Detective Kobayashi - A Visual Novel Reviews

The game is nice but seems relatively unknown. There is some similarity with the Phoenix Wright games, in that you need to investigate crimes and find the culprit. However, the action does not take place in court (the protagonist is a police detective and not a lawyer). You gather clues and talk to witnesses/suspects and try to prove the guilt of the suspect, or get the suspect to confess. Winning verbal duels leads to the one on the losing end getting pushed off the screen and finally getting "shattered" quite literally - an interesting visual effect. Scenes have to be examined carefully to pick up clues. The game assists a bit with that and will collect clues in a notebook which you can review/use when needed. You may need a guide/walkthrough when playing though, as some of the puzzles may be hard or not obvious. The protagonist is rather sharp but lazy, and keeps trying to flirt with female characters (including his hot-tempered assistant Matsuda), often with funny results that lighten up the mood. Same for interactions with random people on his phone. The story is pretty good and has 4 chapters, with hopefully more to come in a sequel. A bonus fifth chapter is unlocked after completion of the first 4. Recommended if you like mystery/detective games.

Overall this game is great! It was quite easy for me to guess how the cases will turn out (I'm good at guessing the plot lol). Unfortunately, some riddles were quite hard, like Chapter 3. [spoiler]I was too dumb to figure out how to get a hint and besides that I was lost several times, since I didn't know what item I should use for what and where I could find them. Thank god I was able to activate and find the hint system, so I could finally get through this[/spoiler]. Don't get me wrong, I like riddles, but it's hard if you don't have any idea what to do next. I'm really curious on how this story will continue. From what I gathered, [spoiler]I think Kobayashi and his previous partner were investigating on something and his partner ended up killing himself in the action or something? Kobayashi transferred and his partner's brother planned his revenge[/spoiler]. The extra Chapter was also AWESOME! I love school mysteries and seeing their young days is a nice touch. The ability to gather random phone numbers and their unique story was also a great idea. Might as well play some longer to gather some extra CGs :)

A peotillomaniac who fancies himself a Sherlock must solve a series of cases involving “not” Thomas the Tank Engine, horror moopies, suicide, and toilet-related misconduct. Will he do it? Well, if it has two legs and a cute face, the answer is “yes”. [b][u]The Good[/u][/b]: [list] [*]This is the only visual novel I’ve played so far—so maybe the visuals are run-of-the-mill—but I like them. I’m glad that when you’re investigating a scene you have a more isometric view to take everything in. [*]Has a bulb you can hover over to get a character’s thoughts while they are interacting with other characters or deducting. [*]There are only 5 chapters (including the bonus), but the cases at least have variety. [*]There aren’t really any awkward translations that stood out; maybe the occasional typo or misspelling (halluzinations, overnite, etc.). [*]You can copy/paste phone numbers. [/list] [b][u]The Neutral[/u][/b]: [list] [*]Under 10 hours of playtime. [*]The shake feature sounds like a teenage boy slapping off. [*]Not all lines have recorded dialogue, but when 2 or more characters are interacting, they usually do. [/list] [b][u]The Bad[/u][/b]: [list] [*]Tsuguo’s audio sounds off. It almost sounds like they had to get someone to record his lines from their home and you can hear a fan in the background. [*]The soundtrack doesn’t always have a smooth loop. [*]Contradictions are not always contradictions. [/list] [b][u]Pro Tips[/u][/b]: [list] [*]Make sure to use the shake feature at the start of every chapter. There are several characters you can talk to in each one. [*]If you want the [b]Achievement Hunter[/b] achievement, here is what you do: [spoiler]In Chapter 3, when you get to the room with the stove, [b]don’t start the fire[/b]. Hit the pipe above the stove, and then hit the pipe with the valve on the other side of the room. Open the stove with the blue key and you’ll find a photograph.[/spoiler] [*]There is a glitch with the [b]Memories[/b] achievement, but there is a workaround: [olist] [*]In Chapter 4, use the shake feature to talk to Arai Yuki (Ponyo). [*]Get Arai Yuki to send her picture (finish the conversation) before interviewing the last person. [*]Battle [spoiler]Matsuda[/spoiler]. [*]Open the phone and look at Arai's conversation after going to the crime scene. [*]The photograph should now be in your collection when you exit to the main menu. [/olist] [/list] I would say the weakest parts of the game are the audio and the battles. When it comes to the audio, it’s too inconsistent with the recording quality, and the music needs a smoother loop. My issue with the battles is how I can find contradictions in someone’s story, but it doesn’t match with what the game actually wants. I like that I get to investigate, find clues, and piece things together, but the actual deduction minigames need more depth. Despite the faults, I still enjoyed it, but I wouldn’t pay the full $13 price.

