The Phantom of Baker Street

「連鎖する事件の裏にいたのは、ファントムが奏でるラプソディーか」

『名探偵コナン　ファントム狂詩曲』

"Behind this chain of events, is a rhapsody performed by a phantom..."

"Detective Conan: Phantom Rhapsody"

A new year, a new Detective Conan game! Looking back at the reviews of previous Conan games, I see they were all posted in May... That's because these games are always released mid-April (to coincide with the annual Conan movies) so add in shipping time and actual playtime, and you see why these reviews appear around the same time on this blog.

Detective Conan Musical Game series (DS/PSP/3DS)
Detective Conan: Rondo of the Blue Jewel
Detective Conan: Prelude from the Past
Detective Conan: Marionette Symphony
Detective Conan: Phantom Rhapsody

Azu Taishou Town is a Taishou period theme park and crucial part of the Azu town revitalization project. The famous detective Sleeping Kogorou has been invited to attend the opening ceremony by local politican (and driving power behind the project Igarashi Kiyoko, who also wants to hire Kogorou to locate a missing jewel for her. But things are not all well in Azu, as several murder cases happen across the town after the opening ceremony. A popular mobile game, Holmes App, and its mysterious developer Luna appear to be sole connection between the otherwise unconnected cases, but as Azu town is sealed off per order of an unknown bomb terrorist and police can't move, Conan and the gang will have to find the person orchestrating these murders themselves in the 2014 3DS game Detective Conan: Phantom Rhapsody.

Detecive Conan: Phantom Rhapsody is the fourth game in the musically themed Detective Conan game series, and the second to be developed by Spike-Chunsoft. Phantom Rhapsody is also a direct sequel to last year's Marionette Symphony, utilizing the same zapping system as its core game mechanic, a system where you need to 'zap' between multiple protagonists in order to help out the other protagonists (see also my reviews of Machi ~ Unmei no Kousaten, 428 ~ Fuusa Sareta Shibuya de and Marionette Symphony for more about zapping systems). Oh, and a fair warning, Phantom Rhapsody refers to the terrorist attack at Clover Hill several times and the big bad of Marionette Symphony appears quite prominently in the story, so you really should play Marionette Symphony before starting with Phantom Rhapsody.

 
As for Phantom Rhapsody's story, I think it's the opposite of last year's Marionette Symphony: Both games featured several seperate crimes which all tied in with one larger storyline, but while Phantom Rhapsody's individual crimes are quite right and it's fun figuring out who did it and how,  I think the overall story has some major flaws. Marionette Symphony on the other hand had a better overall story, but has pretty boring murders. For Phantom Rhapsody, you can expect a locked room murder, a detective vs detective battle, code cracking stories and even an appearance of the gentleman thief KID. Also, Phantom Rhapsody features the very first game appearance of highschool girl student detective Sera Masumi, who ever since her first appearance in the manga has been a favorite of mine! And yes, she solves a murder!

Last year's Marionette Symphony was not a perfect game, but it did manage to do something what few story-based games manage to do: link the story and the game mechanics (the zapping system) in a meaningful way. The moment it became clear why Marionette Symphony featured a zapping system, was amazing and really made an impression on me. This year's Phantom Rhapsody however is mostly just a rehash of the things we already saw in the previous game, just not as good. Only during a handful of events did I feel that a zapping system was needed for this story: most of the time they could have gone with a normal adventure game like the older Rondo of the Blue Jewel and Prelude to the Past.

 
The zapping system, and the information sharing Truth Card system, made sense for the story of Marionette Symphony: everyone was held captive in different part of the Clover Hill buildings with no mobile phone network, so it was natural to have multiple protagonists moving at different locations, each of them getting their hands on information that might help someone else. For Phantom Rhapsody however, the zapping system is not really necessary, as most of the time everyone is actually close to each other. The protagonists are mostly moving in one or two clusters, so why would you need to zap between six characters, if they're all standing next to each other?! Also, everyone can just use a mobile phone here, so why bother with the Truth Card system at all... In short, all the game mechanics that made sense storywise in Marionette Symphony, were just copied for this game, without actually having a good reason for that. Which is a shame, because I really liked Marionette Symphony and was hoping Chunsoft would pull something amazing again with Phantom Rhapsody...

As for game mechanics, Phantom Rhapsody has some new additions. Besides a witnesses-start-talking-fast-and-you-need-to-pick-out-an-important-statement system (borrowed from Danganronpa and Profesor Layton vs Ace Attorney's mob trials), Phantom Rhapsody also features Detective Battles, a confrontation system with RPG-esque elements (like in Danganronpa): at times you'll need to protect your Logic Points (=hit points) from random anger bursts of the suspects, but you can also replenish Logic Points and do preemptive strikes (with evidence, of course). The system has some flaws, but I have to admit these sections were quite exciting to do. But another new 'game mechanic' is obnoxious slowdown half of the time when you present a piece of evidence! I'm pretty sure that this game can't be that hard on the 3DS's processor...

In conclusion, Detective Conan: Phantom Rhapsody is an inferior sequel to Marionette Symphony. The elements that made last year's Conan game so impressive are not to be found here, resulting in an average, at times somewhat frustrating game. The seperate murder mysteries are okay, but the overall story, and the way it does not tie in well with the main game mechanics kinda hurt the game. By the way, for those interested in these musically themed Conan games, I think the best is Marionette Symphony, then Rondo of the Blue Jewel, followed by Phantom Rhapsody and finally Prelude from the Past.

Original Japanese title(s): 『名探偵コナン　ファントム狂詩曲（ラプソディー）』

『街中 Sophisticate』

いつも探してる　みんな歩いてる 

けれど　まだどうにも見つからない事ばかり

だけど探してく　ずっと歩いてく 

誰もが皆それぞれの自分生きている 

『One and Only』　（鈴木結女）

Everyone is searching, everyone is walking

But there are still things they can't find

But they will keep on searching, they will keep on walking

Everyone is living their lives

"One And Only" (Suzuki Yume)

Last review of the year!

October 11. Shibuya. Home of the most famous scramble crossing. Home of Hachikou. Home of major department centers. Fashion center. Home of one of the liviest shopping and nightlife districts in Tokyo. City of hope, city of dreams. City of despair, city of misery. And home to the eight protagonists of Machi ~Unmei no Kousaten~ ("City ~Crossroad of Fates~"). Each of them have their own worries, their own dreams, their own story. Yoshiko needs to lose weight fast or else her boyfriend will break up with her. Umabe is working on a comeback as an actor. Masashi is being blackmailed into entering a blackmail organization. Youhei is told by one of his flings she is carrying his child. Keima is working hard to stop a terrorist attack on Shibuya. Ichikawa is struggling with his fame as a scriptwriter and the wish to write real literature. Takamine has deserted from the French Foreign Legion and has come back to his home town. Ushio is a ex-yakuza who accidently gets involved with a robbery. Eight persons, eight lives. They don't know each other. The one thing they have in common: they all live in Shibuya, and the following five days will be remembered forever by both them, and the players of the game.

