A Story to Die For

" Well, I can certainly testify for your excellence as an editor. And as you know, I'm not that easy to please."

"Murder, She Wrote: The Classic Murder"

Yes, I have been playing relatively many DS games this year...

Earlier this year, I wrote a little about the Izumi Jiken File ("Izumi Case Files") series developed by G-Mode. It is one of the few mystery adventure game series which was originally created for Japanese feature phones. Some might not know about feature phones, but before smartphones took over the world, there was an interesting market for Japan-exclusive 3G feature phones (garakei) in the early 2000s, with many games developed exclusively for feature phones. These games could only be purchased and downloaded on a feature phone via the network provider, and only worked on those models. Smart phones eventually replaced these feature phones and these old feature phones and their services aren't supported anymore, but feature phones were the standard for over a decade in Japan and they provided a unique gaming environment at the time. Due to the shift to smart phones, a lot of feature phone games have become lost media. G-Mode has been re-releasing a lot of old feature phone games on Switch and Steam for the last two, three years however, which is how I got to play the first Izumi Jiken File, which was a popular detective game series back in the early days of feature phone games. How popular, you ask? Well, the series had been downloaded over a million times, so that means quite a lot of people have played these games!

Otona no DS Mystery - Izumi Jiken File ("A DS Mystery for Adults - The Izumi Case Files" 2007) was one of those rare times a feature phone IP made the jump from a feature phone to a dedicated gaming handheld system, which probably is also a sign of how popular the series was. This release on the Nintendo DS consists of six different scenarios/episodes, three of them being ports of the first three entries released previously on feature phones, and three episodes being completely original and exclusive to the DS. Overall though, all these episodes take on the same format and basic story: you play as as Izumi, editor of the famous and immensely popular mystery novelist Kyougetsu Masamune, who has one little problem. Kyougetsu gets distracted extremely easily and this always happens right before a deadline. Kyougetsu usually likes to stay somewhere else as he gets through crunch time,but for some reason he always happens to run into mysterious cases of death and he always gets very distracted by that, for he always suspects it is murder, but due to the deadlines, he can't concentrate on either the murder or his manuscript. And that always leads to our heroine Izumi being forced to investigate the case herself, interview all witnesses and suspects again to come up with her own conclusion, which allows her to compare notes with Kyougetsu and of course ultimately conforming Kyougetsu's suspicions of murder, all just so he will finally finish his book. Most of the time, the episodes are set in a tourist destination outside Tokyo, like Kamakura, Tottori and Hokkaido, allowing the games to show off a little bit of the locale.

As a mystery game, Otona no DS Mystery - Izumi Jiken File is extremely short and limited in scope, but while it is hardly a high point in the mystery library of the Nintendo DS, it is strangely enough also one of the mystery adventure games on the system that is the most truly puzzle-oriented and which really challenge you to carefully look at all the puzzle pieces to figure out who did it. But because the format originates from feature phones, the scope is very small. And that is actually one of the reasons why the series was so popular on feature phones in the first place. For especially in the early days of feature phones, phones didn't have that much free storage space, and more importantly, data costs were of course far more expensive than they are now. Because of that, story-based games for feature phones (like the popular Gyakuten Saiban/Ace Attorney ports) often had to be split up in parts: you had to download a part, play that, and then delete the previous part to download the next part again. The Izumi Case Files games on the other hand were especially designed as light-weight games: each episode was just one single download app, and presented the player with a complete mystery story. That does mean each episode can be played through in just about 30-45 minutes the first time through, but that was close to the norm back then on the system. 

The three feature phone original episodes, and two of the three DS-original episodes follow the exact same three- act format, with limited gameplay, but fairly focused on the puzzle. Each of these episodes has Izumi look into a suspicious death, ranging from a man found one morning frozen on a bench on the "lowest mountain in Japan" to a hobby fisherman who have fallen drunk into the sea near Kamakura. In the first act, you just get the short introduction with Izumi looking for Kyougetsu and him telling about whatever case is bothering him now. In the second act, Izumi examines the scene of the incident and afterwards, she interviews all the suspects and witnesses The witness tells you about what they saw and did before the discovery of the murder and may provide you with one extra bit of information about one of the other suspects. Rinse and repeat for about five suspects, and at that point, you are basically done. For in the final act, you can directly go to Kyougetsu, who will ask you a few questions about the murder to test how much you have learned. Kyougetsu however doesn't really say whether you are answering his questions correctly or not until you have answered all his questions, meaning blindly guessing won't get you far (as you aren't told how many/which of the 5-8 questions asked you got right).

Interestingly however, these games only ask you about your conclusions, but there is no actual gameplay mechanic to represent the puzzle/solving element of the mystery. You are only given the testimonies of the suspects in the second cat and you then have to piece the thing together yourself either in your mind or on paper before you choose to continue with the third act. The puzzle format is a very focused whodunnit puzzle and at times can be tricky for something that is actually very simple in design: basically, you are always trying to make a timeline based on the testimonies of the suspects, checking who saw who at what time, and of course cross-referencing them with the other testimonies. If done right, you'll eventually realize one character must be lying, or at least intentionally withholding information, and that usually leads to the truth. Sometimes, you have also have to figure parts of the howdunnit, and in rare cases, the whodunnit aspect will only allow you to eliminate a few suspects initially, and the case has one extra act to give you that one extra clue that allows you to identify the culprit. To be honest, the really tricky part of the whodunnit puzzle is exactly there's no in-game mechanic to easily compare testimonies, which kinda forces you to put things down on paper or go through the testimonies one by one carefully, for ultimately it's just a "check whose testimony creates a contradiction" puzzle, but on the other hand, you could say this is a fairly pure whodunnit puzzle, of the likes you don't actually often see in mystery adventure games. It fits the simple hardware capabilities of the original feature phones of course, and I did enjoy playing with the testimony puzzle pieces, but every episode basically plays and feels the same because the story in each episode is pretty 'rigid', with next to no real story developments throughout and all witnesses only having one single story to tell you.

