I ended up liking this game but not without really bad first impression. The mystery's set up telling us there's some sci-fi ploy we don't have rules for and Ryuki's anachronistic sense of time did not engage me to the story as there was no point to predicting or guessing anything. New characters had either dull or bizarre introductions and a certain major character is introduced with awfully long exposition. Ryuki's partner, Tama, was awful. Her constant unfounded sex jokes made me miserable. The game's story started boring me and did not pick up until ''She Was the Universe'' afterwhich I was excited to get to Mizuki's side. While I still enjoyed both her and Aiba just like I did in the first game their dynamic fell into issues of either sterile dialouge or repeated humour from Date & Aiba's dynamic (repeating jokes from the first game are a bigger problem with minor NPCs.) However in roughly the last third things started improving immensly. There was much more happening in the story including better interactions between the major and new characters. I also began to realise what the plot twist of this game would be unlike the first game where I kind of assumed what was happening as the last thing that'd make sense. When the twist came I really enjoyed the mystery that came out of it and the fantastic character arc it lead to within the best somnium of either game. By now major plot points, although many still feeling contrived, felt like they were aiding to fun character interactions which made it much more enjoyable. I'm not saying this is flawless, the game would still improve from having better justified plot points but they let stronger aspects flourish unlike how the first game built up to a dissapointing ending. I liked the ending of this game much more because it kept its tone and let its great characters shine.

I really enjoyed this game for its aesthetics, comedy and unique story-presentation but most of all the great and sincere character writing. I ended up enjoying a great deal of the cast and found nearly every main character effective at their role. I ended up loving Mizuki and Aiba especially. This game's best moments are emotional or comedic beats where its well developed characters interact with each other to drive the story, unfortunately this is not always what happens. The central crime mystery of this game is what ends up moving the main route of this game, which falls short. Several scenarios are too contrived and left me frustrated like getting incorrect information presented the same way as fact or exposition and the few times Aiba is out of energy for no justifiable reason. That's also the case for certain plot points which could've been fine if the scale of the game was kept to its character interactions but it instead developed into a climax that felt completey nonsensical and left behind things I thought the game did wonderful. It was mostly this, but also the heavy reuse of locations and some jokes that didn't land that ended up losing my love but I still think fondly of the characters.

Hey did you know that Renju did not inherit the storage company from his father and it was instead given to other people?

¥50,000 huh…… ▋

What the fuck, man. This goddamn game. Suda you’re a fucking madman. I wrote literally two scripts before writing this one. I can’t find the right balance between overtly referencing The Silver Case and articulating my own thoughts, so, fuck it. We’re winging this shit. I’m not going to stress on this review at all. I’m writing freely. This game actually fucked me up LOL. My sleep schedule was ruined by it. Just like Tokio fr!!! Game was insanely captivating and immersive so much so that I couldn’t put it down.

FUCK THE PAST ▋

First off, I have to say I absolutely adore the art style and visual presentation. When I initially found out about The SIlver Case I was immediately drawn in by the art style. For so long I've been striving to find a game that’s reflective of my taste in art. This is that game. It’s so unique and senseless while still having a constructed comfy feel forming an immaculate atmosphere. Everything is weirdly claustrophobic but in a seemingly more focused manner? It’s hard to describe why I love it so much, it’s just my tastes.

FUCK THE BAT ▋

I’m left kinda speechless? Honestly this game caters to my tastes so well that I’m left with nothing but fragments of these memories conspired by Silverization. The past? Perhaps. Can one kill such a thing? The themes present all throughout the game remain strangely relevant while still being reflective of the times. The turn of the century…

FUCK KAMUI ▋

Suda is a weird fucking guy. I think everyone can agree to this. If this is just the tip of the iceberg with how far he can go then goddamn I’m in for a ride. Regardless, I actually really fucking love most of the characters. They’re all unique and the interactions between them are classic. Kusabi and Sumio are favorites with their gayass silly banter. Tokio is my personal favorite, though. I might have to say that I enjoyed Placebo more than Transmitter. The mystery was thicker and I found the simplistic tedious nature of the gameplay loop to be highly enveloped. It’s a more personal take on the grander scheme that Transmitter presents us with. The gaps left in the story of Transmitter get filled in nicely in Placebo. Both parts complete each other to form the stylistic and complex package. Plus Tokio is the most lovable fucking asshole I’ve seen in a game. His character development is also pretty three dimensional I’d say. In his last moments I really felt a sense of purity and oneness with him.

