First of all yall matchmaker doubters what the fuck read thru that shit, PEAKY LEAKY

I enjoyed this game tbh. Not as much as the original TSC but it had some good moments but also some moments im like "ehhhhh??"

Sitting through Blackout was fucking crazy man. Funnyyy stuuufffff!

Music lowkey hit hard as hell, not consistent with motifs like the original TSC tho.

Overall me likey, it got a bit carried away at parts which my dumbass was not gettin at first but im coming to terms with it. I love Grasshopper Manufacture slop!

Kill the crime. For the life. Save the life.

Welcome to the Ultimate City where no crime is accepted and rules are the gods!... 25TH WARD.

The city that born from the ashes of 24th and now here to be perfected where 24th couldn't with creating it's own gods, it's own rules, it's own factions and it's own Kamui.

And this time we have not just two but three stories to tell it's theme to us, to the player. Matchmaker, Placebo and Correctness.

And In my opinion game does a worse job when it's comes to giving us it's theme on our face then it's predecessor the silver case.

Or maybe it's not about it's "themes"? Maybe that's why it's filled with setpiece moments? Or not? I don't know anymore. Btw I like the game, but I connected to it less than silver case and wanted to give it's reason with it at first.

Now let's go and look at in much more detail

Correctness. Equals the "question" part from the original silver case. There are 5 main cases just like the original(also+3 cases) and every one of them.... No... This time it's not about serial killing, at least most of them not. They are variety of things. One is about a girl that killed weirdly on a aparment complex, one is about a mystery behind a man's suicide, one is about searching a dangerous man etc. And this part's stories have my favorite and most disliked parts in the whole game. Case 3's incredibly surprising and fun hitman fights part and the goddamn digital man case as a whole.

I am not gonna go into detail but I can say this, all the cases I dislike goes full on scifi fantasy or not just that, it goes pure fantasy. While silver case had a small part of them with "silver eyes", this game pushes it's fantasy elements to the limit for the purpose of confusing the player but in my opinion this ends up making the cases feel less rewarding as a whole.

And now, when it comes to matchmaker, I can safely say that it's my favorite one then the other 2 and also applies game's theme better then all of them. It's actually more of what I expected from this game. A special cop group's slowly growing relationship (unfortunately correctness only focused just 2 people from a whole group) while the main cop tries to delve his "past" and eventually have to come to a choice when it comes to "dealing with his own past". Also it's movie like action setpieces are cream on the cake as well.

Lastly the placebo and the one that I like less and less. It's about the journalist from silver case but without what made him "interesting". There is a reason for why he acts different but that doesn't mean I enjoy with it. Actually maybe he isn't the main character? Maybe it's the ai characters he meets throughout in his journey? I mean game gives a lot of time to their story so... I don't know actually. But I can say this. You can multiply the "fantasy" element I talked about at the top here ten fold.

That's all I am gonna say about it when it comes to this story.

So yeah when it comes to story, it's a messy one in my opinion to say the least. I mean silver case wasn't perfect either but unlike silver case, it's harder to see what we gain when we look at the cases one by one.

And when it comes to puzzles and exploration...

It's three steps forward two steps back.

Exploration is simplified with the removal of looking up or down or left or right. You can only "command" the character with saying go north, west, east, south and he goes until arriving to next intersection. This is a both good thing and a bad thing. Now there is no interactables hiding in plain sight that requires you to look up down left right every damn place. But also when you press a wrong button, you need to watch your damn character to walk alllllllll the way to another intersection point.

Also puzzles are mixed bag again unfortunately. Fortunately there is no press a button on the other side of the room puzzles but this time it's full of password puzzles.... While they are harmless at first, you just want a skip button when you came across the 100th one.

There is also more choice puzzles as well and I actually quite like them, especially correctness case 3 made amazing use of them. So actually a big plus in this part.

Oh also there are labyrinth puzzles this time and they... Sorry to say this but SUCKS ASSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. Especially case 2, oh case 2.... I wanted to strangle Suda when I saw I needed to do it twice.... HUHHH!???

