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 So, uh, have you ever wondered what it would be like if someone had made a game like The Last Express but in FMV with real actors? Oh, and the historic 1914 Europe setting is replaced by a bunch of Japanese schoolgirls and their teachers on a school trip? Well then, wonder no more, because I present to you: Murder on the Eurasia Express! Wait, what even is this? Murder on the Eurasia Express is a game published in 1998 by Enix on PlayStation 1 and, like I said, it concerns the situation where the (unnamed) player character has to solve a murder on a train. Other passengers are a bunch of Japanese high school students and their teachers who are on a school trip, riding the Eurasia Express from Shanghai to London. The game is played in first person, and you need to solve the case before the train reaches the next station, Hangzhou, which is indeed about 2 hours from Shanghai by train. Despite its relatively short length (2 hours progress in real time), the game was distributed on no less than 4 CDs! Well, I guess you need space for all that high quality (?) video. The gameplay itself is actually pretty simple, so the challenge here comes more from the tight time limit and the need to put things together about what happened. Because, yes, there will be a test at the end! Anyway, here is a short introductory paragraph, freely quoted from the manual! quote:The Eurasia Express departs Shanghai on time and heads west across mainland China. At 10:35, a murder occurs in Room 106. The school trip, which was supposed to be fun, is turned upside down... Who did it and why? The murderer is in this train car. You have two hours until the next stop. Can you solve the mystery? Can we, indeed. Well, we can certainly try! Some technicalities Of course, the main part will be presented in video format with English subtitles provided for your convenience. I've tried to make the video look semi-decent on modern screens, but we are dealing here with a highly compressed, blocky source, so there is a definite limit to how good it can actually look in the end. Since the game itself contains no subtitles of any kind whatsoever, not even Japanese, mistakes in translation are definitely possible, but hopefully nothing too bad. This was in 1998, before game companies realised that just because your game is fully voiced it doesn't mean you shouldn't include subtitles anyway. Since we'll occasionally have to also deal with various written notebooks and documents that our character comes across, mostly I will post those as images directly in the update when it's not critical that we look at it immediately during the video part. So, who's up for some 1990s FMV cheese? I know I am, so let's get to it! Oh, and please refrain from posting spoilers, of course! TABLE OF CONTENTS Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 ivantod fucked around with this message at 22:14 on Jun 13, 2023 |
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Jan 4, 2023 23:33
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| # ? Apr 29, 2024 00:42 |
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(Reserved.)
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Jan 4, 2023 23:33
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Part 1 Click on the picture to watch the video!  And so, here we are with a murder case on our hands. Of course a lot of stuff here doesn't make sense--e.g. how is "The Detective" able to freely mingle with the people from the school trip; or how does a teenager work as an "assistant detective", but it's probably best not to think about small details too hard here. We've got a bunch of photographs to look at, and also we have TWO notebooks (one in our pocket and the other where Tsubasa takes notes about everything for us). We'll go through all that next time, but for now here are some brief character portraits, taken from the game manual. Since there is basically nothing to be said about the gameplay other than to list what each controller button does, this leaves a lot of space in the manual for various photographs, and they indeed look pretty slick. So without further ado, here are a few character profiles for people we met on the train so far!      So, take care and see you next time! ivantod fucked around with this message at 00:11 on Jan 5, 2023 |
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Jan 4, 2023 23:34
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At first glance I thought that was a Mexican wrestler mask. 
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Jan 4, 2023 23:50
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So our assistant is hella excited and not at all concermed that someone died. Kind of surprised by the bloodstained, I was expecting poison from one of his many drinks.
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Jan 5, 2023 01:41
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FoolyCharged posted:So our assistant is hella excited and not at all concermed that someone died. I know, she's like "YES! A person died! I get to investigate! Lessgo!". Meanwhile everyone else is in a bad mood.
