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 The Silver Case is a Visual Novel/Adventure Game originally released October 7th, 1999 for the Sony Playstation. It never saw a western release until it received a HD Remaster for PC exactly 17 years later in early October of 2016 (with a PS4 port coming early next year.) This is the first game Grasshopper Manufacture developed after their formation and one of the earlier games directed by Goichi Suda aka Suda51. This game is part of a loose trilogy with Flower, Sun, and Rain (which saw a Western release back on the Nintendo DS in 2012) and Killer7. Though The Silver Case and Flower, Sun, and Rain are directly connect. The ties with either of those to Killer7 is rather tenuous. Other elements that crop up in it and later Grasshopper games do find their origin here. Regardless, it’ll still be a rather weird, confusing, and violent ride like its brethren. While this game is technically 17 years old, it’s only been officially translated in the west this year. And given it’s basically a visual novel with some...  NO SPOILERS FOR THIS GAME! NOT IN TAGS OR ANYWHERE! KEEP IT IN YOUR PANTS! Be cool and use spoiler tags if you’re going to talk about related Grasshopper/Suda51 games. Especially if it’s Flower, Sun, and Rain since that one is quite directly a sequel to The Silver Case. With that said, let’s begin... The Dark Id fucked around with this message at 03:35 on Dec 17, 2016 |
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Oct 28, 2016 00:45
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| # ? May 2, 2024 04:31 |
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 All the updates go here. What else did you expect?  Part I: Lullaby Part I-2: Mustache Part II: Cypher Part III: Help  Part IV: Awakened Part V: Casualties Part VI: Introductions Part VII: Babylon Part VIII: Closet Part IX: Shelter Part X: Alone  Part XI: Reporter Part XII: Leads Part XIII: Meeting Part XIV: Lighter Part XV: Seed Part XVI: Chatroom The Dark Id fucked around with this message at 18:12 on Nov 27, 2016 |
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Oct 28, 2016 00:46
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Part I: Lullaby.jpg) Welcome to The Silver Case -- Grasshopper Manufacture’s first game. The game was released in 1999 and the remake is in 2016. Not entirely sure of the significance of 2005 there... But, there will be a whole lot I’m not entirely sure about with regards to this game. So let’s get started...  This game is broken up into eleven chapters and a short epilogue. The actual structure of these chapters is a little bit complicated. But we’ll cross that bridge later. For now, we are thrust right into the game’s prologue: Case #0: Lunatics.  While this is The Silver Case’s prologue, it is... apparently also the epilogue to the Twilight/Moonlight Syndrome series, a Japanese only set of PlayStation visual novels/adventure games Suda51 directed back when he was with Human Entertainment. In the west, Human Entertainment is probably best known for making the original Clock Tower games, prior to Capcom’s entry that we all know and “love”. Fun fact: Human Entertainment went under in 2000. Most of its staff went on to form what is today Spike Chunsoft. Who are best known for making the Danganronpa series. Apparently, Twilight Syndrome is directly referenced in Danganronpa 2. Small world. That has nothing to do with this game. Just some fun trivia. Getting back on track, you don’t need to worry about any of that. I had no idea about the Prologue’s connection to a previous game when I played it. It doesn’t matter too much! .jpg) The Silver Case is set in the city of “24 Wards” in the far, distant future of... 1999. The setting is the same sort of “alternate history, but don’t worry about it too much” setting as most of Grasshopper’s games like Killer7 or No More Heroes. The game never directly refers to the city as anything but the 24 Wards, but it’s supposed to be alternate history Tokyo (the real Tokyo only has 23 wards/districts.) Despite that, this game is late ‘90s as gently caress. Since... well... I mean it was made in the late ‘90s and the remaster has done nothing to update that. I hope you like big boxy CRT monitors! .jpg) The population of the 24 Wards is also quite a bit sparser than the actual Tokyo’s 13 million people. Or however many it had back in the turn of the century. .jpg) And there we already have a title drop. Don’t sweat remembering all these names dropped in this text dump. We’ll be meeting all the important characters mentioned in due time. Feel free to ponder what the hell a “transmittable crime” might entail at your leisure. .jpg) Also don’t sweat too much what “The Silver Case” actually is supposed to be. It’s an incident in the past. That’s all you need to know. And the game is in absolutely no rush to fill in the details in anything but the most detached, offhanded terms. .jpg)  Most scenes in this game begin with a little map illustration showing us where we are heading for the next bit of story. And then an establishing shot giving us the exact date and time of events. Like this...  