Meitantei Conan: Marionette Symphony

Detective Conan – Marionette Symphony also known as Meitantei Conan – Marionette Symphony is an Adventure game developed and published by Bandai Namco Games for the Nintendo 3DS. It was released exclusively in Japan on April 25, 2013. The game opens with Kogoro Mouri being hired by Daisuke Ozawa to guard the President of the Moriyama Construction Corporation, which built the Clover Hills complex, on the day that the complex is celebrating its one year anniversary. As Kogoro, Ran Mouri, and Conan Edogawa are leaving the Mouri Detective Agency, they stumble upon a woman on the ground, who claims to have amnesia.

Since she appears to be the architect of the Clover Hills complex, Kanako Shimizaki, they take her with them, despite Ozawa’s objections. Upon arriving at Clover Hills, they discover the President is nowhere to be found. Meanwhile, Ai Haibara and the Detective Boys are in another part of the complex, climbing the emergency stairs to reach the roof because the children believe there are monsters to be found up there. Ai suddenly hears suspicious voices, which call each other by flower codenames and say threatening things. She has to keep the kids out of danger!

At the same time, Heiji Hattori is waiting in the nearby Clover News TV station to appear on the local news show to talk about a recent case of his, with Kazuha Toyama there to support him. Suddenly, a body is found in the Clover Aquarium, and all of the detectives are caught up in the case! The game is mainly played like a visual novel, with the story being told through text boxes that the player must hit a button to advance. Each character has various sprites for different expressions, which change to suit what’s being said. There’s also full screen illustrations for important scenes (known in the visual novel genre as ‘CGs’).

This game uses the “zapping system” previously used in other games by the developer. The zapping system permits players to switch between characters instead of playing as one single character throughout the game. For example, the teaser trailer for the game shows Conan being switched out for Heiji. When a character’s story can progress no further, then they “Close the Door”, and it can only be opened again by zapping to a different character who has the key to the other character’s story. Zapping sometimes happens automatically, when the story requires a point of view change.