
A mystery visual novel taking place aboard the underwater train Marine Express. Follow student Ranko Togawa on her quest to find the culprit on the murder of an accompanying teacher... with lots of surprises along the way!
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About
Murder on the Marine Express is a kinetic novel (linear, no choices) and the first installment of The Mysteries of Ranko Togawa series.
The St. Joachim Academy for elite girls booked the maiden voyage of the new Marine Express submarine train, which runs along the ocean floor from California all the way to the Japanese coast. The journey seems like the perfect opportunity to enjoy the beautiful underwater scenery, learn about marine biology and, ultimately, relax from regular school life. However, the idyllic travel turns into a nightmare when one of the teachers is found dead in his room. Who could have killed the most popular and beloved professor in the academy?
Ranko Togawa, accompanied by her friend Astrid, takes it upon herself to investigate the events and clear the name of the main suspect. Of course, it won't be that simple. As the number of victims grows, the possibility of facing a serial killer becomes more real and panic slowly sets in. Ranko will have to make the most of the time left to find out the truth and prevent the mysterious murderer from killing again, although not all the answers will be to her liking.
Learn the secrets hidden in the Marine Express and discover the culprit in this story of tragedy, surprises and lots of humor!
[FEATURES]
► A mystery visual novel with classic locked-space whodunit development following the style of popular detective fiction.
► A story in 5 chapters offering 3-4 hours of reading.
► Retro-feel graphics with pixel art in the style of old text adventure games.
► Large cast of charismatic characters with humorous dialogues.
► Side conversations on Ranko's phone which help to understand the situation on the train and know more about the students of St. Joachim.
► Texts in English, French, Spanish and Japanese.
Stats
All-time low is the lowest price we've recorded for this game since we started tracking it.
Languages: English, Spanish - Spain, French, Japanese
Engagement
Hours played at review time, across 40 reviews with recorded playtime.
Reviews
Themes across 40 recent reviews and how positive each mention is. A keyword signal, not full sentiment analysis.
positive critical· bar length = how often the theme comes up
Reviews
Cute little VN with an oldschool style detective flair ala Famicom Detective and other gamees of the era. Nothing you haven't seen before but I read it all the way through in one sitting.
Una visual novel bastante buena, muy buen humor repartido por todo el juego, para que no sea todo comedia, pero tampoco tenga momentos serios muy largos. La historia está bien, aunque a mi no me gusta mucho porque no soy fan de las historias anime, e incluso aunque no me gusten, me ha hecho estar 5 horas jugando seguidas sin que se haga pesado (dura menos, pero soy muy lento xd). La forma de contar la historia es de lo mejor, dando unos cuantos giros al mismo tiempo que como jugador intentaba predecir que iba a pasar, dando las ganas de seguir un rato más y sin darte cuenta ya te lo has jugado entero. En general recomiendo el juego si te gustan las novelas visuales, creo que por su bajo precio merece la pena ^^.
미스터리 장르랑 레트로 그래픽을 좋아하시는 분들에게 추천하는 게임 캐릭터들도 저마다의 개성과 스토리가 있고 진지한 란코와 자유분방한 아스트리드의 조합이 잘 어울립니다 한글은 지원하지 않지만 텍스트를 읽기만 하면 되는 간단한 게임이니 괜찮습니다 오히려 언어 공부도 되고 좋아요 근데 그래서인지 플탐 20시간 넘긴 건 저밖에 없는 것 같네요 ㅋㅋ
Me ha gustado mucho esta Novela Visual de misterio. Buenos personajes, trata temas como el acoso, las formas de hacer justicia, los amigos, y la necesidad de asumir las consecuencias de nuestros propios actos. El misterio está bien contado, y es lógico (no tiene explicaciones absurdas o muy rebuscadas). Advertencia: no hay opciones de diálogo, este juego es como leer un libro.
