''Jake Hunter'', known in Japan as , is a mystery

adventure game An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story, driven by exploration and/or puzzle-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based m ...

series originally developed and published by

Data East , also abbreviated as DECO, was a Japanese video game, pinball and electronic engineering company. The company was in operation from 1976 to 2003, and released 150 video game titles. At one time, the company had annual sales of 20 billion yen in ...

1987 Events January * January 1 – Bolivia reintroduces the Boliviano currency. * January 2 – Chadian–Libyan conflict – Battle of Fada: The Military of Chad, Chadian army destroys a Libyan armoured brigade. * January 3 – Afghan leader ...

. The property would transfer to WorkJam after its seventh instalment, and later to

Arc System Works , commonly referred to as ArcSys, is a Japanese video game developer and video game publisher, publisher located in Yokohama. Founded by Minoru Kidooka in 1988, the company is known for arcade 2D fighting game franchises, including ''Guilty Gear ...

. The first associated game to receive an English language release was ''Tantei Jingūji Saburō DS: Inishie no Kioku'', retitled and released in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

on June 11, 2008, by

Aksys Games Aksys Games Localization, Inc. is a video game publisher that specializes in translating and localizing Japanese video games for English-speaking markets. It was founded by Akibo Shieh in 2006. Some of its clients include Bandai Namco Games, Xs ...

in truncated form as ''Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles''. The game was re-released on May 26, 2009, as ''Jake Hunter Detective Story: Memories of the Past'', containing the originally localised three cases with new translations, plus three further cases, and a large number of unlockables including comics. No further releases would be announced until July 1, 2017, when Aksys Games revealed they would be bringing over ''Tantei Jingūji Saburō: Ghost of the Dusk'' in 2018. A prequel game, given the branding ''Alternate Jake Hunter'' internationally, was localised internally and released in 2019 with original character names and settings preserved.

History

According to

Enterbrain , formerly , is a Japanese publisher and division of Kadokawa Future Publishing founded on January 30, 1987, as . Magazines published by Enterbrain are generally focused on video games and computer entertainment as well as video game and strate ...

's ''

Famitsu , formerly , is a line of Japanese Video game journalism, video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly f ...

'', the ''Tantei Jingūji Saburō'' franchise had sold over 2,220,000 units at the time of its twentieth anniversary,https://www.famitsu.com/game/coming/2007/05/07/104,1178523760,71261,0,0.html making it one of the longest running and best-selling Japanese adventure game series in history. There are nineteen main series entries, complemented by a 25-game mobile sub-series and various examples of tie-in media. A recurrent series tradition takes titles from popular music as names for instalments, with frequent reference made to works of

Kenji Sawada is a Japanese singer, composer, lyricist and actor, best known for being the vocalist for the Japanese rock band The Tigers. Nicknamed because of his self-professed adoration of Julie Andrews, he was born in Tsunoi, Iwami (now part of Totto ...

Family Computer

The first game of the series, , was released in 1987 by

for the

Family Computer Disk System The commonly shortened to the Famicom Disk System, is a peripheral for Nintendo's Nintendo Entertainment System, Family Computer (Famicom) home video game console, released in Japan on February 21, 1986. The system uses proprietary floppy disk ...

. Following in the style of

Yuji Horii is a Japanese author, video game designer, writer and director best known as the creator of the ''Dragon Quest'' franchise, supervising and writing the scenario for ''Chrono Trigger'', and '' The Portopia Serial Murder Case'', released in 1983 ...

