>>15948
For the first clause, I pretty much presented a working theory during the gameboard itself, so I'll try that first. The culprit committed the crime during the night, while Eva was asleep. Using Gohda's lost master key, they opened Hideyoshi's room to kill him, then went over to the mansion and killed Krauss in his room. They left Hideyoshi's room key in his room, locked it with Krauss's own key, and then went back to the guesthouse and left Krauss's key in Hideyoshi's room before locking it with Gohda's master key.

Going for the obvious? A brave move, but a foolish one.

When Battler's group discovered Hideyoshi's room, it had not been locked using a master key!

>>16094
Okay, second theory. We never actually tried using the key we found in Krauss's room to open Hideyoshi's room. The tags on the keys could have been switched, so that it wasn't really the key to guestroom #2! That way, the culprit could have used the real guestroom #2 key to lock the door.

Your attack comes close, but the witch dodges, and launches a counter.

"The key you found in Krauss' room really was the guestroom #2 key. One more shot, detective!"

>>16098
...Let's move on to the second clause for now. Well, this seems pretty simple at first glance, but I'm sure there's more to it. The killer simply killed the two of them in the parlor after forcing the door open, and then left.

The first room is left in limbo, and you and the witch move... No, that's not right. You're still there, but now you're here, too. A second you, and a second witch.

"A good effort. Wrong, however.

At the time when the door to the parlor was broken, Rosa had already been killed."

>>16105
Oh, just as I predicted. In that case, when Doctor Nanjo gave Rosa and Maria their sedatives, he actually gave them something different. This could be either of his own accord, or more likely because someone messed with his medicine bag earlier.

It's not vital to the theory, but I suspect that Rosa was given something fatal, while Maria was just given something to put her to sleep. Either way, this is why the two of them stayed locked in the parlor for all that time. The culprit then forced the door open the next day and beheaded both of them!

The witch sees your attack coming, as blatant as it is... and does nothing. Inevitably, the blue strikes into her, and she lets out a cruel laugh. "Correct... for what little good it will do you!"

The illusion of this witch shatters, and the shadow of the culprit behind it bows to you, before this room fades to nothing.

>>16108
...Let's try the third clause next. There was a trap set up in Natsuhi's room to send the bookcase tumbling down on Eva. This probably involved the twine that I found. It could have been triggered to activate when she did something, or the culprit could have manually triggered it. Either way, at some point after that, the culprit ended up in the room, took her head and locked the room behind them with their key, before leaving to go hide in one of the guestrooms until we arrived on scene, at which point they escaped to the staircase during the commotion.

The witch appears again, and once more, you clash.

"Locked their room with their key? What key? You found the key to Natsuhi's room inside it when you discovered the body, remember?"

>>16116
Naturally, I'm talking about a master key. The one that Gohda lost, for example.

No sooner do you make your move, than the witch's trap is sprung.

"At the time your group opened the door to Natsuhi's room, it had not been locked using a master key!"

>>16118
Back to the first clause...I suppose I'm going to have to get this possibility out of the way before I can think of anything else. It wasn't Hideyoshi's key which was switched, it was Krauss's! Because of the distinctive keychain design, the servants would be quick to identify any key placed on that chain as being the key to Krauss's study. A different key was placed on that chain, so the culprit could lock Krauss's door with the real one!

The world switches, and caught off-guard by your sudden change of attack, the witch is impaled by your blue.

"... It's as you say. Good luck." The illusion of the witch shatters, and the shadow of the culprit stares at you, before this room fades.

You return to the final room, and the final illusion.

>>16121
...Okay, let's try this. Kyrie entered Natsuhi's room before me. It's possible that she snuck the key in there at that time, so it could still have been used to lock the door from outside beforehand!

The witch sneers.

"Building on your first theory? It'll do you no good.

At the moment before your group entered Natsuhi's room, the key to Natsuhi's room was already on the windowsill."

>>16157
Then how about this? The key was used by the culprit, and then inserted into the room through the window. Kyrie then locked the window after she came into the room, before I entered.

(Would it be possible to get a map drawn for this room, by the way? I'm having trouble visualising exactly where the window, the door, the corpse and the bookcase are in relation to each other.)