Oh also interact bazillion things thingy comes back at the finale with that apartment complex, that piece of shit apartment complex. That's all I am gonna say about it. I just opened a guide for it so I would not lose my mind when playing that part.

So that's what I meant with three steps forward two steps back. More variety but also more tedium as well.

So what did I left... Oh yeah music rocks hard. Remixes felt good, new songs felt good I can't say anything bad about that part.

So yeah that's 25th ward. While I look like extremely harsh into it I quite enjoyed it, but also I didn't enjoy some parts of it so yeah... It's a game where I am stuck in between but you know what I am still gonna recommend it just for it's vibes of it. Silver case was good but this is somehow a step up of it in everyway and really fills you with it's mysterious upbeat energy.

Lastly some small things I realized when playing, one is this game have an intro and I assume it wasn't in the original? It was nice. Also it was funny seeing Suda again with ghosts. Btw I respect to anyone that got 100 ending. I wasn't patient myself tho. Also I didn't realize I needed to move that white block guy to select other campaigns. I almost finished the game without playing others if I hadn't look up a guide I legit wouldn't realize it can "move".

ENG:

This is a weird game. More so than the first one, which was an already weird game. I’m conflicted on how I should feel about it. In its best moments, The 25th Ward is excellent, but in its worst ones its horrible. In comparison to the previous game, this one does a better effort in involving the player in its world, filling it with puzzles and exploration sequences, but its mechanics end up hurting the game a lot. At least the way they’re laid out. The puzzles are just guessing codes or riddles that most of the time can be guessed by reading what other characters say, their thoughts or by simply paying attention to the environment. Puzzles that are solved in a matter of seconds or a few minutes if you’re slow like me. What they really are is an obstacle in the way. Beyond how their existence is justified in-universe, these puzzles don’t make for a real challenge and just get in the way in the most unnatural manner possible. As if they’re there because they need to be. To justify being a videogame.

Also, the information you’re given for puzzles is better to write down somewhere to not forget it. In my case, I wrote it down in handy piece of paper. Even though as an idea it is kinda cool, the execution is a failure. There’s only one moment in the whole game where it takes advantage of this approach, where you come back to the building from the beginning to find someone, and for that, you need to ask door by door to get indications. Unironically, this moment made me feel as an investigator in a way that games like L.A. Noire can just wish, putting together pieces and info to know where to go yourself, instead of the game doing the thinking for you. But even then, the game fucks up as the place I needed to go did not correlate to the info I had so instead I had to resort to external help (a walkthrough) to know where it was. A shame that it didn’t work out well.

On the other hand, there are the exploration sections which are by far the worst part of the game. Moments where the game kindly asks you to spend 15 minutes or more walking around aimlessly. Special mention to this moment in Correctness Chapter 4, where you need to, if my calculations are correct, ASK DOOR BY DOOR ON 280 APARTMENTS WITH NO CLUE TO WHERE TO GO. What comes out of this is that the game has like an hour or more of insubstantial filler. And talking about substance; The story. It’s not that I didn’t like it (in fact, it’s the best thing of the game), but I do still have a couple of complaints. To begin with, you spend more than half of the game without clearly knowing what the main conflict is, and I have the feeling that, until reaching a certain turning point for one of the characters, the game repeats itself without adding much. Sure, the plot might advance, but not in a substantial way. A lot of stuff happens in between, but I always had the sentiment that this was going nowhere, that everything happened with no direction whatsoever. I was even about to drop it at one point because I wasn’t motivated to continue, and if the game went down like that, I would have been immensely disappointed, but as I said, there’s a moment where it picks up the pace. Ten hours in, more or less. I may have been too forgiving now that I think of it.

