Staffer Case: A Supernatural Mystery Spiel

by Rian

What better way to start a family holiday than an old school murder mystery set in London? It’s a psychic-filled murder mysteries set in London, solved by an American detective character, made by a Korean developer, with only Japanese dubs. I’m serious. This is quintessentially Castle in the Sky but with more emphasis on East Asia than the actual European writers of the time period would have spent on — calling everything different in the book American or Chinese were one.

Staffer Case: A Supernatural Mystery is an Ace Attorney-like game; it follows the core recipe of visual novel and murder mystery, despite it centered around a detective (fieldwork) than the kangaroo court drama we see in the AA franchise. What allegedly differentiates SC as a franchise is the unique nature of psychics called Staffers in universe. Though still a minority in London, the game sets the scene with roughly 10% of London population being Staffers.

The world building of SC is malleable at best. It offers various avenues to explore, and the game certainly tries, yet it stuffers greatly while setting the foundation straight. One would be forgiven into thinking the narrative would be centered detectives against the flood of Staffer crimes, but the provided narrative simply does not match with any of the powerlessness the characters must be suffering from. The bureau of SC plays it like the FBI of The X-Files, except the protagonist and his colleagues do have public presences instead of being shoved into the basement. The game then gives it yet another spin, only to leave it unresolved.

As a mystery game, I found most, if not all, cases to be grounded and don’t have the “Moon Logic Puzzle” issue. Perhaps too grounded is the issue of the SC. There is a saying that 9 out of 10 murders are the most obvious. And the game doesn’t fall far from it. The problem has less to do with the intensity of each revelations — supernatural powers still have wow factor. All of the tricks, in every single of one of the cases, rely on obscurity of psychic powers. Once the player begins to account for the possible obscurity, the logics become too redundant. Redundant game UI and UX surely do not help the case either. It’s whimsical and funny when it’s done the first time, however, it becomes tiring once the player has to revisit crime scenes and question suspects again.

Conclusions: Long Appetizer Overstaying Its Welcome

I understand Staffer Case is still an on-going franchise. The unresolved stories and character arcs may yet have another chances for proper closures in the future installment. But Staffer Case: A Supernatural Mystery, as a standalone title amongst the series, should have its own share of closures. Sudden plot developments are thrown in for good measures between the episodic murder mysteries, but there is no cohesive connection, either through characters or villainous conspirators, between the two. As a starter of a longer IP, I would like to see where the amalgamation of all things mystery and horror would finally land, but as a standalone game, I am afraid it is overstaying its welcome of most mystery fans.