The Cat's Eye

妖しく　Cat's Eye

magic play is dancing

 月明かり浴びて

we get you… mysterious girl

"Cat's Eye" (杏里)

Bewitching Cat's Eye

magic play is dancing

Bask in the moonlight

we get you... mysterious girl

"Cat's Eye" (Anri)

I had already played often on a borrowed SEGA Dreamcast before, but I bought my own Dreamcast in 2009, when I had just arrived in Fukuoka. It provided me (and other people) with many, many hours of entertainment and I still play regularly on it. A used Dreamcast isn't expensive at all, and the games go for pretty low too. Sometimes too low. When I first bought the machine, I bought some obvious choices like Crazy Taxi and Shenmue with it, but also a game I had never heard of. It was very cheap. And it appeared to be a detective game. Now, in 2014, I've finally played that game.

Web Mystery - Yochimu wo Miru Neko ("Web Mystery - The Cat With Foretelling Dreams") is an adventure game released very early in the life cycle of the Dreamcast. You follow Tsuda Keisuke, a programmer/designer, who is supposed to meet with a client at a net cafe. His client doesn't show up, and after becoming friendly with Mio, the girl behind the bar, Keisuke tries the computers out in the cafe (it's 1999, so internet is still relatively new). He is led to a mysterious website called Cat's Eyes, which shows him images of a man being killed. Keisuke and Mio are both surprised, but think little of it until they discover the following day that the man in the images had really been killed. And what's more, they saw the website even before the murder had happened. More and more images are sent through the site, and Keisuke and Mio try to stop the murders, find out who it is, and figure out what the secret is behind Cat's Eyes in an international adventure that will also bring them to South-Korea and Hong Kong.

Web Mystery - Yochimu wo Miru Neko is also the worst game I've ever played. Heck, the words 'game' and 'play' don't even really apply to this! And the story being completely crazy doesn't help either.

Web Mystery - Yochimu wo Miru Neko tells its story through FMV (full motion videos), sound novel parts (where dialogue is 'written' out on the screen accompanied by still pictures) and through a virtual desktop environment, where Keisuke (= the player) can check his e-mail and surf on the web. The problem is, the player has practically nothing to do in this game. 99% of the story is told by the FMV and sound novel combination. So most of the time, you are either watching barely acceptable acting or just reading little bits of dialogue (and for some sinister reason, they only show about three lines per screen, so it takes ages to read something). Unlike a game like Kamaitachi no Yoru, you're not allowed to make decisions in these parts, so you can only passively 'enjoy' the story, rather than deciding your own destiny.

The only time you can do anything is when Keisuke does something on the computer. You enter a virtual desktop environment and can now read e-mail or browse some websites (there's a large amount of 'webpages' about a variety of topics you can access through a portal). Problem though: the websites don't matter at all (you only have to read three websites or so over the course of the game, and they tell you when). The only thing you have to do to progress is to read an e-mail. Sure, there are lots of e-mails sent to you each time, but there's always just one important one, and the story continues if you read that one. So the only, the one and only thing you can decide in this game is the order in which you read e-mails. Making use of all the possibilities of games as a medium.

Let me repeat that: the story is set, consists mostly of FMV and clicking through dialogues and the only time you get to do anything is when you read e-mails. Walkthroughs of this game just consists of 'read mail 1' -> (exit desktop) [Watch FMV] -> 'read mail 2 -> (exit desktop) [Watch FMV] ->  etcetera etcetera.

With the title Web Mystery and a collection of faux webpages, I had actually hoped this would be something like Flower, Sun and Rain. That was admittedly a flawed game, but the way the hints to all puzzles were hidden within the pages of an island tourist guide was fantastic: I had hoped that Web Mystery would also have me digging through seemingly unrelated webpages to discover clues to continue. But no.

And just when you think Web Mystery - Yochimu wo Miru Neko can't get worse, you realize the story is just crazy. Protagonist Keisuke has everything you'd expect from a chuunibyou-esque character (dark coat? Check. Traumatic past? Check. Nemesis? Check. Irresistable to the ladies, including a popular idol? Check. Genius programmer? Check), the whole plot about the images from the future makes no sense (you know your story is bad when even after saying 'it's magic', it still makes no sense) and as a detective story.... I guess Web Mystery - Yochimu wo Miru Neko kinda feels like on of those two-hour mystery dramas, with Keisuke accidently getting involved in a case and him traveling to South Korea and Hong Kong, but considering there are practically no hints for the player and the story has a chaotic structure with different kinds of plots running through each other (some of them supernatural), it never feels like the player is given a fair chance.

I've played many games for as long as I can remember, and I usually try to find something good even in a bad game, but I really have nothing for Web Mystery - Yochimu wo Miru Neko. The webpages are a fun idea, but none of them are really interesting (save for creating a world setting for the game). Not even the music is particularly good (which is also why I am surprised they released a soundtrack...). You can get Web Mystery - Yochimu wo Miru Neko for almost nothing now, and it's one of the Dreamcast's few mystery games, but please, stay away from it. Please.

Original Japanese title(s): 『ウェブミステリー予知夢ヲ見ル猫』