izigame.me

I love this game so much and it does a lot really well in the first half, but you better be prepared for a letdown of a lifetime.

Story/gameplay:
For your sanity (and to postpone the spoiler part), let's start with the positive. The selling point of this game is clearly the four murders the trailer is clearly proud of. I can confirm: Those were fantastic stories and brilliantly crafted mysteries to solve. It does throw you in the deep end, but manages to give you just enough of hints that even complete novices to the mystery genre can probably just barely handle with some attention and patience. Zero issues with overly esoteric mysteries. Heck, you'll probably come out each chapter satisfied or wanting even more.
Regarding the main gameplay, I can see how the "hypothesis" gameplay might be tedious for the real mystery whizzes who figure it out immediately. For one, most of the hypothesis animation is unskippable, so it kind of caps your max speed. But on the other hand, the whole hypothesis generation gameplay and even all the red herrings really helps you think the mystery through. The summary mechanic wasn't really explained and I feel like they could have refined it a lot more, but I'm not sure I can call it a negative. Overall, the gameplay was surprisingly enjoyable for something so simple, and dare I even say a little therapeutic.
So okay, the first half of the game was excellent. What about the latter half? Well, this is where it gets rough.
Chapter 5 lost some of its hard-earned momentum with the obtuse animal puzzle. The previous cases have all kept a mostly realistic tone, so this was a bit strange. Other than that, I was not adverse to how to changed up the gameplay a bit.
Rather, the real problem was the entire ending. It just gives up and throws everything at you, which seems epic until you learn the MC's entire argument revolves around the dumbest "clue" it claims unravels the whole mystery. I can assure you: it is genuinely stupid.
To its credit, it did try to give a couple clues. But since the entire game's point revolves around unpacking hundreds of red herrings, and then gives you zero indication that you were supposed to treat it as anything more, it's clear the game REALLY didn't want you to find it.
The solution also breaks a particular ground rule that the game had explicitly laid out, which is a big no-no in the fair-play, shin-honkaku genre. From what I can tell, it doesn't even try to employ some language trick with interpretation of rules, so I can only assume it really did self-contradict.
So then what's your reward? Why, a giant lore dump to solve blatantly reveal half the game in a very, very long villain monologue. For the entire game, it had stuck a perfect balance between showing and telling, but now throws all that hard work in making a tightly knit, comprehensive story right out the window.
Oh, but it's not over, because you are hit with a somehow even worse epilogue and a gigantic lore dump. Like yes, at least the great twist reveal was done right, and yes it solves everything in the story. But oh hell no was well presented. Forget pacing; it just shoehorned in everything it couldn't cram in the main game and ran the the scene just went on forever and ever. At this point, you have to pity all the actors who had to stand there with angry faces the whole time, after having done the exact same thing for the ending chapter too.
Genuinely, what happened to this game? How did it come to this? It had everything, but then... threw it all away.
Directing/acting/music:
The stylish scene work was really a joy to behold. Seriously, I was not expecting actual movie quality level of camera work but I suppose I should have expected it from a high profile FMV game released in 2023. This artistic feel can be felt all the way through to much of the UI art/design itself, which I can certainly respect the dedication to immersion.
The acting was pretty good overall if you accept the typical campiness and little awkwardness you find in a lot of Japanese live-action/dramas. Don't be fooled though; it's more of a serious crime story with several heartful moments, and most of the cast captured this perfectly. I did find that the main protagonist's over-expressiveness really stood out among the rest of the cast in several scenes, and not really for the better. But I must say, her goofiness fits perfectly in the (very, very many) silly bad ends.
Music:
The single most consistent thing in the game is the outstanding OST. There's a track that brings out the full potential in every scene, and I would say it singlehandedly carries the game through the most "meh" parts. So zero complaints here.
Play time (100% achievements, all S rank):
16.9 hours
Verdict:
I loved a most of it and I'm glad that it exists. But with how hard it falls off toward the grand conclusion, both story and gameplay-wise, I don't think I can recommend it in good faith. Perhaps the sole exception is if you are truly starved for more FMV or shin-honkaku mystery genre games AND buy it during a sale.
A difficult game to judge, but I'll give it a 6/10 for effort.