Probably the most attention-grabbing resurrections of our present period is the return of the dwell motion FMV sport, from basic titles like Her Story, lesser identified ventures like Late Shift, and fewer nice examples like The Quiet Man. The most recent contender on this house is Sq. Enix’s The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story, a sport that’s akin to a really, very lengthy movie with some gameplay parts thrown into the combo as nicely. Contemplating Sq. was the writer of the aforementioned (and notorious) The Quiet Man, there was some fear on my half about this new in-house try at such a sport. Fortunately, whereas I can’t say I can see it incomes a spot in any corridor of fame, The Centennial Case is total an gratifying expertise for anyone that’s seeking to resolve a thriller or two.
In The Centennial Case, the story follows two most important characters: Haruka Kagami, a thriller novel author who has discovered modest success just lately, and her scientific advisor and good friend Eiji Shijima, a health care provider and the estranged center youngster of the rich Shijima household. When a 100-year-old skeleton is unearthed beneath the sakura tree on the Shijima property, Eiji asks Haruka to return house with him with a view to examine its origins. This thriller factors Haruka within the route of a number of different mysteries from the previous century, murders occurring in 1922 and 1972. In the meantime much more mysteries start to crop up within the modern-day as Haruka finds herself engulfed within the historical past of the Shijima household and their mysterious tormenter, The Purple Camellia.
A majority of The Centennial Case shouldn’t be not like watching a film, along with your most important interplay being the occasional dialogue alternative deciding how Haruka will reply. Generally there will even be a immediate on display screen instructing the participant to press X, which is able to add a clue to their “stock,” which could be seen at any time throughout the movie sections on the underside of the display screen, offering a brief record of clues and knowledge on the characters concerned. Finally because the case enters its climax, the sport strikes on to the reasoning part: a hex grid the place the participant should match clues and knowledge to questions concerning the case with a view to develop hypotheses. These hypotheses are solely prospects, most of them utterly fallacious, and primarily based on the hypotheses the participant should then resolve the thriller and reveal the offender to the remainder of the solid.
There are a number of points with the sport on the whole, not the least of which is that reasoning is made extremely simple by symbols on the clues that may be matched as much as the knowledge they go together with, slicing down on how a lot thought it truly requires to fill in every spot. If the participant will get one thing fallacious throughout the reveal part, the one possibility they’ve is to return to the reasoning part (although fortunately with out having to redo any of it). This requires a loading display screen that could be a tad too lengthy earlier than they’ll then exit the reasoning part into one other loading display screen to place them proper again on the part they tousled. A last concern is that whereas the sport could be performed with both Japanese or English audio, the English dub is questionable at greatest. That is comprehensible, as dwell motion footage provides much less flexibility with supply timing and such, however none of it actually clicks or feels pure at any level.
General, The Centennial Case might be not going to knock anyone’s socks off, however it’s on the very least an attention-grabbing thriller stuffed with gratifying characters that’s price a number of afternoons of an aspiring detective’s time. It will not be as much as the requirements of an enormous finances theatrical manufacturing, however the actors really feel competent and the musical rating provides an air of drama that makes it laborious to not get sucked in at occasions. If you end up with a yearning for a comparatively easy set of mysteries to stroll by way of and resolve, that is doubtless a sport to maintain your eye on for a wet day.