New Music: Prologue (Apparently this is a track from Moonlight Syndrome? It’s not on the OST.) .jpg) 11:35 PM Heading Home .jpg) Meet Detective Tetsugoro Kusabi. You’ll notice the blue box around his face in the illustration. In illustrated scenes, such as this, the game will highlight the speaker and very briefly (like half a second) flash the speaker’s name. In a sort of hard to read, small type font no less. This game makes very little effort to reintroduce characters after their first appearance or... someone states their name for the first time. Or if two characters just happen to know each other already. It’s not a problem here when it’s only a single character or two. But it makes it hard to follow some scenes when characters we haven’t seen for a while appear in illustrated introduction portions of chapters. I’ll try to denote speaker’s names the first time they talk in a new scene, just to clarify. New Music: Kusabi (Akira Yamaoka arranged the music for the HD Remaster of this game.) .jpg) Early warning that Kusabi fuckin’ swears a whole loving lot! He could probably hang with that fucker Dick Marcinko from that lovely Rogue Warrior game. .jpg) .jpg)  (Kusabi) On nights like this, weird poo poo happens. That’s just the way it is..jpg) Personally, I wouldn’t be a fan of driving down a long stretch of empty, one way drive elevated road with zero barriers or street lamps along the way. That seems like it’s just asking for trouble. Music: ENDS .jpg) .jpg) A real bad feeling.New Music: Moon .jpg) Hey, you might notice all these words streaking around the background. Yeah... don’t worry about that. I’m saying that a lot, aren’t I? It’s just the background for this chapter. Words randomly pop up on screen. It’s actually kinda really distracting, if we’re being honest. But this animated background only lasts for the prologue. There’s a different one for each chapter. Their level of distraction will be determined at a later date. .jpg) Kusabi’s car screeches to a halt as a figure appears standing in the middle of the road. With the medley of safety oversights present, it’s probably some poor fool that has careened off this precarious stretch of road. .jpg) ...Or not. Well, I suppose it wouldn’t be a Suda51 game if there wasn’t a severed head or two present. .jpg) A tree. .jpg) Aah!!.jpg) .jpg) He took a shot! That fuckin’ punk..jpg) Satisfied he has clowned on the police sufficiently, the mysterious assailant and his female companion fade away into the night. Country roads are the worst to travel in the evening, I tell ya... .jpg) Attempting to shoot a cop in the face is secondary to the real offense here: You don’t gently caress with a man’s car like that and get away with it. Music: End  This is Kusabi! Anybody there? Respond!.jpg) Where’s Sumio? He left. Oh— Something happen? A man with a gun just fired shots and fled near the river in E Ward. Call in the closest units. Where to? He’s heading west in E3. Got it, we’ll pinpoint him from here. Have you been injured? Nope—I dodged the slug, watched it whiz right by. –Huh?! Nothing yet? Got it! Where? Is it within jurisdiction? Hold on— “Public Safety”? Those covert op guys— Natsume’s guys, huh... OK, call them in. Got it! poo poo. “TGIF” my rear end... The Silver Case isn’t all static images and in-game polygonal rendering. There are quite a few animated scenes. Though their art style varies wildly from chapter to chapter or even scenes within chapters. There’s 1999 caliber CGI scenes, anime cutscenes, and even the occasional use of live action FMV. And sometimes a mix of the two. It is... odd... And while this Remaster has redone an admirable job redoing artwork, text, and textures for modern resolutions... there’s not a lot to be done about the old compressed PS1 video assets. As a compromise, most are displayed in a small window in-game so as not to attempt to blow up a 320x224 video to an artifact riddled nightmare at 1080p. New Music: Ryo .jpg) .jpg) Alright, Kusabi is on the case. Have fun speeding onward with a bullet hole in your windshield funneling air directly into your eyeballs. .jpg) Target pinpointed: “Cauliflower”. The private railroad satellite... Perfect place to lie low. I’m gonna rush to the spot. Send the location to Natsume for me. Got it!.jpg) And off Kusabi speeds to the... Cauliflower railroad satellite...? Sure. I hope you like bizarre location names that sound like Suda51 picked neat sounding English words out of a hat. Since that started with this game. .jpg) Before we continue with the prologue, we’ve got to answer a very important question first...  As it says. Who are we? We need to name our player character, who we’re about to meet. As far as I can tell, he doesn’t have an official name. Apparently the game’s demo uses “Akira”, but that seems to just be a placeholder. So I’ll let you jerks decide from an... appropriate selection. Since... well... this might be the only real choice we get in this game. There’s a poll if you click that image below. Pick something there! You probably won't regret it!  Click for the most important vote of 2016 Feel free to discuss the pros and cons of your name choice! If you feel like I've left out a few obvious candidates, that's probably because there are characters in this game already named 'em. 
The Dark Id fucked around with this message at 16:14 on Oct 28, 2016 |
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Oct 28, 2016 00:46
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Oh heck yes  I've always wanted to track this down ever since playing Flower, Sun and Rain but never got around to it.Also I voted Dan because it's the best name 
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Oct 28, 2016 00:54
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The only choice is the MOE~ choice. Travis 2016.
