he invites some business associates to spend the holidays at the Crooked House. Unfortunately, the festivities are brought to a halt when corpses start turning up inside locked rooms.

Whodunnit: Murder in Mystery Manor & Whodunnit: Murder on Mystery Island

Several years ago, there was a murder mystery game show called Whodunnit? that ran for a season. It was entertaining to watch, but it was far too removed from actual detective fiction to provide much satisfaction as a mystery. As it turns out, two tie-in books written by show creator Anthony Zuiker were released at about the same time: Murder in Mystery Manor and Murder on Mystery Island. They are... pretty much the exact same as the TV show, down to format and flaws.

The Judas Window

James Answell has been accused of murdering his fiancee's father, Avory Hume. The case is quite grim: the murder occurred in Hume's study, where every window and the sole door was bolted—not merely locked!—from the inside. There were no secret passages, and absolutely no gaps in any of the entrances. The murder weapon was an arrow that had been hanging in the study, and the only fingerprints on it are Answell's. Answell claims that this was a set-up and that he drank tampered whiskey... but the decanter in Hume's study is full, all the glasses are dry, and the doctor who checks Answell concludes he wasn't drugged.

Despite these overwhelming circumstances, one man believes in Answell's innocence—Sir Henry Merrivale—and takes up his defense in court.

The Witch of the Low Tide

I find The Witch of the Low Tide a bit funny, because it is very obviously structured in a way to make the synopsis more exciting, but misleading.

The "intended" synopsis is: Psychiatrist David Garth is infatuated with the young widow Betty Calder. However, one night a Scotland Yard inspector appears before Garth and informs him that Betty is, in fact, a blackmailing Satanist prostitute. That night, one of Garth's friends identifies Betty as the woman who tried to strangle her aunt and then disappeared from a locked basement. And the next day, a corpse turns up in the bathing pavilion of Betty's house, even though there were no footprints in the surrounding sand. The Scotland Yard inspector insists that Betty is behind these crimes. Will Garth be able to discover the truth of these crimes and, more importantly, the truth of Betty herself?

The actual plot: All of the above, except we quickly learn that Betty has an older sister who looks just like her, Glynis Stukeley. Glynis is the blackmailing Satanist prostitute, Glynis is the person Garth's friend actually claims she witnessed, and—Glynis is the corpse in the bathing pavilion, so we can't pin that one on her. But two out of three ain't bad!

Deadly Premonition Origins

I knew Deadly Premonition Origins had a bit of a wonky reputation, but I thought I'd be able to look past its flaws, especially since it's a murder mystery. However, the graphics were dated, the story was nonsensical, the characters were bizarre, the atmosphere was oppressive, the controls were janky, the combat was clunky, and the survival elements were annoying. The game was a mediocre mish-mash that I just did not enjoy playing.

Missing Parts: the Detective Stories / ミッシングパーツ the TANTEI stories

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.

Enola Holmes

Before watching Enola Holmes, I thought it would be about a mediocre mystery that Enola solves. After all, original movie mysteries tend to not be that great. But I can admit when I'm wrong.

Enola ended up not solving the mystery at all.

AI: The Somnium Files / AI：ソムニウムファイル

AI: The Somnium Files is the latest video game by Uchikoshi Kotaro, most famous for making the Zero Escape series (which I adore) and the Infinity series (which I have not played). After the... troubled ending of the Zero Escape franchise, it was exciting to see what Uchikoshi would pull out with his first original video game since 2009. (The Punch Line anime came first, so that statement is technically correct!) Knowing that AI: The Somnium Files would be heavily plot-focused, I made sure to minimize my exposure prior to release, and, after many months of waiting, finally played Uchikoshi's new masterpiece.

Unfortunately, sometimes, life is simply unfair.

Aviary Attorney

In a lawless land, only one man (with a distinctly avian name) stands between hapless defendants and ineffectual policeman, corrupt prosecutors, and indifferent judges, fighting for truth and justice against insurmountable odds.

Hmm, where have I seen this before...?

Aviary Attorney wears its inspiration on its sleeve, and, even though it was a neat idea to use classical illustrations and music and Aviary Attorney nails the witty banter of its namesake, the game falls short in nearly every other respect. I doubt Ace Attorney fans will be able to resist the temptation of such an obvious tribute, but just make sure to purchase Aviary Attorney on sale and temper your expectations.