The average course correction goes something like this:

"Oh you're here!"

Gregson greets the up and coming lawyer, Ryonosuke, his transgender Japanese assistant, a german ace detective, and said detective's adopted doctor-daughter-mother-roommate-child.

"This is the most horrifying murder I've ever seen in my entire life... The victim, poor guy... he was smashed over the head with a blunt object and then pummelled until he approached this sorry state..."

Gregson points toward a bloody mush at the corner of the room. Brains and guts are splattered all over the floor.

"I've never been more disgusted in my entire life."

Gregson follows up this statement by stuffing his face with 30 servings of fried fish.

The 12 year old is still at the crime scene for some reason.

A suspicious figure is seen being interrogated.

"Ah, that's Call Preete, feel free to question him" the officer says.

Herlock takes one glance at the man, and turns around to speak to naruhodo
"We got our guy"

"What? How?"

"Elementary, my dear naruhodo. You see, the man right before you VERY CLEARLY commited a dastardly crime!"

Call Preete jolts, and beads of sweat form on his forehead.

"The crime being... THAT OF POOR TASTE IN LITERATURE!!!"

Mr Preete's expression of fear is quickly replaced by confusion.

"As you can see... The evidence of this is CLEARLY SHOWN on THIS VERY TABLE!!"

Herlock points to a mahogany desk, covered in important documents that seem relevant to the case.

Call pulls his mustache, and it snaps back onto his face, the recoil of which throws him backwards, sending his body careening through multiple brick walls.

Herlock approaches the table, and knocks everything off it. Underneath the clearly useless resources, a magazine.

"As you can see, this table has a CRAPPY MAGAZINE on it. One that RIVALS the publication that my adventures are shown in!"

Herlock chuckles confidently, and Susato's eyes sparkle.

"You've done it again Mr Sholmes!" She exclaims.

Her head snaps toward the accused.
"That's a big fucking deal buster. Grounds for the DEATH penalty."

Naruhodo shakes his head, and prepares to correct the injudicious himbo.

"You see Herlock, you missed out on this key detail."

Naruhodo walks toward Call, and stares intently at his hands. They're completely covered in blood.

Ryonosyke spins around, and his gaze travels towards the unrecognisable fleshy mush of mincemeat in the room.

"Using my powers of observation.... I think this guy might have touched the victim..."

He then approaches the aforementioned wooden desk.

The young lawyer turns 15° to the left of what Herlock was originally looking at, revealing a giant 700 page book covered in blood that just prior was not visible at all from any other angle. The book is also covered in Call's fingerprints, with his name and signature on a receipt sticking out of it.

Ryonnosuke chortles.

"Looks like we caught this guy... read handed...."

Herlock starts violently flailing his arms everywhere.

"Ah yes. I actually thought this the WHOLE TIME. Thank you naruhodo."

Sholmes and Ryonnosuke then start dancing on the crime scene. A job well done.

Call Preete shivers and starts bawling.
"I-I DIDNT DO IT I PROMISE!!!"

"Ok I believe you" Naruhodo replies.

"Oh ok thanks"

Van zieks is also there, and is seen screaming
"I FUCKING HATE JAPANESE PEOPLE!!!!" At the top of his lungs in a drunken stupor.

He smashes a bottle of wine on a nearby Chinese man's head, instantly killing him.

--

Everything I liked about the original trilogy is here in spades. The iconic ost, insane breakdowns, and an interconnected story that seamlessly weaves together the overarching mystery of the two games. And though some of the characters are slightly less iconic than the original, it makes up for it with strong writing and thoroughly engaging mysteries that kept me engrossed in the story throughout it's 70 hour runtime.

I have been listening to "the great turnabout" for months after I completed this game. I have never had more fun playing a visual novel than in the final case of resolve.

The first half was amazing, but the rest of the game really went downhill for me.

After 7 years in development and several rewrites, it feels like Shikura Chiyomaru gave up trying to find a use for his original ideas and went with whatever version they had at the time. An interview with him in Famitsu from July 7, 2020, suggests that to be the case. When jokingly asked if the game is ready to release, Shikura Chiyomaru states, "We were busy until the last second, but I think it should be fine. However, I would not say that the game is finished. Instead, we decided to stop here."

The opening chapters kick off confidently, filled to the brim with content. There are comic-style animated scenes, manga-like expositions, tons of CGs, scooter segments and more. The story itself keeps up a good pace, moving from one 'incident' to the next. However, the whole game comes to a halt around Chapter 8 and never truly picks up again. You could argue this is a deliberate narrative choice, but I feel there are so many other things that could have worked better. The storytelling also resorts to conventional text+sprites with rare CGs and animated scenes. The Save-Load gimmick, which was interesting for the first few hours of the gameplay, gets beaten to death. The only impressive moment comes towards the end, when the player is tasked to solve a puzzle. However, forcing the player to use a gimmick that was entirely optional up to that point in the story in order to reach the true ending is a bad design choice with no other way to put it. The second half drags on for too long, but paradoxically, when the credits roll, it feels like you missed half of the game—or better yet—there is a second half somewhere waiting to be found. It is a shame that this is the product we have got. In the same interview, Shikura Chiyomaru notes how they tried to make the game "easy to understand"—especially in relation to in-game terminology—and I am curious if this decision influenced the production of the second half in some way.

Anonymous;Code went through a number of rewrites, and I wonder what other iterations looked like. One can hope there is a world line where Shikura Chiyomaru decided to push through and finish the game. But alas, it seems out of reach.

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Here is the aforementioned interview:
https://www.famitsu.com/news/202207/07267624.html