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Jan 5, 2023 18:58
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ivantod posted:I know, she's like "YES! A person died! I get to investigate! Lessgo!". Meanwhile everyone else is in a bad mood. Well, assuming she didn't kill him herself to keep the trip interesting, "solved a murder" really helps you stand out on a college application.
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Jan 6, 2023 06:01
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Our detective character seems pretty laid back about this whole investigation process. Did we ascertain the cause of death at all? Seems like the crime scene interaction was essentially: "Yep, he has blood on his shirt" 
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Jan 6, 2023 06:36
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King of Bleh posted:Our detective character seems pretty laid back about this whole investigation process. Did we ascertain the cause of death at all? Seems like the crime scene interaction was essentially: "Yep, he has blood on his shirt" Don't worry, we'll actually get to that in the next episode in more details! And we'll check the body in more detail too.
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Jan 6, 2023 11:30
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Part 2 Click on the picture to watch the video!  With this episode, we conclude our initial questioning of all present people. From now on, we'll start to follow the actual investigation leads. Obviously, we have a few immediately open questions, such as:
Next time, we'll start with figuring out the murder weapon and the situation with the letter! In the meantime, here are some more pictures of the characters we met today:    And also one with the adults (they don't get the "biographies"!):  A small bit of trivia! For some reason, this game features a few "blink and you'll miss it" cameos by people from Japanese gaming industry. I think most of them are not so well known in the west, however, there is at least one big name there. Probably most people missed it, but actually in the first video, right here...  ...we can see none other than Hideo Kojima as one of the passengers at the train station! So, take care and see you next time!
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Jan 8, 2023 23:01
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Right off the bat, I find it very strange and suspicious that the homeroom teacher went to the trouble of fetching the doctor, but then deciding when they couldn't locate Usami that he was probably fine and to go hang out in the lounge instead. If someone says they're feeling sick and then disappears and isn't where they claimed they would be, if anything that's greater reason to continue looking for them surely?
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Jan 9, 2023 21:40
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King of Bleh posted:Right off the bat, I find it very strange and suspicious that the homeroom teacher went to the trouble of fetching the doctor, but then deciding when they couldn't locate Usami that he was probably fine and to go hang out in the lounge instead. All the teachers feel suspicious, the PE teacher especially seems to be hiding something.
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Jan 9, 2023 22:54
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Maigius posted:All the teachers feel suspicious, the PE teacher especially seems to be hiding something. The P.E. teacher is the one who was murdered. You probably meant the chemistry teacher (the guy who is eating on the picture in my previous post)? (The names on the teacher photo I posted are in the same order as their photograps from top to bottom!)
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Jan 9, 2023 22:58
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It would be a fun gag if the teacher with "loves donuts" as his primary trait thus far were in fact the P.E. teacher, but alas.
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Jan 9, 2023 23:40
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ivantod posted:The P.E. teacher is the one who was murdered. You probably meant the chemistry teacher (the guy who is eating on the picture in my previous post)? Yep! 
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Jan 10, 2023 00:14
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Part 3 Last time we finished our initial interrogation of everyone, so now it's time to start connecting the dots a bit! Click on the picture to watch the video!  It seems we may have established a possible motive here (and our suspicion about Usami from the last time turned out to be true), but it would be interesting to find out who was the "next girlfriend" of Usami, I think. Next time, we'll continue with this line of inquiry, but there just may be a surprise or two in the store as we reach the half-way mark of this game! In the meantime, here are a couple more pictures from the manual:   So, take care as always, and see you next time!
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Jan 14, 2023 22:48
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I have always had a problem with names but I think I can pick out individuals in a lineup now. Also, that PE teacher is a real creep and the chemistry teacher should just eat his jelly donuts in public.
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Jan 15, 2023 09:40
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ivantod posted:The P.E. teacher is the one who was murdered. You probably meant the chemistry teacher (the guy who is eating on the picture in my previous post)? just to make this abundantly clear to people who may still be confused, the train conductor is the guy on the left.
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Jan 15, 2023 09:43
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Finally caught up. This is a very unusual Denji Sentai Megaranger spinoff, but I can't disagree with giving Miku spotlight.