Before it reaches that point, there doesn’t even seem to be a central theme or even a conflict for that matter. It is eccentric, in that it has no center. And later on, you get introduced to an antagonist that practically came out of nowhere (although iirc he appeared very briefly at the start) when the second half starts and it’s then when the game truly begins, making everything previous to this moment feel like the prelude to what was to come. It seems like the first chapters are almost unconnected sequences of bizarre things happening that don’t seem to relate at all or even go somewhere, and it tackles a lot of themes and ideas but doesn’t explore any of them deeply. When the second half kicks in, which is another ten hours more added to the timer, it picks up the pace and becomes more understandable what it’s really about. I won’t explain what it is because I find it kind of beautiful to discover it by oneself. But still, the game has more annoying vagueness than well-handled subtlety, so it can become irritating. I personally like the way it handles the whole Placebo arc, probably my favorite part of the game, and Correctness, while it starts slow and gets really convoluted, it does have some interesting moments, specially nearing the end. Matchmaker is the least interesting of the whole, but it still has its moments, although I find its writing to be unapologetically edgy at moments.

What I leave with is with the last fourth, which reaches quality levels on the narrative equal to the previous game, but of all the previous stuff is rather uninteresting at moments. It has good ideas and not few instances to remember, but in the meantime it doesn’t add substance continuously and becomes redundant more than it should, plus the badly-executed mechanics end up as insufferable tedium rather than a meaningful addition due to the game not handling them properly. Before playing it, I thought this one would impact me more that The Silver Case, and in the end it became almost disappointing. It’s the last 5 or 6 hours which save it for me. I might be giving the impression that I didn’t like it, but I still do have a positive view on it, I just don’t think it’s that great.

ESP:

Este es un juego muy raro. Más incluso que el anterior, que ya era bastante raruno. Me tiene en un conflicto conmigo mismo, y no sé bien qué sentir sobre él. The 25th Ward es un juego que en sus mejores momentos es excelente, pero en sus peores momentos es horrible. En comparación al juego anterior, este hace mayores esfuerzos por tener al jugador más inmerso en su mundo, llenándolo todo de puzles y momentos de exploración. Pero le sobra la jugabilidad. Al menos tal y como están planteadas sus mecánicas. Los puzles se resumen en adivinar claves o acertijos que las más de las veces se pueden deducir tan solo leyendo lo que otros personajes dicen, lo que alguno piense o prestando atención a algo del entorno. Puzles que se resuelven en cuestión de segundos o unos pocos minutos si apuras. En pocas palabras, una molestia en medio del camino. Más allá de como de justificada sea su existencia en el mundo, los puzles no plantean ningún reto real y sólo entorpecen el camino de manera que a la larga no se siente natural. Como que están ahí porque tienen que estar. Para justificar el ser un videojuego.

Además, para los puzles, se te suele dar información que es recomendable apuntar en algún sitio para no perderla. En mi caso, lo fui apuntando todo en un papel que tenía a mano. Aunque como planteamiento está muy guay, en la ejecución es un fracaso. Solo hay un momento en todo el juego en el que se le saca provecho, donde hay que volver al edificio del principio para buscar a una persona y para ello hay que preguntar puerta a puerta y buscar indicaciones. No irónicamente, este momento me hizo sentirme como un detective de un modo que juegos como L.A. Noire tan solo puede soñar, uniendo piezas e información para saber a dónde ir en vez de que el juego piense por ti. Y aún así, el juego la caga, porque donde tenía que ir no se correspondía con la información que tenía y tuve que recurrir a fuentes externas (un walkthrough) para saber qué sitio era. Una lástima de sistema mal llevado.

Por otra parte están estas secciones de exploración que son, con diferencia, lo peor del juego. Momentos en los que el juego cariñosamente te pide que te tires de 15 minutos para arriba dando vueltas sin saber qué hacer. Mención especial a este momento en el capítulo 4 de Correctness, donde hay que estar dando vueltas a, si mis cálculos son correctos, 280 APARTAMENTOS PREGUNTANDO PUERTA POR PUERTA SIN NINGUNA PISTA DE ADONDE IR. El resultado de esto es que el juego tenga como una hora o más de relleno insustancial. Y hablando de sustancia; La historia. No es que me haya parecido mala (de hecho es lo mejor de todo el juego), pero si que tengo unas pocas quejas al respecto. Para empezar, te pasas más de medio juego sin siquiera saber de manera clara cuál es el conflicto principal, y me da la impresión de que, hasta llegado cierto punto de inflexión de un personaje, el juego se dedica a redundar sobre sí mismo. Puede que avanzando la trama, sí, pero no de manera sustancial. Pasan mil movidas entre medias, pero estaba todo el rato con el sentimiento de que no estaba yendo a ninguna parte, de que todo lo que estaba pasando, pasaba pero no iba en ninguna dirección. Incluso estuve a punto de simplemente dejarlo porque no me motivaba, y si hubiese seguido por ahí, me hubiese llevado una decepción enorme, aunque como digo, llega un punto en el que las cosas empiezan a pillar ritmo. Más o menos diez horas después de empezar. Quizás fui demasiado tolerante ahora que lo pienso.

