SUDA51’s The Silver Case for PS4 – Now Available in Europe!
We are happy to announce that The Silver Case, an HD remaster of the debut game by developer SUDA51, is now available in Europe for the PlayStation®4!
Check out our launch trailer for the game below!
1999 – the “24 Wards.” A string of mysterious serial killings plagues the city.
The detectives of the 24 Wards Heinous Crimes Unit have their eyes on one man: Kamui Uehara, legendary serial killer and assassin of a number of government officials 20 years prior in the now-famous “Silver Case.” However, nobody knows who—or what—Kamui really is.
Has he really returned? Who is this infamous serial killer?
As the player, you will take control of the protagonist—a member of the Special Forces Unit known as “Republic”—from a first-person perspective. Inspired by classic adventure and visual novel-style games, The Silver Case offers a fresh and unique gameplay experience as it leads the player through an in-depth story containing various puzzles, and uncovering the truth piece by piece.
The setting is contemporary Japan, and takes place in a universe which would be used by Suda in later works. Within a city called the 24 Districts, a series of bizarre murders occurs, prompting the 24 Districts Police Department to send two detectives from their High-degree Murder Division to solve the case. The killings are soon linked to Kamui Uehara, a notorious serial killer who supposedly died several years before. The gameplay revolves around text-based situations, point-and-click mechanics, and interactive question and answer segments.
The Silver Case was the debut title of Grasshopper Manufacture, beginning development with the studio’s formation in 1998. As they had limited staff and resources, Suda devised the window-based story-telling to make best use of their assets. The story, written by Suda, Masahi Ooka and Sako Kato revolved around themes of crime and the clashing of people on different sides: its themes would become a recurring feature in later titles developed by Suda. The character designs were done by Takashi Miyamoto, while the music was composed by Masafumi Takada.
Prior to its remaster, the game did not see a release outside Japan, despite Suda wanting a Western release: this was attributed by Suda and others to concerns over properly translating and localizing the game’s dialogue and text-based puzzles. The localization was handled by Active Gaming Media in collaboration with Grasshopper Manufacture. An episodic sequel was developed for mobile devices and released between October 2005 and March 2007. The original version was positively reviewed in Japan, while the remaster received generally mixed opinions from journalists.
