prophetgoddess

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you MUST know about this game. this is going to be THE underrated, overlooked game of the year. i have only heard about it in one place, on the insert credit podcast.

it is an fmv murder mystery detective game where you play as a mystery novelist who is recruited to help investigate a 100 year old murder involving an aristocratic family obsessed with immortality, and just when you arrive a brand new murder occurs. the game takes place across several time periods with a small cast each playing multiple roles (one of my favorite techniques in live action cinema).

mechanically, you make occasional inconsequential dialogue choices, but the meat of the gameplay is entering your mind palace to piece together clues to form hypotheses about the crimes you investigate. once you're done, you come back to the real world and get to select from those hypotheses and play out the classic mystery novel scene where the detective explains how they know whodunnit.

like phoenix wright, the game uses its several murder cases to thoroughly explore its mechanics and subvert the player's expectations at every turn. like 428 shibuya scramble and contradiction: spot the liar!, it is phenomenally skilled at riding the razor's edge between the inherent campiness of fmv games and telling a genuinely effective story. the performances are genuinely excellent, emotionally effective and naturalistic most of the time, while still being campy and hilarious when the mood calls for it.

i'd also draw a comparison with the classic board game sherlock holmes: consulting detective. while not borrowing all the mechanics from that game, the centennial case takes a similar mechanical approach to being forgiving to players who can't quite follow the logic of its mysteries, but still encouraging those who want to strive for perfection.

also, it is a great murder mystery story without a single cop in it. we need more of those.


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