Reviews

• 

  kiki

  Oct 6, 2021

  the silver based
• 

  BigYaoiFan2006

  Jan 12, 2022

  A John Lennon Impersonator Calls you "Big Dick" in a sewer
• 

  Egill

  Jan 14, 2022

  You could argue for The Silver Case to be either, terrible drivel or deeply profound. And I'd agree with both. But if you eventually click with Suda's wavelength. This might actually become your favorite game. One thing is true though. Absolutely iconic soundtrack.
• 

  plasticluv

  Jun 23, 2022

  beyond the slick presentation, 'The Silver Case' holds a heavily elaborate, yet fantastic story that still lingers around my mind as being a unique experience. you'll be wrapping your head around the elaborate network of information that the game will constantly barrage you with during your playthrough, paired with some of the clunkiest 3D explorations in any game. you'll repeatedly scavenge through a small cast of environments that you will grow to become overly familiar with already by a 1/4 of the game through. however, in turn, you will build a stronger relationship with these places and the characters that support them - so much that you may start to enjoy those moments sitting in a cramped apartment reading emails all day. these slower-paced moments happen to give you time to ponder upon the events that have transpired, in which you gain a deeper understanding of the involuted world within 'The Silver Case'. you'll run into a crude cast of characters who come off as the most wearied, no-filter individuals - being overly sarcastic & rude to both their familiar peers and strangers and cussing every fifth word in their sentences (real-world energy). the game's appeal comes from the subtext-driven of writing which employs a lot of implication behind what's being directly said in a conversation, rather than just plain exposure. very much in vein to the style of Quentin Tarantino or David Lynch. with a fitting mix of some surreal & vivid frames, this opens a great opportunity to unpack hinted thoughts from each character within each scenario; hence each scene just absorbs you into convincing each character is all the more human & likable. the characters 'Kusabi' and 'Tokio' are just bloody awesome. furthermore, the game presents you with the slickest art style in any game, mixing 2D, 3D, and FMV elements with some surreal, yet evocative visuals. each frame is rich with expression - as if you're able to gain more words out of the character's faces, other than relying on provided dialogue. each scene also sports stylish windows of text; looking like comic book panels hopping in front of a 'Serial Experiments Lain' themed desktop background, in which i couldn't help but just consume every single bit of dialogue (also funny to mention 'Lain', considering one of the cases are quite similar to the events that occur in the show). characters will even use inner monologues to portray their perspective & philosophies respectively; which can further intertwine with some of the game's deeper themes. even scenes that may appear trivial, such as a character having yarns about their pet turtle to a bartender are both humourous and significant to understanding the values of both major characters for the rest of the game - my favourite scene. there's a legendary soundtrack for the game as well, composed by Masafumi Takada - who would continue to work with Suda51 for 'killer7''s music, and eventually go on to create one of the most badass video game scores for the 'Danganronpa' series. dude kills. now about the story. perplexing? of course, but for me, it certainly doesn't come off as unnecessarily vague. a certain amount of brain labour is needed to keep up with those puzzling moments, but answers aren't obscured from view. compared to other texts & games i've read/played (such as Suda51's other masterpiece 'killer7'), 'The Silver Case' only poses as having a bewildering narrative due to its great job at layering some intricate ideas & themes. self-identity, human relationships, mortality/immortality, coming to terms with the past, how truth is perceived in the age of information...there's a lot to unpack here. trying to decode the truth with scattered pieces of information is no easy feat. are we supposed to remain open-minded to contradictive ideas, or dismiss them as meaningless? is there more truth being hidden on purpose? and even if you get there, are you willing to confront it? and how are you supposed to confront it? the experience in 'The Silver Case' is as complicated as our personal experiences in real life, ironically where we as a society collectively struggle to gather/convey information in the information age - regardless of how equal our views are. it does seem quite bold for a low-budget PS1-era game to tackle such subject matter. yet, against a sharp neo-noir crime narrative that disguises itself as a simple murder mystery, the story still effectively draws a connection between itself and real-life abstract notions - resulting in a compelling murder-mystery tale from start to finish that remains relevant to today's world. oh yeah and this game literally predicted twitter. it says and describes it. it's funny.
• 

  Garlic Jr.

