Shinsou Noise ~Jushin Tantei no Jikenbo~
Entry posted by Clephas
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Shinsou Noise is the first game by a new collaboration company called Azurite, which was founded as a joint effort by Silky's Plus and Liar Soft. In this case, Liar Soft provided the writing staff and Silky's provided the art and programming staff. It is also fairly obvious that the planning wasn't done by the Liar Soft team, given the general style of the story, which is more in line with my experiences with Silky's Plus (and thus lacks the annoying conventions Liar Soft usually indulges in).
Anyway, this VN is a mystery VN, with the added element of a 'deduction game' that is part of the story. The deduction game fits into the story, where the protagonist, a reception-only telepath who can't control his abilities to any significant extent, figures out who committed a crime at a specific time and place. This game mechanic is... to be honest... not something I really enjoyed. I mean, it was fairly easy to figure out all but the sixth-chapter stuff without the walkthrough (I had to resort to the walkthrough for the sixth chapter, where things aren't multiple-choice and you actually have to type in the answer). However, to me the deduction game mechanic felt like it broke up the pacing of the game... perhaps it is because I prefer being a watcher over an active participant in mysteries, lol.
There was one other element, which people will inevitably remark upon, that annoyed me.... it was yet another release that utilized the ladder-style story structure. What made it worse in this case was that you could feel the writers trying to make you hate that you picked anything other than the main path, and at the same time, they created a requirement for you to see the other endings before you could view the true one. I'm not going to rave this time, because I'm pretty emotionally exhausted right now.
The story of this game is full of tragedies... including the big one that forms the basis for all the protagonist's actions in the main story. What's more, regardless which of the two final endings you choose on the main path, it still feels like you betrayed someone. There is no real sense of satisfaction that comes from completing this VN, at least for me... perhaps it is because I so quickly became fond of Sakura. Momo, the true heroine, is a true innocent... an absolutely-trusting mind who I found pretty much impossible to see as a heroine.
Overall, this game will probably split people who read it wildly between those left feeling like I am right now and those who love it for the Japanese-style mystery...
EDIT: As an addendum, I'm going to put in my two cents about this game's theme...
... to be honest, both teams were obviously taking waaaaay too much pleasure in hurting the characters from start to finish, without the salvation of this being an utsuge or a nakige. The actual heroine endings were all short and pathetic (literally pathetic) both in scope and in design. I felt actively insulted with the final two endings, which felt like an anticlimax after all that had come before. I don't know why they chose to finish things that way, but it left me feeling like I'd gone through all that vicarious suffering and striving for nothing.
- Chronopolis, DharmaFreedom and Kanzato
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