Saturday, February 9, 2013

Murdered: Soul Suspect Kind of Announced


So, as Joystiq reported, there was apparently some sort of ARG marketing for a new thing, and it had the potential to be one of those things that was like "Hmm, wonder what this could be".  I mean, technically, it still can since all that has changed is that we actually have some sort of confirmation on it in the form of Squeenix claiming credit for the game.  "Murdered:  Soul Suspect" is going to be a game for PC, PS3 and 360, which is just about all the information that has been freely given out.  Since there's -nothing- to go on, we're all still left to wonder, but the mystery isn't quite so ambiguous so much as it's intentional now, which makes it a little less fun, I think.  I think you get which hair I am trying to split here, because I doubt I could put it any more succintly.

The above image is about all you'll find on the official website for the game at this point in time, with the rest being legal information that points directly to PS3, 360 and PC (no Steam logo, but I hope Squeenix wouldn't be silly enough to restrict the PC version to their own PC store, since, well, that didn't really work for FFVII's PC Re-release) and a link to the Twitter account of the game as well, because that is also necessary.  It was, potentially still will be, part of the ARG involved in finding out more and more about Murdered:  Soul Suspect as it gets closer to -actually- being revealed outside of some press release that I guess Joystiq got and isn't sharing or something.

So if there's practically nothing about the game available, why do I care?  That answer is simple and three-fold.  First off this is that there are rumors (which would make a lot of sense, of course) that Eidos, not Squeenix, is going to be the one holding the reigns to the game with Squeenix just publishing it since, well, they kind of own Eidos.  And such.  Granted, there are other things that they are probably up to at the moment, including the finishing touches on the Tomb Raider Reboot, but they've got a lot of talented people and I'm sure they can multi-task quite well.  Or, I hope they can, because Squeenix proper has like literally ten games being developed at the moment and that is all kinds of ridiculous.  Because when I say being developed, I mean "half of them are Final Fantasy Versus XIII, Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD remix, Final Fantasy X HD and probably Final Fantasy Type-0's reworking/localization" which is saying something because nobody knows when those things are going to be things that exist.

Secondly, this whole set-up, the Twitter ARG, the websites, the secrecy and such, it happens a lot, but this particular combination of things, just the way it all unfolded, reminded me a lot of Heavy Rain in the initial marketing of it.  The twitter @PerfectFolds was supposedly the twitter for the Origami Killer prior to the game releasing and there was a whole bunch of little clues and this and that that would ultimately give you an idea about Heavy Rain before it was a thing in the public eye.  If I'm remembering correctly that is, it's been friggin' three years about.  I only remember this all because I pretty much got a Twitter account to try to participate in that ARG thing and I....didn't really, but I also just kind of wanted a Twitter anyway so it all worked out.  I found a use for it eventually after that whole thing calmed down, obviously.

The last reason I'm interested at all is because of the name.  Possibly because of the Heavy Rain connection that I've already made, as well as, well, obvious other parallels in what we can only assume is the tone of Murdered:  Soul Suspect, I'm expecting a little Heavy Rain in this game.  The other half, however, makes me think of Ghost Trick:  Phantom Detective which I don't have to remind you about I'm sure.  A Heavy Rain/Ghost Trick mish-mash of a game sounds unwieldy at first, but really, if it's just a more serious, more (I hate to use the term) 'gritty' situation where you play as a ghost (or several) trying to solve your own murder, then that more or less fits the bill for that combination.  Of course that scenario is all just my conjecture and my idea for what it could be, and it'll likely be wildly different than that in the end.  Still, it's something that I've got my eye on.

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