Kumitantei Episode 1 Review – A Strong Danganronpa-Style Murder Mystery

As the Absolute Barista, you find yourself trapped in a strange school alongside 15 other Absolutes and forced to play a killing game. If that premise sounds similar to a certain other murder mystery series, expect many other aspects to also feel eerily familiar as you bond with your fellow classmates and participate in a deadly trial.

Games have taken inspiration from Danganronpa before, but I’m not sure I’ve ever seen one as blatant about it as Kumitantei: Old-School Slaughter. You play as Himari, who is accepted to the illustrious Janus Institute as the Absolute Barista, only to find herself trapped in a killing game. The game’s overseer is Nyanus, a two-faced cat whose voice actor enunciates things similarly to Monokuma whenever he can, who hopes to study “Absolute Apathy” by forcing the 16 Absolutes to participate in this deadly experiment. The first episode of Kumitantei makes no attempt to hide its overt inspiration; in fact, it revels in it. As a big Danganronpa fan, I was excited to check it out.

The visual style is great, with a retro aesthetic, visual novel presentation, and occasional animated cutscenes. When it comes to the cast, it’s always difficult to get used to a big group of characters when they’re introduced all at once, but by the end, I felt I had a rough grasp on each one. It’s filled with outlandish personalities, from the Absolute Conspiracy Theorist who believes they’ve all been abducted by aliens, to the Absolute Palaeontologist who is literally undead. They’re as eccentric as you might imagine, but while I initially found them all a little hard to take, I grew attached to them as I played. I also appreciate how the main character’s Absolute Barista talent is acknowledged in the story, with her making breakfast for the other characters due to her skillset.

Like Danganronpa, it features both 3D exploration of the school and point-and-click adventure gameplay in certain areas. You can’t always talk to every character in the room while investigating, which disappointed me, but it balanced that with more detailed optional conversations than I expected to find. That was a pleasant surprise. The start of the game is a bit too heavy on exploration, which hurts the pacing, but after that it picks up nicely and settles into a familiar routine. Once the story is established, you get some free time, during which you can pick a character to hang out with. Talking to a character during free time raises your bond with them, although bonds are sometimes increased during story scenes as well. You can also give characters gifts, which you win by spending coins at the Kitty Catcher claw machine. Unlike the MonoMono Machine of Danganronpa, Kitty Catcher lets you click the prize you want, with a chance of getting an adjacent prize instead. I liked that system and had fun collecting various prizes from the board while trying to figure out what my favorite characters would like.

Of course, the good times come to an end when one of the students is murdered, and the remaining 15 Absolutes must participate in a Clinical Trial to find out who the culprit is. My game lagged a bit at the start of the trial scene, but fortunately, that stopped once the trial itself got going. Trial gameplay is presented in a familiar format, where you must point out contradictions and play simple mini-games to present your answers. You can set the difficulty for Logic and Action separately, which is always a nice touch. As I got into it, I felt it should have had more tutorials. I knew right away what the game wanted from me when it presented me with a targeting reticule, a set of evidence, and a debate amongst the students, but I’ve played Danganronpa. If I came into it fresh, I’m not sure I’d have understood right away that I had to shoot contradictory evidence at highlighted phrases.

The trial mini-games could also use some tutorials, especially the card battles. The card-based debate mini-game is a big part of Kumitantei, and it occurs whenever you have a one-on-one argument with another character. Before the trial, you can equip various Skill Cards, which you earn by ranking up your trust level with other characters. You also have a deck of Debate Cards, which you and your opponent take turns using against each other. Depending on the card you use, you can string together combos of multiple cards on your turn for even greater damage, and your Skill Cards let you activate additional bonus effects. However, while there is a tutorial at the start of the prologue, it’s so brief and far removed from the trial that by the time I actually reached it, I had no idea what to do. Once I figured it out, I enjoyed the mini-game and found it fun, but a more detailed tutorial closer to the fight would have made the journey there smoother. As for the trial itself, it had good pacing and a natural progression to uncover the secrets of the case.

Throughout the episode, I encountered a handful of minor frustrations. Saving during a scene brings you back to the start of that scene when you reload, which can be annoying. The audio during the trial occasionally got strange, with the characters’ voices so quiet at one point that I thought I might have to change the settings, only for it to suddenly go back to normal. I also wish I could use the mouse to navigate the menu, but that’s a minor preference.

Overall, I really enjoyed Kumitantei: Old-School Slaughter Episode 1. The story has some strong emotional moments, and I really grew attached to the characters. Even though I was initially taken aback at how much it feels like Danganronpa, that’s not a bad thing. It gave it a familiar feeling and made it feel like I was playing a new twist on something I enjoy. On top of that, there are several hints and clues about something larger at work in the overarching story, with unresolved questions and mysteries I assume will be explored in subsequent episodes. On its own, the first episode is a well-done murder case, but I’m even more curious about where it’s leading.