Machi ~Unmei no Kousaten~ (available on Saturn, PlaySation and PSP) is not very famous outside of Japan, but it is considered a masterpiece there; in a 2009 poll of an All Time Top 100 by gaming magazine Famitsuu, Machi ended up ranking in at fifth place, beating many major titles like The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Dragon Quest IV.  Considering that Machi ~Unmei no Kousaten~ is a sound novel, that's quite impressive. A sound novel is a game where the story is told through prose (i.e. text appears on the screen like a novel, accompanied by music and background still pictures) and where you occcasionally have to make decisions that determine the outcome of the story, like an adventure-book.

In Machi ~Unmei no Kousaten, you'll have to guide each of the eight protagonists to the end of the day, making the right choices on the way (or else you arrive at a bad ending). For the scenario with Yoshiko for example, you might want to avoid going to places with a lot of restaurants if you want her diet to be succesful. But, even though the eight protagonists don't know each other, each and every action undertaken by any of them, might unknowingly have influence on someone other's fate! One early example is when Yoshiko is out jogging, when she is hit by a truck. Takamine however was having a row with the driver of that truck just a few minutes earlier, and while it has no impact on Takamine's story whether you get into a fight with the driver or not, if you choose to knock the driver out, he won't be able to hit Yoshiko with his truck later on, changing her fate. So by 'zapping' between all eight storylines, you as the player need to find the right combination of choices that will get every character safely to another day. Indeed, Machi ~Unmei no Kousaten~ was actually the first Chunsoft sound novel with the zapping system, a game mechanic I have also praised in my reviews of Detective Conan: Marionette Symphony and 428 ~ Fuusa Sareta Shibuya de.

428 ~ Fuusa Sareta Shibuya de and Machi ~Unmei no Kousaten~ are considered standalone games, but they are both set in Shibuya, they share the zapping system, and little notes and small references show that the two stories are in fact set in the same world (with 428 taking place ten years after the events in Machi). Amemiya Keima was originally scheduled to appear in the 428 as a guest character. I loved 428 ~ Fuusa Sareta Shibuya de, but I think I like Machi ~Unmei no Kousaten~ even better! The games are very much alike, zapping between protagonists to accomplish goals, but 428 was in the end about getting the five protagonists to work together to stop a terrorist virus attack on Shibuya. Machi ~Unmei no Kousaten~ however takes a slice-of-life approach: the eight protagonists do get connected at some level, but it is not like one big epic where everybody gathers to fight evil. The eight storylines are distinct from each other and fairly 'normal'. It's this sense of 'normality' that makes Machi ~Unmei no Kousaten~ an experience, as there are just few story-based videogames that have this slice-of-life atmosphere (as opposed to games like Animal Crossing or Boku no Natsuyasumi which aren't story-based per se).

I praised the way 428 made me realize how every little interaction with other people can have huge influences in the long term, but it is done much better in Machi ~Unmei no Kousaten~ because it's a set of slice-of-life stories. The way it conveys the feeling of anonymous people living in a big metropolis, all with their own lives and goals, yet having influence on each other lives through small actions is just wonderful. It's a bit It's a Wonderful Life-esque, actually, with you seeing how even the small action of closing a door can help out another person. The interconnections between the scenarios (even if small) really make Shibuya come to life as a background. And speaking of backgrounds, sometimes it's just fun to see some of the other protagonists just pop up in the background of another scenario. It really nails the feeling all these characters are living in the same space in the same time.

Another mechanic that deepens the experience is the so-called TIPS system. It's basically the option to hightlight specific keywords for more information (i.e footnotes). Some TIPS give explanations of complex words, while others are just hilarious observations. Even more important are the TIPS that describe a side of Shibuya you'll only see a glimpse of in the 'main' game; only by reading the TIPS you'll discover why that policeman is always talking with another dialect every time another person meets him, or why that convenience store is run by the same guy for five days, day and night. I am not a fan of footnotes per se (thank you, Van Dine), but when it's done like in Machi, to expand the world, I can only say yes, more please.

But even if I say Machi ~Unmei no Kousaten~ is slice-of-life, you can expect a lot of craziness in the scenarios here. I mean, getting mistaken for a gangster or getting to hear an old fling is carrying your baby, while an even older fling has already given birth to your child (note: Youhei is a high school student) is probably not something that happens every day. But it's not mystery per se. 428 ~ Fuusa Sareta Shibuya de can be called a detective game because of its goals, but Machi ~Unmei no Kousaten~ can't be called that in general. So why do I discuss the game here on the blog? Well, it's a masterpiece, and it's not a detective game in general, but there are two scenarios that actually can be considered as such and that's why I discuss those two in detail.

Run, Otaku Detective! is the 'main' scenario of the game. Police detective and full-time gamer Amemiya Keiba witnesses the screening of a mysterious message on the big TV screen mounted on a building. Decoding the message reveals a bomb threat, but his senior officer thinks it's just a hoax. The five days of Machi has Amemiya running around solving devious codes sent by the terrorist, who has hidden small bombs in videogame arcades all around Shibuya. Think Detective Conan: The Time-Bombed Skyscraper.

This is one of the more 'game-like' scenarios (see the similarities with 428's story) and while the first day is a bit easy, you'll have to solve the codes yourself in later days, which make it more exciting. And, something really surprising, like Chunsoft's own Kamaitachi no Yoru, you'll actually have to input the name of the culprit yourself at the end of the game (which caught me off-guard...). As a detective game it's a bit different from Kamaitachi no Yoru, because it's mostly solving codes (instead of a murder), but not less entertaining (and some of the bad endings are fantastic).

"You'll be Friday". The Seven Days Club starts with the student Shinoda Masashi being blackmailed by a mysterious beauty with the codename Sunday. He gets a discount (he only needs to pay 10.000 yen), but in return must enter the Seven Days Club. As its newest member Friday, Masashi will need to blackmail seven people himself, before he's free. Masashi has no idea what's going on at first, but he quickly develops a knack for blackmailing, making use of his fast brain and ability to adapt quickly. But he also has a soft spot for his victims, and he soon turns into a model, nice blackmailer. But what is the goal of the Seven Days Club? Why is their slogan chinchicole? That is a question Masashi asks himself (as will the player), and that is what makes this scenario the best of the game.

The whole idea of being blackmailed into a blackmailing organization that only asks for 10.000 yen is just ridiculuous, but the crazy people in the Seven Days Club (which include a high school student, a tranvestite and a hippy), as well as the people Masashi blackmails make this the funniest scenario. But the way Masashi slowly learns how to play his victims, reminds of Liar Game, whereas the latter part of the scenario, where Masashi slowly deduces the true goal of the Seven Days Club, is pure detective magic (and I will admit that I was actually surprised at the amount of foreshadowing/hinting that was done across the game).

