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Behind every cynic is a frustrated idealist

I've been following this project pretty much since its debut on RMN, partly because I like the developers' other work, partly because I like detective fiction, and in part because this duo's projects have a tendency to make me think about them a lot more often than other projects. I am probably one of Volrath and ArtBane's biggest fans and at the same time one of their biggest critics! But X-Noir is a pretty big departure from their popular superhero epic Master of the Wind and it's interesting to see how the duo fares in a completely different genre.

So strap yourself in, kids, this is going to be a long one. This review covers the final version of the project, and I'll be discussing this game in detail, including elements of the plot, so there will be minor spoilers in this review, so be aware of that if you intend to play the game. So without further rambling, let's explore X-Noir.

X-Noir is a science-fiction crime drama starring Eddie, a man who by age thirty-two has earned a law degree, held public office, taken down a criminal syndicate and can survive multiple gunshot wounds and outrun cars but has somehow convinced himself that he's a failure at life. The game cold-opens, Master of the Wind-style, with Eddie as a young lawyer teamed up with a cop being framed for corruption as they bring down a major crime boss almost single-handedly. After this incident, Eddie is something of a local hero. He wins election to a local government office, has a lucrative career, lots of friends, a fianceé, seems like things are looking pretty good for him! Then we jump ahead eight years to find Eddie a down-on-his-luck drunkard on the verge of suicide. So what happened?!

As it turns out, answering that question is both X-Noir's greatest strength and its greatest weakness.

Though X-Noir presents itself as an action-oriented detective game, that's really only half the game. The other half is a rather dense character study and narrative around the life of its protagonist. The main premise of the game is mostly Eddie, now a private investigator, just going about his life. He sees a therapist, helps a neighbor with errands, hangs out with his friends, and it's generally only in the midst of these activities that Eddie gets flung into the line of duty, often with a lot of grumbling on his part. Eddie has two major problems to overcome; depression and alcoholism, and dealing with those issues will prove much more challenging to Eddie than dealing with the complicated conspiracy slowly infecting his home city.

I have a confession to make. From the first version of the game, I kind of hated Eddie, and for a long time, I really wasn't quite sure why. It probably starts with the first scene we really spend with Eddie after his flashback. After a near suicide attempt, he decides to put it off in favor of a night out of good food with friends. Everyone at the bar greets him by name and with a smile, he has a good time. It's a pretty upbeat scene! Then he staggers home drunk while depressing music plays and the credits roll. It's a very tonally confusing scene, and probably a perfect summation of my thoughts on Eddie; I just don't know how I'm supposed to feel about him.

After having finished the game, I think I understand a few of the problems I have with Eddie. The first is that his attitude comes off less as a depressed person who's in a bad way and more like a drunk asshole. And the problem here is that there never seem to be any consequences for this. His friends all seem to just let it slide, nobody ever calls him on anything, and his alcoholism never seems to impair his judgment, affect his sleuthing skills, or interfere with his life in any way that we the player can see.

This leads us to the major paradox of Eddie's character; if his bad habits don't have any visible effect on his life, how did his life end up so bad in the first place?

This is my other major problem with Eddie; namely, that the story isn't very interested in actually answering that question. The second half of the game does finally start letting us get into Eddie's head and figure out what the hell his deal is, but for players who only played early builds of the game, they likely found Eddie puzzling. I've read at least one other review of the game where the writer had similar thoughts to Eddie as I did, so I don't think I was alone in this. Instead of exploring the causes of Eddie's frustrations, we just see him being kind of a prick instead. It's hard to establish the level of sympathy I feel like a protagonist like Eddie needs if we don't understand what his problem is.

This is probably the game's biggest shortcoming, which is a shame because I can think of a relatively easy fix that I personally think would improve the game a lot. For the entire game, Eddie keeps regular appointments with a therapist. While we get a chance to listen in on these therapy sessions, they very rarely take the time to really explore Eddie's feelings or concerns, or what drove him into his emotional shell. They talk about the kinds of things that bother him, but it's never anything extensive, just really superficial things like politics or bad movies. However, my favorite scene in the whole game is near the end when Eddie finally explains the situation where his political career fell apart and things started going bad for him. We were actually learning about the character, and I felt pretty bad for him because it was legitimately an unfair situation. The question I asked after that was "so why weren't all of the therapy sessions like this?”