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Oct 28, 2016 00:57
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What is up with Suda 51 games and moon iconography? Is he a werewolf?
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Oct 28, 2016 00:56
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2005 is most likely there because a mobile game sequel was released in 2005.
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Oct 28, 2016 01:03
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Ah, Suda 51. I'm not even going to bother trying to figure out what's going on and just let the weird wash over me. 
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Oct 28, 2016 01:47
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The Dark Id posted:The Silver Case is a Visual Novel/Adventure Game originally released October 7th, 1999 for the Sony Playstation. It never saw a western release until it received a HD Remaster for PC exactly 17 years later in early October of 2016 (with a PS4 port coming early next year.) This is the first game Grasshopper Manufacture developed after their formation and one of the earlier games directed by Goichi Suda aka Suda51. This game is part of a loose trilogy with Flower, Sun, and Rain (which saw a Western release back on the Nintendo DS in 2012) and Killer7. Though The Silver Case and Flower, Sun, and Rain are directly connect. The ties with either of those to Killer7 is rather tenuous. Other elements that crop up in it and later Grasshopper games do find their origin here. Regardless, it’ll still be a rather weird, confusing, and violent ride like its brethren. Killer7? I thought Moonlight Syndrome was the other part of the trilogy.
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Oct 28, 2016 01:49
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Does Suda51 actually make games anymore? I feel like his name keeps getting attached to things and it turns out he just walked past the room they were developing the game. Also Travis is the superior name pick.
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Oct 28, 2016 02:26
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We're in for a ride this time.
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Oct 28, 2016 02:27
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Nohman posted:Does Suda51 actually make games anymore? I feel like his name keeps getting attached to things and it turns out he just walked past the room they were developing the game. Not since NMH1, no. I'm not sure how much input he's had on Let It Die, though.
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Oct 28, 2016 02:30
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I was excited for this game when it was announced it would finally get a localization (especially after the DS port was canned), played through it, loved every minute of its complexity and late 90s, early Suda51 style. And now we've got an LP for it being done by the Dark Id? I am one happy camper. Really excited for this.Mraagvpeine posted:Killer7? I thought Moonlight Syndrome was the other part of the trilogy. I guess the more accurate trilogy would be this game, FSR, and the mobile only sequel to this called The Silver Case: 25 Wards, which I hope after this game will also get the same treatment because boy I'd love to see how much more this setting was expanded beyond the games we got.
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Oct 28, 2016 02:36
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This game looks weird as poo poo. Voted for Akira because we're in Japan, possibly Tokyo, and it's the future.
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Oct 28, 2016 02:49
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I voted Akira purely because I just watched the movie. Feels right for a future dystopia.
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Oct 28, 2016 03:14
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Transmittable crimes sounds like something from Psycho-Pass where if you killed a violent criminal near their victim, the victim would just as well become as violent as their abuser.
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Oct 28, 2016 04:03
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Suda 51! What's happening? Who knows? Who cares? It's Suda 51! I voted Garcia.
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Oct 28, 2016 06:14
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I went for Henry but just about anything that isn't Akira is good to me. I think it'd be funny in a game filled with Japanese names all over it to have this one out of place person. Though it's a Suda51 game so maybe that's unnecessary. Eh.
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Oct 28, 2016 10:39
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I wanted to vote for Trump 
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Oct 28, 2016 10:56
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 Results are in and thankfully democracy worked this time (it was a goddamn three way tie when I went to sleep.) I guess we'll be naming our precious baby boy "Garcia". I'll have another update later today.
