#61 - The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog

Sheesh, Amy, don't look so happy that Sonic's dead...

Hey all! It was my birthday last week, so to celebrate, I wanted to play a game themed around a birthday party. And since I'm a huge Sonic the Hedgehog nerd, I decided to play the murder mystery game, The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog! As usual, there will be no spoilers in this post, so read on for details!

The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog randomly dropped for April Fools Day in 2023, with the announcement that SEGA has decided to just kill off Sonic. This was a free game to play and turned out to be pretty fun! (It's still free on Steam, if you want to check it out.) It's a point-and-click visual novel, where you get to help Tails and Amy solve the death of Sonic the Hedgehog.

But he's not really dead... is he?

The game starts with Barry the Quokka, a timid and insecure character, beginning his first shift aboard the Mirage Express. This is a passenger train designed to host parties and events. You play as "Barry," although you can give him whatever (respectful) name you want. For simplicity's sake, I stuck with his canon name. I'm not one to mess with the canon.

In the dining car, Barry meets the conductor, who is one day away from retirement. That always goes smoothly in murder/mystery stories, right? He coaches Barry on his roles and responsibilities and offers to assist him in greeting the guests and collecting their tickets, before disappearing to the conductor car to run the train.

By the way, the conductor's mention of 32 years as conductor was a reference to the 32 years since the first Sonic game released in 1991.

The guests show up, dressed in unusual attire. It's Amy Rose's birthday and she's rented the train for a murder mystery party!

You and the conductor collect tickets from the party members, giving you a chance to chat with everyone and get to know their personalities a bit.

Vector has misplaced his ticket, which gives you a quick warm-up mystery to solve. It's mostly to ensure you're observant of the rooms you're in. You'll need to find various things to click on in every room throughout the game, in order to solve each mystery. Don't worry, clickable items are highlighted in neon green when you hover over them; you can't miss them.

When it's time to collect Amy's ticket, the conductor hands her a key that opens every door on the train. She's the birthday girl; it's the rules.

You may notice the robot hand giving her the key. The train itself is sentient, responding to the needs of all its guests. Barry, despite being hired to work on this train, is basically a glorified microwave expert, as the train handles everything except heating up food for guests. You'll see robot hands working in every car of the train.

Amy gathers the party together to announce the rules of the murder mystery party. One person has been designated as the murderer and they have an hour to mingle amongst the guests and pick one person to murder, which must be done in-person. The rest of the guests have to collect evidence and interrogate everyone else to determine who the murderer is.

Everyone has a role and a car they are stationed in:

• Sonic is the ship captain and is stationed in the conductor's car.
• Tails is the detective and stationed in the dining car.
• Knuckles is the sheriff and stationed in the saloon car.
• Vector is the butcher and Espio is the poet, and both are stationed in the library car.
• Rouge is a business tycoon and Blaze is a titan of industry, and both are stationed in the casino car.
• Shadow is the locksmith, stationed in the lounge car.
• And finally, Amy Rose is the journalist reporter, with freedom to roam around all the cars.

The detective and journalist are the only two who CAN'T be the murderer, as they're trying to solve the crime.

Everyone disperses and Barry hangs back in the dining car with Amy and Tails. After chatting for a while, the train suddenly jolts forward at an incredible pace! Tails, Amy, and Barry are knocked into the dining car's closet. Upon awakening, they find themselves trapped! Amy is acting suspicious and ignoring direct questions about their predicament. Tails jumps into detective mode! He asks Barry to help him figure out what's actually going on.

You can scan the room for various things to click on, which will give dialogue between you and Tails. Anything that seems like a clue, Barry will keep in his inventory for later.

Tails and Barry can then interrogate Amy and try to solve the mystery! While trying to formulate a reasonable argument, Tails encourages Barry to close his eyes and think... what would Sonic do? Barry follows this advice, which spawns a mini-game to play. This mini-game will appear every time Barry is attempting to resolve a mystery, and it only gets more challenging as the game goes on.

