CORRECT the MATCHMAKER - Let's Play The 25th Ward: The Silver Case

The 25th Ward is the second sequel to The Silver Case, released at some point in the early 2000s (probably 2003, as that’s when the game takes place) as a cell phone game in the pre-smartphone era that never saw the light of day outside of Japan and which, to the best of my knowledge, was never preserved anywhere. If you’ve played anything by Suda, you already know he loves doing that kind of shit.

The original game had two plot arcs, titled “Correctness” and “Placebo” - the second one being a continuation of the Placebo arc in The Silver Case. The arcs were released episodically (because this was 2003, and Half-Life 2 Episode 3 wasn’t yet an ongoing joke) and were meant to be played in release order. Effectively, this meant the original game worked just like The Silver Case with the alternating Transmitter - Placebo order for chapters.

The 25th Ward: The Silver Case is a 2018 remake of the original cell phone game, with an additional twist: not only was the entire game totally redone (with the exception of some of the original artwork), but a third plot arc, titled “Matchmaker”, got added in. From what I’ve been told, the “correct” order to play the remake in is this:

Correctness #0
Placebo *0
Correctness #1
Matchmaker "1
Placebo *1

And so on and so forth. What I’m going to do for this LP is arrange the updates by which plot arc they’re part of, so that if you want to try reading it in a different order, you can do that. Speaking of which…

Do I need to have read The Silver Case LP and/or played Flower, Sun and Rain to understand this?

YES. The 25th Ward is opaque enough as-is, and there’s a reason it gives you a recap of The Silver Case at the beginning. If you have read my previous LP, you should have everything you need to understand The 25th Ward. You may also want to watch one of the myriad LPs of Flower, Sun and Rain that exist - make sure you find one that has the original PS2 version footage in it.

I will warn you that if you go into this game not having played and fully understood The Silver Case, you will be in for a bad time, like a lot of the dipshit reviewers who panned this game because they had not played the other Kill The Past games.

What about Killer7?

The remake of The 25th Ward definitely takes inspiration from Killer7, and it would not hurt at all to go watch an LP of that.

Will this be a 100% LP?

No. This LP will cover all of the main Correctness, Placebo, and Matchmaker chapters. I’m going to spoil something up front - there is a very, very long chapter at the end of the Correctness arc with 100 endings, and I am not sitting through that. It’s only questionably canon anyway.

Are you getting Salty Vanilla to do an entire alternate storyline where the protagonist is a rodent of some sort based entirely on a single throwaway line in the first chapter again?

Of course. Why wouldn’t I?

Summary

Update 1

Summary

Update 3

Summary

Update 2

Summary

newmascotresized: Welcome to The 25th Ward. This game takes a lot of UI inspiration from Killer7, and it’s honestly kinda annoying compared to how The Silver Case worked.

newmascotresized: This is the first example. Instead of the simple chapter selection menu from The Silver Case, we have the uh… chapter select triangle that we navigate in 3D.

newmascotresized: Prototype is much, much shorter than Lunatics was. You can finish it in about 15 minutes assuming you’re not speeding up the dialog.

newmascotresized: I blame Kusabi. He clearly didn’t shoot it enough.

newmascotresized: Wait a second, what part of the 24 Wards was a perfect utopia? It was a city ruled by an immortal despot and a guy who spent all day spinning in a chair watching anime titties.

newmascotresized: I wonder if their sentient, bipedal chinchillas are human-sized.

newmascotresized: The location bar from The Silver Case returns, only now it takes up the top-center of the screen and starts out garbled.

newmascotresized: I didn’t capture it, but the name above the portrait that flashes for a second before the text starts showing up reads “Kosaka”. He was in The Silver Case - he was the investigator from Central who shows up in Parade. We heard from him briefly at the end of Danwa.

Kosaka

newmascotresized: Kosaka must have found the store Baofu shops at.

Kosaka: “There has been a string of suspicious deaths discovered here at Bayside Towerland, the symbol of the 25th Ward. In the four months since the condos were made available for purchase, nine people have died here.”

newmascotresized: I should mention that I found a copy of the script for this game partway through producing this update. This is the first time I’ve ever just been able to copy and paste.

Kosaka: “All of them have been ruled suicides. We haven’t been able to get any further information. It will be hard to get a foot in the door, even going through the Metropolitan Police Department.”

