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.
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.
4 Comments
@gsifdgs FSR explains the "behiavior" of one character in particular after the events TSC. Well, technically 2 but the majority of the game only focuses on one.
It is a hard question to answer, on one hand is too much for too little and knowing you didn't like TSC gameplay I wouldn't reccomend you to get close to FSR unless you really are in the mood to play it. However, it is a very special game.
It might be even possible you will have to read some books to get the absolute full context of it. I did it, to some extent. It's complicated.
Play it, if you are in the mood for it and if you have some time to spare. Otherwise it will just feel like chore, if not just keep working on finishing 25th Ward. FSR is part of the KTP series after all, so you will eventually cross it eventually. I don't want to ruin such unique experience just to explain what hapenned to certain character in particular either.
Sorry for the long answer, but it is a very tricky question.
It is a hard question to answer, on one hand is too much for too little and knowing you didn't like TSC gameplay I wouldn't reccomend you to get close to FSR unless you really are in the mood to play it. However, it is a very special game.
It might be even possible you will have to read some books to get the absolute full context of it. I did it, to some extent. It's complicated.
Play it, if you are in the mood for it and if you have some time to spare. Otherwise it will just feel like chore, if not just keep working on finishing 25th Ward. FSR is part of the KTP series after all, so you will eventually cross it eventually. I don't want to ruin such unique experience just to explain what hapenned to certain character in particular either.
Sorry for the long answer, but it is a very tricky question.
Okay, then I am gonna finish 25th ward then return to fsr. Btw I like silver case it's just confusing interactable symbols kinda made my enjoyment suffer heavily other than that It was a very enjoyable story
gsifdgs
2 months ago