Wednesday, June 22, 2022

It Runs in the Family

「論理の路はつながりました」
『春ゆきてレトロチカ』
 
"The path of logic is connected"
 "The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story"

Is there like a rule that when Square-Enix makes a mystery game, it needs to take place across time and needs to have game mechanics revolving around generating hypotheses?

One of the earliest games I discussed on this blog, and one that I still think fondly of, is Trick X Logic on the PSP. The manner in which it translates the reading experience of a puzzle plot whodunnit story to a video game is absolutely fantastic, and shows very well how a properly written mystery story should allow a reader to gather clues, build hypotheses and lead them to the one and only answer. Of course, this was not surprising, considering the stories found in Trick X Logic were written by authors like Ayatsuji Yukito, Arisugawa Alice, Maya Yutaka, Ooyama Seiichirou and more! (Disclosure: I have translated the works of some of these authors!) Each of the stories in this game was presented in a novel game style, so simply a prose story you read like any other book. As you read the story, you pick up key words and phrases. Once you're done with the "Problem" part of the story, the interactive element start: as the player, you now have to answer the question of whodunnit. How? By using all those key words and phrases from the story in question, and combining them to generate questions, insights and hypotheses. For example, if the story mentions both "X is left-handed" "X caught the ball with his right hand", you could combine these two phrases to generate questions and hypotheses like: "X is ambidextrous," "Is X actually right-handed?" "Is X not able to use his left hand?" These new phrases could also be used, for example, "Is X not able to use his left hand?" and "X fell earlier from his horse" might generate the theory "X hurt his left hand." Trick X Logic thus was a game that really showed how you are supposed to read a detective story, focus on key phrases and combining them to create all kinds of hypotheses, even if they might be wrong. And as you create more and more hypotheses and combine these with each other again, you eventually arrive at the truth. Trick X Logic is in my opinion still one of the few games that really shows how a prose puzzle plot detective story should be tackled and I have always lamented the fact it never got a sequel or never inspired other games in the same spirit.

When earlier this year Square-Enix announced they'd release the FMV (Full Motion Video) detective adventure game Haru Yukite, Retrotica ("As Spring Passes By,  Retrotica") in May 2022, I was absolutely thrilled, for it was made by the director of Trick X Logic and was clearly inspired by that game. Released in English with the less poetic title The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story and available on Switch/Steam/PS4/PS5, the game tells an epic story that takes place across a whole century, and is told through live-action drama (interestingly, the director of this game also worked on 428, which also used live-action heavily). The titular Shijima family is a clan with history, sordid history even as recently, a skeleton was found under a tree at Shijima manor. Shijima Eiji, a medical scientist, asks the mystery writer Kagami Haruka to look into the case of the skeleton found at his parental home: Eiji is a medical consultant for Haruka's mystery novels, and thinks she can find out more about the mysterious skeleton. Haruka and her editor Akari go to Shijima manor, where they are welcomed by Eiji's father and they are allowed to witness an ancient ceremony which is held once a century by the Shijima family. After the ceremony, they are to have tea, but Eiji's father is poisoned. Haruka soon learns the Shijima family not only has skeletons in their garden, but also in the closet: for the last century, members of the Shijima family have been involved in various murder cases, and each time these murders were connected to the "Tokijiku" or Fruit of Youth, a mythological fruit that is supposed to give eternal youth to those who eat the coveted food. Realizing that the poisoning in 2022 and the skeleton have to do with the past murder cases, which also all involved a scarlet camellia left at the various scenes, Haruka decides to read up on the old cases and see if she can solve those, as they are the only clues she has to solve the current poisoning case. And thus Haruka's investigation into a series of murder cases taking place across the twentieth and twenty-first century starts...


