Osawari Tantei Ozawa Rina (DS)
 

Notice the amusing pun in the title~

Developed by BeeWorks and to be released by Success, Osawari Tantei Ozawa Rina is the story of Rina Ozawa, a little girl who yearns to be a master detective, but apparently has a lot to learn, at least according to her butler and caretaker, "JII" (at least that's what I think it says).

http://myy.helia.fi/~a0400729/Pics/Rina02.png http://myy.helia.fi/~a0400729/Pics/Rina03.png
Please note that these are mock-up english screens from the game's website, not part of a real translation, so the engrish is forgivable, right? :tpg:

The game plays a bit like the traditional point & click adventures of old times (and the recent Another Code). The lower screen is used for moving Rina around, picking up and using objects and selecting what to say when talking to people, while the upper screen displays what Rina's commenting out loud or thinking in her head about certain characters or locations, as well as the dialogue when talking to people. The lower screen is also used for inventory management and examining items.

You proceed talking to people, collecting and using items and searching for evidence and clues to help solve the four mysteries the game is said to have, which range from finding a missing person to helping a woman whose dreams have been stolen.

Apparently some form of miniquests are also in store, though I can't tell whether this means optional puzzles or something else entirely.


Many sites list a Japanese release date for this year's December, but both the game's website and Lik-Sang state the game is set to come out on April 13th, 2006.

Either way, no English translation has been confirmed, but the game's website has an english section (with some amusing engrish, especially in the lovely How to Play demonstration), so it might not be entirely out of the question. There's also already an online petition to get the game translated, whether that'll help or not.

I don't even have a DS yet (I'm probably going to buy a Lite as soon as Children of Mana comes out in english), but I really, really hope this gets translated. More adventure games are always welcome, and the groovy music and excellent visual style are really appealing to me. Fingers crossed it becomes a (small) success in Japan.

Some IGN screenshots:
http://dsmedia.ign.com/ds/image/arti...8065958855.jpg http://dsmedia.ign.com/ds/image/arti...8070002902.jpg http://dsmedia.ign.com/ds/image/arti...8070004011.jpg

Links:

Official Japanese Website

Official Website's (incomplete) english section

Online petition for the game's translation and release abroad

Awesome Osawari wallpapers~

Pretty cool. I always wanted to go to PARK park.

I'll be keeping my eye out for this one.

Is there any indication that this game will actually give some choices in gameplay, as opposed to the "do this next" condescending visual novel schlop in Another Code/Trace Memory?

I'd commit heinous acts if it ensured some Lucasarts-esque adventure games on the DS. We just need a company with the balls to do it.

To be honest, I don't know. I really want it to be closer to a traditional point & click game than a slightly interactive picturebook.

Very little has been explained about the game in english and all I have is this tiny piece in the latest issue of Edge and what I've seen in the How to Play demonstration (all the websites give the exact same short description and no actual info).

On one hand, the game could be overly simplified, like being able to only move when clicking on a person or an item and never in between, JII might be constantly telling you where to go and what to do and a linear path through the mysteries is almost guaranteed.

On the other hand, how many traditional adventure games weren't overly linear? Apart from a few Sierra games and to an extent DotT, you pretty much always still had to do the right things in the correct order.

The How to Play demo constantly emphasizes how easy it is to play. Hopefully this only refers to the ease of use of the interface (stylus only or the sort) and not the simplicity of the gameplay and structure itself.

The graphical fancy style is fantastic. That Goomba/Muffin type creature is freaking me out a bit though. The How to Play thing was nice, "Jll is saying a decent thing!" And the fact that there's an Engrish bit on the site means someone's gonna translate it and release it eventually! Right? ;_;

I'm sure Lucasarts themselves would be happy to, as long as they renamed Monkey Island to Star Wars Island, and Sam & Max to Star & Wars.

http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/9...warinaj0hc.jpg
I felt like posting this!

Truth there, but I was really talking more about dumbed down puzzle solving than linearity. It was crazily frustrating to happen up on an item in Another Code that you knew was going to be useful in the future, but you couldn't pick up because you hadn't yet discovered the puzzle that would force you to backtrack and grab it.

Bumping thread via the world wide internet web! Seems this game has turned up at Atlus' E3 booth out of nowhere. To be released in America as Touch Detective (bet it took them years to think of that name). No release date yet, though. =o

http://img126.imageshack.us/img126/4...nza2006.th.jpg

=o!