The "Dream Gear" and the overall design of the handheld device is a loose parody of the SEGA Game Gear, which was SEGA's first portable gaming system.

The objective of this mini-game is to collect enough rings to pass the level. If you succeed, Barry puts together a logical and reasonable argument to help solve the current mystery. If you fail, it will just restart the level. There's no way to actually lose unless you give up playing.

After solving the first real mystery and escaping the closet, the team finds the dining car trashed... and Sonic dead on the floor! (See first screenshot) Amy is excited that the murder mystery has started and runs off on her own to solve the case! Barry has some reservations, though...

Barry and Tails move on to the saloon car to begin interrogating the guests. Be sure to click on everything you can to find clues! Tails will tell you when you've collected enough clues and when it's time to interrogate the guests.

The "Birthday Girl" has decided to solve the mystery on her own, so she runs ahead. All the doors are mysteriously locked, but she has the Birthday Key, so she can help herself to each car. The guests have their own keys to their cars, which they lend to Tails and Barry so they can move on when they're ready.

In the library car, Amy is already wrapping up her investigation with Vector and Espio and leaves Tails and Barry behind once again.

The clues are pretty simple, and if you're struggling to figure it out, Tails will basically hold your hand through the game. If you say or do the wrong thing, he'll usually tell you to try again until you get it right, so it's not a particularly difficult game.

If you're not familiar with Sonic lore, Tails is essentially a genius with a 400 IQ, so he mostly sits back and lets Barry solve the mysteries, giving him a guiding nudge if he's off-course.

When Tails and Barry get to the casino car, they get roped into a heist mission with Rouge and Blaze. As usual, Rouge is more concerned with looting valuables than playing the murder mystery game.

In the lounge car, you catch up with Amy, already throwing accusations at Shadow! It's up to you to do some quick deductions that will either support or refute her claims against him.

Finally, you end up in the conductor's car, where signs of a struggle are visible. This was where Sonic was stationed, after all. After a quick assessment of the room, you're ready to solve the murder! Amy calls all attendees to the conductor's car to hear the results. Who do you think did it?

For a simple, free game, this was actually quite enjoyable! I think I beat the whole thing in roughly 2.5 hours of gameplay. It's mostly linear; you have some places where you can choose multiple options for dialogue, but it's mostly inconsequential. If you get too far off the plot, Tails will assist you in the right direction.

Despite being a straight-forward plot, there were a few surprises and twists along the way. They managed to keep it interesting so you're not just spending 2 hours clicking through the same dialogue options with everyone. And it doesn't end the way you'd expect... Go play it to find out what happens!

By the way, Sonic says something in this game that's really excellent life advice. I'd share the screenshots, but the background might be a bit spoilery, so here's just the dialogue: "I get it, the road's getting tough. It's easy to question the decisions that got you here. But when negative thoughts hit you, let it pass, and keep on living." There's a reason Sonic is my #1 favorite character!

#60 - inKonbini: One Store. Many Stories (demo)

Today I'm going to be looking at the demo for an upcoming narrative-driven simulation game that looks like a lot of fun! It's called inKonbini: One Store. Many Stories. This demo is free on Steam, so feel free to check it out for yourself.

"Konbini" (コンビニ) is the Japanese word for convenience store. It's a borrowed word from English, but the Japanese don't have a "v" sound in their language, so "b" is the standard replacement consonant for "v" in words. And of course, the Japanese have abbreviated the English word to make it easier to say.

inKonbini takes place on a rainy night in Japan, in late August of 1993. I actually spent 3 years living in Japan in the early 2000s, so this game felt very familiar and nostalgic for me.

You play as Makoto, a college student who is just starting work at her aunt's konbini, called Honki Ponki, while between school semesters.

Aunt Hina recommends all her employees keep notebooks on them for taking notes. She specifically asked Makoto to journal her experiences each night. She calls to check up on Makoto, since it's her first night shift.