The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story is not a perfect game. It is not a perfect mystery game. But I really, really want to recommend this game to people who like puzzle plot mystery fiction, because it is basically the best next thing after Trick X Logic, and that game is hard to recommend because, well, it was only released in Japan and only on the PSP.  But while The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story has its hick-ups here and there, like its spiritual predecessor, it does really show well how a proper mystery story should lay its clues, how it should invite the reader (player) to use these clues to come up with properly built-up theories and how to combine theories to ultimately arrive at the truth. Few mystery games really show and teach you "reasoning techniques" that are also applicable to mystery in for example prose form, but The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story definitely does. Sorry for the self-promotion here, but if you liked mystery stories like The Moai Island Puzzle, Death Among the Undead, Death of the Living Dead and other puzzle-focused shin honkaku novels: this is a proper shin honkaku mystery game and you owe it to yourself to at least check it out. 

Once you're done with the game, you feel like you have watched a full season of a detective drama. The story starts in 2022 and many chapters ("episodes") are also set there, but Haruka also looks into prior cases involving members of the Shijima family, the Tokijiku and the Scarlet Camellia, some even taking place as early as in 1922!  In terms of terms of structure and gameplay, The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story is very similar to Trick X Logic as mentioned earlier. Each chapter/episode starts with a lengthy live-action drama part that unfolds like a proper mystery detective story, from the building up drama to the discovery of the crime and subsequent investigation. Once the first "Problem" part of the episode is over, Haruka starts theorizing about the case in the Reasoning part.  Here the player has to answer a few crucial questions by using the clues and observations made during the first part. You can also rewatch all the relevant scenes of the drama part, or check other important information like floorplans and character relation charts here. As you consider the case using the leading questions as a guide, you combine these questions with the gathered clue fragments to generate hypotheses (many of them actually incorrect). Once you have generated enough hypotheses and new insights, you can move on to the Solution part of the story, where you get the classic "Everyone is gathered in the parlor and the detective reveals who did it" scene: this too is presented as a live-action drama, but the player now has to use the various hypotheses they generated earlier to answer all the important questions and eventually point out who the murderer is. 

 

The process of "observation" -> "creating hypotheses" -> "combining hypotheses" -> "point out whodunnit" is really satisfying, and the game mechanic itself is an excellent translation of how one should tackle a prose detective story too. I do have to say that the controls for the Reasoning part are pretty bad, at least on a console (I played the game on Switch). You have to constantly drag clue fragments to the corresponding question, but not only is dragging these fragments across the screen very time-consuming with a controller, for some reason, you are required to move each clue fragment to a specific place (suppose a question requires three clues: you can't place clue A to the right side of the question because it has to be to the left side). And strangely enough, the touch screen of the Switch is not supported, even though that would make dragging a lot more convenient... 

Generating hypotheses is definitely one of my favorite parts of the game. The mechanic is very simple (the game is made to appeal to non-gamers) and of course, the hypotheses are automatically generated once you combine the correct clues together, but the game does a great job at showing the player how each hypothesis, correct and wrong, are properly based on the clues. Often mystery games just offer you a list of optional answers, one of them good and the rest wrong, but there is no true explanation how each of those options actually came to be. In The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story, you are shown how every hypothesis (= possible answer in the Solution part) is built, from which hints they derive and how they all make sense (up to a degree). Sometimes, you have a fairly good idea of the case already when you start in the Reasoning part, but occasionally the game really manages to throw a screwball at you because when you combine clue A and B, you not only get hypothesis D you were expecting, but the same clues A and B also generate hypotheses E and F, which on second thought actually seem pretty convincing too (because you are shown that they derive logically from clues A & B). Of course, sometimes the hypothesis you create is obviously fake, in a funny way, but that's okay too: the game always shows that a theory in mystery fiction is based on actual clues shown in the story, and not just a gut feeling of "that person looks suspicious".

