Walkthroughs & Tips

Review by: GenoForPrez

Reviewers Score: 6 / 10

Posted: February 07, 2006

Title: Famicom Tentei Club 2: Ushiro ni Tatsu Syojyo
System: SNES/Famicom
Genre: Mystery, Role-Playing (detective)
Overall Rating: 6/10

Beautiful story. Not much fun as a game.

Review:

Story (spoiler free): 8/10

I will say that I did thoroughly enjoy this story for the most part. The characters were well developed and did a decent job of making you change your mind about suspects, as any good mystery story will do. I was expecting more of a mini-mystery type of thing, but it turned out to be surprisingly large, complicated, and well written. Whoever wrote the mystery definitely knew what they were doing. I did have a few dislikes with the story, though. For example, you usually received information pretty smoothly and in a believable way. But I really hated how sometimes, just as you were wondering about a certain person, you would randomly receive a new piece of information--right out of the blue--that completely explained the one thing you were wondering about at that exact moment. Boo to that. I thought that the conclusion of the story was really great, too, but again, a few of the final "twists" as I'm sure the writer would call them, didn't really make sense. I mean, they weren't completely illogical or anything, I just didn't like how they seemed to be randomly thrown in at the last minute in an attempt to shock me. I thought the story would have been just fine without a few "twists" that I thought were kind of cheezy and didn't make as much sense as another explanation would have. I really wish I could be more specific, but for the sake of non-spoilage, there you have it.

Gameplay: 1/10

The gameplay annoyed me a little bit. There were a lot of areas to explore and many people to talk to, but I didn't really enjoy how perfectly linear it was. I was expecting the role-playing element to be a little more liberal. That is to say, I was expecting to have a list of areas that I could choose from. A list of suspects and witnesses where I could choose who I wanted to talk to. I was expecting to receive a list of clues that I would have to look at and make a decision on a suspect. Instead, the game dictated my every move. It gave the feeling that I was deciding what I wanted to do next by displaying that list of options to the right, but really, it was always the case that one of those options was the right one to choose and the game wasn't going to progress until you picked the one it wanted you to pick (and a lot of times, trying to figure out which option was the correct one to advance was really annoying and frustrating). Maybe I just went in with the wrong expectations, but there really wasn't any gameplay to this game. It's like reading one of those "choose your own adventure!" novels, only that every choice you make leads to the same conclusion. In other words, there isn't really a choice at all. It's just a story. Fortunately, the story is a pretty good one.

Graphics: 10/10

Some of the most detailed artwork and animation you will see on this system. Throughout the game you will investigate many different areas (well, you will talk to the people in those areas anyway) which are displayed as a detailed image in front of you. The image is completely still except for the important things. People blink their eyes. Their mouths move when they speak. Televisions flicker. Things like that. But for the most part they are still images, which allows for extra detail that you don't normally see on a system like this. Also, there is this one animation of your feet running down the street they use a few times that I thought was absolutely amazing. The ocassional close-ups on characters' faces are usually pretty amazing, too.

Audio: 8/10

The audio is very simple. A lot of the game is just quiet investigation with the sounds of bird chirping or voices murmuring, etc etc. But there is a dramatic theme that plays in times of trouble and a little "ah ha!" tune that plays when you find out something new. But I especially enjoyed how effective the "scary music" was whenever they were talking about the Tale of the Girl in Back. That little substory really made the game a lot better.

Replay Value: 2/10

It's a mystery. Once you know everything, you know everything. I thought the "gameplay" was kinda dull the first time, so I definitely wouldn't go back for a second dose of that. The only reason I could think to play this game again is if you really enjoyed the story enough to sit through it a second time. So I guess it's possible, but for me personally, this game will be a one time thing.

And just for the record: I did enjoy this. I just don't recommend it if you're looking for a game. But it's a good read, if you don't mind the format.