must a game be good to alter you psychologically?
"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
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.
I really wish they'd make 1 visual novel where the villain isn't just a dumbass who thinks he's doing good by doing bad.
Also, the villain's motivations are really stupid, which make it impossible to sympathize them, as it's hard to imagine someone could do something so stupid while wanting to do good.
Also, the villain's motivations are really stupid, which make it impossible to sympathize them, as it's hard to imagine someone could do something so stupid while wanting to do good.
First things first, and this is a visual novel with a HEAVY emphasis on the novel part. There are traditional bits of gameplay throughout in the 'tactics investigation' sections but they are short and infrequent. Be prepared to read your ass off. Really, the lack of a thorough editing pass to shave off fully 25% or more of the word count in most sections is the greatest fault of the game – I suggest adapting to it instead of frustration but that's a personal matter. The wordiness isn't always negative though; where many other VNs i've played perhaps cut too much from pivotal scenes where the pacing NEEDS to slow down and gain gravitas and detail, PoE at least gets to put a lot of weight behind those scenes, and that helped build its relationship with me a lot.
Similarly, the art style and presentation of characters with the (nearly) fully-voiced Japanese lines is sublime. Even with over-exaggerated localized dialogue quirks you may expect from this kind of thing, just about every character won me over eventually, despite my initial hesitancy on many of them. The joyous character art and VA delivery definitely helps tide you over while the prose slowly works its way in. The main exception to the cast quality is the murder robots, which are very weakly executed overall, but even as someone who should be allergic to that kind of ... machina ex machina, they were managed OK enough that I didn't feel that they were a huge stain on the work. Even after I finished reading this mammoth thing, I was compelled enough by my favorite characters to replay the investigations for bonus scenes and the extra scraps of dialogue that come from the fact that basically any of your detectives can do any investigative action and they all have their own lines for each one.
The game will win zero originality awards, and yet where it could have been banal, hacky, and derivative, I feel it ultimately was written with love, wit, and deftness. There ARE original ideas, and what's more, the shortcomings of its forebears are recognized and often resoundingly corrected. The execution with this tempering ends up being as solid as a brick shithouse. This is something that really warms my heart about PoE: that it is clearly responding to its influences in this niche field, (relatively) big and weighty author names like Kodaka and Uchikoshi, and loves their work like I love their work, but affirms my conclusions on the attached games' structural shortcomings. Even with a clearly strained budget in places – you're going to see sooooooo goddamn much of a certain L-shaped hallway background with some different lighting fixtures, there are some puzzles that keenly feel like they were made for a breakout minigame section that isn't there, et cetera – there's good priority on which parts of the work have the biggest impact from dev resource allocation.
The tactics investigations are low key brilliant. They're never too long, so if you got way ahead of the mystery-solving, you're not too far from getting to prove it and progress; but they also present evidence and info in a novel-enough way for folks behind on the mystery-solving to follow along with the ride while they catch up. Additionally, controlling a whole group of detectives actually sells the feeling of you putting the case together as a team, and dovetailed well with the protagonist's confidence arc. Plus the sections have novel enough mechanics for it to not feel like completely unrelated, derivative minigame filler.
Finally, I think objectively this is more like a 4 or 3.5 but I fell in love with it so fuck the scale. The main reason I have to rate this so highly is that it has the best macro plot & villain resolution of any of these type of games I've played – there are so many of these psychologically-minded VNs where the ultimate conclusion is just "some people are Evil Ahhhh Oooohhhh!!! Mean!!" and that's THE inciting incident. Even some of the best ever are marred by this anticlimactic cop-out reasoning. PoE doesn't not have some of this in a character or two, but ultimately the villains' motivations are really not that and are instead rooted in some complex and fucking real places with the bonus scenes actually giving you further shading on them. And after having just played Kodaka's RAIN CODE a month or two back which is another incredibly back-and-forth-quality-level script of his style, I feel pretty confident in saying that yeah, the folks on Process of Elimination truly surpassed their influences in some really vital ways. It may be long-winded as fuck, but that wind is astute and confident. Also I wanna slap Doleful Detective's gay little ass fr
Similarly, the art style and presentation of characters with the (nearly) fully-voiced Japanese lines is sublime. Even with over-exaggerated localized dialogue quirks you may expect from this kind of thing, just about every character won me over eventually, despite my initial hesitancy on many of them. The joyous character art and VA delivery definitely helps tide you over while the prose slowly works its way in. The main exception to the cast quality is the murder robots, which are very weakly executed overall, but even as someone who should be allergic to that kind of ... machina ex machina, they were managed OK enough that I didn't feel that they were a huge stain on the work. Even after I finished reading this mammoth thing, I was compelled enough by my favorite characters to replay the investigations for bonus scenes and the extra scraps of dialogue that come from the fact that basically any of your detectives can do any investigative action and they all have their own lines for each one.
