Thanks to Hamada for helping with edits.
The Nintendo DS holds a special place in my heart, and one of my favorite games for it is Kotaro Uchikoshi’s Zero Escape: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors. Originally released in 2009, Uchikoshi’s elaborate escape-the-room scenarios and compelling characters allowed his project to stand out among the handheld’s library. And not only was it successful enough to inspire two sequels, it seemed to impel developer INTENSE to create a similar narrative-based adventure. The result was 2014’s Parascientific Escape Cruise in the Distant Seas, a small-scale 3DS offering that spawned a trilogy of its own.
Cruise is a three-hour affair, a significant chunk of which revolves around these four ladies prattling on about their friendship. (Image: INTENSE/CIRCLE Entertainment)
As expected from a dual-screened adventure, Cruise in the Distant Seas is intuitively controlled through the touch screen. When protagonist Hitomi Akeneno is chatting with other characters, you tap the screen to select dialogue options and advance the conversation. When you’re investigating an area, you use the stylus to tap on objects and bring up the menu. You’ll pick up items and solve puzzles by using them in conjunction with objects that litter the environment. Whereas Zero Escape’s rooms were usually compartmentalized, players carry some tools across the whole excursion and actively revisit locations here. INTENSE also kindly provided an optional hint system, meaning players can receive gentle guidance if they’re lost. One optional side-quest is sheltered within the final room, though it’s easily missable. Ignoring it doesn’t punish you, however; the reward for completing it is two bonus pictures of the girls in their swimsuits, a transparent attempt at fan service.
Parascientific Escape takes place in a universe where lucky individuals are born with psychic powers. However, there’s another variety of psychics creatively dubbed “double psychics,” an elusive category Hitomi falls into. INTENSE’s most in-depth brainteasers take the form of slider puzzles, which tie into Hitomi’s two PSI abilities: clairvoyance and telekinesis. During the brain-teasers’ first phase, you use Hitomi’s clairvoyance to illuminate the maze, allowing her to see inside the machines they’re hidden within. Once her clairvoyance energy expires, she activates her telekinetic powers, allowing her to manipulate and move parts of the maze and the items therein. Cyan and violet orbs can be discovered throughout the game that respectively increase Hitomi’s clairvoyance and telekinetic energy, giving more leeway during these segments. Cruise’s slider puzzles admittedly aren’t complicated, but solving them was nevertheless its most enjoyable component.
This isn’t the worst sentence in Cruise, but it’s the sentence that best conveys the game. (Image: INTENSE/CIRCLE Entertainment)
Cruise in the Distant Seas opens with Hitomi trapped alone in a room. Set on a luxury passenger ship, a letter from an anonymous sender invited the 16-year-old adoptee to meet with them, promising information about her birth family. Chisono Shio, Hitomi’s childhood friend, accompanied her aboard the boat, sensing something was amiss. Just as Hitomi starts to gather her bearings, a loudspeaker announcement alerts everyone to evacuate, because an explosion caused the ship to begin sinking. As she escapes the room, Hitomi meets Merja Amabishi, the 14-year-old heiress to the morally dubious Amabishi Group corporation and the current target of the mysterious Ghost of W. The Ghost rigged the vessel with bombs, even strapping one around Merja’s neck. Three key cards hidden across the craft can free Merja, and Hitomi, Chisono, and a singer named Misaki Himekiri selflessly agree to help her.
Unfortunately, Distant Seas’ lackluster writing flushes away any tension or intrigue its premise promises. Cruise lays the groundwork for a compelling yarn, featuring tragic backstories, betrayal, amoral businesses, and a chess master manipulating our protagonist. All of these elements are handled inadequately, with some plot points intentionally left unresolved to save material for sequels. Cruise is exasperated further by a subpar localization plagued with distractingly mechanical, stilted dialogue. The four women all bear vastly different histories, yet their histories rarely inform their personalities or how they speak. The insecure Hitomi and authoritative Chisono are, thankfully, given a smidge of individuality, though neither rise as well-defined characters. Additionally, Distant Seas‘ OST frequently clashes with its plot, inappropriately accompanying serious moments with generic, upbeat tunes.
Cruise effectively only had five characters, so deducing the Ghost’s identity was easy. Hopefully this is another aspect its sequels improve upon. (Image: INTENSE/CIRCLE Entertainment)
Some of my all-time favorite works in this medium champion strong narratives and colloquies, a bar Parascientific Escape Cruise in the Distant Seas handily fails to meet. Nevertheless, I cannot say I’m disappointed with it. I purchased Cruise expecting something a fraction of the price and quality of a Zero Escape, and that’s exactly what it delivered. Distant Seas was succeeded by Gear Detective and Crossing at the Farthest Horizon, sequels that expand upon its world and conclude its story. From what I’ve heard, they sport sharper scripts, a refined art style, and more intricate scenarios, fulfilling some of Cruise’s potential. I own both of them, so I hope that’s the case.
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