Hasta llegado dicho punto, ni siquiera parece que haya un tema central o un conflicto ni que sea. Se siente excéntrico, en el sentido de que no tiene centro. Y encima te lanzan un antagonista salido prácticamente de la nada (aunque si no me equivoco apareció un momento muy breve al principio) al empezar la segunda mitad y es ahí cuando empieza de verdad, haciendo que todo lo previo se sienta como una antesala de lo que estaba por venir. Parece que los primeros capítulos son secuencias casi inconexas de cosas bizarras que ocurren pero que no van a ninguna parte ni se relacionan entre sí, y toca mil temas pero no ahonda en ninguno solo. Aunque llegada la segunda mitad, que es otras diez horas más de duración añadida, coge el ritmo y se empieza a hacer más entendible de lo que va realmente. No lo voy a desvelar ya que lo encuentro bonito de algún modo el descubrirlo por uno mismo. Sin embargo, en el juego hay más vaguedad molesta que sutileza bien llevada, con lo que se llega a hacer bastante pesado. Me gusta especialmente la manera en la que se lleva todo el arco de Placebo, seguramente mi parte favorita del juego, y Correctness, aunque empieza lento y se complica demasiado, tiene algunos puntos interesantes, más todavía llegando al final. Matchmaker es la parte que más me sobra, pero aún así tiene su algo que lo hace un poco interesante, pese a que su guión me parece descaradamente edgy.

Con lo que me quedo es con todo el último cuarto, que alcanza cotas de calidad en cuanto a narrativa similar al juego anterior, pero de todo lo anterior me sobra mucho por momentos. Tiene buenas ideas y no pocos momentos para el recuerdo, pero por el camino no sabe añadir sustancia de manera continua y cae en la redundancia más de lo que debería, además de que las mecánicas mal ejecutadas acaban resultando en un tedio insufrible más que un añadido significativo debido a que no sabe usarlas a su favor. En su momento pensé que este me acabaría impresionando más que The Silver Case, y al final el resultado ha sido uno casi decepcionante, y son sus últimas 5 o 6 horas lo que lo salvan para mi. Puedo estar dando la impresión de que no me ha gustado, pero aún así lo miro de manera positiva, es solo que no creo que sea tan bueno.

Suda Is so crazzzzzy! Love him!!!

I don't know, I got up to Digital Man before throwing in the towel on this one. I usually make a habit of not reviewing games I abandon but I feel like I have to make sense on what I played somewhere because it wasn't exactly a short amount of time.

The only aspects 25th ward has over the silver case would be the visuals and the music, but aesthetics and vibes alone can't really carry what essentially feels like a retread of the first one without really adding a new spin to it.

While I'm glad the gameplay was toned down because it was easily the most mind numblingly dreadful aspect of TSC, 25th Ward would benefit significantly from being a phone game where it not for having even more obnoxious puzzles than Flower Sun and Rain. At least in FSR you could tell the game was taking the piss on itself so checking manuals and doing basic math didn't feel too tedious thanks to the writing, but I would be damned if I wouldn't prefer a fade to black over doing that w.c keyhole puzzle shit twice or any walking section of this game for that matter. The nail has been hammered in the prequels and any more strikes feel like you're just trying to crack the wall.