One interesting, but flawed addition this DS collection has over the original feature phone entries however is the episode "Wedge Sole", which plays completely differently from the other episodes and is probably even longer than all other five episodes combined on a first playthrough. It's a kind of open world mystery game with ambitious ideas, but not very rewarding execution. This episode is set in Tokyo, on the last day of the year and continues into the first day of the new year. You can play as two characters: Izumi and Masumi, a college student who is a recurring character in the series, and are able to "zap" between the two protagonists at will. The episode also introduces the concepts of "time" and "money": moving from one location to another takes time, and using public transport, or purchasing objects or spending time in a cafe costs money. Once you start the episode, you are basically free to go wherever you want, and you can find various "quests" across Tokyo. For example, if you can find Kyougetsu as Izumi, he will tell you about a mysterious death that has been on his mind, and then you can travel across Tokyo to find the suspects and hear their testimonies and finally report back to Kyougetsu. But you have to locate the suspects yourself, and some persons may only appear at a location at a certain time, so you have to be careful about the time, and how much money you spend on the train. But in the meantime, you might also stumble upon other quests too, like Izumi running into an old friend who seems to have something on her mind, or Masumi getting involved in a kidnapping. 

I like the idea of having a multi-quest mystery adventure game, and the time/money system reminds me of Tantei Shinshi DASH!, which was actually also a very flawed game even if the concept could be fun. But Wedge Sole just has too many minor inconveniences. For example, while you can take on several quests simultaneously, you can only finish one, as the episode ends whenever a quest is ended, so that kinda defeats the idea of being able to take on multiple quests. A quest usually only adds about 10~20 percent to the overall completion percentage, meaning you have to play this episode quite a few times. The map is also extremely cumbersome to navigate: it basically only shows you the Yamanote train line, but sometimes you actually have to transfer to the subway to arrive at a certain location, but that is not indicated on the map, so you just must happen to know what in real-life, you're supposed to change from the train to the subway at a certain station. That of course doesn't really work well with the limited money/time, because you already have to be careful about your actions and then give you a map that isn't really helpful. Ultimately, I didn't really like Wedge Sole even if it was an ambitious experiment to do something else with this series.

The games feature photo-realistic backgrounds and the characters are designed in a realistic manner too by the way, but there's basically no animation, and the games all look incredibly plain. While the three episodes that originate from the feature phones are now all available on the Nintendo Switch too, I have to say they play a lot better on the DS due to this DS version being a proper port. The Nintendo Switch versions are, intentionaly, faithful ports of the feature phone versions, which mean their screen sizes are also as they were on feature phones. This results in very narrow screen on your television or Switch screen, with gigantic black bars on both sides. This DS game however has the graphics properly adjusted for the DS screen, so you can read everything perfectly fine. 

Otona no DS Mystery - Izumi Jiken File is by no means a must-have if you're into mystery adventure games on the Nintendo DS, and yet, it was a game I wanted to play for a long time because it was based on a feature phone mystery franchise, and that fact alone made me really curious. While the main series is now being ported to the Switch, I am still glad I decided to pick this release up due to the DS-exclusive cases, and having found a new copy that was actually pretty cheap. While I think the focus on a whodunnit puzzle is pretty interesting and something you don't often see in mystery video games, there's no denying these games are just very limited in scope, so it's hard to recommend them to people unless you're really into DS adventures. Still, the Switch ports of the feature phone games are on sale every few months, so it might be worth looking those up if you're into this very short, but interesting period in the history of Japanese mystery media.

Original Japanese title(s): 『大人のDSミステリー  いづみ事件ファイル』

Flight Into Danger

"Mirror, mirror on the wall"

"Snow White"

Oh, better point to the Honkaku Discord server again, in case you missed it because there have been a few more updates than usual these two weeks. And also: the cover art is gorgeous today!

Victoria is the youngest member of the Council of Eight Saints, the highest entity within the Church of Auresta. With believers all across the world, the Church is a powerful organization, making its Council a rather influential body. Which is why even Victoria herself wonders why she was made the eight Saint: unlike her fellow Saints, she can not even use magic and thus her record of helping their followers is rather limited. Her mentor and previous president of the Council however had powers of clairvoyance, and foresaw a future where Victoria would prove to be very important to the Church. Her mentor also saw great potential in the unique powers Victoria does possess: as the "Seer" she can actually *see* magic, capable of seeing magic flow whenever it is used, something not even magicians can do unless extremely powerful magic is being cast. And she can see ghosts of the deceased, though she can not summon them nor is communicating with ghosts easy. Yet, some in the Council have their doubts about Victoria's powers, and that's especially so with the new president of the Council, who was a rival of the previous one. She decides to attack the legacy of her predecessor by attacking Victoria: she accusses Victoria being a fraud and unfit of being one of the eight Saints, claiming she even deceived the previous president. Victoria is detained and has to await a trial, where it's all but certain she will be stripped of her title as Saint and be expelled by the Church. 

