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【ＬＥＴＳＨＵＧＢＲＯ＇Ｓ 　ＨＯＵＳＥ _ 】

【０７：３８　ＡＭ】

ᴸᴱᵀˢᴴᵁᴳᴮᴿᴼ
Augh... █

ᴸᴱᵀˢᴴᵁᴳᴮᴿᴼ
Not this again... █

C
I + M
S

[M]
C + S
I

ᴹᴼⱽᴱᴹᴱᴺᵀ
[E]
S + N
W

ᴹᴼⱽᴱᴹᴱᴺᵀ
[N]
W + E
S

ᶜᴼᴺᵀᴬᶜᵀ
[computer]
[C]
I + M
S


[INBOX] [OUTBOX] [MEMO]
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(letshugbro) "The Silver Case", huh... █
(letshugbro) Looks interesting. █
(DongSmoker420) it's one of the best games of all time u dumbass █
(K0J1M41SG0D) it's suda51's masterpiece █
(letshugbro) Hmmm.... █
(letshugbro) I guess I should play it. █
(Charizardscumhunter) KILL YOURSELF █


>>[INBOX]<< [OUTBOX] [MEMO]
[BACKLOGGD] [SENT] [CHAT]


>> 21/06/21 • Steam Store • Your order... <<
21/06/21 • Blue Chew • Feedback on...
21/06/21 • Uber Eats • McDonalds 20 P...

--------------------------
10th July 2021
From: Steam Store
To: Lets Hug Bro
Subject: Your order of 'The Silver Case & The 25th Ward: The Silver Case Digital Limited Edition'

Thank you for your recent transaction on Steam.
The items below have been added to your Steam Library.

If you are new to Steam, you can get the free Steam application here.

Purchased DLC will automatically be added. You can find it on the Library page of the base game.
--------------------------


ᴸᴱᵀˢᴴᵁᴳᴮᴿᴼ
. . . █

ᴸᴱᵀˢᴴᵁᴳᴮᴿᴼ
Okay. █

ᴸᴱᵀˢᴴᵁᴳᴮᴿᴼ
Guess I'll try this game out... █


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【２5 　ＪＵＬＹ 　２０２１ ，　ＳＵＮＤＡＹ_ 】


【ＬＥＴＳＨＵＧＢＲＯ＇Ｓ 　ＨＯＵＳＥ _ 】

【1 1：３ 7　ＡＭ】




















ᴸᴱᵀˢᴴᵁᴳᴮᴿᴼ
What the fuck was that all about? █

¥50,000 huh…… ▋

What the fuck, man. This goddamn game. Suda you’re a fucking madman. I wrote literally two scripts before writing this one. I can’t find the right balance between overtly referencing The Silver Case and articulating my own thoughts, so, fuck it. We’re winging this shit. I’m not going to stress on this review at all. I’m writing freely. This game actually fucked me up LOL. My sleep schedule was ruined by it. Just like Tokio fr!!! Game was insanely captivating and immersive so much so that I couldn’t put it down.

FUCK THE PAST ▋

First off, I have to say I absolutely adore the art style and visual presentation. When I initially found out about The SIlver Case I was immediately drawn in by the art style. For so long I've been striving to find a game that’s reflective of my taste in art. This is that game. It’s so unique and senseless while still having a constructed comfy feel forming an immaculate atmosphere. Everything is weirdly claustrophobic but in a seemingly more focused manner? It’s hard to describe why I love it so much, it’s just my tastes.

FUCK THE BAT ▋

I’m left kinda speechless? Honestly this game caters to my tastes so well that I’m left with nothing but fragments of these memories conspired by Silverization. The past? Perhaps. Can one kill such a thing? The themes present all throughout the game remain strangely relevant while still being reflective of the times. The turn of the century…

FUCK KAMUI ▋

Suda is a weird fucking guy. I think everyone can agree to this. If this is just the tip of the iceberg with how far he can go then goddamn I’m in for a ride. Regardless, I actually really fucking love most of the characters. They’re all unique and the interactions between them are classic. Kusabi and Sumio are favorites with their gayass silly banter. Tokio is my personal favorite, though. I might have to say that I enjoyed Placebo more than Transmitter. The mystery was thicker and I found the simplistic tedious nature of the gameplay loop to be highly enveloped. It’s a more personal take on the grander scheme that Transmitter presents us with. The gaps left in the story of Transmitter get filled in nicely in Placebo. Both parts complete each other to form the stylistic and complex package. Plus Tokio is the most lovable fucking asshole I’ve seen in a game. His character development is also pretty three dimensional I’d say. In his last moments I really felt a sense of purity and oneness with him.

