Customer Reviews

Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

When I first heard about this game, I was excited for an interactive visual novel on the DS. I was even more pumped when I saw it involved a detective. I think everybody has had that secret fantasy of uncovering a case-- trench coat and all. Unfortunately, Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles doesn't provide you much satisfaction in living out the detective dream.

It's a shame, too, because the game seemed to have so much potential. After all, the gist of the game is pressing witnesses, finding clues, exploring leads, and solving crimes. And to top it off, it allows players to take on the role of Jake Hunter, a Marlboro smoking, strong willed, quick witted detective, who deep down has a soft side. Wait, did that sound familiar? That's probably because it's stereotypical detective traits. That should have been my first clue that there was nothing "novel" about this interactive visual novel.

Not just Hunter, but all of the characters are bland. Even Hunter's assistant, Yulia, who the game tries so hard to give a supporting role to, is dull and seems more like a puppet muttering generic responses to Hunter. After a while, the repetition becomes so tiresome, you may wish you didn't have to talk to the girl at all. And it's not just with Yulia; it's with the majority of the characters that you have to talk to move the plot forward.

It wouldn't be so bad if the plot was something that you were so fixated in that you just had to advance it at any cost. It's not even worth the expense of sitting through all the lackluster dialogue, typical jazzy detective music, and the uninspiring scenery. Wait a minute, isn't this an interactive visual novel? Isn't the narrative what should drive the entire game? Yes, and that is probably the biggest problem with Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles. The three cases you have to solve aren't intriguing enough to save the game. Actually, there really isn't even that much of a mystery to be solved with half of them because they are predictable. You'll pretty much have the case figured out before you get half way through it, and in this case, that's about 30 minutes in. In fact, you'll probably have the game beat within 5-6 hours with no replay value (I can't see why you'd want to put yourself through these unoriginal cases again).

To add to all this mess, the gameplay isn't fun either. The game is about as linear as it can get. You can't move around or explore the atmosphere; instead you tap a button that tells you what it looks like. You don't even have much of a choice in how you respond to the questions you're asked or what you can ask people. If you pick the wrong choice, Hunter tells you he doesn't think that's the correct statement and forces you to pick the right comment. To top off this big pile of boring, at the end of the day, you are quizzed on all of the facts about the case. The quizzes just state the obvious and are a big waste of time. I'm left to wonder, is this the best they could do to make the game interactive?

So, does the Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles even give you back the investment of your time and effort? No. My advice is that there are far better games on the DS worth your time. A story driven game that is not more innovative than something a high school student could write (and also edit, there are some obvious spelling and grammatical mistakes) just doesn't cut it.

I waited a good while for this game to come out, as I love the "point-and-click adventure" genre of games. And I figured that this is what I'd be getting. A good adventure with a private detective character.

Unfortunately, this is a visual novel. The amount of though you need to put into figuring out these cases is minimal. There are no puzzles to complete, as the game is so entirely linear that you must do exactly what is required next, and the game refuses to allow you to travel to other locations until you do it. This makes completeing the three different cases that are in the game more of a chore, rather than a game.

Its more or less just tapping with the stylus and reading texts, and more tapping, and finally a case ends, without any real effort on your part, other than doing exactly what the character tells you to.

One feature I liked, is the ability of the character to smoke, by clicking on the lighter icon. This pauses the game for a second, and allows you to see what the main character is thinking (essentially a hint system), but the game is so easy that you never really need to use it. But it was still a cool idea for a private eye game.

This game would be good for kids. Like maybe 11 or 12 at the oldest, simply due to the fact that its simply too easy. This game was a real let down.

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On a side note, this game was either rushed, or edited by idiots. The number of spelling mistakes is absolutely comical. I realize that I probably spelled a few words wrong in this review, but I'm not selling my review for 20 bucks.

Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles is another game from the point n' click adventure game genre. However, it doesn't feature very many puzzles, and there is technically no way to get a game over screen, so many people refer to it as a "visual novel" instead of a point n' click game. Either way, this game is a pretty enjoyable experience.

Graphics (score 8/10): The graphics look pretty good for the DS. Most of the graphics are simply stills of environments and character portraits, although there are short cutscenes interspersed. These too look pretty good. So, no complaints here.

Music (score 7/10): This game features stereotypical jazzy detective-style music, with other instrumental pieces interspersed. Overall, there's nothing too special or memorable, but the music suites the environments well, so it works fine. There are some sound effects, but nothing really memorable.

