Jisei: The First Case HD

Jisei is a well known genre of poetry from Japan and all of East Asia, you may call them the “Death Poems”. They reflect about death, what it feels like to die and that is the whole theme in this visual novel developed by sakevisual and published to the Switch by Ralaika Games.

Our main character ran into a murder scene by accident however he soon became the main suspect when he was found out touching the body. Why would he touch the body right? No one knew but he has a special ability, he can feel everything someone felt before their death.

Your goal in the visual novel “Jisei: The First Case” is to find the real murderer and prove your innocence with the help of your special power and impressive detective skills.

As I was playing through it I felt like no one could really be innocent and if you end up trusting someone too much you will end your game sooner than expected!

You got to investigate 3 other suspects inside the shop. A young girl working at the shop named Chance that seems very cheerfull and innocent but is also a serious character at times, like she wouldn’t let anyone fool her.

Miss Bergstrom, worker at a famous company that is the first one to see you at the crime scene and in panic soon puts all the blame on you.

And lastly, Kizaki, a very diligent college student that goes there everyday to study so he was able to see everyone enter the shop.

I also want to talk about the voice acting, because it is very good! But… because I am so used to the professional japanese voice actors it felt to me that they could have done a little better. I wish we could have that option.

The gameplay itself is just like any other visual novels so if you like the genre you are easily drawn into it. I was both happy and sad that the story continues in a seperate game and after that ending I really don’t want to miss the continuation!

Lastly, the OST! Only a few but a very fitting selection for the theme. “Jisei: The First Case HD” features your own music room and I admit, I went there just so I could listen to my favorite: “Unseen”.

To conclude this review… I only have praise for this game, didn’t find anything I disliked or hated so all I can say about it is that everyone that apreciates the genre should try this one out and I can only recommend it and please remember that in order to experience the whole story you need to play two other games afterwards too!

Our biggest thank you to the developers at sakevisual and Ratalaika Games for entrusting us with this review.