I dabbled in three Japanese adventure games!
Chikuden-ya Toubei
This is a pretty standard one and it takes place about 100 or so years ago. Apparently there’s a cult that we have to investigate. I go to the house of my partner’s friend. He has a robot doll that serves him tea. At some point in our conversation, we realize that the doll has been there since before he came. It turns out to be a bomb and we run away. I have no idea how you trust a robot doll like that. What is wrong with my partner’s friend?
Unfortunately, ztranslate is not accurate enough for me to really enjoy this one!
Nazo no Masquerade
This is a self-proclaimed “Western-style murder mystery.” The prologue is a big masquerade event where the wealthy head of the house is about to name his successor. Somebody kills him and it’s up to us to figure out who. Unlike Portopia-based adventure games, this one is very open. We can walk to almost any room in the house, interrogate people, and investigate items.
From the opening, I noted that this is a Masaya port of a Riverhill Soft game. After reading @HOBO 's thoughts on JB Harold, I think it’s best that I admit defeat before I even start to play.
Mitsubachi Gakuen
This was a huge effort by Hudson Soft. Mobygames says that over 100 people were involved in its development. They held competition/auditions. You might be wondering, what concept did they believe so much in that they were willing to spend this many resources on? The answer is an adventure game where you play as a teacher in a special private school for aspiring idols.
The game has four scenarios, one for every season. At the beginning, you are able to choose whichever you’d like. I played a bit of spring and summer. In the spring scenario, you are introduced to the school. The dean pulls you aside and tells you that he suspects there’s a mole within the school who is leaking information to a tabloid. The tabloid’s name is “Tiger Den.” “穴” can also mean “hole,” so when you look at their logo, I think you’ll get the joke.
The principal also mentions that this just so happens to be the day that the girls will be doing fitness tests and it would be scandalous if anyone from Tiger Den were to sneak in. Sure enough, I catch one of them in the girl’s locker room. As I’m arguing with him, girls come in and I have to answer a bunch of trivia questions about real life idols in order to protect their dignity. The girls beg me not to, but I punch him in the face.
Unfortunately, I didn’t save the game so I’m not sure how that chapter ends. But I did just play some of the summer chapter. I’m at a guest house at the beach. Apparently girls from the school are at the beach. This is cause for some anxiety because who knows what kinds of paparazzi could be out there? It takes me 20 minutes of wandering around, pleading a restaurant owner for a bathing suit, and checking behind every parasol before I’m able to find them.
I’m ashamed to say it, but I think this is the most interesting game of the bunch by far.