red tenemos que comer lechuga fumar placebo y vivir
❝ This is my first and last game.
After that. I've decided to keep
on living.
Because even someone worthless has
at least a part of a soul.
That is how people live.
That's what I've finally learned
after living "everyday life"
in this world.
Even without hope. even in
great fear.
even when continuing to drag along
that which no longer has any value.
one can go on living.
Specifically because of our
imperfections. ❞
After that. I've decided to keep
on living.
Because even someone worthless has
at least a part of a soul.
That is how people live.
That's what I've finally learned
after living "everyday life"
in this world.
Even without hope. even in
great fear.
even when continuing to drag along
that which no longer has any value.
one can go on living.
Specifically because of our
imperfections. ❞
Imagine if your friends played the game you like.
Aesthetically wonderful, immersive OST, and a full deep and complex storyline not made for those weak to reading what is beyond of the text.
Did you think i was not going to use the catch phrase? F#$% OFF
KILL THE PAST
Aesthetically wonderful, immersive OST, and a full deep and complex storyline not made for those weak to reading what is beyond of the text.
Did you think i was not going to use the catch phrase? F#$% OFF
KILL THE PAST
peak email checking simulator
Kill the Past, U are kamui
Absolute kino experience, this MIGHT be the greatest vn of all time. But it doesn't deserve five stars because of the annoying ass gameplay
This review contains spoilers
In a game, let alone continuity, lousy with sharp, confrontational artistic direction, it’s one as simple as the back of the box that continues to work its way through me. It’s the illustration of Kusabi, Sakura, and Kosaka, in particular - Sakura’s exaggerated frown extends out of the image towards you while Kusabi and Kosaka converse around her. If you’ve played the game, you’re aware that this configuration can only happen in the events proceeding the finale (a massive torpedo-spoiler on the back of the box, funny!). By extension, this also means that the illustration is, to whatever degree, a reflection on the status quo after case#5:lifecut, i.e. the chapter of the game where everything boils over, a majority of the Transmitter cast straight up dies, and radical actions by the hands of the remaining cast occur.
I love this illustration for a few reasons - for one, Takashi Miyamoto captures a sense of mundanity so well. In game, you’re never really able to bear witness to a Kusabi at peace in ordinary life, and here he’s beautifully human in his pose - well-earned after his arc through the game. Secondly, through that same focus on the mundane lies a commentary on the dynamics these characters are engaged in. I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to imply that the gender dynamics put forth here can be seen as a disappointing reminder that leaving Kusabi (love ‘em as I do) as the sole surviving veteran of the HCU means that the same bitterness which ostracized Hachisuka, possibly enabling something within to give in to her inevitable death-filing and appearance as Ayame, is likely still in the air. But these observations pale, in my opinion, to the context.
As she continues ascending the 24th Ward’s crime department, after bearing witness to the very operation that almost(/successfully?) doomed her and the player character to a life of artificial personhood, and after witnessing the takedown of the two major antagonists of the game, Nezu and (eventually) Uminosuke, she still frowns at us, the player. Why? I thought danwa was a happy ending.
-
TSC is one of few games I can think of that really eludes simple genre description. Sure, it’s a crime procedural, up until it isn’t. It’s a conspiracy thriller... in spots. It’s Lynchian surrealist dystopia? Alright we’re just gonna say words now, I guess? The only thing that comes to mind for descriptors is, like, slipstream fiction, which, given 25W references seminal proto-Cyberpunk novella The Girl Who Was Plugged In, seems apt enough to settle on. I won’t even evoke the P-word. The one that rhymes with “toast auburn.”
But really, this thought exercise is all just a veiled move to get you to wonder about the limitation of genre fiction as it applies to TSC, and poke at its aspirations. For this to be a standard crime procedural, you’d expect the HCU to... function in some capacity? And conspiracy thriller’s a no-go considering the weight that spirituality and all other intangibles have here, in my opinion. The way I’ll continue from this point to put it is thus: the Mikumo 77 incident, the murder of Kamui by the underworld factions, and the ensuing Shelter Kids policy reverberate through the story on many different frequencies, and the effect of it all is so bleak that only genre convention can make the discussion palatable as fiction. But it doesn’t always cover it: the melancholic, ambling work of Tokio through Placebo, the brain-swelling conflict of information in Transmitter, I think both serve as a reminder that there’s no easy out from underneath the sin of government control. It’s no surprise, I guess, that the symptoms get much, much worse when we return to Kanto in The 25th Ward.
