To be a Detective

As someone who has enjoyed various Visual Novel games in the past including the likes of Steins;Gate, Danganronpa and the Zero Escape series, I’m always on the lookout for a story that piques my interests.

Despite not knowing anything about Process of Elimination, I took a look at the trailer and decided to give the demo a shot, which in turn impressed me enough for me to take it up for review.

The cast of characters brings their own unique strengths.

MSRP: $49.99
Price I’d pay: $39.99
Platform: PS4, Switch
Voice Acting: JPN Only
Demo Availability: Yes
Length: 20~ hours

Wato is an aspiring up and coming detective, he dreams of one day joining the ranks of the prestigious Detective Alliance. However, a chance encounter with a veteran member of the organization grants his wish in the worst way possible as he finds himself as the newest member of the alliance in a battle against the Quartering Duke, a serial killer said to be responsible for more than 100 murders.

As the members of the Detective Alliance are often targeted by criminals, they keep their real names hidden- instead going by an alias that often represents a trait of the detective in question. For example Mystic Detective works closely with the occult and supernatural while Downtown Detective uses her silver tongue and social deduction to solve cases.

While initially the characters felt very one dimensional, the more time I spent with them, the more they endeared themselves to me with their past experiences and motivations. By the end, I came to like most of the cast, helped along by the strong VA performance which did a wonderful job of portraying their emotions.

Without going into any spoilers, the story starts off strong with an intriguing premise and the stakes are raised in quick fashion. There’s a part in the middle that feels like it drags a bit but it does manage to end on a strong note. My main issue with the story is that there were moments where the dialogue would move along unnaturally. It’s difficult to describe without getting specific but there is a flow to conversations and whether due to the script itself or the translation, something about it just felt off at times. Due to that feeling and the fact that I was able to see most of the twists coming along the way gave me the impression that this was an enjoyable, but unremarkable story.

The gameplay aspect of PoE has some good ideas but doesn’t manage to do much with them.

The unique element of PoE that initially intrigued me was the investigation segments where the game would go into an isometric view and I was tasked with giving orders to the detectives to search for clues and analyze pieces of evidence.

It seemed a bit complex at first but I was able to get the hang of it pretty quickly. The difficulty came in that not all detectives were keen on taking orders and would often go about doing their own things, including walking into deadly traps and getting themselves killed. Since anyone dying meant an immediate game over and there was no saving during the investigating segments, I’d have to start from the beginning again which felt quite frustrating. Fortunately, this was only really an issue in one chapter and the rest were fairly straight forward.

It was also nice to see that as the story progressed and I was able to build trust among the detectives, more of them were willing to take my orders and work together as a team. It’s always a nice feeling to see story progression be reflected in gameplay.

Who’s the killer?!

After collecting all the clues and analyzing the evidence, it’s time to solve the mystery by talking it out with the other detectives. It’s here where the correct bit of evidence needs to be brought up at the right time so anyone that has played games like Ace Attorney or Danganronpa would be right at home here. The deduction process wasn’t too challenging, but it was interesting to see how the more elaborate murders were staged. It’s just a shame that there aren’t too many of these segments as the overarching story wasn’t strictly focused on murder mysteries.

There are some good character moments sprinkled throughout the adventure.

Despite some shortcomings, Process of Elimination weaves an intriguing tale, bolstered by a cast of endearing characters. While it might not topple the giants in the visual novel genre, it is a story worth experiencing all the same.

Fun Tidbit: The upcoming murder mystery game “Rain Code” also stars an alliance of detectives. It’s interesting when the same concept gets explored by multiple developers in a short period of time.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.