J.B. Harold Murder Club (TurboGrafx CD) Playthrough - NintendoComplete
131A playthough of NEC's 1991 murder mystery detective game for the TurboGrafx CD, J. B. Harold Murder Club.
J.B. Harold Murder Club was the first entry in a long-running of detective mystery adventures originally appearing on Japanese PCs in 1986. It has appeared in various forms - mostly in Japanese - over the years, including games for the Famicom, the DS, Switch, and mobile platforms, but the TurboGrafx CD version was the first to benefit from a glossy big budget facelift.
As the game begins, the body of a local wealthy businessman, Bill Robbins, has been discovered in an abandoned car on the outskirts of town, and J.B. has been tasked with getting to the bottom of things.
It plays very similarly to games like Phoenix Wright: you're presented with a case, and to solve it, you track down and question suspects, find contradictions in their stories, canvas areas for evidence, and then apply the thumbscrews during interrogations to get to the bottom of things.
The game does, however, demand that you think for yourself. There is no hand-holding whatsoever, so unlike Phoenix Wright, Murder Club poses a stiff challenge.
This is an extremely impressive game given the time it was released. JB's story is incredibly well written, and each of the (several) potential suspects have distinct personalities and backgrounds. A *lot* of effort was invested in fleshing out their relationships with one another. The writing is great, and the quality of the localization is absolutely phenomenal. The dialogue actually comes across as natural, and the actors deliver their lines with a level of professionalism rarely seen in 90s video games.
(I gotta say, Gayle (1:07:30) is still one of my favorite video game characters ever.)
My only qualm with the game is how insanely sensitive it is to requiring the exact right events be triggered to allow the story to move forward - if you've ever gotten frustrated on any modern visual novels because you forgot to do something.... oh boy, wait until you've tried this.
It's unfortunate that this game remains as obscure as it still is the English-speaking world, but if you enjoy this sort of game, this is among the best you'll find from the 8/16-bit console eras.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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