FUCK THE 24 WARDS ▋

Thinking about it more and more I kinda wish the story wasn’t as…rushed? Once you hit lifecut shit just puts itself out into the open and revealed. I think there was defo emotional buildup but it did seem a bit jarring coming off of Placebo which didn’t really resolve much. All in all the fantastic writing stays consistent all the way through so it’s not a deal breaker. The mystery is still there and it looms even after the game’s departure.

FUCK BIG DICK ▋

One last thing, the soundtrack. Haters will say it doesn’t go hard. Every song has the perfect tone to accentuate a scene. It completes the story, in a way. Hitting the extra beats that the story can’t always hit by itself. Masafumi Takada never misses.

FUCK YOU ▋

That’s it, I guess. I’ll still be pondering over this game’s enigmatic existence probably for years to come. I’m glad I finally experienced this batshit piece of fiction (bat lol) after almost a year of it sitting on my shelf. The more games I play, the more games that end up on my damn shelves. Here’s to Flower, Sun, and Rain hopefully being as engaging for me as this game.

FUCK ▋

Sudaheads, one question,
Would you lend him ¥50,000?


Save Log ▋
Your journal has been updated ▋

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.

more than anything else, the silver case is one of the most endearingly cool games i've ever played. every change of the interface the reflect the themes of the chapter at hand, every swing-for-the-fences plot beat, every gruff toothpick-sucking one liner, every new order song title drop, everything we're shown and just as important the deliberate anticlimax of what we're NOT given and NOT shown - it all blends together to create this early masterwork that's still every bit textbook suda51 as killer7 or no more heroes, but so much more subtly grounded (in comparison) to any of his succeeding work i've played.

there's a deliberate feeling of monotony and repetition in the world and gameplay of the silver case that becomes an essential part of its narrative - whether it reflect on the beeline nothingness that is the life of tokio morishima, the scale's juxtaposing shift which grows literally larger but equally smaller and more intimate... there's just this grinding, menial feeling to all of the tasks and days gone by in the silver case. it feels as if nothing really happens until the right pawns are on the board and properly in play. you learn to love basically every person in this game to the point that you look forward to the next mundane conversation with them; you anticipate morishima going home and talking to red, or getting cyberbullied on chatrooms by teenagers, or the ballbusting stakeout chats between kusabi and sumio. so when even the slightest change occurs, it's going to take your heart for a spin. it's by design.

one of the other fine juxtapositions of the silver case is its dialogue, one of the finest localizations i've ever seen. everything about the silver case feels deliberately plastic at first; you're thrust into the world of hardened police officers spouting badass quips and insults - it's almost pastiche. the one-liners will stick around, the cool designs will stick around, but ultimately the story becomes that of broken, aging men who are being asked to examine their world and how it really works for the first time. the story of tetsu kusabi - potential candidate for my favorite character in ANY video game - carries this idea home the hardest. it's the story of a man pure in his mind of absolutes and superlatives essentially waking up for the first time, seeing the world for the pollockian quagmire of intentions, reasonings, and deliberations it actually is. the silver case is a game about hearts and minds connecting in the looming presence of y2kism, a story about the old guard and the new world on the horizon. i'll get more into the thematic underbelly of this game at a later date, because this is far from the only piece i want to make on this game - but its core structure and analysis of the dotcom era, masculinity and what we define that as, grief and trauma, isolation and abandonment, it all rings pretty true now as it did in '99, and i daresay this game even tackled concepts that it would take 2 years for mgs2 to get to earlier and perhaps equally as memorably. i see a lot of influence on death note down the line too, and as far as contemporaries, i'd say silver case is like 1/3 cowboy bebop, 1/3 ghost in the shell, and 1/3 serial experiments lain. it's memorable, powerful, important stuff.

the silver case’s ultimate resolve is pretty simple - the mysteries, the secrets, the twists, it’s all a load of bullshit anyways. it existed in a moment and that moment is gone. it’s in the past. the only way you're going to push through the pain, the grief, the trauma, the anticlimactic goodbyes, the old flames, the words left unsaid, the last memories of people and places you can't ever go back to or relive, is to simply refuse that darkness which cultivates in your past to manifest itself anymore. you have to grow and reflect and move on to become your true self. you HAVE to kill the past if you want to find that first ray of light; hope for yourself, hope for the future.

