Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles
- Interactive digital novel focuses on fantastic storytelling and character development
- Hone detective skills by interviewing witnesses, uncovering clues, and following leads
- Explore fictional cities of Ceteri, Depono and Aspicio City
- Tests powers of deduction and reasoning
- 3 unique murder mysteries to experience
Product Description
Ever want to be a detective? With Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles, you can hone your detective skills by interviewing witnesses, uncovering clues, and following leads, all helping to bring you closer to the truth in this interactive digital novel. Jake Hunter works more than your trigger finger – it tests your powers of deduction and reasoning. To crack the cases and progress in the game, you’ll need to search for clues, talk to witnesses, and find the right line of questioning. As Detective Jake Hunter, you’ll experience three unique murder mysteries:
Explore fictional cities of Ceteri, Depono and Aspicio City Tests powers of deduction and reasoning 3 unique murder mysteries to experience
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Honestly I bought this game on a whim. I had been hearing of the new adventure sports meeting out on the DS and well since I started playing video sports meeting Adventure sports meeting have been my favorite. Needless to say it was a splendid game.
I will admit it has flaws. Some spelling errors are noticeable, also it is pretty small. I beat the game in about 5-6 hours. But that is how long they do advertise for game play.
Either way I want a sequel for it and I am looking forward to when it comes out. It will be alot of fun and if you want fun buy this game ASAP!
Rating: 4 / 5
The graphic adventure has made somewhat of a resurgence as of late, and one of the latest entries in the genre is Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles for the Nintendo DS. I would say that it doesn’t live up to its full potential, but the fact of the matter is the game is so broken in so many ways that it really has very small potential to live up to.
A lot of people will draw comparisons to the Phoenix Wright sports meeting, and from the back of the case, it’s simple to see why such comparisons would be made. But, where the Phoenix Wright sports meeting are rather whimsical, Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles takes the contrary approach, trying to bring back the gritty detective tale from days of yore.
The Phoenix Wright sports meeting generally don’t take themselves too seriously, and so when something honest DOES happen, it’s a small bit shocking and quite an effective storytelling device. Jake Hunter again follows the road less traveled, and puts its focus on the honest. And in the few and far between moments where it does try to lighten the mood, the humor feels out of place and cascade flat.
I guess that’s enough with the comparisons to Phoenix Wright – the question was never whether Jake Hunter is a better game, but whether it’s a excellent enough game in its own right. Even when taken on its own merit, the game’s flaws are copious and glaring.
First off, the game’s visuals and words often disagree. Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles ostensibly takes place in the fictional American town of Aspicio, yet there is Japanese writing and stylishness in the photographs of many of the game’s various locations. In other locations, the descriptions given when you search also don’t match up to what’s shown in the picture on screen. The effect of this disparity is somewhat raucous, and really takes you out of the game.
Secondly, it’s practically impossible to get stuck anywhere in the game. If there is information you need to collect in a particular location, chances are you will not be able to leave that location until that particular piece of information is revealed. This is most often accomplished by talking to the people in the area and following each branch of available dialog until the secret is revealed, and you’re told where to go next.
Occasionally, you will be presented with completely arbitrary scenarios of a potentially life-threatening nature. They are arbitrary only because you can never in fact lose. In fact, the entire game is worried to let you lose. After a day’s investigation, you usually go back to the office, have a smoke, and try and recall the facts you learned, and you must answer several multiple-choice stylishness questions about the day’s events. If you ever get a question incorrect, you immediately get to try that question again until you get it right.
Perhaps I’m looking at the game the incorrect way? Perhaps instead of considering it a graphic adventure, I should classify it more as a visual novel. Honest enough. Without spoiling anything, the plot in each case is somewhat respectable, even if there are some obvious clichés.
Unfortunately, you don’t get to see much of the plot – the game plays more like an outline than a book. It’s nearly like a Reader’s Digest visual novel. There are several parts where whole conversations are simply summed up with a sentence or two of narrative. The first two cases are so brief they only took me about an hour each to complete. The third and final case was a excellent bit longer, and took around 3 hours.
