Short Version: It’s pretty fun and engaging! It’s the typical Suda 51 weirdness that people have come to expect, but in an engaging police drama format. It may be a visual novel, but it does so many different things differently than all the others that you are guaranteed to have a unique experience. I say you give this a shot.
Long Version: I have fond memories of The Silver Case, even though the game never really made it over to North America until now. I always got by with really rough fan translations and simple guesswork on my part. I was always incredibly interested in this title, which is why I always went through the trouble of trying to understand it. However, I no longer need to do that anymore, now that an official translated release is finally out. Honestly, even though, this game is from 1999, I still think it holds up nicely, save for a couple of details.
We’re on the Case
As previously mentioned, The Silver Case was Grasshopper Manufacturer’s very first game, with the now well-known Suda 51 being one of the writers for the story. The game is essentially a very unconventional cop drama in the form of an even more unconventional visual novel style. I’m not going to spoil what happens, and even if I did, it would take some time to makes sense out of it without simply playing the game on your own first. Suffice it to say that it gets interesting pretty quickly, and with the added Suda 51 weirdness, it also becomes very memorable. Some other reviewers have commented on the story implying that it makes no sense or that it is full of nonsense, but I personally never really found it that difficult to understand. Your mileage may vary, but one thing I’m sure of is that the narrative is worth experiencing.
Simple engrossing yourself in the world is enjoyable. Seeing the dark and almost grimy images of all the characters that talk to you, along with suspenseful places you explore frequently adds to a certain tone that you don’t really see anywhere else. This feel of the world is further expanded through some brand new chapters that got added to the game, adding new perspectives to the story.
The Most Visual of Novels
You’re not going to be met with the typical format of still character portraits talking back and forth with the same 4-5 backgrounds. Instead, it throws all of that stuff out the window and just keeps the window. Having a style that consists of mostly windows and squares showing characters, environments and text boxes creates a look that is unique to this game, sometimes benefiting and hindering it. I say that because every single exploration section of this game is also played in one of these windows. The sizes of these frames can range from big and wide to “early Oculus Rift footage” size. While some moments allow you to explore 3D environments comfortably with a big window, some look like a scene that was shot vertically on an iPhone, which can be suffocating when wanting to literally see the full picture.
Even when you are able to see a good amount of the world, the actual exploration is very brief, full of interruptions and very clunky. From the moment that one of the characters starts to explain a wheel of options that could easily be tied to a single button press (including basic movement), you can tell this is a game from the 90s trying to play in PS4 2017 territory. I can understand people trying to preserve the original experience, but I wouldn’t have minded an option where the controls were more streamlined and simple, rather than the old as hell way The Silver Case does it.
[I originally posted this review on The Buttonsmashers. You can read the rest of the review
by clicking here or just listening to the video version above.]
Game Review – The Silver Case
0Short Version: It’s pretty fun and engaging! It’s the typical Suda 51 weirdness that people have come to expect, but in an engaging police drama format. It may be a visual novel, but it does so many different things differently than all the others that you are guaranteed to have a unique experience. I say you give this a shot.
Long Version: I have fond memories of The Silver Case, even though the game never really made it over to North America until now. I always got by with really rough fan translations and simple guesswork on my part. I was always incredibly interested in this title, which is why I always went through the trouble of trying to understand it. However, I no longer need to do that anymore, now that an official translated release is finally out. Honestly, even though, this game is from 1999, I still think it holds up nicely, save for a couple of details.
We’re on the Case
As previously mentioned, The Silver Case was Grasshopper Manufacturer’s very first game, with the now well-known Suda 51 being one of the writers for the story. The game is essentially a very unconventional cop drama in the form of an even more unconventional visual novel style. I’m not going to spoil what happens, and even if I did, it would take some time to makes sense out of it without simply playing the game on your own first. Suffice it to say that it gets interesting pretty quickly, and with the added Suda 51 weirdness, it also becomes very memorable. Some other reviewers have commented on the story implying that it makes no sense or that it is full of nonsense, but I personally never really found it that difficult to understand. Your mileage may vary, but one thing I’m sure of is that the narrative is worth experiencing.
Simple engrossing yourself in the world is enjoyable. Seeing the dark and almost grimy images of all the characters that talk to you, along with suspenseful places you explore frequently adds to a certain tone that you don’t really see anywhere else. This feel of the world is further expanded through some brand new chapters that got added to the game, adding new perspectives to the story.
The Most Visual of Novels
You’re not going to be met with the typical format of still character portraits talking back and forth with the same 4-5 backgrounds. Instead, it throws all of that stuff out the window and just keeps the window. Having a style that consists of mostly windows and squares showing characters, environments and text boxes creates a look that is unique to this game, sometimes benefiting and hindering it. I say that because every single exploration section of this game is also played in one of these windows. The sizes of these frames can range from big and wide to “early Oculus Rift footage” size. While some moments allow you to explore 3D environments comfortably with a big window, some look like a scene that was shot vertically on an iPhone, which can be suffocating when wanting to literally see the full picture.
Even when you are able to see a good amount of the world, the actual exploration is very brief, full of interruptions and very clunky. From the moment that one of the characters starts to explain a wheel of options that could easily be tied to a single button press (including basic movement), you can tell this is a game from the 90s trying to play in PS4 2017 territory. I can understand people trying to preserve the original experience, but I wouldn’t have minded an option where the controls were more streamlined and simple, rather than the old as hell way The Silver Case does it.
[I originally posted this review on The Buttonsmashers. You can read the rest of the review by clicking here or just listening to the video version above.]Game Review – Rain World
Game Review – Operation Abyss: New Tokyo Legacy