Well, that went fast to get a new game in the series. And they are over 18 this time, boy I was on the money! Feeling less of the supernatural in this one, but it is a murder mystery at least. You're back in the Usagi Detective Agency. The MC, Ayumi and Usagi are investigating a recent murder with connects back to murders that happened 18 years back where school girls ended up strangled with a paper bag on their face with a smile on. The game is rather nice in just picking up my name from the saves from the older games so that saved me 1 minute in putting it in.
It gets creepy, it gets heavy. I enjoyed it. I've been just trying options at times to move forward, but I've played old point and click-games so it isn't something new for me. And at times the options gets a bit hard to understand what I'm doing. Talking to Junko Kuze, the officer put on the case it took me a hot minute in getting past her first question. Reading up there is interesting interaction and funny dialoge that one can get so there is a replayability aspect of it. And you're graded by a teacher character at the end for each chapter. Middle of the road for my evaluation. Not great, but not bad.
So to the story, spoilers beware. So a student is found strangled with some sort of cord at a pump station. He wears a paper bag with a scribbled smile on linking it toward three murders 18 years earlier. The Usagi Detective Agency is contacted, especially since Usagi himself was involved in the original case. The MC and Ayumi begin looking into it. Their are similarities with the earlier murders, like the bag is made of the same manufacturer as murder 2 and 3, but there are differences, like the victim is a boy this time with stumps our detectives. Ayumi meets up with an old friend that works as a teacher at the school. Don't like that guy, he gives me bad vibes, like always so close up and personal with everyone (no personal space there) and they point it out. Maybe bad feelings from the last game, but I suspected him a lot and I believe the game cheats on that since his smile sometimes seems to align with the smile on the paper bags (or that is my mind trying to frame him), or it could be that he seems to hit on Ayumi and that threatens the relationship with the MC... that is me.
He is involved, but not in the murder directly. A girl that knew the victim had fallen in love with the teacher and as he tried to steer her away, she had a fall out with the victim. And it's around here I start piece it together. Cause detective Kuze gets a visit from the Smiling Man and while in her apartment the MC find a tie that Ayumi then can confirm is the same as used in the school (thanks to the teacher I have to admit). With it was also a letter. MC doesn't look at the letter, but then it clicked, especially since I learned that Junko had a motorcycle and one was spotted near the crime scene. Her brother had also been gone for 18 years and after he disappeared no more Smiling Man killings. The boy was only 9 so he wasn't the murder, but I connected the dots.
Obviously the male victim, wasn't murdered, but a suicide due to being crushed by falling grades and an unresponsive love. Junko Kuze found him by the road, but staged it as a Smiling man killing in order to provoke a response by Emio so that she could get closure on her brother. I figured all that out on my own! Of curse, that doesn't explain the Smiling man murders. No, that I followed with the game to the end, second-guessing my thoughts. I knew Junko's brother couldn't have been the murderer, but he seemed to still be alive, but with the name of a missing person that was of interest for the police 18 years ago, but I met a couple that knew that person back in the day and day swear on his sweet nature. So I was conflicted, but in the end is able to track the person to a lost village in the mountains, where I meet Junko Kuze that seemed to have followed the same lead as I and she tells me to quit the investigation. Here I was just gonna save the game, but I wondered over the command since it says "save/quit investigation" and for the one time in the game, it does that and the MC decides to leave. What kinda mind screw is that?
Well, two gunshots later MC returns and find Junko with blood on her standing above a dead body. As MC grabs his phone Junko pulls her revolver on him and spill the story (that I already figured out) and that her brother is still alive, having killed the Smiling man that threatened Junko and she now tries to protect him and the MC is the loose thread in this plan. But she can't do it and breaks down crying and then her brother shows up with a bloody machete ready to kill the MC, screen turns white and a gun shot is heard. And then you're back at the agency while Ayumi is back from the hospital where Junko's brother is after being shot by another detective that helped you in the investigation. Usagi returns from a trip uncovering the origins of the Smiling man legend and takes Ayumi out to lunch leaving me taking a phone call with the officer that saved me. No respect I say. Small scene revealing that Junko and the other detective got married and helps her brother regain himself. And then credits roll... wait, what happened with the Smiling man origin?
Well, turns out that Nintendo pushed that into an epilogue where you play through two scenes as Usagi questioning two villagers from where Emio came from, and then you watch a 30 minute animated movie about how it happened, how Emio grew up with his sister in an abusive family where they got beaten by their father, one day the sister drowns in a pond while trying to retrieve her things that the father threw in it which pushes Emio over the edge so he kills his father and is sent to juvenile detention. He gets released, moves to the city, meets a girl that also have an abusive father. After her father hit her one night, Emio cheers her up with a paper bag he cheered his sister with, and proceed to kill the girls father, which she isn't happy with either so he kills her as well, and then two other girls, a third girl escapes by laughing at him. Meanwhile he have given himself a permanent smile with some metal sheers (think the Joker in the Dark Knight). And then meeting Junko as a child and the scuffle with her brother that makes the brother get amnesia and triggering some sort of guilt feelings since the brother tried to protect Junko like Emio tried to protect his sister. And then he takes care of the boy for 18 years, no further murder until the game begins happening (well, he isn't able to kill anyone, not for lack of trying). That's really heavy, and I just saw season 3 of Young Justice where they have an episode about domestic abuse as well. Jesus!
It was an enjoyable game, it had tensions at times and it made me feel smarts so that is a plus. Not enough supernatural things sadly. The ending for the second game still the best ending just for the sheer WTF. The game is a lot more animated than the two remakes, shocker I know, and has several scenes that is just storytelling, Mostly Junko scenes. I hope they continue this series cause I like the main trio and it was fun playing as Ayumi as well. And Usagi even if it was for two scenes in the epilogue.
