An early footnote in The Centennial Case outlines possible tricks in detective fiction, including the "narrative trick"--misleading the reader via the narrative delivery of prose writing, e.g. unreliable narrators--but notes that such tricks are considered "impossible in films and TV". Naturally, anyone in the game's target audience (the type of mystery fan who reads the sleuth spotlights at the back of Detective Conan volumes) may wonder if this FMV game will try its hand at inventing one. May build a few logic hexagons, so to speak, about what could be done with this format. I did, and the story still threw me just far enough off the scent to be surprised. They accomplished their goal in a pretty clever way, so kudos to them.
Mind, we are talking about a type of trick that hasn't been done in films and TV. Exploiting the medium for narrational meta-tricks is nothing new to video games and VNs. You can find effective uses of these twists in works from Umineko to Undertale to Kotaro Uchikoshi's entire oeuvre. And that's my sticking point: Centennial Case doesn't seem all that interested in being a video game. The interactive logic board segments are the weakest parts. They're similar to Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments' deduction system but more mechanically obtuse (albeit more aesthetically pleasing). My best interpretation of what was going on here is a simulation of the kind of wild theorizing a reader performs while engaging with a mystery novel, but I didn't have a consistent sense of what these logic chains were supposed to represent. They certainly aren't deductions. "Clues" can be evidence OR possible answers. The resulting hypotheses also often fell prey to sloppy wording, or possibly muddy translation (e.g. whatever distinction they were driving at with "the culprit burned the evidence" vs. "the culprit set a fire to burn evidence"). Basically, while I didn't dislike the logic system nearly as much as some people, I didn't feel like it added much. I would've liked the story equally if it had been a TV series.
That all sounds kind of negative, so I want to say, I did like Centennial Case. A lot. It's full of references to the history of detective fiction, situated in historical context, and that stuff is like catnip to me. While most of the cases were nothing to write home about, they were solid, and I had plenty of fun with them. The epilogue was great, and I loved Josui. Add a new Character Of All Time to the list, lads.
Mind, we are talking about a type of trick that hasn't been done in films and TV. Exploiting the medium for narrational meta-tricks is nothing new to video games and VNs. You can find effective uses of these twists in works from Umineko to Undertale to Kotaro Uchikoshi's entire oeuvre. And that's my sticking point: Centennial Case doesn't seem all that interested in being a video game. The interactive logic board segments are the weakest parts. They're similar to Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments' deduction system but more mechanically obtuse (albeit more aesthetically pleasing). My best interpretation of what was going on here is a simulation of the kind of wild theorizing a reader performs while engaging with a mystery novel, but I didn't have a consistent sense of what these logic chains were supposed to represent. They certainly aren't deductions. "Clues" can be evidence OR possible answers. The resulting hypotheses also often fell prey to sloppy wording, or possibly muddy translation (e.g. whatever distinction they were driving at with "the culprit burned the evidence" vs. "the culprit set a fire to burn evidence"). Basically, while I didn't dislike the logic system nearly as much as some people, I didn't feel like it added much. I would've liked the story equally if it had been a TV series.
That all sounds kind of negative, so I want to say, I did like Centennial Case. A lot. It's full of references to the history of detective fiction, situated in historical context, and that stuff is like catnip to me. While most of the cases were nothing to write home about, they were solid, and I had plenty of fun with them. The epilogue was great, and I loved Josui. Add a new Character Of All Time to the list, lads.
The music is 10/10
This review contains spoilers
Few games have the main character spend most of the game unknowingly shipping incest.
Good start, not so elegant ending.
The "gameplay" part of this is mindnumbingly boring.
I should restart reading 427 perhaps...
The "gameplay" part of this is mindnumbingly boring.
I should restart reading 427 perhaps...
Yep, it's an FMV game alright. Square-Enix made one and honestly, it's not as bad as I thought it would be. The story is alright, though obviously, since this is an FMV game, opinions will vary.
On top of it, the gameplay aspects of this are bare bones minimum. It's not great! Put tiles on clues to get more possible info and that's about it. Moving around the board is not the best but it's not too bad.
There's not much to this overall, guessing wrong is kind of fun since the reactions are pretty random so if you are a fan of FMV games and can get this for cheap, it could be worth the price.
On top of it, the gameplay aspects of this are bare bones minimum. It's not great! Put tiles on clues to get more possible info and that's about it. Moving around the board is not the best but it's not too bad.
There's not much to this overall, guessing wrong is kind of fun since the reactions are pretty random so if you are a fan of FMV games and can get this for cheap, it could be worth the price.
Overall a disappointment, I think. A much more passive game than I was expecting - the only reason to even hit the interact prompts during the cutscenes is because you get achievements for them - and the actual gameplay is mostly pretty slow and clunky. The game switches things up a little in Chapter 5 and becomes a little more Myst-like, and I think it would have been better served if the whole game was like this, investigating crime scenes and so on - and I don't even particularly like Myst!
Wasn't a big fan of the how the story ended up, either - I think the specifics of who the culprits are and the details of the Tokijiku are a pretty weak resolution, especially considering the themes that these Old Family detective stories tend to be couched in, and having the finale hinge on a big emotional hook doesn't really work for me when playing a hokey FMV game, especially one where the main thing I want to know is the trick, not the motivations. Get this J-drama flim-flam outta here!!
There are some parts I like - the initial case at the auction and the nightclub case, those are good. I say the cutscenes are hokey but I like that, FMV games are supposed to be hokey! And I like all the references to things like Shin Seinen magazine and the roots of popular detective fiction in Japan. Shin Seinen is also the name of a real good Ningen Isu album, give that a listen.
Wasn't a big fan of the how the story ended up, either - I think the specifics of who the culprits are and the details of the Tokijiku are a pretty weak resolution, especially considering the themes that these Old Family detective stories tend to be couched in, and having the finale hinge on a big emotional hook doesn't really work for me when playing a hokey FMV game, especially one where the main thing I want to know is the trick, not the motivations. Get this J-drama flim-flam outta here!!
