#the missing heir

[video-game-jams]

Famicom Detective Club: The Missing Heir (2021) - Utsugi Detective Agency

[cru5h-cascades]

Doin' research on the first two Famicom Detective Club games for the Doll Woman AU (I have an idea for what to do with the protagonist) (yeah not only are Emiko and Minoru's roles swapped but some of the other characters' roles are too) and boy howdy watching gameplay for the Missing Heir is hella weird (the UI for the game is really throwing me off)...

[zerosocialskillz]

Watching a walkthrough of The Missing Heir so I could catch up for Emio

[lattedecoffee]

Why did no one tell me famicom detective club goes so hard

Just finished The Missing Heir (beat it in one day, it’s relatively short), and I cried at the end. I guessed every big twist but one, but that didn’t stop the moments Taro realized them from hitting hard. I only wish there was an English dub, though the Japanese VAs were amazing (I just like knowing the language lf the voices lol

This series was one of Ace Attorney’s inspirations and you can really tell. Not only in its gameplay, but in the one character that literally just looks like the Ace Attorney judge.

I’ll be playing The Girl Who Stands Behind ASAP because holy crap I loved this one and general online consensus seems to be that TGWSB is the better one.

PLAY. FAMICOM. DETECTIVE. CLUB.

[nintendokids]

I humor him.

But seriously, Dr. Kumada may be my favorite character in The Missing Heir. He has developed into a way more fun character than I first took him for.

-Christian

[rehncohro]

August 30th, 2024 - Famicom Detective Club: The Missing Heir/The Girl Who Stands Behind

I was planning on getting to these for a while and the recent release of Emio got me to actually try them out. They're both interesting murder mysteries that aren't without their flaws. Gameplay is pretty similar to the investigation segments in mainline Ace Attorney, but the big problem is you often have to repeat dialogue options or take very specific actions and the games are really ever clear on which you need to choose. Some of the options that are required to progress are so out there, it's hard to figure out without a guide.

The Missing Heir was horrible about it and I had to switch to a guide halfway through. Thankfully, I was able to avoid that for The Girl Who Stands Behind. I played Missing Heir first because it's the first game in the series, but I do think it's cool how the games are set up so you can play in either order with The Girl Who Stands Behind taking place two years earlier. The 2nd game had a very noticeable upgrade to presentation too.

Both of them had interesting stories and twists, although I did figure out one of them in Missing Heir about halfway through. However, both of them managed to surprise me. The Girl Who Stands Behind did something I wasn't quite expecting near the end. For the most part, the recurring characters are okay and the side characters are just whatever, but I still enjoyed the overall stories.

I'm just a bit annoyed with the gameplay. It is way too easy to get stuck in Missing Heir. While it's easier to avoid in The Girl Who Stands Behind, it's final chapters are very bad about the whole very specific things that you have to do (sometimes repeat) and being unclear of what needs to be done. Despite some issues, I liked them and look forward to Emio.

[hodgepodgequack]

Emio Demo Observations and thoughts….this is going to be a long post.

By the way, I WILL be spoiling something that happens during “The Missing Heir” And Danganronpa 1 case 2.

18 years ago, 3 teenage girls (with no known ties to each other) are strangled to death by hand and are found with paper bags on their heads. The paper bags have a picture of a smiling face on them.

The paper bags intel was never released to the public, therefore the only people who knew were the cops, family members, people who found said bodies and the culprit.

Now theres a similar case with a teenage boy (Sasaki who I will be calling S from here on out).

There’s 3 options regarding what happened to the kid

Option 1: It’s the OG killer who’s never been caught. As for why he’s starting again, there’s two possibilities

S was either looking into the Emio rumor or he saw something he shouldn’t have and the killer wanted to nip that quickly.

S is a closeted trans person and the OG killer knows that somehow. The director of the game has stated that the ending of the game might be “controversial” Keep in mind this game takes place sometime in 1997-2000s, it’s 2024 and being Trans is still controversial. In game it would most likely be an ever bigger stir. Who’s to say that this is the controversy the director was referring to?

As for why the method of death has slightly altered, I only have one theory: fingerprints

The original case took place sometime between 1979 and 1982. I know nothing about the history of fingerprints in Japan so this is a massive shot in the dark with what I’m about to say:

Fingerprint dusting may have not been a routine procedure (or it was but there was no way to preserve said information ) and the killer knew that. But a lot changes in 18 years and it’s possible that it is now routine and said info can be preserved. Hence the strangulation method has changed and the item to use cause death it not anywhere to be found.

