This is the kind of game you wouldn't normally consider playing at all, but now that it got a high quality fan-translation, it sorts of jump on top of your backlog and here you go.
Well, I'm glad I played it since it's at least a pretty neat curiosity.
Private eye doll was developed by HuneX, a company set up in the early 90s' by weirdo publisher Human and NEC to create bishoujo games. They eventually shifted to otome games to ride the PS2 wave, and still exist nowadays, ironically surviving both their parent company and NEC's stint in the video game business.
You play as May Star, a young up-and-coming actress. She is invited with three other teen actresses to an abandoned mansion for some dumb reality TV recording. Of course, a case happens, and she has to step up and become THE PRIVATE EYE DOLL. She is also helped in her investigations by her hologram assistant called Navi. By the way I thought there would be some sci-fi elements to the game because of this, but the setting is your typical 90s' Japan except they've got holograms AI for some reason. Makes sense.
The story is divided into three individual "scenes" (cases), giving it a nice detective anime flavour ala Detective Conan. There's even a main global plot that I won't spoil; I appreciate the effort even if it ends up being a bit simple.
Gameplay is simple, but also kind of over the place. It's a RPG-styled adventure game where you walk all around, talking to people and looking for clues. You mostly have to trigger "event flags" that will advance the story a little, then look for the next one,... A very linear system you'll be familiar with if you ever played Japanese adventure games before. Well that exact style of game wasn't that usual back then, but got way more popular later with the explosion of RPG Maker.
There's a few gimmicks like contextual menu options to look for clues or suspect someone, and annoying puzzle mini-games. The last part of the game even shifts to a more traditional first-person text adventure game with menu commands (such as Portopia). On one hand it keeps things interesting, on the other hand, it's a bit of a mess.
The beautiful graphics are probably the game's main appeal. You've got nice pixel-art and well-animated cutscenes. PC-Engine fans won't be surprised, but even with the help of the Arcade card, it's still fantastic to see such performance from what is technically a 8-bit console. Since it's a CD game, it's also fully-voiced, even the side-characters (seiyuu fans may recognize both Sakura Tange and Aya Hisakawa as side-characters, a few years before their roles in Cardcaptor).
Private eye doll isn't a great game, it's more like... a mood. An interactive anime with beautiful 90s' character designs by Atsuko Ishida (known for her animation and manga work, and also for the Neo Geo classic Money Puzzle Exchanger) and PC-FX product placement (the game also received an original anime adaptation on NEC's infamous console in some vague effort of creating a mediamix franchise). It's something that would have become a series in a different world. A capsule from a time when some people were persuaded after reading too much Comptiq and PCE/Saturn magazines that playable anime were going to be the next big thing. I don't know if it was a better time, but it was definitely a charming one.
Well, I'm glad I played it since it's at least a pretty neat curiosity.
Private eye doll was developed by HuneX, a company set up in the early 90s' by weirdo publisher Human and NEC to create bishoujo games. They eventually shifted to otome games to ride the PS2 wave, and still exist nowadays, ironically surviving both their parent company and NEC's stint in the video game business.
You play as May Star, a young up-and-coming actress. She is invited with three other teen actresses to an abandoned mansion for some dumb reality TV recording. Of course, a case happens, and she has to step up and become THE PRIVATE EYE DOLL. She is also helped in her investigations by her hologram assistant called Navi. By the way I thought there would be some sci-fi elements to the game because of this, but the setting is your typical 90s' Japan except they've got holograms AI for some reason. Makes sense.
The story is divided into three individual "scenes" (cases), giving it a nice detective anime flavour ala Detective Conan. There's even a main global plot that I won't spoil; I appreciate the effort even if it ends up being a bit simple.
Gameplay is simple, but also kind of over the place. It's a RPG-styled adventure game where you walk all around, talking to people and looking for clues. You mostly have to trigger "event flags" that will advance the story a little, then look for the next one,... A very linear system you'll be familiar with if you ever played Japanese adventure games before. Well that exact style of game wasn't that usual back then, but got way more popular later with the explosion of RPG Maker.
There's a few gimmicks like contextual menu options to look for clues or suspect someone, and annoying puzzle mini-games. The last part of the game even shifts to a more traditional first-person text adventure game with menu commands (such as Portopia). On one hand it keeps things interesting, on the other hand, it's a bit of a mess.
The beautiful graphics are probably the game's main appeal. You've got nice pixel-art and well-animated cutscenes. PC-Engine fans won't be surprised, but even with the help of the Arcade card, it's still fantastic to see such performance from what is technically a 8-bit console. Since it's a CD game, it's also fully-voiced, even the side-characters (seiyuu fans may recognize both Sakura Tange and Aya Hisakawa as side-characters, a few years before their roles in Cardcaptor).
Private eye doll isn't a great game, it's more like... a mood. An interactive anime with beautiful 90s' character designs by Atsuko Ishida (known for her animation and manga work, and also for the Neo Geo classic Money Puzzle Exchanger) and PC-FX product placement (the game also received an original anime adaptation on NEC's infamous console in some vague effort of creating a mediamix franchise). It's something that would have become a series in a different world. A capsule from a time when some people were persuaded after reading too much Comptiq and PCE/Saturn magazines that playable anime were going to be the next big thing. I don't know if it was a better time, but it was definitely a charming one.