Review by GamingCouchPotato.co.uk Staff
The Centennial Case : A Shijima Story is a FMV (full motion video) visual novel type of a game.
"The Shijima family have suffered a chain of inexplicable deaths over the past century.
When Haruka Kagami, a mystery novelist, visits the Shiijmas, she finds herself taking on four different murder cases - occurring at different points in time.
The red camellia and the Fruit of Youth, which invite only death.
And the truth behind it all, waiting to be uncovered..." More like a TV show or Movie, where you will make certain decisions within the game, and that will then take you on a different path.
As you play you will gather clues to the mystery you are trying to solve. You have to use your powers of deduction to solve the mystery and uncover the truth.
You will enter a "cognitive space" of sorts, which allows you to put together your threads of logic, which depending which way you go will give a different hypothesis as the outcome. You make these decisions moving hexagonal pieces on a board.
Playing any interactive movie, I cant really give much away as it would spoil the story, but it is worth noting that the acting is all very good, the story is well written, and although the subtitles might put some people off, any FMV game does need you to pay attention, to make the best informed decisions so the subtitles aren't that much of an issue.
The Good
High quality acting, and nice sets create a visually interesting game.
The Bad
The controls are a bit clunky, these kinds of games never seem to work that well on console. More of a PC game.
Overall
If you like Japanese Visual Novels, then this is the game for you.
If you are a fan of just you usual FMV visual novels, then give this game a look.
I score The Centennial Case : A Shijima Story a fair 7/10 for its genre.
Out now on PS5
