[M][CE] A Burned Man Walks Down The Desolate Corridor ●

Find and discuss trials made by other members and showcase your own trials.

Moderators: EN - Forum Moderators, EN - Trial Reviewers

User avatar
Reecer6
Posts: 456
Joined: Sun Oct 23, 2011 11:45 pm
Gender: Male
Spoken languages: English and, for the most part, Spanish

Re: [M][CE] A Burned Man Walks Down The Desolate Corridor ●

Post by Reecer6 »

Spoiler : to dwam :
Would it really be that quick to go back through? ...Maybe I will try it again eventually, but just going through the beginning bit over and over alone was pretty tedious to me, even if it only took like, a literal minute. And yeah, what I guess I did was I saved before the ending, and then eventually sometime after I reached it I went back to the save and started over from the ending you get from presenting the wrong thing? I dunno, I can't say exactly what happened because I was fairly confused.
~~~Image~~~
I have a tumblr, check it out!
The Fury Wraith wrote:''Now I'm SERIOUS!''

Desmyrr grabs his LEMON!
User avatar
DWaM
Posts: 1763
Joined: Fri Jun 01, 2012 9:23 am
Gender: Male
Spoken languages: English
Location: The Kingdom of Ellipses

Re: [M][CE] A Burned Man Walks Down The Desolate Corridor ●

Post by DWaM »

Spoiler : Reecer :
It really isn't that long. I had to pretty much plow through the thing a few hours before the deadline and had no problems. Just keep clickin'. (But don't click too fast when examining Amelia's place, I s'ppose).

Oh, and I added a pretty big hint when reaching the ends that they are significant.

Don't be alarmed when re-loading your game, no frame order has changed or anything like that (assuming whole new code was placed on variables or something).

There is also one more thing I want to put it, but I'll wait for a bit so that it doesn't screw up people's saves before they get to chance to finish it.
PhoenixRises123
Posts: 97
Joined: Sat Apr 25, 2015 10:25 pm
Gender: Male
Spoken languages: English

Re: [M][CE] A Burned Man Walks Down The Desolate Corridor ●

Post by PhoenixRises123 »

DWaM wrote:@Reecer6

I'm sorry you feel that way.
Spoiler : :
I would've personally liked the thing being experienced through the actual player, especially because of the stuff that went in for the effects and whatnot. Iunno, could just be me, but it's really not the same.

Also, I'm personally unsure as to how you landed in this problem. Did you get to end 5, not know what it was and then just reload a save?

Unfortunately, a tree system following your progress is night impossible for me. It's also something that would have to be implemented at available at any time which is, impossible to do, at least in this case. Which means that the only time available would be after getting an ending, which defeats the point, in my opinion. An idea is a semi-investigation that move and conversation options unlocked the more you play or something. I don't know. I'll think on it.

I can definitely add a hint, but still - a shame. Especially since every ending can be reached in 5 minutes if you're fast enough. But oh well.
@PhoenixRises123

Glad you liked it!
Spoiler : :
I don't really think it's grimdark at all, really. Like, there really is no true misery or despair that could be argued is in all of my previous cases. It's a detective story. All it has is grit, in my mind. There are subjects of pain and suffering, but they're never really pushed forward to the poitn where they control or dictate how the story works. They are merely there to help you understand the plot and the characters a bit more.
Spoiler : :
I know, it was just a joke that I made about how people keep calling some of your cases "grimdark" I can see why you didn't get it. I really am bad at jokes.. :(
Reverie
Posts: 497
Joined: Thu Dec 12, 2013 10:41 pm
Spoken languages: English

Re: [M][CE] A Burned Man Walks Down The Desolate Corridor ●

Post by Reverie »

Spoiler : Quick Thoughts on Burnabout :
Quite liked this one, although I do feel as though it loses points for theme revelance in this particular comp. It seems more of an Investigation than a Misc trial. The main thing that would set it apart from a normal investigation would, I guess, be the multiple endings, and... I gotta agree with Reecer on this one;
even with some sort of notification about needing to find those two endings, it's still hard to know where to look. I'm not sure if I missed any hints about what paths you need in-game or if there just aren't any, but something like that might be helpful for those who don't use a walkthrough. It's not as hard to follow as CT, as there were far less choices to make, but it's still a little annoying to have to find each ending with no guidance. Especially as a lot of them are bits of dialogue repeated in other routes.

On the other hand, I liked the slight change in style with this one. For a lot of the start, it felt very similar to Empty or Curtain 2, where some of the dialogue doesn't really uniquely fit each character. As if certain lines spoken by Apollo could just have easily been said by Kristoph, or vice versa. It's a little hard to explain, but it's especially prevelant in those moments where the characters take jabs at each other... they seem interchangeable.