I'm going to start here by saying that I ONLY recommend this game because I was able to find a guide for the original Chinese release (https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1644345467) that isn't accessible from the localized game's community hub. It's a great story, and there's a lot of fun in the interactions between main characters, but the puzzles are hard to solve because of all the possible right answers. If you are certain you're on the right track, but you can't find what the game wants you to know, I recommend checking that. The investigations themselves are pretty straightforward. It's a scene investigation styled like your typical point-and-click, hidden object game. If you get stuck, there's hints for that. However, when it comes time to solve the cases and draw your conclusions, the debate minigame can be confusing. Not because you have to pay close attention to the case to get the right answer, but because there are so many possible right answers, and the game is looking for a specific one. There was a point where I could have easily countered every single point someone threw at me with the evidence at hand, and eventually it plays out that way, but it wants you to start with a specific one. I don't know if that's bad localization or bad game design, but it definitely got in my way. The other point of frustration is in the bubble minigame for drawing conclusions. In other areas of the game, you can get some hints on stuff if you get lost, but not here. In the one for chapter 2, I was literally writing different combinations for things on a sheet of paper to keep track of what I tried, because there were too many phrases that supported the exact same motive, but again, there's only one right answer. The debate/battle minigame frustrations aren't so bad, there are only so many logical ties the evidence can have, and even if you fail it's not like testing them all takes a huge amount of time. But this other one, you will know the answer, but because you can't find the one answer they want out of several combinations of correct answers, you could end up like me, stuck in one spot for over an hour, writing combinations on a sheet of paper because there's nothing left in the game to help you even if you restart the investigation.

This game is a bit of a mixed bag, so it's an "OK" review - recommended, but with caveats. The clue finding and piecing together arguments part of the game is quite engaging, and fortunately forms the bulk of the game. The part that lets it down are the inner thought bubbles puzzles where you have to piece together a string of thoughts in sequence to crack the case. Oftentimes, the keywords in the thought bubbles are so similar that you can easily mix them up in the wrong sequence and the game won't accept your answer, or the thought logic leaps so big you won't know how the game expects you to get there. The only way out of these puzzles usually devolves into inputting every single combination, or going to a walkthrough for answers, detracting from the immersion the game. Another part that lets the story down is the baffling choice to put in a lengthy escape room chapter in the middle of the game. This is a long chapter, and really breaks the flow of the game up until this point. Escape room puzzles have their own brand of logic to make players think laterally, is very game-y (the logic only applies to those puzzles), and this feels very jarring compared to the other chapters, where you are in the (more realistic) mindset of gathering murder clues and deducing the means of the crime. I've heard of players that have quit because of this chapter, and it's a pity, because the chapter preceding it and the one right after it are actually pretty good. In addition to the aforementioned escape room chapter, there are also pacing problems throughout the game. The ending comes a bit fast and is a cliffhanger, leaving the plot that was brought up in the escape room chapter unsatisfying and unresolved. Then there is the bonus chapter that comes at the end of the game, and it is a flashback, far too easy and short, and feels like it should have been put in at an early part of the game instead. In short, I'd cautiously recommend this game, it's still fun for most part, but you'll have to be willing to put up with poor pacing and probably have a walkthrough on standby.

A very fun mystery game, some achievements were hard to do and I'm pretty sure it's bugged on Steam to where it doesn't show as a perfect game when all the achievements are got.