"Seize that fucking light, Akira."

THE SILVER CASE COMPLETE.
FLOWER, SUN & RAIN IS COMING...

🌕 Dreams Never End
https://youtu.be/WS1X0EBlQ3Y

I don't know if I'm ever actually going to review either half of Umineko in here, so for the moment, just consider this at best a placeholder, at worst, just my personal check-point. It's been almost three months since my friends and I finished playing Umineko. Anyone who's read my pieces on Higurashi knows what that game was to me. Umineko sits at the top of it all for me. It's just at the top of everything I've spent my 20-odd years experiencing, the culmination of so much personal journeying, growing and experiencing. I sincerely doubt anything will knock it from its pillar anytime in any near future. What this means to me on an intimate level is something that ultimately right now belongs to my friends and I intimately. I don't know if and when I'll be comfortable sharing beyond that. That is our small world which we inhabit together. Some cat boxes are best left alone, and I think any of you would understand and respect that.

If anything, I want to really extend a lot of gratitude to Ryukishi07, to 07th Expansion and Witch Hunt, especially to the late BT, whose death and more importantly his lifelong friendship with Ryukishi clearly affected how the game evolved into what it became, to the voice cast, and to my friends for all of this. Genuinely a reason to live some days. A reason to create and imagine, every single day.

愛がなければ視えない。

I'm obsessed with this game. It's a brainrot that consumes me every waking hour. I binged the finale to Canto VI for 5 hours straight and was hooked the entire time. I've been working through reading the literary inspirations for all the Sinners, and what Project Moon have built off the back of Wuthering Heights is incredible. More than anything, the character writing is so movingly human despite the horrors and depravity of the City. Nobody's ever too "broken" to be worth love.

Love must be the reason why
I still believe in this lie
That you'll live a better life
Without me by your side

I've always wanted to conquer the world.

Sadly I live in modern America where guns the greatest thing known to man, bayonets are completely impractical, swords are fucking useless, and those amazing european suits of armor with dick protectors (yes those exist) are obselete. Thankfully, video games exist nowadays and I can kill my unquenchable thrist for this unknown type of urge I want. After years, I found what I was looking for. Strategy RPGs. For a while, Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War had what I wanted. Massive interconnected maps with a simple battle system and a great storyline to boot. Also, the game has a rating system which begs you to get a perfect game (which I plan to do one day) along with a generation system where the relationships of characters can lead different troops you get down the road. But the game wasn’t enough. The map was confined to a dozen or so maps that you couldn’t go back to and check on later. Plus, Fire Emblem had gone back to their regular old self and never tried this type of approach ever again. Plus, that rumored remake is probably not happening. Thankfully, I decided to graduate to grand strategy games and test their waters. There’s just one problem, they all fucking suck. Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Total War, and Liberty or Death were tailor made for hardcore players and insane PC gamers who can multitask like gods and know how to work their extremely advanced and complex UI and mechanics. They were a little too big for my taste. But thankfully, I found this game, Kichikuou Rance.

It has what I wanted. It’s immersive like wow I’m conquering the fucking world! It has a pretty simple UI design (being made in 1996 by a bunch of wack jobs who only made Dragon Quest but with pornographic twists and turns) and a simple battle system that just clicks. And, they are so many variables to take notes on. All main characters (side notes: there’s 167 characters I’m not joking) have good and bad ends depending on your actions. I want to go back to this game one day and just make the absolute limit of a strategy to get as many of the good endings of characters as possible. Ah yeah. The sex. It’s fine. Not the best. Not the worst. I was kinda shocked that one of the women in the game had a dozen guys with blue, pink, green, whatever hair and I was like “oh zamn thats nice”.

Anyways, good game. And before anyone asks, no I'm not a Rance fan.