While awaiting her exile however, Victoria is suddenly visited in heer cell by the knight Adolas, who desperately needs the abilities of the Seer. Adolas is the nephew of the ruler of one smaller eastern countries within the Edelheid Empire and serves his uncle as a knight. When his mother was young, she serves as a courtlady-in-training at the Imperial Palace, but she got pregnant by a merchant and eloped. The merchant died, and eventually Adolas and his mother were taken in by his uncle, who by that time had become ruler of the country. Adolas' mother recently passed away, but among her possessions a shocking letter was found. It was written by the former Princess Klema, one of the many wives of the current emperor of Edelheid. The letter seems to suggest very strongly that Adolas is in fact Prince Emilio, son of Klema and believed to have died soon after birth. According to Edelheid law, the first ten born children of the emperor have equal succession right to the throne. Prince Emilio was the tenth child of the emperor, but after his young demise, Prince Fernando, the eleventh child who was born only a few days after Emilio, became the last potential successor to the throne. The letter suggests that Klema gave Emilio away because she feared for his life, as she knew Fernando's grandfater, the great statesman Lord Arnoth, would do anythingi to make his grandson the (future) emperor. Adolas' uncle, convinced his nephew is indeed Prince Emilio, plans to have all the eastern countries form a front to back up Emilio's bid to the throne, as the Emperor has been ill lately. Adolas himself however can not believe he is Prince Emilio and in fact, ever since the story came out there have been attempts on his life by agents he believes to be affiliated with Prince Fernando, but because both his mother and Princess Klema are already dead, he hopes Victoria can speak with their ghosts and clear everything up. Victoria agrees to travel with Adolas to the Edelheid Empire and see what she can do to help, but during their adventures which involves being chased by both the Church and assassins, they also get involved with a murder on the one person who could prove whether Adolas is truly Prince Emilio or not, and it is up to the Seer Victoria to find the truth in Seijo Victoria no Kousatsu - Auresta Shinden Monogatari ("The Insights of Saint Victoria - Tales of the Church of Auresta", 2021)

This story was originally published by its author Haruma Tatsuki via the website Kakuyomu, where members can upload their fiction and have other people read and rate them. The particularly outstanding ones have a chance to be published by publisher Kadokawa, who is behind the site. Earlier I reviewed Robber Rabbit Gets Dead (2016), which was also first published on Kakuyomu, while I have also discussed Isekai no Meitantei and Meitantei Sakurano Mimiko no Saigo, works which were first published on a similar site called Shousetsuka ni Narou. I don't make it a rule to check out these works by the way, but I can appreciate how you have these "grassroots" fiction breeding grounds that get a chance to be published by a big publisher which (especially in Japan) will get you a lot more exposure.

Anyway, a mystery novel with a fantasy setting: that's not the kind of mystery story we're very surrpised to see discussed here anymore, right? That said, I think this book leans a bit more towards fantasy than mystery compared to similar works I have discussed, like Isekai no Meitantei and the Alchemist series, though that is also partially due the kind of mystery these different series want to tell. For Isekai no Meitantei and the Alchemist series had really straightforward mysteries in the form of locked room mysteries, which were given some new allure by implementing magic or alchemy in the narrative: these supernatural elements were of course given their own set of consistent rules of what could work or not, and the result were unique mysteries that could only work because of the supernatural element. That is also true for Seijo Victoria no Kousatsu - Auresta Shinden Monogatari, but magic here is less strictly defined, and most importantly, the main mystery isn't built around the fantasy elements of the story, even if it is important to the actual mystery solving.

To be honest, I was getting worried about the book around the half-way point, as while we had heard about the main mystery of Adolas wondering about his true heritage, I couldn't really see why this had to be fantasy novel: couldn't this just be a "normal" medieval mystery novel if Victoria wasn't able to summon specific ghosts anyway? The first half of the story was also more focused on the adventure, starting with Adolas helping Victoria break out of prison and fighting off attempts on his own life by people who'd be very inconvenienced if Adolas was in fact Prince Emilio. I had to think back to Kadono Kouhei's Satsuryuu Jiken - A Case of Dragonslayer ("The Case of The Dracocide - A Case of Dragonslayer"), which also felt more focused on the adventure for the most part. So I didn't really understand why the concept of magic existed in this mystery story, as you'd only sometimes see magician-monks attempt to cast magic on the heroes or something like that. This feeling was strengthened by the nature of the core mystery: it was about the heritage of Adolas, a mystery that isn't inherently "magical" or anything like that. With a locked room mystery, at least you can say "this locked room is only possible if Very Specific Magic Spell is used" or even "this locked room is impossible, despite the existence of These Magic Spells That Work According to These Rules", but here the mystery was more like "Did Princess Klema give away her baby two decades ago or not?"  

Fortunately, I was pleasantly surprised by the mystery plot at the end of the book, and that was perhaps exactly because it approached the idea of a fantasy-mystery novel a bit differently. What is interesting here is that the fantasy setting (magic) is not used to directly explain the mystery, but magic is treated as a "given" in this world: some things can be done with magic in this world, and some things not. Minor incidents occur throughout the story, involving actions by characters that don't seem to make complete sense at first. Victoria's explanation of the events involves people taking actions, or not taking actions because certain kinds of magic exist in the world which people know about, which in turn influence their actions. For example: in this world I know using a pistol will make quite some noise, so that knowledge will influence whether I will pick it as a murder weapon or not. In Seijo Victoria no Kousatsu - Auresta Shinden Monogatari, the mystery plot revolves around people doing things that seem to be counterintuitive or just odd, but that upon second thought make sense because magic exists in this world, and that knowledge forces them to act in certain ways. In a way, it made me think of the Toujou Genya series, where the strong belief in folklore governs the actions of certain characters. In the world of Seijo Victoria no Kousatsu however, magic is a fact of life of course, even if not everybody is able to practice it. Anyway, the mystery is a bit chaotic at first, because it involves the actions of different characters at different points in the story, some in the present and some in the past when Prince Emilio was born, and part of the charm of this book is how Victoria manages to tie all kinds of seemingly unrelated events back to the  main mystery of Adolas' heritage, and to the murder of the one person who could prove who Adolas really is. I think that plot-technically, Seijo Victoria no Kousatsu is actually closer in spirit to the Ellery Queen-like novels I like so much, even if they are quite different: I wouldn't immediately recommend this book to Queen lovers, but the focus on the motive behind people taking certain actions, and how they all relate to each other, is definitely something fans of Queenian deductions can recognize here.