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Oct 28, 2016 16:10
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Part I-2: Mustache.jpg) Democracy has spoken and our precious player character boy has his name: Garcia. Alright, let’s see what Garcia’s deal is... .jpg) I don’t blame you if your eyes glazed over for all that. All these factions are important later on. But this can go in one ear and out the other. TLDR: There’s two divisions of cops and they’re not entirely on friendly terms. .jpg) So we are part of the glorified SWAT Team of the 24 Wards. We’re in basically the STARS unit of Not-Japan. .jpg) .jpg) Maybe it’s my bias from playing all the Yakuza games, but if there is a dude named “Daigo” involved, he’s probably the one loving everything up.  I’m not sure if we’re on bank street, there is a bank as in the landmass, or if there’s a really out of the way banking establishment out in the boonies here. New Music: Public Security .jpg) 12:15 AM Dispatch .jpg) This here dad-rear end looking fellow is the Daigo Natsume the text dump was talking about. .jpg) And here we have the Cauliflower facility. This looks like a repurposed tesla device platform from a late-90s RTS. .jpg)  We’re currently closest to the scene. We need to pretend we just happened upon the scene. HQ confirmed the target and made the decision to get us involved. That means this is a Secret Security-authorized case. Keeping our moments under wraps is our top priority, but unfortunately a jurisdiction detective happened upon the scene, making things a bit difficult. We need to keep the amount of info let out at a minimum. You may come into contact with the detective. But avoid any unnecessary contact at all costs..jpg) Disposal will be a problem. Keep it at level Y or below. Got it.This dude with the most rear end in a top hat cop mustache possible is Sakamoto. He’s chilling in the back of Natsume’s .jpg) Armament of level X or below has been approved. What you carry is up to you. After entering “Cauliflower” in E3, lead the target to the “Cauliflower” roof. Proceed with disposal. That is all. Any questions? Chief, how should we carry out disposal? I’ll leave that up to you. I’ll provide remote support. What if capture is possible? I believe I said that this was a Secret Security-authorized case. Do you need me to explain further? That will not be necessary. Anything else? That is all. Just because this is your first real fight doesn’t mean you need to be overly vigilant. He who masters his own mind smiles in the end. Stay relaxed till you reach the scene.The guy who looks like the most fresh faced rookie cop manageable and about to either immediately die or see some real poo poo is Inomata. Music: ENDS .jpg) ...can’t you calm down? I’m about to lose my poo poo here. Then force it back down. I can’t. My mind is cutting me off. If you can’t force it down then at least control yourself. You’re gonna die— Ok... I’m scared, too, to be honest. It’s my first time in the flesh, you know? Sorry, but let me focus... This is totally different from training. Remember, Garcia? Our training maneuvers up north— It was the first time you shot real bullets, yeah?  Yeah, but I had a lot of practice with Quake 2 and Half-Life before that. None of that Goldeneye garbage. That console poo poo makes you soft. But that wasn’t the first time for me. Back when I was in the syndicate. Old-school bullets. They gave them to me to take Tsubaki’s head off. Of course, they were modded to the point that they might blow your goddamn hand off. I’d already thrown my life away, so I didn’t care. No matter what would’ve happened... Thinking about it now, being young, I shouldn’t been full of hope. But it didn’t matter then. Young, old, whatever... I got handed a piece and jumped in like a maniac. Just popping caps all over the place... ... I missed every shot. All of a sudden I was surrounded, ten guns pointed right at me. That’s when I first me the chief. Why did he choose me? He told me to put my life in his hands, and he took me in. Same for you too, right, Garcia? Picked up by the chief... Inomata, too. Don’t think about your own life. Believe in him. We’ll carry out our lives. We’ve put our hope in him. Don’t forget it—.jpg) .jpg) Trust in Chief Dad and his van. It’s all we can do...  This animation plays denoting the end of a scene. It has a pleasant little jingle to accompany it. You can click it to hear it. Give it a try! It’s currently my text notification sound. Music: Kusabi .jpg) 12:29 AM Arrivals .jpg) Was the guy with the woman’s head the fuckin’ Flash? How did he flee to a location on foot that took Kusabi 40 minutes to drive to and Natsume speeding for at least 15 minutes? There’s a bad textbook math equation somewhere in here... Music: Public Security .jpg) The early years of the Electronic Entertainment Expo were a real unusual affair. .jpg) .jpg) The Republic Van arrives at the Cauliflower Man’s hideout not long after Kusabi. Let’s pile out and begin this mission already. .jpg) Music: ENDS .jpg) I’ll get instructions from HQ over the radio. You guys are basically like guinea pigs. Refrain from acting arbitrarily and prioritize the collection of sample data. Any questions...? That is all. OK, sync your watches. Sakamoto, count us down..jpg) How do you have a mustache like that? Don’t you have like hair going into your mouth every time you eat? Seems unwieldy. .jpg) Don’t forget— This is not an exercise. You need to remember that this is the real thing. Again, this is an actual fight. –Come back alive. That is all. Good luck!Music: Kusabi .jpg) What a way to win us over. One of your soldiers? So it was you... I heard you were back in the field— You too, right? Looks like one final gamble to me— I don’t gamble. I’m in the Self-Defense Unit. What about you, Kusabi? I started that thing up. Because of the “Silver Case”. The Heinous Crimes Unit, huh?— I thought you’d come, too. I didn’t think we’d meet up like this. I can never go back there again. I’m not as strong a man as you, Kusabi. It’s not about that. It’s because they could use you. That’s strength. Being young and all... Just like your soldiers. You’ve got your young ones to take over the next generation. There’s still plenty of poo poo you gotta show them. –Kusabi... Natsume... It’s not just us anymore. Don’t overwork yourself. We still got a long ways to go. That may be true. How’s Sakura doing? She just turned 22. She’ll be graduating college this year. They get so big... How is she? She become a proper woman yet? She takes after my wife – real stubborn. You know how she is. She’s not a little girl anymore. That’s a good thing. Even if she acts like she hates you. your daughter’s still more precious than anything. Really.Natsume being, in fact, a dad is the least surprising thing to hear imaginable.  OK. Sakamoto, go in first – then Inomata and Garcia. Got it! That’s enough nostalgia for now. I’ll back you guys up, too. Thanks! It’s basically a warzone......And scene. Tune in next time when we actually get to the gameplay, such as it is, of The Silver Case. The Dark Id fucked around with this message at 03:19 on Oct 29, 2016 |
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Oct 28, 2016 22:41
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What an intrepid bunch. We're like the B-Team.
