Title: Parascientific Escape – Cruise in the Distant Seas
Developer/Publisher: Intense/CIRCLE Entertainment
Genre: Escape ADV
System: 3DS (eShop only)
Parascientific Escape – Cruise in the Distant Seas has been on my list for a while now and I finally got the chance to play the English version. After playing Gear Detective (which I enjoyed quite a lot) I expected something on the same level for its prequel but unfortunately it’s pretty bad. It still was worth it in a way because I got more information about some characters but overall it’s giving you headaches instead of being enjoyable.
The game starts with main character Hitomi Akeneno waking up in a suite on a big luxury cruise ship. Some weird things are going on: the room’s door’s locked and there’s a voice coming from the loudspeakers telling all passengers to evacuate. Apparently a bomb went off on board and the ship’s slowly sinking. But there are other things on Hitomi’s mind at the moment, like meeting the anonymous person that invited her to board this cruise ship. Said person’s nowhere to be found but instead she meets a blonde girl…with a bomb around her neck. The culprit seems to be someone who wants to get revenge on the influential Amabishi group. The blonde girl named Merja, happens to be the daughter of the CEO and that’s why she has been chosen as the victim.
Instead of blowing her up right away the culprit gives her a chance to free herself by collecting three cards hidden inside the ship but she’s only four hours to do so. She’s allowed to get help from up to three other people but not the ship’s crew. Hitomi decides to work together with her to save her.
Before they can search for the cards they have to get out of the suite. This is the first escape part of the game. While the dialogues are presented similar to a visual novel, the gameplay part feels more like a point-and-click adventure. The game makes use of the 3DS touchscreen and stylus while you look through the different areas but it can also be played without the touchscreen.
Overall the puzzles aren’t very difficult to solve but it’s still fun in a way…as long as you aren’t bothered by having to click on literally everything twice, even if there’s only one option to choose from. The same unnecessary step happens every time you have to input a number or password and it’s getting annoying pretty fast.
Some puzzles involve using Hitomi’s physics powers. While the idea itself sounds interesting it feels very weird because of the way the puzzles work. It’s also always the same type of puzzle. Both Clairvoyance and Telekinesis can only be used a set amount of times and you power them up by finding ether, randomly hidden in the escape parts of the game. If you want to get a key out of a locked drawer, you can take a look inside. But you only uncover a little part with each use of the power and moving objects feels overly complicated as well. You can either rotate them or move them and it costs one power point each time. The weird thing about this is that the inside of a drawer would never look like shown in the game and that’s what bothered me A LOT.
The main issue I had with the game’s the story and the way the characters are written. It’s probably partly fault of CIRCLE Entertainment’s localization because it reads very dry and literal but the writing seems bad in general. In conversations the characters tend to repeat themselves and no one sees it as odd. There’s very little to the characters, you can’t even tell who’s saying what most of the time if you don’t look at the names. It’s possible to make out some little differences in personality but overall all characters feel the same. The plot itself isn’t exactly good either and you encounter some stuff that doesn’t make any sense. Sadly, the localization makes it even worse than it already is.
Sometimes the game gives you moments to talk to the other characters and get to know them better. The whole thing feels kind of stiff and makes you wonder why everyone’s so friendly with each other and readily reveals so much about themselves to strangers. It’s also happening in unfitting moments and makes it look like no one really cares about them being on a sinking ship and that they have to hurry up. The idea behind everything sounds interesting but it’s not done well and leaves you with the question why the hell the culprit put so much effort into everything and what their real intention is. Since I already played Gear Detective I know that you find out a little more about certain characters but this game alone is only the beginning of the Parascientific Escape series and doesn’t explain much.
There are two random fan service pictures in the game, only accessible through solving a well hidden, optional puzzle. It’s not even properly explained how to find said puzzle but it’s just some sort of extra anyway.
Even for the low price of $4.99/€4.99 I can’t recommend this game. Better skip this one and take a look at its sequel, Gear Detective, instead. It’s not perfect either but MUCH better than this one and actually worth its price. There’s a third game called Chou Kagaku Dasshutsu Saihate no Cross Eyes which isn’t out in English but it offers explanation about keywords, important game terms and introduces the characters from the first two games anew. That’s why you don’t really have to play Parascientific Escape – Cruise in the Distant Seas to understand everything. CIRCLE Entertainment hasn’t announced a localization of the third game yet, though.
Here are some of the Parascientific Escape – Cruise in the Distant Seas ??? moments:
(Putting this at the end of the post because of SPOILER)
Merja says she’s called a helicopter after they dissolved the bomb in the engine room but after turning the elevator on she says she will call a helicopter to pick them up. Isn’t one enough?
On the lower deck Hitomi, Chisono and Merja complain about having a headache and feeling sick. It’s because of a device that prevents them from using their physics powers. Misaki says herself that she isn’t affected by it because she’s not a physic. Later she mentions something like ‘that’s where our headaches came from’.
As Merja announces that she has to use the toilet she could just have entered the cabin’s bathroom but instead she leaves. Hitomi, who just wanted to see why she’s taking so long, doesn’t seem to have a clue about where the bathrooms are despite having solved puzzles in two of them. Not that it matters because she’s randomly wandering around and gets lost, finding Merja in the ballroom crying. I know, Merja actually wanted to go somewhere alone where she can cry her eyes out but it still doesn’t make any sense that Hitomi doesn’t look in the bathroom first…
I’m not sure what the game did in the pool area because a part isn’t clear and feels like something’s missing. Like Merja says she can open the entrance with the laptop which isn’t the case. Instead the Lost & Found corner folder appears on-screen. No one ever mentioned it before, it’s suddenly there.
There are even more issues (and lots of typos) like this but these one were standing out the most imo
Leave a comment