Roguelite deduction adventure game The Detective Reaper Invites will launch for PC via Steam on May 25 for $9.99, publisher PLAYISM and developer Shizu Kano Umi announced. It will support English, Japanese, Traditional and Simplified Chinese language options.
Here is an overview of the game, via PLAYISM:
About the Game
The job of a detective reaper is simple: get testimonies from the suspects, deduce the culprit, and execute them with your own two hands.
Culprits always tell lies, and the innocent always tell the truth.
If you choose incorrectly, you will be deemed unfit to be a detective reaper… and yours will be the next life to be harvested.
Every murder case you have to solve is randomly generated on a game board, and if you fail (and get a Game Over), you will have to start all over again.
No two cases are entirely the same, and there is no single correct way to proceed.
Rack your brain and expose murderers, one after the other.
How long do you think you can last…?
How to Play
You start with some spare change and 3 basic cards in your deck.
Choose between Deduction, Shop, Treasure, and Random tiles to make your way across the game board.
On deduction tiles, you must solve murder cases by examining the suspects’ testimonies. Use a variety of cards to get more information from the suspects and execute the culprit(s) to proceed.
Cards are the key to solving cases accurately and moving forward on the board, but using cards costs money. Manage your costs (and maybe even rely on a stroke of good luck) and try to find the culprits without overspending.
Successfully solving a case rewards you with a new card, as well as money you can spend to buy items or more cards at shops. Push forward and solve as many cases as you can as the difficulty increases with each stage!
Replayability
Once you either get a Game Over or beat the game, you will receive a report detailing how well you did as a detective reaper. Here, you can see how much time you took, how many mistakes you made, how many cards you used, and the total amount of money you spent on your run.
If you manage to beat the game, you can try to surpass your own records in another playthrough. Even if you’ve beaten it once, the roguelite elements will make sure to keep you on your toes. Feel free to share your results with others on social media and compete with fellow players!
What’s more, by meeting certain requirements, you can unlock Hard Mode, which adds a time limit to the mix, forcing you to be as quick and accurate in your deductions as possible. Even the slightest hesitation could cost the whole run. Are you up for the challenge?
Word from the Developer Shizu Kano Umi
If you asked me why I decided to make a game where your deductions change randomly every time, I would say it’s simply because I love roguelites and the mystery genre.
When you read a mystery for the second time, it becomes a completely different experience where you can enjoy the lampshading and foreshadowing and other devices that lead to the conclusion. The more shocking the culprit’s tricks are, the more vividly I remember them. That’s why I came up with the idea to let players solve randomly generated cases.
By the way, when I read a mystery novel or watch a detective movie, I never try to find out who the culprit is. I know it’s a genre where most people enjoy guessing the culprit, but I think enjoying the story and guessing the culprit are different things.
Which means a guy who doesn’t deduce anything made a deduction game. I would really appreciate it if you could give it a try.
Watch a new trailer below. View a new set of screenshots at the gallery.
Release Date Trailer
English
Japanese
Traditional Chinese