There are some parts I like - the initial case at the auction and the nightclub case, those are good. I say the cutscenes are hokey but I like that, FMV games are supposed to be hokey! And I like all the references to things like Shin Seinen magazine and the roots of popular detective fiction in Japan. Shin Seinen is also the name of a real good Ningen Isu album, give that a listen.
Played with BertKnot.
As crime fiction is a genuine institution in Japan, it is not uncommon to see directors or scriptwriters trying their hand at it, on a whim. We could multiply the examples, so common is it: we have to admit that video games and dramas often see attempts, more or less successful, to tell detective stories. The Centennial Case seems to more or less follow this trend. Although the director, Koichiro Ito, had already delivered 428: Shibuya Scramble (2008) and TRICK×LOGIC (2010), the rest of the team seems to be quite new to the field. Junichi Ehara is most known for NieR: Automata (2017), while scenario writer Yasuhito Tachibana is primarily a director of TV series, which have never come close to the investigative genres. Of course, one should not too easily prejudge the quality of The Centennial Case on the basis of these elements: after all, The Portopia Serial Murder Case (1983) is one of the very first games by Yuuji Horii (Dragon Quest), while Famicom Tantei Club: Kieta Koukeisha (1988) was the brainchild of Yoshio Sakamoto (Metroid).
This background seems necessary to understand what the game is attempting to achieve. An FMV detective drama, which interweaves several cases into one another, it has a structure that is very reminiscent of the spirit of Japanese dramas. This is understandable given the presence of Tachibana as lead writer. The story features a crime novelist, Haruka Kagami, who is invited to investigate the Shijima estate. A skeleton has been found under the centuries-old cherry tree and the writer is asked to find the identity of the corpse. The investigation takes a mysterious turn when the family elder is poisoned just after a traditional ceremony. A murder follows the incident and Haruka begins to investigate, soon discovering that there seems to be a link between the mysteries of the present and others that have punctuated the Shijima family's history for the last century. To discover the truth about the present, she therefore solves thoses past cases, presented to her through several hanshi-bon. This approach allows the game to be chaptered and to alternate between different eras. The distinctive feature is that the game reuses the same actors across the periods, a choice that lies at the heart of the title's stylistic and narrative proposition.
Such an approach is not in vain and allows to create rather interesting atmospheres, that borrow from a certain Japanese traditionalism. In a way, it would have been difficult to replicate this impression with a visual novel. However, the production remains generally average and the acting is never brilliant. Some would say that, in this respect, the game succeeds quite well in imitating the dramas that punctuate Japanese television schedules. The issue lies in the implementation of interactivity. Unlike Ace Attorney, where the player has the latitude to explore and where dialogue allows the investigation to progress organically, The Centennial Case places the player in an aggravated state of passivity. During the FMV sequences, it is entirely possible to put the controller down and do nothing: the game does try to force interactivity with some sort of QTE to retrieve clues at various moments, but they are, in any case, given automatically just before the Reasoning Phase. Similarly, some discussions require the player to choose an answer, but this has no influence on the course of events. As such, the game admits that it must be viewed and solved like a film, a fact that does not necessarily speak in its favour.
The Reasoning Phases themselves are a game design disaster. In essence, it's all about matching clues to questions, which leads to the acquisition of hypotheses. These can be used in the final phase of each chapter to confront the culprit. On paper, the idea could work, but its implementation is absurdly cumbersome. The volume of clues given is excessively large, so that it is difficult to get a clear picture, while many of the hypotheses are false leads, more or less stupid. One could consider that it is feasible to discover only the relevant hypotheses so as to save time, but another problem arises. This is because the game keeps its twist for the conclusive phase, and therefore the hypotheses do not usually point directly to the solution. It is therefore difficult to determine which ones are necessary and which ones are superfluous.
As for the mysteries, they are at best artificial and at worst implausible. Chapters 1 and 4 are trivial, as they reveal the solution to the mystery too unsubtly, while chapter 2 makes little sense in the modus operandi. The only exception is Chapter 3, whose nightclub investigation is rather well crafted: it relies on a trope familiar to those used to crime fiction, but the execution is convincing, insofar as the psychological element is well taken into account. The title also tries to renew its gameplay with chapter 5 which, in its escape game logic, is very reminiscent of the Zero Escape series. Once again, the idea is not wrong, but the gameplay remains very clumsy: the hypothesis creation sequences are even more frustrating, while the puzzles struggle to be really engaging.
For the rest, The Centennial Case fails to convince. In its last chapter, Haruka's deductive line is particularly hazy and is based solely on intuition. No formal element allows her to reach the truth and the resolution is thus more disappointing than expected. Indeed, it is not very difficult to identify the final culprit by the second chapter, but the ease with which they concede is frustrating. This is the general impression that remains for every case. While the Reasoning Phase is a particularly long and uninteresting process, the presentation of the findings always seems too quick and never rigorous enough. Of course, lay players will appreciate the twists in each case, but veterans will see the contrivances very easily, spoiling the potential of the title.
The Centennial Case thus offers a rather strange story, which blends shin honkaku a la Kindaichi shounen no jikenbo and Detective Conan, with a curious armchair approach. An almost metatextual reflection on detective fiction and its writing is shaped – the epilogue, of outstanding quality with a real subtlety in the detective writing, makes it clear why the title is in FMV –, but the game didn't manage to carry its idea through. Indeed, Haruka's deductions require the various cases recounted in the books to be absolutely true. This is somewhat a discursive failure, preventing the discussion of the falsification of the detective story and the value of the truth it carries: this theme is addressed much more frontally by Umineko no Naku Koro ni (2007), building on the considerations that surrounded Christie's And Then There Were None (1939).
For all that, The Centennial Case is far from uninteresting. It is representative of Japanese culture's love of detective stories, as well as its historical importance in video game production. A very large number of titles have been released on the various Japanese platforms, but few have been translated. In the best of cases, amateur translations make it possible to discover certain titles: this is the case for Kamaitachi no Yoru (1994). More recently, the localisation of Famicom Detective Club (2021) perhaps prefigures a turning point for the Japanese detective video game and its overseas release. The Centennial Case seems to pursue this objective, while being a resolutely Japanese detective fiction, whether it be in the family corporations, the attraction for past traditions, the debt of blood, the melancholy of existence, the place of women in this society or the weight of immortality. The game thus opens a very interesting window on an important part of Japanese cultural production. If the attempt, because of its gameplay, fails to completely live up to its ambitions, let us hope that it paves the way for other titles.