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Jan 19, 2023 17:19
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Blaze Dragon posted:Finally caught up. This is a very unusual Denji Sentai Megaranger spinoff, but I can't disagree with giving Miku spotlight. Lol, yeah that's definitely the same actress who plays here our trusty assistant Tsubasa (Mami Higashiyama)!
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Jan 19, 2023 20:39
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ivantod posted:Lol, yeah that's definitely the same actress who plays here our trusty assistant Tsubasa (Mami Higashiyama)! Not only the same actress, she's essentially playing the same role, with the exact same hairstyle. I'm bad at recognizing actors and even I saw who she was immediately.
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Jan 20, 2023 01:12
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Part 4 Last time we were delving a bit into the dating history of Usami. Unfortunately, it turned out that he's a serial dater of his own students. Today, we'll go even deeper into that whole story, and let me tell you it doesn't lead anywhere good. There are also a few things to read in this video (our fax has finally arrived!), so please feel free to pause the video in such moments if you need more time. Click on the picture to watch the video!  So it looks like because of his connections, Usami's behaviour was allowed to continue unchecked even after the unfortunate incident from five years ago. Also, we seem to now have a connection from him to one of the train staff, which means that our suspect list still can't really be narrowed down significantly. But anyway, next time we are going to start bringing this investigation slowly to a close, as the train approaches its next stop, Hangzhou. In the meantime as usual, here are a couple more pictures from the manual:    So, take care, and see you next time!
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Jan 22, 2023 21:54
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I have to admit it makes me smile every time how the Chemistry teacher hurriedly makes himself presentable when you're walking in.
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Jan 23, 2023 01:23
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The end is coming? It feels startlingly short but I guess that's the price you pay for FMV especially at this time. How does the time limit work? Am I drowsily missing a display keeping track of time passing, or does it just never mention that all your questions are taking time until oops it's over?
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Jan 23, 2023 04:44
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gegi posted:The end is coming? It feels startlingly short but I guess that's the price you pay for FMV especially at this time. The game comes on 4 CDs. The opening and also the ending part are on CD 1, and the actual investigation part is on CDs 2-4. We're currently on CD4, hence my comment that we're coming close to the ending. gegi posted:How does the time limit work? Am I drowsily missing a display keeping track of time passing, or does it just never mention that all your questions are taking time until oops it's over?  If you examine it, you can check how much time you have left. I think time does actually stop in certain circumstances, e.g. when looking at stuff in the inventory. But each question of course consumes some time out of the 2 hours that you have. If you end up at 2h limit wihout having collected all information, then you simply get a game over. Otherwise you go into a "Poirot gathers everyone in a room and explains the case" sequence where you have to answer questions and back up you answers with evidence from your inventory.
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Jan 23, 2023 10:28
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I think at this point, no matter who committed the crime, everyone should agree to say nothing about it, especially to the authorities. The murder seems completely justified and fair.
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Jan 23, 2023 14:20
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I'm a little baffled by how nonchalant all the characters are acting around the fact that there was a sexual predator basically operating openly at the school. Surely even factoring in people being less sensitive to such issues back then, this should be widely perceived as super inappropriate?
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Jan 24, 2023 08:33
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King of Bleh posted:I'm a little baffled by how nonchalant all the characters are acting around the fact that there was a sexual predator basically operating openly at the school. Surely even factoring in people being less sensitive to such issues back then, this should be widely perceived as super inappropriate? I think there are a couple of issues here. One is, as you said, that this is all happening like 25 years ago when things were a bit different. The second is that this guy's family basically founded and owns the school--not to mention that Japan generally tends to be a bit more hierarchical as a society--and you can see in the last video how the school basically buried the whole story. So people probably feel that speaking up will only lead to bad consequences to them and nothing will happen to the perpetrator. You don't even have to look to Japan--just remember how in the US also people like Harvey Weinstein were allowed to do what they did for literally decades until finally someone decided to speak up. So I don't find it too unrealistic, to be honest. For me one interesting moment in the last video also way when the school doctor essentially says that her solution to the problem was to basically not get close to students any more. Which is really sad. I found it interesting because it seems at first that this is going to be a "fluff" game without any serious messages, but then it actually does get a bit serious with the whole backstory and really does not treat student/teacher "dating" relationships as someting positive, unlike some other Japanese media from around this time period.