Kosaka: “Someone or something has been exerting their power to block these incidents off. But fortunately, we were able to obtain some info through a certain route.”

newmascotresized: The term highlighting is something The Silver Case never did, even in the remake, and I have no idea why.

Kosaka: “This is where we’ll need you. Infiltrate the scene and find out what’s going on. An investigator from HQ is using another route to get in. Make contact with them.”

Kosaka: “After that, I’ll submit a formal inquest and get started on the official investigation. I’ll be presiding over and leading the investigation. I’m putting you in charge of the field.”

newmascotresized: There’s a tutorial here I’m going to skip in favor of explaining it myself. The 25th Ward has a different system from The Silver Case, one which I don’t think is necessarily better.

newmascotresized: Our new character uses dice as their interface, because symbolism. The standard controls are a D4. We have Move…

newmascotresized: Look, which is half of the replacement for Contact…

newmascotresized: And Talk, which is the other half of the replacement for Contact. There’s a fourth command we can’t use yet. We have to start by looking at the building.

newmascotresized: Oh, just like that town in New Hampshire that got taken over by bears.

Kosaka: The success of the 24 Wards accelerated the progress of the 25th Ward proposal. It’s supposed to be some sort of utopian paradise, populated by around 300,000 people. People’s belief in peace is unwavering."

newmascotresized: I’m guessing the shadow government is already cranking out sentient, bipedal bears to take over the entire ward, because that’s how this kind of thing goes.

newmascotresized: Actually, you know what I really want to see now? I want a Silver Case type game where you’re trying to investigate that town in New Hampshire and the twist is that you were playing as Hank the Tank the entire time.

Kosaka: “This highrise apartment complex is up against the threat of ‘administrative crime’. There have been a number of suicides in which the cause of death is unknown, and they’ve been covered up.”

Kosaka: “It’s proof that someone powerful is involved, reigning in reporters and keeping the media under their thumb.”

Kosaka: “This is the sort of case that would absolutely be shut down if standard investigative procedures were followed. We’re going up against a huge opponent.”

newmascotresized: We now need to use the “Talk” option.

Kosaka: “Register yourself as an administrator, and begin infiltration. We’ve acquired a fake ID for you, so there’s no need to worry about being made. Use it wisely, and sparingly. Consider this your first mission as
a 25th Ward HC Unit Special Investigator.”

newmascotresized: Speaking of ID, I should talk about who our new character is. Our new character’s name is Uehara… which is kinda weird given that technically, Big Dick is now the real Kamui.

newmascotresized: Here’s our first reference to Killer7. This is the interface for navigating the first-person segments of the game… and it honestly kinda sucks. While this game does have mouse control, the mouse pointer in these menus is invisible, so you more or less have to use the keyboard.

Doorboy: “Please produce your ID. I will confirm your identity.”

newmascotresized: Hitting the “Bag” option switches the die over to Uehara’s inventory. I’m surprised we don’t have a copy of Kurayami Dance or a luchador mask.

Doorboy: “Your identification has been confirmed. Please proceed.”

newmascotresized: A condo complex with a VIP elevator?

newmascotresized: I feel like if you’re ever buying a condo, and the real estate agent says it “features excellent sanitation”, that’s probably a good sign to not buy that condo.

newmascotresized: I’ve never lived in a condo, but I’ve helped sell a fair few of them, and I can tell you it is definitely not better than reality.

newmascotresized: When this pops up, it plays the sound effect that plays in Killer7 when you pick up an item… even though this screen is a reference to Flower, Sun and Rain.

newmascotresized: This right here? This is how Flower, Sun and Rain works. You put in a number, the game asks if it’s your final answer, and then…

newmascotresized: We’re not even five minutes into the game and we’ve already run into two Killer7 references and an FSR reference.

newmascotresized: We can’t do anything with the two doors, but we should stop and check something while we’re here - namely the ID pass and the ID code we got from Kosaka.

newmascotresized: Given that all the room numbers are five digits, it’s safe to say that the room number we’re looking for is probably 75028. The password is not randomized - I confirmed it with the game script. Let’s keep going down the hallway.

newmascotresized: She looks… very different than she did in The Silver Case, but this is Sakura Natsume - the only other survivor of the 24th Ward Heinous Crimes Unit apart from Kusabi and Big Dick.

newmascotresized: When she shows up on screen, and for the entire time she’s talking, the game plays the Transmitter theme in the background.