As crime fiction is a genuine institution in Japan, it is not uncommon to see directors or scriptwriters trying their hand at it, on a whim. We could multiply the examples, so common is it: we have to admit that video games and dramas often see attempts, more or less successful, to tell detective stories. The Centennial Case seems to more or less follow this trend. Although the director, Koichiro Ito, had already delivered 428: Shibuya Scramble (2008) and TRICK×LOGIC (2010), the rest of the team seems to be quite new to the field. Junichi Ehara is most known for NieR: Automata (2017), while scenario writer Yasuhito Tachibana is primarily a director of TV series, which have never come close to the investigative genres. Of course, one should not too easily prejudge the quality of The Centennial Case on the basis of these elements: after all, The Portopia Serial Murder Case (1983) is one of the very first games by Yuuji Horii (Dragon Quest), while Famicom Tantei Club: Kieta Koukeisha (1988) was the brainchild of Yoshio Sakamoto (Metroid).
This background seems necessary to understand what the game is attempting to achieve. An FMV detective drama, which interweaves several cases into one another, it has a structure that is very reminiscent of the spirit of Japanese dramas. This is understandable given the presence of Tachibana as lead writer. The story features a crime novelist, Haruka Kagami, who is invited to investigate the Shijima estate. A skeleton has been found under the centuries-old cherry tree and the writer is asked to find the identity of the corpse. The investigation takes a mysterious turn when the family elder is poisoned just after a traditional ceremony. A murder follows the incident and Haruka begins to investigate, soon discovering that there seems to be a link between the mysteries of the present and others that have punctuated the Shijima family's history for the last century. To discover the truth about the present, she therefore solves thoses past cases, presented to her through several hanshi-bon. This approach allows the game to be chaptered and to alternate between different eras. The distinctive feature is that the game reuses the same actors across the periods, a choice that lies at the heart of the title's stylistic and narrative proposition.
Such an approach is not in vain and allows to create rather interesting atmospheres, that borrow from a certain Japanese traditionalism. In a way, it would have been difficult to replicate this impression with a visual novel. However, the production remains generally average and the acting is never brilliant. Some would say that, in this respect, the game succeeds quite well in imitating the dramas that punctuate Japanese television schedules. The issue lies in the implementation of interactivity. Unlike Ace Attorney, where the player has the latitude to explore and where dialogue allows the investigation to progress organically, The Centennial Case places the player in an aggravated state of passivity. During the FMV sequences, it is entirely possible to put the controller down and do nothing: the game does try to force interactivity with some sort of QTE to retrieve clues at various moments, but they are, in any case, given automatically just before the Reasoning Phase. Similarly, some discussions require the player to choose an answer, but this has no influence on the course of events. As such, the game admits that it must be viewed and solved like a film, a fact that does not necessarily speak in its favour.
The Reasoning Phases themselves are a game design disaster. In essence, it's all about matching clues to questions, which leads to the acquisition of hypotheses. These can be used in the final phase of each chapter to confront the culprit. On paper, the idea could work, but its implementation is absurdly cumbersome. The volume of clues given is excessively large, so that it is difficult to get a clear picture, while many of the hypotheses are false leads, more or less stupid. One could consider that it is feasible to discover only the relevant hypotheses so as to save time, but another problem arises. This is because the game keeps its twist for the conclusive phase, and therefore the hypotheses do not usually point directly to the solution. It is therefore difficult to determine which ones are necessary and which ones are superfluous.
As for the mysteries, they are at best artificial and at worst implausible. Chapters 1 and 4 are trivial, as they reveal the solution to the mystery too unsubtly, while chapter 2 makes little sense in the modus operandi. The only exception is Chapter 3, whose nightclub investigation is rather well crafted: it relies on a trope familiar to those used to crime fiction, but the execution is convincing, insofar as the psychological element is well taken into account. The title also tries to renew its gameplay with chapter 5 which, in its escape game logic, is very reminiscent of the Zero Escape series. Once again, the idea is not wrong, but the gameplay remains very clumsy: the hypothesis creation sequences are even more frustrating, while the puzzles struggle to be really engaging.
For the rest, The Centennial Case fails to convince. In its last chapter, Haruka's deductive line is particularly hazy and is based solely on intuition. No formal element allows her to reach the truth and the resolution is thus more disappointing than expected. Indeed, it is not very difficult to identify the final culprit by the second chapter, but the ease with which they concede is frustrating. This is the general impression that remains for every case. While the Reasoning Phase is a particularly long and uninteresting process, the presentation of the findings always seems too quick and never rigorous enough. Of course, lay players will appreciate the twists in each case, but veterans will see the contrivances very easily, spoiling the potential of the title.
The Centennial Case thus offers a rather strange story, which blends shin honkaku a la Kindaichi shounen no jikenbo and Detective Conan, with a curious armchair approach. An almost metatextual reflection on detective fiction and its writing is shaped – the epilogue, of outstanding quality with a real subtlety in the detective writing, makes it clear why the title is in FMV –, but the game didn't manage to carry its idea through. Indeed, Haruka's deductions require the various cases recounted in the books to be absolutely true. This is somewhat a discursive failure, preventing the discussion of the falsification of the detective story and the value of the truth it carries: this theme is addressed much more frontally by Umineko no Naku Koro ni (2007), building on the considerations that surrounded Christie's And Then There Were None (1939).