-
Kamuidrome thru danwa (and the equivalent reports from Placebo’s end) are so dizzying and hard to come to terms with that I have literally shaved my head since first playing this game. This is actually true! I have death-filed!
That said, I feel like an essential piece of advice I could give someone who’s in for their first time is to enact judgment on the information based on who and when it’s coming from. This is easy enough in some cases - I think most people are primed from birth to hate pedo-fascist Nakategawa enough to not mind his words. But even fan-favorite Kusabi, for instance... this entire game is a slow fade-to-white for him as he unlearns an entire ideology of criminality equating plague, one he’s enforced so much with violence, not just as a cop, but as a particularly fucked up cop. In the beginning, I wouldn’t blame you for sticking with the competent elder authority of the cast, but if the ending moments of Parade don’t convince you to question the prior chapters, then I don’t know what will. The state of this world can be figured out with relative certainty as long as you keep track of where you are in the game’s web.
Though deeply confusing (& not helped by a localization that I can only describe as “challenging” (no shade to Grasshopper James btw, I can only imagine trying to piece this together 😭)), this game masterfully tiers up its information in a way that makes the trek through the underbelly of the 24th Ward feel so uniquely haunting. While certain aspects (the bench-warming faction war at the batting center comes to mind) do feel a bit bizarre and maybe even underdeveloped as words on a (cyber)page, the thematic tapestry of this game is exceptionally rich, even among other lauded-for-thematic-richness games. I’m a lifelong MGS fan and even I have to admit that after coming to conclusions confident enough to type words about, I think we might be seeing a lunch-eating of unseen proportions.
I love this illustration for a few reasons - for one, Takashi Miyamoto captures a sense of mundanity so well. In game, you’re never really able to bear witness to a Kusabi at peace in ordinary life, and here he’s beautifully human in his pose - well-earned after his arc through the game. Secondly, through that same focus on the mundane lies a commentary on the dynamics these characters are engaged in. I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to imply that the gender dynamics put forth here can be seen as a disappointing reminder that leaving Kusabi (love ‘em as I do) as the sole surviving veteran of the HCU means that the same bitterness which ostracized Hachisuka, possibly enabling something within to give in to her inevitable death-filing and appearance as Ayame, is likely still in the air. But these observations pale, in my opinion, to the context.
As she continues ascending the 24th Ward’s crime department, after bearing witness to the very operation that almost(/successfully?) doomed her and the player character to a life of artificial personhood, and after witnessing the takedown of the two major antagonists of the game, Nezu and (eventually) Uminosuke, she still frowns at us, the player. Why? I thought danwa was a happy ending.
-
TSC is one of few games I can think of that really eludes simple genre description. Sure, it’s a crime procedural, up until it isn’t. It’s a conspiracy thriller... in spots. It’s Lynchian surrealist dystopia? Alright we’re just gonna say words now, I guess? The only thing that comes to mind for descriptors is, like, slipstream fiction, which, given 25W references seminal proto-Cyberpunk novella The Girl Who Was Plugged In, seems apt enough to settle on. I won’t even evoke the P-word. The one that rhymes with “toast auburn.”
But really, this thought exercise is all just a veiled move to get you to wonder about the limitation of genre fiction as it applies to TSC, and poke at its aspirations. For this to be a standard crime procedural, you’d expect the HCU to... function in some capacity? And conspiracy thriller’s a no-go considering the weight that spirituality and all other intangibles have here, in my opinion. The way I’ll continue from this point to put it is thus: the Mikumo 77 incident, the murder of Kamui by the underworld factions, and the ensuing Shelter Kids policy reverberate through the story on many different frequencies, and the effect of it all is so bleak that only genre convention can make the discussion palatable as fiction. But it doesn’t always cover it: the melancholic, ambling work of Tokio through Placebo, the brain-swelling conflict of information in Transmitter, I think both serve as a reminder that there’s no easy out from underneath the sin of government control. It’s no surprise, I guess, that the symptoms get much, much worse when we return to Kanto in The 25th Ward.