Sakura: “I was a bit surprised as that wasn’t what I had heard.”

newmascotresized: Given that we know Sakura is an Ayame maspro, and that this sounds a lot like Chizuru a few seconds before Sakura killed her, this probably is not a good sign.

Sakura: “We still need time before we can begin the investigation. Check everything out, and be sure not to leave any evidence.”

newmascotresized: If we talk to Sakura again…

newmascotresized: Hm, I wonder why we’d remind her of Big Dick. I bet Salty Vanilla can help shed some light on this.

newmascotresized: Meet our protagonist, Uehamster. Our conversation around this piece went something like this:

image

Sakura: “You can enter the room with your ID password. It’s Room 75028. Make sure you get the right room. We don’t want to disturb the neighbors.”

newmascotresized: Here is my first mistake. The room we want is actually on the right side, not the left.

newmascotresized: You have to go through a couple of these screens, which probably would’ve taken half the time if we were still using The Silver Case’s movement style. Clearly, Uehamster has not had the same level of tactical training as Big Dick.

newmascotresized: This is the advantage to LPing this game - I had forgotten the password, but all I had to do was go back through my screenshot folder.

newmascotresized: I’m not sure what significance, if any, the number 803026 has.

newmascotresized: My first thought upon seeing this room was “That doesn’t look like blood, it looks like someone jumped on a bottle of ketchup”.

Sakura: “The murder occurred in this room. It feels too cold and sterile for someone to live in. Don’t you think? Let’s start investigating. We don’t have much time.”

newmascotresized: I uh… I think if that was possible, Kusabi would have already done it.

Sakura: “Apparently, you can see crime and everyday ‘life’… Michiru sent you into the field believing that this case would help awaken you. But I can’t go back just yet.”

newmascotresized: Well, I guess this explains the end of The Silver Case where they talk about a second Kamui that isn’t Big Dick.

newmascotresized: Oh god dammit no. I already played that! It was dogshit! Baofu was the only character!

newmascotresized: Next time, we’ll see the first Placebo chapter and catch up with Tokio after the events of Flower, Sun and Rain.

Summary

newmascotresized: Now that we’ve cleared Prototype, we can visit the other two plot arcs. One thing I do not like about the new chapter select thing is that it automatically puts you on the last plot arc you were on when you load the game after clearing a chapter.

newmascotresized: There’s nothing even telling you that Placebo has unlocked, and I can see how this could cause confusion.

newmascotresized: We’re going to skip most of Utsutsu, because it’s a 15-minute long text scroll recapping the plot of The Silver Case. I understand why they put this in, but it just feels like a bad decision.

newmascotresized: What I’ll do is post and comment on some of the more opaque points, especially those raised in FSR or in Lifecut / Hikari / Danwa.

newmascotresized: One thing I should mention is that The Silver Case gave you the translations for Tokio’s chapter titles in the achievement list if you were playing with them on. The 25th Ward does not do that, so I will.

newmascotresized: This chapter’s title, Utsutsu (現つ), has two meanings: it means “consciousness”, but also can mean “reality”.

newmascotresized: The text scroll outright lies in a couple of spots, like this one where it claims that Morikawa’s notebook had something in it. We know from Flower, Sun and Rain that this is not true.

newmascotresized: This part, however, is. We find out in Flower, Sun and Rain that Lospass Island was a cover for a hyena farm used to try and generate silver eyes.

newmascotresized: One new thing this confirms that there are two “real” Kamuis - Tokio is one, since he has the original Kamui’s consciousness in his eye. This is what is making him see ghosts when we see him in Hikari. The other “real” Kamui is Big Dick, the last holder of the artificial Kamui consciousness created by the Shelter Kids program.

newmascotresized: There’s a list of deaths at one point, which the game admits is wrong - we know Munakata can’t be dead because we saw him in Danwa. This also leaves out Mikoshiba, who Munakata killed in Lifecut.

newmascotresized: I also like to think that Morikawa never actually died. I mean, Kusabi made up the entire Silver Case, who’s to say he didn’t lie about that?

newmascotresized: The last three are proven - well, kinda. Depending on how you interpret FSR, the original Sumio may or may not be alive: there’s a plot point that the reason the day keeps resetting is because there are actually multiple planes and multiple Sumio clones running around, but one of the main interpretations of FSR’s plot is that everything up to where Tokio shows up is a dream.

newmascotresized: The image from Hikari comes in as soon as Kaoru Hachisuka’s name appears, and confirms that Tokio was in fact talking to him during that segment… though technically, if you think about it, that conversation was Kamui talking to Kamui about Kamui.

newmascotresized: We’ll end this with the one important part of Utsutsu.

newmascotresized: Oh look, it’s those old “Daily Word” emails Tokio used to get.

newmascotresized: Next time, we’ll do New World Order. The Matchmaker arc is technically available, but I’m going to do New World Order before I touch the first Matchmaker chapter.