The other scenarios are not mysteries, but again, in the end all these stories are interconnected, and Machi ~Unmei no Kousaten~ is definitely something that should be experienced. In fact, I consider Machi ~Unmei no Kousaten~ as one of the best games I've played this year. Heck, one of the best games I've played ever. I'll admit that 428 is better as a consistent game, because the boring parts of Machi ~Unmei no Kousaten~ are worse than those of 428, but at its best, I prefer the more free, less concentrated and more 'realistic' slice-of-life approach of Machi ~Unmei no Kousaten~. It's a masterpiece in narrative and characterization in videogames and you should really try it out if you have the opportunity.

Original Japanese title(s): 『街　運命の交差点　特別篇』

運命の交差点

「怪人が飛べて、探偵に飛べんわけあるか！」

『名探偵コナン　マリオネット 交響曲（シンフォニー）』

"If monsters can fly, there's no reason why detectives can't fly!"

"Detective Conan: Marionette Symphony"

Oh, I finally got my gigantic stack of books! And with gigantic, I mean that if I were to read one detective novel a week, I'd still have enough for more than a year. And that is ignoring the non detective materials. Anyway, it's finally back to reviews of mostly (but not exclusively) Japanese detective novels again! But first, a videogame.

Detective Conan: Marionette Symphony (Nintendo 3DS) is set at Clover Hill, a huge building complex designed after a four clover leaf. The whole of Clover Hill is in a festive mood because of its first anniversary. A foreign prince has come to display a regal heirloom in one of the towers of Clover Hill, the television studios located in another tower report on the event too, etcetera. But not all is well, it appears, as the owner of the buildings wants advice from famous detective Mouri Kogorou on some hush-hush issue. It just happens that at the same time Kogorou, his daughter Ran and their 'parasite' Conan are visiting Clover Hill, high school detective Hattori Heiji is present at the television studios of Clover Hill for an interview, a gang of meddling kids (the Detective Boys) are hoping to discover the truth behind a rumor of a flying man at the same building and phantom thief KID is planning to steal the regal heirloom on display. Considering Conan and the rest of the crew have been attracting murder and other crimes for almost twenty years non-stop now, one can guess that something bad is about to happen. The terrorist group Flowers of Liberation bomb the only bridge to the mainland and take over Clover Hill, with everyone inside as its hostage. The whole Conan gang, though seperated, has to work together to overcome the terrorist attack and solve some murders on the way too.

I wasn't too much a fan of last year's Detective Conan: Prelude from the Past, so I was not particularly enthusiastic when Marionette Symphony was first announced, but then the trailer mentioned Spike-Chunsoft and the inclusion of the Zapping System and I was on board. Chunsoft (who merged with Spike last year) is the developer behind videogames like Kamaitachi no Yoru, Danganronpa and 428, which rank among the best adventure games ever. The Zapping System is one that has features in several Chunsoft games, and has the player zapping between several protagonists on the spot, with actions performed by one protagonist, having influence on the world of another protagonist (i.e. protagonist A steals protagonist B's car; protagonist A is able to proceed, but protagonist B is left without a car, resulting in a game over for that particular character). Chunsoft had already used the Zapping System for the fairly orthodox detective game Kamaitachi no Yoru X3, but it was the first time such a system would be used for a Detective Conan game (for a more detailed explanation, see the 428 review).

The system is a bit different in Marionette Symphony though. This time, Conan, Ran, the Detective Boys, Haibara, Hattori and KID (and several other characters) all make use of the so-called Truth Card system, which is basically an application which allows the characters to share information. Characters have to use this shared information to overcome their own problems. For example, early in the game the Detective Boys want to listen in on a group of terrorists in the room next door, but they can't just walk in the room. However, another character happens to receive information about the airducts being wide enough for children to get into and shares that through a Truth Card, allowing the Detective Boys to crawl through the airducts to reach their goal. The player has to manage the information flow between all the characters and sometimes you'll be unable to proceed with a certain character, because you haven't acquired the necessary information with another character.

Another new system is the so-called Detective Time, where you'll find yourself in a pinch. You're given limited time to decide on the right action to undertake (while accidently choosing wrong actions will result in a time loss). A slightly cheap way to invoke thrills, but nevertheless effective. The moment the music starts, you will feel tension and it does match the slightly more action-based, movie-like setting of the story to have such moments. Other changes are the exclusion of the minigames and quizes found in the previous two games and the inclusion of an AR mode, where you take pictures of a Conan come alive through a augmented reality card (which also functions as a hint mode for when you're stuck in the game).

As a game, it is at times a hit and miss. The system forces you to zap way too often, sometimes from one character to another in the same location at the same time, which has no practical use at all! I couldn't care less whether I am seeing the same situation from Kogorou's or Ran's point of view, especially if neither of these characters are able to interact in meaningful way with said situation! Watching the same scene from a different angle can be interesting at times, but only if something new is offered. Not the case here. Story progression is also very linear, despite the possibility to jump between perspectives.

The story too at first feels a bit generic, but it becomes really good as it nears the end. The previous two Conan games (Rondo of the Blue Jewel and Prelude from the Past) both featured several seperate cases, which were only loosely tied by a main storyline. In Marionette Symphony, the terrorist attack is the most important aspect of the story, with the murders you have to solve in between (yes, the detectives find time to solve murders even during a terrorist attack) almost feeling like a sidequest (though still very relevant to the main story). It takes a while for the story to get momentum, but when it's on a roll, everything works. And Marionette Symphony has one of the greatest endings of detective fiction I've seen in the last few years: I don't mean that in the sense of most surprising ending, a suddenly revealed narrative trick, or a complex logical chain or anything like that: but the moment the person responsible for everything is revealed, the intention of the creators, everything they wanted to accomplish with this particular game becomes clear. Points I thought strange suddenly made sense and I can only admire what Spike-Chunsoft tried to do with this game and the way in which they accomplished that. Their own Super Danganronpa 2 had something similiar, but as a whole, I'd say that Marionette Symphony did it better.

Marionette Symphony is also great as a Detective Conan game, because the characters act like you would expect to them to do. The Detective Boys are very different characters from Ran, and the way they cope with the terrorists are naturally also not similar at all. The way everybody has a bit to contribute invokes a movie-esque atmosphere, which is absolutely fine for such a game. In fact, the story feels quite suitable for a movie and you wouldn't see me complaining if it was remade/rewritten for a special or movie...

Short story: definitely a must play for Detective Conan fans and those who have played Chunsoft's adventures. The game is naturally more fun if you know a bit of the Conan-lore, but it is a decent adventure on its own and shouldn't be ignored just because it is based on a license.

Original title(s): 『名探偵コナン　マリオネット交響曲（シンフォニー）』

「都合のいい奇跡だって…やればなんとかなるっ！」

「希望を求めなければ・・・絶望に襲われる事もないんだし」  

『スーパーダンガンロンパ２　さよなら絶望学園』

"If you don't wish for hope, you won't be assaulted by despair either"

"Super Danganronpa 2 - Farewell Academy of Despair"

It's been more than a year since my last translation, and I really want to do a new one somewhere in the near future again. Not sure whether people actually read them though. And I'd have to look for appropiate material. As fun as it would be to translate an actual novel, as long as I don't get paid for it, it would take too much time/effort to do anything more than a short story (and even then I tend to do little more than the bare minimum...) 

