The Quartering Duke, an infamous serial killer with over a hundred victims, has thrown the country into chaos with his heinous acts. To bring an end to his killing spree, the “Detective Alliance,” composed of the country’s top detectives, has gathered to uncover and subdue him. However, in a series of unforeseen events, an aspiring yet unremarkable detective named Wato Hojo stumbles into their operations. He joins the Detective Alliance on the mysterious island of Morgue to investigate the Quartering Duke, only to make the gruesome discovery that their target lurks among them! Can these detectives prove their innocence and unveil the identity of the Quartering Duke before the case runs cold?
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must a game be good to alter you psychologically?
I am a very big fan of detective media, it's a genre I obsess over alot, and this game just does something right for me. I can see this being "A lesser mans danganronpa", but I would urge most people to allow it to stand on its own two legs.
It is flawed in alot of ways, the gameplay that does exist can feel a bit lacking in areas, mainly the case solving aspect, evidence feels like a afterthought honestly, and some of the challenges thrown at you are trial and error at its worst. Some solutions can feel contrived or convoluted, with the game not being clear of whats expected of your answers.
Despite all of that, the heart of this game is solid. I really loved the cast by the end of this game, the way it tackles ideas to do with mystery fiction from people who clearly know alot about the genre is something I wish to see more of, and it's music is honestly impeccable for the generally low number of tracks the game actually has. The mastermind was one of my biggest worries, but I ended up finding them to be one of the best aspects of the game, and the micro mysteries are overall solid little murder mystery puzzles.
I can see this game being hated by people downright, and I am not blind to its issues, its MANY issues, yet I can't help but respect it and loved it whole heartedly. I am a liar if I was to say I wasn't a bit sad to see the credits, knowing my time was over, but thats proof enough It was worth the time.
It is flawed in alot of ways, the gameplay that does exist can feel a bit lacking in areas, mainly the case solving aspect, evidence feels like a afterthought honestly, and some of the challenges thrown at you are trial and error at its worst. Some solutions can feel contrived or convoluted, with the game not being clear of whats expected of your answers.
Despite all of that, the heart of this game is solid. I really loved the cast by the end of this game, the way it tackles ideas to do with mystery fiction from people who clearly know alot about the genre is something I wish to see more of, and it's music is honestly impeccable for the generally low number of tracks the game actually has. The mastermind was one of my biggest worries, but I ended up finding them to be one of the best aspects of the game, and the micro mysteries are overall solid little murder mystery puzzles.
I can see this game being hated by people downright, and I am not blind to its issues, its MANY issues, yet I can't help but respect it and loved it whole heartedly. I am a liar if I was to say I wasn't a bit sad to see the credits, knowing my time was over, but thats proof enough It was worth the time.
"Even among history's more infamous mass murders, few had a death toll of more than 20. Killing 22 people at once is beyond all reason."
maybe this game wasn't meant for american audiences
maybe this game wasn't meant for american audiences
NIS has assembled a stellar mix of mystery/thriller and strategy game! We loved the cast, the twists and turns constantly took us by surprise, and the strategy layer was a novel way to shake up the formula (even though there’s far too few levels: we’d kill for a postgame mode that threw in many more challenges, since several mechanics are used only once in the story). Well worth your time, especially if you can find it on sale!
I cannot BELIEVE I've never heard of this game before. I went in thinking that this would just be a Danganronpa clone, but was completely blown away by how well-written, tense, and generally enjoyable this game was. The game's plot is extremely original, nothing like Danganronpa (aside from the closed circle murder aspect). Every second of it was a blast- it's rare for me to like every character in a game's cast, but I truly loved every single one of the Detectives.
The plot twists are incredible, the puzzle gameplay is fun and gets challenging near the end (i was running down to the wire in the later investigations), and the main character goes through an incredible journey of growth over the course of the story. I really enjoyed seeing him develop as a character and detective as I played!
The only reason I'm taking off half a star is because you can't save during the investigations, which really hindered me when I'd have to go do something in the middle of playing. I also had an annoying mishap early in the game where I returned to the title screen to check something, only to find that it had been three hours since my last save. Oops. For that reason, I think this game would have really benefited from an autosave function.
Other than that, though, I don't have any complaints! I am obsessed with this game and I hope more people play it. It's an exemplary mystery game and it's a crying shame more people haven't played it.
The plot twists are incredible, the puzzle gameplay is fun and gets challenging near the end (i was running down to the wire in the later investigations), and the main character goes through an incredible journey of growth over the course of the story. I really enjoyed seeing him develop as a character and detective as I played!
The only reason I'm taking off half a star is because you can't save during the investigations, which really hindered me when I'd have to go do something in the middle of playing. I also had an annoying mishap early in the game where I returned to the title screen to check something, only to find that it had been three hours since my last save. Oops. For that reason, I think this game would have really benefited from an autosave function.
