Company = FLAT
Scenario = 企画屋 , 座敷猫 , 健速
Artist = 己即是空
Genre = Mystery suspense battle-royale survival moral escape galge.
What’s so special = In-game game, doujin origin, character-driven, gore, multi-playthrough, conspiracy!
You have Erojun and Micchi to thank/blame for this review.
Foreword and disclaimer
Long story short, EroJun posted a link to the OP, torawarebito, of this galge on irc and it reminded me that Micchi said something about Killer Queen being similar to the settings in fortissimo and you have my curiosity piqued. After some digging, I found that this title was made by the doujin circle, FLAT, who with Secret Game-Killer Queen- has gone professional and is now a company. Initially it was just a 15+ version with no H, but with renewals and ports, it has gone on the ps2, 18+ version on the PC, and now to the PSP. So what was it that made this galge such a success?
Story
In a locked-down abandoned building, there are thirteen kidnapped players. They wake up with no memories of how they got there or why they are there, only a silver collar locked to their necks and a PDA with the image of a card. If they don’t clear the conditions set by the cards with 72 hours, the collars on their neck will activate and with that comes their impending death. The conditions:
A: Kill the player who possesses the Q’s PDA, by any means.
2: Destroy Joker’s PDA, your PDA, within a radius of 1 meter, can force Joker’s PDA back to its default state.
3: Kill three or more players, does not include the death of those via collar activation.
4: Obtain the collars of three other players, by any means. Either wait for the players to clear their conditions or….
5: Pass the 24 check points in the building, this PDA has a unique map that shows the checkpoints.
6: Let the Joker’s function activate 5 times or more. No need to be done by yourself or be close to the Joker.
7: Meet with all the rest of the players, the count starts after 6 hours has elapsed.
8: Within this PDA’s 5 meter radius, destroy exactly 5 other PDAs. If exceeded 5, the collar activates.
9: Kill all the other players, by any means.
10: Activate 5 collars before 71 hours elapses.
J: Survive with a player that has been with you for more than 24 hours until 71 hours elapses.
Q: Survive until 71 hours elapses.
K: Collect 5 PDAs, by any means.
It is a game of survival, will you trust others and work together to escape this madness or will you go against moral good and betray others before they betray you?
Secret Game’s ‘story’ is divided up into 4 episodes, with each episode giving a complete reset and new encounter/situations. To get the complete picture, you have to play through them all, but the hints and foreshadow is well planted throughout. Before anyone Higurashi asks, there are no memory continuations.
Throughout the game, Secret Game gives off a Resident Evil feel: closed space, finding ammunition and weapons, annoying puzzles and the drudgingly long hallways and the staircase you know is a trap but have to climb. While it is not about zombie outbreaks at all, the discovery of corpses and shocking revelations about the conspiracy they are forced to be involved in always gives me the chill down my spines, making me curious to find out more.
Gore: a theme in common with RE. Gore can be overly done to induce, citing Stephen King, the “gross out” cheap trick. But when done in good controlled amounts, it might serve a finer level that keeps the reader interested. In Secret Game, there were a only a handful amount of gore that really leaves the execution to the reader’s imagination. Of which, there was one specific CG, in conjunction with the cryptic dying message, which left such an impact. To this day it still gives me the creeps thinking about it.
What is different though, however, is the theme of trust. Going to the philosophy of human nature, Secret Game pits the readers in a Hobbes’ environment, with the protagonist seemingly standing for Locke’s argument, going to the length of self-sacrifice. However, going through the episodes, the readers will discover that Souichi isn’t all a saint, but a human with a more realistic motivation. The sub characters also has equally important developments that makes Secret Game a complex, but consistent and logical, story.
Spoiling a bit, the whole rich people gambling on people’s fight to the death felt like it was out of a certain beam walking series. So the conspiracy did felt like it was done before, which was disappointing.
Despite having the word game in the title, Secret game has only one point of interactivity throughout all the episodes, and that one choice is added due to popular demand as a sub-route in Depth Edition. While I don’t mind kinetic novels, the setting does allow for more potential freedom and could’ve definitely be ported to become a spin-off survival game. (Though wiki did say something of the sort might have been made as an advertising campaign).
The length for each episodes are short for a route, roughly 3-5 hours of reading time each, which might be a smart move due to the repeating nature of resets. However, most characters retain their personality (and thus survival strategy) and the protagonist is albeit too mild. Sure that might be the righteous thing to do but sometimes I like my cold-blooded, calculating villainous development (ah if only Lelouch played this game). But the situations in all episodes are varied enough to garner interest and consistency is highly valued amongst all stories (but especially mystery ones).
I’d say what contributed to Secret Game’s success lies in the ending. It does well doing what endings should do: wrap up all loose ends and provide a reasonable, and in this case, happy ending. While I can’t say this is exceptional, with many VN cutting corners and often results in a ending that feel either rushed or incomplete *coughfortissimocough*, it is a rare sight. Granted, being a good ending means events had to happen in a very favourable fashion that is usually against the odds but it is a work of fiction. The line between a believable scenario and just pure delusional fantasy is surprisingly thin.
Action-wise, there were all types of fighting from CQC to the Intervention sniper rifle, though it didn’t have enough of the “燃え”feel that left any impact. The fights were rather one-sided most of the time, though when Souichi pulls through (i.e. near the end), it was satisfying. Mainly because the struggle for Souichi isn’t with the ‘antagonist’ but with something less tangible, or maybe I’m just spoiled with good “燃え”.
