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Touch Detective

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Touch Detective
Cover art
Cover art
Developer(s)BeeWorks
Publisher(s)
Director(s)Takahiro Anto
Shingo Kawai
Producer(s)Masaru Saitō
Takashi Isoyama
Takayuki Machida
Designer(s)Takeshi Tominaga
Takahiro Anto
Programmer(s)Takuji Imai
Writer(s)Takahiro Anto
Composer(s)Toshiko Tasaki
Platform(s)Nintendo DS
iOS
Android
Nintendo Switch
ReleaseNintendo DS
  • JP: April 13, 2006
  • NA: October 24, 2006
  • EU: March 23, 2007
  • AU: May 3, 2007
iOS
  • WW: August 4, 2011
Android
  • WW: December 27, 2012
Nintendo Switch
  • JP: October 6, 2022
  • WW: March 28, 2024[1]
Genre(s)Adventure
Mode(s)Single-player

Touch Detective (おさわり探偵 小沢里奈, Osawari Tantei: Ozawa Rina, literally "Touch Detective: Rina Ozawa") or Mystery Detective in Europe (except in France) is a point-and-click mystery adventure game for the Nintendo DS which makes use of the device's touch screen. It was developed by BeeWorks and released in Japan by Success Corporation. It was published in the United States by Atlus USA, and in the PAL region by 505 Games. Touch Detective was released for the iOS on August 4, 2011. Its first chapter is free to download.[2] The game was released for Nintendo Switch as part of a compilation game titled Touch Detective 3 + The Complete Case Files, for Japan in October 2022, and worldwide in March 2024.[3]

Gameplay

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The player controls the titular detective Mackenzie as she solves four mysteries in the small town of Osawari. Both the art style and the plot reflect a subtle fantasy mood – for example, the first case is to track down a thief who is stealing someone's dreams. GameZone reviewer Steven Hopper notes that the game features a unique aesthetic that feels like a Tim Burton version of a Jhonen Vasquez comic.[4] Aside from the main plots, there are also a number of small bonus mysteries that involve much simpler tasks. There is also a Touch Notebook containing a list of major items in the game the player has touched.

The game is entirely controlled via the touch screen. Tapping a location on the screen will talk to a character or examine an object. The player has an inventory of items collected, and may use them on other items or objects in the environment. The player can also communicate with the characters along conversation trees or present inventory items to them to learn new information. Mackenzie's pet mushroom, Funghi, is used as an aid in some puzzles.

Characters

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  • Rina Ozawa (小沢 里奈, Ozawa Rina) / Mackenzie: The lead character of the game. As a young girl, she runs a detective agency with the help of Cromwell. Her personality is the most "ordinary", in contrast to the otherwise bizarre world around her. Although she's the most mature out of her friends, she can also often gain a typically childish amusement from doing "naughty" thing. She keeps a "Touch List" of things she has touched and what they feel like.
  • Manami (まなみ) / Penelope: One of the girls that lives in the condominiums in town and friend of Mackenzie. Her parents are very rich, and thus she enjoys a lavish lifestyle, but she is rather air-headed, and has been known to disappear for a time, or even not talk to anyone (including herself, except for pantomime) for a whole week. She is the one who will give Mackenzie all her cases during the game and is one of the main focuses of the first three episodes.
  • Chitose (ちとせ) / Chloe: Another girl in town, and while friend of Mackenzie, tends to be her rival in trying to solve cases. Chloe generally takes actions before figuring out their consequences on herself or those around her, such when she broke into and ransacked Penelope's apartment for evidence.
  • Jii (じい) / Cromwell: Butler for Mackenzie and also a genius inventor. Cromwell is a man who has worked for Mackenzie's family for over 300 years. He is often coming up with inventions, and becomes disgruntled if he isn't given the chance to show them off to others.
  • Nameko (なめこ) / Funghi: A living mushroom that is kept as a pet by Mackenzie and travels with her as she moves about town.
  • Deijī (デイジー ) / Daisy: A goth girl that works at the local boutique, and lives in the apartment above Penelope, having to put up with her loud "ditzy" antics as a result. At first hostile towards Penelope and Mackenzie, she becomes friendly later on.

Plot

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Screenshot from Touch Detective
Screenshot from Touch Detective

Mackenzie learns that in order to join the ranks of the Great Detective Society, she must solve four cases and submit her investigation report to the Society. Fortunately for her, several cases seem to pop up around town.

