Its entirely possible my fondness for this game relies on using a guide, as this old Famicom game requires very specific triggers and steps for story progression. That said, I found this to be a much more enjoyable game than the previous Famicom Detective Club.

The Missing Heir's story (which is the main reason to play these games) is a vast conspiracy with a mastermind and different parties at play and so on. Its narrative twists are novel for the era but not all that impressive in the modern day. Ultimately, when you learn that Yoshio Sakamoto wrote the game in three days, its like... yeah that makes sense.

In comparison, The Girl Who Stands Behind really charms you quick. The different tragedies and character motives outlining the cast just feels stronger than the game's predecessor. Instead of a tangled criminal web all dancing to the tune of one mastermind, the game feels more like a set of disaster dominoes and poor decisions of ordinary people. Its technically a smaller scale story. There's less victims and less inheritance to fight over. But that also makes it feel more personal and realized. The tragedy works.

While the gameplay hasn't been updated from the 1980 originals, the visual spectacle of these two games is astounding. The first game already made me just sit on a pause screen and bask in all the lavishly animated character designs. The Girl who Stands Behind keeps up the pattern and demonstrates just how stunning a visual novel can look when its given a huge budget to work with.

I'd like to think we'd get a remake of the Satellaview game someday, but I think that ship is never sailing.