The game will win zero originality awards, and yet where it could have been banal, hacky, and derivative, I feel it ultimately was written with love, wit, and deftness. There ARE original ideas, and what's more, the shortcomings of its forebears are recognized and often resoundingly corrected. The execution with this tempering ends up being as solid as a brick shithouse. This is something that really warms my heart about PoE: that it is clearly responding to its influences in this niche field, (relatively) big and weighty author names like Kodaka and Uchikoshi, and loves their work like I love their work, but affirms my conclusions on the attached games' structural shortcomings. Even with a clearly strained budget in places – you're going to see sooooooo goddamn much of a certain L-shaped hallway background with some different lighting fixtures, there are some puzzles that keenly feel like they were made for a breakout minigame section that isn't there, et cetera – there's good priority on which parts of the work have the biggest impact from dev resource allocation.
The tactics investigations are low key brilliant. They're never too long, so if you got way ahead of the mystery-solving, you're not too far from getting to prove it and progress; but they also present evidence and info in a novel-enough way for folks behind on the mystery-solving to follow along with the ride while they catch up. Additionally, controlling a whole group of detectives actually sells the feeling of you putting the case together as a team, and dovetailed well with the protagonist's confidence arc. Plus the sections have novel enough mechanics for it to not feel like completely unrelated, derivative minigame filler.
Finally, I think objectively this is more like a 4 or 3.5 but I fell in love with it so fuck the scale. The main reason I have to rate this so highly is that it has the best macro plot & villain resolution of any of these type of games I've played – there are so many of these psychologically-minded VNs where the ultimate conclusion is just "some people are Evil Ahhhh Oooohhhh!!! Mean!!" and that's THE inciting incident. Even some of the best ever are marred by this anticlimactic cop-out reasoning. PoE doesn't not have some of this in a character or two, but ultimately the villains' motivations are really not that and are instead rooted in some complex and fucking real places with the bonus scenes actually giving you further shading on them. And after having just played Kodaka's RAIN CODE a month or two back which is another incredibly back-and-forth-quality-level script of his style, I feel pretty confident in saying that yeah, the folks on Process of Elimination truly surpassed their influences in some really vital ways. It may be long-winded as fuck, but that wind is astute and confident. Also I wanna slap Doleful Detective's gay little ass fr
I loved this game so much more than I expected to. It's relatively short, and the gameplay is fairly basic outside the novel part, but I'm perfectly fine with treating this as a regular VN with a few extra sprinkles. I loved pretty much every character from the start, and aside from the very first death each one really felt like a loss to me. The dialogue oozes with charm, and the development of the MC alongside best girl was really enticing, making it really hard to put this down sometimes. And, even though it all happened pretty quickly, the messaging throughout the final reveal definitely resonates. I would love to see a sequel that puts more emphasis on the gameplay, since I think there's plenty of potential there.. and I just want more of this world, honestly. 9.5/10
Compared to other VNs I've played(Danganronpa, YTTD, AI: the Somnium Files), it definitely wasn't as good but that doesn't mean it was bad.
Really, the only negatives I'd give it(and they're more YMMV) are that the gameplay is very minimal, even by visual novel standards, and that the characters didn't really make much of an impact on me.
That being said, Armor Detective is best boy.
Really, the only negatives I'd give it(and they're more YMMV) are that the gameplay is very minimal, even by visual novel standards, and that the characters didn't really make much of an impact on me.
That being said, Armor Detective is best boy.