Episode 1 - Robbery. The reality of a fanciful dream
Penelope comes to Mackenzie because she claims her dreams are being stolen. Mackenzie first acquires a special invention from Cromwell so that she can see into Penelope's dreams and understands what happens: a strange creature is seen fleeing from Penelope's just before she wakes up. Mackenzie investigates further and finds a way to enter the Dream World, but finds no one there that can help because the rest of the town is not yet asleep. Finding a way to convince everyone to fall asleep at the same time that Penelope does, she is then able to stop the fleeing figure and reveal it to be the pastry chef in town. The chef admits to the crime, using the crystallized dreams as an ingredient in her Sweet Dream Cake dessert, but Penelope and the chef agree that the chef will only take Penelope's dreams once a week.
Episode 2 - Disappearance. The truth hidden in the cosmos
Penelope goes missing, and upon investigation, it looks like her room was broken into. It is later revealed that Chloe, trying to find Penelope before Mackenzie, broke in and tried to find evidence, but regardless of Chloe's bumbling, Mackenzie is led to the planetarium and its strange owner, as well as a little girl named Lynsey who seems to like playing with dolls. After catching the owner buying girls clothes in sizes too large for Lynsey, Mackenzie soon discovers that the planetarium owner lured Penelope and now is keeping her in a secret room under mind control in order for her to be Lynsey's friend. Mackenzie is able to rescue Penelope, have the owner captured, and befriends Lynsey so she won't be lonely again.
Episode 3 - Stranded. The miracle of an innocent heart
Penelope claims that an ice fairy is stranded at the ice skating rink, the only cold place in town, but Mackenzie cannot see it though she can sense it. The owner of the rink is tired of living in the cold and is looking to shut the rink down, causing the temperature in the rink to rise and threaten the life of the fairy. Chloe comes up with two near-disastrous ideas for saving the fairy, but Mackenzie realizes all they need to do is make it snow so the fairy can be get out from the ice rink and to a more comfortable location. With the help of the local fortune teller Mackenzie helps Chloe in enchanting an "angel summoning spell" (actually a magical girl theme song), which, through the power of Chloe's will, temporarily transforms Penelope into an angel that can make it snow. The fairy returns home after a parting conversation with Chloe, with it being heavily implied that they share a requited crush.
Episode 4 - Assault. The tragedy of a past grudge
Penelope claims that a murder happened at the circus in town, though it is only a flea circus, and it's actually an assault. Apparently, the circus used to be a larger attraction, but when it shut down, many of the performers took up residence in town. Mackenzie investigates to find that something did attack the fleas, though initially suspecting a flea as the culprit, but the supposed culprit flea ends up near-dead himself, in a supposed locked room attack. This leads to an initial speculation of self-inflicted injury, but Mackenize deduces that a human sized culprit could have picked up the box the flea was in and shaken it to cause the injuries. When a large anvil nearly kills all the fleas, the trail leads to Dover, one of the ex-performers. His old circus act, animating tattoos on his back, was ruined due to a flea bite, and has been out of work since, and thus took revenge on the flea circus to try to get back into stardom. Dover tries to kill a flea, although Mackenzie is able to stop him, but the circus ringleader accidentally kills it anyway.

Following the successful resolution of all four cases, Cromwell informs Mackenzie that she has been accepted into the Great Detective Society, but it transpires that he mistakenly submitted Mackenzie's "Touch List" instead of her investigation report. She is given the official title of "Touch Detective" as a result, to Mackenzie's shame.

Reception

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The DS and iOS versions received "mixed" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.[5][6] In Japan, Famitsu gave the former a score of two sevens and two sixes for a total of 26 out of 40.[10]

Legacy

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A sequel, Touch Detective 2 ½, was released in 2007.

In Japan, the character of Funghi became widely popular and a Funghi Gardening Kit (おさわり探偵 なめこ栽培キット, Osawari Tantei: Nameko Saibai Kitto, or simply Mushroom Garden) game was released for the iPhone and iPad on June 30, 2011,[20] and for Android on December 21.[21][22] It released a "Seasons" version on December 2,[23][24] which became the number 1 app in the App Store in Japan the following week.[25] By the end of 2011, Seasons had been downloaded 1 million times from iTunes and the Android version, released around the same time, had reached 200 thousand downloads within a week of its release.[26] By March 2012, Beeworks began selling character goods for the various different Funghi.[26][27]

A spin-off called Osawari Tantei Nameko Daihanshoku was released for Nintendo 3DS in 2013,[28] while Touch Detective Rising 3: Does Funghi Dream Of Bananas? was released in Japan in May 2014.[29]

