Chase: Cold Case Investigations - Distant Memories (Nintendo 3DS) Second Opinion Review

Five years after an unfortunate hospital explosion that was deemed an accident, an anonymous tip reopens the case and thrusts its two main characters into a mysterious situation where they have to mesh their very different personalities together to solve it. Their dynamic is the heart of the story, as similar dynamics are in many others, but this it ends up being little more than a hindrance overall.

Thanks to a surprisingly low play duration of roughly two hours, there simply isn't enough time for both characters to fully develop and show any realistic growth. While such a feat is more than possible in a more cinematic medium, a literary medium requires an intense amount of focus or subtlety to pull off nuanced development in such a short time span, something Cold Case Investigations is unfortunately lacking.

Shounosuke Nanase is a lazy, but brilliant detective who acts like he cares less than he does, and his partner, Koto Amekura, is a plucky by-the-books detective desperately trying to do her best and work with her aloof supervisor. Both are archetypes that have done many times before and it's disappointing, to say the least, when there's not even an attempt to subvert, flesh out, or play with their clichéd roles.

Plot-wise, events move rather smoothly in and out of each other, and there's a natural and logical progression from beat to beat with a rather satisfying clever and resolution. The same praise cannot be given to the actual writing, however. Whether it's a writing or a translation issue is unclear, but what is clear is that more time was desperately needed to be spent polishing the storyline's voice. As is, this is a stiffly written visual novel that never manages to live up to its potential.

Even with its simple characters and short length, something more could have been done with the writing to make it stand out. Good prose can elevate any story, but the technique just isn't present.
What's more, the mystery feels like one piece of a larger title - not in the sense of plot, as it's rather self-contained and complete, but in regards to its two main characters.

Their progression is far from satisfying, and there's potential for them both to grow and gain more depth. Sadly, that doesn't happen here. In a way, Cold Case Investigation feels much like how the first case of any Ace Attorney would play out: short, sweet, and setting the building blocks for a more complex and gratifying visual novel, but those building blocks needs to be picked up for there to be any kind of meaningful conclusion.