FUCK THE 24 WARDS ▋

Thinking about it more and more I kinda wish the story wasn’t as…rushed? Once you hit lifecut shit just puts itself out into the open and revealed. I think there was defo emotional buildup but it did seem a bit jarring coming off of Placebo which didn’t really resolve much. All in all the fantastic writing stays consistent all the way through so it’s not a deal breaker. The mystery is still there and it looms even after the game’s departure.

FUCK BIG DICK ▋

One last thing, the soundtrack. Haters will say it doesn’t go hard. Every song has the perfect tone to accentuate a scene. It completes the story, in a way. Hitting the extra beats that the story can’t always hit by itself. Masafumi Takada never misses.

FUCK YOU ▋

That’s it, I guess. I’ll still be pondering over this game’s enigmatic existence probably for years to come. I’m glad I finally experienced this batshit piece of fiction (bat lol) after almost a year of it sitting on my shelf. The more games I play, the more games that end up on my damn shelves. Here’s to Flower, Sun, and Rain hopefully being as engaging for me as this game.

FUCK ▋

Sudaheads, one question,
Would you lend him ¥50,000?


Save Log ▋
Your journal has been updated ▋

more than anything else, the silver case is one of the most endearingly cool games i've ever played. every change of the interface the reflect the themes of the chapter at hand, every swing-for-the-fences plot beat, every gruff toothpick-sucking one liner, every new order song title drop, everything we're shown and just as important the deliberate anticlimax of what we're NOT given and NOT shown - it all blends together to create this early masterwork that's still every bit textbook suda51 as killer7 or no more heroes, but so much more subtly grounded (in comparison) to any of his succeeding work i've played.

there's a deliberate feeling of monotony and repetition in the world and gameplay of the silver case that becomes an essential part of its narrative - whether it reflect on the beeline nothingness that is the life of tokio morishima, the scale's juxtaposing shift which grows literally larger but equally smaller and more intimate... there's just this grinding, menial feeling to all of the tasks and days gone by in the silver case. it feels as if nothing really happens until the right pawns are on the board and properly in play. you learn to love basically every person in this game to the point that you look forward to the next mundane conversation with them; you anticipate morishima going home and talking to red, or getting cyberbullied on chatrooms by teenagers, or the ballbusting stakeout chats between kusabi and sumio. so when even the slightest change occurs, it's going to take your heart for a spin. it's by design.

one of the other fine juxtapositions of the silver case is its dialogue, one of the finest localizations i've ever seen. everything about the silver case feels deliberately plastic at first; you're thrust into the world of hardened police officers spouting badass quips and insults - it's almost pastiche. the one-liners will stick around, the cool designs will stick around, but ultimately the story becomes that of broken, aging men who are being asked to examine their world and how it really works for the first time. the story of tetsu kusabi - potential candidate for my favorite character in ANY video game - carries this idea home the hardest. it's the story of a man pure in his mind of absolutes and superlatives essentially waking up for the first time, seeing the world for the pollockian quagmire of intentions, reasonings, and deliberations it actually is. the silver case is a game about hearts and minds connecting in the looming presence of y2kism, a story about the old guard and the new world on the horizon. i'll get more into the thematic underbelly of this game at a later date, because this is far from the only piece i want to make on this game - but its core structure and analysis of the dotcom era, masculinity and what we define that as, grief and trauma, isolation and abandonment, it all rings pretty true now as it did in '99, and i daresay this game even tackled concepts that it would take 2 years for mgs2 to get to earlier and perhaps equally as memorably. i see a lot of influence on death note down the line too, and as far as contemporaries, i'd say silver case is like 1/3 cowboy bebop, 1/3 ghost in the shell, and 1/3 serial experiments lain. it's memorable, powerful, important stuff.

the silver case’s ultimate resolve is pretty simple - the mysteries, the secrets, the twists, it’s all a load of bullshit anyways. it existed in a moment and that moment is gone. it’s in the past. the only way you're going to push through the pain, the grief, the trauma, the anticlimactic goodbyes, the old flames, the words left unsaid, the last memories of people and places you can't ever go back to or relive, is to simply refuse that darkness which cultivates in your past to manifest itself anymore. you have to grow and reflect and move on to become your true self. you HAVE to kill the past if you want to find that first ray of light; hope for yourself, hope for the future.

"Seize that fucking light, Akira."

THE SILVER CASE COMPLETE.
FLOWER, SUN & RAIN IS COMING...

