Chase: Cold Case Investigations ~Distant Memories~ on Nintendo 3DS

The Ds lite was home to a good number of interesting visual novel-style games, from Phoenix Wright to Hotel Dusk: Room 215. The second was title?with a unique visual style that cast you into the role on the former Manhattan detective named Kyle Hyde.

Chase: Cold Case Investigations is a brand new game from your director and development studio of Hotel Dusk, Taisuke Kanasaki along with the now defunct Cing Inc. Distant Memories feels as though it?functions as being a prologue or first episode, and is particularly a somewhat short experience only clocking amongst two and three hours. It feels much more an indication of concept for that which we’re able to see later on as opposed to a full experience, but what Distant Memories does have is intriguing.

Chase: Cold Case Investigations shares an identical varieties of animation and story themes with Hotel Dusk, emphasizing two detectives that are part of a Cold Case Investigations unit. Shounosuke Nanase is actually a veteran detective who seems cold and uncaring most of the time, while his new assistant Koto Amekura is enthusiastic and inquisitive. For any individual that doesn’t know, a ‘cold’ case is but one?that remains unsolved and could never meet a resolution.

The game starts when one day the detectives receive?a call at the office, tipping them off in regards to a case from incomes ago, one where an explosion killed someone on a hospital. The two main start doing digging in the case, finding photos from the crime scene, specifics of a healthcare facility, witnesses for questioning.

Distant Memories could possibly be short, although the story it presents is stuffed with twists, and the characters you meet are uniformly interesting, particularly Nanase and Amekura. The happy couple begins to produce a fun relationship by the end of the experience, high are hints with regards to the dark past that Nanase looks to acquire.

Distant Memories is actually a visual novel at its core, so the majority of what you’re doing involves reading text and dialogue since the game builds knowing of the case and who had previously been included in it. Story and text is separation by interactive elements from time to time. You’ll have a look at photos on the crime scene, examining sights or having to indicate specific bits of evidence. In the process you’ll should also interrogate multiple witnesses about the case. These segments are displayed by incorporating cool visual style, placing Nanase as well as witness across from the other.

While the detective talks to the witness you’ll ought to select certain conversation options that will get facts right, and press them to acquire more information. Picking a different answer depletes an interrogation gauge you might have over the lower screen, which enable it to cause a game over once completely drained. Most of these conversation options need stop and think, while some are pretty basic. It’d be nice to find out more interaction and engagement, even so the conversations that ensue with witnesses are probably the best story moments amongst gamers. Each witness contains a distinct personality, and it’s never really clear who may just be answerable for the crime before the end.

By far the most effective options that come with Distant Memories is a sleek visual style it’s presented in. Characters, particularly facial animations, are beautifully rendered in the strange combination 2D and 3D animation. This style add depth and emotion to characters’ faces, almost which makes them pop off of the screen at points. There’s a form of fluidity to motion and animation in Distant Memories that’s strangely satisfying to check out. Most of the time the most notable screen from the 3DS is needed for characters and animation, even though the bottom is used for information, selecting conversation options, and investigating photos. You’ll find, however, some segments that combine both screens.

Distant Memories’ soundtrack also does a good job of reinforcing its tone. Its sound is unquestionably reminiscent of the visual novel type of games you’d utilize the initial Ds lite, in particular the Phoenix Wright series. The songs switches forwards and backwards between moody dark tones as well as some lighter, better ones music.

Chase: Cold Case Investigations ~Distant Memories~ might not be a terribly long experience, but it definitely looks like it’s introducing some interesting characters and ideas. There are actually story threads, organizations, and themes?pointed out that feel like they’ll play an essential role after. Distant Memories only costs $5.99, so it definitely may seem like an episode out of what’s going to be described as a larger series. The video game does feel like it variety of rushes with a close too quickly however, and i also remained a tad disappointed, after i really just wanted to observe really its characters.

Distant Memories shows hints of the worked so well in?Hotel Dusk: Room 215, and perhaps when it felt way too short, I’m definitely interested to discover where this goes in the future.

SCORE: 3.5/5 C FAIR