"we have danganronpa at home" ass game. loses one star for the mandatory scene of the main character spying on an 11 year old girl naked in the shower
Process of Elimination is decidedly and unabashedly "Danganronpa" - a cast of zany but very likable characters with signature abilities, chapters that are all structured in a daily life/murder investigation split, and there's even a Komaeda packaged in there too for good measure. The entire experience culminates into something familiar, but comfortably so. Process of Elimination's pacing feels almost like an abridged version of Danganronpa, so to speak, which is both one of its biggest strengths and one of its biggest weaknesses. Chapters, particularly the mid stretch of the game, blitz by and give the player very little time to ruminate and reflect on bombshell reveals. This can lead to certain character moments and emotional plot beats feeling a tad bit underbaked, but on the other hand this quick pacing means that the ball is always rolling and its incredibly difficult to put the game down. Process of Elimination never lingers on anything for too long so even its misses don't have enough time to leave a bad taste in your mouth, which is definitely a point of favor over some of its rival series which, while also not very long, do sometimes have the tendency to linger on a bad chapter for a frustrating amount of time (hello Ace Attorney 2!)
The main draws of a game like this are, of course, the mysteries, cast, and the driving force of the story (which is usually to escape, to unravel the identity of some kind of mastermind, or both). Process of Elimination hits on all of these points well but it fumbles a bit on the gameplay front. Investigation segments have the player controlling chibi versions of the main characters from an overcast top-down grid to unravel secrets and analyze evidence and in all honesty, its largely superfluous. It doesn't really add much to the game that couldn't have been conveyed far less tediously through the VN format and I can't say its an activity that's particularly fun on its own merits, either. I wouldn't say that it's outright terrible, its just kinda....there. It didn't detract from my experience in a significant capacity but I did find myself just wanting to get back to the VN sections whenever they thrust another one on me.
The entire game was a fun read with some particularly great moments in the second half, but where Process of Elimination really excels is in the game's finale. I don't know exactly how they did it but the ending of this game is shockingly excellent, my adverbial choice of word there being very intentional because its absolutely the best writing to come out of the game. The main mystery concludes in a really satisfying way and it has some surprisingly profound things to say about the beauty of life and the drive to continue living, even when everything seems hopeless. It's genuinely inspiring as hell and it hit me harder given how applicable the message was with some really tough things I've been going through in my personal life.
So yeah, really liked this one. There are a few areas that could be cleaned up or fleshed out/given more time to breathe in an ideal world, but it certainly didn't disappoint. I've been chasing the Shuichi-sized hole that V3 has left in my soul for years so thank you Mr. Wato for another very entertaining read.
The main draws of a game like this are, of course, the mysteries, cast, and the driving force of the story (which is usually to escape, to unravel the identity of some kind of mastermind, or both). Process of Elimination hits on all of these points well but it fumbles a bit on the gameplay front. Investigation segments have the player controlling chibi versions of the main characters from an overcast top-down grid to unravel secrets and analyze evidence and in all honesty, its largely superfluous. It doesn't really add much to the game that couldn't have been conveyed far less tediously through the VN format and I can't say its an activity that's particularly fun on its own merits, either. I wouldn't say that it's outright terrible, its just kinda....there. It didn't detract from my experience in a significant capacity but I did find myself just wanting to get back to the VN sections whenever they thrust another one on me.
The entire game was a fun read with some particularly great moments in the second half, but where Process of Elimination really excels is in the game's finale. I don't know exactly how they did it but the ending of this game is shockingly excellent, my adverbial choice of word there being very intentional because its absolutely the best writing to come out of the game. The main mystery concludes in a really satisfying way and it has some surprisingly profound things to say about the beauty of life and the drive to continue living, even when everything seems hopeless. It's genuinely inspiring as hell and it hit me harder given how applicable the message was with some really tough things I've been going through in my personal life.
So yeah, really liked this one. There are a few areas that could be cleaned up or fleshed out/given more time to breathe in an ideal world, but it certainly didn't disappoint. I've been chasing the Shuichi-sized hole that V3 has left in my soul for years so thank you Mr. Wato for another very entertaining read.
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.
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!
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?)
Real Saiharabros will recognize this main character. The one difference is this one can't speak english, as there only is japanese voice-over!!! yamete!!
Ok. This game naturally draws comparisons with the Danganronpa series, so let me mansplain why this one is more of a flop. Imagine the cast of characters is like an ice cream menu (yummy). In this game, when it tells you that you're getting strawberry and chocolate ice creams, you're getting exactly that. In the case of Danganronpa, you get that with added whipcream and sprinkles. Hope it helps.
I admit it did get better. I grew attached to these goofballs; this work has high highs and high lows, turning it unpredictable. If there is a sequel I will be there.