This is something I could stomach if the dialogue, characters or lore were remotely engaging, but whe word salad and innocuous interactions of the cast feel like a chore to read due to being a tiresome recreation of what was already on TSC, and without the big threat of Kamui on the horizon which neatly connected all the chapters like we had on Transmitter and Placebo, everything feels so distant from each other that even when returning faces show up, the stilted dialogue that should explain the titular 25th ward reads like a shallow "The autoritharian government is bad and killing is human nature!" to which again, been there, done that.

I'm glad that it exists and it's not lost media for flip phones. If anything it shows the potential in mobile storytelling while we are getting shit like honkai star rail and FGO clones thriving on the market but I can't exactly say this is approachable even as someone who enjoyed the first Silver Case, so the effort of making a physical copy and a collector's edition makes me wonder if it will suffer the same fate eventually.

I don't doubt it gets better eventually later on but knowing about the whole 100 endings thing and how it pokes fun at shallow, inconsequential choices in Visual Novels, making a "Is this what you wanted?" message at the end of your remake feels incredibly tone deaf because as I stated earlier: No. I really don't care about this game's choices given how most of the times they feel like padding, so it being a kinetic novel with no choices would have done wonders for you, Suda."

It's way more stylized and complex than The Silver Case was which is pretty surprising. A lot of that complexity comes from connecting very vague story points across the game. That could be a negative but it's intentionally ambiguous in the beginning, putting it together and getting the full picture is part of the fun.
Some of it did feel pretty unnecessary (mostly Matchmaker chapters) but the characters in the 25th Ward as it was fleshed out felt iconic and often sombre in their stories.
I'd say the original Silver Case is slightly better to me but The 25th Ward is extremely close.

I'd also be remiss not to mention the music. It's great.

woaaahhhh

worse than the first in a lot of ways but stylistically so unique and thematically (prob) more ambitious with very ambiguous results. the new protagonists and cast members fit the series incredibly well, and all the returning characters continue to be just as fantastic as they were. This game could also be like twice it's length if it wanted to, but the individual story paths are purposefully very condensed to what the 25th ward is dealing to the characters, which comes together very nicely in the end. I cant really tell if the inclusion of the third route was a great choice, as even though every story in this game is unique and serves a purpose to the plot, I feel the more interesting sides of the story could have been further expanded, making the chapter to chapter experience more enjoyable. The final product is still fantastic, but doesn't quite feel as complete as TSC. the OST is also worse but in a very interesting and almost offensive way at points, which ends up being way more entertaining then it should be (most the OST is still great, only a handful of tracks feel too out there). This game also lacks the diverse multi-media approach of TSC (which I assume is either due to the fact that this remaster is of a mobile game which likely made certain outlets more difficult, or that they were aiming for a more consistent "polished" feeling that TSC, being very rough around the edges, lacked), which was a shame as they always came across super unique and charming, albeit very technically jank at times.

the silver case has very easily become one of my favorite game series that I've ever played through. the constant balance of out of place and strange humor paired with psychotic storytelling filled with different complexities and hard-hitting themes delivered in the most unconventional way possible constantly impressed me throughout the 3 games. this delivery paired with some of the best visual style and aesthetics I've ever seen make for a genuine fully unique experience that's still stylistically unmatched 20 years later. it's further amazed me that the actual gameplay in this series is really not very good (FSR...), but the complete experience that the games provide strongly override the obvious weaker points throughout the trilogy. This series immediately hooked me with TSC, and I imagine it will keep my attention for a long time to come... generational series...

Tokio Morishima is actually the goat as well

Correctness>Placebo>Matchmaker

kill the past

3 - But this is semantics, and we know Kill the Past and love it for its obtusities and abstract narratives and style as substance, and that’s all great and really strikes me in a deep place as always. The vibes are immaculate here, the music is fantastic, the art is mostly great - I feel bad that Matchmaker just didn’t do it for me, partially because of the art, but other people really like it so Idk maybe I’m just wrong for preferring Correctness. And I mentioned the UI already, unfortunately doing it a disservice by complaining about the substance IN the UI, but the visual style itself is so so good. I got chills getting the Catherine SFX for the first time, the “dice” you spin to select actions RULE and I’m surprised I’ve never seen that kind of thing used elsewhere. I really like the Killer7 movement commands, selecting fragmented polygons to pick a direction. I especially love the little polygon at the bottom right, that turns into stuff sometimes - which has a really great payoff when investigating the Digital Man.