🌕 Dreams Never End
https://youtu.be/WS1X0EBlQ3Y

Despite the fact I finished this game two months ago and never wrote or really said much about it, it kind of stayed in the back of my head and would crawl to the forefront at random times. Just the sheer existence of it is so... odd. What even is this game? The plot becomes so mind boggling at points while also having many grounded elements to it. The almost crazy prediction of what the internet would become, or scenes like Tokio at the bar which are just so awkward, and yet they feel real. I remember hearing people were upset about the translation having so much swearing but adults are vulgar man, they talk like this in real life. There's no anime nonsense or corniness to this dialogue in the slightest, it's straight to the point and realistic.
The aesthetic is, quite possibly, one of the coolest in a video game ever, and yet it's unsettling. Every session my heart was beating so hard because there's this paranoia, this sort of dread and despair I felt from the mundane environments I was exploring. Masafumi Takada's masterful OST cements the atmosphere that the game is going for, it's eerie, funky, emotional, thoughful, and so many other things at once. The art style always shifts in some way, whether it be going from Transmitter or Placebo, or Parade having a vastly different style than the rest of the game (both on PlayStation and the remaster). Or whenever the game shows live action footage of something, or decides to whip out an anime styled FMV. It has this uncanny element to it that sort of creeps me out, but is extremely stylish and memorable.
I don't entirely "get" The Silver Case. Maybe I never will. But that doesn't mean I hated it. In fact, I didn't dislike it at all. I loved it, and Suda51 has gained my upmost respect as a director because of his ambition, creativity, writing, and most importantly, style.

thinking about this alot after finishing it so heres a journal with the "perfect reader" in mind (sorry). everybody loves transmitter and tbf kusabi and sumio are pretty good, to the detriment most of the others in the hcu imo, but placebo really is where the heart of this game is. morishima's routine and the way his i-dont-care cynicism gets challenged crystallizes the heady themes you deal with in transmitter, maybe a little too scattered-ly handled in that scenario by itself until later chapters get somewhat better footing, into a more personal and comparatively more parseable focus. the back and forth of understanding events emotions and associations between scenarios helps them both and made this more emotionally involving than i expected. that last chat with erika makes me cry just thinking abt it.

only played killer7 before this but i think prefer this to it by a little, even if k7 is more certain in what its doing. am now real excited to get into kill the past and see what fsr and 25th ward brings, and might replay k7 and finally fix feelings on it once i get through those.

Like everybody else’s review, this is gonna be a wall of text

With every Suda game I play, I question more and more why I continue playing them. Before playing TSC, I had played Killer7, the three main No More Heroes games, and Killer is Dead with it being the only game I came out of with a fully positive feeling. I find Suda’s writing style to be obtuse, esoteric, and obnoxious for the sake of being obnoxious. I don’t feel like he writes compelling characters as most just have a single gimmick they stick to for the entire story or their characterization feels like a mishmash of other characters from media he likes (he’s stated he’s inspired by everything he likes). I feel the worlds he writes tend to not live up to their potential, feeling like he either wasn’t able to finish all the background writing or he thought he did but there’s a lot missing. His newer works also feel masturbatory, he never stops referencing his old works and how freaking awesome! they are, which is funny to me because I think almost all of them aren’t very good

I was really hesitant to play The Silver Case. My friend @Kungfugloves spent weeks shouting about how insane and amazing it is, how “it doesn’t feel like a human wrote it” and how everything feels super unique and interesting. The thing is I hate visual novels. I do not find them engaging, I put gameplay and story on an equal pedestal and visual novels tend to be stripped of the former. As stated, I also do not like Suda’s writing and this is nothing but that. He tried to ease me in by saying one of the campaigns was written by someone else so I’d at least like that one. He bought it for me despite me telling him not to and so I bit the bullet and tried my hardest to go into it with an open mind

I remember watching my friend play this a few months prior to my playthrough and genuinely getting a headache from the UI and backgrounds. I didn't have as much of an issue with it this time around but I do think they're waaaay too busy and a lot of them seem like they're trying to be cryptic and weird for the sake of it. I also found the music to be largely uninteresting, very little of it being downright bad but there isn't a single song that ever stuck out to me and I couldn't even hum a single tune from the game if you stuck a gun to my head

But how did I feel by the end? I think “underwhelmed and frustrated” is probably the best descriptor. The story wasn’t nearly as complex or interesting as I was led to believe. I did have the context that the original release was 1999, but at the same time none of the concepts or story beats felt original to that time period. I’d definitely seen police procedurals of a similar nature as a child with my grandparents that followed a lot of the same beats. Mental clones had been done before in comics and manga well before this. Manic obsessions with serial killers had been a phenomenon for ages.