Ok. This game naturally draws comparisons with the Danganronpa series, so let me mansplain why this one is more of a flop. Imagine the cast of characters is like an ice cream menu (yummy). In this game, when it tells you that you're getting strawberry and chocolate ice creams, you're getting exactly that. In the case of Danganronpa, you get that with added whipcream and sprinkles. Hope it helps.
I admit it did get better. I grew attached to these goofballs; this work has high highs and high lows, turning it unpredictable. If there is a sequel I will be there.
I really hope there’s another of this game. Many people say this is NIS’ take on danganronpa and yes, it is “create a cast where everyone is titled after their main character trait” but it goes its own way. You can tell the devs had fun crafting the worldbuild with all of their extra material and flavor text.
I enjoyed the quirky cast and learning their backstories and seeing their interactions.
The gameplay leaves a lot to be desired— I hated restarting dialogue when I failed a tactics section because there was no quick restart option. And many of those levels were tricky or plain frustrating. The deduction segments were also a little basic in a way where there wasn’t too much challenge to solve them and you could brute force your way if you didn’t know.
But I really want a sequel because they’re on to something with the tactics segments, they just need to polish it.
I enjoyed the quirky cast and learning their backstories and seeing their interactions.
The gameplay leaves a lot to be desired— I hated restarting dialogue when I failed a tactics section because there was no quick restart option. And many of those levels were tricky or plain frustrating. The deduction segments were also a little basic in a way where there wasn’t too much challenge to solve them and you could brute force your way if you didn’t know.
But I really want a sequel because they’re on to something with the tactics segments, they just need to polish it.
I’ve heard that this game gets better towards the end, but the first few hours felt so incredibly tedious and none of the characters really attracted me in a way that made me want to keep going. Don’t think i’ll get back to this one anytime soon.
It fell pretty flat for me. The quality of the mysteries was never particularly high thanks to a combination of (1) the answers being painfully obvious and (2) relying on some extremely contrived and/or stupid actions to make them possible. The first case was probably the best in the game and even that wasn't especially good by the standards of other mystery games I've played.
Meanwhile the actual process of solving those mysteries really didn't add much. The strategy-esque segments were novel at first, but they didn't really contribute towards the mysteries themselves. All were pretty trivial to beat and only got easier as the game progressed. And the short length of each segment effectively means you're getting all of the relevant information about the case in the span of just a few minutes, further contributing to how easy the case it to solve.
The only real benefit to the strategy investigations is their aforementioned brevity. Rather than something like Ace Attorney or Danganronpa where investigating the crime is a huge part of the playtime, the short investigations let the game keep the pace moving at a very fast speed. The entire game only took me about 16 hours to complete. Cutting out the earliest portions (which are just introductions to the characters and setting) and the end (which is just summarizing all the earlier info to find the mastermind) there's only about 2 hours in between each murder. Which, as mentioned already, does severely limit their complexity but lets the game compensate for the lack of depth with quick pacing that helps keep the game refreshing.
The characters are a very mixed bag. There are a few pretty good ones, but the bulk of the cast are so one-note they make Danganronpa characters look deep by comparison. And while even the bad ones had their place, my interest in the characters was definitely propped up by a select few rather than the dynamics of the cast as a whole.
Really, Process of Elimination would suck if it were any longer. Very few things about it are particularly good and I doubt it will stick around in my mind for very long. But it escapes a lot of my ire by virtue of its brevity. The mysteries may not be great, but they're quick and simple. The characters might not be great, but they're easy to figure out and somewhat engaging to see. And while an extended length may have been able to fix these problems somewhat, what we have now is a game that feels more like a bite-sized mystery game. It might not be especially satisfying, but its easy to digest and offers enough to substance to keep your hunger for similar games at bay for a while.
I don't think I can recommend this game overall. But if you really are inclined to play it, I would suggest treating it more as a way to kill a weekend without needing to think about things too hard. It can probably fill that role well enough.
Meanwhile the actual process of solving those mysteries really didn't add much. The strategy-esque segments were novel at first, but they didn't really contribute towards the mysteries themselves. All were pretty trivial to beat and only got easier as the game progressed. And the short length of each segment effectively means you're getting all of the relevant information about the case in the span of just a few minutes, further contributing to how easy the case it to solve.
The only real benefit to the strategy investigations is their aforementioned brevity. Rather than something like Ace Attorney or Danganronpa where investigating the crime is a huge part of the playtime, the short investigations let the game keep the pace moving at a very fast speed. The entire game only took me about 16 hours to complete. Cutting out the earliest portions (which are just introductions to the characters and setting) and the end (which is just summarizing all the earlier info to find the mastermind) there's only about 2 hours in between each murder. Which, as mentioned already, does severely limit their complexity but lets the game compensate for the lack of depth with quick pacing that helps keep the game refreshing.