For the most part, it wasn't too distracting. In a couple of scenes before he's "met," de Killer seemed a little more casual than he usually was. Trucy ("Trucy") was by far the most jarring - up until the very end, I was sure that this was the same sort of Trucy from Empty, which... I'll admit, didn't seem much like Trucy at all. Luckily, it was part of the plot this time - it was nice foreshadowing. Shows what you get for assuming things about the characters with ??? nametags...

Incidentally, the change in tone from the rest of the case at the very end was... a little crack. And you promised prceisely zero crack. That said, if the rest of DWaMland is grimdark (which, CT aside, I never really saw it as), this was a far lighter ending than any of the other cases had let me to expect. Even with everyone we knew being either someone else entirely or a liar/killer, the ending still managed to be more upbeat than it was gloomy. It's a nice change of pace. Empty had bittersweet endings too, but that left a bunch of unanswered (albeit hinted at) questions. It was neat to see the protagonist completely succeed this time around and not be upset by the outcome.

The rest of the true end did seem a little rushed, though. Main two scenes that stick out are the two confrontations against Nell and Gavin. It's hard to see that Nell confessed so quickly in this route when she didn't in others, and the fact that 3000 (ish? I'unno) frames of build-up led to such a quick clash with Gavin was a bit underwhelming. Especially since you can't lose that confrontation. That was the only moment where I thought that it might have been better as a standard court case for that scene, with several rebuttals. Obviously, that wouldn't work within the boundaries of the competition, and with that in mind, it wasn't so bad.
Other scenes on that route, like the de Killer hospital scene, also seemed to be a mad rush to tie up all the loose ends. The dialogue was strong in those scenes, but it was quite clearly exposition. I can't tell if it was always meant to be like that or if it was comp rush, but a slower pace in those parts might have paid off.
(Then again, I heard this whole thing was an homage to Kara no Shoujo, which I'm not that familiar with. The way the revelations are handled might be intentional for all I know.)

Overall, though, the classic detective novel vibe made the case very enjoyable (when I hadn't read the dialogue already on other routes) and yeah, I quite liked the plot, even if Phoenix de Killer came nearly out of nowhere. It might not be as atmospheric as Tomorrow or ADB, but as more of a "short story" (which is what this feels more like,) it worked well.

end of pretentious review













also what the hell is with that title
User avatar
DWaM
Posts: 1763
Joined: Fri Jun 01, 2012 9:23 am
Gender: Male
Spoken languages: English
Location: The Kingdom of Ellipses

Re: [M][CE] A Burned Man Walks Down The Desolate Corridor ●

Post by DWaM »

@PhoenixRises
Don't worry, it's something I wanted to point out anyway.

@Spyromed
Spoiler : :
Thanks for the review! Glad you liked it!

The thing about the endings and the way they are handled - it's just the way visual novels these days are and that's the structure and model I followed. A big advantage to this, I think, is that this is relatively short, so it's really easy to just plow through the dialogue you've potentially seen. To compensate, though, I did try to make the walkthrough, at least, shaped in a way where the player wouldn't have to go through too much stuff they've already seen, discounting the optional paths.

This was always meant to be a short story, as you put it, yeah, which is exactly the reason for the breakneck pace. The story summary is about 25 pages long, covering essentially all of the endings and what happens in them. I wanted to cut out as much of the weight off as possible to make sure that what was delivered was coherent and clear. It's because of the speed that you might've felt that the characters didn't have a "unique voice", so to speak - there really just isn't any time to set them up in this new timeline properly. Yet, at the same time, I didn't want to make them into caricatures distinguished only by certain quirks. These days, I generally try and make people sound like... normal people. And normal people just... usually talk, be it about stupid or irrelevant things. Hell, even rich people in gold will sometimes just talk about nonsense.

The thing about Nell's confrontation in the true end, the way I saw it, at least - was that she wasn't an idiot. There was clearly no way of her getting out of this. They explained they knew about the car way before even knowing about the parking ticket, and they had solid evidence that she'd requested de Killer to kill someone. That's opportunity. Another important thing for me was that the player doesn't get bored - I feel like if I'd extended the scene, the player would be forced to go through the classic "no I didn't u did" drivel for about 200 or so frames with no information being learned. Besides, they'd already sat through that on another path. I figured that the true end would already be able to have a lot of momentum because of the information the player has gathered throughout the previous paths (which is also the reason why Kristoph's confrontation wasn't terribly long - it was essentially just a way of the player putting everything he's picked up in the required paths together in a way that makes sense). Failing at it would've just led to an awkward end where everyone in the room is just like: "Ummmmmm okaaaaaaay". There would literally be no way to go from there. And a rebuttal system just wouldn't have worked. Drags the flow of the scene far too much and it's ultimately pretty pointless.

