Feel like pure shit just want Cing back.
If you don’t laugh, you’ll cry. That’s what I tell myself as I finally get around to playing and completing this game.
My memory is hazy but I recall getting this at launch, playing an hour or so and then… the Switch came out.
There’s months between so I can only imagine there were other things going on, other bigger games I was playing but the key reason I never returned was I had temporarily moved on from the 3DS.
Fast forward to this year, 2023 and I’m discussing with some people two of my favourite games ever; Hotel Dusk and Last Window.
The conversation leads me to Chase and that in turn leads me to check How Long To Beat.
One and half hours? Was that really it, I thought I’d played that much, I just laughed at how close I must have been but I recall it dragging a little - Nanase looking a lot like Kyle Hyde but being completely unlikeable in comparison.
I had to get this game finished, if just to check it off my list.
So I started it again as I remembered next to nothing about the mystery and, with another gap because I once again found the story telling did drag a little, I finished it.
If you, like me, wish Cing still made games, wish there was maybe a third Kyle Hyde game and you think to yourself “maybe Chase can fill that hole a little”, don’t bother, it doesn’t and it can’t.
Each person’s tolerance for visual novels differs, this leans on being less interactive with a couple of pictures you point at and some conversational choices that have only one correct answer. There are no puzzles, there is very little to no sleuthing, you don’t feel like you’re working the Cold Case but more just a witness to others doing the work and occasionally being checked on if you had paid attention.
The writing is good, it’s believable and you get a good sense of the characters but they’re all quite unlikeable bar perhaps Koto but it’s more of a case you feel sorry for her having to put up with the lead.
The art is beautiful, I don’t prefer it to the sketches of Hotel Dusk but it takes that art and makes it cleaner and I imagine more attractive to some.
The music is decent too, once again it’s very Hotel Dusk.
Those three points should be enough to make the game at least get a favourable review but it isn’t.
Without spoiling the plot because you might think to yourself “what is two hours wasted?” the game just kind of ends, abruptly.
In the final moments it makes you feel like you’ve finished the first chapter but actually, no, that’s the credits and the game is over.
Games can be short, I’ve highly rated games as short if not shorter than this - however endings and value for money are factors and this fails on both so badly.
This game was £6-7 when it was released, not a fully priced game sure but in the same shop front of entire Phoenix Wright games at half that cost.
If this were a first chapter in a series then I’m certain the whole thing would be preferred but this is a glorified demo to a game that never was.
It’s sad, but it’s more frustrating and as I said earlier you can only laugh.
If you don’t laugh, you’ll cry. That’s what I tell myself as I finally get around to playing and completing this game.
My memory is hazy but I recall getting this at launch, playing an hour or so and then… the Switch came out.
There’s months between so I can only imagine there were other things going on, other bigger games I was playing but the key reason I never returned was I had temporarily moved on from the 3DS.
Fast forward to this year, 2023 and I’m discussing with some people two of my favourite games ever; Hotel Dusk and Last Window.
The conversation leads me to Chase and that in turn leads me to check How Long To Beat.
One and half hours? Was that really it, I thought I’d played that much, I just laughed at how close I must have been but I recall it dragging a little - Nanase looking a lot like Kyle Hyde but being completely unlikeable in comparison.
I had to get this game finished, if just to check it off my list.
So I started it again as I remembered next to nothing about the mystery and, with another gap because I once again found the story telling did drag a little, I finished it.
If you, like me, wish Cing still made games, wish there was maybe a third Kyle Hyde game and you think to yourself “maybe Chase can fill that hole a little”, don’t bother, it doesn’t and it can’t.
Each person’s tolerance for visual novels differs, this leans on being less interactive with a couple of pictures you point at and some conversational choices that have only one correct answer. There are no puzzles, there is very little to no sleuthing, you don’t feel like you’re working the Cold Case but more just a witness to others doing the work and occasionally being checked on if you had paid attention.
The writing is good, it’s believable and you get a good sense of the characters but they’re all quite unlikeable bar perhaps Koto but it’s more of a case you feel sorry for her having to put up with the lead.
The art is beautiful, I don’t prefer it to the sketches of Hotel Dusk but it takes that art and makes it cleaner and I imagine more attractive to some.
The music is decent too, once again it’s very Hotel Dusk.
Those three points should be enough to make the game at least get a favourable review but it isn’t.
Without spoiling the plot because you might think to yourself “what is two hours wasted?” the game just kind of ends, abruptly.
In the final moments it makes you feel like you’ve finished the first chapter but actually, no, that’s the credits and the game is over.
Games can be short, I’ve highly rated games as short if not shorter than this - however endings and value for money are factors and this fails on both so badly.
This game was £6-7 when it was released, not a fully priced game sure but in the same shop front of entire Phoenix Wright games at half that cost.
If this were a first chapter in a series then I’m certain the whole thing would be preferred but this is a glorified demo to a game that never was.
It’s sad, but it’s more frustrating and as I said earlier you can only laugh.