Aunt Hina has already taken notes for Makoto in the journal, so you have a general idea of what to do if you get lost. However, you can call her anytime to receive more advice.

Looking around the office, there are several things you can click on and Makoto will comment on them. One is a postcard about to fall off a shelf. It's an unsent card from Aunt Hina, to a mysterious stranger.

Note: Most of the Japanese characters on this card seems to be flipped backwards, and some of the characters are even flipped upside-down! I also noticed this throughout the store. I have no idea why.

Calling the phone number from the postcard gets you the answering machine for Chief Matsuda's Treasures. Hmm...

Whelp, time to go straighten out the store so you can open for the night!

There are several things to do besides just stocking shelves. Look around for anything that needs reorganizing or adjusting. You have to be detail-oriented; I'm neurotic about details and took several laps around the store to check everything, and even I missed a few things!

I found a notebook from one of the other employees. In it, he mentions that Aunt Hina threatened to change his nametag to read "Charlie" if he didn't stop making mistakes, so customers would think he's a foreigner and be more forgiving. Considering he's only known as Charlie, looks like Aunt Hina followed through on the threat.

Once the place was straightened up, I started restocking shelves. There are some limited supplies in the back office, both on the shelves and in the large fridge and freezer. I packed as much as I could on the shelves, even reorganizing some products to make them all fit.

All done! Time to flip the sign on the door and start taking customers.

The first (and only) customer of the night was an old man, braving the ongoing rainstorm to pick up some supplies.

He almost immediately noticed a mistake I missed. Someone stocked bread in the wrong place!

You can go and chat with him, where he'll reveal he knows your aunt very well. Although they're not on speaking terms at the moment. You'll quickly deduce that he's Chief Matsuda! The plot thickens...

There are several multiple-choice options during conversations, so there are several ways to play out each scene. I only played through once, so I'll be showing the general direction my game took. I'm not sure if it would be dramatically different if you chose other options, though. You can definitely experiment and see what happens.

I also forgot to stock a brand of ramen that Chief Matsuda always eats. He takes this as a sign that it's time to make some changes in his life and he asked me for a recommendation on a new brand of ramen.

Chief Matsuda heads over to the pet food section and asks for further assistance. His cat has been avoiding him and acting strange. Someone recommended he try a hypoallergenic cat food, but he can't read the labels very well.

If you inspect the cans, you'll get more details to read. Eventually, I found the right brand for him.

When he's done shopping, he'll meet you at the register and you'll have to scan the barcode on everything in his basket.

Then of course, you'll accept his money and make change. Fortunately, the register keeps track of what you owe the customer and deducts each time you pull bills or coins from the till.

Random trivia: In Japan, it's considered rude for an employee to take money directly from a customer's hands, so they have a small (usually blue) rectangle dish that the customer puts their money in, then the employee makes change and puts it back in the dish for the customer to take. That way, no one is directly handing money to the other.

More trivia: Japan's smallest bill today is 1,000 yen (roughly 7 US dollars). They used to have a ¥50, ¥100, and ¥500 bill back in the '50s, but they were mostly phased out by the '60s and turned into coins. Considering this game takes place in 1993, these bills are not accurate to real life.  They also have never had a ¥25 coin; the next denomination after ¥10 is ¥50.

Chief Matsuda is still feeling depressed and may vent a bit about some of his bad luck to you at this point. I got a choice in how to respond:

I chose to cheer him up, and it seemed to do the trick.

He stands outside to admire the rising sun as the rain lets up. If you join him, you get a little more dialog with him before the demo ends.

Overall, it was a fun little game to play and I'm excited for the full release! I enjoy simulator games, and this one was very relaxed and story-heavy. Unlike other store simulators I've played, where you spend a whole shift desperately running around, managing a bunch of customers and store inventory as fast as you can. Working a night shift means a slower pace to the game, so you can have one-on-one conversations with the customers and really enjoy the atmosphere.