The story of the PSP game Super Danganronpa 2 - Sayonara Zetsubou Gakuen ("Super Danganronpa 2 - Farewell Academy of Despair") once again starts at Hope's Peak Academy, a high school which only accepts students of super class. Whether you're a super class gamer, or a super class cook, or just have super class luck, you need to excel at a field to be accepted at Hope's Peak. This time, a group of 16 students, including protagonist Hinata Hajime, can definitely remember they arrived at the school, but for some reason they all wake up on a tropical island. They are told by the rabbit doll-like Usami being that they are on a school trip and that their only task is to bond and become friends with each other. Of course, nobody has any clue of what is going on at the beginning, but the 16 students slowly get used to the idea and really start to have fun on the island.

Until the evil Monokuma, a bear-like doll, appears on the scene, violently usurping the control of the island from Usami. He reinstates the system we already from the first game: students are only allowed to leave the island if they succeed in committing murder and getting away with it. After a murder has happened (and Monokuma makes sure a murder happens by giving incentives and motives for the students), the students have to hold a classroom trial, in which they have to figure out who the murderer is. If they guess correctly, the murderer is executed by Monokuma and the murder games continue, if they guess wrong everyone but the murderer is executed.

The set-up is the same as in the first Danganronpa: a closed circle situation with 16 students, with them having to solve the murders they commit among themselves in a courtroom setting, whilst also trying to figure out why they are being held captured by Monokuma. But Super Danganronpa 2 is an improvement in practically all aspects compared to the first game. First of all, the cases you have to solve are much better. In the original Danganronpa, anyone of reasonable intelligence could solve the murders (including all the 'surprise twists') during the investigation parts of the game, that is, the sequences where you collect the clues you would use in the classroom trials. The clues were so obvious and the plots were so simple, you could figure out everything there already, making the actual classroom trials rather boring: every plot-twist had been telegraphed long in advance because of the clumsy clues.

In Super Danganronpa 2 however, the murder cases are structured much better, meaning you can't solve the cases completely before entering a classroom trial, because some essential hints are only made known during the trial. Sounds unfair, but that's part of the suspense: the students are forced to hold classroom trials by Monokuma, with their own lives at stake. They know one of them is the murderder, but not who. They have to be careful with sharing information, sometimes only bringing things up if it is essential for the current topic of discussion.

This is reflected in some new game mechanics. It's still an action-packed variation of the Gyakuten Saiban games and you can read the Danganronpa review for a more detailed explanation, but it is essentially reacting on statements made by other people. This is usually done by pointing out contradictions with the help of evidence, but one new mechanic is to agree with statements made by other people: sometimes a person makes a suggestion or a guess which actually warrants back up from you (and evidence). It seems like a simple improvement, but it adds a lot to the idea of all students working together through way of discussion to arrive at the truth. On the other hand, another new system introduces specific one-on-one discussions, once again strengthening the atmosphere of having a group of differently thinking students whose really have nothing else but words to get them out of these cases.

There are also some other improvements in the mechanics that make Super Danganronpa 2 a lot more easier and more fun to play, though they aren't related to the plot: there are some shortcuts that make it a lot easier to interact with your fellow students and there are some minigames included for some extra replay value, making the package indeed look like a Super version of the original Danganronpa.

But to get back at the game's story. as mentioned above, you can look at two parts of the story with Super Danganronpa 2. One is the overall story, which deals with the question of how the 16 students are going to escape from the island and finding out what Monokuma is planning to do. Two is the seperate murder cases that occur among the students. So, it's much like a connected short story collection. What makes Super Danganronpa 2's story so great is the high meta-conciousness it has of the genre and itself as a game sequel. For one, a lot of the characters and events that happen over the course of the game are actually references / subversions / inversions of the first game. You sometimes get the feeling you're looking at the original game through a laughing mirror when playing Super Danganronpa 2, but the writer makes great use of this trick, collecting seemingly familiar tropes and archetypes to play with your expectations, but letting them engage in completely different ways. This way the sequel interacts with the original game is really something special.

Where the game doesn't seem to take its cues from the original, it still manages to shine. One case for example is an excellent example of the mansion murder case as often seen in Ayatsuji Yukito's yakata series, which was strangely something not really present in the first game. Also, one student who appears as a twisted version of the protagonist of the first game because of his belief in his fellow students, creates some of the most interesting situations I've seen in detective fiction in years. There is no way you'd see such a character in conventional detective fiction, but I'd recommend him as a sort of character study for any fan of the genre, as an example of a great new type of character in detective fiction.

But Super Danganronpa 2 doesn't interact with the first game just on a meta-level, but also on an explicit level, meaning you'll probably won't understand most of the ending if you haven't played the original. The story of Super Danganronpa 2 can't be seen seperately from the first game and a lot of the game works because it is a subversion of the expectations created in the first game, so one should really see the two games as one set. The sequel is better in both story and game mechanics, but one should not skip the first game, as you'll miss out on a lot what makes it so good.

Oh, and like the first game, Super Danganronpa 2 is full of references to popular culture, from an ingame- horro game called Twilight Syndrome to Monokuma using special moves from various manga to beat up Usami.

In short, recommended material. But you'll need to play the original Danganronpa to get everything out of it. It takes some time, 20+ hours times two, but the reward is great and for fans of detective adventure games certainly, but also for detective fiction fans in general, I'd even say that it is required playing.

Original Japanese title(s) 『スーパーダンガンロンパ２　さよなら絶望学園』

Haunted House Hang-Up

 「恋人同士だったわけであるまいし、いい加減、ふっきらなければ。いつでも学生時代の思い出を引きずるなて、女々しすぎる　―われながら、そう思う」

『真かまいたちの夜　１１人目の訪問者（サスペクト）』

"It wasn't like we were dating. I have to stop thinking about my student days and get over it like a man, I thought"

"True Night of the Kamaitachi - The Eleventh Suspect"

March will probably be a bit light on review posts, because I'll be moving back to the Netherlands in a few weeks, meaning my reading schedule will suffer a bit. Then again, I haven't been posting in a regular schedule since... quite some time anyway. It wouldn't be much different from previous months, if I were to post four or five reviews in the last week of March, I guess..

Readers of this blog might remember that I absolutely love the Kamaitachi no Yoru ("Night of the Kamaitachi") games. The first game introduced us to the duo of Tooru and Mari, who find themselves trapped with a brutal murderer in a pension cut off from the outside world because of a snowstorm. Tooru and Mari returned also for the second and third game, but with the story of this duo (and the accompanying cast) finished in the third entry, Chunsoft was free to create a new cast and setting for the latest Kamaitachi no Yoru.