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Oct 29, 2016 01:28
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If Natsume had a full head of hair he would've looked like a Japanese Ned Flanders.
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Oct 29, 2016 01:38
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ArclightBorealis posted:If Natsume had a full head of hair he would've looked like a Japanese Ned Flanders. Glad I'm not the only one who thought that. 
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Oct 29, 2016 01:57
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Man I was curious about this game. Glad to see an LP of it. From Id to boot. The visuals are definitely REALLY dated, but the style seems to save it for the most part. I've heard as suda's first game, he really gets experimental with it.
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Oct 29, 2016 03:46
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So I read through these updates and the first thing I wonder is what I Am Setsuna could have even done to make taking a break to play this seem like a good alternative. And the second thing I wonder is what I Am Setsuna could have done to make taking a break to play this seem like a good alternative, given that Id has previously soldiered through Army of Demon-Babies, POSHUL, lightning-dodging, and 'Refreshing Vulnerability' without needing to slow down. ... I'll be under my bed if anyone needs me. (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Oct 29, 2016 04:47
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It wasn't I Am Setsuna itself that did anything wrong, it was more the thread was behaving badly, so they're in time-out. (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Oct 29, 2016 04:52
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These last posts of people being probated...  Personally I never got the hype of suda51, yet some of the clues this dialog let in (like talking about real fights anf bullets) got me interested. The non distant dystopian high tech future of 1999 surely seems a good setting.
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Oct 29, 2016 17:58
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Suda's early stuff is really interesting because of how out there and yet consistent it manages to be. Right up through Shadows of the Damned every game of his is a really odd, flawed masterpiece in its own way. Sadly, by some reports SotD had enough executive meddling to burn him out and after it he started just doing what studios asked of him after which is why the games after don't quite have the same magic touch to them. He basically became a guy whose name is slapped onto games to sell them rather than contributing heavily, at least until D4 which is back to his usual quirkiness. Then he had health issues that have kept him mostly out of the industry for these past few years. He's apparently managing and does plan a return when he can. EDIT: \/ Yeah, I'm wrong about D4, but it's easy to get the two guys confused because they both make out there games. Mokinokaro fucked around with this message at 19:12 on Oct 29, 2016 |
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Oct 29, 2016 18:15
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Mokinokaro posted:Sadly, by some reports SotD had enough executive meddling to burn him out and after it he started just doing what studios asked of him after which is why the games after don't quite have the same magic touch to them. He basically became a guy whose name is slapped onto games to sell them rather than contributing heavily, at least until D4 which is back to his usual quirkiness. You're thinking of Swery65, a different dude with a random number at the end of his name.
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Oct 29, 2016 18:49
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I like how we the briefing was all like "watch out for the other detective man because POLITICS" and he's just right there when we pull up in the dad van.
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Oct 29, 2016 19:12
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So apparently we're less "police" and more "professional extrajudicial kill team"? Can't wait until we get to the "disposal" part and throw some bodies in a woodchipper or whatever.
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Oct 29, 2016 19:27
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Deep Dish Fuckfest posted:So apparently we're less "police" and more "professional extrajudicial kill team"? Can't wait until we get to the "disposal" part and throw some bodies in a woodchipper or whatever. Jesus. Everybody working in Suda51 games really is an assassin, aren't they?