As for the book's merits as a fantasy novel: it is pretty much what you'd expect of a light novel fantasy novel. Easy writing, often a comedic tone with characters bickering with each other. No surprises there.

On the whole, Seijo Victoria no Kousatsu - Auresta Shinden Monogatari felt like a bit different from other fantasy-mystery novels I have recently read. The focus is (seemingly) more on the adventure, but there is a properly clewed mystery plot to be found here, and while it uses the concept of magic not as directly as you might expect for its plot, I would say the execution here is more than passable, and despite my worries earlier during reading, I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by the end product in terms of mystery. As I am writing this, there's already one sequel out, so I might pick that one up in the future too.

Original Japanese title(s): 春間タツキ『聖女ヴィクトリアの考察 アウレスタ神殿物語』

番外編：Death Within The Evil Eye Released

Okay, I know I make the same mistake every single time, but I really should start thinking more about what to write in my announcements of upcoming announcements, for there's always little left to write in the actual release announcement, because I already wrote most of what I should write in the announcement of the announcement only a few weeks ago...

In 2021 Locked Room International published my English translation of IMAMURA Masahiro's 2017 novel Death Among the Undead, which was a huge hit in its home country, leading to film and manga adaptations. And yes, I am happy to announce that I got to work on its 2019 sequel too. And with the product page up on the site of Locked Room International, it appears my English translation has now been published (or will be made available the coming days). Death Within The Evil Eye has the members of the Mystery Society travel all the way to to a remote village deep in the mountains as they trace a lead connected to the events of the first book. They and a group of other people who happen to be stranded there end up visiting an old woman of whom it is said she possesses powers of clairvoyance, capable of telling the future. But when the bridge collapses back to the main roads collapse, everyone ends up trapped on one side of a river and it's then they learn that being foretold the future is certainly not always a good thing, for what if the future that awaits you is certain death?

At least among the commentators of this blog, Death Among the Undead had been by far the title most people wanted to see a translation of, so I was really glad I was able to work on the translation and get an English version published last year. I personally liked its sequel Death Within The Evil Eye a lot too, so while I wasn't expecting it, I did hope I'd get to work on that book too in the future, but even I hadn't expected to work on Death Within The Evil Eye so soon! Like the previous book, it combines a classic closed circle situation mystery plot with a very non-classic, supernatural theme, resulting in a very unique tale of mystery, but it's a fair-play puzzle plot mystery that challenges the reader to solve the mystery themselves.

My review of the Japanese version can be found here, but you could also wait until you've read the book yourself to compare notes later. Publishers Weekly also has had their early review up already.

Anyway, I hope people enjoy Death Within The Evil Eye! The holiday season is coming up, so if you're still wondering about suitable gifts, or just want something for yourself to read in the darker months, why not go for Death Within The Evil Eye? And by the time you're done, perhaps consider my other upcoming translation in February...

Programmed for Murder

「俺に解けないコードはない！」 

『プロジェクトハッカー：覚醒』

 

"There's no code I can't crack!"

"Project Hacker: Awakening"

A short post this time because today's topic isn't really a mystery game, but as there aren't really many write-ups on this game in general...

Amatsubo Satoru is a gifted hacker who in his free time enjoys breaking into computer systems, though all he does is "innocently" weaving his way through security systems and peeking inside, and usually he leaves right away without causing any damage. One day, he returns to his apartment to find it completely ransacked by two threatening men who are demanding a CD-R. Satoru manages to escape to Rina, his 'always-act-before-thinking' childhood friend and after some conversation, Satoru realizes the men were actually looking for Rina: she had picked up a CD-R by accident, and the men had accidentally assumed Rina was living with Satoru. Checking the disc, Satoru realizes it holds a special virus program targeting mobile phone models from one company, and this of course means they're now involved in a big corporate scandal. Satoru decides to use his hacking skills to fight back against the men who are after them, but this only puts the two of them in danger again, until they are recruited by the Japanese division of GIS, an international counter-cybercrime organization. As part of GIS, Satoru is put on several cybercrime cases, often involving the mysterious cracker Blitz, and these cases demand quick thinking and even faster hacking in the Nintendo DS game Project Hacker: Kakusei ("Project Hacker: Awakening" 2006).

Project Hacker: Kakusei is a mystery-themed adventure game on the Nintendo DS which people nowadays probably only know from a Spirit reference in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. The game was only released in Japan, though it was apparently planned for at least a North-American release, but for non-specified reasons these plans fell through. The game is rather interesting in terms of publication, because while Project Hacker was developed by Red Entertainment (of Sakura Taisen fame), it is published and co-owned by Nintendo itself. Nintendo doesn't have that many mystery adventure games in its catalog, and let alone one where you play a hacker! While the game does seem to set things up for further adventures, the game never saw a sequel and is basically a mostly ignored IP.

As mentioned in the opening line, for the most part I wouldn't say Project Hacker really should be discussed here. It is, for most of the time, a fairly conventional command-based adventure game, where you can travel to various locations to talk with people, from whom you will learn new information which will allow you visit other locations or confront other people with your new knowledge. No surprises here. The episodes in this game always start with Satoru and Rina being assigned a mission to investigate a certain cybercrime, like a company's money being transferred to a charity, or having them investigate rumors of an IT problem having led to deaths in a hospital, the plots themselves are fairly straightforward and don't really read like a mystery stories, more like thrillers or tales of suspense, though with a fairly light-hearted tone, with Satoru and Rina always arguing and fairly out-of-there characters like a high school student prodigy programmer who also happens to be incredibly into aliens. But don't expect brilliant cybercrime puzzle plot tricks from this game or having to connect clues together to figure whodunnit or howdunnit.