Characters (score 7/10): Jake Hunter is your stereotypical detective: he's a quiet, intense loner who smokes and wears a trenchcoat. He has a single secretary named Yulia, who honestly is a pretty bland character. The game also has a whole cast of side characters, most of whom are pretty interesting. There's not much to say about the characters; they really take a back seat to the plot.

Story (score 8/10): The game consists of three cases, that's three different stories. They're all pretty interesting, with plenty of twists to keep you guessing. That being said, case 1 is really the worst out of all of them. It's pretty simple, predictable and bland. I have no idea why they chose to make that the first case, since its blandness doesn't make a good first impression on the gamer. The stories are fairly entertaining; the only problem is that there are only three, which only lasted me about two days. I've heard that the original Japanese version had six cases. Perhaps the extra three cases that's missing from this version has been released in the sequel, Jake Hunter: Memories from the Past.

Gameplay (score 9/10): This is a bit of a catch-all category for me. Gameplay is pretty simple. You just select from various actions, such as talk, inspect, and move. You just move through the story by performing various actions. You can save at any time, so that's pretty cool. The game actually doesn't allow you to get a game over screen; if you choose the wrong action, Jake just says something like "sorry, I got that wrong" and let's you try again. Some people think this is bad because it ruins the challenge, but I liked it. It saves you time since if you got a game over, you'd only be forced to sit through a bunch of dialogue again and now, you don't have to. For this genre of game, this kind of system is just fine.

Overall (score 8/10): NOTE this score is not an average; it's my subjective overall score. I really liked this game. I found it really relaxing to play; it's a nice break from more difficult games. I only wish it had been longer. Oh well, whether or not you would like this game depends entirely on what kind of game you're looking for. If you like point n' click games or visual novels and care more about the story than puzzles, then you should pick up Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles.

I waited for some time for this game to be released. I had thought it would be like the Phoenix Wright games. Far from it. You just click and click and follow along with it. I finished the first case but just lost interest in it,doubt if I will do the next 2 cases.

The graphic adventure has made somewhat of a resurgence as of late, and one of the latest entries in the genre is Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles for the Nintendo DS. I would say that it doesn't live up to its full potential, but the fact of the matter is the game is so broken in so many ways that it really has very little potential to live up to.

A lot of people will draw comparisons to the Phoenix Wright games, and from the back of the case, it's easy to see why such comparisons would be made. However, where the Phoenix Wright games are rather whimsical, Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles takes the opposite approach, trying to bring back the gritty detective story from days of yore.

The Phoenix Wright games generally don't take themselves too seriously, and so when something serious DOES happen, it's a little bit shocking and quite an effective storytelling device. Jake Hunter again follows the road less traveled, and puts its focus on the serious. And in the few and far between moments where it does try to lighten the mood, the humor feels out of place and falls flat.

I guess that's enough with the comparisons to Phoenix Wright - the question was never whether Jake Hunter is a better game, but whether it's a good enough game in its own right. Even when taken on its own merit, the game's flaws are numerous and glaring.

First off, the game's visuals and words often disagree. Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles ostensibly takes place in the fictional American town of Aspicio, yet there is Japanese writing and style in the photographs of many of the game's various locations. In other locations, the descriptions given when you search also don't match up to what's shown in the picture on screen. The effect of this disparity is somewhat jarring, and really takes you out of the game.

Secondly, it's practically impossible to get stuck anywhere in the game. If there is information you need to collect in a particular location, chances are you will not be able to leave that location until that particular piece of information is revealed. This is most often accomplished by talking to the people in the area and following each branch of available dialog until the secret is revealed, and you're told where to go next.

Occasionally, you will be presented with completely arbitrary scenarios of a potentially life-threatening nature. They are arbitrary only because you can never actually lose. In fact, the entire game is afraid to let you lose. After a day's investigation, you usually go back to the office, have a smoke, and try and recall the facts you learned, and you must answer several multiple-choice style questions about the day's events. If you ever get a question wrong, you immediately get to try that question again until you get it right.

Perhaps I'm looking at the game the wrong way? Perhaps instead of considering it a graphic adventure, I should classify it more as a visual novel. Fair enough. Without spoiling anything, the plot in each case is somewhat respectable, even if there are some obvious clichés.

Unfortunately, you don't get to see much of the plot - the game plays more like an outline than a book. It's almost like a Reader's Digest visual novel. There are several parts where whole conversations are simply summed up with a sentence or two of narrative. The first two cases are so brief they only took me about an hour each to complete. The third and final case was a good bit longer, and took around 3 hours.

Also important to any novel (visual or otherwise) are interesting and likable characters. And with the abbreviated nature of the game, you don't really get a feel for the personalities of any of the characters - they're all somewhat wooden, including Jake himself.