-
Kamuidrome thru danwa (and the equivalent reports from Placebo’s end) are so dizzying and hard to come to terms with that I have literally shaved my head since first playing this game. This is actually true! I have death-filed!
That said, I feel like an essential piece of advice I could give someone who’s in for their first time is to enact judgment on the information based on who and when it’s coming from. This is easy enough in some cases - I think most people are primed from birth to hate pedo-fascist Nakategawa enough to not mind his words. But even fan-favorite Kusabi, for instance... this entire game is a slow fade-to-white for him as he unlearns an entire ideology of criminality equating plague, one he’s enforced so much with violence, not just as a cop, but as a particularly fucked up cop. In the beginning, I wouldn’t blame you for sticking with the competent elder authority of the cast, but if the ending moments of Parade don’t convince you to question the prior chapters, then I don’t know what will. The state of this world can be figured out with relative certainty as long as you keep track of where you are in the game’s web.
Though deeply confusing (& not helped by a localization that I can only describe as “challenging” (no shade to Grasshopper James btw, I can only imagine trying to piece this together 😭)), this game masterfully tiers up its information in a way that makes the trek through the underbelly of the 24th Ward feel so uniquely haunting. While certain aspects (the bench-warming faction war at the batting center comes to mind) do feel a bit bizarre and maybe even underdeveloped as words on a (cyber)page, the thematic tapestry of this game is exceptionally rich, even among other lauded-for-thematic-richness games. I’m a lifelong MGS fan and even I have to admit that after coming to conclusions confident enough to type words about, I think we might be seeing a lunch-eating of unseen proportions.
KILL THE PAST
suda51... save me...... SAVE ME.............
this is probably the most confused i've been about a game so far, about so many of it's aspects, what's its story tried to tell me? how I should even view it's story, it's narrative, how everything about it works?
On one hand i'm given a fantastic visual presentation and unique style that no other game ever had, really good music that just fits brilliantly in every scene. Writing that's so specific yet fascinating with how much it mirrors a real life form of speech a regular person might have with the amount of swears and slurs. And to top off this segment there's genuine peaks of stories like in the entirety of the Parade chapter.
On other i got such an uninteresting first half where I questioned if it's worth going through more of it, often wanting to drop the game for a while. placebo segments that are an absolute drag in their pacing and mindless repetition and every time I had to do them i felt discouraged to boot up the game. There's a lot of characters but it's so hard to keep track of them and remember every single one since you won't know if they will become a major part of the chapter's plot or if they'll be gone forever in the very next scene. It has plathera of moments where I could not understand a single bit of what is even happening as so much of it is presented to the player yet might mean absolutely nothing as you cannot tell if what you're seeing is meant to be a metaphor, forshadowing or just an artistic flair
I genuinely have no idea how I should view this game, this work, this art piece. It's so fascinating and confusing to the point where i'm trying to comprehend so much of it that isn't supposed to even make sense.
And just for that.
I have nothing else but tremendous respect.
On one hand i'm given a fantastic visual presentation and unique style that no other game ever had, really good music that just fits brilliantly in every scene. Writing that's so specific yet fascinating with how much it mirrors a real life form of speech a regular person might have with the amount of swears and slurs. And to top off this segment there's genuine peaks of stories like in the entirety of the Parade chapter.
