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Roughly 43 years after its original release for the PC-6001, Yuji Horii's influential detective-based drama Portopia Serial Murder Case is getting a remake from the Japanese publisher G-Mode and room6 for Nintendo Switch, Switch 2, and Steam.
NEXT: THE PORTOPIA SERIAL MURDER CASE was announced yesterday during the Japanese Nintendo Direct, and hasn't yet been confirmed for other regions.
It will feature Yuji Horii as an executive director on the project, and similar to 2024's Hokkaido Serial Murder Case: The Okhotsk Disappearance ~Memories in Ice, Tearful Figurine~, will serve as both a remake of the original game and an expansion, with the Steam page promising "five brand-new investigation files." It is scheduled to release in 2027 and will feature music from Shinya Kiyozuka, character designs from Kyoji Asano, and planning from the Orion Project.
Here's a brief summary of the project, taken from its Steam page:
"The legendary "THE PORTOPIA SERIAL MURDER CASE" is reborn! Under the executive direction of Yuji Horii comes an all-new entry featuring five brand-new investigation files. Set in 1980s Kobe, conduct your investigation alongside a new cast of characters and uncover the secrets hidden behind the case."
While Portopia Serial Murder Case debuted on Japanese home computers, perhaps the most famous edition of the game is its 1985 port to the Nintendo Famicom, which changed the input from a text-based parser system to a command menu, inspired by another of Yuji Horii's murder mystery adventures, The Hokkaido Serial Murder Case: The Okhotsk Disappearance, and a "3D" maze section based on the dungeon-crawling Wizardry series.
As one of the pioneers of the adventure game genre in Japan, it has gone on to inspire countless creators from Hideo Kojima to Eiji Aonuma and was also an important stepping stone towards Horii's later work on the hugely popular Dragon Quest series.
Something we should note is that this isn't the first time Portopia Serial Murder Case has received a modern remake. Back in 2023, Square Enix released a free AI-powered tech preview based on the classic game for Steam. But this was subject to a ton of criticism at launch for its buggy execution and currently has a "Very Negative" rating after 476 reviews.
Having been a fan of Hokkaido Serial Murder Case: The Okhotsk Disappearance ~Memories in Ice, Tearful Figurine~, I have high hopes that this new version will eclipse this preview. I just hope G-Mode sees enough of an audience to localise it.