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Jan 24, 2023 11:02
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Part 5 It's time to finish our investigation! Today is the last part of our inquiries, in which also get a bit of unexpected help. Click on the picture to watch the video!  Being able to see that video tape was unexpected and interesting, too bad the crucial part was missed becasue of... someone! Next time, our nameless detective will, Poirot-style, gather everyone in the room and explain the case! Of course, our character does not actually speak in the game, so it will be mostly other people talking, but still! As before a couple more pictures from the manual! There are actually exactly enough to last us also for the next time, by coincidence!   So, take care, and see you next time in our final episode of this game!
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Feb 2, 2023 21:49
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imagine being so obsessed with cute things that you are compelled to attack and break off wall decorations, in the middle of a train with people going back and forth so anyone could catch you. She probably tackles small children in the playground and strips off their barettes.
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Feb 3, 2023 15:40
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reminds of an early Ranma 1/2 character with that cute obsession, just missing the pretentious french names.
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Feb 3, 2023 21:40
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gegi posted:imagine being so obsessed with cute things that you are compelled to attack and break off wall decorations, in the middle of a train with people going back and forth so anyone could catch you. Weirdly out of everything, this part felt the most authentic to high school teen behavior for me.
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Feb 4, 2023 07:47
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Poor Chinatsu will end up getting found as a thief despite this investigation having nothing to do with her. Well, not poor, better to stop that behaviour before it gets any more dangerous, but still, kind of funny. Also I imagine her moving the camera means we're missing crucial information, so I wouldn't say it's Mabuchi or Haruka for sure yet.
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Feb 7, 2023 19:45
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Blaze Dragon posted:Poor Chinatsu will end up getting found as a thief despite this investigation having nothing to do with her. It sounds like this was the last of the investigation and next time we'll be going right into the summation, so it seems too late to be adding another suspect, to me. The camera conspicuously doesn't cover Haruka's exit from the room, so I think it's likely that what we're missing is her coming out with the murder weapon. That said, other than the meta-knowledge of "the camera being moved must have concealed something important from us," I can't see any evidence that would narrow it down between Mabuchi and Haruka. And from a different meta angle, the game has been leaning really hard on Haruka being suspicious, whereas the Mabuchi connection is very subtle and is something the player has to notice for themself, so if this weren't supposed to be fair-play I would 100% think it was him and not her due to narrative convention (the person who gets the bright neon "Suspicious!!!" sign right before the end is rarely the actual culprit), and that would also be more satisfying from a gameplay perspective. Although... could they both be in on it? Usami appears to have been stabbed from the front (or from above?) without resistance, and that could just be because he was drunk, but it's possible Mabuchi put something in that mineral water. And if someone disabled the door on purpose, that seems more likely to have been him than Haruka.
