Today Nippon Ichi Software released the first trailer, artwork, and screenshots of its upcoming mystery visual novel Murder Detective Jack the Ripper, and boy it looks good.
The story is set in a fictional version of Victorian London, and it’s about private detective Arthur Hewitt, who suffers a strong shock when discovering a corpse during the investigation on a serial murder case.
When that happens, he realizes that within himself lives another persona who calls himself “Jack the Ripper.” After that, a lot of strange incidents start to happen in London and around him.
Will he prove himself to be an ally of justice diligently acting as a detective should, or will he enforce his own justice by following the instinct that his murderous inner demon is so proud of?
You will have to choose between good and evil, but choose carefully, or you’ll be haunted by regret.
Jack the Ripper was a murderer tried and executed two years before the beginning of the story. He was famous for serial murders in which he dismembered the bodies in different ways to showcase their own crime leaving a message from hell at the murder scene.
His serial murders went on for years and his victims cannot be precisely counted.
We also get to see the characters that will appear in the game.
Arthur Hewitt is a young detective at the head of the Hewitt Detective Office in London. He finds pleasure in being useful to others and he tries his best in helping common citizen. He has an excellent reputation because he doesn’t refuse even menial work like finding lost pets or lost items.
He was seriously injured due to the riots that happened when Jack the Ripper was executed and was saved only thanks to a heart transplant (I’ll let you guess whose heart he got. It’s not officially confirmed, but I’ll call that obvious).
The self-declared Jack the Ripper calls himself a murderer, but his nature is a mystery. Is he a ghost or a delusion created by Arthur’s mind? He loves to tease his host laughing maniacally.
Charlotte Peaceley is a female police officer working at the London Police Department. She’s a straight shooter and she does her best at her job. She won’t ever forgive criminals and villains.
Harry Brown is also a police officer primarily in charge of criminal cases. He’s also Charlotte’s senior. Yet, since he’s often facetious and at times inappropriate, the two are completely incompatible.
Rory Godspeed is the deputy boss of the Godspeed Union mafia family. She is the one who asks Arthur to investigate into the serial murders.
Walter Reichel is Arthur’s doctor, working at a clinic in London. He’s an expert in psychiatry, surgery, internal medicine, research, and medical technology. He also works on autopsies for the London Police Department.
Sophie Reichel his Walter’s daughter. While she is young, she is brilliant and cheerful, good at housekeeping and cleaning, and still finds time to take care of the reception of the clinic and to act as an assistant during treatment.
The story features a branching system split into the “Detective Route” and “Murderous Demon Route.” The player can choose freely between reason and instinct heavily impacting the outcome of the story.
Some of the choices actually delve in whether murder can be justified as righteous, like killing in self-defense or taking the life of someone who has already killed many or to protect someone.
The story is represented by a tree, and it’s possible to resume from any of the choices to take a different path.
You can check out the trailer and screenshots below.
Murder Detective Jack the Ripper will be released in Japan for PS4 and Nintendo Switch on April 25. A western release has not been announced yet. Pretty please, NIS America? Don’t make me wait too long for this one.
