Review of "One Hundred Years of Spring Passing": Enjoying the Plot, Not Enjoying the Reasoning

When I was playing "100 Years of Scrolling", I often thought, "How good it would be if this game had removed the long and stinky assumption building gameplay.".

When I reached the final chapter, which is the most essence, this idea was confirmed again - there is basically no torture in the final chapter, and I can enjoy the impact of truth disclosure.

The live action suspense game produced by Square Enix is quite impressive, although I am not very familiar with the actors before playing. After playing, I decided to look for their dramas to supplement when I have time in the future; The foreshadowing of the final chapter of the game is the twists and turns of the recycling process, which successfully brings to a successful end the century long family tragedy and elevates the level and concept of the entire script.

But the playability of suspense reasoning is really lacking. Except for Chapter 5, every time I encounter the "hypothesis building" section in other chapters, I hold my head and mourn, hoping that this part can be shorter.

In my opinion, "Spring Passing for a Hundred Years" is such a "biased" game with obvious strengths and weaknesses. If you are still interested in the game after reading the above summary and want to learn more, then let me elaborate on this work in detail.

The more actors watch, the more beautiful they become

"The Hundred Years of Spring Passing" tells the story of the "Forty Houses" family spanning a hundred years. On the eve of the once-in-a-century cherry blossom festival of the "Forty Houses" family, a white bone was excavated under the cherry blossom tree, which led to four murders related to "immortality" in 1922, 1972, and 2022.

Because there are three different time points and different characters appearing in different eras, the same group of actors often play multiple roles. For example, the lead actress Naomi Sakurai has three roles: the runaway forty Kane (1922), the nightclub staff member Iye (1972), and the detective novelist Kawakami (2022).

Actors who constantly switch between characters have to rely on their acting skills to shape different character images, avoiding the subjective impression left by the previous character from affecting the player's perception of the next character.

It can be said that all the actors in this work have achieved this, even though the three characters of actor Deepwater Motoki have similar rude styles, he has successfully endowed different characters with differentiated temperament. For example, the nightclub boss (1972) will bring tenderness for others in his rudeness, while the head of the forty families (1922) will appear even more arrogant.

As for the live action part alone, I think the performance effect is quite good for Japanese dramas, with delicate expressions and emotional transmission, as well as slightly exaggerated action performances. If you can accept the performance logic of Japanese dramas, you should have a better viewing experience.

The exquisite costumes and scenery are also bonus points for the live action performance part of this work. The 15 hour customs clearance process truly made me feel the charm of kimono, the infatuation of nightclubs, and the sense of the era during the Taisho period. Moreover, it was quite interesting to watch these actors change roles while playing cosplay.

costume is currently on offline display

In the behind the scenes documentary, the actors are also praising the costume design, feeling that wearing costumes immediately immerses them in the roles they want to play.

If you accidentally lose focus while playing, or want to skip this plot, the game has a convenient fast forward/backward function. Choosing the wrong dialogue option, the time cost of doing it again is very low.

Unfortunately, as far as I know, only the PS5 version of "A Hundred Years of Death" has a picture quality of 4K and requires a capacity of 60GB. I am playing the PC version, and when I saw it was only 15GB when downloading, I felt a bit uncomfortable. When I played it, it was only 720P, and with the unique dim yellow/copper green filters of this game, it was really a bit blurry. I really can't understand why this decision was made.

Deliberation and extra torment

Equally incomprehensible is the gameplay part of this game. The completion of a case in "One Hundred Years of Spring Passing" follows this paradigm:

① Watch the plot and gather clues;

② Enter the "thinking space" to combine existing clues and case puzzles to establish hypotheses;

③ Attempt to use logic to eliminate falsehood and preserve truth, linking together correct hypotheses

④ Return to the real world to reason the truth and identify the culprit.