Summary

newmascotresized: New World Order is our first full-size chapter - it’s about as long as Decoyman was.

newmascotresized: It’s hard to see in screenshots because it’s virtually the same color as the building, but you can see a bag being thrown out the window.

newmascotresized: This guy’s name is Hatoba. While this game doesn’t have a manual that explains who the characters are the way that The Silver Case did, it does have an artbook… that of course I bought.

newmascotresized: The artbook explains that Hatoba is the chief of the 25th Ward Heinous Crimes Unit, making him this game’s equivalent of Kotobuki.

Kosaka: “No, I just arrived myself.”

Kosaka: “Since Sakaguchi’s funeral. That was five years ago.”

newmascotresized: In case you’ve forgotten, Sakaguchi was the guy Kusabi called “Afro”, an investigator from Central who worked with Kosaka. He showed up in Parade.

Sakaguchi

Hatoba: “Wow, so it’s been that long? Ever since that case…”

Kosaka: “I’d prefer if you didn’t speak about that.”

Hatoba: “Yeah, sorry about that. But the past is the past. You can’t force yourself to forget it, you know?”

newmascotresized: All he needs to say now is “It can’t be helped” and then Kusabi can legally murder him.

Kosaka: “Anyway… what did you want to speak with me about?”

Hatoba: “Where are you at these days? I’ve heard rumors…”

Kosaka: “I’m working as an official at the Ministry of International Trade and Industry. I wasn’t cut out for criminal investigation. I’m really satisfied with my current position.”

newmascotresized: I can’t help but read this in the “Milkman” voice from Psychonauts.

Hatoba: “Can I take that at face value? A detective who was once on the front lines of investigation is satisfied working as a bureaucrat… I don’t believe that.”

Kosaka: “I thought the same thing… I was worried about whether I’d really be able to tear myself away from the job, but it turns out I was made for office work. Even I was surprised by that discovery.”

newmascotresized: So what you’re saying is that… you were born to be a bureaucrat?

Hatoba: “That’s good. I was actually worried about you, after hearing that you’d left the 24 Wards. So this is a relief.”

Kosaka: “Thank you for thinking of me.”

Hatoba: “It’s an easy job. You should make some time to enjoy life.”

Kosaka: “Yes, I will. You take care, too…”

Hatoba: “There’s one thing I forgot… I’ve been hearing rumors recently. An administrative officer has been going out more lately, and has apparently been putting together a special investigation unit in secret…”

Hatoba: “It sounds like some really capable people are joining up. Have you heard anything about this?”

Kosaka: “No, nothing in particular…”

Hatoba: “Yeah, I guess you wouldn’t have. In this line of work, there aren’t many ‘capable’ people out there, so I thought it might’ve been you. Sorry for doubting you.”

Kosaka: “I’m not that good. I’m far away from all of that now.”

Hatoba: “Not that far. It’s got to do with what’s happening here, right now.”

newmascotresized: Believe me when I say that by the end of this update, we’ll have already reached a body count exceeding the entirety of The Silver Case.

newmascotresized: This guy’s name is Mokutaro Shiroyabu. He’s this game’s replacement for Kusabi, even though he’s got almost nothing in common with Kusabi. I took one look at him and went “Yep, he’s a Kamui maspro”.

Shiroyabu: “Dead men tell no tales…”

newmascotresized: And this is Sakaki, who is currently Shiroyabu’s partner. She doesn’t have a first name listed in the artbook, and that should tell you a lot about how long she’s going to last.

Shiroyabu: “A resume he’d used at a job interview…”

Sakaki: “We checked out his most recent address, and it was a dormitory where single people tend to hang out. Nobody knew anything about Kurumizawa.”

Shiroyabu: “So no trace at all… where was he registered?”

Sakaki: “It wasn’t recorded in his ledger, and when he moved into the 25th Ward, all the data changed.”

newmascotresized: You mean he… killed… his past?