There's also no clock in the game, so you can take all the time you want to do everything. I probably spent over an hour just wandering around the store, clicking on everything and getting to know where everything was. I was expecting an influx of customers, so I wanted to be prepared for the busy rush, but I ended up with a single customer who was chill and fun to chat with.

Note: I haven't been paid to advertise this upcoming game. As I've mentioned in the past, I'm very anti-advertisement, so I will never accept money or favors to advertise anyone's game. This is just a personal creative writing hobby of mine; if I'm writing about a game, it's one that I personally enjoyed and wanted to discuss.

#59 - Far Cry 5

Welcome back! For my next screenshot-laden game discussion, I'm going to be talking about my favorite of the Far Cry series, Far Cry 5.

The original Far Cry was released in 2004 by Crytek to demonstrate the expansive capabilities of their brand-new CryEngine. As such, it was more of a tech demo than a solid video game title. Sure, it had a story and missions to complete, but it was mainly focused on showing off long-distance outdoors scenery, something that was difficult to render in those days. The game took place on a lush green tropical island and pushed computer hardware of the time to the limits of their functionality.

Ubisoft quickly bought up the Far Cry franchise from Crytek and proceeded to remake the original game, including several direct spin-offs/sequels of it, all for consoles. These were severely limited due to console hardware at the time, so they were far more linear and lower quality than the original open world PC game.

Crytek, meanwhile, made a deal with EA to develop a whole new game called Crysis, which would become famous for having realistic physics rendering and graphics far beyond consumer PCs' capabilities. Crysis would become the benchmark for high-end computers for many years afterward. But that's a game discussion for another time...

When it came time to make a true numerical sequel to Far Cry, Ubisoft decided they needed to get away from the tropical jungle setting. A lot of games at the time were focusing on that setting, including the new Crysis franchise. Plus, they felt like the main character from Far Cry just wasn't interesting enough to become the face of the franchise. So Far Cry 2 was actually a completely new game, with a new story, a new protagonist, and set in an unnamed African nation.

And thus began Ubisoft's trend of resetting the whole franchise with each new title. So jumping to the 2018 title Far Cry 5 isn't skipping any important story or background; it's an original standalone game. Although Far Cry: New Dawn is a direct sequel to this game; don't play it unless you want spoilers to the ending of Far Cry 5.

If you want a cool intro to Far Cry 5, Steam has a free 30-minute video called Far Cry 5: Inside Eden's Gate. It's a live-action prologue, following three people (one of which is a vlogger) who attempt to infiltrate the Eden's Gate cult. They meet with a local man who claims his sister just abandoned her home and joined the cult. She's changed, dedicating her whole life to the cult's religious beliefs, and refuses to come home. This video shows how people are brainwashed into joining Eden's Gate, as well as how news of the cult spread outside of Hope County, Montana, which brings us to the intro of the game.

Far Cry 5 begins with clips of a documentary talking about Eden's Gate, a dangerous cult in the fictional Hope County, Montana. They discuss how the cult started buying up land, then the local radio station, then even the cops. Before the locals realized it, Eden's Gate was in control of all of Hope County. They're a militant religious doomsday cult, preparing for the End Times, which they believe is coming soon. Their leader, Joseph Seed, is worshiped by the cult followers as a prophet. He's also known as "The Father."

We cut to you riding in a helicopter over Hope County. You play a rookie deputy to the local sheriff's department, accompanying a U.S. Marshal. You, the Hope County Sheriff, and another local deputy, are escorting the U.S. Marshal to an Eden's Gate compound. The sheriff keeps mentioning "Peggies," which he explains is what they call the cult followers here.

Your helicopter lands in the compound and you find yourself in a tense situation. Peggies are everywhere and not happy at your presence. The four of you nervously walk up to the church in the compound and let yourselves in, approaching Joseph Seed at the altar as he gives his congregation a dangerous sermon.

