This game is supposed to be a(nother?) reboot prequel to the whole Jinguuji Saburou series. I have no idea why Aksys games didn’t butcher this into Jake Hunter again. Probably because this is set in New York.
Still this game exists meaning that NO OTHER Jinguuji Saburou games do. So, this isn’t connected to anything.
People will start pointing out about how Jake Hunter is Saburou… but NO… Aksys did a good job of whitewashing the Saburou games into Jake Hunter. Jinguuji Saburou is dead.
Maybe they are planning to have a compilation game where they finally do a correct translation instead of thier whitwashing garbage. A pity that Night of the Sickle Weasel also fell to their whitewashing.

A lot of frustration in this game is the back and forth between places you have to do. The “tutorial” camp episode is one of them.
People telling you to go or hinting at places to be at only for you to go there and nothing is there. No you were supposed to go elsewhere first. You will also find the place only to talk to one character to get a sentence of text before rushing off to the hunt down the next place you are expected to be at.
I feel at one point in the camp even the devs got tired of talking to all three of the kids, adding nothing to anything, where they just make an excuse to get rid of them. Really they shouldn’t have been there as much as they were to begin with.

Another thing is that you have to look at items multiple times. Even when you get the info you need. There’s also a “SEARCH” you can use that will cause these glass shards to illuminate what you can view. Only it doesn’t work if you’ve viewed the item before. See above as you need to view them multiple times. There’s also sometimes an order you need to view them in. Lest to say lots of time was wasted.

The character is told in the news clipping that Daedalus means “DEAD ‘O blood LOSS” yet he goes around asking over and over what it is. I get that DAEDALUS is supposed to be a code word, but the fact the kid can’t read that it was just made up in the news clipping and it wasn’t even commented on it… WTF. He could have gone around saying “The news said this… but does it mean more.

Lots of misplaced labels and wrong names (Good job Aksys). A bar counter for example is called the Circulation Desk.

Yoko, the one that ends up being the office slave to Saburou is introduced as being cool and levelheaded. later however she’s dismissed and rendered completely useless “would only get in the way”, becoming a damsel to be saved later. Melissa, Dan’s mom, has her boobs hanging out for no reason. This is even lampshaded by Dan. She also gets damseled despite being a “super assassin”. She at one point “cries like a little girl”. Because the male writers see women as children.

The character designs are off too, if this is set in New York. Marie for example does the very Japanese female character design of chest clutching with her broken ankles stance. She is also written in her bio that she has a personality stronger than she looks. The design is very out of place with the pesudo-realism they have going on.

There are a few times you can comment on women’s chests. This is in there. Why? Why do these men hate women so much that they want to further normalize sexual harassment.

Another detective game I had very low hopes for and was surprised it was so good.

This game is a detective game with occult/paranormal element that’s set in Japan in the 80s. It’s an 80s detective story and I’m glad Aksys didn’t get their slimy fingers on this. It’s well steeped in Japanese terminology and 80s Japanese detective tropes.

It’s about a set of character that are Curse Users that each have a reason to bring someone back from the dead. The whole plot unfolds as you find out how each are linked to each other.
There’s some 4th wall shenanigans that are explained at the end of the game that don’t take away from the story and some puzzle that require you to talk to people well more than once, as well as examining items in rooms more than once.

I have to say the highlight of this game however is Richter Kai. A PI who left the force, who you can’t see how he was ever on the force. He’s probably the most animated (and hot) character next to Erio.

The best part about this game is that all the characters look their age, no 40yo that look 10 here. The women also act like people and not just some stereotype personality. It was a relief to see this after seeing the Switch shop flooded with porn VNs. Finally one where they told a really good story without all that garbge.
It also proves that you can tell a story without pandering to men’s dicks.

The main problem I had with this game was the chromatic aberration. It started to hurt my eyes after a while and there’s no off switch.
Overall though a really great game.

So I played this on a whim and didn’t have high hopes for it thinking it’d be another otaku pandering mess and…

It’s not.

It’s a funny (however short) comedy detective game with Lovecraftian/Cryptid plots. I really enjoyed it. The ending itself comes out of nowhere.

I will get out of the way the problems I had with it:
Namely a 10yo girl is constantly saying that she and Tendo are going to get married.
Tendo Saiga is 29…
Tendo however doesn’t even acknowledge it at all, doesn’t even comment on it and ignores it.
That girl also hates Hin Rei because she’s the new sidekick and thus horning in on her territory. Really they could have done without any of that and it would have improved the game a lot.

The only other problems was the text run on. But I could overlook that.

After all that it’s a nice fun comedy adventure in a town that is plagued by Lovecraftian creatures. None of the creatures use Lovecraftian names however, which is a bit of a relief. There’s also no talks about “sanity” or any of that after seeing these creatures. For Tendo, cryptids are just the norm.
There was also no gross sexualization of Hin Rei or any of the other women. Save one, and even then only slightly, and then the reaction of Tendo well.. spoiler and humorous. Not gross.
That all being said I found the whole experience a but short. It’s mostly voiced? There are parts that are fully voice and other parts that are just a catchphrase. I appreciated having the voices.
I was left wanting more and felt that I had only experienced one chapter of a trilogy game, instead of a whole game.

I would definitely check the game out if you are looking for a lighthearted visual novel.

This game just love to force things on the MC that she never asks for, but of course accepts it because she’s such a doormat.

Of course the MC has convenient amnesia and needs a MAAAN to fill her in on what happened.

I was hoping that it would be a decent game about MMOs and stuff like Sword Art, but not here. The MC is completely useless unless the plot calls for it. She can’t do anything herself and needs men to save her. Even the 14 year old boy is stronger than her and it’s pretty bad.

Like she rationalizes because he was trying to keep his promise it’s OK that he’s a murderer/rapist. When you look at it, it’s basically what Shiki wants and nothing about what she wants at all, but she just goes with it for no real reason.

The ending is of course a “reset time and none of this stuff ever happened” bullshit. Almost like what was the point of playing the game.

Let’s also talk about the incest going on. It’s stated he loved her the minute he saw her. At the end of Shiki’s route you can see they meet when she’s not even old enough to form words.

And the ultimate insult is the harem ending is the BAD ending. Women can’t even have an ending where they get all the guys and are happy like males are catered to all the damn time. The MC is then punished of course by being raped by her own brother.

THe best routes out of all of this are Libera, Radius and to a degree Astrum. The rest go way over the line. Zain was a good candidate for being a good one, but the writers decided to toss in the Demento shit and make him evil.

Let’s feel bad about a pedo rapist and bring him flowers despite the fact he kidnapped and abused a 9 year old girl and a 16 year old boy.

This whole game is “be nice to the oppressors and they’ll be nice to you”

This game also sets it up that people will regret the “crimes” they have done. Rapists and serial killers don’t regret their crime, only that they get caught.

Yoshinari is too cute for this game.

Of course the MC is a police officer, yet is constantly hesitating and getting knocked out and kidnapped.

Ultimately it falls on the shoulders of the oppressed to “stop the circle of hatred”. Which is bullshit.