Shiroyabu: “So no trace here, either… doesn’t anyone know anything about Kurumizawa’s past?”

Sakaki: “Hm…”

Shiroyabu: “What? Cat got your tongue?”

newmascotresized: Clearly, Shiroyabu cannot tell the difference between a cat and a hamster.

Sakaki: “Well, uh… it’s a bit nasty, but…”

Sakaki: “Yeah, he ‘ate’ ate it. It looks like he’d been eating a load of female hair…”

newmascotresized: He had to eat the hair because otherwise he’d be bald, or possibly also piglike in appearance. Yes, I know that’s from like 2008. No, I do not apologize.

Shiroyabu: “That’s fucked up… just hardcore creepy shit.”

Sakaki: “Pretty normal perversion, really.”

Shiroyabu: “I heard this from one of my mentors but a crime where personal information goes missing isn’t a normal crime.”

Sakaki: “From whom?”

newmascotresized: I’m not sure if this is meant to imply that his mentor was someone from The Silver Case, but I don’t think Shiroyabu is old enough for that to be the case if this is really ten years later.

newmascotresized: This part is… kinda confusing, to be honest. I’m not sure if it’s meant to be the case that Uehara is in disguise as the building manager, or if the building manager is there and just has no lines, or what. We need to use the Talk option here.

Sakaki: “Apparently these condos had more than a million applicants in the first day on sale. Each tower has 3000 homes, and there are… what, 30 towers…?”

Sakaki: “That’s around 90,000 homes; that’s pretty impressive. Population-wise, by quick estimate, that’s like 300,000 people! But it totally doesn’t have that ‘lived in’ feeling, you know? There aren’t many people walking around, and there’s no karaoke place here…”

newmascotresized: By population count, the 25th Ward would be in 15th place with just these condo towers alone when compared to the 23 wards of Tokyo that actually exist.

Shiroyabu: “I don’t get your standards. People who care about things like karaoke don’t apply to live here… most of the people living here either have a reason to want to get away from the normal government, or have decided to make huge changes in their lives.”

Shiroyabu: “They target people from out in the sticks who don’t have some kind of group they belong to.”

Sakaki: “What the hell does that mean?”

Shiroyabu: “That means doing away with city life. What’s behind that is… pretty clear.”

Sakaki: “What is it?”

Shiroyabu: “I got no clue.”

Sakaki: “What, you don’t know either!?”

newmascotresized: We can use Talk again here for a couple of lines.

newmascotresized: With that, we can now Move again. All we have to do is re-trace our steps from when we were here in Prototype and take Shiroyabu and Sakaki to the crime scene.

newmascotresized: I got a little confused here, because we don’t have the passcode to the door anymore. What you’re supposed to do is Move again, but we can use Talk instead for some dialog.

Sakaki: “It’s not bad, though. This living space does sort of have a ‘25th Ward’ feel to it, doesn’t it?”

Shiroyabu: “That may be fine for you… for some people, this could be a real breeding ground for crime.”

Sakaki: “Oh yeah, I get what you mean. The psychology of fear can spread. They talked about that in the lectures…”

newmascotresized: I checked the script to see if there’s a difference between doing the optional dialogue and not, and as it turns out there isn’t.

newmascotresized: And this is Kuroyanagi. She’s closer to Kusabi but feels like she’s trying way too hard. I am willing to bet she is an Ayame maspro.

Kuroyanagi: “Did you sell all your cookies or whatever? You ‘detectives’ go on a nice little date? You think this is fuckin’ happy fun time? This case is already pretty fucked up. Looks like serial murders.”

Shiroyabu: “Sorry… we were talking with the building manager.”

Kuroyanagi: “The manager? You mean this asshole?”

newmascotresized: This game came out in the early 2000s, and Suda fucking loves wrestling, so of course she calls Shiroyabu “Jabroni”.

Kuroyanagi: “I mean, you’ve only been a detective for what, three years already?”

Shiroyabu: “It’s ‘Shiroyabu’.”

Kuroyanagi: “And what about you, Sakaki?!”

Sakaki: “Uh, yes sir. I’m helping out with the autopsy. Right, Hiro?”

Kuroyanagi: “So having a cute, young girl around is apparently a real motivator. Right, Jabroni?”

Shiroyabu: “Are you seriously going to keep calling me ‘Jabroni’? I really hate that nickname!”