  Oct 7, 2016

  One part suspected serial killer with "mental impotency". One part hard-nosed chain smoking cop. Add a dash of eccentric characters. A smidgen of overwhelming details. A pinch of crime predictive psychic silver tooth filling. A sprinkle of down on his luck chain smoking reporter. And a healthy serving of obscenities. Stir it all together and it makes for a perfect must have! Tastes like vintage Suda 51. Just be sure to crack a window while playing to avoid all that second-hand.
• 

  ★

  Oct 7, 2016

  Finally. Shiny and crome. With lots of options so you can choose what to keep from the original release to the remake. Everything seems to be in place. Too good to be true.
• 

  SiegDere

  Nov 5, 2016

  It's eccentric, it's bizarre, it's unique. Finally, after 17 years SUDA51 actually released The Silver Case to the western audience. It's an adventure game/Visual Novel with interesting characters and some fuсked up stories which you will investigate. There're two blocks: "Transmitter" is the main story in which you're playing as MC, ex-special forces trooper (I think?), who joined Heinous Crime Unit to investigate Kamui Case. "Placebo" is a side story told by ex-reporter Tokio Morishima hired by his ex-boss to look into Kamui Case for a scoop. Sometimes it's hard follow main story, and that is where "Placebo" is very useful, it's kinda trying to fill the blanks for you (oh, the parade case). The conclusion to the story is pretty much SUDA-ish, if you know what I mean, but the journey is pretty enjoyable on itself. Gameplay is really trivial, you either walk or read text, sometimes it offers puzzles, but they are skippable. And actually, you need to get used to controls, but that's not a bother at all. The music written by Masafumi Takada (Killer7, No More Heroes) sets the right tone to the whole atmosphere and visuals are pretty good. If you're new to Suda games, try to pick some of his other works like No More Heroes, Killer7 or even Ranko Tsukigime's Longest Day first. But if you're Suda's fan and didn't buy it yet, smash that Add to Cart button! P.S. Looking forward to Moonlight Syndrome and Killer7 getting release on Steam
• 

  The Mini Runner

  Dec 9, 2016

  A charming clusterfuck of a trainwreck Visual Novel game. Frustrating dialogue. A UI that has aged poorly since its PSX days. Gameplay segments with no gameplay and zero choice that trick you into thinking you have agency and serve no purpose. A nonsense story that seems to be missing a few chapters with characters that don't seem to operate on human logic. A NON-ENDING. And I loved it. I loved every bit of this lovingly crafted mess, because it oozes love and quality from the staff that created it, and I am a huge fan of massive, poorly crafted, ambiguous stories that make you fill in the blanks. This is a gem of the PSX era of VNs and is a testament to the fact that you don't need to make a good game, or even a good STORY to make something that's utterly enjoyable, because presentation and love trumps all. People who weren't teens or young adults during the PSX era might not really get it. But I sure as hell do.
• 

  fio.

  Apr 11, 2017

  The first time I saw this game, I thought it would be bad. Why did I buy it? It's on sale and there's a refund feature. But hell, I was wrong, big time. I didn't really know anything about this game nor Goichi Suda prior buying it. I was just interested in it because the style was odd for a visual novel. The game is like most of the reviews mentioned: - an English remaster - weird vibes - story that is hard to understand - insanity Most of the reviews even said "the dialogues are kinda cheesy and lame." From what I think; it's f*ckin 90's, most people talk like these back in 90's which they thought it was either cool or rude. It's just no one really talks like these anymore in the 2010's, people change. The story is not really generic, it's pretty original in my opinion. A serial murderer so infamous that people got influenced to be a successor, plagiarism, because how they think the murderer is an inspiration the world should know. Later followed by a sick twist that'll leave you confused. Music? It's not memorable, it's not bad. It just does what it was meant to be, filling the atmosphere of the game, either tensed or relaxed. EDIT: Regarding music, some of Yamaoka's remaster are stuck in my head, e.g; Tokio Morishima, and the original OP music is probably my favorite whistling material. Characters? Many of them are memorable. Weird traits and the common ones. What I really like about this game is how they execute it. Its just unlike every other visual novels you've ever played before. Some left my jaw open. It's a must-buy if you're into experimental games, because this one feels experimental for me.
• 

