Visual Novels tend to fall into two categories for me. There are Visual Novels that grab my attention and grip ahold of me from beginning to end, and then there are Visual Novels that just aren’t interesting enough to satisfy me. Process of Elimination is a mystery-themed Visual Novel that is not for the faint of heart but has a gripping, thrilling storyline.

I can’t go into a lot of detail without spoiling the plot. However, the premise is that you are put into the role of Wato Hojo, an aspiring detective who finds himself thrust into working with the Detective Alliance to solve a murder spree that has taken over 100 lives. These murders occur in pairs, all orchestrated by someone called the Quartering Duke.

As Wato begins to investigate with a group of detectives, something becomes clear. One of their own is the Quartering Duke, and the case has a connection not only to Wato’s past but to criminal incidents from a decade prior. Can Wato uncover the truth and solve the case before his allies all perish? Well, that’s up to you.

Process of Elimination is a fairly-involved Visual Novel. You have two main “gameplay” segments, the more Visual Novel-esque segments that showcase the story, and strategy “investigation” segments. Let’s start with the details of the Visual Novel segments.

As you progress through the story, Wato will have a variety of choices to make. These choices can have far-reaching consequences and can even lead to the deaths of your allies. However, in most cases, the correct decision or choice is telegraphed by the dialogue or text.

Additionally, there will be sequences where you’ll have to prove your theory or solve a case after an investigation segment. These sections involve a “Trust Meter” that indicates how well you are doing with your argument, and how well your allies trust you. If you fail this, you’ll get a game over, so paying attention and making clear arguments is vital to success.

Investigation sections play out like a tactical strategy sort of game. Your detectives are units on a grid, and there are evidence points, keyword sections, and mystery points. By inspecting the evidence points, you’ll get evidence that (when analyzed) allows you to make conclusions about the mystery points, thus completing the investigation. However, you have a limited number of turns (referred to as hours) to collect all your information and finalize your investigation.

Some of these can be very difficult, as you can have traps, hostile enemies, and other issues to deal with. Luckily, each of your detective allies (I won’t give a specific number because of spoilers) has stats that dictate what they’re good at, and unique abilities as well. Keyword points are extra, giving you information about the world that you would miss out on otherwise. Collecting all the Keywords adds an extra layer of difficulty, in case you want to delve deeper.

With the general gameplay concepts of Process of Elimination out of the way, we need to discuss the themes and characters here. Like most NIS America titles (and Japanese-oriented Visual Novels) there are a variety of anime-focused tropes at play here. However, aside from a few obvious things (mostly for laughs), Process of Elimination doesn’t lean too heavily in tropes.

Instead, Process of Elimination leans hard into the dark themes of murder, death, bloodshed, and despair that other NIS America titles traffic in. Despite that, having finished Process of Elimination in full, I can’t honestly complain too much. The game deals with dark topics, but there is a strong underlying message of hope and perseverance that really works for me. In some ways, Process of Elimination is a dark coming-of-age tale.

I have a few sore spots with Process of Elimination mechanically though. During investigation sequences and story sequences immediately after an investigation, there is no way to save your game. As such, if you have a crash (like I did early on) you may have to go back through an investigation again or experience large swaths of the story again. I only had two crashes, and I got very good at saving often, so this isn’t a huge deal but keep it in mind.

Additionally, there’s no way to simply restart an investigation segment if you make a mistake. You must either continue until you get a game over or close the game and reload your last save. This got annoying during one investigation sequence that had such a minimal margin of error that I had to look up two guides (the first guide was wrong) to succeed.

I can honestly say though that Process of Elimination might be my favorite Visual Novel that I’ve ever played, at least in this genre. Technically I think Coffee Talk Episode 2 would count as my favorite ever, but in terms of dark mysteries, Process of Elimination takes the cake. I fell in love with the entire cast, and I absolutely did not see the twist coming of who the Quartering Duke was.

Certain characters felt underused, specifically one character that dies early on. However, that could just be because I really liked them and would have wanted them to stick around longer. Interestingly enough though, Process of Elimination’s ending actually leaves things slightly open for more content in this world. I’d love to see another game in this world if the developers find a solid story for it. It feels like Wato’s journey is just beginning, though the story is a complete one as well.

Overall, Process of Elimination really impressed me. With its gripping storyline, beautifully done artwork (with a macabre flair), and endearing cast, its 8-10 hour runtime feels quicker than it is. Aside from the few minor issues I had with it, I’d recommend Process of Elimination to any mystery fan or any fan of NIS America’s other dark works. Visual Novel fans can’t really go wrong with this one either.

A Nintendo Switch review copy of Process of Elimination was provided by NIS America for this review.

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Process of Elimination

$39.99 USD

9

Score

9.0/10

Pros

• Fantastic Mystery Story
• Interesting Investigation Mechanics
• Engaging Characters
• Lots of Lore to Read and Discover

Cons

• Can't Save During Investigations
• Minor Crashes
• Certain Characters Feel Underused