Frankly speaking, this is the conclusion.
Famicom Detective Club is a point-and-click type of adventure game in
which you point and click on the text of a verb list or noun list.
In Japan, they are called "コマンド選択式アドベンチャー (literal translation:
command-choise adventure games)".
This system became popular in the 1980s and declined in the 1990s in
Japan.
When Famicom Detective Club (hereinafter referred to as FDC), a game
from the 1980s, was to be remade in 2021, my first and foremost
concern was the antiquity of the system of command-choice adventure
games.
Adopting this old system was unavoidable if we were to faithfully
remake the original.
I also appreciated the fact that they dared to keep this system,
but I could easily imagine that it would be subject to criticism
from people other than "retro gamers" and "fans of the original work."
.
Nevertheless, FDC had to be a command-choice adventure game.
I also think it's misguided to criticize FDC for the tediousness of
command-choice adventure games.
The reason and the conclusion is that command-choise adventure games
are not games in which you speculate the truth of the case correctly.
In the 2000s, Ace Attorney, an extremely good "logic-based deduction
game," was released. And Danganronpa was also released following it.
"Logic-based deduction games" here are games in which the player must
come up hypotheses about the case correctly based on clues and
contradictory information to complete the game.
Many of you reading this site have probably played one of these
series.
And I knew that those who had played Ace Attorney and Danganronpa
before they played FDC and the command-choise adventure games that
preceded FDC would probably expect FDC to be a logic-based deduction
game as well.
This trend was expected to be particularly strong outside of Japan,
where no Japanese-made command-choise adventure games of the NES were
released and Ace Attorney is typical of Japanese visual novels about
murder cases.
It was almost certain that FDC, with its setting of a murder case and
a young detective, would be misunderstood as a logic-based deduction
game like Ace Attorney and Danganronpa.
And it was almost inevitable that players who played the game with
this misconception would be dissatisfied with the system.
Currently, if you look at the reviews outside Japan, the system is
being criticized almost as I predicted.
The substance of this criticism is, quite simply, that the player
knows approximately the truth of the murder case, but the hero is
unaware of it.
Another way of putting it is that "the player's (correct) guesses are
not reflected in the actions of the hero", and this is perhaps a
better description of the actual complaint.
Just like Ace Attorney and other excellent logic-based deduction
games, FDC is also a game that deals with a murder case, finds the
culprit, and solves the mystery.
For this reason, I think that there are still many people who could
not understand that "FDC is a different genre from games which need
player's correct hypotheses" even after playing and clearing.
I am writing this article now with the faint hope that it will catch
the eye of someone who has the above misunderstanding and help clear
up the misunderstanding.
Command-choice adventure games, especially FDC, are not a logic-based
deduction games.
Even though it's a game that deals with murder cases, it's not a game
where the player speculates the true culprit or the trick correctly.
If it is a logic-based deduction game, a player cannot proceed unless
their hypotheses are correct.
In addition, the player is incentivized to get his/her hypotheses
right.
In games such as Ace Attorney and Danganronpa, which are very good
"logic-based deduction games", as the player gathers
information, the path to the trick becomes clear and logic is built up
to hunt down the killer.
As results of correct deductions, the player is rewarded with the
pleasure of hunting down the true culprit or advancing to the next
stage in the story.
However, FDC is different.
Far from being a little different, FDC is the exact opposite of games
of logical deduction.
In FDC, correct deductions are negative for the player's enjoyment.
The players do not need to make their own deductions, and they will
enjoy the work more if they follow the flow of the story.
"The hero was unaware of the story until it was revealed at the end,
the player is equally unaware of the story."
"Even if the hero suspects the wrong person, the player suspects
him/her same as the hero."
Such a player would be more likely to be moved and surprised by the
work and enjoy it.
For players who are able to speculate the culprit or trick correctly,
ignoring the misleadings that FDC attempts to lead the player through,
FDC will probably be somewhat boring.
Players will enjoy the piece more if they do not correctly guess the
culprit.
The reason why it becomes rather boring if the player correctly
guesses the culprit is that Famicom Detective Club is not a game to
correctly deduce the truth of the case.
So what is FDC, if it is not a logic-based deduction game?
How can one enjoy the game in which it is better if the player's
hypotheses are wrong?
Furthermore, why did Nintendo dare to adopt this complicated
"command-choise adventure games" system in the remake?
Command-choice adventure games are those in which the player interacts
with the game world, and the game world responds to the player's
actions.
Talking to someone, looking at the scenery, taking something.
Players click text commands to interact with the game world.
And then, every time, people and things in the game world respond
dutifully.
(Even if it is "...".)
In the FDC's world, objects are not placed there to block the player.
Also, they are not placed to help the player essentially.
This is a composition similar to the real world.
Of course, it is a game, so they are actually created for the player.
But the characters and things in the FDC world are similar to the
people around you in real life who are not there for you.
Even commands list in FDC are not necessarily all that useful to you.
If you are a detective investigating a murder, people in the real
world would not always give you valuable clues about what you want to
know when you ask them.
Real people may dismiss you by saying, "I don't know anything about
the case.
There will be times when you are forced to engage in a long,
unnecessary conversation, and you finally hear something that might
help you solve the case just a little bit.
The world of Famicom Detective Club is similar to that.
The world isn't all made for you. So that players have to take a
variety of approaches if they want to get something in there.
Therefore, you approach people and things in your work in various ways
through commands.
When you get some information, it may not help you solve the case.
FDC is still structured in such a way that only the commands that are
necessary to some extent are displayed, and the truly useless commands
are not shown (Note: It was not uncommon in the command-selection
adventures that were even older than FDC to not have a command
refinement function, and to always have all the commands displayed).
Still, not all commands in FDC are meaningful.
Even if a player comes up hypotheses in his/her mind and thinks, "If I
shake this topic, I will hear this story," the FDC's charactors may
not always provide valuable information.
You have to go through a number of exchanges that sometimes seem
silly.
Sometimes you have to go back and forth in ridiculous ways because you
don't get information.
Sometimes you have to be so persistent that you finally offend them.
All of this in FDC is, in a way, very similar to reality.
Command-choise adventure games are about communicating with the game
world in a way that does not always work as well as it does in real
life.
Of course, I understand the frustration that players sometimes feel
with this realistic and inefficient game system.
It is easy to see why this system would be unpopular today.
However, Famicom Detective Club has a realism that is not found in
recent sophisticated games where all the items that appear in the game
are valuable in the progress of the game, and everything is arranged
for the player.
Through using text commands, the player approaches the world of FDC
and communicates with it, not necessarily in the way the player wants.
This realism, which requires patience, carries a kind of weight as you
continue to play.
It is the weight of a sense of reality.
In particular, Famicom Detective Club is more dramatic and realistic
than recent Japanese games.
If you enjoy the steady communication with realistic characters that
does not always work, this world will be like a place you have been in
your life, and the characters will be like people you have met and
conversed with.
I feel that this is one way to enjoy a command-choice adventure game.
Jan. 2023