  xaerock

  Jun 4, 2017

  Visual novel detective story, with conspiracies and strange psychic elements as you might expect from Suda51. Dialogue, music, graphics and gameplay are all very 90's style in a way. The mood and a lot of the game comes down to a nice synth soundtrack by Masafumi Takada. Gameplay and visuals are intentionally clunky to adhere to the original PS1 game. However the remastered 2D character art and user interface are pretty stylish and hold up well. The original Silver Case tried to break from usual visual novel mold a little but player interaction is still extremely minimal. There are a few simple puzzles but you basically push buttons to proceed the story. Much of the story is text only with little character art. The story is more grounded and easy to understand than something like Killer 7. It has structure as a detective story without taking into account supernatural or unexplainable events. It certainly gets confusing at parts and unexpected twists might throw your preconceptions out of the window but that's what keeps it exciting. The game may have a tedious start but when the story picks up and characters gain some depth it's not messing around. Playing through all scenarios in The Silver Case will take you around 14 hours, though don't expect to swallow the story as quickly. I thought it took more than 2 hours for the story to really pick up so the refund period might not show much. A couple puzzles at the start seem purposefully annoying to throw you off but that doesn't remain the case. I believe whether or not you'll enjoy this game comes down to if you enjoy the central storytelling and background music. The other things are on the side though fitting as a whole. Expect the gameplay aspect and 3D graphics to be clunky but charming in their own way. PS. I recommend doing the Placebo chapters as soon as you unlock them because of how the game is structured
• 

  ☂

  Aug 29, 2017

  As a rare example of a visual novel type game where the artistry goes beyond the story and is tied into the visual and auditory presentation, The SIlver Case has no shortage of style or visual appeal, especially considering it started as an original Playstation game. I wasn't too into the first few cases of the game, but about halfway through all of the plot elements start to come together for a very enjoyable and bizarre experience. It avoids a lot of the pitfalls of traditional visual novels by cutting out lengthy inner monologues and focusing entirely on the world and characters you encounter. This isn't a perfect game by any means, partially because of the dated 3D movement (the remaster helps with this some, but the controls and 3D experience are still lacking), as well as some pacing problems. Strangely, all but a couple of the sparse puzzles you encounter have an auto-solve feature. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, since the interactive parts are the weakest part of the game, but I feel like some enhancements could have been made outside of adding the ability to skip the puzzles. Play this if you're into scifi crime procedurals and PS1 games.
• 

  shoryushoryu

  Sep 18, 2017

  The Silver Case is very interesting but I can't recommend it since it's not a game for everyone. It will take a very special kind of player to enjoy this game. The art style is great and the music is okay. The gameplay sections are terribly outdated but thankfully there aren't many of them. The problem is that the quality of the story is not nearly good enough to balance out these flaws. The main attraction is clearly the story, however it is often obtuse for no reason and poorly paced. It's a shame because the story concepts and characters are impressive but crucial revelations are barely explained while the game spends hours on unimportant details. This is frustrating since there's a cool Blade Runner / Snatcher vibe but the story doesn't really go anywhere in the end. Overall, I'm not even really sure if I can say I enjoyed the Silver Case. I wanted to see how it would end so I kept playing but in hindsight I don't think it was worth it. There are better visual novels out there.
• 

  dominicthattil

  Jul 3, 2018

  I had never played a SUDA51 game before this, and I went into it with no real expectations. As a fan of many visual novels such as the all of the Steins;Gate series, Zero Escape series and the Danganronpa series, (fun fact: the soundtrack of the silver case had a large helping from the same composer of Danganronpa), I was extremely excited to try a PS1 era visual novel that apparently broke the known conventions of what a visual novel can do. In turn, I have recieved a package that isnt afraid to leave you in the dark with confusion as it hopes to play on your curiosity and own sleuthing skills from the few narative cues that it initally provides so that its unpredictable plot turns prove to be even more effective. With two separate stories taking place similtaniously, it becomes commonplace to embrace the more obscure and incomprehensable story arcs knowing that it will be elaborated on in the near future of the narrative with twists and turns that keep me coming back for more. To some, this may seem like unintentional obsolescence by the devs, but in turn it grips you into wanting to explore the story further and find out what in the actual world is going on with these characters and the seemingly impossible cases they are left to solve. Beyond this, the visual presentation is phenomenal. Contrary to what most say, there is so much to be loved and embraced about the unpredictable dynamic imagery, video, anime and live action sequences and even virtual computer interactions that gives the player more reason to engage and see how the game plans on warping it's visual style to accurately replicate the tone and setting of where the story is at. A common problem most people state is that the game can prove to be slow paced and can meander without cause, but this is completely dismissive of how well the writers humanize each character by making the player listen to innane conversations that sound like the organic thoughts of regular people who are just trying to make sense of the seemingly bleak world around them. Even when gameplay felt slow aand convoluted at first, connecting a PS4 controller to my PC and mapping the keys to the main actions made progressing the game extremely fluid. Even the convoluted puzzles within the game can be bypassed by hitting a single button that makes the game's flow even more seemless. The main characters are so well written and the english localisation remains just as true to it's original source as it's slower gameplay does (lol). There is nothing held back when it comes to translating profanities, slurs and abbrasive conversation which in todays standards should realistically start international protests. However this helps make the game feel true to its roots (because in the 21st century, not everyone requires a trigger warning if the artist's intent is understood like come on ppl). These aren't meant to be game characters we're reading about, they're meant to be real people with their own really f&%$ed up problems and i'm glad they kept it that way. One more thing, the soundtrack in this game is absolutely wild. I really didnt even know what to expect about this game until I went to the settings menu to tweak resolution and sound settings, only to realise that this game is just as much of an audible feast as it is a visual one. However, there are a few tracks that tend to become earworms for the wrong reasons, but its so seldom that it happens that most of the time you'll be waiting to hear the next banger the game's juke has to provide. I've never even reviewed a game before (on steam or in life at all), but after digging my teeth into this absolutely golden port of a PS1 game that breaks the conventions that almost all modern games choose to follow, I have to say, BUY IT! (Just dont be disheartened by the first 2 chapters. Yes, you will be scratching your head thinking what the f*&% did i just wittness, but the resilient observer will be more than rewarded for seeking the answer)
• 