For all that, The Centennial Case is far from uninteresting. It is representative of Japanese culture's love of detective stories, as well as its historical importance in video game production. A very large number of titles have been released on the various Japanese platforms, but few have been translated. In the best of cases, amateur translations make it possible to discover certain titles: this is the case for Kamaitachi no Yoru (1994). More recently, the localisation of Famicom Detective Club (2021) perhaps prefigures a turning point for the Japanese detective video game and its overseas release. The Centennial Case seems to pursue this objective, while being a resolutely Japanese detective fiction, whether it be in the family corporations, the attraction for past traditions, the debt of blood, the melancholy of existence, the place of women in this society or the weight of immortality. The game thus opens a very interesting window on an important part of Japanese cultural production. If the attempt, because of its gameplay, fails to completely live up to its ambitions, let us hope that it paves the way for other titles.
Some really fun and unexpected highlights here. Unfortunately, the game dragged too frequently.
You've tried a visual novel, why not try a, er... visual film! The Centennial Case sees you follow a mystery writer as she sticks her nose in a family's business and tries to figure out who's doing a load of nasty old murders. With a story told entirely through FMV, the interaction comes in Sherlock Holmes-style mind palace sections (where you try to piece together various clues to form hypothesis) and then more traditional choose-a-path sections where you attempt to use those hypothesis to solve the case.
Although restricted by the fact there has to be a 'right' answer (and some of the solutions require a fair old leap of logic), this ticks along at a decent pace and just about manages to be charming through some scenary-chewing performances. I particularly enjoyed letting characters hang at a pivitoal decision moment and watch them gurn repeatedly for several minutes.
A videogame that's very light on the game and very heavy on the video, but an enjoyable experience nonetheless.
Although restricted by the fact there has to be a 'right' answer (and some of the solutions require a fair old leap of logic), this ticks along at a decent pace and just about manages to be charming through some scenary-chewing performances. I particularly enjoyed letting characters hang at a pivitoal decision moment and watch them gurn repeatedly for several minutes.
A videogame that's very light on the game and very heavy on the video, but an enjoyable experience nonetheless.
There's a Dara O'Briain sketch where he says "you never read a book that stops after 3 chapters, asks you what the major themes are, and then stops when you can't answer". Well, they've done it. Shijima Story is more-or-less a TV show that pauses at the end of every episode to give you a bit of a quiz. I knew this was an FMV game, and was interested to see how they'd handled it, but for the most part it's by placing all the gameplay in big blocks after 15 minutes of FMV footage where you make 'deductions' to try and puzzle out the mystery. I don't think that's fundamentally a terrible approach to take, but combined with other decisions the game makes, I'm just left puzzled, and probably not in the way the designers intended.
Every element is just a little less quality than I'd hoped. The story spans 100 years and 3 time periods, but the actors spend most of that shuffling around the same slightly cheap sets. Nothing looks dramatically different in Taisho period to the Reiwa period. The performances are just a little hokey. The mysteries are underwritten, and focused on bizarre nonsensical twists, and withholding key deductions from the player for a dramatic reveal. The majority of the puzzle solving is actually focused on matching visual patterns completely unrelated to the crime, like a Poirot case where the solution is written on the back of an Eiffel Tower jigsaw puzzle.
I quite like some of the performances and particularly enjoyed seeing Gaku Sano, star of Kamen Rider Gaim, playing various parts. I'm a big fan.
Worth picking up if it goes on sale for under a tenner, but wouldn't recommend it for more unless you're the specific sort of Agatha Christie fan who doesn't care about motives or alibis but just elaborate Jonathan Creek style Tricks.
Every element is just a little less quality than I'd hoped. The story spans 100 years and 3 time periods, but the actors spend most of that shuffling around the same slightly cheap sets. Nothing looks dramatically different in Taisho period to the Reiwa period. The performances are just a little hokey. The mysteries are underwritten, and focused on bizarre nonsensical twists, and withholding key deductions from the player for a dramatic reveal. The majority of the puzzle solving is actually focused on matching visual patterns completely unrelated to the crime, like a Poirot case where the solution is written on the back of an Eiffel Tower jigsaw puzzle.
I quite like some of the performances and particularly enjoyed seeing Gaku Sano, star of Kamen Rider Gaim, playing various parts. I'm a big fan.
Worth picking up if it goes on sale for under a tenner, but wouldn't recommend it for more unless you're the specific sort of Agatha Christie fan who doesn't care about motives or alibis but just elaborate Jonathan Creek style Tricks.
Played this over the course of the 3 days while my wifi was out. It was short, sweet, and a fun time. It threw me a few curve balls here and there and I made mistakes, but it was enjoyable nonetheless.
Music is absolutely amazing btw.
Music is absolutely amazing btw.
Un FMV bastante entretenido cuya parte de gameplay peca de ser obtuso a la vez que algo inconsecuente. No te premia nada encontrar el 100% de pistas y resoluciones más allá de un par de logros o tres y aún con esas pistas y "deducciones" lógicas, el juego abusa mucho de suponer las cosas y tirar "palante" a ver qué te encuentras.
O, al menos, es como yo lo he vivido. Algunas conclusiones no tengo muy claro que estuviesen bien traducidas (jugué en español) y daban una idea que luego no representaba lo que habías elegido. Sumado a eso, hubo un par de ocasiones o tres en los compases finales de la historia en las que los subtítulos ni siquiera estaban introducidos.
A parte de esas cuestiones técnicas, la historia de Centennial Case es interesante y tiene unos cuantos giritos muy buenos. Lo que son capaces de hacer con el reparto de actores tan ajustado para que representen a personajes diferentes en épocas distintas es honestamente genial y digno de mención.
Muy recomendado, pero sólo si te gusta el género y las novelas policíacas con muchos red herrings.
O, al menos, es como yo lo he vivido. Algunas conclusiones no tengo muy claro que estuviesen bien traducidas (jugué en español) y daban una idea que luego no representaba lo que habías elegido. Sumado a eso, hubo un par de ocasiones o tres en los compases finales de la historia en las que los subtítulos ni siquiera estaban introducidos.
A parte de esas cuestiones técnicas, la historia de Centennial Case es interesante y tiene unos cuantos giritos muy buenos. Lo que son capaces de hacer con el reparto de actores tan ajustado para que representen a personajes diferentes en épocas distintas es honestamente genial y digno de mención.
