cw: sexual assault, grooming, etc
A retro-themed visual novel about school girls trapped on a train with a mysterious killer.
Visually, Murder on the Marine Express is really charming. With cute designs, colorful animations, skillful use of music and sound effects, the entire experience is warm and cuddly.
Its just hard to say if it should always be so warm.
I love anything that can bounce between different emotional tones and I'll always appreciate something that makes that tonal ricochet particularly erratic. But that balancing act can be really hampered by the exact content a story has to deal with. And as the game unravels, a lot of the game has to confront the idea of sexual predators.
The game certainly spends the time analyzing the different repercussions of this kind of violence. The way victims react differently to trauma, the way people can hurt others while trying to protect themselves, the way institutions fail us, the way predators use all of these factors to keep themselves in power above all else. Its a weighty topic and I think the game does an excellent game laying out all these elements and the barriers against capturing these monsters. But Ranko's ultimate conclusions just feel a bit lackluster to me. Her moralizing speeches about appropriate responses to such dilemmas just speak false to me. Even Ranko herself seems to struggle with how to handle the issue, lecturing victims to make reports through the proper channels in one breath, to lecturing doubtful officials wondering "why didn't these girls report this?" in the next. I'm making it seem harsher than I mean to, and I do think this storyline was made with positive intentions in mind. But, missteps.
And it also just comes back to tone. Trying to keep a light tone with a weighty storyline like this is certainly admirable, but its a skillset I don't think many would be able to nail. You have three bully characters, the Wild Cats, who are attached with various "meow" sound effects after their catty remarks. One of those girls is an above-mentioned victim. I'm certainly not suggesting that these characters should ONLY be portrayed as victims, without any other nuance to their lives. But its more than a little jarring to go back to the cat jokes after that reveal, you know?
Despite it all, I do think its an admirable little indie project. The sequel comes out soon and I'm certainly interested in seeing how the devs have changed in the years since this release.
A retro-themed visual novel about school girls trapped on a train with a mysterious killer.
Visually, Murder on the Marine Express is really charming. With cute designs, colorful animations, skillful use of music and sound effects, the entire experience is warm and cuddly.
Its just hard to say if it should always be so warm.
I love anything that can bounce between different emotional tones and I'll always appreciate something that makes that tonal ricochet particularly erratic. But that balancing act can be really hampered by the exact content a story has to deal with. And as the game unravels, a lot of the game has to confront the idea of sexual predators.
The game certainly spends the time analyzing the different repercussions of this kind of violence. The way victims react differently to trauma, the way people can hurt others while trying to protect themselves, the way institutions fail us, the way predators use all of these factors to keep themselves in power above all else. Its a weighty topic and I think the game does an excellent game laying out all these elements and the barriers against capturing these monsters. But Ranko's ultimate conclusions just feel a bit lackluster to me. Her moralizing speeches about appropriate responses to such dilemmas just speak false to me. Even Ranko herself seems to struggle with how to handle the issue, lecturing victims to make reports through the proper channels in one breath, to lecturing doubtful officials wondering "why didn't these girls report this?" in the next. I'm making it seem harsher than I mean to, and I do think this storyline was made with positive intentions in mind. But, missteps.
And it also just comes back to tone. Trying to keep a light tone with a weighty storyline like this is certainly admirable, but its a skillset I don't think many would be able to nail. You have three bully characters, the Wild Cats, who are attached with various "meow" sound effects after their catty remarks. One of those girls is an above-mentioned victim. I'm certainly not suggesting that these characters should ONLY be portrayed as victims, without any other nuance to their lives. But its more than a little jarring to go back to the cat jokes after that reveal, you know?
Despite it all, I do think its an admirable little indie project. The sequel comes out soon and I'm certainly interested in seeing how the devs have changed in the years since this release.
Reviewed on Mar 27, 2023