Option 2: It’s a copycat killer

Why someone would do this, I have no idea, but it would explain a few discrepancies.

D1: the way the person is killed

D2: victim is male (they got the teen part right)

D3: The way the paper bag looks

If you look at the paper bag the Emio of the Urban legend uses. It has holes cut out where the eyes should be (and additionally it appears he removed any eye wear before putting the bag on, just a weird detail I’ve noted)

Current bag has no hole cut out. It’s a purple circular spot in the middle of some black round scribbling.

And I know what you’re going to say, cutscenes aren’t important, but in the famicom detective club universe they are.

There’s a prime example of using a cutscene in “The missing heir” where Jiro is smoking with Kaneda, pay attention to the way he holds his cigarette. It’s a small detail, but developers who do mystery games don’t put them in for shits and giggles.

Option 3: S’s death has NOTHING to do with the original case.

The only reason why the police think that it’s connected to the previous case is because of the paper bag. If the bag wasn’t there, they wouldn’t be thinking that.

It’s entirely possible that someone else offed S and fled the scene. Someone else finds the body and instead of reporting it to the cops, pulls a Togami and alters the crime scene to include a paper bag on the kids head. Why they do that, I don’t know. They could have been inspired by the Emio rumor (which is a weird thing in itself that I’ll discuss in a bit.)

Some other observations that don’t really fit anywhere else:

The way the bag is placed on the head. The corpse looks like it it’s looking in an upward direction while the bag makes the face on it point to the side. I don’t know if it’s an important detail or if it was done to be creepy. Because the only believable way for that to happen is if S was strangled in an upward position, the bag is placed on his head and before he hits the ground the bag shifts to a different position and it’s not corrected.

Kuze knows Utsugi

The current theory is that she’s related to one of the original victims in some way and because the case was never resolved she because a detective to find the truth. Ut might have worked on the case and that’s why he knows her. Ku might not be saying anything out of fear that she might get removed from investigating at all (it’s a one liner, but someone mentions that she follows police protocol to a T so it would be interesting to see if she acts like a hypocrite because she’s personally connected to the case). It’s also a possibility that he resents Ut for not catching the guy. It would be crazy twist if the OG killer and the current killer (assuming they are not the same person) are both cops hence why they didn’t get caught. As for a guess right now (and based on the premise stated beforehand) the OG killer might be Kanada and the current one might be Kami.

3. Kami is a very sus

First of all the game does not give you his age, which is a massive red flag. Secondly he shows up late to the crime scene (yes it’s implied that he is a bit of a careless character, but that could be a facade) he might have been busy trying to cover his tracks. Thirdly he mentions that he used to go “missing” when the schools were actively trying to prevent kids from straying to far. Maybe one time he did it and saw something he shouldn’t have.

4. In the prologue there is a part where the protagonist and Ut speak at the same time and they sound like the Smiling Man.

5. In the game “The Girl who stands behind” there’s a box near the boxing gloves that you could inspect. According to the game at the time, it has something to do with UTs family (I’m pretty sure it’s a crest). In this game you can’t even examine it and that is sus in of itself.

6. The Emio legend is odd for multiple reasons. The fact that it mentions girls(who look to be teens based on the cutscenes) die with paper bags on their heads is reminiscent of an actual case implies something important. The info regarding the paper bags got leaked (and maybe some things on the girls mental health at the time pre death hence the crying imagery) and that spiraled and created the Emio urban legend. Furthermore, Ayumi immediately mentions the urban legend when we talk about the case. That implies that either this rumor has started recently enough for her to notice it, or it’s one that has persisted through time (and that begs the question why has it lasted so long and who started the rumor?

And now for some questions regarding the demo

How did S get into the area? It’s a pump station whose gates are normally not open (note that the all the trash is on the outside of the area, not on both sides. S’s bike was also left outside meaning the gate was closed. Did he pick the lock? Was the gate open and the killer put the back bike? I don’t know!!

2. How did the Jogger see the body?

Anyway. Can’t wait for the second part of the demo to drop tomorrow and I’ll see how much is right.