Muy recomendado, pero sólo si te gusta el género y las novelas policíacas con muchos red herrings.
playing this right after death come true, another FMV mystery game, was a blast and a blessing. it's not solely budget, but the acting, tone and writing of this game just were so much better
i did got bored at certain moments, and there's a certain chapter where the core gameplay changed quite a bit, but the plot twists and the melodramatic flair of the scene quickly won me over again. i actually presented wrong hypothesis sometimes just to see the scenes they recorded for it, the tanuki one had me laughing out loud
and that epilogue chapter, man, just chef's kiss
i did got bored at certain moments, and there's a certain chapter where the core gameplay changed quite a bit, but the plot twists and the melodramatic flair of the scene quickly won me over again. i actually presented wrong hypothesis sometimes just to see the scenes they recorded for it, the tanuki one had me laughing out loud
and that epilogue chapter, man, just chef's kiss
I really wanted to like this game more than I did and I would love to see a better execution of the concept. The story is fun and I enjoyed myself but at the end of the day what little gameplay is present is super lacking and at points can become just a tedious chore to advance the plot. There were a few points were I felt engaged with the mystery solving but it was rare.
Damn Square Enix really sent out a lot of games to die this year, huh.
I wish so, so much that this game was outstanding. The centennial is so beautiful, so charming, is acted so legitimately well and just overall has this feel that - at least if you're into a bit of J-drama, detective stories and some FMV cheese - it should be a stone cold classic. Take any single scene or some of the individual chapters in a vacuum and you can so easily envision the absolute god tier narrative adventure thing this turning out to be, something with the rep of it's director's previous game 428 Shibuya Scramble (which i am remiss to not having finished yet).
And it's really hard to pinpoint exactly what isn't quite working here. Even ater fully completing it, being engaged and entertained the whole way through, something just felt a bit off. And even now i'm not sure really quite why when it should be right up my alley.
But I think i've gotten to the root of my niggles. I just don't think the Murders of the Centennial Case and the resolution of the overall mystery works that well. Whilst I absolute adore the "protagonist reads book, injects all the same actors from current time into recreation of the past" element, the murders themselves fail to truly integrate with the long running mysteries to untangle of the Shijima family and the pretty wild legends of agelessness it explores. I really get the impression that exploring other mysteries and sticking with maybe one or two murders would have worked better, because there's cases where they feel almost incidental compared to the real matters and hand.
Working out the murders is also a little slapdash. I appreciate the straight up FMVs going through the protagonists collecitng the evience rather than a lot of wandering around, but the process of putting those clues together in your mind palace is pretty dreadful, esecially as dear lord, this game has so fucking many red herrings. I think it's fair for detective stories to bury the lead a litlte bit and not to have every piece of evidence come back in the resolution - but this clearly goes too far. A lot of cases it feels like half your evidence just doesnt get used. You end up with basically a danganronpa case's worth of evidence for a murder which is often as simple as a matter of eliminating the impossible suspects.
I also don't think the core mystery is quite set out right. The semi-fantastical elements just aren't introduced neatly enough for me to really buy it, even whilst fully immersed in the hammy j-drama stuff. It feels like a nitpick because it's something a few lines of dialogue in the right place could sort out and it's probably going to vary a lot from person to person - but especially when the game relies so much on this stuff in it's final chapter in particular, it can take you out of some of the melodrama of that final act. Which is a shame, because the game also decides to drop plenty of it's boldest and most fun twists and turns there as well, which i think i would have enjoyed even more if i was fully invested in the core mystery.
Still, I like it. Quite a lot. The protagonist Haruka is super fun and there's a really nice impression that recreations of the past you go through are "hers". The period stuff in general is really beautifully put together and are extremely delightful, and the core cast of the present day are also really quite great. There's a very theatric character to the performances which is very fun, particularly when you get a deduction wrong and they basically call you a fucking idiot. It's just really fun to be with these people, honestly. I can definetly imagine a fun series of games where put-upon detective Haruka solves a bunch of murders with more casts that are just a bit larger than life. Preferably, better murders than are here.
Also, this isnt so much of a criticism as much as an observation but there's clearly a deep love of old Japanese serial magazines and fiction and some other stuff here and probably a lot of references which bounce off me. It's probably quite like playing the great ace attorney without knowing what a Sherlock is. Im thus nodding along with it more than i am really thoroughly getting it, but that's not a fault, and you sincerely get the impression even a few years ago this game wouldnt have touched western shores at all.
I do like the Centennial Case, probably more than it really deserves but as much as I do, the sense that it could be better is pervasive, especially in retrospect. It's good, and I think people who think they'll like it will do - but a few more drafts of the script, or the game picking a lane between the murders and the family mystery, could have resulted in something special.
I wish so, so much that this game was outstanding. The centennial is so beautiful, so charming, is acted so legitimately well and just overall has this feel that - at least if you're into a bit of J-drama, detective stories and some FMV cheese - it should be a stone cold classic. Take any single scene or some of the individual chapters in a vacuum and you can so easily envision the absolute god tier narrative adventure thing this turning out to be, something with the rep of it's director's previous game 428 Shibuya Scramble (which i am remiss to not having finished yet).
And it's really hard to pinpoint exactly what isn't quite working here. Even ater fully completing it, being engaged and entertained the whole way through, something just felt a bit off. And even now i'm not sure really quite why when it should be right up my alley.
But I think i've gotten to the root of my niggles. I just don't think the Murders of the Centennial Case and the resolution of the overall mystery works that well. Whilst I absolute adore the "protagonist reads book, injects all the same actors from current time into recreation of the past" element, the murders themselves fail to truly integrate with the long running mysteries to untangle of the Shijima family and the pretty wild legends of agelessness it explores. I really get the impression that exploring other mysteries and sticking with maybe one or two murders would have worked better, because there's cases where they feel almost incidental compared to the real matters and hand.
Working out the murders is also a little slapdash. I appreciate the straight up FMVs going through the protagonists collecitng the evience rather than a lot of wandering around, but the process of putting those clues together in your mind palace is pretty dreadful, esecially as dear lord, this game has so fucking many red herrings. I think it's fair for detective stories to bury the lead a litlte bit and not to have every piece of evidence come back in the resolution - but this clearly goes too far. A lot of cases it feels like half your evidence just doesnt get used. You end up with basically a danganronpa case's worth of evidence for a murder which is often as simple as a matter of eliminating the impossible suspects.