Despite the sheriff trying to keep the situation calm, the hot-headed U.S. Marshal walks up to Joseph and thrusts a warrant for his arrest in his face, demanding he turn himself in. The crowd gets agitated and you suddenly find yourself surrounded by angry, armed Peggies... until Joseph himself calms them down. He tells them that it's all right, they planned for this, and he will NOT be taken. He then offers himself up for capture.

Now, here's an opportunity to play a secret (and quick) ending to this game. You can choose not to cuff Joseph at this point and instead walk away. If you do, the sheriff will comment that it's best to leave the cult alone and that the team would likely die if they attempted to arrest Joseph anyway.

But then we wouldn't have a game to play, so... you cuff Joseph and escort him back to the helicopter. The Peggies outside are highly agitated at this turn of events and the closer to the helicopter you get, the more tense the situation gets.

You strap Joseph into the helicopter and are prepared for takeoff, but the Peggies don't want you to leave with him. They start jumping on the helicopter and the team is forced to fight them off as they lift off into the air. One climbs over the windshield and into the blades, causing the helicopter to come crashing down!

You awake to find Joseph recovering from the crash. He calls off support over the radio, then tells you, "I told you God wouldn't let you take me." He gives you a grave warning:

Peggies gather around Joseph as he rallies them toward action. Which begins by taking you and your team captive.

The Peggies manage to grab the deputy, but a burst of flames from the helicopter holds them back long enough for you to unhook yourself and bolt into the woods. You run from shouting and gunfire, quickly learning how to hide in the foliage and silently pick off stragglers.

Arming yourself, you meet up with the U.S. Marshal in a trailer house, where you have a stand-off with a wave of Peggies. Hopelessly outnumbered, the U.S. Marshal jumps into a pickup truck and instructs you to ride shotgun and keep the Peggies off your tail. Thus ensues an action-packed car chase, through blockades, gunning down trucks and ATVs filled with Peggies, and even an airplane armed to the teeth!

Despite your best efforts, the U.S. Marshal ends up crashing the truck into a river. He's captured by Peggies, but some stranger fishes you out of the river downstream. You wake up in a bunker, facing an older guy who calls himself Dutch.

He explains that your coming was prophesied by Eden's Gate and it's set off "The Collapse." Basically, they think society is on the brink of destruction now, so they're leaning hardcore into their plans to secure Hope County. All roads are blocked, all signals in and out of the valley are cut. We're completely isolated out here. And now they're going to force all the locals to "save themselves" and convert to their cult... or die.

Dutch tells you to change clothes so he can burn your uniform. It's just going to make you a target from now on, so best to get rid of it. This is your first opportunity to customize your character's appearance and clothing outside of just picking a gender.

When you find Dutch, he's hanging out in a sort of war room of the bunker, with an information board on the wall showcasing the four leaders of Eden's Gate. You can read the bios on all four of them at this point. There are the three brothers: Joseph, Jacob, and John Seed. Then the "sister" Faith, a woman who mysteriously showed up one day to join their family. Joseph is leader over all of Eden's Gate, while each sibling controls a region of Hope County.

Dutch's bunker is on an island between all three regions of the map. He sends you out to help him clear Peggies off his island before you set off to build a resistance and liberate all three regions of Hope County. Every mission you complete, whether it's part of the main story or side missions, helps to free more citizens in a region and build a stronger resistance against the Eden's Gate leader in that region.

Once you clear the island, you're free to go anywhere on the map you desire. There are three main quest lines for you to follow, one per region. They will eventually lead to toppling the leader of that region, which you have to accomplish before you can go after Joseph himself. Or you can just explore anywhere and knock out any side quests or other objectives you come across. You can also rescue and hire resistance members to follow you and help out.

While approaching enemies, it's best to first look at them down your sights or through binoculars to tag them, so you can follow them no matter where they go in the area. You can even tag objectives in an area, to help you plan your strategy accordingly.