海底列車「マリンエクスプレス」で起きた殺人事件の犯人を見つけるため、 野暮ったいけど使命感の強い女の子、東川乱子が、捜査に乗り出す物語です。 このゲームはプレイヤーが操作や推理を行う形式ではなく、 純粋なノベルとして、東川乱子とアストリッドの推理の行方を眺めていく形の作品です。 (日本語訳の)テキストは難解な言い回しを避けた、比較的平易な言葉で記述されているため、 状況をイメージしやすく、非常に読みやすく感じました。 重たいテーマを扱いつつも、全体的にコミカルなタッチの文章に仕上げてあります。 また、スマートフォン内のグループチャットを通して、 乱子の行動範囲外の生徒たちの情景や心理描写を知ることが出来る仕組みは、世界観にも合っており、斬新だと思いました。 総じて、小説を1冊買うような気持ちで購入できるゲームだと思います。 (価格帯もちょうどそのあたりなので…) ただ、このゲームのSAVE/LOAD機能は、少しゲームの階層の深い場所にあります。 右上のスマートフォンから、Settingを押した設定画面の先です。
I vibe with this
I really really love this game. The mystery can be intense at times and I only have sunc a long plahytime because i took a few naps while playing but I just love all the girsl so much and the writing is fresh and the mystery plotting is so well done it's just so clever. I really think fans of mystery novels should check this out
[h1] Buen acercamiento al género de visual novel [/h1] Considero que Murder on the Marine Express puede ser una buena toma de contacto para gente profana del género visual novel: duración acotada -menos de 4 horas-, precio muy bajo -me contó 90 céntimos-, historia estándar de asesinato en un espacio cerrado pero bien resuelta, que te despierta la curiosidad, acompañada de un pixel art que cumple su función. Es importante señalar que en este título [b] la interactividad es nula [/b] ya que lo único que puedes hacer en él es darle a un botón para pasar a la siguiente conversación: no hay ninguna manera de influir en la historia y la resolución de ésta. He visto en la página de los desarrolladores que tienen otro título en el cuál sí se puede influir en la investigación por lo que además de una puerta de entrada al género, Murder on the Marine Express funciona como una presentación del mundo y personajes. En definitiva, si tienes claro a qué vienes con este título te ahorrarás las decepciones que pueden dar lugar a una mala opinión del mismo y disfrutarás de una historia interesante, tampoco muy original, a acompañar algún que otro café que te tomes.
Murder on the Marine Express is a hit-and-miss game for me. For starters, I learned "kinetic novel", for my practical definitions, is the same as a visual novel, in that I just clicked one button and read a story the whole time. So the quality of this game hinges almost exclusively on the story (the art and music are fine to good in quality, so I enjoyed those), and the story is definitely in the same ballpark as the art and music: fine to good. I like some of the banter and chemistry between some of the characters, although there are some truly long diversions into niche references from time to time which don't do a great job of pulling me in to be part of the joke going on with the characters. Moments like these felt like the writer just flexing his knowledge of specific people and ideas just for the sake of doing so? It wasn't even quirky in addition in a Suda51 or David Lynch type of way, it was just "here are some weird references to people and sports and places you have never known/been to and here's barely enough information to even get you into it." If you think I'm spending too long on this point, it's because the writer spent too long on these references. As for the mystery itself, again, it was fine to good. I liked the development of the plot, although by the time the end arrives, there's a fair few aspects of the mystery that just Appear that the characters seemingly learned off-screen, but there are a number of little subtle details throughout the story that, when revealed, also made me think "Ah, yeah, I do vaguely remember that now, that was clever." So, all in all, I would recommend at least giving Murder on the Marine Express a try if you like kinetic novels and mysteries. It's really short, there was clearly some thought and effort put in, and the story itself carries some weight when it wants to make a point. Support small developers (especially those who release a game natively for Linux, cheers lads!) and give it a shot. Game is cheap enough and goes on sale often enough for it to be worth a wishlist spot.
途中で犯人の予想がついてしまうので、本格ミステリーというには少しだけ物足りない気がしますが、レトロな雰囲気とキャラクター達が個性的でよかったです 本当に読むだけなので推理を自分でするとかそういうのはありませんが、主人公と相方の二人が好きなので続編を楽しみにしてます
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Trends
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Momentum
Pace estimated from the game's recent review growth (our daily snapshots) at its own sales-per-review ratio — a momentum signal, not booked sales.
Audience
Estimated from the language of this game's reviews — a proxy for where players are, not official Steam demographics.
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