Game Center CX Season 13 – Back to Contents
#105
The Kacho’s Reasoning Is…!? – "Hokkaido Rensa Satsujin: Okhotsk ni Kiyu"

Chousen

From one unorthodox game to another, we find Arino now saddled with beating a detective adventure game — a common genre back in the day, but not so much on GCCX. The game, bearing a lengthy title that roughly translates to "Hokkaido Serial Murders: The Okhotsk Disappearance" was the second mystery game written by famous Dragon Quest creator (well, one of them) Yuji Horii. Can Arino wrap the case by the end of the night?

Before the game starts, Arino is handed a pile of cards with drawings of key characters in the game (by AD Ito!), with which to assist him later in plotting the mystery, just like the cops on TV! After putting in a name for the main character ("Buchou," the name of a famous TV detective), the game starts abruptly, with the player looking at the survey of a dead body.

As Arino examines the scene with the witness and an officer nearby, he picks up some key info he notes down on the board — which he doesn’t completely need, since he plays with the menu enough to find the notepad option. Searching the victim’s pockets yields an ad for a cabaret club, which Arino then visits.

Asking around the club about the victim leads Arino inside, where he meets one of the star hostesses of the club, Akemi. When given a chance to examine, Arino puts the cursor right on Akemi’s chest. (We all would.) She yelps and calls his actions a little perverted, but she isn’t really fazed. It’s enough to crack up Arino, though.

He asks to see Luna, the favorite girl of the victim, and soon enough, he does. Arino gleans more info from her, and then he goes out to the rest of the town to continue his investigation. He finds an inn where the victim stayed at, and inside his room is a bag with a letter inside, with the that leads Arino to Hokkaido, where the story truly begins.

Once arriving, Arino is introduced to Shunsuke ("Shun"), the local detective who will serve as his partner for this case. Together, the two start asking around about the victim once again. When one man is showed the picture of the victim, they wonder if it’s Gen-san, the owner of a nearby restaurant. Inside is a man who looks a lot like the victim, but it turns out Gen-san isn’t the same guy.

Arino pokes around town some more, but then Shun points out a patrol car going by, and when they follow it, they’re led to another crime scene, and another corpse out by the docks. Inside the elderly victim’s pocket is a business card, identifying him as a Mr. Yuukurou.

Nearby are two women, Megumi and Makiko. They haven’t seen the suspect, but they may know more than they’re letting on. And then, for some reason, Arino finds out he can play blackjack with Shun, so he gets in to a little game. He loses, and then is alerted to yet another murder, the son of the last victim.

Arino continues asking around town, and is rapidly filling up the whiteboard with new characters and speculative notes. He can’t seem to find any more big hints, though, so it starts to look like he’s wandering around aimlessly. In time, AD Katayama appears, ready to help… but dressed as a rookie cop. Katayama’s sole tip is to save the game using the notepad, and then inputting a special password to push the game forward during a dialogue with a certain character.

Oh, those old tricky games! Arino learns of a woman who’s gone missing, and after some more poking around, he finds her body in a clearing. Soon after that happens, there’s a voice from off-camera, and in walks Yuji Horii! He’s come to offer some help for Arino’s investigation, since he wrote the thing. Horii takes a seat next to Arino.

Turns out the woman wasn’t actually dead, and we soon rejoin her in the hospital, so she can at least give a little bit of information. Later, the investigation leads to an onsen, where Arino encounters a towel-clad Megumi. Horii’s biggest help here is to show Arino how to get her to remove her towel … just wait a few minutes, and eventually she’ll do a little tease. Once we have boobies, Arino dutifully thanks Horii.

Sadly, both Horii and Arino have to leave, as Arino goes off to do a formal interview with Horii. Arino returns to the challenge room alone, resuming right after Megumi disrobes. After he finishes talking to her, a big question pops up: Was the original victim, Mr. Masuda, Makiko’s father?

Arino gains access to Makiko’s apartment and begins checking out her bedroom. There he finds a letter that solidly links three of the other murder victims to the same company, but little else. He goes back to Gen-san’s restaurant, thinking that Gen’s resemblance to the victim has a deeper connection. Gen-san’s gone, but Arino goes on to talk to another character, a guy in an office. On the desk is an odd looking figure, so Arino naturally asks about it and its origin.

In so few words, that leads him to the maker of the figure, Mr. Urata, who is actually in prison. He’s not big on talking, though. Arino returns to Makiko’s apartment to find it trashed. He finds a photo album and finds a picture of Makiko and her family, including a man who looks a lot like her father.

A nearby phone number routes to Gen-san’s restaurant. The suspense builds! But where is Makiko? The clues lead Arino to a cave that turns into a first-person dungeon of sorts. Arino grumbles at having to play through it, but he just follows his instinct, and before you know it, Makiko is found and taken to the hospital.

Urata is questioned, and showing the second photo Arino found, with Makiko and Urata, starts him on a recollection of how all the victims know each and were killed. All roads lead to Gen-san, who was actually the man in that first photo of Makiko and her (long since dead) sister.

Arino rushes to the train station and finds Gen-san in… a knife fight? Crazily enough, Shun barges in with fists flying to break it up, and Gen-san is arrested. Following that, Arino splits with Shun. The story moves ahead one month, and we find out Shun and Makiko have married. Well, at least it was a happy ending, for all involved.

Game Center CX News

Dateline: Odaiba, and Fuji TV’s "United States of Odaiba" public event. As has sometimes been the case, there’s a new GCCX stage event to help promote the "GCCX24" DVD box. Arino’s there, of course, and invites a little boy onstage to play Super Puyo Puyo. Arino wins, and milks the victory, earning jeers from the crowd. And then an awkward appearance by AP Nakayama singing Last Continue. Oh, what fun.

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Inoue has more faces of death to show Arino, from Super Arabian, Sandra no Daibouken, Faxanadu, and City Connection. Arino picks City Connection’s "explosion, then hearts" death to be his favorite.