[chaiichait]

Jude's list of near death experiences:

1. Force fed faerie fruit (basically saved by Cardan pricking her finger with salt and Locke)

2. Valerian trying to kill her

3. Valerian trying to kill her part two electric boogaloo

4. Almost getting trampled by courtiers and the gentry

5. The Undersea survival show

6. Getting married

7. Getting exiled

8. Being the in the court despite her exile (even though she could just go back, as per Cardan's words)

9. Madoc stabby stab stab

10. Falling off the roof AFTER SHE GOT HEALED

11. Cardan turning into a snake

12. Cardan when he turned back into a fae

13. Oak getting held hostage

[juha-art]

Witches of the Wild Hunt & Woodland Green

[ezziefae]

I noticed a significant parallel between The Ghost, Taryn, Locke and Justin, Madoc, and Eva.

Out of guilt, The ghost began serving Locke after he killed his mother Liriope. This means that The Ghost would come around Locke's estates from time to time to do small things for him, and Taryn did mention seeing him around the estate. Now that Locke is dead, The Ghost and Taryn are romantically involved with each other. This situation is similar to Madoc and Eva’s story, as they were married and used to live together. At that time, Justin would visit Madoc’s place to show him his swords. When Eva got pregnant, she wanted to leave Madoc to protect her child (Vivi) and eventually fell in love with Justin. Similarly, when Taryn got pregnant, she wanted Locke to change his ways so that they could become a family, but it didn't work, and she ended up killing him, and now apparently she's in love with The Ghost. In a way, Taryn followed her mother’s footsteps.

So, Taryn = Eva, The Ghost = Justin, Locke = Madoc, and finally Leander = Vivi

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 83

Danny… might have done an oopsie. It wasn’t a big oopsie, probably! He had panicked, it wasn’t his fault! It was their first time in Gotham seeing as his parents were banned for some reason or other, and he was on two hours of sleep after the plane ride! 

It’s not his fault the three of them and this tiny child in traffic-light colors are now stuck in this uh, what did you call it again, digital world? It’s not his fault they’re stuck in this digital world with digital monsters! What was that reapmon? Oh, digimon, not digital monsters? Alright cool. 

Of course Sam has already befriended the giant goth plant, that’s… not surprising actually. Tucker, you can be in heaven later, what is he supposed to do with this, how old are you? What is he supposed to do with this human ten year old whose adult-vigilante (wow did he wish he had one of those) is probably going to be freaking out?

No he can not just open up a portal back home, infinite realms, remember?! He has to figure out where they are and calculate how to get home! 

[serien-grl-22]

Dorian's ending compared to the rest is so cruel...

Like, everyone gets in a relationship (which is the sjm version of a happy ending and something Dorian deeply desires) except for Manon, Fenrys and Dorian. BUT:

Manon can finally go home to the with kingdom and rebuilt it after over 500 years with her "new family" and all witches united.

Fenrys is Aelin's ambassador so he can travel and have time to heal (he's a Fae, he has centuries left).

And then there is Dorian. He can go home. Back to the castle where all the cruel things happend to him. Where he was tortured and saw the person who he loved get beheaded. Nice 😐

[ladystoneboobs]

no of fence to jon snow fans who for some reason care about his exact age, but these discussions just annoy me no end. not only bc there's no way any weirwood flashbacks bran has to rhaegar/lyanna will come with time/datestamps, but also bc there's always comments like this:

SEVERAL turns of the moon (ie, months)?! have these people never seen a human baby before or just have no concept of their ages? even if we take into account travel time from the toj to wf, meaning jon was not a newborn too fresh out the oven when catelyn and robb arrived, there's still a difference between a newborn and a 3mo and an even bigger difference between those infants and an older baby 5-7mo. there's very good reasons these lines were cut. whatever birthdates can be worked out internally for jon and robb from when they're first mentioned as 15 and 16 don't matter in the end, bc grrm doesn't care about a consistent timeline and the actual text of catelyn's pov and ned's convo with robert about cheating on her should outweigh any guesstimates about jon's official nameday wrt robb's. catelyn may not have cared for jon, but she would sure as hell have noticed his nameday if it came before robb's and made him ned's firstborn. if jon's birthday canonically came before robb's then either ned's cover story would not involve adultery (not impossible for him to sire a bastard before his wedding), or he'd just give jon a new nameday along with his new name to fit the adultery lie. it makes no sense for him to lie about one and not the other, undermining the big lie with a little public clue of his story not adding up. whatever else she was as a stepmother, cat wasn't stupid and a bastard who was actually the eldest son being raised alongside her trueborn heir could be an even bigger insult than whether he was born of adultery or not.