Also, you mentioned KnS: trust me when I tell you that when it comes to bad endings and replaying - KnS is disastrous. Like, no joke, it is the VN's biggest flaw. There is often no logical connection between your actions and the endings you get. KnS 2 is even worse because to even get the normal end, you have to go through the game twice, which gets disastrous when it takes an hour to get through it on speed mode. (Oh yeah and to even unlock the path to the true end you have to get every single ending of the game - that is, two decent ones and 7 bad ones. Much fun.)

...I'm getting off-topic. Basically, KnS inspired this in the sense that it had little "logic sections" in which the character reflected on what happened (with no consequence regardless of what you presented in those sequences, tho) and the fact that almost every element brought up in the story was somehow tied up and connected with another one, forming one massive whole that would never ever happen in real life, but somehow has happened here and you just can't help but feel satisfied seeing how it just fits.
Oh, and the title has an actual meaning this time around. Like, no joke - out of all of my titles - this one is actually a relevant one. It could've been said in another way, but I ultimately chose to make it as long as possible because it made me think of VN titles that are directly translated from japanese and are always almost ridiculously long.
nikekut456
Posts: 34
Joined: Tue Aug 05, 2014 3:39 pm
Gender: Male
Spoken languages: English

Re: [M][CE] A Burned Man Walks Down The Desolate Corridor ●

Post by nikekut456 »

Spoiler : Help :
I've unlocked first 10 endings, but when I tried to go to the part: BODY BAG. It said that I'm still not ready (lol?)
Any solution to this? Or can I get a save file to unlock this?
User avatar
Bad Player
Posts: 7228
Joined: Wed May 20, 2009 10:53 pm
Gender: Male
Spoken languages: American
Location: Under a bridge

Re: [M][CE] A Burned Man Walks Down The Desolate Corridor ●

Post by Bad Player »

nikekut456 wrote:
Spoiler : Help :
I've unlocked first 10 endings, but when I tried to go to the part: BODY BAG. It said that I'm still not ready (lol?)
Any solution to this? Or can I get a save file to unlock this?
Spoiler : :
after presenting the card at the beginning, make sure you tell the truth rather than lie
nikekut456
Posts: 34
Joined: Tue Aug 05, 2014 3:39 pm
Gender: Male
Spoken languages: English

Re: [M][CE] A Burned Man Walks Down The Desolate Corridor ●

Post by nikekut456 »

Spoiler : Done playing but still have some questions about the case :
1/ Anyone explain why Emilia can go freely in evidence room? Is that most likely a sneak? If so, then damn, I have no clue what the hell LAPD doing in headquarter
2/ So the yellow coat guy in prologue is the De Killer in this scenario? If not, then who is he?
User avatar
Bad Player
Posts: 7228
Joined: Wed May 20, 2009 10:53 pm
Gender: Male
Spoken languages: American
Location: Under a bridge

Re: [M][CE] A Burned Man Walks Down The Desolate Corridor ●

Post by Bad Player »

nikekut456 wrote:
Spoiler : Done playing but still have some questions about the case :
1/ Anyone explain why Emilia can go freely in evidence room? Is that most likely a sneak? If so, then damn, I have no clue what the hell LAPD doing in headquarter
2/ So the yellow coat guy in prologue is the De Killer in this scenario? If not, then who is he?
Spoiler : :
1. Probably the same reason Polly can.
2. Presumably the Does were the old and new De Killers. I guess the old one bit the dust at some point between the prelude and main game. (And if he didn't... then Ethan can now take over the family business, I guess.)
nikekut456
Posts: 34
Joined: Tue Aug 05, 2014 3:39 pm
Gender: Male
Spoken languages: English

Re: [M][CE] A Burned Man Walks Down The Desolate Corridor ●

Post by nikekut456 »

Bad Player wrote:
Spoiler : :
1. Probably the same reason Polly can.
2. Presumably the Does were the old and new De Killers. I guess the old one bit the dust at some point between the prelude and main game. (And if he didn't... then Ethan can now take over the family business, I guess.)
Spoiler : :
1/ May be he can still get permission from asking Ema (Are those two really dating? I mean Sternwood did say something about Ema's dating someone and somehow she appears at Polly's house in the ending)
2/ He did say something about the Father trained him and his sister well, and in prologue, we all knew that Doe and Ethan are father and son
Spoiler : Ok next question :
1/ Why did Klavier want to kill Kristoph? We all knew the other two's motives in the prologue but not Klaiver
2/ In some endings, we explored that the gun used to kill Sternwood is from "Kristoph", but the fact is true gun is from the true killer. So why Phoenix claimed that the gun that "Kristoph" hiding is the murder weapon? It's just pure coincidence or the killer planted it as well?