One very memorable aspect of the game however is its (fake) web functions. Within Project Hacker, you can use computers or your special handheld device to access the web, or at least, the web as it looked like in Japan around 2006. When you connect (in-game) to the web, you're brought to a homepage like you had in the earlier days of consumer internet: a "curated" list of links to all kinds of websites all categorized. You can explore all these links, which can range from corporate websites to homepages of hobby clubs or bands, or personal blogs. The pages are of course all fake and made for this game, but they do feel a lot like the mobile feature phone sites you had in Japan around this time and playing this game now in 2022 does feel a bit like you just opened a time capsule. The layout of these pages, the visitor counters, the type of content you'd find there... it's all really neat to see now, and while it feels like a time capsule now, upon the 2006 release, these websites must have felt pretty "real" too. I think there are like easily over 100 different pages about a variety of topics to be found here, which is quite impressive considering each site does feel distinct. This faux web environment of course plays a role in the game: often you have to do some background research using this internet. One of the earliest examples is simply finding the address of a certain company, so you look up their website and check out their directions sub-page, but later cases have you explore these sites for more subtler hints and sometimes it takes a while for you to find the specific page you're looking for, and this is quite fun. The lower screen on the DS can be used to take notes by the way.

But getting back to me discussing this game here despite me saying it doesn't really belong here. The main reason for that is the hacking gameplay in this game, which is pretty interesting, and definitely a fun mystery mechanic At least, part of the hacking is. Hacking in this game can mean two things, you see. The boring hacking in this game is just a series of minigames that test your hand-eye coordination. Breaking through a firewall is sometimes literally breaking a wall in a "cyber-environment" using well-timed taps on the touch screen, making a conection is often like a racing game, where you rush down a "cyber-corridor" while avoiding obstacles, and sometimes you're just playing a shoot' em up to shoot down viruses. These minigames can be pretty tricky near the end of the game actually, giving you little room (time) for failure, so for those not used to action games, this part of an otherwise slow adventure game might be difficult. But these minigames are the not fun part of the hacking in Project Hacker. 

So what is the fun part of hacking? That is when you have do social engineering to find out passwords for computer systems! Every once in a while during his investigations, Satoru will find himself confronted with a locked computer or door which requires a password. How do you learn this password? By looking around, both in the actual room you're in, but also on the web! Of course it's never as easy as finding a note with the actual password inside a drawer. But if the owner of the computer for example has posters of the series Captain Pepper hanging on the walls, why not check out the homepage of Captain Pepper and see what words could be used as a password? Could it be the release date, or the name of the creator? Is it perhaps that character they have multiple figurines off in the room? While the first passwords you have to guess are very straightforward, other passwords have you explore more possibilities, for example when a person has multiple hobbies, and because you don't know the length of each password (though always alphabet and/or numbers), it often takes several tries to find the exact one, but it is still very fun, because you really have to read through the (fictional) sites and determine what could be a password. Later passwords have you look at multiple sites about very different topics, but which may have a surprising link with a common term for example. But it is during these moments that the game feels the most like a mystery game, where you look at hints in the room, and search for other clues on the web, and have to guess what the password could be. Because the sites are all fairly well-designed as "proper" sites, these passwords are hidden quite organically in the text and there are of course many 'dummy' pages which I don't think are ever used in the game, but put in there to flesh out the fictional web environment and act as red herrings. It's a shame this mechanic only comes up like two or three times per episode, because it's by far the most fun part of the game.

I assume more people have played Flower, Sun and Rain given the Nintendo DS version was actually released in the West, but the main mechanic there is quite similar to the hacking mechanic here. In Flower, Sun and Rain basically everything required a numerical code, which you could find based on dialogue hints and hints and clues found in a tourist guidebook to Lospass, the island that serves as a setting for the game. The guidebook is acquired at the start of the game and you can look through every single page right from the start and it does actually read like a travel guide, but as the story develops, you'll find all kinds of clues necessary to solve the numerical codes hidden within these pages, so in that aspect, it's very similar to the websites found in Project Hacker, being an "universal" clue you use from start to finish, with the guidebook/websites only turning into proper clues once you have the correct context and know what you're looking for.

Project Hacker looks pretty good for a DS adventure game by the way with interestingly animated characters and really well-designed backgrounds. The characters have a 90s anime vibe with their broad shoulders and fashion, though the music is a bit... limited. Like, the main overworld/investigation theme isn't really exciting or fun to listen to, but you'll only be hearing that for 80% of the game...

Again, Project Hacker: Kakusei isn't really a mystery game, so don't expect too much of it in that regard, but it's overall a competently created crime adventure game, and while I feel really indifferent about the hacking minigames, the social engineering parts of this game are really the highlight of the game and that coupled with an interesting cast and a game that overall has good production values, it's certainly worth a playthrough if you're looking for adventure games on the Nintendo DS, especially as even a brand-new, unopened copy doesn't cost much now.

Original Japanese title(s): 『プロジェクトハッカー：覚醒』

Secret Cargo

War, huh, yeah 

What is it good for? Absolutely nothing, uhh

"War" (Edwin Starr)

Just pointing back to the Honkaku Discord server, in case you missed it. Also: I should've planned these posts better, because now I mention the author of today's book twice in a row.... I recently played the second Nintendo DS game supervised by Nishimura, but I should probably not plan that post as my next...

Nishimura Kyoutarou was one of the most prolific mystery writers in Japan and a household name there, even known to people not interested in mystery fiction simply due to the enormous media output that used his name, from television films to video games. When he passed away earlier this year, he had nearly 650 books on his bibliography list. I have probably not even read three percent of that total list, and not surprisingly, most of the books I have read are the better-known ones, like Koroshi no Soukyokusen ("Hyperbola of Murder", 1971), Shichinin no Shounin ("The Seven Witnesses", 1977) and of course several entries in his Inspector Totsugawa series, like Akai Cruiser ("The Red Cruiser", 1973) and Terminal Satsujin Jiken ("The Terminal Murder Case", 1980). Nishimura will forever be associated with the "travel mystery" subgenre, which focuses on traveling (tourism) and means of transport. As you may guess, the subgenre does have have elements of the Croftian school, as it often involves alibi tricks using trains, airplanes and other means of transport, but more importantly they focus on "the country": stories are often set across various locations and areas in Japan (not just Tokyo) and so they also include a touristic element, often delving into specific local train lines, famous tourist spots or places with historical importance (which is one reason why there are so many adaptations of Nishimura's work on television).  

