|
|
Chain: The Lost Footprints
When Takeshi Shinonome takes pity on a young girl being harassed by some drunks, he triggers a chain of events that sees him cross paths with drug dealers and even a serial killer. Fortunately, Takeshi is a private investigator, who along with his partner, Hitome, is well equipped to handle the case. Things start off easy enough with a routine investigation of an unfaithful spouse but soon the body count rises and Takeshi is drawn into a world of drugs and revenge.
Chain is a Japanese visual novel that eschews the wilder fantasy and magical elements of the genre to deliver a hard-broiled detective drama. Takeshi is a chain smoking, colt python wielding, bourbon swilling, trench coat and fedora wearing cliché of a man who might have been more likeable if his investigation technique did not involve sleeping with every female that crosses his path. Old friends, informants, clients, suspects and even his partner are not safe from Takeshi's libido. Chain is quite a long game and the sex scenes play a relative small role but there are definitely some unsavory and disturbing things on offer. Chain is completely linear so there really isn't any gameplay beyond clicking either "Talk" or "Look." For the most part you simply sit back and read as the story unfolds. The game features full Japanese voice overs for most of the characters (besides Takeshi) but I ended up turning these off since reading the rather long winded text is much faster. The game has quite a long and involved storyline and while I noticed a few translation errors, it is pretty good overall. The h-scene dialogue is of course completely ridiculous and has all the clichés you expect from the genre. I've also never seen so many people described as "sulkily smiling" in a game before. One nice touch is the viewpoint switching to that of Takeshi's assistant at times. She actually does more real detective work than Takeshi whose specialty is smoking while pondering about the case. Visually, the game breaks no new grounds for the genre with a resolution of 640x480 and the usual cardboard cut-out characters. There are however at least one animated sex scene for each of the females in the game if that is your kind of thing. The audio is actually pretty decent with some nice Jazz and lounge music playing in the background. While the story isn't too bad, the game has no replayability. You can't deviate from the path set out before you and scenes that give the impression of choice simply loop until you pick the correct option. People who enjoy hentai games will probably find Chain too slow paced while those who enjoy a good story will probably find the sexual content distasteful. The game is definitely not as bad as some other Japanese visual novels but considering the genre, that's not saying much.
|
System Requirements
TAGS: Chain: The Lost Footprints, Mayuki, Hitomi, Marie, Shinonome Investigations,
|
|
|
Copyright © 2012 GAMERamble. All rights reserved