1. Chrono Trigger (SNES)
2. Gyromite (NES)
3. Lucy -The Eternity She Wished For- (Steam)
4. Ys III: Wanderers from Ys (Famicom)
5. Radical Dreamers (SNES)
6. Video Games 1 (TI-99/4A)
7. Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken (Famicom)Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken (or,
The Portopia Serial Murder Case) is an influential old murder mystery game created by Yuji Horii in his pre-
Dragon Quest days. It was originally released on Japanese computers, and later ported to the Famicom where the text parser was replaced by a menu system (among other changes). A fan translation was released in 2011.
You play as a detective, who is joined by a loyal assistant. The goal is to solve a recent murder of some (seemingly) reclusive and wealthy individual. This tale is heavy on the dialogue, with most of it being comprised of detective and assistant conversing back and forth. It's a nice change from the typical brief internal monologue style so common in adventure games, and the game's overall tone is pretty humorous even in light of the heavy subject matter.
Gameplay unfolds in a screen-by-screen first-person viewpoint, where static scenery and/or character portraits present themselves. Everything is controlled by menus. You can look around, search for clues, take objects, dial phone numbers (manually!), hit suspects (damn, Japan...), question locals, interrogate specific individuals, make arrests and more. The majority of possible actions are superfluous, but it's quite fun to experiment. I'm actually not sure how to "lose" the game, but I believe the case must be reopened if you end up declaring the wrong suspect to be the perpetrator.
As goes for all old adventure games: should you choose to proceed with no hints or walkthrough, good luck! The overall field of exploration is quite small, only expanding once certain "triggers" are hit. I got stuck at one point early on. An internet walkthrough told me I had to go to Kyoto. I had no option to travel to Kyoto. I wandered all over performing every action I could. After returning to the game's starting point I had my assistant question the locals. They uttered some unrelated banter and immediately after the assistant proclaimed "Hey let's go to Kyoto!" and thus the pathway presented itself. So yes, it's one of "those" games. Searching for evidence is entertaining but also far trickier than it needs to be. For instance, when uncovering a hidden object with a magnifying glass an extremely small and specific set of pixels must be highlighted or the game won't register a hit.
Unique to the Famicom port is a
Wizardry-like style maze that appears towards the game's end. It's a nice touch, but it also kinda bland and the expected "hidden passage" is, well,
really hidden. Good luck.
The story is pretty awesome and well-written (kudos to the fan translators as well). It kept me guessing for the bulk of the game, though I was able to figure out "the big twist" about 3/4th of the way through. And this is an
adult game. There are dead bloody bodies strewn about. Not to mention the strip club and stripper interrogation.
Graphics are delightfully primitive and there isn't much music to speak of, though the police siren "theme" is pretty startling and hilarious.
Highly recommended. This is a fantastic way to spend an afternoon and a great historic glimpse into classic Japanese game design. And since carts still go for <$2 there's no reason to pass this up.
P.S. If you need a Retron 5 patch holler at me. This is one of those games that requires a modified one. I'd post a link but I dunno if that's allowed.