On other i got such an uninteresting first half where I questioned if it's worth going through more of it, often wanting to drop the game for a while. placebo segments that are an absolute drag in their pacing and mindless repetition and every time I had to do them i felt discouraged to boot up the game. There's a lot of characters but it's so hard to keep track of them and remember every single one since you won't know if they will become a major part of the chapter's plot or if they'll be gone forever in the very next scene. It has plathera of moments where I could not understand a single bit of what is even happening as so much of it is presented to the player yet might mean absolutely nothing as you cannot tell if what you're seeing is meant to be a metaphor, forshadowing or just an artistic flair
I genuinely have no idea how I should view this game, this work, this art piece. It's so fascinating and confusing to the point where i'm trying to comprehend so much of it that isn't supposed to even make sense.
And just for that.
I have nothing else but tremendous respect.
This man Gucci'd down to the socks but need 50,000 yen
started but my sleep schedule is in the worst place to be playing a visual novel right now so like come back to me on this
The first three chapters or so are pretty great. Sumio, Tokio, Erika, Kusabi, and Koichi were well engaging characters and culminates in one of the best twists in a game. Unfortunately the rest is pretty boring to me.
This review contains spoilers
You need to get rid of any superfluous emotions. Totally nuke them.
Just look at what’s right in front of your eyes.
Keep your eyes on the prize.
Stare down the enemy in front of you.
That’s how you investigate.
Don’t worry.
Any part of your brain starts worrying? Grill that shit up and eat it!
Am I wrong?
Maybe you are wrong Tetsu, maybe you’re not. But it’s not my call to decide that for you.
Firstly I want to thank @Oshha for recommending this to me. I hadn’t heard of Kill The Past or knew much about Suda51 beyond No More Heroes. Safe to say that I’m now totally all in on the rest of the series. It took me a few days of contemplation after finishing, but The Silver Case is a game that I can’t help but admire to a high level despite any low points it may have had.
In my first session I played lunatics and decoyman, which made a really good first impression. I thought if nothing else, style is going to carry. I love the use of windows constantly placed in different parts of the screen, for both text and images, always keeping things interesting to look at and sometimes catching me off guard. Accompanied by an awesome art style that shifts constantly throughout the game as the mood / perspective changes, so cool… (Although sometimes I was thrown off, because this change was so drastic that it would take me a while to realise that the person on the screen talking was actually someone I had already met!)
This comes hand in hand with music and sound design, it’s really damn good. I’m glad to see more of Takada’s work in context outside of Danganronpa. Obviously the catchy tunes are great, but what I admire more are how many variations of different tracks there are, to give off slightly different feelings, there’s nothing more uncomfortable than hearing a motif that you recognise, but for it to now be spun in a really eerie or dark way. Also not afraid to use silence when necessary! REALLY appreciate that, it made such an impact many times.
Yeah sometimes the gameplay was a bit ass/boring, but I never found it that awful to slog through. I was more bothered honestly by the false promise that this would partly be a puzzle game! As a puzzle fan, lunatics and decoyman had me really engaged with an additive caesar cipher and a game of Bulls and Cows. Not your typical simple puzzle thrown into a game just to make sure you’re paying attention, these require thought! After this nothing was to be seen again :( I like to think what could have been, but with how the pacing of the game changes so much maybe these would have been out of place later on, maybe this was intentional and actually highlight the subverting of expectations for what this game is truly about. Holy shit that’s totally it… you win again Suda.
Alright so the presentation is perfect, and the gameplay is whatever. What about the meat? Does this funky text based detective walking simulator actually have any substance over style? Checks my rating -of course it does. There’s really a lot to unpack and I don’t think I could ever do it close to the justice it deserves. I’ll just describe how certain things made me feel. (waffling incoming)
Tokio is very cool and it was interesting to hear the constantly ongoing thoughts of a paranoid as fuck loser (am i a bad person?). JK he’s actually a hero, we’re 100% with him knowledge wise throughout the whole game up until Enzawa gets killed and then they cut it off like what a cliffhanger?? Then he shows up in lifecut like “i've figured EVERYTHING out, check my email and you'll understand”, and then we DON'T see that email and when we return to Tokio in Hikari we are just NOT told anything that he went through?? FUCK YOU SUDA (<3), now i gotta sit here and piece things together myself by listening to the ghostly apparitions that are now communicating through him !!! HUH?