Kuroyanagi: “Quit fucking around and start investigating like a big boy! Unless you wanna get tossed back out to the sticks…”

Shiroyabu: “Yes, sir…”

newmascotresized: I’ve been playing the Resident Evil 4 Remake this weekend, and all I could think about was a mod where you play as Shiroyabu and he is completely oblivious to the entire situation.

newmascotresized: One of the few improvements this game makes over The Silver Case’s UI is that when you hit Talk, you are then given a menu as to who to talk to, rather than having to turn and find the person you’re looking for.

Shiroyabu: “Her New Year’s resolution was ‘to become the kind of detective who looks good with a revolver’. And she’s got a really dirty mouth… Sorry for complaining like this.”

Shiroyabu: “The HC Unit forbids revolvers. Since she isn’t able to carry one for her day job, she moonlights as a bouncer. If caught, she’d be fired immediately. But somehow she never gets reported.”

Sakaki: “Sir? Are you OK? You had a hard time, huh? You found the body, right? You seem OK… are you used to this sort of thing? There are a lot of suicides around here, so you’re probably used to finding bodies and stuff… Don’t let it get you down.”

Kuroyanagi: “Get the fuck out of the way!”

newmascotresized: Once we’ve talked to everyone, we can talk to Shiroyabu again.

Shiroyabu: “Something is bothering me… it’s like… a pristine dead body, some really vicious blood splatters… I almost feel like we’re being invited. Do you get what I mean?”

Shiroyabu: “Hirooka, do blood splatters usually reach the ceiling?”

newmascotresized: My theory is that if they look around the corner, there’s probably an exploded ketchup bottle with a couple of chinchilla-sized footprints on it. Look, sometimes you’re at a crime scene and you want some fries, and then you drop the ketchup bottle and accidentally step on it.

Sakaki: “But like, what would the point of that be? This feels really weird for a suicide, doesn’t it?”

Shiroyabu: “Yeah, in the six months since opening alone, there have been more than ten suicides, which definitely sounds fishy…”

Sakaki: “Huh…? You see this hole here?”

Shiroyabu: “Hole…? Something smells… excuse me, could you cut the lights in this room for a minute? Something’s bothering me.”

Shiroyabu: “What’s this…?”

Sakaki: “This hole is… shining?”

Kuroyanagi: “It’s too dangerous to be here. Get too close to the fire, and you’re gonna get burned, too. You should get out of here. This place reeks of something hidden and dangerous.”

Shiroyabu: “Light?! What the hell… at this time of day…?”

newmascotresized: At this time of year, in this part of the country, localized entirely within this condo building. I wonder if The Simpsons sucks as much in the Kill the Past universe as it does in the real one.

Sakaki: “That’s awesome! It looks like Christmas lights!”

Shiroyabu: “Sakaki! Where are you? Respond!”

newmascotresized: He’s asking this, and they’re in a studio apartment.

Sakaki: “I’m totally fine! I’m fine, but the light is so bright… aaah!”

Shiroyabu: “Did that just go off again? Huh? What… Sakaki, are you even listening?”

Body Count: 1

Shiroyabu: “No… way?”

newmascotresized: I wish I had played this game before YIIK, because I would have gotten a ton of mileage out of this screenshot. I have, by the way, been periodically checking to see if that patch is ever coming out, and things seem to be leaning towards “No.”

Shiroyabu: “She’s dead…! Sakaki was killed…”

Kuroyanagi: “There’s a sniper up above! Stay away from the light and get everyone out into the hallway!”

Kosaka: “Even if our infinite karma was a means of killing our way of life, we wouldn’t notice; we’re just dolls, entrusting our everything to the system.”

Kosaka: “Smile for me, Sakura. I’m utterly powerless; I’m just not gonna make it. Yet another ‘perfect lifestyle’ has been born, and the dreamlike life based on despair contaminates the people.”

Kosaka: “This could be the readvent of the 24 Wards. Alright then, everyone - it’s about time to stop dreaming. All units - are you prepared? You have one mission…”

newmascotresized: I’m not sure how any of this makes sense.

Kuroyanagi: “Listen up, Jabroni! We’ve only got two combatants out there. This hottie, and your punk ass. But this is enough people to turn things around.”

Shiroyabu: “No way…! We don’t even know who or what this guy is!”

Kuroyanagi: “Quit whining like a little bitch and just kill this guy. If you’re gonna give up and die, then we’ll know just how capable you are. If you’re gonna be a detective, then man the fuck up and do your job for once! Got it?”