I also don't think the core mystery is quite set out right. The semi-fantastical elements just aren't introduced neatly enough for me to really buy it, even whilst fully immersed in the hammy j-drama stuff. It feels like a nitpick because it's something a few lines of dialogue in the right place could sort out and it's probably going to vary a lot from person to person - but especially when the game relies so much on this stuff in it's final chapter in particular, it can take you out of some of the melodrama of that final act. Which is a shame, because the game also decides to drop plenty of it's boldest and most fun twists and turns there as well, which i think i would have enjoyed even more if i was fully invested in the core mystery.
Still, I like it. Quite a lot. The protagonist Haruka is super fun and there's a really nice impression that recreations of the past you go through are "hers". The period stuff in general is really beautifully put together and are extremely delightful, and the core cast of the present day are also really quite great. There's a very theatric character to the performances which is very fun, particularly when you get a deduction wrong and they basically call you a fucking idiot. It's just really fun to be with these people, honestly. I can definetly imagine a fun series of games where put-upon detective Haruka solves a bunch of murders with more casts that are just a bit larger than life. Preferably, better murders than are here.
Also, this isnt so much of a criticism as much as an observation but there's clearly a deep love of old Japanese serial magazines and fiction and some other stuff here and probably a lot of references which bounce off me. It's probably quite like playing the great ace attorney without knowing what a Sherlock is. Im thus nodding along with it more than i am really thoroughly getting it, but that's not a fault, and you sincerely get the impression even a few years ago this game wouldnt have touched western shores at all.
I do like the Centennial Case, probably more than it really deserves but as much as I do, the sense that it could be better is pervasive, especially in retrospect. It's good, and I think people who think they'll like it will do - but a few more drafts of the script, or the game picking a lane between the murders and the family mystery, could have resulted in something special.
decent budget 0 soul
the centennial case's biggest strengths lie in its brilliant use of the FMV medium and the very nice UI.
the performances are great -- especially the main characters' -- although they're all a little campy (which is a wonderful thing, in my opinion). a lot of sets, props, and costumes are reused between all three time periods the game takes place in, but it's obvious that a lot of effort went into all of these aspects regardless. in addition, all of the UI has a beautiful, cohesive visual aesthetic. the mysteries themselves are generally interesting, and the overarching questions get satisfying conclusions! some of the plot twists had me absolutely floored.
the biggest issue i had was with the bulk of the gameplay: the reasoning sections. towards later sections of the game, they add elements to the format that make it more fun, but most of the gameplay consists of pure trial and error. throughout the FMV investigation sections, you pick up clues that you then connect to various "mysteries" -- questions about different aspects of the case, in order to create a list of hypotheses, eventually choosing which ones are correct and confronting the culprit. a lot of possibilities, some actually important to the case, some funny, and most just mundane, are exhausted. there are a lot of clues to choose from, and some of the connections aren't at all obvious. after a while, it gets kind of repetitive.
all in all, the centennial case is a pretty alright mystery game, a great use of full-motion video, and it definitely didn't make me cry :')
the performances are great -- especially the main characters' -- although they're all a little campy (which is a wonderful thing, in my opinion). a lot of sets, props, and costumes are reused between all three time periods the game takes place in, but it's obvious that a lot of effort went into all of these aspects regardless. in addition, all of the UI has a beautiful, cohesive visual aesthetic. the mysteries themselves are generally interesting, and the overarching questions get satisfying conclusions! some of the plot twists had me absolutely floored.
the biggest issue i had was with the bulk of the gameplay: the reasoning sections. towards later sections of the game, they add elements to the format that make it more fun, but most of the gameplay consists of pure trial and error. throughout the FMV investigation sections, you pick up clues that you then connect to various "mysteries" -- questions about different aspects of the case, in order to create a list of hypotheses, eventually choosing which ones are correct and confronting the culprit. a lot of possibilities, some actually important to the case, some funny, and most just mundane, are exhausted. there are a lot of clues to choose from, and some of the connections aren't at all obvious. after a while, it gets kind of repetitive.
all in all, the centennial case is a pretty alright mystery game, a great use of full-motion video, and it definitely didn't make me cry :')
It's a shame, if somewhat unsurprising, that Square Enix completely failed to promote this game, especially in the west, as well as quashing videos of it by would-be fans.
"Narrative mystery game" is a genre with a lot of competition in my recent memory, but it distinguishes itself with its comparatively down-to-earth tone, which is reinforced by its use of live action performances. I was quite impressed by the story.
The actual interactive mystery solving bits were hit or miss. There were a lot of points - possibly translation issues - where it wasn't clear what an option meant, which made it hard to follow the logic of the case the way the game expected.
The mechanics were a bit simplistic too. It mostly consisted of throwing stuff at the wall and having the game generate ideas for you to accept or reject - and as said, that was sometimes tricky for seemingly unintentional reasons. There were a lot of blatantly pointless dialogue choices too.
Still, I can enjoy a good marginally-interactive narrative, and the presentation of it all - including both performances and UI - was very nice. The music was quite memorable as well. The game certainly deserves a better chance than its publisher gave it.
Oh, I should also point out that I turned off the dub after five seconds. It sounded like a bored dub of a foreign movie on a cheap TV channel. So I don't think that was very good, but I played without it and enjoyed the Japanese performances with subs.
"Narrative mystery game" is a genre with a lot of competition in my recent memory, but it distinguishes itself with its comparatively down-to-earth tone, which is reinforced by its use of live action performances. I was quite impressed by the story.
The actual interactive mystery solving bits were hit or miss. There were a lot of points - possibly translation issues - where it wasn't clear what an option meant, which made it hard to follow the logic of the case the way the game expected.
The mechanics were a bit simplistic too. It mostly consisted of throwing stuff at the wall and having the game generate ideas for you to accept or reject - and as said, that was sometimes tricky for seemingly unintentional reasons. There were a lot of blatantly pointless dialogue choices too.
