What is your favorite twist or mystery in this volume?

I love the rabbit figure twist. If you’re really smart, perceptive and creative it is entirely possible to guess that something is off about the rabbit, perhaps even come up with the theory that someone was inside the rabbit figure. In the visual novel you can even see the rabbit in the background of Mew’s room when Hellen takes her alibi. Plus Nile was super persistent about placing the figure inside Mew’s room.

There are also certain hints such as Marian leaning on the rabbit and it easily falling. I know people don’t like sudden suspects that came out of nowhere but the mystery itself is not exactly a closed room mystery and outside help could come up.

As much as I don’t like hiding crucial information from the players, hiding the existence of CycloniumX was mandatory to make this mystery complex. Originally this story was a group murder mystery game that I wrote and I made it so that my friends could solve it on discord. And in that version Tenma’s inspection room(was known as research room before) was locked by metal doors and was covered in metal walls and the police couldn’t get in. That was arguably the dumbest thing I have written and it entirely existed there to make it so that the cops couldn’t check it and find out what CycloniumX was before time. The players of the group mystery were flabbergasted at how the cops couldn’t just break in. Not to mention Tenma building such a tough walls and door is completely unrealistic and stupid of him to have made such an effort.

I clearly changed that, made it so a certain file on Tenma’s pc was locked and there is a hidden oom in the inspection room. It is much more understandable for regular cops to not be able to unlock that file. And there is a huge chance that it’s basically nothing of note so it makes sense for the cops to neglect it a bit and I think that just made the twist so much better.

Still, I think it makes it a very interesting experience, seeing whether people would be able to guess if there is poison involved in the case by realizing that everyone’s alibis focusing on the food, Tenma acting weird and Hori giving Joseph the cupcake. Makes it really nice when all those comments that seemed like extras suddenly become important puzzle pieces.

I also really love certain suspects being crossed out of the suspect list because of their positioning. Both times when Joseph got cleared. When people realize Reiner was at the main hall so Joseph couldn’t reach Hori or vice versa at 21 pm. When Joseph can’t reach the dining hall to poison the food because Mikhail and Jack were outside in the recroom.

It is very easy to overlook this. But once you realize it, it is an extremely solid evidence that rules people out. Certain person who did a let’s play of the visual novel suspected Joseph of kidnapping Hori, put her inside the carton box he was carrying but they didn’t realize Reiner was at the main hall and therefore the theory wouldn’t work. Joseph was a really good red herring.

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Was there any fears you had or things that you think pulled down the story?

Ahh, this is a difficult one. I was definitely afraid of people getting bored of the repeat information that comes with taking everyone’s alibis. Yeah, unfortunately I think I couldn’t make that scene more fun. I guess in regards to the visual novel I could try to recreate the scenes being spoken of visually rather than just leave them as comments made by the characters. But that seems like a lot of work with questionable reward :(

There was the idea of cops getting multiple people’s alibis by bringing a group of people together in one room. But that is super unrealistic, unpractical and if not more confusing to take an alibi that way. However, the visual novel is supposed to simulate how it feels like to be a detective so giving such extensive detail and repeat information helps players memorize the events so that they don’t get stuck easily during gameplay. And I made sure that every single person conveys their alibi super differently depending on their characters.

Marian and Jude are the most detailed and could possibly be the ones to ramble on the most.

Mew, Joseph, Jack are very brief and give a careless testimony.

Nile is skipping major parts. He doesn’t want to focus on the trolley at all for a very good reason and so on.

So it’s not the worst thing ever.

I also really don’t know how other people feel about all the suspects for stabbing Tenma running out and then realizing CycloniumX is a thing. I personally thought it would be way cooler if the detectives naturally realized they ran out of suspects and then get introduced to CycloniumX. It is time consuming that way but at the same time it’s just epic to realize you ran out of suspects rather than CycloniumX being introduced earlier on. But I’m not sure if everyone agrees with that.

But more than that, there are legitimate plot hole or kind of dumb things in this story that I was 100% fully aware but couldn’t change because that would impact the story. One of them is Jude hiding the knife behind the library bookcase. Yeah, the entire affair argument wouldn’t have been found out at all had Jude simply put the knife back into the kitchen. But if he did that then there is no way for the detectives to know about Marian’s threat to kill soooooo, yeah.

Also Marian, Jude, Yumiko didn’t discuss the matter well with one another before the cops came so they ended up testifying the truth despite them being able to articulate a much better alibi.

There is also the funny thing about the spaghetti. Jude and Yumiko cooked and brought the spaghetti at 15 pm. Yet all of them start eating dinner at 18 pm. Which is absolutely ridiculous because the food would be cold by then. This was done like this solely so that Hori would have enough time to poison the food and the suspect list for the food poisoning would be large enough.

I guess I could have made it so that Jude and Yumiko reheated the food but ehh, too late it’s too late! I would rather focus my efforts on the continuation of the story now. Especially considering the visual novel and the webnovel both have these storylines now. Sometimes, you gotta live with the fact that there are glitches in the matrix, in this fictional story.