The Stolen Diamond Ring - a mystery visual novel

[RayRayTea]

Thank you for such a detailed review ^_^

All points duly noted and will be taken into account for our next game (actually not really next game since the next one is going to be a free Cute-RPG style but the one after that will be a mystery VN again).

[Mirage]

Just one more suggestion for future mystery games. I suggest murder case will make a better mystery novel. It creates more suspense and tension and I am sure it will attract more buyer. =D

Good luck with whatever project you are working on! I'll be sure to play them if they are out!

[rinrin]

I think you're right, it probably would attract more buyers. There are many advantages to having murder in a mystery - it gives the characters strong motives, intense emotional response etc.

However, when planning our first mystery, we realised the following:
- To make a murder mystery believable, the protagonist should really be someone professionally involved with serious crime - police and lawyers work best. We wanted to have a different kind of protagonist, so we picked a different crime (many cosy mysteries seem to ignore this and have little old ladies stumbling across corpses in every episode - I find it hard to believe).
- there are already fantastic games out there that cover this genre, with protagonists that are much more suitable for coming across corpses. "Cozy" and somewhat "realistic" mysteries are on the other hand almost absent on the VN horizon.

That's not to say we'll never have a murder mystery (our next mystery VN will feature several non-murder cases, but we might do a murder one some day with a different IP) - it's definitely an interesting option to keep in mind

[Jake]

I played through this at the weekend - it was well worth the asking price - and throughly enjoyed it... but to be honest, I found the fact that it wasn't a murder quite refreshing, really.

I got a bit bored with Phoenix Wright, for example, having murder case after murder case after murder case - nobody in that universe ever stops at just assault? Nobody ever sues anyone else for unfair business practices, for breach of contract, or anything like that... but there's enough murders to keep a guy full-time employed working on nothing but defending murder cases in this district alone!

[LVUER]

I played through this at the weekend - it was well worth the asking price - and throughly enjoyed it... but to be honest, I found the fact that it wasn't a murder quite refreshing, really.

I got a bit bored with Phoenix Wright, for example, having murder case after murder case after murder case - nobody in that universe ever stops at just assault? Nobody ever sues anyone else for unfair business practices, for breach of contract, or anything like that... but there's enough murders to keep a guy full-time employed working on nothing but defending murder cases in this district alone!

In Lucky Star, Konata and Kagami discuss how most (if not all) detective story revolves around murder cases. Why not solve like assault, batter, kidnapping, or even just lost pet case? The conclusion is... it won't be interesting ^_^

[Jake]

In Lucky Star, Konata and Kagami discuss how most (if not all) detective story revolves around murder cases. Why not solve like assault, batter, kidnapping, or even just lost pet case? The conclusion is... it won't be interesting ^_^

Lucky Star is not the one absolute truth! I mean, they also discuss how best to eat a chocolate cornet, and obviously the best answer is "not at all, those things aren't that great, save your appetite for better things".

One reason why murder cases are easier to write solid mysteries for is that with a murder case, the most important witness of all cannot testify because they're dead. In an assault, corruption etc. case the people involved are all capable of giving testimony and you more than likely have all the correct information to hand, it's just that you have lies as well... you generally have two conflicting explanations of what happened, one of which is actually the truth. In a murder case you don't have all the information, but you do have some lies masquerading as information. It's the difference between a multiple-choice test and an essay question; in the murder case, you have to construct the truth yourself rather than picking it from a list of alternatives.

It's a lot easier to write for that case, but it's just ease - it's not impossible to write an interesting and engaging mystery about something that doesn't involve someone dying. As has been demonstrated here, in fact!

[Wintermoon]

If you think about the psychological implications of murder - how it would feel like to have a person in your life killed, what kind a person would commit murder, and so forth - then you have a story, maybe even multiple stories, but not nearly enough to warrant the entire mystery genre. The psychological aspects get in the way of the logical deduction and vice versa.

Instead, the approach taken by the most murder mysteries is to downplay the psychological side. The author may make some token effort at letting the characters show grief or rage, but in the end neither the author nor the audience really care because they've seen the same scene a thousand times before.

Murder mysteries are interesting intellectual exercises, but they tend to suck as stories.

[Mirage]

Lol, my casual comment sparked some debate. ^^;

No, there is nothing wrong with making mystery based on anything but murder. In fact, I like that. I like how this game is light-hearted. Why did I ask for murder case? Well, I am thinking in commercial point of view. If you were confronted between 2 titles--- A stolen ring case or A murder case, which would you most likely buy?

Death usually makes a story more darker, thus will attract more audiences. Why stolen ring/kidnap/various other case usually aren't as dark as murder? Because stuff like stolen items, once you found the culprit, it will return to normal, no harm is done. While murder, the death won't return. Thus it gives a stronger impact. The culprit will also face a more severe consequences such as death sentence.

I heard a phrase that sex and violence sell. As sad as it is, I think it's quite true.

[Jake]

If you were confronted between 2 titles--- A stolen ring case or A murder case, which would you most likely buy?

Personally? Whichever one had better reviews from people I trusted.

Or both, depending on what they were asking for them.

Because stuff like stolen items, once you found the culprit, it will return to normal, no harm is done.