The first Nishimura Kyoutarou novel, and the first novel featuring Inspector Totsugawa, I ever read was, probably not surprisingly, the English release of The Mystery Train Disappears. The first one I read in Japanese however might be surprising, because it's not a very well-known book. I have seen on the internet a few people mentioning it's one of their favorites, but those mentions are rare, as with over 650 books, a story really has to stand out in order to attract the attention of many. So why did I end up reading Choutokkyuu Tsubame-gou [Event Train] Satsujin Jiken ("The Event Train Super Express Tsubame Murder Case", 1987) as my first Nishimura in Japanese? The simple answer: the book was free. There used to be a table in front of the library of all the East-Asian studies at my university, and they'd put books and magazines there they didn't need anymore, and sometimes you'd find a pile of fiction pockets too. So one day, I happened to stumble upon this book and took it with me and it was actually one of the very first books I read in Japanese. And that of course meant that I was reading this book with a dictionary next to it, as I had to look up (simple!) words every two sentences and all of that. Ultimately, I did finish the book, but never thought it was anything special, and most of it was already forgotten by the following week. But a while back, when I was cleaning up books, I came across this pocket again and decided to read it again: my first time was simply not optimal as I was still learning the language, so I thought a second read would result in a fairer experience.

The book starts in the late eighties, when Inspector Totsugawa receives an anynomous letter at the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, which seems to warn the police about death coming to the Super Express Tsubame. Totsugawa and his subordinate Kamei, as people who grew up as children in post-war Japan instantly recognize the name: the Super Express Tsubame was the fastest train in Japan before World War II, and when it started running in the 1930s, it shortened the trip between Tokyo and Kobe by an hour, making it "just" nine hours. The train was seen as a symbol of luxury and admiration for all children before and after the war. Eventually, the Shinkansen bullet trains would of course become the fastest trains in Japan, but the romantic image of the Tsubame remains strong among people who grew up in that period. But of course, the Tsubame hasn't run for decades now,  so initially Totsugawa thinks this is just a weird letter, but he asks Kamei to see if he can find the sender, but when Kamei succeeds in that task, he finds the sender murdered. They also learn that in two days, the Super Express Tsubame will actually ride again, as an anniversary Event Train: in 1940 there had been a special event celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Tsubame, and a special, super luxurious observation car had been created to host a number of special guests. The new 1987 event train has a replica of that observation car and while ride along the same time schedule as in 1940, and the guest are either the same guests as in 1940 or their children/relatives in case they had already passed away. Inspector Totsugawa suspects something must have happened in the train in 1940, which is why the murder victim sent a letter to the police warning them, so he decides to board the train himself too, as he is also convinced the murderer is among the guests. Meanwhile, he also comes in the possession of an unpublished manuscript of a reporter who was one of the guests in the 1940 event, and through that manuscript, Totsugawa learns the story of a young Japanese army official who boarded the Tsubame heading for the ship heading to the China war frontlines, but who seemed to have disappeared on his way...

As I was reading this book again, I realized I really had forgotten most of this book, and while some segments seemed familiar, it was clear that reading a book when you're just starting to learn a language is probably going to result in you not remembering a book down to the details, simply because you "lose" a lot of time and focus as you try to struggle with the book at a linguistic level, having to look up words and grammar. Anyway, re-reading this book didn't reveal to me this was some kind of hidden gem, but I have to say I did appreciate the book better upon my second read, even if I wouldn't call this a must-read Nishimura work.

You might expect this book to be one of those stories where they jump between the present and past between chapters as I mentioned the old manuscript Totsugawa was reading, but in actuality the past narrative only takes up about one-third of the book, even though mystery-wise, it forms the core of the novel. Totsugawa (correctly) guesses *something* must have happened in 1940 to lead to a series of murders among the guests of the event train in the present, and indeed, in the old journalist's report he learns about a curious event, at least, from the reporter's point of view. In 1940, the Japanese army was already waging war in China and nationalistic sentiments were at a high in the country: many people were clamoring to fight Western powers like the United States to "liberate" Asia to be put under Japanese rule. This ultranationalistic, suppressing atmosphere comes alive in all aspects of the past narrative and definitely one of the more memorable points of this novel. The special guests who have been invited to the event train all have different thoughts about the war, some are absolutely against the war, while others seemingly welcome it and see everyone who dares to even pause to think about it a traitor to the country. Even the luxurious observation car of the Tsubame is seen as too decadent by some, as "luxury" was seen as a national enemy in times of war. It is under these circumstances that a young Japanese army officer forces his way into the observation car of the Tsubame during the celebration event in 1940: while the car is reserved for the train company's guests, the officer declares that he is heading to Kobe's harbor as he has been assigned to the frontlines and that as someone willing he give his life to the glorious homeland, he has at least as much right, nay, even more right to occupy the observation deck than any other person here. Considering the ultranationalistic, ultramilitaristic atmosphere at the time, nobody is able to shoo him away, so he stays in the train, though obviously as an outsider to the invited guests. The officer stays inside a private compartment during the trip, while the train stops at Kyoto and finally at Kobe, but there the reporter is surprised to see the officer has disappeared. He wanted to have a short interview with him at the end of the trip and had been extra watchful to catch the officer at the platform, but the reporter swears the officer never left the train at Kobe, or Kyoto and yet he wasn't in the compartment either. While one could just assume that the officer just managed to leave the station at Kobe without the journalist noticing, as according to the files the officer did reach China, where he died on the battlefield, the reporter still thought it was very strange. It's this seemingly impossible disappearance that Totsugawa sees as the motive for the murders in the present, and he is soon proven right, as he notices that all the guests in 1987 who also attended in 1940 initially lie about the officer being in the train and seem very evasive about his presence even after admitting he was there.

