The Silver Case

The Silver Case was definitely one of the visual novels (games?) of all time that I’ve read. It’s not my first suda51 game, nor is it my first entry in this connected universe (that I now learned of) as I played and finished Killer7 first. This was definitely an extremely unique experience and I’m glad I got to be able to read through it.

Just from a general perspective, the controls are without a doubt extremely clunky. But I actually found that it added quite a bit to the atmosphere of the game, the way you move through areas and the way the environments are designed give that sort of claustrophobic feeling. This is definitely felt the most in the earlier parts of the game where you’re in the forest and exploring babylon, the limited and stiff controls add a lot. Coming from Killer7, it’s interesting to see how the two sort of compare in this aspect as Killer7 also had extremely awkward controls too (in my opinion).

Of course, where the visual novel truly shines is the writing. For lack of a better term, it’s an extremely unique experience. This could be a testament to the localizers as well because in a lot of ways its hard for me to describe how the writing feels. It’s like… somehow through all the insanity and ridiculousness of what’s being said on screen, it somehow makes coherent sense in its own crazy twisted way. That’s probably the best way I can describe how playing through a Suda51 game makes me feel. There’s crazy moments like when Sumio talks about “yes, I can SMELL him” that are like “??? Suda what the FUCK are you talking about” only to then go “wait, he’s deaf so that could’ve explained how his sense of smell was enhanced”. Of course that could be crazy talk but it’s stuff like that that makes Suda games so fun to go through for me.

The only part of the game as a whole that kind of took me out of it was case 2, spectrum where it felt like it was kinda… misplaced? While I understood the idea of it for the themes of the game (Koichi’s purity and how despite his purity, it caused an accident to happen), it definitely felt weirdly paced and out of nowhere especially with the intro case and case 1.

My favourite case of the game though is probably case 3, Parade. It’s where (from what I remember at least) the whole “Kill the past” theme really starts coming up with Sumio, and I really liked the whole structure and framing of the case too. The tie back to the fairytale analogy that Sumio makes at the beginning in addition to the tragedy that follows and the actions the Mikumo boys had to do was really good in my opinion. The presentation also really shrines, with the whole chapter being in black and white until the very end where color returns. I think you can even make a point about how the case is presented as black and white, until you learn all the facts (once you learn the history of the Zaibatsu), and only then when you go to confront Sumio and have all the facts in hand can you see the case in a new light that isn’t just black and white.

I’m sure a lot of people also really liked the setting which is quite interesting but for me it will always be about the themes and characters. In addition to the theme about killing the past, there was also the theme around purity and the pursuit of perfection. Case 2 brings it up first but it’s really made clear when they reveal the purpose and motive behind the 24 wards as well as the shelter children project, how the government was essentially “pruning” the bad apples and attempting to raise only good ones. These actions are what leads to the events of the Silver Case, and the horrible tragedies that unfold as well. The act of pursuing that pureness causes tragedy, and even when they produce what they consider “pure” (kamui and ayame), those “pure” things were also terrible disasters.

There’s also the conversation between Tokio and the bartender (my homie) about how imperfection is needed for humans. I liked that conversation a lot.

Of course there’s some other themes that were brought up, one that I found particularly funny/interesting was how they placed a heavy emphasis on how they had to execute Kamui in the right way. He was a crime virus that spread through the media, which I think anyone in the modern age can recognize as true. Even the whole intro scene to that transmitter with the interviews about people’s beliefs in Kamui is still relevant today. Could even argue that light from death note was just a Kamui rip off…

I’m also a fan of the general killing the past so that you can move on to your own future. Tokio going “fuck off” to the ghosts was sick and I aspire to have that energy.

There’s a lot more to talk about but all in all, I really had a good time with the Silver Case. It was a crazy ride, and it makes me want to play the other games in the series (as well as replaying Killer7 now). Great time, would go on Suda51’s wild ride again.