The Silver Case is an adventure visual novel video game developed by Grasshopper Manufacture and published by ASCII Entertainment for the PlayStation in 1999. It was directed, designed and co-written by Goichi Suda. A remastered version was released digitally by Grasshopper Manufacture worldwide for Microsoft Windows and macOS in 2016, while a port for the PlayStation 4 was released by NIS America in 2017; a Japanese release of the PlayStation 4 version was released in March 2018 by Nippon Ichi Software. A Linux port was released in August 2017. A port for the Nintendo DS was also in development, but never released due to Suda's dissatisfaction with the final product.
The setting is contemporary Japan, and takes place in a universe which would be used by Suda in later works. Within a city called the 24 Districts, a series of bizarre murders occurs, prompting the 24 Districts Police Department to send two detectives from their Heinous Crimes Unit to solve the case. The killings are soon linked to Kamui Uehara, a notorious serial killer who supposedly died several years before. The gameplay revolves around text-based situations, point-and-click mechanics, and interactive question and answer segments.
The Silver Case was the debut title of Grasshopper Manufacture, beginning development with the studio's formation in 1998. As they had limited staff and resources, Suda devised the window-based story-telling to make best use of their assets. The story, written by Suda, Masahi Ooka and Sako Kato revolved around themes of crime and the clashing of people on different sides: its themes would become a recurring feature in later titles developed by Suda. The character designs were done by Takashi Miyamoto, while the music was composed by Masafumi Takada.
Prior to its remaster, the game did not see a release outside Japan, despite Suda wanting a Western release: this was attributed by Suda and others to concerns over properly translating and localizing the game's dialogue and text-based puzzles. The localization was handled by Active Gaming Media in collaboration with Grasshopper Manufacture. The original version was positively reviewed in Japan, while the remaster received generally mixed opinions from journalists. A sequel for mobiles was released in 2005, receiving a remake following the success of the remaster's release.
Premise
In 1999, there exists a city called the "24 Wards". A series of mysterious and bizarre murders have begun happening there, prompting the Heinous Crimes Unit (HCU) of the 24 Wards Police Department to investigate. They find that the murders closely match the profile of an infamous serial killer, Kamui Uehara, who assassinated many key government figures one after another several years ago. Uehara was held in a mental hospital and was thought to be completely unfit to commit crime again, but these new incidents imply otherwise.
Gameplay
The Silver Case is a text-based point and click adventure visual novel video game where players take control of different characters through two linear scenarios: in the "Transmitter" scenario, players take the role of a detective solving a serial murder mystery, while in the "Placebo" scenario, they control a freelance journalist covering the investigation. The scenarios are divided into six chapters each, making a total of twelve chapters.
During gameplay sequences, the player moves through environments in first-person. Proceeding through the scenario, story events play out in special windows against a single background: some are dedicated to text, while others show scenery related to events in the game. These scenery are a combination of 2D and 3D artwork, real-world photographs incorporated into the game, limited full-motion graphics, and short live-action sequences. At some points in the game, quiz questions are shown for the player to answer, in addition to mini-games the player can complete. There are also puzzles which are strongly related to the game's text-based features and presentation.
Development
The Silver Case was the debut title of Grasshopper Manufacture, a then-independent company formed in 1998 by video game developer Goichi Suda after leaving Human Entertainment following the completion of Moonlight Syndrome, a spin-off from Human's Twilight Syndrome series. The Silver Case, and consequently Grasshopper Manufacture, was born from Suda's wish to create something original, having only worked on pre-existing projects for Human. While the development team was independent, the production itself was supported by the game's publisher ASCII Entertainment, who had initially suggested a collaboration with Suda when he left Human, and whom Suda had approached with the concept for The Silver Case following the formation of Grasshopper Manufacture. When the genre had been selected, Suda's main challenge was to create something different from any other game in the genre. During development, the team was faced with severe financial restrictions, which further exasperated the problems caused by a small staff as they could not produce all the art assets normally needed for such a game. To compensate, Suda created what he termed the "film window engine": illustrations and text were relegated to dedicated windows. This allowed development to continue. Story sequences were also communicated through 3D CGI and inserted live-action and anime sequences.
It was developed for the PlayStation with a five-person team, who created the basic core of the game. During the last six months of development, the team expanded to include ten people. Suda acted as both director and designer in addition to other duties, partially due to the constricted nature of development. The character designs were done by Takashi Miyamoto, who would go on to work on Grasshopper Manufacture's following title Flower, Sun, and Rain. His design was influenced by a large range of media, from books to films and television: many of those he used for influence for The Silver Case crossed over with Suda's own tastes. His drawing style was meant to be realistic, rather than in line with typical manga illustrations of the time.
Reception
Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu gave The Silver Case a score of 30 points out of 40: while one of the reviewers noted that the display windows were sometimes difficult to see, the magazine's critics were generally positive about the game's atmosphere, comparing it favorably to Suda's previous work on Moonlight Syndrome. Prior to its release in the West, The Silver Case was highlighted in multiple articles by 1UP.com as an early example of Suda's distinctive style.
