Another Time, Another Leaf
As I said last time, the game is about a girl named Sakurane Kaede who finds a lookalike of herself inside a mirror her late mother gave her. Game spoilers: there’s a good chance the lookalike (Ageha) is a younger version of Kaede’s mother, but since I quit we will never know for sure. Ageha has the power to travel into the near past, where she can investigate events and talk to people but cannot touch anything or bring it to the future with her.
For example the first case involves a camera that the ditzy principal dropped somewhere. By finding out the last time the principal had the camera, Ageha is able to go back in time and pinpoint its location, then both girls return to the present and tell the principal where it is. In the second case, involving an album stolen from the library, they travel back to various points in time until they determine that the album was taken between 18:00 and 20:00, then they question the only two people in the library at the time and find the culprit.
– By the way, I don’t know if the game will address this at some point, but just by talking to people in the past Ageha has been changing the present significantly. In the library case, for example, a character was locked in the library until 23:30 before breaking out, scaring Kaede in the process. But later on Ageha goes to the library at 20:00, finds him there and lets him out, meaning the ‘future’ where Kaede sees him at 23:30 shouldn’t exist. Which means her memories should be affected too, but they’re not. It’s probably something they will tackle eventually, but I quit already so I don’t care.
Apart from time travel there are only two other aspects to the game. First is “cutting”, where you slice a small portion of the screen or a few words out of someone’s comments and use them to question others later. The second is Verification/Confirmation mode. In Verification mode you question the most likely suspects in order to root out the guilty one. It’s not very complicated: you just talk to them until they incriminate themselves and their “Doubt” stars fill up completely. Then you go to Confirmation mode, check all the details of the case (e.g. “When did the crime happen?” a) 2:00 b) 3:00 c) 4:00) then point out the culprit. End of case.
I only played two cases and a bit, but Another Leaf is much less serious than similar games like Time Hollow and Ghost Trick. The cases are all petty crimes, the “villains” are either non-existent or very decent people and Kaede and Ageha are never in any danger. Since the game outright tells you whodunnit through Verification mode, it is impossible to finger to wrong suspect. At the point where I stopped there was no way to fail. No limits on time travel, no penalties for going the wrong way, no chance to falsely accuse any one, nothing.
In short, Another Leaf is just a visual novel with a slightly interesting gimmick. As I mentioned in the other post, there’s no tension at all and no real story either. The only way I would have continued is if I had found a character I liked, but alas, I was unlucky. Kaede is bland, Ageha is brash and rude and the supporting cast is mostly weak. I can’t think of a single reason to force myself to ‘play’ a mystery visual with childish mysteries, fail-proof gameplay and bland characters, so I’m stopping again, this time for real. After all, I know for a fact that the DS can do a lot better than this.
Nice. was looking for a blog like this. Someone else who play all the same games I do. I can’t count the number of mediocre viznovs I’ve played through trying to find something I liked as much as Gyakuten Saiban/Phoenix Wright or Ghost Trick. Danganronpa was great. I love Chunsoft’s 999, haven’t gotten to play the new one. I played Ever17 on PC and Never7 on PSP. Those are the good ones though… Of the mediocre ones I played, most were on DS like… Yuuzai/Muzai, Moshimo Ore Ga Saibanin somethingsomething like that, Trick DS (after watching the drama… hoped it might be decent). I started a few that were decent and can’t remember the names. The Jinguji franchise is awesome.
I’m assuming you read Japanese? Send me a mail or something and let’s trade game suggestions or geek out.
Wow, sounds like you really like visual novels. I was just thinking of starting 999, but all the other games on the DS I was going to skip. My problem is, I really really hate horror! Anything remotely scary is right out for me. Ghost Trick and Phoenix Wright are okay because they contain death, but not in a scary way. But other stuff like Corpse Party and the weird-looking DS games are a no-go. What’s so great about the Jinguji series, btw?