This game also plays like complete and utter shit. I go into further detail about it in Placebo later in this review but I cannot understate how little I enjoyed the simple act of playing this game. The little exploration you do isn't interesting and takes ages. The puzzles aren't interesting, fun, or engaging, searching every nook and cranny for what you can interact with is actively shit. I cannot and straight up refuse to understand anyone who says that playing this is a good time

The chapter I was most disappointed by was Parade, which my friend described as being “actually crazy, there’s explosions and kidnappings, it’s insane”. Those were present, sure, but the presentation of the game didn’t do the former any good and the latter felt like any other political kidnapping in any other media, topped off with Suda’s esoteric writing that I hate (I know the conclusion is very much easy to understand but the way it’s presented prior to the reveal really rubbed me the wrong way). Runner up goes to Spectrum which felt like an insane waste of time from beginning to end and Lunatics which doesn’t add anything except a miserable conclusion for the five fans of Moonlight Syndrome

I enjoyed Placebo more than Transmitter for the sole reason that the mundane life Tokio lived was more compelling to me than the police procedural of Transmitter. Seeing Tokio’s life descend and him slowly lose his mind as it becomes less clear what’s real and what isn’t was interesting and despite how much more fantastical parts of it were than Transmitter, the grounded tone felt less miserable than Transmitter. I did feel the gameplay was more frustrating though due to the constant back and forth of the three interactables in the room, not telling you which you should do first so you have to constantly trial and error which leads to reading the same lines over and over. I’m told this is a holdover from the original PS1 version but I feel they could have just cut out that spot in the room by the bed if they wanted to

The only other character I ended up liking by the end was Kusabi. I say this because he was easily my least favorite character for a lot of the game. Most of his dialogue early on felt like it was written around the profanity instead of the profanity being written in after, it felt like Suda just discovered the words “fuck”, “shit,” and “goddamn”. I do think he gets some nice development as the game goes on and he effectively becomes the protagonist due to how intertwined he is in everything, but I feel the way he’s more or less dropped at the very end (and how he’s used in the future games now that I’ve played them) is a major misstep

I understand TSC. I get what it’s trying to say. I don’t think it’s an interesting story, I don’t think anything it does is new, I feel it expects the player to never have even considered anything it says throughout its runtime which feels like an insult to the player’s intelligence. I do think the world of the 24 wards is really interesting and had me intrigued the whole time. This game’s world seems downright miserable to live in and the things they hint toward really had me itching for more, but unfortunately instead of any interesting developments I spent the final chapter going up and down ten buildings for some lore that easily could have been consolidated to a drastic degree. Maybe if I liked visual novels more I might have given this a higher score but I don't think that's the case

Most of the criticism I’m writing comes from during and after the playthrough but now that I’ve gone through Flower, Sun, and Rain (terrible) and MUCH MORE IMPORTANTLY The 25th Ward (amazing), this game’s flaws mean much more to me because I can see what was possible in this world that has been created and how the establishing framework placed down in this game could have been so much better. I do think it’s interesting how prescient the writing is when it comes to the way government corruption and terrorism are presented, but I don’t think this game is very good in any way honestly

At least it got me to play The 25th Ward

I tired to like The Silver but couldn't. I did not like Silver Case. So I wanna start off by saying I pre-ordered the Switch version. I was genuinely looking forward to trying it out. And I wanted to play some Suda51 games before No More Heroes 3 came out cause I'm hyped. But yeah...ended up kinda disappointed instead.

You know I originally wanted to go through this trilogy. But in all honesty. I cared so little for Silver Case that it pretty much wiped any interest I had in playing Flower, Sun and Rain and the 25th Ward.

I felt Silver Case started interestingly enough but the more it continued the more confused I started to get. And the more confused I started get the less engaged I was getting with the plot. And I also realized part way through that I wasn't caring all that much for cast of characters either. This game talks about solving riddles and such. Well this whole piece of writing is a riddle. I just felt like the more played and read the more it become unintelligible word vomit. And it reminded me of when I was in high school, forced to read a book and there would times where I'll read an entire page and had no idea what happened on that page. I just did not like it's way of writing at all. I also found parts of the dungeon crawling aspect pretty tedious. Like going to room 402 repeatedly in case 2. Or having to check every floor in case 5. Overall I had hard enjoying The Silver Case. I really wanted to. The aesthetic is really cool. The soundtrack is moody and atmospheric. I'll give it points for that. But the in the end I just felt both frustrated and confused. I don't mind a story being complicated. I enjoy stuff like 13 Sentinels and Xenogears after all. Heck I'd say there parts of those stories where I didn't fully understand or found it confusing. But there were still other aspects of them that I liked, that I look can look past that and enjoy them regardless. I just don't feel the same about The Silver Case. As much as I would want to like it. It just didn't do anything for me. And that kinda does bum me out. Perhaps I'm just too stupid to understand The Silver Case I can accept that. No, I wouldn't consider it "bad" but it's definitely not for me at all.