Other than that, though, I don't have any complaints! I am obsessed with this game and I hope more people play it. It's an exemplary mystery game and it's a crying shame more people haven't played it.
This review contains spoilers
[Major spoilers ahead]
To get the obvious out of the way: this game absolutely does not beat the Danganronpa allegations. Sure the core concept of 'group of people trapped in a location start killing each other' isn't exactly unique to DR, but there's so many similarities in characters, events and even plot points that it's really hard to ignore.
Personally I think this game had the potential to be really good, but the writing is definitely Not; several times dialogue blatantly contradicts previously-established facts or treats out-of-the-blue statements as fact with no explanation, the cases themselves feel a little contrived, and in general things are sometimes overcomplicated or poorly explained (chapters 5 & 6 in particular suffer a lot with all the back-and-forth over who died when and how). At one point a piece of evidence is brought up that's not actually visible (both to the player and to the characters in-game), but the game acts like it is and refers to it again later in the case.
The scenario falls somewhat flat as well; even with the eventual reveal of Wato being Ideal, his characterisation as 'low-ranking unconfident novice who grows into his role as Ideal over the course of the game' clashes awkwardly with the way that from the very start the gameplay makes him the most important person in each investigation and the person who actually solves each case, so you have this apparent novice explaining a murder that has seemingly stumped half a dozen of the world's best detectives, who immediately continue treating him like an amateur in the next scene.
The gameplay also doesn't really give you the chance to put together the solution yourself; there's no 'trial' or discussion, so you just skip from the evidence collecting to the 'closing argument' in which Wato has everything already worked out and the player has to catch up.
A few other personal nitpicks: I found it hard to get attached to the characters (though I'm not really a fan of 'one trait = entire personality' anyway), and applying DR-style character writing to this kind of scenario doesn't really work anyway in my opinion. Also at several points the game seemed as if it was building towards having the player solve a puzzle or code and then...didn't, instead just cutting to an 'oh cool we solved it' moment - the only exception being the fight with Renegade, and 'choose the option the game told you three dialogue lines ago' felt almost like an insult at that point.
In all honesty I did like this game somewhat (and wanted to like it more) - this review probably sounds a lot harsher than it should - but as someone who really enjoyed Danganronpa I was frustrated by how much this game ended up falling short of it's potential, and the overarching mystery wasn't really satisfying in the end. But I've seen plenty of other people enjoy it and I can see how they would, if there ends up being a sequel I hope it improves on this.
(Oh and minus points for 'unavoidable fanservice scene with underage character' and for 'trying to restore the Pinkerton name' for some reason?)
To get the obvious out of the way: this game absolutely does not beat the Danganronpa allegations. Sure the core concept of 'group of people trapped in a location start killing each other' isn't exactly unique to DR, but there's so many similarities in characters, events and even plot points that it's really hard to ignore.
Personally I think this game had the potential to be really good, but the writing is definitely Not; several times dialogue blatantly contradicts previously-established facts or treats out-of-the-blue statements as fact with no explanation, the cases themselves feel a little contrived, and in general things are sometimes overcomplicated or poorly explained (chapters 5 & 6 in particular suffer a lot with all the back-and-forth over who died when and how). At one point a piece of evidence is brought up that's not actually visible (both to the player and to the characters in-game), but the game acts like it is and refers to it again later in the case.
The scenario falls somewhat flat as well; even with the eventual reveal of Wato being Ideal, his characterisation as 'low-ranking unconfident novice who grows into his role as Ideal over the course of the game' clashes awkwardly with the way that from the very start the gameplay makes him the most important person in each investigation and the person who actually solves each case, so you have this apparent novice explaining a murder that has seemingly stumped half a dozen of the world's best detectives, who immediately continue treating him like an amateur in the next scene.
The gameplay also doesn't really give you the chance to put together the solution yourself; there's no 'trial' or discussion, so you just skip from the evidence collecting to the 'closing argument' in which Wato has everything already worked out and the player has to catch up.
A few other personal nitpicks: I found it hard to get attached to the characters (though I'm not really a fan of 'one trait = entire personality' anyway), and applying DR-style character writing to this kind of scenario doesn't really work anyway in my opinion. Also at several points the game seemed as if it was building towards having the player solve a puzzle or code and then...didn't, instead just cutting to an 'oh cool we solved it' moment - the only exception being the fight with Renegade, and 'choose the option the game told you three dialogue lines ago' felt almost like an insult at that point.
In all honesty I did like this game somewhat (and wanted to like it more) - this review probably sounds a lot harsher than it should - but as someone who really enjoyed Danganronpa I was frustrated by how much this game ended up falling short of it's potential, and the overarching mystery wasn't really satisfying in the end. But I've seen plenty of other people enjoy it and I can see how they would, if there ends up being a sequel I hope it improves on this.
(Oh and minus points for 'unavoidable fanservice scene with underage character' and for 'trying to restore the Pinkerton name' for some reason?)