This description seems very reasonable and intuitively fits the reality. I also agree with the basic thinking of the production team in conceptualizing this system. But when it comes to the game, the experience of establishing hypotheses is long and uninteresting, which is like imprisonment. The part of summarizing and summarizing still cannot help sort out the ideas, and in the end, the reasoning part still needs to be rethought.

Specifically, the link between the online search and the puzzle is where the game directly tells the player all the answers. There is a small pattern on the puzzle and the same pattern on the clue. What I need to do is not think about which clue might point to the answer to the puzzle, but look at the picture to find the pattern, simply put together things with the same pattern, and the hypothesis is established. The reasoning game that tests logic has turned into a puzzle game that tests eyesight.

pattern matching pattern

Of course, I can ignore these patterns and ponder on my own, but when I realize that "my ideas may not necessarily be right, I still have to follow the production team's approach," it's difficult for me to start the continuous viewing mode without giving up thinking.

After establishing a hypothesis, the game will play the corresponding animation. This lengthy animation cannot be skipped, many of which are obviously unreliable at first glance. The pure hypothesis of making up numbers is a waste of player time.

The performance of cannot be skipped

Although it is possible to determine that some hypotheses are not reasonable before establishing them, in order to avoid wasting time, it is not guaranteed that the production team's brain circuits are completely aligned with their own before seeing the final answer. For safety reasons, we will try as much as possible.

And in the process of establishing hypotheses, I have already been mechanically assembling puzzles. Finding a set of identical patterns in the vast expanse is truly moving. I really admire the production team for designing so many different patterns.

Generally speaking, a case may have around ten puzzles, thirty to forty clues, or even more. It only took half an hour to complete this process.

Every time I hear the BGM corresponding to establishing a hypothesis ring, I can't help but howl at the thought of going through a guaranteed puzzle time of over half an hour. At the sixth chapter of the game, the production team seemed to feel that the game had reached its climax. They even picked up the clues from the previous chapters and designed two consecutive sections to establish hypotheses, doubling the torture.

The only commendable chapter is the fifth chapter of the game. This chapter is not so much about reasoning and solving cases as it is about escape in a secret room. The lengthy process of establishing hypotheses is broken down into multiple reasoning tests, which are gradually advanced and flexibly applied to the clues and maps obtained from observing the scene. The process is relatively more compact and the experience is better.

Escape from Chamber of Secrets

After completing all the hypotheses, the game will enter the ③ induction stage - linking scattered hypotheses together, highlighting key points for players, and eliminating a few incorrect answers. But to be honest, it doesn't have much effect. "When I made the assumption, I already knew what the key point was. Can you tell me something useful?"

I skipped ③ directly in the following chapters, but it didn't actually have much impact.

④ The final reasoning stage is the traditional disclosure of the real culprit stage, where everyone sits in line and the real culprit is among you. At this point, the game will provide key questions one by one, with options based on previously established assumptions. Choose the correct assumptions and gradually reveal the truth of the case.

This part is not worth criticizing, although I personally feel that some of the reasoning is a bit stiff, the story can still be justified. Interestingly, if the reasoning is wrong, there will be a performance of a little self release, and other characters will roast about the idea of the protagonist. I even made a few deliberate mistakes just to see how everyone reacted.

This final chapter is too powerful

Although I have criticized the lack of gameplay in the past, if I were to ask if I would recommend it, I would still recommend this game "Spring Passing for a Hundred Years" to players who enjoy watching Japanese dramas.

The key lies in the final chapter of the game.

It can be said that the stunning finale completely saved this game, with a stormy foreshadowing that clarified the unresolved doubts in the previous chapters and unfolded astonishing facts. It was not a major turning point in a divine way, but rather the production team cleverly left behind meaningful clues in the previous text, and in the end, it was wrapped up in the final reasoning. With one stroke of determination, it can be said that it was thoroughly enjoyable.

If you have finished typing Chapter 6 and find this story somewhat interesting after reading the cast member list, please click on the prompt "you've got mail" at the bottom of the main interface to enter the final chapter.

If you miss the final chapter, it's really a pity.

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