References

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  1. ^ Romano, Sal (October 18, 2023). "Touch Detective 3 + The Complete Case Files". Nintendo.
  2. ^ "Touch Detective for iOS Released August 4, 2011". Anime News Network. August 4, 2011. Retrieved October 13, 2011.
  3. ^ "Touch Detective collection Touch Detective: Rina and the Funghi Case Files announced for Switch". Gematsu. 2022-07-13. Retrieved 2022-07-14.
  4. ^ a b Hopper, Steven (October 24, 2006). "Touch Detective - NDS - Review". GameZone. Archived from the original on August 15, 2009. Retrieved March 7, 2022.
  5. ^ a b "Touch Detective for DS Reviews". Metacritic. Red Ventures. Retrieved March 7, 2022.
  6. ^ a b "Touch Detective for iPhone/iPad Reviews". Metacritic. Red Ventures. Retrieved March 7, 2022.
  7. ^ Morganti, Emily (November 18, 2006). "Touch Detective review (DS)". Adventure Gamers. Retrieved March 7, 2022.
  8. ^ EGM staff (November 2006). "Touch Detective (DS)". Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 209. Ziff Davis. p. 141.
  9. ^ Reed, Kristan (August 29, 2011). "Mobile Games Roundup (Page 2)". Eurogamer. Gamer Network. Retrieved March 7, 2022.
  10. ^ a b Gantayat, Anoop (April 17, 2006). "Now Playing in Japan". IGN. Ziff Davis. Retrieved March 7, 2022.
  11. ^ "Touch Detective (DS)". Game Informer. No. 163. GameStop. November 2006. p. 146.
  12. ^ The Watcher (October 24, 2006). "Review: Touch Detective (DS)". GamePro. IDG Entertainment. Archived from the original on December 2, 2006. Retrieved March 7, 2022.
  13. ^ Navarro, Alex (November 22, 2006). "Touch Detective Review (DS)". GameSpot. Red Ventures. Retrieved March 7, 2022.
  14. ^ Turner, Benjamin (October 23, 2006). "GameSpy: Touch Detective (NDS)". GameSpy. IGN Entertainment. Archived from the original on August 16, 2009. Retrieved June 7, 2009.
  15. ^ Zuccarelli, Dan (August 10, 2011). "Touch Detective Review (iOS)". Gamezebo. Retrieved March 7, 2022.
  16. ^ Bozon, Mark (October 24, 2006). "Touch Detective Review (NDS)". IGN. Ziff Davis. Retrieved March 7, 2022.
  17. ^ "Touch Detective". Nintendo Power. Vol. 210. Nintendo of America. December 2006. p. 109.
  18. ^ Chandran, Neal (November 8, 2006). "Touch Detective (DS)". RPGFan. Emeral Shield Media LLC. Retrieved March 7, 2022.
  19. ^ Klosowski, Thorin (August 10, 2011). "'Touch Detective' Review – A Charming Adventure (iOS)". TouchArcade. TouchArcade.com, LLC. Retrieved March 7, 2022.
  20. ^ "「おさわり探偵無料アプリ」第3弾「おさわり探偵 なめこ栽培キット」配信開始。". Beeworks Games (in Japanese). June 30, 2011. Retrieved July 1, 2013.
  21. ^ "「おさわり探偵 なめこ栽培キット」Android版リリース開始". Beeworks Games (in Japanese). December 21, 2012. Retrieved July 1, 2013.
  22. ^ "【アプリ紹介】レアなめこを育てよう♪「おさわり探偵 なめこ栽培キット」– スマホガール". Spgirl.jp (in Japanese). Archived from the original on July 7, 2012. Retrieved July 1, 2013.
  23. ^ "なめこ栽培キットの最新作『おさわり探偵なめこ栽培キット シーズンズ』が配信開始！". Searchina (in Japanese). Morningstar Japan K.K. December 2, 2011. Archived from the original on October 29, 2014. Retrieved March 7, 2022.
  24. ^ "ビーワークス、四季折々の「なめこ」を栽培できる新作アプリiOS「おさわり探偵 なめこ栽培キットSeasons：雪」を無料配信". GAME Watch (in Japanese). December 2, 2011. Retrieved March 7, 2022.
  25. ^ ""なめこ"栽培アプリがApp Store週間チャート1位に ｜ニュース｜オリコンCSランキング". Oricon (in Japanese). December 17, 2011. Retrieved July 1, 2013.
  26. ^ a b "「なめこ」が絶好調！iOS『なめこ栽培キット Seasons』100万DL、Android『なめこ栽培キット』20万DL突破". Inside (in Japanese). December 29, 2011. Retrieved 2013-07-01.
  27. ^ "なめこ、上野に襲来。 ― 撮影会も行われた「春のなめこ市」をレポート". Inside (in Japanese). March 31, 2012. Retrieved July 1, 2013.
  28. ^ Spencer (February 3, 2013). "A Puzzle Game For Touch Detective Fans And Funghi". Siliconera. Enthusiast Gaming. Archived from the original on February 8, 2013. Retrieved March 7, 2022.
  29. ^ Spencer (May 28, 2013). "Touch Detective Rising 3 Is In Development For Nintendo 3DS". Siliconera. Enthusiast Gaming. Archived from the original on June 11, 2013. Retrieved March 7, 2022.
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