The place of your battle shifts, and suddenly you and the witch are present in Natsuhi's room.

"Interesting... I wonder, how many blows can your theory take before it crumbles?

When Kyrie entered the room, the window was already closed and locked."

>>16159
The key could have been inserted through a gap in the door or window.

"... I suppose this was never clarified. Very well.

When the door to Natsuhi's room is closed, there exists no gap through which a key can pass.

When the window to Natsuhi's room is closed, there exists no gap through which a key can pass."

>>16161
What if the culprit used some trick with the twine to lock the window or close the door after leaving the room?

"A new theory? Ngh...


The culprit didn't create such a device or trick."

Last edited at 14/08/31(Sun)14:18:39

>>16163
The culprit didn't, but an accomplice did!

"Oh? Are you sure? After all...

An accomplice didn't set up a device which locked the window or closed the door!"

>>16165
It doesn't necessarily need to close the door, only to lock the door after it's already closed. It also might not necessarily be a 'device', depending on how you define that.

"... Tch! Fine, I concede it!

The accomplice set up a device that locked the door from the inside upon the falling of the bookcase, which was triggered by the closing of the door...

However after the trap had been triggered, Eva had yet to be killed!

Well? If the culprit was locked outside, the only way to kill Eva was with magic!"

>>16167
Time to clarify this some more, I suppose. The triggering of the trap refers to the moment the door was closed, so Eva wasn't dead at that point, since the bookcase had yet to fall on her.

"Hmph. If the bookcase falling on her had killed her, that would make the 'accomplice' in all your blues a culprit, right?

In case you've forgotten, this trap was not set up by Eva's killer. For this red, the term 'trap' encompasses both the falling of the bookcase and the locking of the door from the inside.

Care to try again, detective?"

>>16169
It hardly matters if the culprit set it up or not, does it? All that matters is that they closed the door and triggered the trap which the accomplice had set up, intentionally or otherwise.

The witch sidesteps you blue, however she makes no move to counter.

"I'll humour you. Let's say Eva entered the room, then the culprit closed the door from the outside. If that's the case, where did Eva's head go? After all, you didn't find it in your search of the room."

>>16171
...Maybe Kyrie cut her head off and kicked it under the bed after she entered?

"... Pfft! As fun as 'spot the head' would be, I'm going to cut you off there.

The trap didn't kill Eva. The culprit stood in front of her, then cut off her head themselves! And before you even try it, when Kyrie entered the room with your group, Eva was already dead!"

>>16174
Okay, let's try this. You made a more specific definition of 'trap' for >>16169 but only for the purposes of that one red. It doesn't necessarily apply for the red in >>16167 therefore, there's a possibility that 'trap' in that sentence referred to only part of it triggering. Specifically...

Eva entered the room, and closed the door. The trap triggered, and knocked the bookcase over, missing Eva. But for some reason, something stopped the rest of the mechanism from activating, so the door didn't lock itself. At this point, "the trap has been triggered". Then after that, the culprit entered the room, and beheaded Eva, put her in position, set the bookcase back up and knocked it over again, and left with her head. When the culprit closed the door behind them, the rest of the trap activated, which caused the door to lock itself from the inside! This accounts for everything!

"... I... Auuuuuugh!" Unable to respond, your blue pierces the witch, and the final illusion over the gameboard shatters.

The island is free from the witch.

BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWgEwE1gArE

For a moment, it seems you're safe. However, the shadows behind the illusions begin to rise up, one by one. Eventually, it seems that the silhouettes of everyone you met on the island, and even those you only heard rumors of, are present.

Slowly, they begin to move towards you, and you take up your scythe one last time, to bring an end to this gameboard.

Identify the culprits. Identify the accomplice(s). Identify the motive. Tear away the last shadow, and let their souls rest.

Last edited at 14/09/04(Thu)16:03:07

>>15948
Erika faced away again and concentrated even harder...
As though twisting the knob on a radio, she turned all noise and idle thoughts down to zero.

Let's go, Furudo Erika.
Detective, Furudo Erika!