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Oct 29, 2016 19:41
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Part II: Cypher.jpg) Let’s mosey on into the Cauliflower facility and enact some police brutality, shall we? New Music: Cauliflower .jpg) Loud and clear. Inomata and Garcia are both OK. I’ll forward you the set points. Get on your respective points and get into formation. Got it. Garcia, calm down... Wait for my orders. Stay in position. Inomata, do you read me? The obstacles in front of you create a blind spot. Make sure to get proper confirmation. Don’t forget that perp is armed, or you’ll get yourselves killed— I know! Stop loving around, you idiot! You’re in the nucleus of the 24 Wards private railroad. Innocent citizens are gonna get killed if you start shooting like a maniac. Got it. Sakamoto, go in ahead. Relieve Garcia. Got it! Garcia, listen up. There’s a plate up ahead of you. Check it out. Going up to the second floor, Chief. Wait, don’t move yet. Got it. OK! Garcia, get moving. It’ll take some time before you get used to the controls, and it’ll seem complicated at first. But don’t worry. You’ll get used to it. It’ll get easy quickly..jpg) At this point, Natsume begins completely ignoring the fourth wall to explain the control system. But I’ll take over. “Complicated” isn’t the word I’d use for the controls. They’re pretty simple. “Bad”, “clunky”, “cumbersome” or maybe “lovely” would work better. This is the updated HD Remaster PC controls. There is controller support... in theory. It’s just that the game doesn’t remotely attempt acknowledge that and I gave up trying after a couple minutes. Which is weird since this was a console game to begin with... Anyway, see the little radial menu at the bottom right there? Each of those letters perform a different function. They’re also mapped to the corresponding letter on the keyboard. So that’s fun. The S Key allows us to save the game at any time there is gameplay. Which can sometimes be 10-20 minute stretches. .jpg) The I Key brings up “Implement” aka our inventory. Right now we only have our Gun. A very important tool which has zero use in this chapter. Any items we acquire will automatically be added to the Implements. Though honestly, you could count the number of times the game actually requires the use of items on both your hands. The M Key is for “Movement” and it is the one we’ll be using 95% of the time with this game. .jpg) Movement is done with the Arrow Keys... They’re apparently patching in WASD control in early November. This Remaster has a whole bunch of quality of life additions (text and movement speed can be doubled by holding the Space Bar) but somehow controlling a game’s movement with arrow keys in The Year of Our Lord 2016 was found acceptable. I almost quit the game outright in this room. Anyway, movement is locked to a predefined path along single tiles. Usually the areas are boxy grids since... well, it’s PS1 game. For instance, this room is one big box with spokes to the north, east, and south. The game wants us to check out something in the center of the room to the West. So let’s head that way... .jpg) Can you pinpoint the utility point? Calculating now... Inomata, send your movements over this way. Got it. Forwarding now— It’s finished. Got it. Entering collaboration.While they’re doing... whatever they’re talking about, Japanese Ned Flanders actually gives us some proper instructions now after we’ve flailed a bit. Particularly the C Key which is for “Contact”. Contact is both the interact button and the talk key. You’d probably call it context sensitive in the modern lexicon. .jpg) As we face north, we see a floating golden star ahead. When moving, the green triangles just denote places we can move to. Gold stars denote “Contact Points” which mean we can interact with something. Or a cutscene will trigger. The vast majority of the gameplay bits of The Silver Case are simply matters of moving around an environment seeking out floating gold star Contact Points to progress the game. Again, this isn’t something you play for the gameplay. It’s bad. .jpg) .jpg) Hitting C at the Contact Point will give us all our options at a given situation. We could contact Sakamoto or Inomata here too. But they both just yell at us to hurry up and follow orders. So let’s just go ahead and rub our face on this PLATE. .jpg) Maybe it’s for real estate authentication? Looks like it. Chief— I’ve found a switch. Probably the lights. Turn it on. Got it.Yeah, let’s just flip switches at random at this transportation control hub. Whoops. Now the train heading eastward at 55 miles per hour and the train traveling westward at 30 miles per hour are sure to collide and some dipshit in junior high is going to have to calculate the point in which everyone dies. Nice going Republic squad. .jpg) There should be a control panel nearby. Check it out. Inomata, what’s up? I think I saw someone up above. I’m going in ahead... Wait, don’t act on your own. Sakamoto, stand down. Let him go on ahead. Inomata, I’m gonna forward you the target point. Don’t go too far. Got it! Thank you. Is this gonna be OK...? I don’t care. If anyone’s in a hurry to die, I won’t stop them. Got it. Garcia, about the control panel..jpg) Natsume, you’re a bit more of an rear end in a top hat that your bald Ned Flanders look would lead me to believe. At this point, the chief gives some more movement instructions. Particularly, an obnoxious mechanic in which we can look up or down using either the Mouse Wheel or Page Up/Page Down. Game, those keys have a visible layer of dust on my keyboard. What the HELL are you doing? The next Contact point is a square to the east over. I’m gonna go over all the steps just to show ya how cumbersome the movement is. I’ll glaze over that poo poo after this update. .jpg) So we turn to the right. Move one space forward. .jpg) Then we turn to the left so as to face north. You’ve got to face the direction of the Contact Point to use it. .jpg) Then finally we have to hit Page Down to look downward and the C Key to