The characters are a very mixed bag. There are a few pretty good ones, but the bulk of the cast are so one-note they make Danganronpa characters look deep by comparison. And while even the bad ones had their place, my interest in the characters was definitely propped up by a select few rather than the dynamics of the cast as a whole.
Really, Process of Elimination would suck if it were any longer. Very few things about it are particularly good and I doubt it will stick around in my mind for very long. But it escapes a lot of my ire by virtue of its brevity. The mysteries may not be great, but they're quick and simple. The characters might not be great, but they're easy to figure out and somewhat engaging to see. And while an extended length may have been able to fix these problems somewhat, what we have now is a game that feels more like a bite-sized mystery game. It might not be especially satisfying, but its easy to digest and offers enough to substance to keep your hunger for similar games at bay for a while.
I don't think I can recommend this game overall. But if you really are inclined to play it, I would suggest treating it more as a way to kill a weekend without needing to think about things too hard. It can probably fill that role well enough.
It's like if everything about Dangan Ronpa was really, really good instead of really shitty, top to bottom. The first NIS game I actually feel like I want to recommend to other people since Phantom Brave.
My Review on Reddit with Images
KEY NOTES:
-Visual Novel
-About15 hours to complete
-Linear and only one ending
-Fully voiced in JP
-Has strategic gameplay elements (20% of the game)
INTRODUCTION
Nippon Ichi Software (NIS) has developed many different type of games over the years and many of them were released to the west. They have also developed a number of Visual Novels, but many of them weren't released in English which makes the western release of Process of Elimination (PoE) a rarity.
STORY
The story follows a young man named Wato Hojo who was aspiring to be a great detective. One day, he gets forcibly brought to a island where a number of detectives were gathered. As part of the Detective Alliance organization, these detectives had assembled to plan and prepare for the capture of a wanted serial killer who goes by the name, The Quartering Duke. The Duke had played a key role in the deaths of 100 people in just the past year. The detectives however soon realized that they were caught in a trap created by the Duke.
As expected with the presence of many detectives, PoE's story is a mystery as its core which unravels as you progress throughout the game. It's also not just an ordinary mystery, but also a murder mystery. Many of these are done in the style of "locked-room" mysteries so there is a degree of complexity to them. Finding out the whodunit is interesting, but the "how" is equally intriguing.
The overall story is linear, but it was captivating nonetheless. I was constantly trying to figure out what was going on and who were the main culprits. There were many twists that while it didn't blew my mind, had me surprised at the development. The pacing is slow early on when it spends a great deal of time explaining the circumstances, the world and the characters, but does begin to move quicker at about the 1/3 mark of the game. At just about 15 hours, it doesn't drag on for that long, but could've still used some more hours and length to better flesh out the world and develop the plot points. My other notable complaint is that the finale feels anti-climatic. The ending itself feels like there's more to it as if it was setting up for a sequel that may never come.
The worldbuilding is pretty interesting and surprisingly has a lot of content. Most of the worldbuilding events and terminology are referenced throughout the game, but the details are explained in more detail in the game's Lexicon.
CHARACTERS
PoE's cast is rather large at about 14. It feels especially big when you have nearly all of them in the same room or close proximity. Fortunately, the game gives every character time to shine in the spotlight so nobody gets forgotten in the shadows. Each detective has their quirks which makes them stand out quite a bit already. They are anime-tropey on first impression which is reflected in their alias such as "Workaholic", "Techie", and "Booky." With that said, they have decent amounts of depth and characterization as well although only a few have character growth.
I found nearly all of the detectives to be likable and have some kind of charm. Many of them are rather humorous with their dialogue without feeling over the top. The characters did a good job in making the story even more engaging and the comedic parts help balance out the serious nature of the story.
GRAPHICS/ART DIRECTION
PoE looks good for a Visual Novel. I wouldn't call it a feast for the eyes, but the backgrounds, character designs, CGs and general graphics are appealing. I have no complaints with this part.
MUSIC
The soundtrack was mostly composed by Hisa Aihara who goes by a_hisa. I wasn't familiar with him at all, but his other notable work seemed to be the Mad Rat Dead game. There's only about 20 tracks or so in the game so there are many repeated songs throughout. Fortunately, most of them sound great. A good mix of upbeat songs and softer ones for the emotional events. Overall, a solid soundtrack.