If I had to nitpick about the story, it would be the fact that the game had one non-conformance for modern physics. Technically, the recoil on guns (whether the handguns or RPG) should disallow a teenage or younger girl to shoot with one hand, while running. Or that having an intimate relation with the opposite sex should be the last thing that comes to mind when trying to survive, but that may just be me.
Characters
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Mitsurugi SouichiA optimistic and mood maker student that thinks fast on his feet. While his athletic abilities are average, he knows his limits and usually acts within it. He wasn’t too well received back at his school and he doesn’t care much for other people’s view except for his osananajimi’s.
Though seemingly out of kindness and righteousness, his heroic acts seem to be out of the realm of what a sane person would do, for he even goes through the length of self-sacrifice. What could he be hiding?
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Himehagi SakumiA classic maiden in distress, a regular high school girl with the normal reaction to being kidnapped: scared. She has not much opinion and usually just goes along with other people. However, she does recognize this and is willing to change.
She looks exactly like Souichi’s osananajimi, except for hair colour.
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Yahata Reika A calm, cool university student that is considered a genius. She analyzes situations quickly and doesn’t show off any sign of panic even when she is kidnapped.
However, as Souichi finds out, she is just as scared as the other girls and that behind her strong front is the delicious dere. |
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Houjou Karin A bright, outgoing girl that carries a giant burden on her chest (not literary of course… >.>). Her only family member, her little sister, who has been sick from birth, requires special treatments that cost astronomically.
For her sister, Karen, she is willing to make deals with even the devil themselves.
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Kidou Nagisa With a goth-loli dress, and a big ribbon, Nagisa looks like the slow paced, non-threatening, airhead oneesan that lightens up the mood where ever she goes.
But is she really? |
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Nagasawa YuujiHe’s the obnoxious kid that you meet ever so often on the internet/online games whose only two emotions are rage and urge to headshot. Even when kidnapped, he thinks killing is merely a game and feels no remorse for those that fall before him. |
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Mayumi Gouda The female CEO of some company. Always wears expensive clothes and accessories. She seems to be the calmest most mature player and gives good advice regarding the game. |
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Hazuki Katsumi A father and a good husband. He is the generic, kind, salary man that values and works hard for his family. |
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Urushiyama GonzouHe is a perverted old man that wonders why female avoid him when even people of the same sex finds him disgusting…ly handsome? Just maybe. |
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Rikushima Fumika Self-claimed receptionist girl at some electronics department. She jests about Souichi ichaicha’ing with the heroines and is a good person at heart. Though she doesn’t look it, her reflex and battle abilities are quite sharp. |
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Tezuka Yoshimitsu An outlaw at heart and cares only for one thing in life: excitement. As long as it’s fun, it matters not to him that he is killing people in an abandoned building with inhumane means. He claims to be a pacifist but I don’t trust his hat. |
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Takayama KoutaA fair, unbiased person that does things to his gain. A powerful ally as well as an threatening opponent. His experience of being an mercenary and his cautious personality makes him a very robust fighter. |
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Shikijou YuukiThe imouto character in the game. She is as sweet as she is wise, often noticing important details that others miss. She holds a very important secret…all imoutos do. |
System
The game has the tradition textbox in the lower half of the screen, and the skin of the options undergoes a PDA-machine theme. There are more saves than you need really.
As said before, there is only one choice present in the entire game, this should be classed as a kinetic novel.
The only “special” feature would be the PDA, after you obtain it, on the top left corner. The PDA just has a list of all the rules so you can confirm it at any point in the game.
In the depth edition, there is an omake section (Privilege) after you cleared everything, which contains an blooper voice collection, and a scenario of all the characters (save 2) in a meta-in character-talk about the game in general. The result is a very humourous mini-fan disk.
CG and Animation
The art can be passed, at best, a mediocre doujin art. In some cases, the CG has less detail than the tachi-e themselves, which already might not look especially appealing to the modern audience, but isn’t too bad *coughhigurashicough*.
The background are 80% metal, symmetric, container-like walls due to being in the building for the whole game.
There were effects such as a complete whitening of the screen (from flash grenades), or a strike of light signaling either a bullet or knife slashes, but nothing too fancy.
There were no animations.
Sound
The soundtracks were average and not too special. About half the tracks is tracks related to suspense (i.e. monotones), and the other half is for those revelation moments, or fighting scenes (which were fitting, but average). On one hand it is dull, however given the nature of the game having secrecy, the eerie feeling from silence/ strange noises might fit the atmosphere better. The songs were done alright.
H-Scenes
There were a total of 5 H scenes, 2 for Sakumi and 1 for each other main heroines. To be honest, they had no relevence to the progression of the story and is like a tacked on feature. Also, all the scenes involve the heroine having control throughout…
Conclusion
Secret game achieves what many others have failed to do: have a story that is consistent, logical, and have a ending that doesn’t make the readers scream deus ex. As a plus, the protagonist isn’t completely useless from the beginning, and has the courage to overcome obstacles while being a completely regular youth against the opposing forces. The art and music isn’t particularly good, but the story makes up for it (limitations of a doujin circle). With plenty hints, and standard VN flow, Secret Game can be a really enjoyable title to start out with for beginner VN readers. For those who expected levels in the ranks of propeller, nitro+ or other big companies, it is best to lay down the expectations. I personally liked Reika the best (why are all Reika tsunderes? granted I only know this and the one from AkaGoei =] ) and yuuki-imouto a close second.
Tomato Conspiracy 