Jake Hunter – Detective Chronicles (DS)

Jake Hunter Detective Chronicles is a graphical text adventure game developed by Workjam and published by Arc System Works. This is the first time the series has been released outside of its native Japan. In Japan the series started way back on the Famicom Disk System and has spawned an impressive 12 console versions and 16 mobile versions. This DS version contains 3 cases from the mobile line of games. This is one of the first glaring problems of this version. The Japanese equivalent has 5 cases and extra features too. I can only presume it was a matter of cost as to why there is only 3.

The game stars surprisingly enough Jake Hunter. As per usual detective standards people have crimes that need to be solved and thus our hero is on duty. The cases in the game are all pretty interesting. Definately interesting enough to gloss over the few translation errors, which there is a few of but nothing too bad. This game is very heavy on the text as most cases are solved just purely through conversing with other characters. In each case there is usually about 4 or 5 places to travel between however sometimes when you are in a location you cannot leave until you have done every conversation thread but alas there is a problem with this too. I found that even going through all the conversation and having Jake say “I think I found everything I can” the game would still not let me out the screen. The problem? I had to inspect the person who I was talking to for the game to fully finish of the conversation string. This is quite the problem this game has. There is no clear instruction of when you have to do this. After a while you just presume thats what you have to do and it just feels really unatural.

Each case only lasts about an hour and a half. Which at first feels like it is way too short but the stories do wrap up nicely and don’t feel prolonged. Also the fact these were mobile games first makes sense. Total play time is only roughly 5 hours or less which I feel is pretty alright. It is perfectly portable.

Jake Hunter Detective Chronicles is a very good adventure game with really interesting cases however a few translation errors and some clunky transitions make it feel like a diamond in the rough. Defianately worth a look.
4/5