  MegaApple

  Dec 26, 2019

  Still playing it, but what sold me on this game was this review. Might help you as well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CC41wPTvExs
• 

  Pang Tong

  Jan 20, 2020

  I've played a few of Suda51/Grasshopper Manufacture's other games and enjoyed them. I went into this knowing to expect incomprehensible weirdness, but even so it's still really hard to recommend this game to pretty much anyone. It's a visual novel, so there's no real gameplay to speak of. There's a few easy "puzzles" but the game almost always gives you a button that lets you skip them. That, on it's own, is not a problem for me. But without interesting gameplay or cutscenes, Suda's writing is challenging to digest. If you really pay attention, you might have a VAGUE idea of what's going on, but the "real" parts of the story (if there is such a thing) feel like they get lost in a sea of riddles, intentional weirdness, meaningless chatter, and contradictory information. In the few parts that I felt were understandable, the story was actually fairly entertaining. The rest of the time it felt like I was trying to read a book on chinese mysticism that had been converted to english using google translate. The writing is so perplexing it sometimes feels like it's just random sentences strung together. They make sense individually but not together. Even piecing together the sequence of story events feels almost futile, and I think that's a necessary first step before you can even begin to tackle the question of what the game is trying to "say". There's a part in the game where a character talks about how people write things so they can be read, even things that are never meant to be seen by anyone. Writing is kind of like a conversation with the intended reader. In the quest to find the "perfect reader", someone who understands them completely, a person's writing becomes more and more incomprehensible to everyone else, until eventually it's like they're speaking a different language. That's basically what playing The Silver Case feels like. It's like reading something that was never meant to be understood by you. I don't know who The Silver Case is meant for but if you're into Suda51's style of really abstract storytelling you might get something out of it. The music is pretty cool and some of the visuals are kind of interesting but I wouldn't play it for those things alone.
• 

  Ascheroth

  Jun 29, 2020

  The Silver Case is very weird and very non-standard as far as Visual Novels are concerned. It mixes 2D, 3D, filmed footage and comic book-like presentation in an incredibly stylish way. The story is pretty out there and confusing, but at the same time it's actually not that complicated? It's very hard to describe, but very intriguing. The downsides are probably the first-person sections where you can move around and interact with things. Here it shows that this is a remake of a PS1 game - the controls are very clunky. They aren't too long or complicated though and you get used to it, so it's not a big issue. The bigger annoyance are the countless sloooooooow scene transitions that are more or less just a handful of stock footage that repeat over and over and over and over again with changed date/time/place text. This might just be a pet peeve of mine, but I'm not sure I would have played to the end if you couldn't use CheatEngine's speedhack functionality to more or less skip over them. Ultimately this was a very novel experience. If you're looking for something unique and non-standard, go right ahead. I wouldn't recommend it to everyone though.
• 