“So, Eddie, when did you first start drinking?”

“Tell me, Eddie, how did things go wrong with you and your fianceé?”

And then Eddie would tell us the story of what happened, or maybe it would be like a flashback or a cutscene, and we'd get to know Eddie a little better and sympathize with him and start to understand why he's always so damn angry. I think this would have been an excellent and thematically appropriate way to get some insight on Eddie, as early as Case 1. instead we get this:

I think we're making some real progress here.



Volrath and ArtBane have generally never shied away from extensively examining their characters' backstories; an entire chapter of MotW was devoted to exploring the history of one of its main characters, and an entire spin-off game for the backstory of a relatively minor character in X-Noir. So I'm not sure why they were so reserved here.

“But Solitayre, I thought you didn't like that part of MotW?!”

Most of the history Stoic had lived through was largely irrelevant to the story at hand; when the arc was finished it was clear that his thousand year lifespan hadn't altered his outlook or opinion on much. But Eddie underwent a massive change at some point in the past that is pivotal to understanding his character. And we never really start to get that insight on Eddie until much later in the game.

Things do finally start to change in a big way starting around Case 4. A few major things happen after a couple new characters are introduced; people finally start calling Eddie on his bullshit, and Eddie gains a sidekick whose levity is a welcome change of pace from Eddie's constant whining. The influence of the new people in his life finally starts to get to him and perhaps change him for the better.

Then near the end of the game, something pretty interesting happens; we learn something about the cold open intro where Eddie heroically shoots his way through a confrontation with a crime boss, something which Eddie (and by extension, the player) weren't aware of at the time and which invites the player to re-evaluate a lot of other things Eddie has said and done. What a neat idea! Were some of the other things we've learned also wrong? What other things about Eddie does this change? But the answer to that, as it turns out, is 'we don't know' because we never really got to see or learn about anything else in Eddie's past. It's a cool idea that doesn't lead to any serious payoff because the building blocks weren't there.

So is Eddie a bad character?

Well; no. I just rambled about the guy for two pages. There's no way I could ever have managed that if there wasn't a pretty complex character there to talk about. I feel like Eddie is an unfulfilled character who is hard to understand. Maybe that was the point? But Eddie left me feeling pretty confused, and I feel like by the time we start to understand him we're over two-thirds into the game there's a good chance he's already lost the audience.

But enough about that, this is a detective game after all so I guess we should talk about that part.

The game is divided into six self-contained chapters call 'cases,' each of which is divided into two parts: an investigation phase where Eddie must run down leads, interrogate witnesses, and consult with informants, and an action scene where Eddie must gun his way past enemies and solve puzzles.

I actually like the investigation parts the best, as they often rely on the player's deductive reasoning and logic to solve. You'll occasionally have to look at a piece of evidence and figure out how you think it's relevant, but more often you'll have to question a witness and cross-reference it with your known information in a sort of half-implemented Phoenix Wright-style interrogation. The witness will make their testimony and you'll have the option to decide whether or not you think they're lying based on other information you know. This is a fun idea but the answer the game wants you to give isn't always obvious even if you have all the information, and the relevant details of the case might have been mentioned only in passing three conversations ago. It's one of those games where it might be worthwhile to whip out a note pad and jot a few things down as you play. As the game progresses you get better at noticing the kinds of things that are likely to come up in the future. Kind makes you actually think like a detective. It's pretty cool.

I say it's half-implemented though, because it is. If you make a wrong choice, Eddie berates himself but there's otherwise no consequences aside from a purely aesthetic increase to his “anxiety” meter, which ultimately has no impact on the actual game. I've read that these choices do affect the ending slightly, but I made a lot of mistakes and still got the 'good' ending so it's not too strict about it at least.