Parade was an insane turning point, that moment when the mansion blew up, the art of them staring at it? Burning it into their eyes? Mfer that image is burnt into MY eyes, if I ever forget what’s going on in this game, I'll always remember that for sure. It wasn’t until the end of Tsuki that I really appreciated how well executed Parade was, when you started to see the full picture, learn the facts in a different order, it hits different. Which kind of applies for the whole game, this definitely warrants a replay in the future.
I truly love it when you can tell a character has been well developed and thought about outside of what is solely shown to you in the game, and that is here in spades. You can feel that these characters go through some life changing shit off screen, it comes through in the writing which is really damn good OBVIOUSLY. Ugh I can only praise something so much before it starts to become cumbersome. My point being is it’s clear that certain events were very well planned out in detail, only to not be shown to you, so you are left to make a “guesses” at what happened. It’s just executed extremely well and creates this sense of stringing you along and leaving you to think things for yourself.
Kusabi is probably the best character, let's be real, he’s everything you could ever want in an asshole boomer detective. Loves his daughter? ✓ Calls you big dick? ✓ Hates crime from the bottom of his soul, yet still let’s supports his beloved colleague in killing his past? ✓ The way he told me “don’t trust the ‘truth’, search for the ‘facts’”, and then proceeded to tell me 3 different versions of the silver case that completely contradict each other reallyfucked me off hit me in the heart.
Jokes / mindfuckery aside, it was super interesting, again with Nakategawa saying the whole CCO/FSO/… alliance bullshit oh that’s not actually a real thing, it’s actually all one big body. By this point I just had absolutely no idea what to trust anymore, but I think it didn’t matter. The main point stood the same, everyone was a pawn for someone else, and unless you cut it from the source (kill nezu?), the virus of crime (Kamui) will continue to circulate in the minds of individuals, or something?? There’s so much left to interpretation here and that’s what makes it so wonderful.
In that same vein, there are a lot of other messages being said here, the most prominent obviously regarding “killing your past” or embracing it. But these were presented in many different situations and contexts so as to undermine themselves, coming to the conclusion that these things aren’t so black and white, and the right thing to do can change depending on the person. I guess what I’m saying is, it opens up room for discussion with a lot of its themes, rather than trying to deliver a single message to you.
That’s about all the energy I have. I assume only people who actually played the game will read this whole thing so thanks and I hope you enjoyed me whack my brain with a potato masher thinking about The Silver Case.
Btw this goes hard, no?
Just look at what’s right in front of your eyes.
Keep your eyes on the prize.
Stare down the enemy in front of you.
That’s how you investigate.
Don’t worry.
Any part of your brain starts worrying? Grill that shit up and eat it!
Am I wrong?
Maybe you are wrong Tetsu, maybe you’re not. But it’s not my call to decide that for you.
Firstly I want to thank @Oshha for recommending this to me. I hadn’t heard of Kill The Past or knew much about Suda51 beyond No More Heroes. Safe to say that I’m now totally all in on the rest of the series. It took me a few days of contemplation after finishing, but The Silver Case is a game that I can’t help but admire to a high level despite any low points it may have had.
In my first session I played lunatics and decoyman, which made a really good first impression. I thought if nothing else, style is going to carry. I love the use of windows constantly placed in different parts of the screen, for both text and images, always keeping things interesting to look at and sometimes catching me off guard. Accompanied by an awesome art style that shifts constantly throughout the game as the mood / perspective changes, so cool… (Although sometimes I was thrown off, because this change was so drastic that it would take me a while to realise that the person on the screen talking was actually someone I had already met!)
This comes hand in hand with music and sound design, it’s really damn good. I’m glad to see more of Takada’s work in context outside of Danganronpa. Obviously the catchy tunes are great, but what I admire more are how many variations of different tracks there are, to give off slightly different feelings, there’s nothing more uncomfortable than hearing a motif that you recognise, but for it to now be spun in a really eerie or dark way. Also not afraid to use silence when necessary! REALLY appreciate that, it made such an impact many times.
