Murder on the Eurasia Express
[ユーラシアエクスプレス殺人事件]
1998年11月26日
“Cinema Active”
Murder on the Eurasia Express, released in November 1998 for PlayStation, is an interactive movie-style adventure game composed entirely of live-action sequences. It is the first game in the Cinema Active series, an ambitious attempt at cr eating cinematic games that uses techniques from television and cinema to offer a first-person storyline that gives the impression of having real conversations and eye contact with the characters.
As such, Murder on the Eurasia Express offers an unusual aesthetic. Although it has the appearance of an adventure and exploration game, the game strives to create fluid connections between the characters, and features loops of moving images during conversations, which makes the game completely captivating.
Developed by System Sacom and published by Enix, Murder on the Eurasia Express continues the tradition of interactive detective games pioneered by Enix with Portopia Serial Murder Case in 1983 and Hokkaido Serial Murder Case in 1984. During the nineteens, the genre evolved into the interactive sound novel, where still images, text narration, and an immersive soundtrack combined to create a form of video game graphic novel.
Murder on the Eurasia Express takes the sound novel even further. It is entirely live-action and features an exceptional cast featuring many popular celebrities and idols of the time. The player feels like the protagonist of a suspense thriller, an actor and spectator in a stylish drama for two hours. The beauty of the graphics is striking.
The Eurasia Express leaves Shanghai and heads west through mainland China, with students from an all-girls university on a school trip on board. Suddenly, a scream echoes through the train. Shortly after leaving Shanghai, a school teacher is stabbed to death by a stranger, stabbing him in the chest.
The player is a private detective accompanying the girls on their school trip. The next station is two hours away. The victim, "Mr. Usami," is a rather eccentric person. It turns out that quite a few people have a grudge against him. The player must protect himself from these suspicious characters.
The game involves interrogating students, teachers, and conductors in the cabins and passenger carriages to collect keywords related to the incident and evidence to deduce the identity of the culprit in the two hours before the Eurasia Express arrives at its next destination.
This is an orthodox adventure game, with an old-fashioned command selection system.
However, the player can only move around the train, talking to people present or looking at the available notes and photos… Even when moving around the train, it is impossible to move from one carriage to another. It is only possible to move around in Room 106, where the crime scene took place, and in Rooms 101 to 105, where the students are. The only other places are the conductor's room and the lounge. The limited number of seats and the corridors severely limit the player's movement. The player simply has to question the people in the rooms visited, which can make the game feel rather monotonous.
Every movement or line of dialogue wastes time; if the player does not think carefully about the questions he asks and who to talk to next, time will fly by. During his first playthrough, the player will not make much progress, but his assistant Tsubasa will take notes for him.
The game ends when the timer runs out.
The player must share the information he has heard with the other students and extract new information based on their answers. By gathering information in this way, little by little, the truth about the incident begins to reveal itself. And this is where the most interesting part of the game begins. Since time passes every time the player listens to the suspects, moves, or performs an action, if he fails to discover who the culprit when the time runs out, the game is over because it's time to arrive at destination! Once the player arrives at the station, there's nothing he can do... On the contrary, while the train is moving, the culprit can't escape.
This thrilling time limit is perhaps the game's greatest feature.
There are also many questions that have no connection to the incident. And even if the case doesn't progress at all and no information is collected, these discussions have an exquisite flavor.
Every character has the potential to be the culprit. Even if some characters seem like good friends, in reality no one knows what each person is thinking deep down. The story depicts a world of suspicion and distrust. Naturally, all the characters are on high alert. They have no desire to cooperate, and just want to reach their destination. At first, they are suspicious, but eventually they open up to the protagonist.
The accumulation of all these behaviors and emotions is truly astonishing. The mystery must be carefully unraveled, and the player must travel back and forth on the train to question the characters and gather testimony. This repetition provides an incredible sense of pleasure.
A hidden parameter called "sympathy" is preset in the game. "Sympathy" generally increases with conversation, but decreases if the player asks questions that anger the characters. After selecting the person to talk to, the player can press the controller's D-pad to move his gaze up and down the characters' bodies. If the player stares at them for too long without saying anything, he risks being reprimanded. In this case, the player will be expelled from the room, unable to return for a while.
That said, it's human nature to want to do so. Thus, the player can try to watch, even if it wastes a lot of time.
The game isn't very challenging in terms of deduction, however, as it's designed to be completed in two hours, it's harder to complete than it looks, and unnecessary actions should be avoided as much as possible.
Murder on the Eurasia Express uses a multi-heroine system, and the ending changes depending on the player's choices. If the player manages to solve the case, he’ll get a kiss scene with the student he bonded with the most. The actress who plays the detective secretary in Tokyo, who appears at the end of the game, changes depending on how the player conducts the investigation.
The main strength of this game is its famous cast, and the fully dubbed dialogue. The heroines were chosen from among the biggest stars of the time. Kanako Enomoto, Chiharu Niiyama, Kyoko Fukada, Reika Nakajima, and Ai Kato play high school girls. Many famous people also appear, such as Hinako Saeki and Sumi Shimamoto. Ryoko Hirosue, Akiko Yada, Hideshi Hino, and Hideo Kojima also appear in small roles. It really feels like watching a drama!
The relationships between the characters are really interesting, and the player navigates between love stories, friendships, arguments, deception, and manipulation.
At the end of the investigation, all the characters gather and present their theories, in a scene familiar from detective novels. The investigation progresses by choosing the right answers to the questions asked. But if the player makes a mistake even once, it's game over.
From the options menu, the player can view all the videos he has already encountered throughout the game, including the details of the conversations. However, to complete the game 100%, the player must replay from beginning to end, with a single save, at least 8 times. Fans of Japanese idols will probably be delighted to endure this challenge.
Murder on the Eurasia Express is a masterpiece of adventure gaming. Time and doubt create an ultimate sense of tension. The game has great replayability and things the player didn't see the first time around will become clearer as he plays through the game, as the game has a very deep structure, and there are many prepared scenes to make subsequent playthroughs interesting. If the player organizes his own notes instead of relying solely on Tsubasa's notes, he will be able to progress more easily in a second playthrough. This is the whole point of detective games. It's all about experimentation, reflection, and exploration, in order to deduce and discover the truth from the information obtained from the characters.