1 - I’m surprised that 25W has such higher ratings than TSC and even FSR, when I don’t see it as having a stronger thesis or atmosphere than either of those games, let alone mechanical presentation or visual stylisation. It certainly feels like a culmination of all three, but only taking bits and pieces as it sees fit, instead of combining them all into one big thing. The puzzles, for example, give you a Catherine UI, but the answers are mostly numbers or keywords you have to memorize from earlier dialogue instead of a visual/narrative problem you have to solve. It’s fascinating, and does a great job continuing some of the criminal justice themes, but doesn’t seem to expand on them ENOUGH past the really cool core conceit of the post office being corrupt because they know everyone’s information, and the continuation of the “police force” being constructed out of essentially “ex-criminals” that were given work because they’re good at killing, and are hypocritically trying to stop a faction that kills people for literally just for being a “societal inconvenience.”
I'm confused because people seem to dislike the Kurumizawa plot, and call Correctness "the most confusing," but to me it feels like the most in-line with what TSC was doing. It appropriately portrays a corrupt cop becoming more corrupt and being allowed to act in morally repugnant ways as the plot thickens around the HC unit and the postal service.

2 - The options you’re presented in regular gameplay allude to “player choice” but are really just a stylised mask for a linear narrative that requires you to switch between “Look” and “Talk” and sometimes move down hallways before repeating the former commands. This is opposed to FSR’s traversal system, that’s still linear but gives you some wiggle room to explore outside of repeating corridors. I don’t dislike it, it is it’s own thing, and in fact I really love the UI, but it often feels like it’s grasping at straws to make a moment feel more interactive than it is - or should be.

There are quite a few bits where the actions you choose don’t really correlate to the things that happen in the text boxes, and are just a glorified “continue” button for the dialogue. I don’t mind this, it happens in TSC too, but it does get a little aggravating when it feels like the actions are just filler, like selecting a “wait around” button where the only dialogue you get is unrelated to anything else that’s happening, and you have to continue selecting that action until the game lets you move on and do the thing in the same room that you know you have to do next.
This happens several times across multiple characters, but take a moment with Tokio and Red for example.
You log onto your PC to check messages, get one that seems to allude to an immediate follow-up, check again, nothing, so you log out, Talk to Red, Tokio says “I should feed Red,” Talk to Red, Tokio looks for food, Talk to Red, no follow-up on the food, just an ellipses. Select Look at Cigarettes, Tokio remarks that the packaging is different but doesn’t smoke them, Talk to Red again, nothing, so you log back into the PC and get another message that continues the narrative from the last one.
This is the required sequence of inputs to continue the story, and you have to determine this by just selecting every available option until you get new text. We already know Tokio and Red, there isn’t character development happening, I’m hard-pressed to even pretend to see a point in including so many moments like this across all three stories. In other KTP games, the tedium is acknowledged in the narrative and often has a point. Read; Sumio’s time loop frustration in FSR, Tokio being aloof and unstructured and dawdling around aimlessly before being hit with a lifechanging case in Placebo, the entirety of NMH’s economical system. Here, it doesn’t do anything but establish that time is passing for the character, and us the player, except there are several moments where it just opts to say “time has passed” with a popup, and it flows so much better when we’re not fumbling around trying to figure out what to do to progress a filler moment and get back to the case.

Yeah, "comprehend"...

I could talk in depth about the soundtrack, or the artwork. It’s all excellent.
But I’d rather talk about what the game is trying to say.

It's a game about a descent into a new age.
It's a game about how the internet affects our view on storytelling.
It's a game about believing the net.
It's a game about the strive for perfection and cleanliness in modern day society.
It's a game about killing your past.
It's a game about how the ignorant masses turn a blind eye to things that don't align with their worldview.
It's a game about saving the life.
It's a game about crime.
It's a game about forgiveness.
It's a game about necessary evils.

