Adventure Corner ~ Detective Instinct: Farewell, My Beloved

Welcome to Adventure Corner, a column where members of the RPGamer staff can give their thoughts, impressions, and pseudo-reviews for various adventure titles that don’t come under our usual coverage. Adventure Corner is aimed at delivering opinions on a wide range of titles including visual novels, point-and-click adventures, investigative mysteries, and so forth.

In this edition of the column we take a look at Detective Instinct: Farewell, My Beloved, a mystery title heavily inspired by classic Japanese adventures.

Detective Instinct: Farewell, My Beloved

Armonica’s Detective Instinct: Farewell, My Beloved harkens back to classic mystery adventures, particularly those in the vein of Famicom Detective Club. Seeing players investigate the disappearance of a woman on a train, potentially connected to a couple of murders, it offers an interesting short mystery that will keep players engaged for its five-hour runtime.

Players assume the role of a 20th-century student about to return from a study trip to the fictional European country of Vendreka. They are rudely awakened in their hotel room by a police officer accusing them of murder. This false accusation is quickly resolved, but here begins their first investigations as a local detective strangely invites them to check the crime scene. Unable to find much in the way of useful clues, they soon board a train heading on a multi-day journey back to London, alongside fellow student Emma and their professor. However, mystery quickly returns on the second day of the journey when Emma reports the disappearance of a woman that she met the night before. The protagonist and Emma conduct their own investigations, which cast doubt on some of their fellow passengers, leading them to dive into the recent history of Vendreka.

The various actions available will be familiar to anyone who played Famicom Detective Club or similar titles.

Those who have played Famicom Detective Club will be readily familiar with the gameplay. Players move from scene to scene, investigating locations or talking to people to pick up clues and information that advances the mystery. Various relevant options are available in each scene, with players needing to select the relevant ones. There’s no fear of failure; players can keep recycling through the options and brute force their way through the game if they wish. It is divided into chapters, with each chapter including a review where players answer questions about their investigations, though there isn’t any obvious penalty for getting anything wrong.

Much of the game’s appeal therefore comes down to the game’s presentation and the mystery itself, where it largely succeeds. Its pixel art style works well with its designs from the recent past, with its setting helping to differentiate itself from other titles in the genre. The game’s understated audio also works well in balance, helping to add to the atmosphere without ever attracting too much attention. Little audio cues help players identify when they’ve found something important or answer something correctly.

The fact that no one says that they saw the woman Emma met drives much of the early story.

Ultimately, the game is less about solving puzzles or the player putting together the full picture themselves, but more about enjoying the character interactions and how the mystery develops over time. This largely works in its favour as players get to spend more time learning about the characters and seeing how they react rather than getting caught up in the minutiae of possible clues and contradictions. There are also enough twists, turns, and secrets to leave players guessing until the finale about how exactly the story plays out.

Detective Instinct: Farewell, My Beloved never really tries to venture too far from its inspirations, but emulates them with a lot of heart. The presentation and story work together well to provide an interesting, if perhaps not the most thrilling mystery. Those looking to relax with an enjoyable mystery will find plenty to like here.

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