I'll probably still play 25th Ward at the very least since it was bundled on Switch but needless to say I'm not looking forward to it and when I do play it, it probably will only be after playing No More Heroes 3.

This is probably the only non-Live Action media that just gets how to capture the atmophere that the reality brings to your senses and thanks to Covid this feeling of familiarity further enhances the experience in the spin-off route. 24th ward feels like the world of its own with how SC pictures the every corner of its environment as identity liberating and eventually captivating, dark, aggressive and fragile, lost in its own ordinary uniqueness given the internet's ever-growing sovereignty, never hyperfocusing on its individuals (excluding the spin-off chapters, naturally) despite maintaining its interpersonal balance with characters' distinct mannerism communicated through the virtually zero exposition, completely relying on iconic sprites and avatars that subconscious cement their characteristics to the player's mind and instead shows as how, in seemingly disconnected fashion, the population acts and re-acts on their own and each others' delusions of grandeur as the consequences and the influence of the one great man spreads out and forms the stand-alone complex, while all of it in an indirect fashion build the same concept up as they all are coming together in the climax. That which, I think, is the best way to weave the narrative centered around the detective group, instead of allowing the paragons of virtue to maintain the law by force.

The rest, I am afraid, are spoilers that I do not want to give away as of now.

Before playing The Silver Case, the most experience I had with visual novels was playing through the original Ace Attorney a few times and then eventually giving up on all of those playthroughs from both boredom and my previous lack of consistency when it came to completing games. I eventually did finish a third playthrough I started of that game late last year, partly thanks to The Silver Case as this was the game that gained both my interest and respect for the genre.

The Silver Case is a great visual novel that will captivate your attention with its interesting story, characters, and its unique presentation. While its story can be a little hard to grasp at times, the game's episodic nature and switching between Matchmaker & Placebo were good ways to give players a better understanding of what happened and at keeping players interested.

The puzzle solving isn't the best in this game, but luckily you have the option to skip through them if you just want to progress through the story. There were also some parts of the game where it is easy to get lost or confused without a guide. I briefly got lost in one part involving the Typhoon apartments and in a previous playthrough I remember spending a lot more time than I should have on those ten towers toward the end of the game. Other than those two gripes, there isn't really anything else I can say bad about the game.

The Silver Case is a great visual novel that not only is one of Suda51's best works but also got me to give a second chance to a genre I previously did not care for.

"Kill the past."

SUDA51 is a well-renown figure in the gaming industry. A revolutionary auteur with a unique voice and interesting stories to tell, his games receive critical acclaim and recognition as masterful works of both art and gameplay. But until now, that's never been the case for me personally. For the longest time, I only knew of SUDA51 as some Japanese weirdo who made games about weeaboos with lightsabers or cheerleaders fighting zombies: games that struck me as shallow and obnoxiously quirky. It didn't help the only exposure I had to SUDA51's oeuvre was surface-level commentary by outlets and gamers that reduced his work to "Woah, so wacky!" and completely missed whatever messages his works tried to convey. So it was quite the culture shock to join this website and see SUDA51 not only be critically acclaimed, but revered by the user base, who sung the man's praises to high heaven. This served as the impetus for me to finally give the man a second chance with The Silver Case, and the only thing I have to say is I wish that I had done it sooner!

The Silver Case is a visual novel/adventure game hybrid following two protagonists: An unnamed Heinous Crimes Unit agent, and jaded chain-smoking journalist/carnivorous plant enthusiast Tokio Morishima, both of whom are investigating infamous serial killer Kamui Uehara, a recently escaped mental hospital patient and the man behind the titular Silver Case. Over the course of two parallel storylines, the plot soon reveals itself to be more complex than it initially seemed, and this is where The Silver Case's strengths come to the forefront. Covering themes of political intrigue, the internet and its effects in real life, the nature of crime and its relation to the media, the desire for change in society, and most importantly: what it means to kill the past, and move on from the chains that bind you to it. Everyone in the plot is chained in some way to the past, whether it be their own or the past of powers beyond their comprehension, and the heart of the story lies not in the conspiracies or exposition, but in seeing how the people involved in this metaphorical game of 4th dimensional chess either face, kill or succumb to their own history.