GAMEPLAY
As a Visual Novel, most of the gameplay is reading text boxes after text boxes. The story is linear so the few choices that appear have very little consequences. PoE does however add some more variety to an otherwise traditional Visual Novel. There are a few "Investigation" phases where it plays out similar to a strategy RPG. Characters are placed on a grid-based map and the main goal is often to uncover all of the evidence in relation to the current mystery.
Each character has different detective stats which includes, "Movement", "Inference", "Analyzation", "Assistance" and "Inspection." The Movement stat is identical to other SRPGs and indicates how far a character can move per action. The Inference stat is used mostly to whittle down Investigation spots. For an example, there's a spot with an Investigation number of 6. If a detective with an Inference stat of 2 uses the "Infer" command on it, the Investigation spot number goes down to 4. You will obtain a fact/hypothesis after getting it down to 0. Infer is also used to destroy traps and objects.
When Analyzing evidence found, only detectives with a high enough Analyzation stat could actually complete it. The Inspect command uncovers evidence at specific location. The Inspection stat itself determines how far a detective can Inspect from their current position.
Finally, the Assist command is used to boost another detective's Infer stat for that turn only. The amount boosted is based on the Assistance stat.
The game wouldn't have much strategy if all you do is move characters around and investigate/analyze/infer specific points. The phase is on a timer so you don't have all of the time in the world to complete this part. This requires careful planning on what specific actions each detective should do based on their detective stats and location on the map. To make it even more challenging, some Investigation phases have gimmicks like traps or actual dangers that move around and attack you. Furthermore, there are times when you can't even control every detective on the map and only a few of them. This phase can be challenging especially early on, but it does get noticeably easier as you progress.
After the Investigation phase is done, you enter the Deduction phase where the characters discuss the evidence obtained and the inferences from them. While the other detectives will contribute with some helpful information, you are the one who actually pieces the evidence together and form the conclusion through various multiple choice questions. This part isn't that difficult since the various hints and inferences give you a decent idea of what happened and even the culprit. Getting the wrong answers enough time is a game over and you restart from the beginning of this phase (assuming you save the game when the Investigation phase ends).
These particular gameplay parts gives you a nice breather from the heavy dialogue portions, but they are very few in general to make a huge impact. It's about 80:20 ratio of visual novel story portion to the investigation portions of the game.
FINAL REMARKS
PoE is a good read especially if you're into mysteries and murder mysteries. The characters are mostly enjoyable and it was fun to see their interactions with each other. The early portion aside, the story does move at a fairly decent pace. I do wished the game was at least a few hours longer especially since 15 hours isn't that long for a Visual Novel. The finale could've been stronger as well, but it was overall a solid experience. Hopefully, this would allow more NIS Visual Novels to be released for the west.
KEY NOTES:
-Visual Novel
-About15 hours to complete
-Linear and only one ending
-Fully voiced in JP
-Has strategic gameplay elements (20% of the game)
INTRODUCTION
Nippon Ichi Software (NIS) has developed many different type of games over the years and many of them were released to the west. They have also developed a number of Visual Novels, but many of them weren't released in English which makes the western release of Process of Elimination (PoE) a rarity.
STORY
The story follows a young man named Wato Hojo who was aspiring to be a great detective. One day, he gets forcibly brought to a island where a number of detectives were gathered. As part of the Detective Alliance organization, these detectives had assembled to plan and prepare for the capture of a wanted serial killer who goes by the name, The Quartering Duke. The Duke had played a key role in the deaths of 100 people in just the past year. The detectives however soon realized that they were caught in a trap created by the Duke.
As expected with the presence of many detectives, PoE's story is a mystery as its core which unravels as you progress throughout the game. It's also not just an ordinary mystery, but also a murder mystery. Many of these are done in the style of "locked-room" mysteries so there is a degree of complexity to them. Finding out the whodunit is interesting, but the "how" is equally intriguing.
The overall story is linear, but it was captivating nonetheless. I was constantly trying to figure out what was going on and who were the main culprits. There were many twists that while it didn't blew my mind, had me surprised at the development. The pacing is slow early on when it spends a great deal of time explaining the circumstances, the world and the characters, but does begin to move quicker at about the 1/3 mark of the game. At just about 15 hours, it doesn't drag on for that long, but could've still used some more hours and length to better flesh out the world and develop the plot points. My other notable complaint is that the finale feels anti-climatic. The ending itself feels like there's more to it as if it was setting up for a sequel that may never come.