use the CONTROL PANEL. Yeah... bit of a pain in the rear end. Thankfully, the number of times the game actually makes us look up or down to advance something is as sparse as the inventory uses. .jpg) I’ll check... Not yet— It’s probably something that’ll change the structure. It’s for decryption code input. Until we work it out, don’t mess with it. Garcia, I’m gonna back up Inomata. I’m going up, come with me..jpg) We can ignore Sakamoto’s instructions and fiddle with this panel a bit. But it has no use right now. We’ll just remember it’s there. .jpg) .jpg) We’re meant to move eastward and exit the area with Sakamoto. But as we approach the exit, there is another Contact Point. If we look down to see what the deal is, it seems someone has left behind a comic book... .jpg) The bikini model is “Baian Sayaka”. That is some later ‘90s rear end draw your first manga OC art right there. This comic book is very important. You see... if we get both “hidden” in this mission, it unlocks a Steam Achievement. See? Top priority stuff. Other than that, it’s useless. Though, the name mentioned will be relevant some half dozen chapters from now... .jpg) Anyway, we’ll just go ahead and stuff that comic underneath our flak jacket for safe keeping and continue east. .jpg) We get a sexy vintage wireframe model of our progress to the second floor of Cauliflower. Cheesy un-textured wireframe models of installations to denote military operation progress is a technique lost to the ‘80s and ‘90s. .jpg) I can’t pinpoint Inomata. This room is using an absorber. An absorber... Like an anti-jamming device? Seems like it. That’s what the data says— It’s designated as a structure of unknown use. This sort of accident was to be expected. So what about Inomata...? Back him up. Got it! You ready, Sakamoto? You take the lead from here on out. Got it. I’ll pinpoint and set our sights on the target. Lead him up to the roof. I’ll take care of him. Got it. Garcia. There’s a door lock past here. The code input is complicated, but don’t worry. We’ve already got the info required to unlock the door. A text string needs to be decrypted. But unfortunately, we don’t have the password yet. First, find the password. I’ll check the right. You go check the door on the left..jpg) Got it! Got it. Got it? Who is up for a lousy puzzle? We need to decrypt this door’s password. Let’s take a closer look. .jpg) PLEASE. That’s the password hint. Entering P-L-E-A-S-E won't do though. We need to run this word through something to decrypt it. Hey, remember that computer downstairs from the Contact Point tutorial? The one where you could enter letters and it would spit out a key. Guess what we’re expected to do here... .jpg) .jpg) That’s right... March back downstairs and enter PLEASE into this code machine for it to spit out the password. And then manually write that down then plug it in back upstairs. The actual formula is a simple cypher: The first letter = one letter up (A = B) The second letter = two letters up (A = C) The third letter = three letters up (A = D) ...and so on, looping from Z to A as necessary. You know I loaded up the original PS1 version of this game when I was doing some research for the LP, just for comparison sake. It’s like a frikkin’ solid minute trip to make it between floors with all the loading times and this 15 second animation of panning between levels on the wireframe. It’s rough ten seconds in the HD Remaster since loading is instant and the animation can be sped up to about 3X speed. I’m of the opinion that every redone port of an old rear end game should have a fast-forward button. So good on ‘em. Everything about the controls aside. .jpg) This HD Remaster of The Silver Case is nice and adds a “gently caress that noise” button for bad busywork puzzles like this. If you click on the little orange magnifying glass key, it’ll just plug in the drat passcode for you. For the LP, I’ll explain the reasoning behind puzzles. But full disclosure that I just slammed that auto-solve key where applicable when playing, since fiddling with a keypad to progress the story is the last goddamn thing I want to do with my time. .jpg) Cracking the code and entering the room, we find a “Handy Panel”. This is a portable password decryption tool. Gone is the need to go downstairs to monotonously enter passcodes. We can do it on the fly lugging around this cutting edge instrument that looks to be the size of a mini-fridge door. .jpg) .jpg) Returning to the hall, Sakamoto wants us to open the door he’s apparently been idling in front of utterly stumped for the last ten minutes. Get it together, guy. .jpg) PrHRdubzNIPE! Alright, let’s see what’s behind door number two... New Music: Rumi .jpg) Well, there’s a lady and I think she’s having a rough time Friday evening... .jpg) So there were survivors— Her heart rate is normal... She seems to be OK. Keep her warm and she should be fine. Hm—.jpg) This is fine. Everything is okay here. Just toss another blanket on her. Sakamoto’s mustache is a trained EMT. .jpg) We came to rescue you. You’re gonna be OK. Don’t worry. Stay calm. We’re here to help you. Everything is fine now. Don’t worry. We came to help. We’ll protect you. Just stay calm. This is dangerous— Until she calms down, don’t let her move. Garcia, I’m gonna go help Inomata. Let’s hurry to the third floor.Music: Cauliflower .jpg) Sakamoto... you’re really sending mixed messages here. Do I stay with the woman screaming non-stop and rolling her eyes into the back of her head or do I go along with you? I feel like this is expanding to more than a three man operation... .jpg) Oh well... I guess we’re heading upward. Sakamoto told the woman she was fine like fifteen times. It probably checks out. I’m sure she’ll wear herself out in due time. Let’s continue to the third floor. .jpg) Hey Inomata, get your rear end out here, rookie. You’re on screaming bloody woman duty. Music: END .jpg) You OK? Take a loving look... I’m pretty far from “OK”. Are you hurt pretty bad? Just a bit... But I can’t move my goddamn arm. You fall back— Can you