Still, I can enjoy a good marginally-interactive narrative, and the presentation of it all - including both performances and UI - was very nice. The music was quite memorable as well. The game certainly deserves a better chance than its publisher gave it.
Oh, I should also point out that I turned off the dub after five seconds. It sounded like a bored dub of a foreign movie on a cheap TV channel. So I don't think that was very good, but I played without it and enjoyed the Japanese performances with subs.
The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story is the rare FMV game that impresses, eschewing camp for an interesting story spanning a century in Japan. It's a love letter to mystery novels, and even if the central question doesn't engage you, the individual stories in each chapter are strong enough to stand on their own. I had a fantastic time with this game, and I'd happily recommend it to anyone who has a love for whodunits.
In 2022, a skeleton appears on the Shijima estate, prompting a mystery author to investigate their strange family history.
In 1972, a hostess tries to protect a singer from murderous threats,
In 1922, a young heiress tries to retrieve her family’s treasure and survive the murder and manipulation from enemies who want it for themselves.
The infamous “Fruit of Life” pops up in all these stories and its promise of immortality leaves violence and betrayal in its wake…
FMV games are strange beasts. They’re often inherently stilted, making long pauses while the actors wait for the player to cooperate and equipped with some actors of questionable quality. But I’d argue that, if you know what you’re getting into, those are features instead of bugs. It's always going to be an interesting balancing act between the constraints of real life filmmaking and creating exciting gameplay. Most of the game is split into two major sections. The investigation phase mostly involves watching a movie and watching the emotional soap drama play out. The game tries to add a sense of player agency by creating time based little button prompts to highlight a clue the characters are discussing, but you’ll receive all the clues at the end of the phase anyway. It's sort of a cheap way to trick players into forgetting how long its been since they pressed a button. The more useful feature, I think, is the suspect/evidence button. This lets you open up some notes while the movie is still playing and review the facts without stopping the ongoing action. It feels like you’re checking your notes with the detectives, and its just a little feature I appreciated.
This was first announced at a Japan-only Nintendo direct and I was 1000% positive this would never receive any kind of English translation. So it was a welcome surprise to see it get the support of an English sub/dub. I experimented with both audio formats a few times, which is relatively easy to change. While I wasn’t expecting too much, I think the English dub is just really unpolished, with voice acting that really contradicts how the actual actors spoke those lines. For example, early in the game, the two main characters are talking about their mutual friend. Haruka says “Are you just here to flirt with her?” The English dub makes her sound accusing, or even jealous. But when I revisited the scene in Japanese, the actor sounds like she’s just playfully teasing. It's the sort of thing that makes you reflect on the art of dubbing and how it works with live action performances. There’s nuances there that feel like they weren’t taken into account.
The deduction phase proper involves piecing together different clues to form your hypothesis. The game dumps dozens of clues on you and encourages you to connect them all. Most of them will probably connect to a bad hypothesis, which could lead you off track, but it also helps narrow down useless clues that you want to get rid of and connect more relevant facts. Its not a perfect system, but among the “put all the pieces together” mechanics that mystery games try to pull off, I can’t find much to really complain about in it.
Honestly, the real highlight of the game is how the whole cast works to pull off this huge narrative. Each actor plays a different character in different eras, which means you get to see how far these actors can stretch their performances. A shy little bookworm in the 2020s is a bitter playboy in the 1970s. A hyper competent assistant becomes a flirtatious mean girl, followed by a nervous, naive singer in another. It's just really fun to see these actors have fun.
Its huge time skipping narrative also means it gets to do really exciting things with recontextualizing characters. In the 2020s, Ryoei Shijima is depicted as a bitter old man who is potentially hogging the Fruit of Life for himself. His son Eiji theorizes that, if this immortality granting fruit exists, Ryoei is selfishly hoarding it from the needy or the scientists that could use it for good. This image of his selfish father extrapolates in Eiji’s mind and convinces him that Ryoei is happily letting innocents die for his own power.
But in the 1970s, we get to see Ryoei in his prime and how his own history shaped his life. He’s introduced explaining how he was outvoted by the other Shijimas. They want to give the fruit to a poor and needy soul… so that they can kidnap that person and experiment on them through generations. When Ryoei hears Eiji talk about using this mythical fruit to give to the needy, he thinks of immoral, violent acts in pursuit of personal wealth.
Both Ryoei and Eiji are motivated by helping others, but they both have different contexts for what that involves. Ryoei sees helping others as doing everything you can to give a person peace. Eiji sees it as doing everything you can to give a person life. That conflict and how they can’t communicate those distinctions to each other makes for some delicious, subtle drama. And its something this game excels at in its lengthy narrative. And its in these storylines where the game excels. These little micro tragedies throughout history are where the game’s at its best.
------
Now here’s a confession, I wrote all of that before I hit the finale, because I was so jazzed on the game I thought I could spew all my thoughts then and there and be ready to post with only minor edits once I was done.
But the finale is… frustrating. For a lot of reasons. I won’t go too deep into spoilers, but here’s a quick layout of the pause menu. Right in the center is a text box labeled “Rules of Reasoning.” Two of the rules are as follow:
There is only one killer in each case, no accomplice
Superhuman abilities or paranormal activities should be ruled out
The final case just kind of ignores those rules right out the gate and just expects you to follow along without any question. And don’t get me wrong, I was all for the game swerving into weird shit. But I also just don’t think a mystery game should… lie? Part of the final case also retroactively reveals that one of your previous successful cases was a frame job. Maybe its ridiculous to be annoyed by that, but when a game steers you directly towards a wrong answer just to reveal how wrong you were for completing the only way to complete the game… It's frustrating. It works in something like Spec Ops the Line, because that game is trying to tell a story about military expansionism and how it justifies itself. But in a mystery game you’ve just dedicated ten hours to… you want the mystery to be fair. Something you can feel accomplished for solving.
Also the epilogue involves a back to back “oh it was gay!” to “oh its When Marnie Was There” and I just despise that shit.