BUT, the unknowability of jon's true birthday is not the only reason this annoys me, it's bc this is all based on the assumption that jon must be older since rhaegar/lyanna ran off together before ned married cat, as if both boys must have been conceived asap as robb canonically was when his parents consummated their marriage. and that's not how human reproduction works! even if you don't understand how fast babies grow in the first year, you should know that people who get pregnant do so through ovulation cycles and a lucky sperm finding an egg and all that, not just immediately getting knocked up as soon as one has p-in-v sex for the first time. not unless you only know mean girls sex ed where if you have sex you will get pregnant and die. (even tho lyanna did die, there's plenty of canon examples where pregnancy did not lead straight to death. also examples of people who did not get pregnant right away and even some who are/were sexually active and childless without always having moon tea on hand.) we can't know how long lyanna was having sex before that sperm+egg match happened or even how long she was with rhaegar before losing her technical virginity. if they were married, doesn't it make sense to think they didn't consummate their relationship until the wedding night either? that's the only leverage there is to ensure a status as wife rather than just mistress.

and while i just said grrm doesn't care about exact timelines and a lot is still foggy surrounding the rebellion and esp rhaegar, there is one timemarker wrt robert's rebellion he voluntarily threw in, time and time again: that stannis was besieged at storm's end for almost a whole year. that siege, which mind you, did not match the duration of the entire war. it only started after robert won his battles at gulltown and summerhall, returned to storm's end, and then went out and lost the battle of ashford, leaving his homeland open to the reachermen. the same siege which only ended when ned made a detour there after the sack of king's landing, before going to the toj. even if lyanna may not have given birth that exact day ned found her, she could only be waiting in that bloody bed for weeks at the most, not months. so if rhaegar knocked her up the very same night he carried her off and jon was still a newborn when ned found her after the siege of storm's end had ended, wouldn't that mean lyanna was pregnant for well over a year? that's not how human pregnancy works either! so, maybe that's proof that jon and robb, whichever order they were actually born in, were actually very close in age as babies, much closer than if they were both conceived asap.

and really, jon's actual birthdate does not matter imho, when he was raised not just as the bastard to robb's trueborn heir, but with robb also known by catelyn and the world as ned's firstborn (which he was, in any case, as jon was ned's nephew by birth). what difference could a birthdate before robb's make (even were there some means of discovery) after ned, cat, and robb are all dead? if one is looking only at his birth parents then he's only a firstborn child on lyanna's side, but definitely a second son on rhaegar's side. maybe he was always meant to be a second son with a not much older half-brother! even if the aegon fka young griff is not in fact rhaegar's son, he'll still be known as aegon vi targaryen, meaning jon will never be known as any father's elder son. if i may reference mean girls again, it's not going to happen.

[lattedecoffee]

I have finished The Girl Who Stands Behind (the other Famicom Detective Club game), and I think I prefer The Missing Heir. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy TGWSB, it was still fun and interesting, but TMH made me cry and TGWSB did not.

Ayumi got to exist more this time which was nice, even though I don’t really care for the games wanting me to ship her with the protagonist. There were also a lot of great moments, funny and serious (that whole scene at the end involving the culprit was amazing, particularly a certain shot iykyk), but TMH’s ending felt more impactful imo. Maybe it’s because it’s more personal to the protagonist? Also TGWSB had all these last second reveals that didn’t really affect me much. Like yeah it’s an ok reveal and it makes sense I guess but why was this only told to me now…?! Why couldn’t some of this have come before the last 5 minutes of the game?

Both are still great story-wise and I know I’ll be thinking about them for a while. They’re are clunky gameplay wise but that’s to be expected given they’re from ‘88 and ‘89 respectively. If you love Ace Attorney, remember that these games were one of its inspirations and play them! I’d love to see more people playing these.

Also something I just realized: mirrors were integral to both games but in very different ways. Wanna know what I mean by that? Guess you’ll have to play 😈

[nintendokids]

Yeah. I know there’s a Super Bowl going on but I’ve got more important things to deal with than a football game. This detective case has really gotten out of hand.

-Christian

[kaeyachi]

if i had a nickel for every time genshin straight up said kaeya that is like a prince, id have 2 nickels