Exciting news! Listen to JII spout overdone ye olde english accent and ask whot wouldst thou like to do next.

They even have the covers ready! (still getting released in 2007)

Europe, though the name will be changed eventually (rumors say Rina's Power Mystery):

http://myy.helia.fi/~a0400729/Pics/Rina001.bmp


Character rich US cover:

http://myy.helia.fi/~a0400729/Pics/Rina002.bmp


Aussie/NZ cover (in 2009):

http://myy.helia.fi/~a0400729/Pics/Rina003.bmp

Ahahahaha, best! So true. <3 ='D
Aussie rating isn't quite big enough though!

Ahaha yes, Aussie release pulled back after two days, to redesign the cover with a bigger rating ='D

Game name barely visible on the spine.

I cannot WAIT for this game. I was just playing the japanese version and I love the style, characters, and everything about it. It's a shame I couldn't get very far since it's extremely text based.

The english website is coming along nicely, so hopefully this will be released outside of japan soon.

...huh? :confused:

The protagonist girl's name is Rina Ozawa and the Japanese write names in the reverse order, Ozawa Rina, thus:

Osawari Tantei Ozawa Rina

A typical Japanese pun on names and words. Nothing radical, I just thought it's cute. It'll all be lost with Touch Detective, naturally.

Bumpity bump bump... who's excited for Touch Detective? I miss these point and click adventure/puzzle games :)

I don't know if I would say I'm excited for it, but I am interested in getting it. I had a great time with Trace Memory, so I'm hoping this will turn out to be a similar great experience (along with Hotel Dusk coming out later this year).

Anyone played this yet? If so, what do you think of it? IGN gave the game a 5.5...but I never trusted IGN reviews.

I don't like IGN, their ratings are usually way off. I loved Touch Detective, I thought it was a lot of fun. The humour is great, Mackenzie is so funny. It's a simple game, point and click and just going around talking to people but it is really charming too. I enjoyed it, I finished the cases already. I wish they had more games with this format out.

IGN also mentioned that some of the puzzles were "too hard" which indicates that they don't want a challenge at all.

Somehow I don't think this game's going to get much attention, partially thanks to the review at IGN.

That's really sad, I read the reviews at IGN, the puzzles are not "that" hard. If they're so stumped, that's what a walkthrough is for if they don't want to use their brain. :p The levels aren't even that big, so it doesn't take long for you to do trial and error and click on everything and talk to everyone. They had good previews for it, saying that it could be a sleeper hit, but so far the biggest complaint is that the puzzles are too obscure.

Well I just started to play this game, and I'm really liking it. I have a thing for point-and-click adventures. However I feel this game is a bit of a paradox to me...I grew up playing easy kid's game that were point-and-click, and to come across the same sort of game but much harder is a shock to me.

But a good shock, nonetheless.

IGN=stupid lawl. (at least in this specific case)

duuhuu~

you cant spell ignorance without ign lmfao

I remember this from Elixir's sig a while ago and thought the character design was nicely done: cute, with a shade of mystery to the characters. Other than the character designs, the game didn't get too much of my interest. I keep thinking that it'll have limited replay value and will be over before you know it.

I hear from people who played it that the puzzles are obtuse to the point of being almost unsolvable unless you employ a brute force method to solving the problems. They don't make much, if any, logical sense.

SEE? That's not how a puzzle solving game should be. I'm not saying it should be easy, but when you don't have to think and just have to try random shit until you figure it out, that's just bad game design. =\

Riven on the PC suffered from this years and years ago. It sort of ruins the fun of puzzle solving when the solutions make no sense.

Well part of the game's charm is that it is wacky and obtuse. Would it kill someone to just screw around to try and solve a puzzle? Or cheat and check a walkthrough? I remember being stuck in Monkey Island FOREVER, but that doesn't make me hate the game.

I'm not sure which puzzles people are talking about... but if it was totally obvious or slightly obvious, then it becomes really easy and then it's all just running back and forth and no real exploring.

There is gamefaqs, you know. Or you could just pick up the guide and... shove it on the shelf and check gamefaqs anyway since you don't bother reading your own guides. Lol.

I think soapy said it best, with exploring. I don't really care how hard the game is because I like hard games. But I guess this type of game doesn't mix with well unless you're into the point-and-click Broken Sword (fucking rad) or Discworld (fucking awesome) games.