Ultimately,
I think it's a game about comprehension.

Once you have observed all this game has to offer, do you get it?
I like to think I “got” what it is about. But I doubt I’ll ever be sure.
But speculation and the opportunity to draw your own conclusions is what makes this game tick.

I went through a couple of ideas whilst writing up this review. But scrapped a bunch because they were too pretentious or didn’t really highlight the games’ strengths.

You just read the final review I came up with. Could you imagine how pretentious the other ones must’ve been?

Bravo Suda

KILL THE LIFE... SAVE THE LIFE... KILL THE PAST... BELIEVE THE NET

Trying to understand this game, is a big messy puzzle inside a bigger puzzle. Not just because the themes it tackles or something more superficial. It's everything undernearth that makes it a really special for me. Kill The Past, and don't let it's darkness to swallow you. Save The Life from the ones that threats it or Believe in the Net and take a glimpse into the future.

If you ever played The Silver Case, the prequel to this game you won't feel that sense of familiarity here since most of the cast is new outside probably Tokio Morisihima from the Placebo chapter. While The Silver Case signature visual style still intact, everything else is brand new. What I'm getting at is you don't need to play The Silver Case to enjoy this game, BUT, it's highly recommended to do so. Some scenes make nods to more than anything, concepts and characters that aren't totally explained throughout the main plot from the main three stories this game presents.

We have three stories with three different protagonists; Correctness, Match Maker and Placebo. Like The Silver Case these three stories are indirectly connected with one another and give form to this big messy puzzle. While Correctness is the surface of the story you'd have to walk blindly if you just have not read both Match Maker and Placebo stories, Placebo mostly. While Match Maker tries to focus it's story in the main characters of that set story, rather than a specific portion of the 25th Ward. Placebo we take control of Tokio Morisihima of the past game. Here is where all the secrets are delivered, while it starts slow and it's somewhat boring in general, it really pays off big on the final bits. You can say Placebo answers most of the questions you'll probably have in Correctness.

The plot is convoluted on purpose, let the game outsmart and surprise you, it's part of the experience. The gameplay believe it or not is more tedius than in The Silver Case, instead of instantly choosing where we want to go, like in Killer7 we're stopped for a few seconds, to then regain control of out actions and then choose where we want to go instead of being a contextual action under the assumption you have a controller. It could work better for a touch screen. Probably because this is a 2005 mobile only game and Suda wanted to be as faithful as possible or as they say in the game "It's part of the job". I'll go with the latter. So investigating isn't really that fun, good thing is those bits aren't as frequent as the game got us to believe from the beginning.

The presentation in this game really is simple, but effective in every way possible. From the angles the characters are drawn, the grey color palette itself making a slight assumption it was inspired by the "Parade" chapter from The Silver Case and giving this game themes it goes perfectly with it. And the music, the songs are as stylish as this game is and set the mood perfectly for each scene. Whenever is intense action, investigating, exploring, or even just for goofs the music will always be on spot. On cases it's not, it feels eerie but still on point weirdly enough. As different persons write the different scenarios of each story, every artist had their own vision on how it's meant to look. Correctness with it's grey color pallete is my personal favorite. It uses a lot of techniques regarding to the angle view where it's meant to be looked at. Even referencing some movies. Tokio Morishima and Placebo uses a specific color to represent a character. Since Tokio's Placebo isn't focused on the city, or specific cases, it's focused on him and the angles where the images are drawn reflect that. Match Maker goes for a more comic-like artstyle, giving the action shots a lot of movement and life others chapters simply don't have. All of them lovely crafted and makes each act feel unique and stand out on it's own.

The 25th Ward: The Silver Case is bigger and has a more ambitious scope than The Silver Case was at the time. Expanding on the themes of Kill the Past and giving new perspectives on all of the presented stories. Personally, I went on a big catharsis after finishing it. "What just happenned?" were thoughts that I couldn't get out of my mind right after finishing Correctness and the credits rolled, so I started going deep in this rabbit hole of a story. And when a story does that, it's a good game in my eyes.