Action scenes play out in a surprisingly functional real-time action battle system that emphasizes positioning and cover as you shoot your way through hordes of drug-addled thugs, killer robots, and nuclear-powered bees. The game is very generous with ammo and health items so the challenge is pretty mild, but if you do manage to die, don't fret, as the game kindly provides an autosave feature. It's a friendly game that way. The combat feels kind of button-mashy but the balance feels just about right, with enemies seeming to take just the right number of hits to kill.

The puzzles in the game are mostly logic puzzles that either require studying the environment or playing short mini-games. Players who enjoyed Master of the Wind's puzzles can expect the same quality here, and the puzzles tend to come at just the right time when the player needs a break from shooting things.

All things considered, the cases have pretty strong pacing that carry the player from one scene to the next pretty organically. The story scenes, on the other hand, are often a bit plodding. As I mentioned, the numerous scenes with Eddie's therapist are largely irrelevant, and we're forced to play a very odd and pointless scene where Eddie grocery shops for a neighbor. These missteps aside, though, I'd save the game has a pretty strong through-line. Whether you like this kind of thing or not, Eddie will pretty much always tell you exactly where you need to go next.

Despite the name, I'd be hesitant to actually say X-Noir is actually noir in terms of its thematic elements, and the reason for that is the game's presentation and setting. The world seems promising enough for a moody tale of urban malaise and contemplation; we're introduced to an unnamed city that seems to have extremely lax gun control laws and a pretty serious problem with police corruption and organized crime. Local politicians are all talk and no walk, and idealists like Eddie who were actually interested in solving problems got forced out of the running years ago. The usual array of crime drama characters are on full display here; the friend on the force, the lab rat, the tough-talking police chief who doesn't have time for your crap, the paranoid informant convinced that he's hounded by the government because he knows too much, etc. As the game goes on, the climate of the city gets increasingly tense as the city threatens to tear itself apart with crime. And we view it all through the bitter, beer-stained lens of the cynical protagonist.

The problem is that it's hard to be drawn into a world of corruption, sleaze, despair, depression, alcoholism and political upheaval in a game world that looks like this:

I know, right? Really ruins the mood.



I've always been pretty open with my disdain for the VX-style RTP characters, but I'll admit they have their place in a light-hearted RPG. But for a game that bills itself as 'noir,' it's unfortunately a pretty serious problem. I don't blame the developers for lack of unique graphics, of course; not everyone is an artist. And the unique art that the game does have, particularly the facesets by Ronove, are very good. But nothing kills the mood faster than those goofy VXAce-generated facesets. I don't usually criticize graphics like this, but trying to pass off an adorable chibi-sprite as a world-weary streetwalker or suicidal drunkard just doesn't work for me.

The NPCs are no help here either. Very few have anything interesting to say, most just make some vague remarks or or satirical comments. I know the city is huge and they wanted to put a lot of people and it's hard to come up with stuff for them to say. But I feel like there was a lot of potential to expand the setting and mood through these characters that was completely passed over. The music is nice, it's ambient and a little jazzy and it sets the mood pretty well, I just wish I could say the same for the visuals.

So wow, it probably sounds like I've been pretty mean to this game so far. So is there an upside? Well, let's talk about the story. It takes a while to get going, it's not until near the end of Case 3 that you start to see the various plot threads start to weave together and start to understand the scope of what's happening in the city. Things pick up in a major way with the introduction of Eddie's new sidekick in Case 4, but it's Case 5 where the game really comes into its own and hits its stride as the culmination of Eddie's character arc and the fate of the city come crashing to their respective conclusions (literally, in some cases.)

The last hour or so of X-Noir is a non-stop thrill ride of action, revelation, betrayal, and confronting hard truths. It's honestly one of the best climaxes I've ever seen in a game, even considering the lack of a conventional final boss. The game's plot is a bit of a slow burn, but it's definitely worth playing all the way to the end. While there may have been some missteps along the way, I can see that Volrath really knew what he was doing here all along. It's just a shame it took so long to get to the really good bits.

