The Portopia Serial Murder Case
The Portopia Serial Murder Case is an 1983 adventure game designed by Yuji Horii and published by Enix. It was first released on the NEC PC-6001 and has since been ported to other personal computers, the Family Computer (Famicom), mobile phone services and most recently, Windows as Square Enix showing off their natural language processing technology.
| The Portopia Serial Murder Case | |
|---|---|
Cover art of the NEC PC-6001 version | |
| Developer(s) | Chunsoft (Family Computer) |
| Publisher(s) | Enix |
| Designer(s) | Yuji Horii |
| Writer(s) | Yuji Horii |
| Platform(s) | PC-6001, PC-8801, FM-7, FM-8, MSX, Sharp X1, Family Computer, Mobile, Windows |
| Release | June 1983
|
| Genre(s) | Adventure, visual novel |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
In the game, the player must resolve a murder mystery by searching for clues, exploring different areas, interacting with characters, and solving item-based puzzles. The game features first-person graphics, nonlinear gameplay, an open world, conversations with non-player characters, branching dialogue choices, suspect interrogations, nonlinear storytelling, and plot twists. The Famicom version also features a command menu system, point-and-click interface, and 3D dungeon maze. Upon its release, The Portopia Serial Murder Case was well received in Japan. It became an influential title, helping to define the visual novel genre as well as inspiring Japanese game designers such as Hideo Kojima and Nintendo's Eiji Aonuma.