The worldbuilding is pretty interesting and surprisingly has a lot of content. Most of the worldbuilding events and terminology are referenced throughout the game, but the details are explained in more detail in the game's Lexicon.
CHARACTERS
PoE's cast is rather large at about 14. It feels especially big when you have nearly all of them in the same room or close proximity. Fortunately, the game gives every character time to shine in the spotlight so nobody gets forgotten in the shadows. Each detective has their quirks which makes them stand out quite a bit already. They are anime-tropey on first impression which is reflected in their alias such as "Workaholic", "Techie", and "Booky." With that said, they have decent amounts of depth and characterization as well although only a few have character growth.
I found nearly all of the detectives to be likable and have some kind of charm. Many of them are rather humorous with their dialogue without feeling over the top. The characters did a good job in making the story even more engaging and the comedic parts help balance out the serious nature of the story.
GRAPHICS/ART DIRECTION
PoE looks good for a Visual Novel. I wouldn't call it a feast for the eyes, but the backgrounds, character designs, CGs and general graphics are appealing. I have no complaints with this part.
MUSIC
The soundtrack was mostly composed by Hisa Aihara who goes by a_hisa. I wasn't familiar with him at all, but his other notable work seemed to be the Mad Rat Dead game. There's only about 20 tracks or so in the game so there are many repeated songs throughout. Fortunately, most of them sound great. A good mix of upbeat songs and softer ones for the emotional events. Overall, a solid soundtrack.
GAMEPLAY
As a Visual Novel, most of the gameplay is reading text boxes after text boxes. The story is linear so the few choices that appear have very little consequences. PoE does however add some more variety to an otherwise traditional Visual Novel. There are a few "Investigation" phases where it plays out similar to a strategy RPG. Characters are placed on a grid-based map and the main goal is often to uncover all of the evidence in relation to the current mystery.
Each character has different detective stats which includes, "Movement", "Inference", "Analyzation", "Assistance" and "Inspection." The Movement stat is identical to other SRPGs and indicates how far a character can move per action. The Inference stat is used mostly to whittle down Investigation spots. For an example, there's a spot with an Investigation number of 6. If a detective with an Inference stat of 2 uses the "Infer" command on it, the Investigation spot number goes down to 4. You will obtain a fact/hypothesis after getting it down to 0. Infer is also used to destroy traps and objects.
When Analyzing evidence found, only detectives with a high enough Analyzation stat could actually complete it. The Inspect command uncovers evidence at specific location. The Inspection stat itself determines how far a detective can Inspect from their current position.
Finally, the Assist command is used to boost another detective's Infer stat for that turn only. The amount boosted is based on the Assistance stat.
The game wouldn't have much strategy if all you do is move characters around and investigate/analyze/infer specific points. The phase is on a timer so you don't have all of the time in the world to complete this part. This requires careful planning on what specific actions each detective should do based on their detective stats and location on the map. To make it even more challenging, some Investigation phases have gimmicks like traps or actual dangers that move around and attack you. Furthermore, there are times when you can't even control every detective on the map and only a few of them. This phase can be challenging especially early on, but it does get noticeably easier as you progress.
After the Investigation phase is done, you enter the Deduction phase where the characters discuss the evidence obtained and the inferences from them. While the other detectives will contribute with some helpful information, you are the one who actually pieces the evidence together and form the conclusion through various multiple choice questions. This part isn't that difficult since the various hints and inferences give you a decent idea of what happened and even the culprit. Getting the wrong answers enough time is a game over and you restart from the beginning of this phase (assuming you save the game when the Investigation phase ends).
These particular gameplay parts gives you a nice breather from the heavy dialogue portions, but they are very few in general to make a huge impact. It's about 80:20 ratio of visual novel story portion to the investigation portions of the game.
FINAL REMARKS
PoE is a good read especially if you're into mysteries and murder mysteries. The characters are mostly enjoyable and it was fun to see their interactions with each other. The early portion aside, the story does move at a fairly decent pace. I do wished the game was at least a few hours longer especially since 15 hours isn't that long for a Visual Novel. The finale could've been stronger as well, but it was overall a solid experience. Hopefully, this would allow more NIS Visual Novels to be released for the west.