Time to drop some sad irony: Again is a title from a company we will likely never hear from… again.

Japanese company Cing is known for the graphic novel-like Hotel Dusk: Room 215 and amazingly quirky Little King’s Story. Unfortunately, these and other games did not seem to garner the capital to stave off Cing’s financial troubles and the company filed for bankruptcy in March.

Before taking a dive, though, Cing released two more games in Japan: a sequel to Hotel Dusk and what has now arrived in North America as Again.

As in Hotel Dusk, there is very little in the way of action in Again. It’s an experience that relies heavily on its story and dialogue to propel the player, even requiring you to hold your DS “book-style.” The opening plot is certainly inviting, as well, placing you in the shoes of FBI Agent Jonathan “J” Weaver, a survivor of a series of unsolved killings 19 years ago known as the “Providence Murders.” Someone is copying the killings in the present, leading Weaver and his partner to thaw the cold case in hopes of discovering the truth behind the past and keeping history from repeating.

The main draw of the game is Weaver’s “gift” of simultaneously seeing the present and past, which he calls upon by focusing on the U.S. dollar “Eye of Providence” calling card the murderer left at each scene (sorry, Canadians; no ogling the queen). Glimpses into both times appear on each screen of the DS, which can be navigated through a mildly clunky mix of D-pad and stylus. By discovering inconsistencies in the scenes and making the present resemble the past, Weaver can witness visions of what happened during the murders.

That seems like it is probably a coincidence...

It’s an inventive mechanic. Unfortunately, the puzzle elements of recreating the murders, while many times engaging, end up being almost insultingly simple. There are a significant number of “find an item to do this” tasks of point-and-click adventures and those that seem made to actually challenge your brain can be taken down in a few attempts at most. There were three puzzles I considered somewhat clever, but others were the tired stylus-driven cliches of “move furniture around to get one piece out,” “rotate the pieces to match the picture” and the ever-dreaded jigsaw-ish puzzle!

Still, Again doesn’t seem meant to be a puzzle game as much as one of exploration and story. In that respect, the game fares a bit better. The script is fairly well written and the story itself moves at a good pace for most of the game. Facts that become blatantly obvious to the player are often brought out into light with due speed and aren’t suspended over your head like they’re some sort of mystical secret unfathomable to your intelligence.

However, there are two downfalls to the story. First, a certain connecting thread keeps the plotline on a rather straight course for much of the game. The game tries to throw some twists through other means, but they’re not as great considering you know certain things are set in stone down the line. The most exciting and involving portions of the story happen near the beginning and end, where there is a higher sense of risk and spontaneity.

He's got a gun!

The twists also don’t have as much impact due to the story’s second downfall: the characters just aren’t that deep. While the dialogue and character animations do pretty well differentiating the personalities of the cast, it doesn’t feel like enough time is spent with them to delve significantly into their histories and motivations. Many of them, in fact, seem to become nothing more than stops to gather more general info and progress the plot, which is unfortunate. The most interesting characters are the ones you’ll never meet — because they died 19 years ago.

Is it all to say the story won’t keep you interested? It actually held me long enough to want to play the game to conclusion and find out the answers, but it still felt a bit disappointing looking back. The end also seems to imply a sequel, but… well, you know.

Hotel Dusk was much better at making the characters feel alive, which is pretty odd considering that Again uses short footage of real people instead of hand-drawn characters. There’s still a good deal of the hand-drawn influence present, though, leading the overall look something of a love child between a-ha’s “Take On Me” video and Twin Peaks. Every character has a set of “canned motions” to go along with their dialogue and there’s a certain ’90s Full Motion Video feel to it all I actually found fascinating in a slightly silly way. I’m certainly not going to fault the game for providing a unique presentation. The 3D crime scenes, however, are bare and splotchy, but you thankfully don’t see a wealth of them.

What I’m really trying to say is…
Again will probably appeal to those who enjoyed Hotel Dusk, even if they may ultimately feel let down by shallower — albeit functional — storytelling and less sense of involvement. Hopefully this will not be Cing’s swan song on this side of the world — let the Hotel Dusk sequel make it over and provide one more chance to show the true power of Cing’s taleweaving.

Again was developed by Cing and published by Tecmo. It is now available for the Nintendo DS for $29.99 USD. Game rented through GameFly and completed in 12 hours. Note: “Eyes of Providence” on their own are not accepted in most vending machines.