Shiroyabu: “Yes! I’ll take him out!”

Kuroyanagi: “OK then! Now lure him out. Run this way down the hallway and you should reach the elevator. Wait on the upper floor.”

Shiroyabu: “Huh? What about you?”

Kuroyanagi: “I’m gonna provide backup, obviously. I’m not so much of an asshole that I’d leave you hanging. Right?”

newmascotresized: We now have to go back to the elevator from Room 75028. Fortunately, we’ve done this twice already.

Shiroyabu: “Standing around here is dangerous. Come on, we’re moving.”

newmascotresized: You can see in the background that the highest floor is 80, so let’s go with that.

newmascotresized: The only thing we can do is talk, so let’s do that.

Shiroyabu: “Shit… what do I do now? I don’t get that bitch at all. What the hell kind of orders are these? ‘Lure him out’… the fuck kind of ‘plan’ is that?! She’s not even backing me up, either.”

Shiroyabu: “I can’t deal with this bullshit, seriously. Oh… were you listening? Were you eavesdropping? That’s pretty creepy, man. If you were listening, then just tell me so!”

Shiroyabu: “I’m not actually the type of guy to talk badly about people. To be honest, just between you and me, I actually respect her. That sounds forced, doesn’t it… I really can’t stand her.”

newmascotresized: Shiroyabu has the situational awareness of a rock.

newmascotresized: Yeah, you know how all those delivery guys wear futuristic tactical armor with night-vision visors. All the rage these days.

Shiroyabu: “Hey, what are you doing over there…?”

Shiroyabu: “The mailman, right? What kind of work requires a night-vision scope…? Some sort of private start-up or something? It must be pretty tough, though. Having to insource secure work to go up against private corporations… crawling up into the attic to assassinate people…”

newmascotresized: Oh look, it’s a speargun. This means we’re now trying to solve a murder done by Kamui with a Kamui and an Ayame… as a Kamui. We’re on multiple levels of Kamui at this point.

Shiroyabu: “Goddamn pampered, comfy bureaucrats shouldn’t be playing with grownup toys. Huh? What, are you mad?”

newmascotresized: What.

Shiroyabu: “So?”

Shiroyabu: " ‘Peacefully’? What are you doing here?"

Shiroyabu: “So it was organized crime after all… I had read that it was a plot by general contractors, but damn.”

Shiroyabu: “What a load of horseshit.”

Body Count: 2

newmascotresized: I really, really wish Suda would do an action game in the Silver Case/25th Ward setting. That just looks like it’d be really satisfying to pull off in that kind of game.

Shiroyabu: “But, like, there’s that ‘interval’, you know? That unique feeling you get when staring death in the eye… the mental strain between you and the opponent, the conflict…”

Kuroyanagi: “You’re gonna die, you know that? We’re in the shit here. Guys who wait around for ‘intervals’ get their asses handed to them. Next time you hesitate like that, I’m gonna kill you myself. So stop being a pussy.”

Shiroyabu: “OK…”

Kuroyanagi: “I’ll buy you some new undies later. So until then, keep your shit together.”

Shiroyabu: “Shit…”

Shiroyabu: “We’re surrounded… we can’t get out of this.”

Kuroyanagi: “These assholes are desperate, too. If this is their oh-so-holy workplace, then we’re the intruders.”

Shiroyabu: “That’s some arbitrary reasoning…”

Kuroyanagi: “Disposing of these guys is our own ‘arbitrary reasoning’. It’s basically the same thing, right?”

Shiroyabu: “Sakaki has been killed. We have a really big reason.”

Kuroyanagi: “And we killed one of theirs, too. So we’re even.”

Shiroyabu: “Even so, we have to avenge Sakaki!”

Kuroyanagi: “Jesus Christ you guys are annoying… all you need to do is whip out your guns and dispose of these assholes. This job isn’t about ‘reasons’ and ‘reasoning’ and shit like that.”

Shiroyabu: “But motive is important.”

Kuroyanagi: “What-the-fuck-ever.”

Kuroyanagi: “Don’t get in the way, Jabroni. And don’t do anything stupid. Got it? This is a really big catch. Act accordingly.”

Shiroyabu: “Well I’m gonna turn into a ferocious-ass beast myself.”

newmascotresized: Next time, we’ll probably finish New World Order.