#Ds murder detective games plus#
#Ds murder detective games series#

Production was halted after the 4th installment, but would be revived internally when Data East took on series fan Tatsuya Saito. The scenario for the series' 3rd and 4th installments was written by a fledgling Kazushige Nojima. The fourth game would also introduce the ability to switch between independent playable characters at will, allowing for more diverse and idiosyncratic methods of play. This time system would feature in all four of the original games, and would later be revived in the series' 7th installment. Time played an important role in the games, with each command selected by the player causing a certain amount of in-game time to elapse failure to solve the mystery during the allotted time period resulting in a bad ending. The series employed a number of advanced game mechanics, developing techniques which would later find popularity in the industry at large.

The first game of the series, Shinjuku Chūō Kōen Satsujin Jiken ( 新宿中央公園殺人事件, Shinjuku Central Park Murder Mystery), was released in 1987 by Data East for the Family Computer Disk System, featuring advanced graphics, sound effects, and distinct hardboiled scenarios to set itself apart from other contemporaneous adventure games. A persistent series tradition has been to use titles from songs and albums as names for installments, with most frequent reference made to the works of Kenji Sawada. The number of main series entries currently stands at nineteen, complemented by a 25-game mobile sub-series and various examples of tie-in media. A prequel game, given the branding Alternate Jake Hunter internationally, was localised internally and released in 2019 with original character names and settings preserved.Īccording to Enterbrain's Famitsu, the Tantei Jingūji Saburō franchise had sold over 2,220,000 units at the time of its twentieth anniversary, making it one of the longest running and best-selling Japanese adventure game series in history. No further releases would be announced until July 1, 2017, when Aksys Games revealed they would be bringing over Tantei Jingūji Saburō: Ghost of the Dusk in 2018.

#Ds murder detective games plus#

The game was re-released on as Jake Hunter Detective Story: Memories of the Past, containing the originally localised three cases with new translations, plus three further cases, and a large number of unlockables including comics. ĭespite its popularity in Japan, the first of its games to receive an English language release was Tantei Jingūji Saburō DS: Inishie no Kioku, retitled and released in North America on Jby Aksys Games in truncated form as Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles. The property would later transfer to WorkJam, and has most recently been acquired by Arc System Works, who are its current owners. Jake Hunter, known in Japan as Tantei Jingūji Saburō ( 探偵神宮寺三郎, 'Detective Saburō Jingūji'), is a mystery adventure game series originally developed and published by Data East in 1987. Family Computer Disk System, Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Saturn, PlayStation, PlayStation 2, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, PlayStation Portable, Virtual Console, Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Steam, DMM GAMES