BGM: http://listenonrepeat.com/watch/?v=QN3lQ2FaU-8

Let's not waste any time. I'll start by exposing the identity of the 'witch' herself. "Beatrice the Golden", who sent the letter at dinner and kept leaving all those other letters for us as the game went on!

>>15721
We saw from this fantasy scene that "Beatrice" was responsible for the first clause. That means the person who sent those letters is the same person who killed Krauss and Hideyoshi. So rather than asking who killed Krauss and Hideyoshi, we should ask who could have sent that first letter! If you think about it, the pool of suspects is quite limited. The will had to be replaced before dinner. That means none of the family members who arrived on the boat could have done it, because I was with them the whole time from when they arrived. It would have to be one of Krauss's family or the servants! If you think about it, the move of replacing the will was an offensive directed specifically at Krauss and Natsuhi. Not only did it throw off their move of announcing Krauss as the official successor, but the letter itself specifically talked about "the way the epitaph was solved" being one of the reasons for the murders. So who would have a motive to do something like that?

>>15926
Jessica's note tells us that Krauss and Natsuhi had some kind of plan, which Kanon was also in support of. Now at first, I was thinking of suspecting Jessica based on this. But aside from it being unlikely that her frustration with her parents would be enough to make her commit a serial murder, there was also a problem with the second clause. It seems likely that the first clause and the second were committed by the same person, since the manner of killing was the same. But Jessica had no opportunity to get into the parlor in the right timeframe to commit that crime - nor, for that matter, did any of the others! There had to be someone on the island whose presence wasn't obvious. There was a red statement that said "Over the course of the game, no person existed on the island who, by the end of the game, you did not have knowledge of." But just because I had knowledge of the person's existence doesn't necessarily mean I knew they were on the island by the time the murders were committed!

So who is this mystery person - our 'witch'? At first I thought it might be Kanon himself, but it didn't fit for several reasons. For one thing, Jessica's note seemed to imply that Kanon was in support of Krauss and Natsuhi's plan, so why would he interfere with it? Furthermore, I couldn't find any evidence that Kanon was on the island. That only leaves one person involved in this conflict who could possibly be the culprit! Jessica's drawing of the servants sitting on the bench strongly implied that Shannon and Kanon were too different people in this game. And the name "Shannon" was seen just as often in Jessica's diary as "Kanon" was. That means that Shannon was also on Jessica's thoughts during the time leading up to the conference - presumably because she also had some relation to this plan involving Krauss and Natsuhi. Kanon may have been okay with the plan, but Shannon could have been opposed to it! It should be obvious where I'm going with this by now, right? The Golden Witch, Beatrice...It's you, Shannon-chan!!

Oh, but there's a problem, isn't there? Shannon apparently left the island at the start of the game, so how could she have committed the murders? Well now, this is where the accomplice comes in...

>>16575
There were several clues that made it seem very likely that Shannon was the witch. The most obvious was a clue relating to the way Rosa and Maria were drugged.


>>15418
We can see from this part that Shannon was left unattended with a "doctor's bag" for quite some time. So she could easily have replaced the sedatives that he was going to give to Rosa and Maria! But at the time, I thought she was possibly only the culprit for that one murder. After all, she was gone from the island for the rest of the game, right? But then there was something that made me absolutely certain that there was more to it than that.

>>15942
After going through the secret passage behind the portrait, we found a dock...with a boat berthed there? What could that possibly be doing there? Well, we only saw one boat in this game - the boat in which Kawabata brought the family. The boat which Shannon then boarded! I learned from my conversation with Jessica and Maria that the hidden mansion Kuwadorian exists in this game. Thinking about it, there would have to be a secret dock somewhere for supplies to be delivered for Beatrice II. The final piece of evidence is the most damning. Look closely at the part where Shannon departed with Kawabata.

>>15454
I turned my back on the departing ship before it had gone too far. But most importantly, there was then a red truth saying that "from now on, no one enters or leaves the island". That would surely make it impossible for Shannon to be on the island from this point on, right? But there's a loophole!

>>15382
You see, it was specified in the rules! "Leaving Rokkenjima" in this game is defined as going more than a kilometre away from the island. In other words, if the boat didn't get that far away from the island before returning, then it's possible for Shannon to be on the island for the rest of the game! The boat didn't leave for a nearby island - it circled around Rokkenjima and entered the hidden dock that would have normally been used for carrying supplies to Kuwadorian.