Still, its a really fun experience in spite of how frustrated I got towards the end. Special highlight to chapter 5. Just as the routine of cutscene/gameplay is wearing thin, the game transforms into a first person escape room. It's those creative choices that help me want to forgive this game in the end. You can tell how much fun these people had creating these mysteries, even if they were making things harder for themselves. And it's nice to see Square Enix fund these kinds of projects with that hot FF14 money. With things like this and the Live A Live remake, I hope more of these strange little productions come through the woodwork.
In 1972, a hostess tries to protect a singer from murderous threats,
In 1922, a young heiress tries to retrieve her family’s treasure and survive the murder and manipulation from enemies who want it for themselves.
The infamous “Fruit of Life” pops up in all these stories and its promise of immortality leaves violence and betrayal in its wake…
FMV games are strange beasts. They’re often inherently stilted, making long pauses while the actors wait for the player to cooperate and equipped with some actors of questionable quality. But I’d argue that, if you know what you’re getting into, those are features instead of bugs. It's always going to be an interesting balancing act between the constraints of real life filmmaking and creating exciting gameplay. Most of the game is split into two major sections. The investigation phase mostly involves watching a movie and watching the emotional soap drama play out. The game tries to add a sense of player agency by creating time based little button prompts to highlight a clue the characters are discussing, but you’ll receive all the clues at the end of the phase anyway. It's sort of a cheap way to trick players into forgetting how long its been since they pressed a button. The more useful feature, I think, is the suspect/evidence button. This lets you open up some notes while the movie is still playing and review the facts without stopping the ongoing action. It feels like you’re checking your notes with the detectives, and its just a little feature I appreciated.
This was first announced at a Japan-only Nintendo direct and I was 1000% positive this would never receive any kind of English translation. So it was a welcome surprise to see it get the support of an English sub/dub. I experimented with both audio formats a few times, which is relatively easy to change. While I wasn’t expecting too much, I think the English dub is just really unpolished, with voice acting that really contradicts how the actual actors spoke those lines. For example, early in the game, the two main characters are talking about their mutual friend. Haruka says “Are you just here to flirt with her?” The English dub makes her sound accusing, or even jealous. But when I revisited the scene in Japanese, the actor sounds like she’s just playfully teasing. It's the sort of thing that makes you reflect on the art of dubbing and how it works with live action performances. There’s nuances there that feel like they weren’t taken into account.
The deduction phase proper involves piecing together different clues to form your hypothesis. The game dumps dozens of clues on you and encourages you to connect them all. Most of them will probably connect to a bad hypothesis, which could lead you off track, but it also helps narrow down useless clues that you want to get rid of and connect more relevant facts. Its not a perfect system, but among the “put all the pieces together” mechanics that mystery games try to pull off, I can’t find much to really complain about in it.
Honestly, the real highlight of the game is how the whole cast works to pull off this huge narrative. Each actor plays a different character in different eras, which means you get to see how far these actors can stretch their performances. A shy little bookworm in the 2020s is a bitter playboy in the 1970s. A hyper competent assistant becomes a flirtatious mean girl, followed by a nervous, naive singer in another. It's just really fun to see these actors have fun.
Its huge time skipping narrative also means it gets to do really exciting things with recontextualizing characters. In the 2020s, Ryoei Shijima is depicted as a bitter old man who is potentially hogging the Fruit of Life for himself. His son Eiji theorizes that, if this immortality granting fruit exists, Ryoei is selfishly hoarding it from the needy or the scientists that could use it for good. This image of his selfish father extrapolates in Eiji’s mind and convinces him that Ryoei is happily letting innocents die for his own power.
But in the 1970s, we get to see Ryoei in his prime and how his own history shaped his life. He’s introduced explaining how he was outvoted by the other Shijimas. They want to give the fruit to a poor and needy soul… so that they can kidnap that person and experiment on them through generations. When Ryoei hears Eiji talk about using this mythical fruit to give to the needy, he thinks of immoral, violent acts in pursuit of personal wealth.
Both Ryoei and Eiji are motivated by helping others, but they both have different contexts for what that involves. Ryoei sees helping others as doing everything you can to give a person peace. Eiji sees it as doing everything you can to give a person life. That conflict and how they can’t communicate those distinctions to each other makes for some delicious, subtle drama. And its something this game excels at in its lengthy narrative. And its in these storylines where the game excels. These little micro tragedies throughout history are where the game’s at its best.
------
Now here’s a confession, I wrote all of that before I hit the finale, because I was so jazzed on the game I thought I could spew all my thoughts then and there and be ready to post with only minor edits once I was done.
But the finale is… frustrating. For a lot of reasons. I won’t go too deep into spoilers, but here’s a quick layout of the pause menu. Right in the center is a text box labeled “Rules of Reasoning.” Two of the rules are as follow:
There is only one killer in each case, no accomplice
Superhuman abilities or paranormal activities should be ruled out
The final case just kind of ignores those rules right out the gate and just expects you to follow along without any question. And don’t get me wrong, I was all for the game swerving into weird shit. But I also just don’t think a mystery game should… lie? Part of the final case also retroactively reveals that one of your previous successful cases was a frame job. Maybe its ridiculous to be annoyed by that, but when a game steers you directly towards a wrong answer just to reveal how wrong you were for completing the only way to complete the game… It's frustrating. It works in something like Spec Ops the Line, because that game is trying to tell a story about military expansionism and how it justifies itself. But in a mystery game you’ve just dedicated ten hours to… you want the mystery to be fair. Something you can feel accomplished for solving.
Also the epilogue involves a back to back “oh it was gay!” to “oh its When Marnie Was There” and I just despise that shit.
Still, its a really fun experience in spite of how frustrated I got towards the end. Special highlight to chapter 5. Just as the routine of cutscene/gameplay is wearing thin, the game transforms into a first person escape room. It's those creative choices that help me want to forgive this game in the end. You can tell how much fun these people had creating these mysteries, even if they were making things harder for themselves. And it's nice to see Square Enix fund these kinds of projects with that hot FF14 money. With things like this and the Live A Live remake, I hope more of these strange little productions come through the woodwork.