I’ll Take The Case! Let’s Play The Portopia Serial Murder Case

I have always been personally interested in mysteries and detective games. The Portopia Serial Murder Case (PSMC) or ポートピア連続殺人事件, is an 1985 Enix game designed by Yuji Horii (from Dragon Quest). Hideo Kojima has been quoted saying that this game was one of two games (the other being Super Mario Brothers) that inspired him to enter the video game industry. PSMC was a huge hit in Japan and a big inspiration for Japanese visual novels, still being ported to cell phones and other Japanese consoles today. An unofficial translation was done by DvD Translations on June 16, 2006. One particular FAQ points out that one can say Snatcher was to Portopia, what Final Fantasy was to Dragon Quest.

Portopia has some interesting ties to Dragon Quest. The success of Portopia, helped convince Enix to pursue making an RPG like Dragon Quest in a market they previously felt was only for action games. Koichi Sugiyama, Dragon Quest composer extraordinaire met with the Dragon Quest crew after filling out a consumer response card for the Portopia Serial Murder Case.

There is a prequel to the game called Hokkaidou Rensa Satsujin Ohotsuku ni Kiyu and there a is a Yuuji Horii Mysteries trilogy released now that remain untranslated.

It’s a first-person adventure where you make choices that impact your investigation and although there are certain things you must do to complete the game, the way you choose to do it is entirely up to you. The game has basically no music to it besides the opening and closing, and the rest is just sounds as you click your way around and try to solve the mystery of who murdered Kouzou Yamakawa, a successful bank company president. You assume the role of a nameless investigator who travels with his right hand man, Yasu to find Kouzou’s murderer.

Without further ado, Let’s Play The Portopia Serial Murder Case: http://www.gamespite.net/talkingtime/showthread.php?t=8704