As a visual novel, your strengths are gonna be your aesthetics and your writing, and The Silver Case knocks it out of the ballpark on both accounts. The presentation is unique and visually striking: A multimedia mix of animation, live-action FMV and CGI, taking place in these bizarre yet intimate low-poly liminal spaces, all viewed through a Y2K-evocative UI framed much like a comic/manga, with varying screen sizes and orientations and unique illustrations for events in-game. The way each Chapter closes out like the end of a TV episode is just the cherry on top honestly. On the writing end, the way our protagonists are written as diametrically opposed opposites is interesting. The silent HCU agent; a borderline non-entity, an empty shell with no defined past or personality for the player to experience the story, and frequently commented on as being a ghoulish, silent weirdo, someone who's status in story mirrors that of the player: a mere vessel for events bigger and more intricate than him. Morishima in contrast, is a defined character, with a past, a goal, a strong personality and a much smaller scale plot-wise than our HCU Agent, and yet the two end up so intimately entwined with each other's stories that we realize how similar they are and how they move the plot along. It's very well done, even if the need to alternate stories isn't explained very well in-game.

The preconceived notions I had about SUDA51's work in the past have been shattered with naught but a single game, and in a way, it mirrors the message of The Silver Case: Kill the past, and free yourself from your burdens. By killing my prejudice by playing The Silver Case, I've opened myself to a whole new world of entertainment I'd've never given the light of day before. Maybe it's something you too should look into.

Kill the past, Or embrace it. Choice yours and yours alone.

This game is about people that couldn't move on their pasts and their solutions to "dealing with it". So, we, the players, see these events from own eyes and make our own judgment. For the question, the ideology of the "Past". You, the player that seen everything. What do you do with your past? Embrace it? Or kill it? Or move on from it?

Choice is yours and yours for truly. Game is here for one thing and that is giving you multiple perspectives for this ideology and every case is here to support that fact.

I wish gameplay itself was cool as it's concept tho. Since trying out the ps1 armored core games, I didn't thought I would felt this feeling of "just looking of the cover brings me pure FEAR of playing" again.

Because movement sucks ASSSS. Puzzles sucks ASSSS. Mail reading sucks ASSSSS. Sorry, I went a bit rude at there, but really... I have a lot of problems for this game's mechanics and maybe I have even more things to count.

Yes I know the existence of holding skip makes everything go faster but even with that, exploration so damn annoying with tank controls with the inclusion of hard to see interaction symbols also with the combination of finicky interaction mechanics, playing this game feels like a chore to me.

You know, just for this reason I thought about leaving this game couple of times. Especially near the end where every mission just wants you to go around and rub your face to every goddamn wall to find and read trillion amounts of documents or finding millions of interactables to progress.

Excellent character writing stopped me from doing so... Sumio and Kusabi's daily friendly fights... Morishima's anger about his poor life conditions... Hachisuka and Morikawa's unending discussions and How red goes "..." And then goes "....." Really fun dialogues to experience dare I say. Also murder filled detective cases and journalist cases are cream on the cake too with how these two different segments support each other with the "question" part and the "answer" part of it.

But in my opinion, reading a pure visual novel format of it sounds to me more fun experience than playing itself ever again unfortunately.

Almost 12 years ago when I went to buy the new Gears of war 3 I was so excited to finally finish this trilogy that I was such a fan of at the time. But unfortunately, there were no more copies available in the store, so I was forced to buy another game instead. ''Hey this Shadows of the danmed is a really cool Resident Evil 4-like game'' - the store salesman told me, which convinced me to buy it. I ended up really enjoying the game, which caught my attention for its bizarreness and art style.

Then, over the years, as my knowledge of the game industry increased little by little, I learned that that game was made by a director called ''Suda51'', who was actually known for his various works that have as characteristic of being unique and very creative. ''Okay, someday I'll play other games made by this guy to see what he's made of" - I said to myself.

But unfortunately, even though I've known about games like Killer7, No More Heroes and Flower, Sun and Rain for a very long time, I always found excuses to put off playing those games. But better late than never I guess

So for my start, I chose ''The Silver Case'', and off we go.

Dude, this game is weird, but a brilliant, bizarre mystery adventure.
To start off, I have to say that I loved the game's presentation and art style. Even though there's no voice acting, the characters are all so alive and well written that it helps the game's atmosphere to be one of the strongest I've ever witnessed in an adventure/visual novel game; and also, with one of the protagonists being mute we depend on the characters to tell us the story, in particular our colleagues at the 24th ward detective agency, - with tetsu being by far my favorite character - the characters work with you through the talking for you an so on. But there's no black or white here. In Silver Case, the people very often got emotional baggage, temper tantrums, unreasonable moments and, as this story progresses, each character's personality and ideologies become muddled entirely, Intertwined with the plot to the point where teir thoughts and reasonings become indistinguishable from right or wrong.

The plot is badass, and as usual in mystery stories the background of the protagonists is really important and here it is brilliantly well connected to the events and universe of the game. I wish there were more puzzles, but the way the ones in the game work to move the game forward is perfectly fine.

