

Detective Kobayashi - A Visual Novel
Genuine · 2019 · Detective, Crime, Mystery, Visual Novel, Point & Click
PC
Mostly Positive79% · 19
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About Detective Kobayashi - A Visual Novel

Play famous detective Kobayashi in this one-of-a-kind visual novel: Investigate crime scenes, interview suspects and collect clues to get to the bottom of 5 different crime cases that will challenge Kobayashi's skills and delve into a past he has been trying to forget. But be careful: People will try to fool you, and you never know who is really pulling the strings. Your team members will help - or sometimes hinder - you on the way to uncovering the truth, while you collect important clues and evidence to ensure that when you finally face the criminal, he will have no option but to confess!


《Investigation》
Examine mysterious crime scenes and collect essential clues to reveal what truly happened!
《Battle System》
Confront suspects in nerve-racking one-on-one dialogue battles and choose the correct evidence to prove their guilt!
《Light Bulb System》
Delve into the depths of Kobayashi's mind to collect secret hints about the case. Use them wisely!
《Multipurpose Mobile Phone》
Grab Kobayashi's phone to text characters and discover hidden phone numbers!
4 chapters featuring different challenging crime cases, each with its own theme and style + 1 extra chapter back when Kobayashi was in highschool.
Chapter 1: 《Missing Child》
Chapter 2: 《Midnight Ghost》
Chapter 3: 《Room of Revenge》
Chapter 4: 《True Evil》
Extra Chapter: 《At the Academy》
What Steam players say
Recent verbatim reviews from Steam — separate from playze.io community reviews below.
Detective Kobayashi game is a mixture of Visual nove and Escape room. You play as Kobayashi, a lazy detective whose main goal is to find a girlfriend, so he keeps on chasing girls, however, when it comes to his job he focuses on it and delivers better than any of his colleagues, especially Ryu, his rival. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3034775166 The game has four cases and an extra short one, each plays differently. In the first two cases you investigate, collect evidence, interview suspects and witnesses, and then accuse the one behind the crime, however, in the third episode the game turns to an escape room style with multiple puzzles to solve, I honestly enjoyed it although it was pretty tough to solve. I liked how in the last episode you gathered everything you know to solve the last case, The game is pretty solid and I enjoyed every moment of it. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3035258657 You have a journal in which you collect evidence, and a character profile that you can use during the battle system when you confront the other person with what you've learned, be careful though you could easily lose as there is only one way…17 found this helpful
The game is surprisingly problematic and broken. I only got up to case 2 and had to stop The first case involves [spoiler] a neighbor kidnapping a child because he wanted his parents to spend more time with the kid. The neighbor gets off scot-free on a tenacity because the protagonist thinks that the neighbor was in the right. [/spoiler] The second case is about [spoiler] a 39-year-old stalker killing a 24-year-old girl but for some reason all of the male characters are sympathetic with the guy and act like the girl was in the wrong for rejecting his advances. The protagonist even says they should play video games together when he gets out of jail. [/spoiler] The mystery solving is broken. At the end of the 2nd case your main character is trying to say the killer's motive but all the options are very similar. It was things like [spoiler] "Secret Love", "Unrequited Love" and "Jealousy". [/spoiler] This would not be a problem if not for having to put them in a certain order or else it says the solution is wrong. I already figured out the motive when i got the prompt but i still I had to try every possible combination to say it the way the game wanted me to, only to see the proble…3 found this helpful
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 s…1 found this helpful
A great visual novel about a detective using mechanics similar to those found in ace attorney. This isn't a rip off of that game but does use its features except outside of a court room which makes those mechanics less dry. The shake phone feature is very amusing and the characters are quite fun. I do think it was a shame to put a time skip between the first two cases as too much character development fell into that gap. The game is sound but there do seem to be a few optimization features when loading, it seems a little slow, I do over fill my computer which doesn't help but for a visual novel the loading is slow. Also the click boxes don't seem to quite line up all the time in full screen. Ultimately ignore the ace attorney stuff, this game is a game in its own right and builds on sound and well established mechanics. It is fun, original, and only a tad scuffed. 10/10 The only sad thing is the game left off on a cliff hanger and it feels a let down to end there.
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.
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, …
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