Detective Instinct: Farewell, My Beloved

I loved Phoenix Wright games, and when I saw trailer, I knew I had to eventually play this. After playing it, it's less like Phoenix Wright and more of adventure game like Famicom Detective Club but honestly? I don't mind, as I enjoy these kind of games too. I'm really glad this game exists, I was hooked from the start, and while it's on short side, it ended quite well and I'm happy to have played it. Would recommend it to anyone who's fan of text adventure games.

The presentation of this game is absurdly lush, and the quality of it from top to bottom is pretty unusual. It has its own unique fantasy console/handheld vibe that I really dig. The story's pretty decent, with a handful of twists and turns, and the way the music is employed to punctuate each new piece of information is pretty fun and charming. You *should know* that this game does not, as far as i know, contain major story forking in the style of Banshee's Last Cry, and is more or less a straight visual novel where all information is delivered to you piecemeal and the characters do all of the thinking. The UI is pretty great and comfortable to use, like many visual novels it's easy to see all of the dialogue in a single log at once if you've forgotten anything, and the in-game notes makes it convenient for you to, say, take a long break and refamiliarize yourself with the major plot beats before jumping right back in. There's even a text autoplay feature if you'd rather just sit back and let the scenes play out, which is a nice touch. It's a bit of a nitpick but there are sequences where the player is "trapped" and has to find the right piece of dialogue to advance the story, b…

I played and completed this game shortly after it'd come out late last year and I figure I'd like to leave a review. I can see the passion the developer has for the genre and the games in that lineage shining through with each sequence. The dialog is excellent with a great sense of humor and sentimentality, the pixel graphics are exceptional, and the music is so good I'd swear the game itself existed as much as a vehicle for its delivery as much as it does a game for its own sake. Great, great soundtrack. I think that it's hard to beat the Ace Attorney formula with its punchy courtroom dramas and high stakes, and if there's a sequel to Detective Instinct-and I certainly hope there is-I'd like to see the developer attempt to punch up its "gameplay" sequences with a little more back and forth. As-is it mostly amounts to the main character being questioned about his recollection of the case at hand which is just fine, but I think the formula could stand to capture some of the energy of its contemporaries. There's a lot of potential-especially as a first attempt in a new series-just a bit bare bones. Even still it's a very enjoyable, quaint visual novel with a lot of good going fo…

TL:DR - a fun detective visual novel that should scratch the itch of fans of Snatcher and Policenauts style gameplay. Overall a great little game that strangely felt shorter than it actually was, but exactly as long as it needed to be, didn't feel too short or too long. Definitely would benefit from some voice acting, but given the expense I wouldn't be surprised if that never happens. If there were any negatives, I'd say these: * The location menu was under-utilised as the linear nature of the story meant there were only a few occasions where more than one location was available, and those never felt like any choice mattered. * Several conversations, particularly towards the end felt less like natural conversation and more like they were designed around the menu design, which felt awkward and made those final interrogations more difficult and devolved into 'try everything until you find the right option', which wasn't as fun. * Given how meticulously certain characters go over clues and things other say, I find it surprised that something got missed, a certain character was shot early on in the story but this details is later contradicted by another character.

Well worth it for anyone who enjoyed playing visual novels on the DS

I really enjoyed this game it may be simple at first but as the story goes along it gets better and more interesting my only complaint as that there wasn’t more