[DS] 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).


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?

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:


Links:

Official Japanese Website

Official Website's (incomplete) english section

Online petition for the game's translation and release abroad

Awesome Osawari wallpapers~

Jam it back in, in the dark.

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.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Infernal Monkey

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

=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):




Character rich US cover:




Aussie/NZ cover (in 2009):



This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

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 am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by PsychoJosh

...huh?

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.

I was speaking idiomatically.