Shin Kamaitachi no Yoru 11 Ninme no Suspect ("True Night of the Kamaitachi - The Eleventh Suspect") starts with aspiring young writer Sakamaki Kaito traveling to the prefecture of Iwate to gather information for his newest book. He's booked for a stay at the pension Brownie, which lies somewhere far away in the snowy mountains (of course). At Brownie, Kaito is reunited with Tachibana Kyouka, the girl whom he has been in love with since college and who (secretly) serves as his writing muse (in fact, Kaito only came to Iwate, because Kyouka's parental home is here). Kyouko in return is here in her function as the editor (and aspiring reporter) for a travel magazine. Kaito sees this as a chance to rekindle his friendship with Kyouka, but this wouldn't be a Kamaitachi no Yoru game if something didn't prevent the couple from getting closer: a dead body is found in the bathing area. And disappears. Only to reappear again. With the roads blocked because of the snow and the strange phenomenon of Brownie having eleven guests, even though only ten guests made reservations, a night of fright starts for Kaito and Kyouka.

Kamaitachi no Yoru X3 introduced a complex storyline zapping system, but Shin Kamaitachi no Yoru is in many ways back to the basics. We're back to the simple sound-novel system of having text on the screen (accompanied by backgrounds and silhouettes as the only visuals) and the player is presented with choices at several points, which determine how the story develops. Make the right choices and you unravel the mystery, make the bad choices and you end up dead. Probably. This was done expertly in the first Kamaitachi no Yoru, where it starts out as a 'normal' detective game, but make the wrong deductions and the wrong choices, and everyone starts suspecting each other, usually resulting in splatter-horror. Yet these bad endings don't come out of nowhere and they usually contain small hints that lead you to the real ending.

Which is maybe why I didn't really like Shin Kamaitachi no Yoru. It is the only sound-novel I've played until now where I actually got the real ending in one go. Without seeing one bad end. Normally, you'd be happy with such results, but seeing bad endings is one of the more amusing points of the Kamaitachi no Yoru games. You could make an argument then for me to purposely aiming for bad endings, but that isn't fun either. I want to get fooled, to be tricked into a bad ending. Not trying to die on purpose. This point is also related to how easy this time the story was: I had actually already solved the case before we even found the body (can you call it solving then?), because of the all-too obvious hint that pointed at the murderer. I kept hoping that it wouldn't end up the way I suspected it would, but no such luck.
 
It's of course somewhat of a contradiction, like Takumi Shuu noted: with mysteries, you want to solve the case yourself at one hand, but you want to get baffled by the case too. You want to be able solve it, and also not. It is hard to really solve this conundrum: Takumi Shuu tried to solve it by constantly presenting the player with new, contradicting situations, allowing you to solve, get baffled and solve again. Novels usually only have one solution, giving them only one chance to baffle the reader, which is also the one chance of giving the reader the pleasure of solving case (if they managed it). And I think that Kamaitachi no Yoru coped well with the conundrum by constantly trying to lead you to bad endings (thus baffling / surprising the reader several times), but you do get that triumphant feeling readers also seek when you finally reach that good ending. With Shin Kamaitachi no Yoru, I feel like I missed out on a big part of what makes the series so good.

The things I did like? The original Kamaitachi no Yoru had a slight supernatural tone to it, with people suggesting that 'sickle weasles',  youkai, might have commited the murder. The second game also had this supernatural tone to the story, but the third game got rid of that. This time, we're presented with the legends surrounding good and evil zashiki warashi, which is a really fun theme and actually weaven quite good in the story. Also, I liked the new heroine Kyouka a lot more than old protagonist Mari. Kaito on the other hand is even worse with interacting with his love-interest than old protagonist Tooru, which can be a bit tiring.

Shin Kamaitachi no Yoru is released on both the PlayStation 3 and the PlayStation Vita (I borrowed a Vita), which actually shouldn't really matter for a game that is mostly text. But however Chunsoft felt a need to modernize things. In a bad way. First up is the 3D search mode, that forces players out of the text and has them looking for suspicious spots in a location. This is a first in the series and implemented in quite a bad way (let's ignore the fact that the Vita version is set default at a 3D search mode that uses the gyroscope!): you have no idea what you're supposed to look for and you only get one chance to investigate something. You're just out of luck if you chose to look at the table instead of the chair, even though there is absolutely nothing that would indicate why one item would be more worthy of some attention than the other.

Second problem is the use of voice actors to voice some lines of the characters. The text in Kamaitachi no Yoru is divided in dialogue lines spoken by the characters and the narration, and dialogue lines are often voiced, but not always. Which is really distracting. I'd rather they'd not use voice actors, as I've always felt Kamaitachi no Yoru was closer to a book than to any voiced medium, but if you do choose to use voice actors, voice all lines instead of 70%.

And to make it a real product of its time, Chunsoft also decided that you can download extra content for some extra money. The term DLC (downloadable contents) might not be as familiar to mystery readers as to gamers, but it is ridiculous I'd have to pay extra for scenarios which in previous entries were simply part of the whole package!

Overall a disappointing Kamaitachi no Yoru. This is not the way the series should go, and I hope Chunsoft takes a good look at what they want to do with this series.

Original Japanese title(s): 『真かまいたちの夜　１１人目の訪問者（サスペクト）』

「世界はそれでも変わりはしない」

「教えて下さい・・・運命とは定められたものでは・・・」

『幻想水滸伝』 

"Tell me the answer. Is fate unchangeable?"

"Suikoden"

My way of dealing with a slightly worrying backlog of half-written reviews is apparently writing reviews on other material and pretending there is not a pile waiting for me. I have a nagging feeling that this is not the right solution.

April, 28th. The time: slightly before 10:00 AM. The location: Tokyo, Shibuya. In front of the Hachikou statue, across of the famous Scramble Crossing, stands Osawa Hitomi with a big suitcase of money. Precisely as ordered by the kidnappers of her sister Maria. Plainsclothes are naturally all over the place, keeping an eye on Hitomi and the money. Everyone is on edge. Will the deal be succesful? Will Maria be released? Will the police catch the kidnappers? With Scramble Crossing being one of the busiest, if not the busiest crossing in the world, will the police be able to protect Hitomi from any possible harm from the kidnappers?  But as the clock slowly nears the all-important 10:00 AM, nobody in the city even expects that this will become the most dangerous day in the history of Shibuya. The day a terrorist organisation threatened to set a deadly virus free in the city.

Nobody does. Not Minorikawa Minoru, a hotblooded reporter on the search for a new scoop in the streets of Shibuya. Not Kanou Shinya, a young and idealistic rookie detective who is also one of the plainsclothes watching Hitomi. Not Endou Achi, an ex-gang leader who has just spotted a particularly nice-looking girl in front of the Hachikou statue. Not Osawa Kenji, father of Hitomi and Maria and a renowned virus researcher, who is on hold in his home. And not Tama, a mysterious person running around in an animal suit, who seems to have lost his / her memory. These five persons are all gathered in Shibuya and little to do they expect that their destinies are intertwined and their actions will eventually save the city. Thus begins the amazing game experience that is 428 ~Fuusa Sareta Shibuya de~ ("428 ~In A Sealed Off Shibuya~").