move on your own? Yeah. If I force it. Then force it. That’s not very nice. I’m injured, you know... You acted on your own. I got no sympathy for you. We’re getting back up now. There are survivors on the second floor. Get them out of there. Got it. You heard him, Garcia. I’m going downstairs. Our guy is in the back. He’s pretty hosed up. It’s like he’s not afraid to die— No, it’s more like he’s enjoying the risk of death. He’s laughing. About the fact that he’s about to get killed. What the gently caress... Laughing all cynically like that. He can’t accept his own death. A typical criminal. Garcia, kill the motherfucker. Don’t even let the world know this guy exists, just dispose of his rear end. ... Hey Sakamoto... You listening? That’s my job... This guy’s pretty stiff. Is that a problem? I don’t screw around. I’m falling back. Sakamoto, Garcia – it’s up to you guys.I’m just picturing Inomata trying to calm down the woman from downstairs with blood spraying from his arm while she is unresponsive and screaming at the top of her lungs. I don’t think these Republic guys are very good at this whole SWAT Team thing... Music: Cauliflower .jpg) I’m here. I’ll search for the female survivor. Hurry. She’s not here... Is the pinpoint accurate? Of course! Keep on looking, quit bitching. gently caress off! I know. Get on it.C’mon dude. It’s a hall with two rooms. She can’t be that hard to find. Get it together, man. .jpg) .jpg) Progressing further, we’ve got yet another key code to crack. Fat Albert programmed this lock. .jpg) Trucking on in, there’s yet ANOTHER locked door ahead. But first... .jpg) Christ... She was so young... Garcia, the target is up above. I can’t let this guy get away with this. I’m gonna kill the motherfucker!! Let’s move!!!.jpg) Sorry, yeah... I know you’re upset about the dead girl here. But could you help me scooch the corpse over so I can do some code cracking? Thanks, pal. This is the last door in the game that uses this dumb cypher puzzle. But there’s a catch. After the code cracked... .jpg) Inomata, do you read me? ... Inomata! Respond!! ... Son of a bitch— Again...? ... We’ve just gotta roll with it... I’ll go back down and revert the control panel. Once it’s been restored, open this up. Be ready..jpg) Well... alright. We’ll just wait here with the dead girl... Doot-do-doo... Think happy thoughts. .jpg) Inomata, where are you? Answer me. Garcia, something’s wrong. I can’t find Inomata or the woman. There’s no sign of them... Everything OK there?Yeah well... The woman here is still accounted for. Still dead. Doesn’t smell too hot... If you could hurry up, that’d be great. (We have to wait about 20-30 real time seconds between each call.) .jpg) I’ll fix it. ..... ..... ..... Restoration complete. –But, it’s no good. The password has been changed. Looks like he switched it on us. We’re screwed....jpg) Dude, chill out. The password is written on the panel. The cypher just changed to... hell if I know or care to decipher. Garcia has got this. Gonna go get himself a baddie! .jpg) Man gently caress you, mustache. You’re not my dad! Natsume hasn’t called since the second floor.  Tune in next time when we venture onto the rooftop of the Cauliflower building to close out Case #0. We're gonna police the HELL out of that motherfucker!
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Oct 29, 2016 19:42
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You'd think that "The Cauliflower Building" would get less silly as it's being repeated, but...
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Oct 30, 2016 00:00
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What exactly were we trying to accomplish again? Because it seems like everything is going to hell.
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Oct 30, 2016 00:08
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...huh. Never made the connection that particular character was associated with the Comic Beam covers. Though looking at the katakana, it definitely is her. Speaking of which, I wonder if it's just with this game or if other Japanese language games do this as well, but I noticed with my brief time on the original PS1 game that all the important character names are in Katakana. I mean, they aren't foreign names here, pretty much everyone is clearly Japanese that I'd imagine there would be some Kanji associated with them. Maybe it's just a readability thing because this game is so dense on text already that most dialog is just filled with it and the names would stand out more that way. Ah, whatever. First I've noticed this and it's racking my brain. Also a thing to note about this remaster is that while Id is playing this with all the newer assets, like UI and movement speed increases, this game actually lets you change certain aspects to make it closer to the original PS1 game as possible. I say as possible because even with the older UI and CG movies, the 3D environments, portraits and artwork are still the updated ones shown here. And as you could imagine, going with the original movement speed option is something you should not ever do unless you want to hurt yourself in an effort to see how "close" to the original you can make it in feel (in other words, don't repeat my mistake and go through the whole game like that).
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Oct 30, 2016 00:09
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Uncontrollable screaming is just kind of a modestly bad trip in modern medicated cyberdystopia. She'll be fine, she'll be fine.
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Oct 30, 2016 00:27
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All old adventure games should have a skip lovely puzzles button.
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Oct 30, 2016 02:57
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Wait, Suda made this?! Okay, I'm interested. How screwy is this going to get?
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Oct 30, 2016 03:16
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