The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story is a homicide thriller FMV (full-motion video) a couple of century-old household that eats magic fruit to remain alive perpetually. If that feels like loads, it’s. The Centennial Case is a love little one made by Koichiro Ito of Steel Gear Strong 5 fame and Junichi Ehara (Babylon’s Fall). Gamers take management of novelist-turned-amateur-P.I. Haruka Kagami, who has one purpose: fixing the string of mysterious murders surrounding the Shijima household over the previous century.
The place The Centennial Case succeeds is its story. That is removed from probably the most revolutionary plotline, however it’s adequate at holding the participant’s consideration. There is a wholesome steadiness of drama and intrigue that encourages the participant to proceed. Particular person beats are introduced properly, and the characters are fascinating sufficient for gamers to kind attachments. The twists are stunning at instances and even the primary antagonist could be seen sympathetically. That is all to say that the story is well-written.
Sadly, The Centennial Case is held again by its medium. FMV is a tough style as a result of it straddles the road between recreation and film. With a lot focus placed on the video aspect, The Centennial Case would make a wonderful restricted collection, however as a recreation, it fails.
There is not any variation between culprits and victims and selections introduced through the Incident Part—a elaborate time period for the hours of movie that play between gameplay segments—do not matter. Characters reply to both possibility the identical means or determine to do the alternative of the participant’s selection. The sport invalidates sure clues and hypotheses due to the bottom guidelines it units within the menus (and later violates those self same guidelines).
To fight the inherent linearity, the sport throws at least 400 crimson herrings on the participant. Within the Reasoning Part, the participant items collectively clues to kind hypotheses. The clues are hand-fed to the participant through the Incident Part, and any missed clues (we could not inform when or if we missed a clue) are included regardless of being ignored. Most of the clues result in hypotheses designed to throw the participant off target. There is just one true sequence of occasions; the remaining are all the time diversions.
The mysteries and their related clues are simple to piece collectively. Every clue, formed like a hexagon, accommodates a small design on one of many six sides. That design matches one of many mysteries, which is introduced the identical means. If gamers do not need to exert the minimal effort it takes to place the spherical peg within the hexagon gap, so to talk, they’ll use Insights to spotlight clues that belong to a selected thriller. As soon as a clue is matched to its thriller, the participant receives a speculation about a part of the case.
The difficulty begins when the participant should create a abstract of an unexplained thriller. It is a slog. Gamers choose one among a number of mysteries after which many explanations about that thriller to kind the abstract. The sport then offers suggestions from Haruka’s sidekick to point whether or not this abstract is necessary. If gamers create an unimportant abstract, they must undergo the entire course of once more. Relatively than letting the participant come to the conclusion on their very own, the sport holds their hand and leads them proper to it.
In doing that, the sport realizes it wants to offer the participant with some sort of problem. That is the place the Answer Part is available in. Gamers want to pick the right hypotheses and level out necessary particulars seen within the Incident Part to find out the killer and their motive. Sadly, the sport drops the ball right here.
The small print essential to determining the case are often not included as clues through the Reasoning Part. If gamers miss these particulars or select a dialogue possibility that does not current them, they must rewatch scenes to search out them, typically repeatedly. However as a result of they weren’t introduced as clues, the participant would not know whether or not they’re essential to fixing the case or the place to search out them. Some characters will really omit particulars which might be wanted to resolve the case and do not reveal them till the mud settles.
Worse is that apparent clues resulting in an accurate speculation are sometimes ignored. In a single state of affairs, a suspect got here from upstairs after three characters had been attacked downstairs. Wanting on the map, gamers can decide that there isn’t any means that character may’ve made it again upstairs with out being noticed. However that is by no means introduced as a possible alibi, despite the fact that one other character’s presence in a selected location through the crime is.
In one other state of affairs, the participant is given three selections to find out why a personality behaved a selected means in a scene the participant noticed earlier. The right selection is deliberately worded to not replicate what the protagonist says when it is chosen. Proper after that, one other clue used to verify {that a} suspect is the killer makes use of wording that implies the precise reverse of what the participant noticed.
The sport pulls out these tips always. One state of affairs was so convoluted that the sport could not preserve its story straight. Two of the 4 hypotheses introduced for one accusation had been the identical and result in the identical conclusion, however solely one among them was “appropriate” within the recreation’s eyes. Characters claimed that the sufferer should not have recognized a selected reality, however nobody ever stated that within the Incident Part. Finally, the sport pulled the rug out by revealing data a personality purposefully withheld for no cause. This data was essential to fixing the case, however there was no approach to uncover it till the top.
These points are a direct results of the chosen medium. Had this been a TV present or film, omitting info or deceptive the protagonist would not have mattered. Finally, they might have come to the conclusion even when the viewers did not. However as a result of gamers cannot progress till they work out the answer, they must depend on absurd leaps in logic to make accusations utilizing deceptive or incomplete data. The sport would not pull punches if gamers mess up. They’re pressured to take a seat by means of unskippable recreation over scenes that purposefully embarrass the protagonist, full with corny music, patronizing corrections, and condescending rebuttals.
Whereas The Centennial Case has an fascinating story to inform—and it is fairly an satisfying story at that—it is higher advised in a distinct medium. As a recreation, it struggles to steadiness the narrative with gameplay. As a result of it palms gamers the options, it then has to butcher affordable logic or outright lie to stop them from stampeding by means of every case. Had it simply been a TV present, the crimson herrings may’ve been used as diversions that the protagonist cleverly dispels to search out the reality. As an alternative, The Centennial Case appears like a TV present offering pop quizzes with solely unsuitable solutions.
The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story is on the market on Might 12, 2022, on PC, PS5, PS4, and Change. Sport Rant was supplied a PS5 code for this assessment.
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