(written on 12/7/23) By Depths
^ me!
So! J.B. Harold: Murder Club!,
Originally Released in 1986, Remastered & Released for the TurboGrafx-CD in 1990, Then that version was Released in America in 1991.
so yeah! ill be playing the American TurboGrafx version as its the first release to support english.
I'll try and keep this review as spoiler free as possible!! But basically! theres been a murder! talk to everyone in town to try and figure it out!
Characters WILL lie to you, Hide evidence, Lie some more, and slowly,, but surely break down, revealing more of the truth.
(someone does infact, wear contacts)
If you havent been able to tell by now this game is really hard lmao,
there were multiple points in my playthrough where I ended up having to talk to everyone again about every option (taking 2-3 hours) before I had any lead.
so, yeah, most people will probably hate this game for its slow pacing (my playthrough was 30 hours long)
But honestly I really enjoyed it.
Theres something to be said about being stuck without a lead for days on end, To finally get someone to snap and tell you a huge plot twist,
Its just really satisfying.
(you can move around to reveal more of the map, but yeah overworld!)
So plot! Yeah! It's good! Nearly every character has some complex reason for being involved and its good!! Really good!!
Also this game is fully voice acted! I do wish you could adjust the volume, But its 1991, Full voice acting in a game is crazy.
Characters in this game will also curse! But they *very* loudly bleep it out, It's funny!, It's charming! I like it!.
(hey this isnt a nintendo game)
The game also features a really long (for the time) intro "movie"?, It's mainly just art pieces set to music to tell a *vibe*.
And the same happens with the outro of the game, Lot of pictures, All the vibes, Good!!!!
(One of the images in the opening movie)
Alright. Downsides. I normally dont talk about music in games, Normally I'm too focused playing the game to notice the music but yeahhh,,
This game, That took me 30 hours. Feels like it has 3 songs. It has more, But yeah, They sure do loop,, a lot..
While the songs themself are good! There desperately needed to be more.
Also sorry for the tone change but its worth noting this game does feature a loose SA plot line,
You will have to ask everyone about a SA case that happened 20 years ago, there arent any details for the most part,
But its something you will be asking about at the very start of the game, and you'll be asking about at the very end of the game.
*stares at you*
Overall!.
This game is fucked up. It's obtuse. It's mean to the player.
(did I mention you'll have to search the same locations multiple times until items pop up)
But despite all of that, or because, I really got into this game!, All in all 7/10! Yippee!