Yeah sometimes the gameplay was a bit ass/boring, but I never found it that awful to slog through. I was more bothered honestly by the false promise that this would partly be a puzzle game! As a puzzle fan, lunatics and decoyman had me really engaged with an additive caesar cipher and a game of Bulls and Cows. Not your typical simple puzzle thrown into a game just to make sure you’re paying attention, these require thought! After this nothing was to be seen again :( I like to think what could have been, but with how the pacing of the game changes so much maybe these would have been out of place later on, maybe this was intentional and actually highlight the subverting of expectations for what this game is truly about. Holy shit that’s totally it… you win again Suda.
Alright so the presentation is perfect, and the gameplay is whatever. What about the meat? Does this funky text based detective walking simulator actually have any substance over style? Checks my rating -of course it does. There’s really a lot to unpack and I don’t think I could ever do it close to the justice it deserves. I’ll just describe how certain things made me feel. (waffling incoming)
Tokio is very cool and it was interesting to hear the constantly ongoing thoughts of a paranoid as fuck loser (am i a bad person?). JK he’s actually a hero, we’re 100% with him knowledge wise throughout the whole game up until Enzawa gets killed and then they cut it off like what a cliffhanger?? Then he shows up in lifecut like “i've figured EVERYTHING out, check my email and you'll understand”, and then we DON'T see that email and when we return to Tokio in Hikari we are just NOT told anything that he went through?? FUCK YOU SUDA (<3), now i gotta sit here and piece things together myself by listening to the ghostly apparitions that are now communicating through him !!! HUH?
Parade was an insane turning point, that moment when the mansion blew up, the art of them staring at it? Burning it into their eyes? Mfer that image is burnt into MY eyes, if I ever forget what’s going on in this game, I'll always remember that for sure. It wasn’t until the end of Tsuki that I really appreciated how well executed Parade was, when you started to see the full picture, learn the facts in a different order, it hits different. Which kind of applies for the whole game, this definitely warrants a replay in the future.
I truly love it when you can tell a character has been well developed and thought about outside of what is solely shown to you in the game, and that is here in spades. You can feel that these characters go through some life changing shit off screen, it comes through in the writing which is really damn good OBVIOUSLY. Ugh I can only praise something so much before it starts to become cumbersome. My point being is it’s clear that certain events were very well planned out in detail, only to not be shown to you, so you are left to make a “guesses” at what happened. It’s just executed extremely well and creates this sense of stringing you along and leaving you to think things for yourself.
Kusabi is probably the best character, let's be real, he’s everything you could ever want in an asshole boomer detective. Loves his daughter? ✓ Calls you big dick? ✓ Hates crime from the bottom of his soul, yet still let’s supports his beloved colleague in killing his past? ✓ The way he told me “don’t trust the ‘truth’, search for the ‘facts’”, and then proceeded to tell me 3 different versions of the silver case that completely contradict each other really
Jokes / mindfuckery aside, it was super interesting, again with Nakategawa saying the whole CCO/FSO/… alliance bullshit oh that’s not actually a real thing, it’s actually all one big body. By this point I just had absolutely no idea what to trust anymore, but I think it didn’t matter. The main point stood the same, everyone was a pawn for someone else, and unless you cut it from the source (kill nezu?), the virus of crime (Kamui) will continue to circulate in the minds of individuals, or something?? There’s so much left to interpretation here and that’s what makes it so wonderful.
In that same vein, there are a lot of other messages being said here, the most prominent obviously regarding “killing your past” or embracing it. But these were presented in many different situations and contexts so as to undermine themselves, coming to the conclusion that these things aren’t so black and white, and the right thing to do can change depending on the person. I guess what I’m saying is, it opens up room for discussion with a lot of its themes, rather than trying to deliver a single message to you.
That’s about all the energy I have. I assume only people who actually played the game will read this whole thing so thanks and I hope you enjoyed me whack my brain with a potato masher thinking about The Silver Case.
Btw this goes hard, no?
Ah, the internet, huh.
Fuck the internet.
Fuck the internet.