As for the cases themselves, most of them are not really complex, but I found most of them quite enjoyable. This is partially because of the grand scale of the story: Haruka is not only dealing with what happens at Shijima manor in 2022, but she also reads a few records of the cases that occured in the past. These parts are of course also presented as live-action drama, and it results in quite some variety on screen: one episode you are investigating a case that occurs in the modern world, the next episode you are transported to a suspicious underground auction in 1922. The period drama parts definitely manage to convey the atmosphere of those periods despite each episode not being very long (most chapters are about an hour long in total). What is also funny is how these period drama parts actually use the same actors as in the 2022 parts: the in-game explanation is that Haruka has to visually imagine the past cases while she reads the old records, and in her mind, she "casts" every character with the faces of people she knows, meaning that her editor Akari can be "cast" as one character in 1922, and "cast" as another in another case. It kinda reminds of the Nero Wolfe television show, which also reused a fixed cast who'd play different characters in different stories. I think these historical episodes are also the most memorable, as the plots of those episodes often make good use of their historical setting, utilizing props and ideas that belong to those periods. 

 

Oh, by the way, for some reason this game doesn't actually automatically move on to the final chapter on its own after playing the preceding chapter. There are no unlock criteria or anything, save for completing the previous episode but you have to especially choose to start with the final chapter in the main menu, even though the game doesn't actually tell you it added the new option for the final chapter, so it's quite possible you think you finished the game, but haven't actually started the final chapter. It's so weird, for it really should have just moved on to the final chapter on its own after finishing the previous one, but it doesn't... The final chapter answers a lot of important lingering questions too, and really helps make this a memorable mystery game by the way, so be sure not to miss it, because without it the story of The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story is incomplete. 

And some minor trivia: voice actor Kaji Yuuki has a minor role in this game, but also the shogi player Kagawa Manao. The latter is interesting, because she also has a role in the shogi-themed mystery adventure game Senri no Keifu as herself. Is she actually a big mystery fan and that's why she has all these guest roles in mystery games???

The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story has plenty of minor faults, from its short run-time, the somewhat clumsy controls to the game being mostly a fairly passive experience. But it does present a very interesting and attractive mystery story dealing with a mysterious family, a mythological fruit and a series of murders that take place across time, and more importantly: it translates the experience of "solving a mystery story" perfectly. Like Trick X Logic before it, The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story shows how a proper detective story should be structured and how it should lay out a trail of clues for the reader to follow, and how readers are supposed to build theories based on these clues. The game mechanics of The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story are exactly how I read mystery fiction, and for example how I tackled my earlier playthroughs of Umineko: When They Cry and Higurashi: When They Cry. That is why I think that fans of puzzle plot mystery fiction really owe it to themselves to play The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story sooner or later. I think that at least for me, this will be one game that'll end up in my list of favorite mysteries at the end of this year.

Original Japanese title(s): 『春ゆきてレトロチカ』

15 comments :

  1. Glad to know you liked the game! I was hoping to watch a playthrough of it (as I don't have a console atm), but SE is really cracking down on any uploads of it on YouTube. I suppose if I wait a little bit, the restrictions will loosen.

    As for Manao Kagawa - yeah, she's a huge mystery fan. She even got a present from Aoyama Gosho (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYvGh9f77eM) and did a collaboration with shogi legend Moriuchi Toshiyuki to decide who was the bigger Conan fan (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMKsS_1_n2I).

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    1. Ha! That's nice, funny how they used her as an actress in this game too then! I didn't *really* recognize her in the game, but when I saw her name in the credits, I remembered she was one of the shogi players who appeared with their real names in Senri no Kifu XD

      Yeah, I expect that after a few months, SE won't be as strict anymore. At least you'll be *relatively* safe for spoilers too :P

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  2. Wait, so there are actually 7 chapters in the game, not 6?

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    1. Yes! It's really easy to miss (especially as it shows you the credits first), but once you're done with the first six chapters, take a better look at the main menu ;) (but I honestly don't understand why they did it like this)

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  3. Thanks of the review, it is nice to see a detective game review from the perspective of mystery fans. This game and the AI somnium file sequel: Nirvana Initiative are two games that I am most looking forward to this year. I also hope that the Hayarigami games, Umineko series (switch version), and Buddy Mission Bond will get an english translation in the future. Also hoping that the Zero Escape games to get a Switch port.