I honestly can't think of any good reason to recommend this game to anyone - there are really only three kinds of people who might have liked it in the first place:
1 - People who like Phoenix Wright,
2 - People who like detective stories, and
3 - People who like graphic adventures.

Sadly, Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles makes sure to alienate all three of these groups by having:
1 - A lack of interesting characters and humor,
2 - Abrupt pacing and brevity of the story, and
3 - No real interactivity or challenge.

I say skip it and go buy a real book instead.

There's not much game play on your part at all. You just basically read what the screen shows and tap the A button constantly. This game is a cross between Unsolved Crimes and Hotel Dusk, both for the DS.

In Jake Hunter, you choose which actions you want to do, but after you do that, it's just more reading. I love reading and mysteries, but this game was a little TOO much reading. It felt like forever until the next action or scene.

During the game, you'll be asked to complete a list of questions that concern the case or reveal your answers to the suspects. If you get the reveal answers wrong, the suspect will look at you like you're crazy and tell you to think again.

Occasionally, you'll see the "think" option to the left. This is just to refresh the details of the case and you don't get a game over or anything if you get a question wrong. You just go back to the beginning of the "test."

Sometimes you can't leave a location until you've talked to someone a couple of times or looked around. If you get stuck, there is this cool hint system where Jake will smoke and think at the same time. It will give you an insight on what to do next. In some instances, you play as Jake's assistant, Yulia. In her hint system, she'll run her fingers thru her hair.

The graphics were decent. Actually, they were pretty cool for such a tiny game.

The music was the best feature, I thought. There were three or four different tracks that I remember. One of course, the evil, spooky music when some big details of the case surface when interviewing. The main track for Jake's office, which is upbeat and reminds me of the old school original nintendo games. (I miss the simpler times)

This game would be ok if there was a little more action involved on the player's part. A couple of things to mention: One: you can't die or get game over so you don't have to save that much. No matter which question, answer, or person you choose to interrogate, you cannot lose. Also be warned there are multiple spelling and grammar mistakes in this game. I know it sounds petty, but for a game, I think that's pretty important, to be able to spell and make the game understandable to the players.

Overrall, this game would be good to play on a rainy day.

I'm a fan of action/adventure/puzzle games. As someone who lived in Tokyo in the past, I had an extra reason for wanting to check this out. The good news is that the game has three cases which are fairly interesting. The graphics are in color (as opposed to Hotel Dusk) with mixture of real photos and drawn scenes (with a tad of basic animation at the end of a case). I was really pleased to see that the maps and photos were of real places in Japan. The controls were easy to grasp. The game wasn't too long, either. Some people might consider this a negative, but, for these simple stories, it's a good thing. (In comparison, I thought Hotel Dusk was too long.)

There's some negatives, though. First, they changed the setting to America and created imaginary (corny) city names. That may have been more frustrating to me since I have lived in Japan and I know the real names of places. This was made worse by the fact that they left a street sign for Shinjuku (the games first area on the box art). Second, the game doesn't allow for mistakes. If you make a wrong choice, it will make you choose again. This wasn't terrible, but I can see why it would really aggrevate some people. (From my point of view, it saves time.)

In all, this was a decent game. I don't know that I'll play the second game, but I don't regret playing this one. It's definitely worth a rental. It has a noirish theme. It's audience is late teens (who would probably enjoy it less) and adults. It includes visits to bars and has a dedicated button to allow you to smoke. That plus the gameplay make it unsuitable for kids.

It wasn't as boring as others I had played. Objects www harder to find. Clues were harder to solve let me put some brain action into it. Good buy.

This game is a port of a cell phone adventure game. Good news is - there are many more. The Japanese version had six cases and one was created for the DS. I didn't expect a great game - but it is simple and easy to play. If you are looking for a fun easy game here it is.

The graphics are still pictures and the music is OK at best. But for $19.95 for some portable fun it is fine.

There are lots of other games for the DS but this one does not require a clue guide to finish and that is this games big plus. It also lets you save anywhere so when you are in line to buy your movie ticket you can save when your turn comes around.

I'm sure the rest of the cases will be ported too and I really want to play the one written for the DS. Overall, a fun little adventure game.

Honestly I bought this game on a whim. I had been hearing of the new adventure games out on the DS and well since I began playing video games Adventure games have been my favorite. Needless to say it was a great game.

I will admit it has flaws. Some spelling errors are noticeable, also it is pretty short. I beat the game in about 5-6 hours. But that is how long they do advertise for game play.

Either way I want a sequel for it and I am looking forward to when it comes out. It will be alot of fun and if you want fun buy this game ASAP!