The Hokkaido Serial Murder Case: The Okhotsk Disappearance’s remake launches for PC and Switch, revitalizing a Yuji Horii classic from 40 years ago 

G-Mode released The Hokkaido Serial Murder Case: The Okhotsk Disappearance ~Memories in Ice, Tearful Figurine~ on September 12 for the PC (Steam) and Nintendo Switch. The title is a modern-day remake of the NES murder mystery classic from 1984, which was written by Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii. It is playable in English, Japanese and Chinese. 

The Hokkaido Serial Murder Case remake is a detective adventure game in which you investigate a series of murders happening across Japan’s snowy Hokkaido region. The game features a command selection system, whereby you progress by selecting one of 14 available commands. Apart from overhauling the graphics and adding voiced lines, the remake also introduces several quality-of-life improvements.  

New features include an “investigation memo” that allows you to save at any time, an auto-save function, and a chart that displays the relationships between the characters. In addition, when making a phone call in the game, you can now enter entire phone numbers in one go (you used to have to enter them manually, one digit at a time). Text that you’ve read gets highlighted in yellow, making it easier to remember which  dialogue trees and lines of investigation you have already gone through. 

The remake will also introduce a new story, set in modern-day Japan. This new episode will follow an incident that ties into the events of the Okhotsk case from 37 years ago. Yuji Horii himself was involved in the remake’s development as an advisor, and has approved all the additions made to his original storyline. 

The Hokkaido Serial Murder Case: The Okhotsk Disappearance ~Memories in Ice, Tearful Figurine~ is available for the PC (Steam) and Nintendo Switch.