As said, the past narrative only makes up for about one-third of the book, so this disappearance isn't a really complex case: most of what happened can be guessed pretty easily as there are a few scenes that are telegraphing a bit took much, but I have to say: the reasons explaining what exactly happened in the past are really well grounded in the war sentiments of that time, and a lot of it makes only sense in that ultranationalistic atmosphere. It really builds on the idea of a society in war, where some are too afraid to open their mouths in fear of being accused of being a traitor, while others are seeing a higher cause in the war and think their actions are absolutely right. It results in a rather unique setting and this is definitely an aspect of the book I appreciated a lot more on this second read. And I am not sure if this was the intention, but for some reason this book also feels like it subverses/plays with the solution to one of Agatha Christie's better known stories (okay, *most* of her stories are well-known), and while it's not a *brilliant* play, I do find it funny how it could play with your expectations if you already knew the Christie story.

The present chapters in comparison aren't as interesting: more murders happen here and Totsugawa sees the officer's disappearance (?) in 1940 as the motive, but the murders that occur here aren't "mysterious" in the sense of how, as anyone could've committed them and it just comes down to Totsugawa having to figure out who could have some connection to the missing officer. The ending also feels a bit too convenient, with people having exact knowledge of what happened just turning up to explain things. Again, the motive here is really well-connected to the past and the circumstances there, but don't expect impossible disappearances or crafty time schedule-based alibi tricks here. The deaths here are straightforward, and mostly serve as a vehicle to tell the story of the past.

Choutokkyuu Tsubame-gou [Event Train] Satsujin Jiken isn't some kind of hidden masterpiece by Nishimura Kyoutarou, but I am happy to have given it a second chance. Of course, part of the fun for me was reading this book in just a few hours now rather than weeks with a dictionary, but I could appreciate some aspects of the book better this time now I didn't have to look up things all the time and could just focus on the narrative. The war-time atmosphere and the focus on the Tsubame are definitely the highlights of this book, resulting for some memorable moments, and while I don't think this is a book I would especially recommend to someone looking to read a Nishimura, it's definitely I can see as a Rank B book that I might suggest if you have already read the truly famous ones.

Original Japanese title(s): 西村京太郎『超特急「つばめ号」（イベントトレイン）殺人事件』

The Silent Speaker

In the previous post, I asked about a honkaku-themed Discord server, but while I did get suggestions, it didn't seem there was a specific dedicated server. So err, I think I just created one? I named the server Honkaku, because I don't intend it to be a direct extension of this blog and the posts here, but a general place to talk about puzzle plot mystery fiction from across the world in all media formats, from books to manga and digital and analog games. Though I have to make clear now this is mostly me trying something out as I have never run a Discord server, and to be absolutely honest, I hope the server remains juuuuust small enough for me to manage, but we'll see what happens. If nobody joins, that'll just be the end of things and at the moment, it is really just me in the member list, so it can never get worse than it is now! But if the idea of a honkaku-dedicated Discord server sounds interesting, you'll find the invite link below.

Invite link: https://discord.gg/z3HMSmf8qd

Death Times Three

Time after time 

ひとり 花舞う街で

「Time after Time ～花舞う街で」（倉木麻衣）

 

Time after time 

Alone, in the city of dancing flowers

"Time after Time ~ In the City of Dancing Flowers" (Kuraki Mai)

By the way, is there like a honkaku Discord channel or something similar?

Still so many Nintendo DS mystery adventures to play.... A few months ago, I bought a bunch of DS adventures I still haven't gotten around to, but there are still so many I want to try out too...

Yamamura Misa and Nishimura Kyoutarou are two of Japan's mystery novelists who are often mentioned together, as there was a time where they were simply the best known detective writers in the country, at least in terms of name recognition. Both writers were extremely prolific, and their works were also often adapted for television, which of course eventually meant everyone had at least heard of their names, and likely they once caught one of the many television specials or series based on their works and characters. Nishimura was strongly associated with train-related mysteries, and by extension the travel mystery, a sub-genre that focuses on crimes occuring at touristic destinations and other places away from Tokyo that require travelling, whereas common themes in Yamamura's work were female protagonists, stories focusing on romance and romance-turned-to-hatred and most importantly: the city of Kyoto. Which is a very popular tourist destination in general, even for domestic tourism, which also makes her work feel part of the travel mystery genre. Another common point these both authors have, is that their work were also among the earliest in Japan to be adapted into the video game medium. The Famicom (the Japanese counterpart to the Nintendo Entertainment System) saw several mystery adventure games based on the works of Nishimura Kyoutarou and Yamamura Misa, and interestingly, these games weren't adaptations of existing works, but based on their works, often involving the original authors as supervisors. 

