The Centennial Case: A Shijima story is an FMV mystery from the director of 428: Shibuya Scramble

Murder She Wrote

It is the year of our lord 2022, but that will not stop developers from exploring the nichest of niche gaming genres: The FMV Adventure. The latest in this long line of quirky releases comes in the form of The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story, which launches next month on PlayStation, PC, and Nintendo Switch.

Directed by Koichiro Ito, who brought us 2008’s delightfully bonkers 428: Shibuya Scramble, The Centennial Case is a period piece drama that tasks the player with solving a series of murders — all happening within the same family lineage over a 100 year period. Our story plays out over three distinct parts, set within 1922, 1972, and finally 2022, as the player steps into the role of mystery novelist Haruka Kagami, determined to find the solution to these strange time crimes.

The Centennial Case‘s whodunnits are comprised of three sections: Incident, Reasoning, and Solution. The player will watch the events that lead up to each killing in Incident, put together clues, theories, and hypotheses in Reasoning, and finally put forth their accusation in Solution. By solving these cold cases, perhaps Kagami can break the chain of killings that seemingly has hold of the hapless Shijima bloodline. It all sounds very intriguing and pretty exciting, I’m glad we won’t have too long to wait before we can all get our Jessica Fletcher on.

The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story launches May 12 on PlayStation, PC, and Nintendo Switch.

Chris Moyse

Senior Editor – Chris has been playing video games since the 1980s. Former Saturday Night Slam Master. Graduated from Galaxy High with honors. Twitter: @ChrisxMoyse