You get bonus points for clearing missions undetected, so I highly recommend the stealth approach. You can sneak up and break enemies' necks or use silenced weapons from afar. My preferred weapon of choice is the bow and arrow. No one ever hears it coming! Just remember to hide bodies, because roaming patrols will alert a whole compound if they find a body. And some compounds have alarms that will draw in reinforcements. Make sure to disable the alarms before assaulting a compound, or take out anyone running to set off the alarm.

This game also includes hunting and fishing, as you need supplies to trade, barter, and survive in the wild. The wildlife in this game is very diverse, and some deadly if you're not careful. I've been bitten by several snakes and my only warning was a rattling sound just before they struck. The sound effects are not just ambient noise! Pay attention to them!

If you lose all your health, you pass out and get a cutscene of being captured by the leader of whatever region you're in. They go over how they're going to "free you of sin" in their own sick twisted way, before you're shipped off to a detention center.

But your prisoner transport is ambushed by the local resistance and you manage to escape! Then you have to fight through the internment camp, clear it of Peggies, then survive wave after wave of Peggies before a rescue helicopter comes for you. Only then can you go back to exploring the map. So losing all your health (without a resistance member nearby to quickly revive you) is kind of an ordeal.

I really like that they include this gameplay in the game. It allows the story to continue, so there's no actual death of the player. And it ties into the lore of the game while making you work to get back on track with your mission; a sort of entertaining punishment for failing to survive. It's much more creative than just showing a "Game Over" screen and then resetting you at your last save point, and it gives you motivation to stay alive and not just accept a quick defeat.

These same prison vans can be found driving all over the map and you can assault them and free the captive locals inside. After being captured once yourself, you'll likely feel the need to chase after every prison van you see afterward. No one should be subjected to that torture!

I absolutely love the visuals in this game! The forested mountainous region of Montana is absolutely gorgeous and they do an excellent job showcasing it, especially if you have a computer than can max out this game's graphics. Here are a few screenshots of my actual gameplay in the world, no cutscenes involved. Open them in a new window to enjoy their full 4K quality:

I guess this game resonates with me because I used to be extremely religious in my youth. I even carried a pocket Bible with me everywhere I went and would quote scriptures as I felt they applied to situations. My friends all voted me most likely to become a pastor one day.

But I was also a very curious person who loved to learn and study new things. I wanted to understand the Bible as much as I could. And when I started to find contradictions and inconsistencies in my Bible, I turned to my pastor and congregation for answers. But I received a resounding "have faith; don't question the Lord" dismissal, from pretty much everyone. The more I looked into it, the more problems I found, and the less friendly my religious community got about helping me resolve it.

After giving the Bible a full read from cover to cover, I discovered that it was an awful book full of glorified rape, torture, infanticide, bestiality, war, incest, as well as plenty of other horrifying topics, all sanctioned by God. It's no wonder we cherry-pick passages every Sunday! There are too many stories that aren't church-friendly in that book. You can't do a straight reading of the Bible without losing your congregation. I turned atheist pretty quick and learned to apply critical thinking and logic in the future instead of blindly trusting something to be true.

This game is all about the extreme end of that religious faith. Joseph Seed is considered a prophet, supposedly given direct communications from God about an upcoming apocalypse and how His chosen few can survive. Joseph's methods are based on the concept of "the ends justify the means." He will do whatever it takes to save "his people," even if it means violently kidnapping, torturing, and brainwashing them.

Even worse, the way the four Seed siblings preach to their congregation, the serene country/gospel music, even the way cult members worship, all remind me of my church-going days. Which were very happy, nostalgic days for me. So I personally feel this nostalgic pull toward this very evil cult and I have to remind myself that this cult is doing an excellent job in making it seem so appealing.

Joseph Seed is what happens when a cult is designed to dominate a culture and indoctrinate all its citizens, and this game is a good look at this kind of world from an outsider, trapped within it. It is a terrifying concept, but all the more fun to play a protagonist who is able to resist and fight back against this fascist takeover of an indoctrinated region. Which seems rather relevant in today's world.

If/when you find Boomer, make sure to give him lots of pets! He's a very good boy.