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Feb 8, 2023 06:41
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Part 6 Last time we finished with the actual investigation. So today, as expected, we gather everyone together and explain the mystery, Or, well, since our protagonist is silent, it's more like we gather everyone and then we all figure the mystery out together, led by the chemistry teacher! Well, it was mentioned that he's a mystery novel buff, so... at least that makes a bit of sense! Click on the picture to watch the video!  And there we go. As for the mystery solution, it was kind of not that surprising, but it has to be said that at least most of it makes sense and fits together reasonably. What definitely DOESN'T make sense is why all those girls would be falling head over heels for this creep. But I was personally never a teenage girl, so what do I know. Still, most of these girls seem reasonably intelligent so it definitely seems a bit unrealistic that he could just be dating them one right after the other (especially after how he treated his previous dating "partners"). I mean I guess at least Haruka tried to stop it. But anyway, here the last couple of pictures, and then I'll give a few of my thoughts about the game.   So, what can one say about this game in the end? Lost masterpiece it definitely isn't; however, it not really that bad either. Honestly, mostly it seems like a game shackled by the technical limitations of the console it runs on. I mean on PC a game like Gabriel Knight 2 was released in 1995 (three years earlier) and although it's on 6 CDs as opposed to this game's 4, it's still way bigger in scope and it takes several times longer to finish. If I had to guess, the processing power of the PlayStation 1 was the limiting factor in how compressed the video can be while still remaining possible to have normal playback. So we ended up with a game like this which is relatively small in scope--don't forget that one train car is its entire playing field! So from that standpoint it's good that it doesn't overstay its welcome. Apart from that, the other aspects of the game are fine. The acting is of more than acceptable quality with, to me at least, the standouts being actors portraying Haruka, Mabuchi and Dr. Ibuki. From the younger set, interestingly, it's actually the actress portraying Sanae (Fukada Kyouko) who ended up with the biggest post-game career. Though her performance here is hard to judge as her role is very small compared to the others. As for the writing, it's also in my opinion somewhat better than expected. It actually at least tries to tackle some "harder" subjects such as nepotism culture and the abuse of power by the teachers and the consequences it has. It's also interesting for a mid 1990s piece of Japanese media that it's relatively unambiguously critical towards the student/teacher dating situation (which was definitely not a given back then). I also liked the lighter touches in the script, where e.g. the chemistry teacher looks like he's going to be a massive jerk, but then turns out to be just a normal guy, whose biggest sin is that he can be a little annoying sometimes. Anyway, I think it's a decent enough diversion for a couple of hours (which is how long it will take you to play through it) and I just thought it would be fun to do a really short game, in comparison to the types of games I usually play here! So, I hope you enjoyed this too, and I will (hopefully) see you over in my other, soon to be continued LP! Until then, take care!
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Feb 11, 2023 00:53
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Thank you for the LP! I agree that it works well as a kind of technical demonstration of a game played entirely through full motion video, which is pretty impressive for a console like the psx. I get the feeling that video like this would be too complex for the Sega CD.
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Feb 11, 2023 03:11
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The fact that they've implemented an affection tracking system where the underage girl who likes your (presumably adult) detective most gives you a smooch at the end feels like a bit of a conflict with the themes of the actual story to me. Also just a smidge weird. But, Japan and the 90s, I guess.
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Feb 11, 2023 07:20
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malkav11 posted:The fact that they've implemented an affection tracking system where the underage girl who likes your (presumably adult) detective most gives you a smooch at the end feels like a bit of a conflict with the themes of the actual story to me. Also just a smidge weird. But, Japan and the 90s, I guess. Yeah, it's kind of weird when the whole game has a theme which is completely opposite to that. I'm going to take a wild guess that this was something that was forced in (esp. since there is no hint of any such interaction until the very end). At least there is no implication that it went anywhere further than that, so I'm just going to be thankful for that part!
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Feb 11, 2023 19:25
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At least they didn't have one of the girls give you her panties as a collectible or something.
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Feb 11, 2023 20:08
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The mystery was obvious after a point but I do enjoy that ultimately, anything and everything that covered it up was just an unfortunate series of coincidences Mabuchi had no place whatsoever in. Even he didn't know how to take them, so hey, may as well roll with it. Also you have to sacrifice 1/4th of your time for that joke scene...which I imagine you need for 100% completion? Quite cruel, but hey, you only used about half the time so I guess it's not that bad. Still, it does seem like you'd have to play very tight to get full completion. The fact that the secretary changes with how much you've done is pretty weird, not exactly what I'd call a reward for the player, but maybe it'd make more sense to me if I saw all of them, I don't know. Fun playthrough of a game I never heard about and could've never played, as always, ivantod.
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Feb 11, 2023 20:20
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