Overall The Silver Case was a great experience for me, is a game i will think and absorb for weeks to come, but for now, i can say that if theres one thing this game wants to scream louder than anything else, it's that living in the past is only the expression of our current anxieties and burdens.

And for God's sake, someone lend 50,000 yen to my buddy Tetsu

“…that’s what I’ve finally learned after living “everyday life” in this world. Even without hope, even in great fear, even when continuing to drag along that which no longer has any value, one can go on living. Specifically because of our imperfections, life has meaning. Don’t you think so?”

Goichi Suda is an artist who has garnered my utmost respect and appreciation these past few months. Starting with killer7 towards the end of last year, all signs were pointing to me taking a journey down this madman’s absolutely phenomenal catalogue of games. After falling in love with killer7’s narrative and visual style, I decided to experience Suda’s full life work in the form of his “kill the past” series. Which, of course, lead me to The Silver Case.

Even after having completed the games in the Silver trilogy and killer7, I still feel myself wanting to come back to this one. It’s an incredibly memorable experience, with a narrative style unlike any other and a superbly executed presentation. In fact, I would say that the visual style and presentation TSC presents the player with is only rivaled by the later entries in this series of games. Style is what this game exudes, be it narratively or visually. The film window engine is the primary contributor to this, with its combination of 3D models, striking artwork and even occasional real life footage. Instead of barraging the player with the “visual” aspect of a visual novel, TSC instead takes a fairly minimalist approach to its style in regards to the visuals, retaining the aspect of being incredibly memorable I mentioned earlier, with each piece of artwork being incredibly striking. This is further accentuated by the various shifts in artstyle the game undergoes, be it Transmitter’s shift to a monochromatic color scheme in #03 parade, or the consistently switching artstyles from Transmitter’s more striking artstyle to Placebo’s much more muted artstyle. I’d probably say that I liked Transmitter’s artstyle a lot more overall, but that’s probably because I’m a massive fan of Takashi Miyamoto’s artstyle (which definitely carries over to his work on later entries in this franchise). Placebo’s artstyle is great as well, the softer, more muted color palette with heavy blues is incredibly appealing as well, and I feel it complements Ooka’s writing style fantastically. From the artstyle to the overall presentation of the game, TSC knocks it out of the ball park and then some, creating a relatively inconsistent style that remains appealing nonetheless.

I almost forgot to mention it! In case you couldn’t tell, I’m a huge fan of the vibe that TSC gives off, and a key part of this vibe is the soundtrack. Masafumi Takada has quickly become one of my favorite composers as I journey through this series of games, and his work on this one is no exception. Tracks like His Room and Moon draw out feelings of uncertainty in the player, whereas tracks revolving around the Investigation leitmotif such as Kamui’s theme and Resolution definitely instill a much more upbeat and resolute feeling in the player, and of course, the standout Apricot Square theme is used during #05 lifecut to invoke a nostalgic, yet melancholic emotion in the player. The element of sound is manipulated incredibly effectively by the game’s composer to make the player feel, and is a key aspect of the unsettling air the game can emit at times. Ultimately, the soundtrack of TSC is groovy, catchy and unsettling, words which are accurate descriptors for the game itself alongside its soundtrack.

Style is not the only thing The Silver Case has, however. You could argue that this game is an example of style over substance, a buzzword often used in regards to Suda’s games, I feel. Although the style is an incredibly memorable aspect of the game, the narrative is expertly written, and very, very good, so I believe that this is a concrete example of style and substance being hand-in-hand (this also encapsulates my feelings on the series as a whole). The narrative of TSC is a lot of things. It is a story about crime, perfection and the internet, but also about the past, and how people are affected by it. This, of course, leads to the “kill the past” ethos present throughout TSC but also this series of games as a whole. It’s demonstrated through characters in the narrative, with Sumio being by far the most prominent example, but plenty of other characters end up “killing their past” or at least start the process of it. The narrative is inexorably linked with the theme of “killing the past” but also the setting of the 24th Ward and how it connects to the pasts of these various characters and its true purpose in the grand scheme of things. At the center of this mystery lies another factor: the character of Kamui Uehara. Who is Kamui? What is Kamui? Introduced as a true “character” in #01 decoyman, the questions regarding Kamui pile up as the story and narrative progresses, with this persona being revered as a “god” by the citizens of the 24th Ward and being the instigating factor for both storylines. The twin storylines, Transmitter and Placebo, are also linked with each other. Events occur in Transmitter and are explored in greater depth in Placebo - or rather - fed to the player in a manner which is much easier to digest, while also providing insight into the character of Tokio Morishima and his relationships with other characters. The “elements” that the narrative is intertwined with that I mentioned previously also appear simultaneously in both storylines, with the HC Unit investigating the Kamui Case while Tokio investigates the persona of Kamui and the history of the 24th Ward. EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED. This is an aspect that I feel is kind of missing from this game’s fully fledged sequel, The 25th Ward, as in that one each storyline is mostly disconnected as a whole. I think this is mostly a good thing as it increases the amount of stuff in the game, and it’s definitely quality over quantity in that one - pretty much everything about it is what the kids call “peak fiction” these days. This is a review about TSC, however. And it is amazing. Apparently people prefer Transmitter as a whole, I would definitely say that I preferred Placebo, especially in the later half of the game (post #03 parade where the events in Transmitter go BANANAS). Tokio is just an amazing character all around and I’d say he’s probably my favorite from the game as a whole, although the HC Unit members are awesome as well (not Nakategawa).