So that's X-Noir. While the overall presentation and atmosphere don't really sell me on the noir aspect, and I've made my thoughts on the protagonist excessively clear, the action sequences, puzzles, and the overall writing of the game definitely hold up, and if you can get past the graphics and like puzzle or adventure games, this might be a good one to give a try.

If the developer asked me for two ways to improve on this project, I'd probably say two things.

1. Have those early therapy sessions give us more insight into the problems Eddie has had in the past.
2. Introduce his sidekick earlier so he has someone to talk to more often.

I understand that this game wasn't as popular as the developers hoped it would be, and that may be because the fanbase that sprang up around the superhero-themed RPG that propelled them to RPGMaker stardom might not have been interested in a moody detective game. In fact, I sort of feel like their fandom just wants them to keep making nothing but Master of the Wind, forever (I admit I am myself guilty of this!) and that's gotta be frustrating when you'd like to work on other projects. But I feel like if the graphics were overhauled and if a few of its flaws were ironed over, this project would be as strong as Master of the Wind. It took two years but Eddie finally started to win me over.

Hey, you said it, not me.



P.S.: Called it.

Posts

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nhubi
Liberté, égalité, fraternité
11099
Great Review Soli, and it's wonderful to see you writing them again.

Though, nuclear powered bees?
Thanks for this! I'm surprised how kind you were to the combat aspect of the game, given that the overall poor reception of it was the major reason why ArtBane couldn't bring himself to put together a final boss fight. In the end, that doesn't seem to have hurt the game as much as I initially feared, maybe because the boss fight before that kinda feels like an end boss.

As for the aesthetic problem, it's certainly not news to us at this point. It would have been awesome to have a visual overhaul but art is always something we have to get outside folks to help with and I don't think this one would be successful on Kickstarter, so I suppose we gotta just take our lumps. I just hope that nobody comes away from this with the message that certain subject matter is off-limits to VX Ace because of its art style. That just seems sad.

I'd like to take some time to explain my reasoning for how I handled Eddie's story. This is not an attempt to dismiss your points, which as usual are very reasonable. It probably will come as no surprise that a lot of this game (as well as Labyrinthine Dreams) was inspired by my own experiences with depression. I never got nearly as out of control as Eddie, but one thing that I know to be true is that for people who are that depressed, it doesn't matter how good the rest of their life seems. Robin Williams is a brutal example of this. "Counting your blessings" is not something that comes naturally in this state. For people who don't have experience with it (through their own struggles or being close to someone who struggles), it can't help but come off as inherently unreasonable. Depression is always telling you that you suck and that life is meaningless regardless of what's happening around you. Ironically, the reason Eddie still gets along well with most people is probably in part thanks to the alcohol, which tends to calm his anxieties and has become his de facto medication.

Of course, this isn't to say that I wrote Eddie perfectly. I clearly didn't. I think it would have helped his arc to introduce more of the characters earlier, you mentioned Artie but Regina is the one I think of. But even though I had the basics of the central mystery planned early on, the cast wasn't as well-planned out. Regina was basically supposed to appear for one scene and then I noticed what she was bringing out in Eddie and knew she would be important. I think you're right about the therapy sessions too, although it was my feeling that Eddie hadn't been seeing her for long and would be reluctant to get too deep early on and instead focus on superficial annoyances in his life.

If we did this game again, it'd be a lot better. But I guess we should do Master of the Wind first...
NeverSilent
Got any Dexreth amulets?
6280
This has almost become a tradition at this point, so here goes:

Solitayre, I think you've brought up many fair points in this review, and I agree with a good amount of them. I, also, must admit that as much as I tried not to let it influence my perception of the game, I found VX Ace's character style not to fit a story like this very well. You get used to it after a while, but especially in the beginning it may be harder to take it as seriously as intended.

