"Sherlock"
Wow, it's been almost four years since I last wrote something about this series?
In 1987, Shinjuku Chuuou Kouen Satsujin Jiken ("The Shinjuku Central Park Murder Case") was released for the Famicom Disk System in Japan, making it the third command-based adventure game on the system, and the game would become the first entry in one of the longest mystery adventure game franchises in existence. In the game, the player took up the role of private investigator Jinguuji Saburou who worked in Shinjuku and helped by assistant Youko and backed-up by his friend Inspector Kumano, the player was asked to solve the murder of a woman found in Shinjuku Central Park. It was far from a perfect game, and a lot of the ideas seen in this game would be abandoned, or only return in much later installments in a much refined versions, but still, the basic concept of the game were unique enough to make this a franchise over 30 years old. The game was unique for being aimed at adults, with a distinct hardboiled atmosphere, offering a story that involved the underworld of Shinjuku, and which had you investigate suspicious bars and other places in the shady entertainment district. But, it had also aspects of a puzzle plot mystery, with a pretty outrageous plot revealed at the end, and that is what has given the Tantei Jinguuji Saburou game franchise its unique face: the series has seen several developers in its history, but you can generally expected a mystery story with a hardboiled exterior involving the underworld, but you can occasionally find puzzle plot mystery plots too that tie in with those "hardboiled detective" plots, and then there's of course the fantastic music of this series. I am a big fan of the series, and have written about many of the games, and while they are certainly not all recommended material, I still enjoy them in general a lot.
What might be confusing about this franchise is that the title Shinjuku Chuuou Kouen Satsujin Jiken ("The Shinjuku Central Park Murder Case") has been used multiple times for different productions. In 2003, a "remake" of the game was released on mobile phones in Japan, and this version was also later included in the first Nintendo DS title of this franchise. This DS game has been released in English in localized form as Jake Hunter Detective Story: Memories of the Past, with the remake of Shinjuku Chuuou Kouen Satsujin Jiken being given the title The Petty Murder of a Fragile Heart. But even though this version is considered a "remake" and in Japanese, bears the same title as the 1987 original, it's basically a completely different story: while the 2003 version starts similarly with the corpse of a woman being discovered in Shinjuku Central Park and Inspector Kumano asking Jinguuji to look into the case, the rest of the case is completely different, and the "biggest" connection the 2003 version has with the 1987 game in terms of story, is that a few characters from the 2003 game share names with characters from the 1987 version, though with completely different backgrounds. So that's two games titled Shinjuku Chuuou Kouen Satsujin Jiken but with different stories.
This novel was released in 2000, after the three PlayStation/Saturn era games (The Unfinished Reportage, At the End of the Dream and Before the Light Fades), and you can definitely tell. The atmosphere of this novel, and the way the investigation into the murder of Yukie plays out is very similar to those three games, so as "supplemental material" to those games, I quite enjoyed it. This 2000 version of the Shinjuku Central Park murder by the way is not intended as a remake of the first game: in the book Jinguuji refers to the events of the 1987 game, saying he worked on a case involving a dead woman in the park before, so it's just supposed to be a similar, but different case. There are a few other minor parts that help "fix" this novel within the game timeline, like this book being the first time Jinguuji meets the forensic investigator Miyoshi (who first appears in Mikan no Rupo) or mentioning how this story is set only a few months after Youko first became Jinguuji's assistant (also referencing how they first met, as shown in Yume no Owari ni, and later somewhat retconned/explained really weirdly in the spin-off prequel game Daedalus). That said, I'd say the book is pretty accessible for people who don't know the series at all: sure, you have a few recurring characters like the yakuza boss Imaizumi, but everything you need to know is explained, and Tantei Jinguuji Saburou: Shinjuku Chuuou Kouen Satsujin Jiken AD2000 is perfectly readable as a standalone hardboiled detective story.
That said, I assume that most readers of this blog are not really looking for a hardboiled detective story and in that regard, Tantei Jinguuji Saburou: Shinjuku Chuuou Kouen Satsujin Jiken AD2000 isn't really a book I would recommend. I think it's a great Jinguuji Saburou novel, that really captures the atmosphere of the games, and of the three novels I have read now, this one is absolutely the best one at capturing the vibe, but as a standalone detective story, it's not particularly clever or memorable. You just follow Jinguuji's investigation as he tries to learn more about Yukie, the shady going-ons at Side Pocket and how that may be connected to Yukie's death, and as always, things start to get complicated when Jinguuji stumbles upon a plot that involves the underworld of Shinjuku and there's even a social school-esque aspect as we learn about the weaker people like hostesses who live within the shady night-life of Shinjuku, but it's not like you're treated to a fairly clewed, clever mystery. You're just here for the ride. There are a few minor moments where Jinguuji makes clever deductions about what to do, but those times are rare. It's not the novel that will win people over or anything, it's just a solid spin-off novel of the game series. Some parts might feel bit too similar to the plots from the PlayStation/Saturn-era games, but it's a part I like, because I think those games were the best of the series, and this book really feels part of that era.
Oh, and the book has some neat original art!
So Tantei Jinguuji Saburou: Shinjuku Chuuou Kouen Satsujin Jiken AD2000 isn't really a must-read on its own, but as a big fan of the series, I am happy to have now experienced all three times within this franchise where the titular detective had to investigate the murder of a woman in Shinjuku Central Park. The novel is at no time truly surprising nor does it offer a really clever plot, but it does feel incredibly close to the type of stories the PlayStation/Saturn games in this franchise told and as such, I even think it's the best Jinguuji Saburou novel I have read until now. And as I haven't discussed this series in years now on this blog, I needed an excuse to bring it up again, and use the "hardboiled" tag again. Guess it's back to waiting for a new game again...
By the way, what happened with that New Order mobile game? I remember checking it a year or so after release and it was still only 1 ep.
ReplyDeleteI checked a while back, and they still only had that baseball player episode :( Pretty sure it's abandoned now (which makes it even more incomprehensible why they made a "hub" application)
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