In 2018, I reviewed DS Nishimura Kyoutarou Suspense Shin Tantei Series: Kyoto - Atami - Zekkai no Kotou Satsui no Wana ("DS Nishimura Kyoutarou Suspense - A New Detective Series: Kyoto - Atami - The Lone Isle In The Deep Sea - A Murderous Trap"), a mystery adventure game released on the Nintendo DS in 2007 by developer Tecmo. As the title suggest, it was a game based on the work of Nishimura Kyoutarou and actually the first original game bearing his name in over a decade at the time. His "connection" with Yamamura however remained strong, and the following year, a second entry in this series was released, but based on Yamamura Misa's work: DS Yamamura Misa Suspense - Maiko Kogiku / Kisha Catharine / Sougiya Ishihara Akiko - Koto ni Mau Hana Sanrin - Kyouto Satsujin Jiken File ("DS Yamamura Misa Suspense - the Maiko Kogiku / Reporter Catharine / Funeral director Ishihara Akiko - The Three Petals Dancing In the Ancient Capital - Kyoto Murder Files" 2008) once again has a supercalifragilisticexpialidociously long title, so I'll just be referring to it as DS Yamamura Misa Suspense. As the title suggests, this game focuses on three of Yamamura Misa's famous female detectives who are all active in the former capital Kyoto: Kogiku is a maiko (geisha in training), Catharine Turner is the daughter of a former US vice-president, who now works in Japan as a journalist and Ishihara Akiko is a funeral director with a keen eye for crime. DS Yamamura Misa Suspense consists of three episodes, each starring a different detective, supported by their respective boyfriends, and also by Inspector Kariya of the Kyoto police force, who is in charge of the criminal investigation each time and knows all three detectives acting as the connecting thread between the three episodes. Yamamura Misa had already died by the time this game was made though, so the game was supervised by her agency. 

As a spiritual sequel to DS Nishimura Kyoutarou Suspense Shin Tantei Series 1, it's probably not a surprise when I tell you that technically and game design-wise, the two games are very similar. They use the same user interface, you have the same kind of (fairly well-animated) character sprites transposed on real-life-esque backgrounds. In my 2018 review, I pointed out that DS Nishimura Kyoutarou Suspense Shin Tantei Series 1 was very beginner-friendly though, and it was obviously designed for non-gamers. It is an adventure game at the core, so expect to talk with the suspects about a variety of topics, explore several locations and find clues, and ultimately, use the physical evidence and other clues or testimonies you acquired throughout the game to solve the crime by answering questions from foes or allies, and correct answers will further drive the plot. Nothing surprising here when it comes to game design. This game however does not punish you for wrong answers and also guides you to the next location you must visit, so you can't ever get lost in this game or not know what to do next. This game is actually even more streamlined and linear than the previous game: whereas DS Nishimura Kyoutarou at least occassionally did more than just ask you what happened three minutes ago, DS Yamamura Misa almost expects the player to be not familiar with either video games, nor with mystery fiction because the questions it fires at you are ridiculously simple.

So you'll be mostly playing this game to just experience the three stories with the three detectives, as challenge is definitely not to be found here. I'd say that overall, none of the three episodes are truly memorable, though most of them have one or two ideas that are pretty interesting. You can play the episodes in any order, though the game has the episode with Kogiku lined up first. She's booked with a fellow maiko to act as a companion at a party, but on her way to the party, Kogiku stumbles upon the body of a fellow maiko who was supposed to appear at the party. The mystery plot is more about figuring out who had a motive for wanting the maiko dead and as the player, you don't really get to do much, though I liked an early part of the story where a maiko's alibi depends on how long it would take to put her clothes on! Traditional Japanese arts do play a big role in Yamamura's work, so this felt quite natural. The last story features the funeral director Akiko, who meets up with a friend who's been worried about another friend she can't reach. When they visit this person, they find she has passed away in her apartment, having cut her wrists. Akiko soon realizes something is off about her death, but the victim's father refuses to call in the police and wants her funeral service to be handled as quickly as possible. Akiko offers her services to the father, hoping to buy herself some time to find out what really happened. Again a story that is mostly about learning who had a motive to want her dead, but this time there's not even some small moment that stuck with me.

The episode with Catherine is definitely the most memorable: Cathy is writing an article on Noh theater, and she and her boyfriend visit a Noh hall sponsored by a tea maker. A young talent is rehearsing the piece Doujouji with his mentor in the hall and will have time to be interviewed by Cathy afterwards. Only the master and his apprentice are inside the theater while they are rehearsing, but as they finish and the mentor comes out the hall first, the young actor is poisoned with arsenic, even though nobody was inside the hall anymore once his mentor stepped out to speak with Cathy. The story once again focuses on finding out who hated the actor enough to want to poison him, but there is also an impossible crime angle to this story that makes this the best episode of the game, as the mystery just has more volume to it. The way the real play Doujouji is integrated into the mystery plot is actually really clever and even leads to one of the few moments in the game where the player has to think and figure the connection out themselves. I can actually imagine a full novel being based on this episode alone, as there are more than enough parts and segments that could easily be expanded a bit for a mystery with more body. 

 

DS Nishimura Kyoutarou Suspense Shin Tantei Series 1 had a fun extra mode titled West Village, featuring 50 short mystery quizzes and riddles, reminiscent of Professor Layton puzzles. This game sadly enough does not have such a feature, instead featuring a mode with quizzes on Kyoto and traditional Japanese culture, starring Yamamura Misa's daughter Momiji. West Village was a great way to present more interactive mysteries for the player to solve, so it's really a shame this game doesn't have those mystery quizzes anymore.

But as the game is now, I would not really recommend anyone to play DS Yamamura Misa Suspense - Maiko Kogiku / Kisha Catharine / Sougiya Ishihara Akiko - Koto ni Mau Hana Sanrin - Kyouto Satsujin Jiken File, at least, not if you're looking for an engaging mystery adventure. The game is too clearly aimed at non-gamers, so you're just led down a linear path with basically no mental input from the player. I do think it serves as an okay introduction to these three detectives by Yamamura, and while I have already read a few Catherine novels, I think I might try those with Kogiku and Akiko too in the future. I went in this game with pretty low expectations and I am also trying to play most of the Japanese mystery adventures released on the Nintendo DS, so I don't feel too disappointed with the game, but it's far from memorable. Its big brother DS Nishimura Kyoutarou Suspense Shin Tantei Series is more amusing in comparison, and even that is a title that hardly stands out.

Original Japanese title(s): 『DS山村美紗サスペンス 舞妓小菊・記者キャサリン・葬儀屋石原明子 古都に舞う花三輪 京都殺人事件ファイル』