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    1. While I thought AI The Somnium Files had interesting ideas, I really didn't like the puzzle segments, so I'll be waiting for a discount again :P I played Buddy Mission BOND a while back, when it was part of the Japanese Nintendo Switch Online game trials. It's a pretty straight-forward, but enjoyable game. Kinda like Sakura Taisen, where you experience "a full anime season". Still don't understand why it never got published outside Japan though, it didn't seem like there was anything that would be "troublesome" in terms of contents/story (in fact, it seemed to me like it'd really have wide appeal internationally).

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  4. You said the magic words - "Released in English"! Thanks for reviewing this, I think it would have passed me by otherwise. I am usually biased towards Switch versions, but given what you said about the controls, and how I usually play in handheld mode with a small screen, I might get it on PC. It's pretty expensive though... hopefully it will be on sale in a few days.
    - Velleic

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    1. Yeah, I feel like the controls in the Reasoning parts are really clearly made for mouse control. Unless you really, really want to play it now, I'd definitely recommend waiting for a sale: I am glad to support such games at release, but it is a bit of a steep price considering how much you'll get out of it (not just play "time" but also how much you actually get to "do" in terms of gameplay).

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  5. Glad you enjoyed this game. 🙂 To date I've not ventured into mystery games; there seems to be plenty of Chinese and translated Japanese mystery novels that I haven't read. In any case, mystery gaming sounds dangerously addictive...

    I gather the latest volume of 金田一37歳の事件簿 is out, thereby concluding 殺人二十面相?

    Also, I was wondering if you've been watching the new live-action Kindaichi TV series...?

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    1. Oh, have you ever heard of a Chinese television series called "Luoyang"? I came across the FMV mystery game 神都不良探 Underdog Detective a few days back, and it looked interesting, but it's supposed to be spin-off/prequel to that series?

      Yeah, the latest Kindaichi, Age 37 is out, as is the first volume of the 30th anniversary series! Ordered them a while ago, so will get to them soon. And yep, I am also watching the drama series, so I'll probably just stuff all of that in a big Kindaichi post :P

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    2. Oh, I didn’t know about the 30th anniversary series! 🤩 Looking forward to the mega-post on Kindaichi.

      I’ve heard of Luoyang in passing, but haven’t seen it. I think I can watch it on the same site that streams (legally) the Detective Chinatown series.

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  6. Good review, Ho-Ling! So far, I've finished two of the mysteries, and I think my favorite part of the game is its mix of guided logic (like in Ace Attorney) and open-ended reasoning (like in FrogWare Holmes), creating equally possible hypotheses that calls on your comprehension of the story to resolve. It's very fun, though I feel that Trial and Error aren't discouraged enough in Reasoning segments (strictly speaking, it's possible to farm "Summaries" for confirmation of theories as well), and it's kind of annoying how sometimes you'll have four different Clues that all roughly say the same thing and only one of them attaches to the Question piece.

    I agree with you that the mysteries are simple and not hard to solve. Neither of the first two are particularly notable in any way, honestly...

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    1. Once you're more comfortable with reading Japanese, I'd definitely recommend trying Trick X Logic! The developers of The Centennial Case have made it clear in interviews etc. that this game is definitely aimed at a broader audience and not just mystery fans, so while it does a great job at showing how one should build theories based on clues, the stories themselves are relatively simple in terms of difficulty. Trick X Logic on the other hand is really aimed at the fan of the genre, so more satisfying in that regard.

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  7. Yeah- I adored this. So rare to get a true GAD game over here with all the trappings (maps, suspect lists, etc). Plus, the twists at the end had my jaw on the floor and mostly felt earned. Oh, and the music was fantastic as well. Right up there with Ace Attorney for me.

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    1. I would love for them to make more games based on this model/mechanics. Like, I don't mind if they move away from FMV if it'd free up some budget*, but I'd hate for this to be a one time thing from Square-Enix because it's really too good for that.

      *Apparently, parts of the story had to be rewritten once they decided on FMV, with for example actors wanting bigger roles or the location where they were filming not being suitable for the originally conceived tricks so rewrites suddenly becoming necessary XD

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