428 gained quite some fame as one of the few games to have scored a perfect score in the Japanese game magazine Famitsu. Starting it as a Wii game, it got ported to the PSP, PS3 and even iOS recently. I will start off with saying that this is not a proper mystery game. Yes, it is developed by Chunsoft and it is a sound novel, which should naturally remind players of fantastic mystery games like Kamaitachi no Yoru and Trick X Logic. But this is not a mystery game. You are not solving a murder, you are not trying to find evidence that points to the criminal. No. None of that. And despite that, and despite my rule of keeping this a detective-fiction focused blog, I still make an expection for 428. Because it is definitely one of the best games I have ever played and more people should know it. And it has just enough ties with the mystery genre.

So what makes this game so special? It's just a sound novel adventure, some will say. You know, where you read a lot of text and you sometimes get to make a choice that influences the outcome of the story. Which is totally true. The same holds for 428. What makes this such a special game, is the way the story is told. There are five protagonists like I explained above. They all have their own goals, their own lives at the start of the game. You, as the player, can start with any scenario and see what happens. But, and this is a major but,  do realize that every scenerio is connected to each other. Just like how time is a continuous flow of small actions, just as how a butterfly at one of the world can cause a storm at the other end, realize that anything you do in one scenario, has possible effects on some other's story. It is a bit like the famous The Simpsons episode, 22 Short Films About Springfield, with interlinking storylines that develop simultaneously.

The earliest example of this interesting way of telling the story is when you start with police detective Kanou's storyline and see a suspicious man heading for Hitomi. Thinking he might be the kidnapper, Kanou arrests this man. But it turns out that this man is in fact Endou Achi, who was only trying to hit on Hitomi! In this case, both scenarios end with a Game Over: Kanou having made the wrong arrest, while Achi ends up spending the whole day at the police station. This is the very first instance of this interconnectedness in the story, but now imagine that this holds for all five protagonists. All storylines happen simultaneously and hurrying in a taxi with one protagonist for example, might lead to a traffic accident with another protagonist on the run for a hitman! The smallest actions can have tremendous effects on another person's life and it is up to the player to make the correct choices, to influence the destinies of all five protagonists so they will save Shibuya.

It's a brilliant idea and worked out even better! There are about 100 different endings (most of them bad endings) and everytime you try to make just the right corrections, just the right choices to ensure that every persons' scenario can continue. But the bad endings never really feel that bad actually, with a lot of the early bad endings just being hilarious, while others always give you a fair hint to what choices you have to make to continue the story. To help you, the scenarios can be viewed as a handy flow-chart, where you can see every development in every storyline at every point in time (which is also handy to see which scenario is likely to have influence on another). In fact, I contend that it is actually better to get a lot of bad endings in this game. By coming across all the bad endings, you as the player realize how every little action, how every little word can have effects on others. Realizing that everything has meaning really makes this game a special experience.

And the story is just fantastic. The writing is witty, fun and if you think about the amount of endings and possible scenerios, it is just mindblowing! And while I said that 428 is not a proper mystery, there is a bit of a fairly hinted mystery as the story nears its ending, with the terrorist attack under its way and the five major protagonists (and great supporting cast) moving to save the city. There is a spin-off sequel anime series, CANAAN, but I strongly you not to see it before playing 428, as it will spoil some of the best parts of the game.

Would this system work as a proper mystery game? Not sure. Chunsoft already played with the concept of multiple characters in Kamaitachi no Yoru X3, but the storylines were not intertwined as heavily as the ones in 428. The amount of detail (in time) in every scenario also makes a narrator=criminal trick a bit difficult, though one might possibly conceive something with a closed circle situation and multiple protagonists, changing their destinies in ways so they don't panik and start killing off each other. Or something like that. I am definitely not a creative writer.

While Kamaitachi no Yoru portrayed its characters with blue silhouettes, 428 makes use of real actors and still photos. Which really bring the city of Shibuya alive. The actors actually acted for these photos by the way, saying their lines, moving as if they were shooting a movie, all to ensure that every emotion would come across. And I would say that they succeeded. It is kinda strange if you realize that they filmed every scene, meaning they could also have made 428 in an actual movie. Yet not one actor's voice is heard throughout the game.

The funny thing is though, I bought the PSP version about two years ago and I loved it then. In fact, it is the first sound novel I ever played, before Trick X Logic and Kamaitachi no Yoru. A quick search on this blog actually showed that I already mentioned playing this game in December 2009 (which means it's almost three years ago!) 428 is what got me hooked on the genre. Or at least, on Chunsoft's sound novels. And I had played it on-and-off between then and now, but for some reason I never got around to actually finishing it. Maybe I just didn't want it to end. Maybe I wasn't borrowing a TV where I could play it on a bigger screen. Of course, if I hadn't met a friend who borrowed me her TV, I might not have finished this game this week, which in turn would mean that I wouldn't have written this post, which...

I can only conclude this post by repeating that 428 really is a very special game. The sense of satisfaction you get from succesfully changing everyone's destinies so they help each other in accomplishing a greater goal is undescribable. Realizing that anything you do might have the greatest positive effects on someone else's life is a very mysterious feeling, a feeling a normal novel could never conveyed this good. This is a prime example of having writers and developers knowing exactly what they want to accomplish with their story, what they want to tell the reader/player and coming up with the perfect medium to convey that message.

Original Japanese title(s): 『４２８ ~封鎖された渋谷で~』

「『殺しちゃった』は、誰にでもできるけど、『殺した』をできる人って、意外に少ないんだ」

「どんな小さな異常さえも起きない…そんな世界があるとしたら、それって、もの凄く異常だと思うんです」

『ダンガンロンパ　希望の学園と絶望の高校生』

"A world where nothing strange happens. It would be extremely strange if such a world existed"

"Danganronpa - The Academy of Hope and the Students of Despair"

Going to a big open second hand book market at the Shimogamo Shrine was interesting. It's kinda strange to see a big market on what is technically a ground to worshop kami, right? Got some interesting books though, including a Japanese translation of In the Queen's Parlor. Less fun was the sudden rain. Or actually, it wasn't that sudden, because it did appear in the forecast, but I had kinda forgotten my umbrella. The way back was also interesting, as I apparently still have the magical gift of being able to get lost everywhere. I really thought I was going east towards the station, but I ended up way up north, actually nearer to the place I wanted to take the train to in the first place!

Danganronpa - Kibou no Gakuen to Zetsubou no Koukousei ("Danganronpa - The Academy of Hope and the Students of Despair") is a 2010 game for the PSP. I played the demo when it was first released and it was quite fun, but for some reason or another I never got around to getting the game itself until now. And then I completed it in just a few days. Yes, I enjoyed it. The story starts with protagonist Naegi Makoto on his first day at Hope's Peak Academy, a special high school for super class high school students. Students have to be the best of the best to enter the school. It doesn't matter in what field though, so we have super class swimmers and programmers together with super class gang leaders and plastic figure makers. This year's class gets knocked out right before the opening ceremony though and when they wake up, they find themselves to be prisoners of a strange robotic bear called Monokuma (monobear). He tells them that all fifteen students are to live inside the academy facilities forever. There is only one way to get out: you have to kill a fellow student without getting being found by the others. And thus starts the live of despair for the students.