I raise my scythe, pointing beyond the crowd of the Ushiromiya family and the servants, to the one person standing at the very back of the crowd. The one person that no one would have ever noticed.

You understand what this means, right...? The culprit's accomplice...It was you, Captain Kawabata!!

Now, I can't say for sure what your motive was...but I can make an informed guess. Beatrice's letter mentioned "the death of her predecessor". Kawabata-san, you were made to deliver supplies to the hidden mansion countless times over the years while the Kuwadorian Beatrice was still alive. Kinzo could have been doing anything to that poor girl in her confinement, but you did nothing to stop it. And then, when you were told you no longer had to bring surprise, you must have deduced that the Kuwadorian Beatrice had died an accidental death! She died due to your negligence in informing the authorities and saving her from her captivity! The only thing you could do to assuage your guilt was to help Shannon with her plan and get revenge on the whole family who made such a thing possible. It's not a certain thing, but I'm fairly confident that this is why you helped her remain on this island. And once she was there, with no one else aware of her presence, she could commit the crimes without worrying about alibis or anything of the sort!!

But it's not over yet; there are at least two culprits in this game, after all. But I believe Shannon and Kawabata did the majority of the work in this game. There's only one more person involved, and I will identify them now...!

Last edited at 14/09/08(Mon)13:13:00

>>16576
The issue here is the third clause. We know that there were two people involved in this murder - a culprit and an 'accomplice'. But that's odd - if the witch was behind this, why couldn't Shannon have set the trap herself? Why get an accomplice to do it for her? Well, my theory is that Shannon did, in fact, set the trap herself - and someone else set it off for her quite by accident! An accidental 'culprit'; I confirmed with Ouro that such a thing was possible. And it would explain quite a few things that were out of place about this murder! The most obvious being why Natsuhi ran away - and why Eva was there in the first place!

There are several pieces of evidence that lead me to believe that this murder was an accident. The first is that bloody handprint on the window. Leaving that handprint was a careless move - not the sort of thing you'd expect from a premeditated murder. The way her head was so unceremoniously flung out of the window would also suggest that the culprit was in a rushed panic; they didn't expect to have to deal with this. But who was the accidental culprit? It could be Jessica, but wouldn't it make more sense to suspect the person who immediately ran away from the crime scene afterwards? That's right - the second culprit was Natsuhi!

>>15832
I heard Natsuhi whisper something to Genji when we entered Kinzo's study. Considering that the two of them mysteriously left shortly afterwards, I imagine it was something to do with that. What if Eva overheard something, and realised they were intending to leave? Let's say that Eva escaped in the commotion before Natushi and Genji did, and then ran to the second floor and waited to see what Natsuhi was going to do, hoping to find some evidence that she was the culprit. Then, when Natsuhi entered her room, Eva entered with her! One of them could have closed the door behind them - thus triggering Shannon's trap, which was intended to kill Natsuhi when she entered her own room! But Eva thought Natsuhi, the culprit, had lured her here with the intent of knocking the bookcase down on her; enraged, Eva attacked Natsuhi, and all she could do was defend herself! She accidentally ended up killing Eva in the struggle, and then beheaded her in a panic to try and make it look like it was done by the culprit of the first two crimes. After that, she left, closed the door behind her, and unwittingly set off the trap again, knocking the bookcase down on Eva's corpse! ...It's pretty awkward, and I wouldn't be surprised if I got some details wrong, but this is the best explanation I can come up with for this crime.

I can only speculate as to how the final clause happened, but my suspicion is that Shannon was the one to kill Jessica. The motive for this is quite complicated. Krauss and Natsuhi were planning to keep Kinzo's original will secret, and use a forged will instead - hence the scribbled-out will I found in the hidden drawer. It was obvious from the way Krauss and Natsuhi were acting in this game that Kinzo had already died - I suspect the original will was authentic, and they forged a new will after his death to make Krauss the head. Who was going to be named the head in the original will? I suspect it was Kanon. The photo we found in Kinzo's study, and Jessica's mention to Kanon of "family not being something that is given" suggest that there were plans for Kanon to be inducted into the family somehow - and the most likely reason for that is that he solved the epitaph and became the head.