Also vital to any novel (visual or otherwise) are fascinating and likable characters. And with the abbreviated nature of the game, you don’t really get a feel for the personalities of any of the characters – they’re all somewhat wooden, including Jake himself.
I honestly can’t reflect of any excellent reason to recommend this game to anyone – there are really only three kinds of people who might have liked it in the first place:
1 – People who like Phoenix Wright,
2 – People who like detective tales, and
3 – People who like graphic adventures.
Sadly, Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles makes sure to alienate all three of these groups by having:
1 – A lack of fascinating characters and humor,
2 – Abrupt pacing and brevity of the tale, and
3 – No real interactivity or challenge.
I say skip it and go buy a real book instead.
Rating: 2 / 5
There’s not much game play on your part at all. You just basically read what the screen shows and tap the A button constantly. This game is a cross between Unsolved Crimes and Hotel Dusk, both for the DS.
In Jake Hunter, you choose which actions you want to do, but after you do that, it’s just more reading. I like reading and mysteries, but this game was a small TOO much reading. It felt like forever until the next action or scene.
During the game, you’ll be questioned to complete a list of questions that interest the case or reveal your answers to the suspects. If you get the reveal answers incorrect, the suspect will look at you like you’re crazy and tell you to reflect again.
Occasionally, you’ll see the “reflect” option to the left. This is just to refresh the details of the case and you don’t get a game over or anything if you get a question incorrect. You just go back to the beginning of the “test.”
Sometimes you can’t leave a location until you’ve talked to someone a couple of times or looked around. If you get stuck, there is this cool hint system where Jake will smoke and reflect at the same time. It will give you an insight on what to do next. In some instances, you play as Jake’s assistant, Yulia. In her hint system, she’ll run her fingers thru her hair.
The graphics were decent. In fact, they were pretty cool for such a tiny game.
The music was the best feature, I thought. There were three or four different tracks that I remember. One of course, the evil, spooky music when some huge details of the case surface when interviewing. The main track for Jake’s office, which is upbeat and reminds me of the ancient school original nintendo sports meeting. (I miss the simpler times)
This game would be ok if there was a small more action involved on the player’s part. A couple of things to mention: One: you can’t die or get game over so you don’t have to save that much. No matter which question, answer, or person you choose to interrogate, you cannot lose. Also be warned there are multiple spelling and grammar mistakes in this game. I know it sounds petty, but for a game, I reflect that’s pretty vital, to be able to spell and make the game understandable to the players.
Overrall, this game would be excellent to play on a rainy day.
Rating: 3 / 5
I’m a fan of action/adventure/puzzle sports meeting. As someone who lived in Tokyo in the past, I had an extra reason for wanting to check this out. The excellent news is that the game has three cases which are honestly fascinating. The graphics are in affect (as opposed to Hotel Dusk) with mixture of real photos and drawn scenes (with a tad of basic animation at the end of a case). I was really pleased to see that the maps and photos were of real places in Japan. The controls were simple to grasp. The game wasn’t too long, either. Some people might consider this a unenthusiastic, but, for these unadorned tales, it’s a excellent thing. (In comparison, I thought Hotel Dusk was too long.)
There’s some negatives, though. First, they changed the setting to America and made imaginary (corny) city names. That may have been more frustrating to me since I have lived in Japan and I know the real names of places. This was made worse by the fact that they left a street sign for Shinjuku (the sports meeting first area on the box art). Second, the game doesn’t allow for mistakes. If you make a incorrect choice, it will make you choose again. This wasn’t terrible, but I can see why it would really aggrevate some people. (From my point of view, it saves time.)
In all, this was a decent game. I don’t know that I’ll play the second game, but I don’t regret playing this one. It’s certainly worth a rental. It has a noirish theme. It’s consultation is late young adulthood (who would probably delight in it less) and adults. It includes visits to bars and has a dedicated button to allow you to smoke. That plus the gameplay make it unsuitable for kids.
Rating: 3 / 5
It wasn’t as dull as others I had played. Objects www harder to find. Clues were harder to solve let me place some brain action into it. Excellent buy.
Rating: 5 / 5