This review contains spoilers
Incredible game, was this really a PS1 game originally? Have no idea how they managed this graphical finesse, as well as the killer soundtrack. Please check out the character artist of the game: Takashi Miyamoto. Also Masafumi Takada, the composer of Danganronpa fame.
You essentially play as a character, who, in the modern remakes, you are able to name. Your character is basically silent throughout the whole game, traumatized from his experience as Special Ops agent, and it's speculated in the game that he can't even speak as a result. So as a result, you are kind of everyone's doormat at the start, fulfilling peoples requests. Your coworkers don't wanna do a case? Well hey, let's just drop it on the new guy.
The other storyline has you playing as the journalist Tokio Morishima.
Slight spoiler:
The game seems to me to be centered around the theme of "manufacturing". How our upbringing is "manufactured" (in a literal sense as you will see), and how we cover this up by instead seeing the conditioned responses we have from our childhood as our own, free choices. There is also the obvious theme of "killing the past" from a lot of Suda's other games. Knowing everything we know, can we still move on? The shadows are still there, but let them explode into light, and let's show that we have a soul and are not what happens to us. Let's show this against all odds, against the world which puts us through soul-crushing institutionalism. It's interesting, there are some live-action segments in this game, one where you see young people glamorizing a serial killer, showing how our desire for freedom can become mutated into idolizing violent people.
I did the unusual route of playing Flower, Sun and Rain first, I found that playing this after wasn't such a bad thing after all. Granted, had I played this first, Flower, Sun, and Rain would've had much more "a-ha!" moments, but I also would've seen that game in a much heavier light. I enjoyed the seeming nonsense of that game not knowing that it actually did... make some sense. Let's just say that the "Silver" in this games title will make sense as you play the game.
Granted, The Silver Case is a game you probably are not going to understand in just one or two playthroughs. It is a game where you have to make sure you are following exactly everything that is occurring, and connecting some of the dots yourself. Hell, you might want to keep a notebook for this one. Even after you think you connected the dots though, this game will throw an insane twist at you, so you never figure it all out and the game is pretty mysterious.
One of the most intense mysteries in the video game medium, I would say. Before your Zero Escapes and Danganronpas, here we have an intense mystery thriller marred with sharp wit, and sharp commentary on how our current affairs (within the criminal justice system, the education system) can lead to disasters that we don't even see.
Be prepared for F-bombs from Kusabi every 2 seconds. Also there is a fun pop quiz around 1/3 of the game where you literally answer 100 questions of popular culture trivia. Not making this up.
I'm officially Suda-pilled.
You essentially play as a character, who, in the modern remakes, you are able to name. Your character is basically silent throughout the whole game, traumatized from his experience as Special Ops agent, and it's speculated in the game that he can't even speak as a result. So as a result, you are kind of everyone's doormat at the start, fulfilling peoples requests. Your coworkers don't wanna do a case? Well hey, let's just drop it on the new guy.
The other storyline has you playing as the journalist Tokio Morishima.
Slight spoiler:
The game seems to me to be centered around the theme of "manufacturing". How our upbringing is "manufactured" (in a literal sense as you will see), and how we cover this up by instead seeing the conditioned responses we have from our childhood as our own, free choices. There is also the obvious theme of "killing the past" from a lot of Suda's other games. Knowing everything we know, can we still move on? The shadows are still there, but let them explode into light, and let's show that we have a soul and are not what happens to us. Let's show this against all odds, against the world which puts us through soul-crushing institutionalism. It's interesting, there are some live-action segments in this game, one where you see young people glamorizing a serial killer, showing how our desire for freedom can become mutated into idolizing violent people.
I did the unusual route of playing Flower, Sun and Rain first, I found that playing this after wasn't such a bad thing after all. Granted, had I played this first, Flower, Sun, and Rain would've had much more "a-ha!" moments, but I also would've seen that game in a much heavier light. I enjoyed the seeming nonsense of that game not knowing that it actually did... make some sense. Let's just say that the "Silver" in this games title will make sense as you play the game.
Granted, The Silver Case is a game you probably are not going to understand in just one or two playthroughs. It is a game where you have to make sure you are following exactly everything that is occurring, and connecting some of the dots yourself. Hell, you might want to keep a notebook for this one. Even after you think you connected the dots though, this game will throw an insane twist at you, so you never figure it all out and the game is pretty mysterious.
One of the most intense mysteries in the video game medium, I would say. Before your Zero Escapes and Danganronpas, here we have an intense mystery thriller marred with sharp wit, and sharp commentary on how our current affairs (within the criminal justice system, the education system) can lead to disasters that we don't even see.
Be prepared for F-bombs from Kusabi every 2 seconds. Also there is a fun pop quiz around 1/3 of the game where you literally answer 100 questions of popular culture trivia. Not making this up.
I'm officially Suda-pilled.