User avatar
DWaM
Posts: 1763
Joined: Fri Jun 01, 2012 9:23 am
Gender: Male
Spoken languages: English
Location: The Kingdom of Ellipses

Re: [M][CE] A Burned Man Walks Down The Desolate Corridor ●

Post by DWaM »

nikekut456 wrote:
Spoiler : Ok next question :
1/ Why did Klavier want to kill Kristoph? We all knew the other two's motives in the prologue but not Klaiver
2/ In some endings, we explored that the gun used to kill Sternwood is from "Kristoph", but the fact is true gun is from the true killer. So why Phoenix claimed that the gun that "Kristoph" hiding is the murder weapon? It's just pure coincidence or the killer planted it as well?
Spoiler : :
1/
Image

2/ The "Phoenix" seen after the prologue onwards IS the true killer. The gun "found" in Kristoph's place was planted there by him. It's no coincidence. The reason he did so was because Justice had given him a solid theory on how it would make sense for Kristoph to be the culprit. Two birds with one stone.
nikekut456
Posts: 34
Joined: Tue Aug 05, 2014 3:39 pm
Gender: Male
Spoken languages: English

Re: [M][CE] A Burned Man Walks Down The Desolate Corridor ●

Post by nikekut456 »

DWaM wrote:
Spoiler : :
2/ The "Phoenix" seen after the prologue onwards IS the true killer. The gun "found" in Kristoph's place was planted there by him. It's no coincidence. The reason he did so was because Justice had given him a solid theory on how it would make sense for Kristoph to be the culprit. Two birds with one stone.
Spoiler : Actually what I mean is :
In true ending, Kristoph planted THAT SAME GUN at the scene and the gun went missing cuz of Amelia and in the end, it went to Apollo. But somehow in some endings, the gun was found at Kristoph's place. So in these endings, Amelia gave it to Phoenix and he used it to frame Kristoph? If so, then which gun is using to kill Sternwood? The same model?
User avatar
Bad Player
Posts: 7228
Joined: Wed May 20, 2009 10:53 pm
Gender: Male
Spoken languages: American
Location: Under a bridge

Re: [M][CE] A Burned Man Walks Down The Desolate Corridor ●

Post by Bad Player »

Spoiler : :
he was the detective in charge, he could've easily tweaked the evidence to make it look like "Kristoph's" gun was the murder weapon
User avatar
Mr. Onizuka
Posts: 139
Joined: Mon Sep 22, 2014 11:32 pm
Gender: Male
Spoken languages: English, Español

Re: [M][CE] A Burned Man Walks Down The Desolate Corridor ●

Post by Mr. Onizuka »

Been playing it, and getting as much out of it as I can. Very nicely done, but I have a question about something I think is pretty weird:
Spoiler : Question, question :
How come Wright even considered saying that it was simply a suicide, if the "suicide weapon" wasn't found inside of the locked room, with locked windows that the deceased was found in?
Even if he says "We are looking into this, to see if it's a murder" just as a formality in order to not inform outsiders about the progress of the investigation, why doesn't Apollo point out that it just can't be a suicide because of the aforementioned issue?
Wright doesn't even seem to suspect that it can't be a suicide, as he even states that "The bullet went through the poor man's head", so that determining the weapon would be "difficult", which directly implies no weapon was found on the scene, and thus, it makes the suicide an impossibility. I mean: I can understand Apollo not suspecting at the first step, when Wright states that they are looking into it, because he didn't get to search the room, and thus, find the weapon that should be inside (from his POV), but after Wright states this, this directly implies that there is no weapon, and thus, it's impossible for it to be a suicide.
It's an honest question. I know you all are mystery game experts here, but as someone who doesn't know what's going on (as I assume is the state Apollo is when he reaches that scene), my first question would be the one I left there.
Avatar by Kristin Ridgley
User avatar
AquaAce72
Posts: 380
Joined: Sat May 08, 2010 6:20 am
Gender: Male
Spoken languages: English

Re: [M][CE] A Burned Man Walks Down The Desolate Corridor ●

Post by AquaAce72 »

Just finished. Very nice all around.
Spoiler : :
The happy(ish) ending is so refreshing. While a bittersweet ending isn't necessarily bad (and is actually underused in general imo), your trials in particular tend to use them quite a bit so it got a little stale over the years. This ending felt pretty good and satisfying, my only complaint being that De Killer's morphine-fueled infodump kinda revealed way too much at once.

Also really enjoyed the route/ending structure. It was cool that almost every ending, bad or good, had major clues and foreshadowing that all came back together in the finale.
Spoiler : @Mr. Onizuka :
Well, at that point murder was impossible as well. The only way it even makes sense for him to die at all is if someone had somehow altered the crime scene after his death, which could be done to cover up suicide by removing the gun, hiding a suicide note, adjusting the position of the body, etc.
Post Reply