  wingupingu

  Jul 3, 2020

  the kino case
• 

  Kvik

  Aug 28, 2020

  The Silver Case is a great debut from Goichi Suda featuring a hard-boiled detective story, which also somewhat an unpolished experience with too many ideas which didn't exactly follow through with interesting conclusions. The presentation of this VN is a departure from "NVL" or "ADV" formats we've known from other contemporaries such as Enix, 07th-Expansion, Key and other developers. It's a mixture of not only text, background and limited 2D character animation, but also live-action sequences, 3D exploration(although the scope is very limited -- it's pretty much on-rail), and full-motion video shot in documentary-style. Not to mention the highly stylistic character designs. The gameplay consists of not only exploration but also solving several puzzles and a quiz which is quite long. Achievement hunters probably will relish such a challenge. Unfortunately, I wasn't a fan of this game's control scheme, since the game requires switching modes from "movement" to "interaction" quite often making it tedious to do so with a Steam Controller. Secondly, there are several scene transitions which can't be skipped, and it seems to last forever. Thankfully, Cheat Engine speed hack feature can be used to mitigate this issue. The localisation feels competent enough, although if I'm being honest here, it's kind of treading the fine line between hard-boiled dialogue and "too edgy for my taste", for lack of better words. There's also a pop culture quiz, and a curious reference regarding a late-90s American TV series, which I kind of feel out of place, because personally, I'm not a big fan of inserting popular culture references in a localisation. Regardless, these small issues didn't detract from the overall intent, as Suda himself was quite content with how the localisation turned out. Who knows, maybe he's actually a fan of that TV series too! The story and the world-building are quite intriguing, and the overarching mythology and themes examined here are cohesive enough to keep the audience guessing. Not just simply a [i]whodunit[/i], but the world as depicted in The Silver Case can almost be described as a dystopian fever dream, where everybody is an unreliable narrator, and certainly harbouring a dark secret or two. Unfortunately, I feel the narrative here feel unfinished in a manner of speaking. It has plenty of great ideas, but ultimately it ends just as abrupt as it starts, with the sound of a gunshot. Still, there's plenty to like in this game, and I feel that I can recommend this game not only because of its historical curiosity for anyone who never played any of Suda's game before but also for fans of detective stories. Perhaps we'll get a proper PC port of "Flower, Sun, Rain" someday. Until then, I have [i]The 25th Ward[/i] to look forward to. 70/100 - Will visit [spoiler]Lospass Island[/spoiler].
• 

  deputy tommy "hawk" hill

  Mar 10, 2021

  i would die for tokio morishima
• 

  dx0

  Apr 11, 2021

  I felt like I needed to write this, because imo the top two reviews do it a little bit of a disservice. It's brought up that it's tough to recommend this game, but really, as with any recommendation, you just need to know who you're recommending it to. And regarding that, there are a few important points to cover. First, that the gameplay basically doesn't exist, and it's a visual novel. There are some puzzles, but there's nothing satisfying or interesting about doing them, and you can click a button to skip them, as I ended up doing. As a result, you end up with an experience that's pretty much like a visual novel, except you (usually) get a 3D layout of the current area and where you are in it, to aid your imagination. This isn't really an issue if you're already used to reading VNs. In fact, the film window system looks really cool if you're already used to VNs. However, if you're not used to reading VNs (or actual novels, for that matter), this is a bit of a tough sell. It's easy to lose interest when reading something as text-heavy as this, especially with the way the narrative is presented. Next, people bring up that the plot is convoluted. I won't say that it isn't convoluted, but I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing. Suda has a writing style where some of the important story beats are meant to be inferred from stuff leading up to and after them. Some might find this annoying, but I quite liked it. To be honest, I didn't find it to be as convoluted as a lot of people think it is, relative to other stuff I've read. I think there is definitely a coherent and compelling story in here, you just need to be ready to do a little bit of mental legwork to see it for what it is. And if that's not your thing, that's fine. Regarding pacing, I thought it was largely fine, though I did get a little bored during Spectrum. I was skeptical about Placebo's place in the story, but I ended up enjoying it a ton (Tokio is so based) Finally, something important I think needs to be considered regarding the game is its scope. The way I see it, making this game, they started from simple questions starting out, and then ended up casting a wide net on a lot of topics. So we ended up with in-depth exploration of a couple of topics, and quickly touching upon a variety of other interesting things, especially for the time period that the game was made in. I think it's important to understand this about the game, just for the sake of context. All in all, it's not hard to tell that this is Grasshopper's first project, made on a shoestring budget (and that was preserved when remaking the game), but I really do love this game, and I can absolutely recommend it; as long as I think the person I'm recommending it to would be able to get into it. I hope this review helps people figure out if the game is for them or not. P.S. If you liked this game, please play/watch Flower, Sun, and Rain. I won't say anything more, but it's absolutely awesome