Detective Kobayashi is an Ace Attorney-alike visual novel that has you investigating crime scenes, challenging suspects, and solving murders. If you like Ace Attorney, you'll have a good time with this one, though don't come into it expecting an Ace Attorney quantity of gameplay; this is much shorter and simpler, and will take only five hours or so start to finish. The game takes place in China, and makes no attempt to localise either the setting or the character names, meaning that it can be challenging to keep track of which character is which, and most of the wordplay falls completely flat, since it's given a bare, literal translation rather than localised into something that works properly in English. While this is odd and slightly offputting, it is only a small detail, and doesn't materially impact the game. The meat of the translation is perfectly solid (and pleasingly light on "singular they" garbage), though the choice (in the first two chapters) to have Kobayashi refer to everybody as "dude" whenever he gets excited is a bit odd. Visually, the game is serviceable though unexceptional; the graphics are clear enough that it's never hard to spot the things you're meant to spot, and the character designs are distinctive enough to make an impression without being as over-the-top weirdo as the later Ace Attorney games. The sound is also unexceptional; it's there, certainly, and not offensive, but not exciting either. There is also voice acting, which can, pleasingly, be turned off without disabling all the sound entirely. The structure of the cases will be familiar to anybody who's played Ace Attorney. There's been a murder, and you have to go investigate the crime scene and figure out whodunit. Unlike Ace Attorney, there are no courtroom scenes; the game focuses on the investigation, not the legal process. Our hero has a pretty female sidekick, just like in Ace Attorney, and a childhood friend who serves as a foil, just like Ace Attorney, though the difference here is that the Miles Edgeworth and Detective Gumshoe characters are combined into one. This does expose, interestingly, how important it is to keep them separate; it's difficult to take Ryu seriously as a competent professional, much less a rival, when he continues to bumble the investigations in such basic ways. Chapter Three is the odd man out in this game, as, instead of Ace Attorney-ing, the game suddenly becomes an escape room. I enjoyed it by and large, though there are a few moments that I never would have figured out on my own, and needed a little push. The game provides that, and it's also simple enough to find a guide right here on Steam that steps you through it. There are only two major flaws with this game. The first is with the game's "complete Kobayashi's thoughts" mechanic, obviously meant to parallel the similar mechanic in later Ace Attorney games. The trouble here is that, instead of presenting the data in an orderly fashion, it quite literally floats onto the screen randomly in bubbles, and you have to grab at bubbles and drag the data into the slots. This means you never get access to all the available data at the same time, and it's very hard to keep your thoughts organised and remember what you've already tried. This problem is compounded by the fact that many of the possible thoughts are extremely similar to one another -- should we choose "secret love" or "unfulfilled love?" Every single time, I found myself getting frustrated with it and having to look up the answer, and, every single time, my reaction was "isn't that the first thing I tried?" Obviously it wasn't, but the interface makes it intensely difficult to keep track. The other major issue is with the way the game ends. In Ace Attorney, the final case is generally much larger in scope and much more difficult than the rest of the game; here, the final case is short, simple, and unsatisfying, leaving so very many questions entirely unanswered. It also commits the sin of [spoiler]the mastermind being a character we've never met and never even heard of before, and takes it to a whole new level; even Kobayashi himself has no idea who this guy is. The villain also appears to be preternaturally skilled and resourceful, and his master plan -- and his escape plan -- are so convoluted and strange that it strains credibility that he could pull it all off.[/spoiler] There is a bit of scavenger-hunt replayability in that there are collectable "memories" to find, though one of them (in the final chapter) is bugged and may not register properly. There is also a very odd "easter egg" to be found in the escape room. The cases themselves, of course, remain exactly the same on a second playthrough, and each has only the one solution. Overall, Detective Kobayashi is worth a few hours of your time if you enjoy mystery visual novels. There's nothing revolutionary here, but it's a charming, enjoyable take on the genre.

It's decent detective game with each case(there are four cases) requiring different approach style(one requires finding out exact time of death and compare it to alibis, another is focused on motives, etc) The difficulty is somewhat hard for novices like me but there is a guide on Chinese store page(Goggle translators would be required if you don't know Chinese). The main complaint I have at this game is its hint feature. While there are hints appearing as bulb icon when you find clue, you can't access it later at later stages(battle scene or deducting stage), which make reviewing clues in game less helpful - you probably have to write important things about clues and hints manually since it might be unavailable to see it later. The scan feature help you finding clues, but you can't use it during room escape where this feature is more needed than any other scenes. Also, it lacks option to adjust text speed which mean I have to click each sentences twice to make it appear instantly which was a quite tiresome experience. Overall, this game was between okay and decent for those who want to play detective games. The case themselves are decent, but in-game features to assist player have some flaws as I stated above. Thus, if you decide to play this, you'd better to have some pens and papers to write down some information since they might not be available later. Oh, and one thing I want to mention is about price. the price of [url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/899160/]untranslated Chinese version[/url] is less than half of the price of this game. Thus, if you think you can understand Chinese(even by a little), you might want to try that one first.

The game starts out fine in the first two chapters, but then it changes gears into a puzzle solving scenario in chapter three. I don't mind puzzle solving when it is done fairly, but there are some puzzles that are pretty much impossible to figure out without a walkthrough. Like the infamous "drop the butterknife in the forest" in Mystery House, once the puzzle solving goes illogical, it is no longer fun to play.

No dragonmaids 0/10 But seriosly .. Detective Kobayashi is indeed detective VN. It's originaly chinese game, the translation is ok even if it's rough around the edges but the deeper you go, you discover many problems ... like there is testemony where guy says that he doesn't know who lives in flat nextdoor but he heard noises from there, but the clue item says that he didnt hear anythng .... that makes you wonder how many miss-translations there actually are. There are partial chinese voiceovers of variing quality, specially your male collegue ... some of his lines sounds like they have been recorded thru pipe or something. Another issue with this game is the actual detective mechanic, you are gathering clues and then use them to prove contradiction in the statements .... but there are often many contradictions that can be proven, but game will only accept that "one" that devs were thinking about, other contradictions might be used later on or ignored altogether .... so game keeps failing you until you find that right one .... sorry but this is really just bad game design. Story itself isn't bad and game is kind of fun when you are not dealing with the issues mentioned above. But because of the issues I cant recommend it