Fifteen students in a closed circle situation, with Monokuma manipulating the students (blackmailing them) into murdering each other? It feels a bit like the classic Battle Royale, only with super class students. And don't forget the rule that you have to murder a fellow student without being found out by the others. In practice, this means that after every murder (yes, they do start killing off each other) the students are given time to investigate, after which a classroom trial is held. During the trial, students debate with each other about the identity of the culprit. At the end of the trial, students have to vote for who they think the murderer is. If the murderer is caught, he is sentenced to death, and the remaining students have to continue the game. However, if the murderer manages to fool the others, he will be released, while all the other students are sentenced to death in his place!

Wow, where to start! Let's just say it's an awesome game! The story is really thrilling: like I said, it's a bit like Battle Royale with students being forced to kill each other off. Like with the BR novel, you slowly get to know the other students, which makes it all the more shocking when one of them dies (by the hands of another fellow student!). As the game progresses, the story shifts beyond the normal classroom trials, as the students also slowly start to investigate about why they are captured by Monokuma and what the secret behind Hope's Peak Academy is.

The story is seperated in a couple of chapters / cases. The murders themselves are not particularly difficult though, while definitely better mystery stories than what you see in your average detective game. But playing this game did made me realize again how brilliant a writer Takumi Shuu was with the Gyakuten Saiban / Ace Attorney games. In Danganronpa, I figured out all the cases before entering the classroom trials (except for one, but there were reasons for that). In Gyakuten Saiban however, you often, deliberately, have incomplete information as you enter the courtroom. Sure, it isn't fair, but it does result in a very exciting game, as you have to react to every piece of information introduced in the courtroom on the spot, changing and adapting your theories as you go. As a story, the way of feeding the player information in Gyakuten Saiban is fantastic, showing how great a writer and game developer Takumi Shuu is. In Danganronpa, the classroom trials function as little more than a sequence where you check your theory, as opposed to actually being a part of a story still in progress.

Danganronpa, as a game, is an eclectic mix of all kinds of gameplay systems. Most of the chapters are divided in three phases: daylife time phases, investigation phases and the classroom trials. The daylife phases are pretty much the same like you see in dating simulation games, or a game like Sakura Taisen.You are given the freedom to interact with your fellow students: you can strengthen the bonds with a student by spending time with him / her, with little dialogues, quizzes and the opportunity to exchange gifts. If done right, you might in return acquire skills useful in the classroom trial phases later on. You only have limited free time, so you have to make wise choices who to spend your time with. It's also during this phase that the story slowly builds up to a murder.

The investigation phases are pretty much like the ones you see in any detective adventure game: the murder happens and Naeki has to investigate the murder by collecting evidence and statements. There is really nothing special to this phase of the game. The writing does kinda steer the player to where to go ("Maybe I should take a look at...") and it even refuses to let you leave a location if you haven't found everything there yet, so it's pretty much impossible to get stuck here. Normally, this might sound a bit too restraining, but there are quite a lot of locations within the game and I personally prefer being told what to do here in these kind of situations rather than being forced to wander through the school going through every classroom just to find that little piece of evidence I missed. I have to find that piece of evidence anyway and the act of wandering around isn't particularly fun (I kinda get motion sick from walking around in first person perspective in games actually), so yes, streamlining works here.

The classroom trials are the climax of the game and definitely the most fun. In form, they are a lot like the Gyakuten Saiban / Ace Attorney games. During the trials, the students present their arguments and discuss about who they think the murderer is. These sequence are automatic in the sense that the dialogue flows naturally (as opposed to the Gyakuten Saiban games, where players have to click through the testimonies) Here the player literally has to shoot down contradictions within the utterances of his fellow students: pieces of evidence are treated as bullets within the game and the player has to aim the cursor at the contradictions and shoot them down with the right 'bullets'. Which is where the title comes from actually, Danganronpa meaning Bullet Refutation.

This action-based system demands more of a player's reflexes than the Gyakuten Saiban games, because of this is basically a shooting game and the speed of the utterences you have to shoot down can be quite high and there are obstacles as well! On the other hand: you only have a handful of bullets/pieces of evidence per sequence, so you don't have to think that hard, as your choices are limited. In Gyakuten Saiban, you sometimes have to choose the right evidence to present among a list of over 20 items! But still, the shooting can be quite hard for people not used to those kind of games and there is a time limit for sequence, so you do have to hurry. But think a more action-oriented Gyakuten Saiban and you're 80% on the right way.

There are some other weird game sequences during the classroom trials, like the Machine Gun Battle, basically a music game where you have to shoot down a barrage of logical fallacies being thrown at the player (which is a bit of a miss, I think). A lot more fun are the Climax Inferences, which appear at the end of the trial, when you have deduced the right murderer. Here you reconstruct the crime by filling in missing panels in a comic reconstruction of the murder and subsequent events. Visually reconstructing the crime in a videogame (or any visual detective fiction) isn't particularly original, but most games I know do it through an abstract flowchart, which the player has to fill in. Danganronpa's comic book reconstructions are much more engaging.

Anyway, as you clear these gameplay elements, the murder gets solved. And while these sequences, except for the Climax Inferences, are all very action-oriented, the game is still a detective game, so you do have to think and deduce as you go through these sequences. Which is really unique. Gyakuten Saiban brought the concepts of hotbloodiness and action in its storytelling, but Danganronpa really succeeded in making an action detective game.

Danganronpa's presentation style is very addictive too (watch the trailer!) It is top-notch, with excellent character writing as well as a load of a pop-references from movies to manga and anime (of course). There is also a very distinct tone of black humor in its presentation, starting with the cute Monokuma who is actually very, very sadistic despite its appearance. Monokuma is made even more creepy because of the fact he's voiced by Ooyama Nobuyo, the voice actress who voiced the famous Doraemon until 2005. Personally, I loved having Ogata Megumi as the voice actress for protagonist Naegi. Sure, she might be more famous for voicing a certain protagonist in a mecha-deconstructing classic, but for me, she'll always be Tantei Gakuen Q's Kyuu. Especially if she's doing a detective role, like here! Seriously, she was Kyuu for me during the whole game (and in related news, Conan's Takayama Minami is actually playing the protagonist in the recently released sequel Super Danganronpa 2).

Anyway, an awesome detective game that really excells in presentations. It's a bit of a mish-mash of all kinds of game mechanics and almost all of them work very well. I don't it's really probable anymore that this will be published in English (because the PSP is pretty much dead outside of Japan), but for those who know Japanese, definitely one to try out. Preferably the budget version, as it has bug fixes and other fixes!