In truth, words cannot do this game justice. At least, mine cannot, and I would implore you to check this one out. By far one of the most memorable games out there, and my heart goes out to everyone involved in the production of this game.

Kill the Past.

***

THE SILVER CASE

Ceremony

THE 25TH WARD IS COMING SOON…?

surreal and dreamlike, the silver case is a sensual experience with striking, thoughtful political commentary and insight on internet culture that has aged incredibly well. its monotony in gameplay can detract from the experience a bit, but it's ultimately a fundamental part of what makes the atmosphere here so rich. tokio is one of my top favorite characters of all time now, i think he hit a little too close to home lol

if you have enough patience, and you're willing to pace yourself, the silver case is a great read and an example of a visual novel taking advantage of its medium rather than being held back by it. it avoids a lot of annoying tropes in other works and has a strong aesthetic appeal that helps it stand out.

will you live by killing your past?

Silver Case esteve comigo por três meses, sendo a minha canção de ninar na maioria das noites. Com seus ambientes vazios e o barulhinho de máquina de escrever que o texto faz, revelou-se promissor produtor de melatonina, apesar dos raios claros do Steam Deck fritando meus olhos na madrugada.

A primeira impressão é a que importa e a que fica: duvido que jogarei tão cedo alguma VN que consiga desafiar esta em sua apresentação. Menus dinâmicos, janelas voando, trocando de forma, o fundo em fluxo constante - é o sonho estético de todo mundo que tenta representar uma ‘websfera’ dos anos 2000. Ainda que superficial, vejo este fator como extremamente importante no meu aproveitamento da obra, já que é uma execução fantástica como essa que romantiza e confere personalidade a um ato que não é muito diferente do de passar slides - só o barulhinho modular do texto conforme você apertar um botão ou outro já é uma coisa que deixa tão mais gostoso de se ler.

Não que eu queira reduzir Silver Case à uma VN tradicional: uma enorme parcela do jogo envolve um dungeon crawl - livre de estados de falha e cheia de momentos de tédio e banalidade - por masmorras do cotidiano presas em estase, como shoppings, apartamentos, escritórios e indústrias, espaços liminares desprovidos de qualquer alma viva.

Silver Case é sobre transitar nestes espaços, tatear as paredes de Tokyo-24, habitar essas zonas solitárias. Sobre processo, bater em centenas de portas, investigar cada porta e gaveta e email a troco de nada. Sobre rotina, acordar na mesma cama centenas de vezes, ir e voltar pra casa, ir ao bar de vez em quando ou bater um papo com sua tartaruga. E claro, sobre conversar com gente esquisita que fala engraçado e me faz sentir constantemente apequenado diante do turbilhão nonsense - não precisa fazer sentido.

Foi confuso e muitas vezes entediante ao ponto do sono. Estou vendido. Silver Case tem a soberba, a panache e o espírito irreverente que fica gravado na memória muito mais do que uma historinha bem amarrada. Daqui uns anos, eu posso não lembrar o nome de ninguém do jogo, mas pode saber que vou lembrar como era transitar as ruas e condomínios da cidade, e daquela vez que tive que tocar na porta de 20 apartamentos mais de uma vez na mesma missão, ou da forma deliciosamente bizonha que todo mundo conversa, da sonoplastia icônica e saborosa que cada transição de cena tem, ou da foto da lua com palavras malucas que sempre aparece no final de cada capitulo… Caralho… Que trilha sonora foda, irmão… Today’s WORD phrase is…

"BELIEVE IN THE NET"

A thriller crime drama v-ish-ual novel by Suda51, where you unravel the facts (and the facts behind the facts) of Kamui Uehara and the Silver Case, told through the perspectives of a self-insert who is assigned to the heinous crimes investigation unit, and a lazy slob of a journalist who really loves his turtle, Red. Even if the gameplay is not very good, I adore the cool as hell presentation and all the unexpected twists and turns the narrative takes while it fires cryptic statements and reveals at you constantly.