Murder Club
Murder Club, also known as J.B. Harold Murder Club, is a detective mystery game from Rika Suzuki. Early in her career she co-founded Riverhill Soft, where she created 黒猫荘相続殺人事件 (“The Black Cat Manor Inheritance Murder Case”) and other early adventure games. She went on to co-found CiNG, where she created Hotel Dusk and Trace Memory (also known as Another Code) for Nintendo DS. Murder Club was originally released in Japan for PC-88 in 1986. It was ported to MS-DOS, translated to English, and released in North America in 1989. There have been modern remakes for a number of platforms including iPhone, Macintosh, Android, and Nintendo Switch, though many of these are only in Japanese or have limited availability.
Murder Club focuses on the death of wealthy businessman Bill Robbins. His body is found with multiple stab wounds, and left in a car outside a college in Liberty City. You’re tasked with interviewing witnesses, obtaining warrants to search for evidence, and eventually bringing in suspects for interrogation. The game includes some important items in the box to help guide your investigation, including a map of locations to keep track of everyone’s whereabouts, and mostly blank dossiers on each of the suspects. You’ll need to fill them in and pay close attention to details to piece together what happened.
Despite the words “Final Mystery” on the cover, Murder Club was the first in a series of several games, including Manhattan Requiem, Kiss of Murder, D.C. Connection, and Blue Chigaco Blues.
This was a long one but I really enjoyed it. It pushes you to do a lot of note-taking and thinking outside of the game. This can make it a challenge, but that’s what I want in a detective game. I want to feel like I’m working it out myself, rather than being guided along a path to the end. I love the blank dossiers that come in the box—they’re a nice setup for how to approach it. I did occasionally get stuck looking for the one dialogue option I needed to progress. That’s an unfortunate problem when it can’t be solved by logic, but it didn’t detract too much from the experience. Well worth the effort.
- How to Play Murder Club and the J.B. Harold Series
- J.B. Harold Murder Club on Wikipedia
- Murder Club on MobyGames
Includes screenshots of various ports of the game, some of which are quite different. - Rika Suzuki profile on Giant Bomb
Includes several excellent links to learn more. - Rika Suzuki interview by Game Preservation Society
“Pioneering Mystery Games in Japan,” includes English subtitles. - Murder Club is a murder mystery game that includes discussion of sexual assault and suicide.
Part 1
Let’s Play Murder Club by Rika Suzuki, creator of Hotel Dusk and Trace Memory! I’ll be playing the North American MS-DOS version, and have a boxed copy of the Japanese PC-98 release to share.
Part 2
We’ve learned everyone’s blood type, sooo now we just need to figure out which blood type is most likely to do a murder…? Murder Club continues!
Part 3
Let’s all go to Big Burger and talk about Murder Club.
Part 4
Today is the day: I’m going to arrest someone. Murder Club let’s go.
Part 5
I made two arrests and I’m more confused than ever. The only solution is to arrest more people. Murder Club continues~
Part 6
I will not stop until I’ve achieved every cops dream: arresting everyone in town.
Part 7
Last week’s shocking revelation was a major breakthrough, but there’s so much we don’t know! Let’s see if we can crack the case. Murder Club continues~
Part 8
I have so many notes and somehow it’s not enough? I think it’s time to review literally everything so we can get to the bottom of Murder Club.
Part 9
I’m probably wrong but I’m making a bold claim: we’re going to solve Murder Club tonight. Let’s do it. (Note: I did not do it.)