Original Japanese title(s): 『ダンガンロンパ　希望の学園と絶望の高校生』

「君をイッツ・ア・スモールワールドに閉じ込めることに決まったよ。はっは！」

底蟲村の　しん太郎どん

痛い痛いと　泣いてござる

何が痛いと　蟹コがきけば

悪たれ鼬の　ふうのしんに

喉を切られて　話ができぬ

それで痛いと　泣いてござる

びゅうびゅうびゅうの　ざんぶらぶん

びゅうびゅうびゅうの　ざんぶらぶん

『かまいたちの夜２　監獄島のわらべ唄』

Shintaroudon of Sokomushi Village

Cried: it hurts it hurts

The small crab asked what hurts

The evil weasle Fuu no Shin

Cut my throat and now I cannot spreak

That is why I am crying it hurts

Byuubyuubyuu no Zanburabun

Byuubyuubyuu no Zanburabun

"Night of the Kamaitachi 2 - The Warabe Uta of Prison Island"

So I did keep myself to my restraint of not buying new Japanese novels this month. But games? Games are something totally different! Even if it is a Japanese sound novel. Yes, that was the closest thing I could find to a novel that was not an actual novel.

I've already made clear that I absolutely loved Kamaitachi no Yoru, a mystery sound novel penned by Abiko Takemaru. The basic scenario, a locked room murder in the ski-lodge Spur (no idea whether I'm spelling that right) in a snow storm, was not particularly original, but the fact that the story developed according to the player's choices, the fact that the story featured multiple endings was really fun. If you were good, you could actually prevent more murders from happening in Spur, while the story would end in a paranoia horror-ending if the player was unable to solve the case as time progressed. It was definitely one of the best games I played last year.

So it shouldn't come as a surpise if I tell you that I had set my eyes on playing Kamaitachi no Yoru 2 - Kangokujima no Warabe Uta ("Night of the Kamaitachi 2 - The Warabe Uta of Prison Island"). The story starts by telling you that within the world of Kamaitachi no Yoru 2, the first Kamaitachi no Yoru was a hit videogame. The characters from the first game were based on actual guests that visited the ski-lodge Spur one night and apparently, some of the dialogue from the game was also based on dialogues the guests had then. There was of course no locked room murder that night though; that was all made-up by Abiko Takemaru, the writer of the game. Abiko has made a small fortune with the game and has bought an old unhabitated island, Moon Crescent Island (and the Moon Crescent Mansion on it) with the profits. He has now invited all of the guests that were present that night at Spur to his mansion as a thanks for having used their names for his story. The strange thing though.... Abiko Takemaru wasn't one of the guests at Spur that night, so how could he have based his story on the guests and events of that night?

When all of his guests (almost all of the cast of the first game and some persons involved with the production of a planned sequel to the game) have arrived at the island, they are told by the old servant Kiyo that Abiko Takemaru himself has not arrived at the island yet. They are also told about the origins of Moon Crescent Island: it used to be called Prison Island, property of the wealthy Kishizaru clan (which made a fortune with spinning factories during the Japanese industrial revolution). The Moon Crescent Mansion was actually a prison built to keep their workers under control, which explains the curious architecture of the building, like the fact that practically no rooms have windows. Genre-savvy people among the cast naturally understand that bad things are going to happen here and they decide to leave the island, but they are told that that is impossible. That night happens to be 'the Night of the Kamaitachi", which refers to a tremendously heavy storm that rages over the island once every 50 years. This is related to a belief that the island is haunted by the Sickle Weasle demon Fuu no Shin, who also appears in a local warabe uta ('nursery rhyme'-esque songs). Our cast is not able to leave the island that night and the mansion even gets locked up completely to prevent rain and wind from coming in. And then, in the early hours of the following day, a loud scream travels through the mansion. When they find out where the scream originated from, they find game producer Shintarou with his throat cut open in a locked room. Just like the first verse of the warebe uta. There are five verses.

The game-system is still the same, so I refer to my review of Kamaitachi no Yoru for more details on that. Short story: this is a novel (accompanied by background pictures and music), where you occasionally have to make choices (which may lead to bad endings etc.). It is up to the player to pick out the right choices to get to the good ending. Technically and contents-wise, this is a more=better version of Kamaitachi no Yoru. The first game was released on the Super Famicom (and later on the PlayStation), while the second game was released for the PlayStation 2 (and PSP), so graphically, there is quite a change, most prominently visible in the use of actually CG models for the characters and sporadic use of cut-scenes. I have to admit that this took a bit away from the creepy ambiance of the original game though, as the notion of motion, of characters and the camera actually moving, adds a sense of life, of safety to the game (which is not really needed for detective). The more=better philosophy is also carried over to the amount of unique ending sequences in this game, which number over a hundred! I've seen three: the good ending and two radically different bad endings (one with the protagonist Tooru getting a seizure because his love-interest Mari found someone else...).

I actually haven't completed the game yet, but I did finish the Warabe Uta Hen ("Warabe Uta Chapter"), the main story/mystery of the game (the game features several scenarios, some are humorous takes on the main story, some go towards science-fiction, etc.). With murders following a nursery rhyme pattern on an island formally called Prison Island, it is obvious that this is a reference to Yokomizo Seishi's Gokumontou. The mystery of whodunnit is not very hard to solve if you are genre-savvy, as Abiko mostly reuses familar patterns and tropes in this story (though it definitely helps if you have played the first game). Which might sound a bit disappointing, but the trick used for the first murder, a locked room murder, is really good and also fantastically hinted at. It is definitely the highlight of the whole story and even though it is still early in the year, I think this will rank among the best I will read this year. The overall atmosphere of the first game was better (though it is still good here), but this trick really makes it hard to decide which story was better.

The setting of Moon Crescent Island and the Moon Crescent Mansion is also fantastic. The mansion is definitely presented as expected from a yakata-mono (mansion-story), which both creepy descriptions and background pictures presenting a claustrophobic image of the former prison. The mansion is really terrifying, with swords sticking out of ponds preventing prisoners from jumping out of the windows and sickles hanging from the roofs to ward of the evil weasle demon. This is a location you will remember even long after clearing this game. Especially if you try out the other scenarios: I've just finished the Sokomushi Village Chapter, which is a horror science-fiction take on the main story, but IT IS CREEPY. The island is creeheepy~

I am not sure whether I should be disappointed or glad I arrived at the solution relatively fast. Yes, that means my deductions were right, but there were a couple of places I definitely screwed up, but I wasn't punished for that (game-wise). It seems like that the first Kamaitachi no Yoru was harder, with more difficult choices to make with fewer retry options. In this game, you could retry some of the (finger-pointing) segments and they even presented the major clues in a systematic way near the end of the story, making it a lot easier to solve the case.You couldn't even prevent murders from happening like in the first game, which makes this a much more linear experience.

Overall, the main storyline of Kamaitachi no Yoru 2 is awesome though. It's a great closed circle detective featuring a great locked room murder trick and it's interactive too! And now to play the other scenarios and to find the remaining 100 ending scenes...

Original Japanese title(s): 『かまいたちの夜２　監獄島のわらべ唄』