For a game about sniffing out motives behind a century-long killing spree, own loyalties are easier to detect. A glance at the menu screen timeline, which records the fictional events of the era-hopping story, reveals a century not simply defined by its wars and political upheavals, but the evolution of the murder mystery itself. You see how Poe’s Murders In The Rue Morgue set in motion the domino rally of Conan Doyle, Christie and Van Dine, who in turn inspired Japan’s Edogawa Ranpo, Seishi Yokomizo and the ‘new orthodox’ school of Soji Shimada – the last of whom has the biggest influence on the flavour of ‘impossible’ death tricks you chew over throughout this FMV