That said, I don't really agree with some of your points on Eddie (which probably won't surprise you considering I wrote a review for this game, too). Personally, I found Eddie to be a very believable character right away, partially because his attitude is so irrational. I found it very clear that for reasons unknown at the beginning, Eddie is completely convinced the world regards him as nothing but a failure and a loser, and he both supresses and subconsciously embraces that thought. It's no wonder this state of mind brings out his inner jerk so much, I think.
In addition, your point about his attitude and alcoholism not seeming to affect Eddie's life are simply not true: His house is a complete dump and he suffers from bad health; people on the council, police members and even random strangers on the street pick on him; even some of his friends have trouble taking him seriously and don't trust him to get his life under control. And remember the scene in the restaurant with Regina?
Now, I'm neither an expert on depression nor on psychology in general, but I dare to say some of your ideas about how this kind of therapy should work don't seem right to me. In fact, I think Dr. Stanwyck is extremely believable as a therapist because she does not go straight ahead asking questions like “So, Eddie, when did you first start drinking?”. The human mind is a very complex thing, and most people who need to see a therapist won't just answer heavy-duty questions like those right away (or perhaps can't because they don't know the answer themselves). Therefore, as far as I know, therapists will usually take things slowly and start by talking about seemingly more trivial stuff to make the patients feel more comfortable and get them to start talking about the real problems by themselves. And I think Dr. Stanwyck does a great job at that.
Now, of course most of this is a matter of perspective and taste, but I will say I think that if all of your objections had been taken into account the way you worded them, the game would not have become better in many areas.

However, I do have one issue with this review that is not just a disagreement in terms of subjective perception, but an actual complaint: Please don't take this personally, but I think the way you used that first screenshot is simply unfair. It gives off the impression that this is representative of how the therapy sessions in the game usually go, while it is very much not. Dr. Stanwyck is clearly making a joke at that particular point, and only after having discussed some quite serious things with Eddie, at that. The way you integrated that image into the review and commented on it does not do the actual content any justice presents the game in a way that is just wrong.
Thanks for the review Sol. I found it pretty on point. Despite its many shortcomings, I like the world and characters that X-Noir spawned and would be interested in a potential sequel or even remake where we address many of the story/gameplay issues. A game like this would definitely have been better suited to the adventure/puzzle game genre (Phoenix Wright, Professor Layton).

I think we could have done a better job hinting at some of the plot points earlier in the game. Like with most of our games, while we had the ending already in mind, we weren't sure how we were going to get there. I almost feel like our games are first drafts. If we went back and remade them (like the Motw remake we're talking about) we'd have a strong foundation to work with and be able to tell a stronger story overall since we know the major plot points we need to hit.

I'm glad you enjoyed it overall. A 3.5 is probably higher than I'd have given it. I always enjoy reading your reviews since you just focus on the parts you find most interesting (the characters/story typically ) and gloss over the other stuff that is inoffensive. It certainly makes for more indepth reviews that we don't usually get. I hope you'll continue to follow our work in the future. :)
Solitayre
Circumstance penalty for being the bard.
18257
author=NeverSilent
Now, I'm neither an expert on depression nor on psychology in general, but I dare to say some of your ideas about how this kind of therapy should work don't seem right to me. In fact, I think Dr. Stanwyck is extremely believable as a therapist because she does not go straight ahead asking questions like “So, Eddie, when did you first start drinking?”. The human mind is a very complex thing, and most people who need to see a therapist won't just answer heavy-duty questions like those right away (or perhaps can't because they don't know the answer themselves). Therefore, as far as I know, therapists will usually take things slowly and start by talking about seemingly more trivial stuff to make the patients feel more comfortable and get them to start talking about the real problems by themselves. And I think Dr. Stanwyck does a great job at that.


I don't disagree with this, but it's a question of narrative efficacy. We sit through about five of these therapy sessions, but in most of them we don't really learn anything except that Eddie is kind of a movie buff. And a lot of the burning questions of what happened in Eddie's past are left unanswered at the end of the game. I feel like if there were more extensive discussion like when Eddie talks about how he lost his campaign, the sessions would be more valuable and also a lot more interesting.


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