My theory is that, after Genji made Krauss and Natsuhi aware of the will naming Kanon as the head, they confronted Kanon about it directly. Kanon didn't want to make enemies of them, and had no real desire to become the head anyway - so he accepted their proposal, and allowed them to make a fake will naming Krauss as the head. Genji and Nanjo supported them in this, as part of their loyalty to the "true head" Kanon, in respect of his decision. They thought they were doing Kinzo's will by obeying his successor, even if that involved trampling all over Kinzo's actual will...ironic, isn't it? But Shannon wasn't happy about this! As Kanon's friend, she believed that Krauss and Natsuhi had pressured Kanon into the decision, and were trying to steal his rightful place from them. Jessica believed the same thing, and the two of them plotted together to try and defeat their plans - but Jessica had exhausted all her options.

That was when Shannon came up with her plan, and told Jessica about it - but she knew Jessica wouldn't agree to murdering her family in order to let Kanon become the head. All she told her was the plan about "leaving" the island and then returning through the Kuwadorian dock so she could have room to move about and obstruct Krauss and Natsuhi's plans in secret. Jessica agreed to this, and persuaded Krauss to let Shannon leave at the last minute - it was obvious that her leaving wasn't part of the plan, since they were understaffed without her and Kumasawa mentioned that Natsuhi was unsure about whether they could handle things without her. We even heard Jessica and Natsuhi arguing, probably about exactly that, when we first came into the mansion. But after the murders started happening, Jessica began to suspect that Shannon must be behind this - and in the commotion after the will was discovered, Jessica took the opportunity to go to the secret passage behind the portrait and confront Shannon directly. They ended up arguing, and in the struggle, Shannon killed Jessica, even though she had wanted to keep her alive for Kanon's sake. That was what Beatrice meant when she said her win condition hadn't been fulfilled. This is the final truth of this game!!

The silhouettes shatter, one by one, until only you and a lone figure are left. Eventually, a foul light illuminates them from within, and Shannon bows before you.

"Congratulations, Furudo Erika. You've solved the mystery of the witch... but not the mystery of the gameboard." She brings her hands out from behind her, and reveals a rifle, into which she begins slowly loading bullets, speaking as she does. Each word from her mouth causes the bullets to glow red, and a sinking feeling engulfs your stomach. Her red binds you, sealing your scythe, and tearing away at your beautiful theory.

"Captain Kawabata didn't aid me in any of this. He really did intend to take me away from the island. Furthermore, I, Shannon, was the only person on that boat other than him when it left the dock. Finally, after we left the island, Captain Kawabata never set foot on the island again. Despite all this, I did return to the island after I appeared to leave, and continued to maintain the illusion of the Golden Witch."

"Despite knowing every detail of it, I didn't set out to sabotage Krauss' plan, nor did I do so inadvertently. "

"I didn't kill Ushiromiya Maria. I never intended for her to die. Her mother, on the other hand, I killed for her role in my predecessor's demise."

"I didn't kill Ushiromiya Jessica. Furthermore, when the family was reading the original will in Kinzo's study, Ushiromiya Jessica was already dead."

"I didn't kill Ushiromiya Krauss."

"I killed Ushiromiya Eva."

As she raises the gun, your mind races, going over the game in one last desperate attempt to form a counter-attack.

The original will, declaring an unknown member of the Ushiromiya family Kinzo's successor.

The shattered photo frame in Krauss' room.

Jessica's corpse, already cold, her blood long since clotted.

Battler's response to the culprit's arrival.

Eva's disappearance on the first night, and her investigation into the epitaph.

Natsuhi's movements, and her later disappearance.

The gold room, and the gouges in the floor.

... could that really be it? You open your mouth, but before you can utter a word, a blast of red smashes into your chest, knocking the breath out of you.

"My apologies, Miss Erika. You were so close, too."

Behind her, three shadows, the shadows of those you missed, begin to chuckle, and she takes aim once more...

Last edited at 14/09/08(Mon)14:33:47