伴生

As this is a commercial boxed game, many Chinese reviews exist; you might want to check them out too.

Played at: 梦回 Another Day
6 players (3 female, 3 male)

《伴生》is beginner-friendly in terms of difficulty, but could be disorienting for first-timers. It tries to do a lot within 4 hours or so: otherworldly elements, development of character relationships, fairly involved story-reconstruction, and some late-game developments.

The case has a unique structure that’s alluded to in the official premise but may surprise players. While some narrative beats can be seen a mile off, there are other fun, relatively fresh twists.

As a 情感 case,《伴生》has a good mix of emotional relationships in play, and will try to tug on a range of heartstrings (with varied effectiveness) — players who dislike such attempts are better off avoiding this.

The epilogue is particularly interesting in its appeal to emotion. Indeed, I probably enjoyed thinking about《伴生》more than I enjoyed playing it — but that could just be me. Beginners who are open to an atypical 情感 case could find 《伴生》a worthwhile journey.

Try if you like: A case that combines various elements; emotionally-involved cases; a short but content-packed runtime.

Not recommended for: Players who dislike obvious appeals to emotion; players who don’t want to play characters that have romantic feelings for others; players who prefer a greater focus on murder-solving than event-reconstruction (还原).