Not entirely true - I mean, for example:

If Walter or Katherine had been the culprit, for example, Mia would have had to face up to the spiteful jealousy or thoughtless self-interest of someone she thought was a real friend - she'd never be able to consider that relationship the same way again. If Matt or Magdelen had stolen it, they'd at the very least have lost their jobs, probably also spent some time in prison... Magdelen's ambition would have been curtailed, or nobody would have been taking care of Matt's mother. Even in the case of this game, where the culprit wasn't directly related to any of the other characters, a strain was placed on Mia and Richard's engagement because of the differing ways that they reacted to the theft.

All else being equal, you're desperately in love with someone, you honestly believe they feel the same way about you, you see the rest of your life laid out before you with this one person, and then they suddenly turn around and spitefully backstab you - there's a fair number of people who would say at this point that they'd rather have been murdered, or have had their partner murdered, than live the rest of their lives having to remember this kind of painful memory.


Sex and violence sell, but so do really well-written stories; sex and violence are easier to peddle, but they're also generally shallower.

[Showsni]

In Lucky Star, Konata and Kagami discuss how most (if not all) detective story revolves around murder cases. Why not solve like assault, batter, kidnapping, or even just lost pet case? The conclusion is... it won't be interesting ^_^

Well, there is a Hercule Poirot book where he has to solve:
1. A missing pet dog
2. People gossiping about someone
3. A missing girl
4. Apprehending a fugitive on the run from the law
5. Stifling unsavoury information about a former PM
6. A blackmail scam
7. Proving a man isn't insane
8. Drug dealing
9. A stolen painting
10. A fake cult
11. A stolen goblet
12. A drug ring

[LVUER]

Of course Lucky Star is not an absolute truth. The maker is human after all, not some god. But Lucky Star has its right too. And even without Lucky Star, my mind is still the same: Detective Story without murder is a little plain and (sometimes) could be boring.

Murder is a capital crime with capital punishment. You couldn't revive the dead even after you caught the culprit. The trickThe motive behind the crime and sometimes the sin doing the crime (sometimes the culprit is mistakenly took out the wrong guy). You see, murder is another level of crime (especially in fiction story).

Of course if in 100+ episodes, all are murder cases, it could be boring. But Phoenix Wright only have 4 cases per game.

And also, I don't think cases that heavier than murder will be interesting for all people. It could be strange if Phoenix Wright (or normal detective) to handle cases like national conspiracy or international human trafficking cases.

So you could say that murder case is just at the right level. Not too heavy and not too light. Just puuuur~fect

[sake-bento]

Hmm...murder is okay. But if it happens all the time, doesn't it get boring?

I love mysteries. I've read/watched loads of mysteries from both sides of the Pacific. One thing I've noticed about many is that people die. A lot. In Detective Conan, people drop dead left and right; you'd think the kid was cursed or something. It's sorta come to the stage where when a new set of characters shows up, half the fun is guessing which one is going to be dead in two minutes. But at the same time, it's a little boring to always see dead people popping up everywhere. Plus. some of the reasons for murder are so flimsy. I might be angry at someone for doing terrible things to me (stealing a boyfriend, stealing money, etc.) but there aren't many things that would make me reasonably think that murder is a good solution. I might do terrible, vengeful things, but definitely not murder.

[Aleema]

Hmm...murder is okay. But if it happens all the time, doesn't it get boring?

Not according to Law & Order, CI, SVU, CSI, CSI: Miami, CSI:New York, Bones, Monk, Psych, Matlock, Murder She Wrote, Cold Case ... NCIS ... many, many more.

[sake-bento]

That's the thing, though. I watch a good percentage of those shows (along with Detective Conan, Tantei Gakuen Q, Ayatsuri Sakon, Q.E.D., Spiral, Remote, and a plethora of others out of Japan). And in all those shows, the murder is hardly the hook for me. It's the characters or the situation that grabs me. They could be finding missing cats, and it would still grab me. Half of the episodes of Psych and Monk involve the dead body practically as an afterthought. For Law & Order, I prefer SVU, as there are fewer dead bodies and more other crimes involved. Detective Conan only keeps me hooked because of the ongoing storyline against the Black Organization, and the one-shots of dead bodies in between feel like boring filler. Even the real crime shows like New Detectives or Cold Case Files (and the two thousand or other shows on truTV) are interesting because of the forensics. Those same forensics could be applied to another crime scene, even something like inspecting bruises on a still alive person.

Murder is a great plot device and all. I mean, I've written enough of my own, including a VN that's currently in production. But it's not the be all end all, and it really ceases to be compelling after awhile if you keep using it over and over. A mystery where someone DOESN'T wind up dead is fairly nice. In fact, I really liked the mystery series "Without A Trace" because the missing person was often retrieved alive in the end.

And people still like Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys, right? D:

[LVUER]

Well, if there are more than 50 episodes, and every single of them is murder case, then it could be boring (like I said in my previous post). Though there are some series that every single case in it is murder case (and enjoy mild to high popularity, which is not bad).

Another reason why murder is quite exciting (as long as it is fiction story, mind you) is that the tension that hit rest of the survivors (or would-be victim). Lots of case begin from mild cases such as kidnapping or simply trapped in certain places. Thing goes to worse after they see a corpse (especially if the corpse is someone they know, and alive, several moments before) since now they know the culprit is capable of finishing someone's live. And like they say, the hardest is the first one. Once you kill a person, you can't go back and you could kill another.