Thank you so much for sharing your games! I really enjoy reading all your posts so please keep them coming. Not a surprise that most of the games suggested were developed by western developers. As I am a Hong Konger, I mainly played Japanese and Taiwanese games during childhood. Therefore, I will probably share more games on that front. Hope you don't mind that they are mostly games which are not yet localized (and probably never will)!
Anyway, I am not revisiting childhood this time. This afternoon, I just dug up some PS2 games and started playing
THE Kanshikikan through emulator. It belongs to D3's simple2000 series, which are all low-budget games sold in affordable prices. (I got a used copy for USD1 during my trip in Japan lol) However, this doesn't mean they are not fun to play! For example, both Earth Defense Force and Onechanbara originate from the simple2000 series and now they are the flagship titles of D3.
THE Kanshikikan is also one of the few lucky titles which received two sequels on the DS (and later ported to 3DS as well). However, I doubt many Japanese people bought and remember them though as they only have a handful of reviews on Amazon JP. Probably only a few people outside Japan know this game, too. So I may as well share about it here.
If you have played Ace Attorney before, you should remember the forensic officer Ema Skye. Now imagine all the gameplay elements of her (eg. collecting fingerprints, blood samples etc) are turned into one whole game, with a few other additions like assigning different types of evidence to other departments for inspection, deduction through evidence and talking with witnesses and victims, then you get THE Kanshikikan.
(We can all agree that Ema is one of the best characters in AA, right?)
You play as Shikiko Enami, a forensic officer newbie just out of school. At the beginning of episode 1, Shikiko woke up in her grandfather house after his funeral, and one of the relatives staying overnight was hit on the head. Her aunt, the head of police in a nearby precinct, asked her to get on this case even though she is not yet officially a forensic officer until the following week.
While Shikiko investigating the house, she discovered an old
Jitte which was an equipment used by police force in the Edo era. As Enami family being a bloodline known for affiliation with police and law enforcement, it was not a surprise that a Jitte is found. However, upon picking it up, Shikiko discovers that her ancestor, a police officer from the Edo era, resides within the Jitte. To make things worse, she also discovered that her grandfather's cat can actually talk like human being. Being one who is afraid of ghost and supernatural stuff, now Shikiko is forced to live and partner with her ancestor ghost and the talking cat to solve cases together.
Some of the in-game background arts are actually photos with touch-up. It is understandable for a low-budget title. Nonetheless, the game still looks very charming. It also has an adorable loading animation!
Last but not least, the Japanese level of this game is not demanding but it has a considerable amount of vocabulary surrounding forensic and police stuff. If you are learning Japanese, I feel that this can be an interesting game to learn some extra words.
I have completed the first episode (took me 1 hour 15 minutes) and so far I like it a lot. The game has 10 episodes so there is still quite a long way to go. I will hold it off for now but will continue playing it from October onwards as it will be one of my five games in the next Backlog Biltz.