Visual novels are all the rage the last few years, and they’ve been coming out fast and furious in various styles. Some are utterly fantastic like Stein’s; Gate. Others are more than questionably erotic such as Yu-No. But now, SakeVisual and publisher Ratalaika Games have released something new: a bargain-priced visual novel!
Jisei: The First Case HD is the first of a series of visual novels from SakeVisual. It was originally released in 2010 and is part of a series of games, four so far. This is the first one to be ported to consoles however. Jisei features an irritatingly unnamed teenage protagonist who you control throughout the story. Not only is he so mysterious that his name has nothing but question marks throughout the whole game, but he also has the supernatural ability to relive the deaths of the recently deceased by touching their bodies. He alludes to other encounters he has had, but then finds a dead body in the women’s room of a coffee shop. He touches her and our story begins.
Jisei is an interesting game. The entire cast excluding the protagonist is fully voiced in English with fairly solid voice acting and no noticeable errors. You’re ostensibly solving a murder, never mind that you are a teenager (or possibly in your early 20s) and an off-duty police officer who happened to be present is allowing you to interview suspects for no reason, even though you’re the prime suspect since you were found touching the body. We’ll just let all that slide. Detective We-Tried-To-Make-Up-An-Eastern-European-Name doesn’t exactly seem like the the brightest bulb in the box and it’s a miracle he made detective. Regardless, it’s entirely on you to solve the case.
The majority of Jisei is just you interviewing the other people that were in the coffee shop, reporting back to the detective, and slowly putting two and two together in your head. There are a variety of options available to you, but if you fail to select them, you’ll have nowhere to go. This is a mystery that leads you down one of only a handful of decision points, and at least one could end, well, rather poorly for you. Regardless, it’s a fun little story, even if it’s quite short, weighing in at around 3 hours or so tops.
Mechanically, this is a classic visual novel, with decisions to make, examining the rooms around you, and talking to people. You’re mostly along for the ride, and that’s okay. Not everything makes perfect sense though, and it’s not clear whether that’s translation related or a factor of this being a ten year old game that didn’t sweat the small stuff. Regardless, there are some fun little quirks in the story and a few twists depending on the choices you make, but getting there isn’t that difficult.
In terms of actual controls however, there are a few issues with Jisei that definitely lower its standing. These are minimal but irritating. When you talk to the detective, you have to press up on the directional pad and then press A to get him to talk or he just turns grey and stays that way, forcing you to back up in the story. It’s a minor irritant, but you talk to him a fair bit. Every time there’s a dialogue choice, no selection is highlighted until you move the d-pad up or down. The same goes for the navigation menu in the upper left hand corner. And some decisions you simply can’t back up from, especially in the final moments of the game, forcing you to reload a save or replay through part or all of the game. It’s the little things. There are some solid parts about the controls though. You can reverse any conversation with the shoulder button and in addition to backing up, the voiced dialogue also returns, a rarity with visual novels. You can also fast-forward a scene at super high speed if you’ve already seen it, which makes blowing back through a game this short a breeze if you screw up towards the end. Saving is also easy and load times are non-existent.
Visually, Jisei is good and bad. The intro cinema is in 4:3 and standard definition, definitely a bit rough looking for a game that touts itself as “HD”. The rest of the game is remastered in 16:9 HD though, so it’s mostly excusable. The navigation menu and pause menus are pretty rough and amateur-looking as well, and they could definitely have used a facelift. The actual game art is quite good however. It looks like an independent visual novel, but definitely trends closer to the AAA than one might expect for a $5 game! There are even a few cut scenes, even if they aren’t animated, and the overall feel is a surprisingly high degree of polish.
The audio accompaniment to Jisei is also surprising. While there aren’t a lot of tracks, the ones there are are mostly quite good, especially the intro song. SakeVisual even tossed in a jukebox in the menu, allowing you to sample the tracks outside of the game itself. In fact, they also added a sketch book and quite surprisingly, a short epilogue to the game after you finish the story. All in all, Jisei is a fairly fleshed out little game!
The number of bargain games out there now is mind-numbing, and Ratalaika is at the forefront of bringing them to consoles, but this is yet another solid choice for a low-priced port. I tshould be noted that this is one of the first releases by Ratalaika that does not come with a Vita version included with purchase. Sadly, this is probably going to be the new standard, and if you’re a Vita fan, it’s more than a bit disappointing. Jisei would have been great on the Vita, but it’s simply not available. However, not only is it a fun story, but it has solid music and graphics, and even though it’s short, it’s well written and the voice work is surprisingly well-acted, something you’d never expect to even be in a game like this. There isn’t much for replay value here, but Jisei: The First Case HD is a great game that’s well-worth picking up for its modest price! This is a fun diversion for VN veterans and a great short first visual novel for newcomers to dip their toes into! Now let’s hope that Ratalaika ports the other two games in the Jisei series!
This review was based in a digital copy of Jisei: The First Case. It was played with a PS4 Pro on a Sony 1080p TV. Jisei: The First Case HD is also available on Xbox One, Switch, and PC on Steam. Visual novels rule!