's popular Famicom-ported adventure games, the "command selection" style games featured advanced graphics, sound effects, and distinct

hardboiled Hardboiled (or hard-boiled) fiction is a literary genre that shares some of its characters and settings with crime fiction (especially detective fiction and noir fiction). The genre's typical protagonist is a detective who battles the violence o ...

scenarios to set themselves apart from contemporaries. The series employed a number of advanced game mechanics, developing techniques which would later find popularity in the industry at large. Time played an important role in the first game, with each command selected by the player causing a certain amount of in-game time to elapse; failure to solve the mystery during the allotted time period resulting in a bad ending. This time system would later be revived in the series' 7th installment. The scenario for the series' 3rd and 4th installments was written by a fledgling

Kazushige Nojima is a Japanese video game writer. He is best known for writing several installments of Square Enix's ''Final Fantasy'' franchise—namely ''Final Fantasy VII'' and its spin-offs '' Advent Children'' and '' Crisis Core'', ''Final Fantasy VIII'', ...

, who added segments following the secondary lead which alternated on a predetermined basis.

Fifth generation consoles

Production was halted after the 4th installment, but would be revived internally when Data East took on series fan Tatsuya Saito. Saito would become scenario writer for the 5th game in the series, directed by Eiichi Nishiyama, imminent heir to the role of series producer, and released on the

PlayStation is a video gaming brand owned and produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), a division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. Its flagship products consists of a series of home video game consoles produced under the brand; it also consists ...

and

Sega Saturn The is a home video game console developed by Sega and released on November 22, 1994, in Japan, May 11, 1995, in North America, and July 8, 1995, in Europe. Part of the fifth generation of video game consoles, it is the successor to the succes ...

in 1996. This fifth entry would see several developments on the original games made possible by the use of the CD-ROM: an overhaul of the series' graphics and sound, including an opening movie featuring an animated prelude and

voice acting Voice acting is the art of performing a character or providing information to an audience with one's voice. Performers are often called voice actors/actresses in addition to other names. Examples of voice work include animated, off-stage, off-sc ...

for the first time; a "zapping" system which allowed different branches of the story to be played by way of alternating characters; 3D-rendered mini games; and the inaugural installment of a sub-series known in Japan as the ''Mystery Casebook'' games (''Jake Hunter Unleashed'' in English releases), featuring super-deformed caricatures of the main trio encountering small-scale mysteries demanding careful logic-puzzle gameplay, which would be included alongside mainline games. Most of these features would become recurrent in the series, with the 6th installment, written by Hirotaka Inaba, replacing the previous game's stylised character design with a painted realist style rendered by original character designer Katsuya Terada, and adding a new "password" mechanic, involving hidden codes in the main game which could be used to unlock bonus content. Bearing the newly christened series subtitle "Detective Adventure Game", both this game and the next, released exclusively for PlayStation, would feature opening movies directed by

Shimako Satō (born in 1964) is a Japanese film director and screenwriter. She is best known for directing ''Eko Eko Azarak: Wizard of Darkness'' (1995) and ''K-20: Legend of the Mask'' (2008). Her husband is famed filmmaker Takashi Yamazaki. Career Born in ...

Sixth generation consoles

In 1999, a financially troubled Data East licensed out the series to WorkJam, to which Nishiyama's "Team Jingūji" would transfer when Data East went bankrupt in 2003. The transition between studios marked a shift in game design, story paths becoming once more linear and perspective shifts scripted, setting the formula for later games in the series. With WorkJam founder Yutaka Kaminaga finding previous scenario writers unavailable, writing credit for the series' eighth installment, released for

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October, in Europe on 24 Novembe ...

in 2002, fell to Mitsue Kaneko. The resultant game featured a number of peripheral references to the contemporary

Grasshopper Manufacture is a Japanese video game developer founded on March 30, 1998 by Goichi Suda. They are well known for creating titles such as '' killer7'' and the '' No More Heroes'' series. History The company was founded on March 30, 1998 in Suginami, J ...

debut '' The Silver Case''. The series continued at WorkJam with a further game for the PS2 and reimaginings of the Famicom games released as the inauguration of a line of mobile phone applications. The final game of the generation, co-developed by

Marvelous Interactive (MMV) was a multinational corporation that produced animation, music, video games and television series. MMV is known for its involvement in the ''Story of Seasons'' series. They merged with AQ Interactive in 2011 and became Marvelous AQL; ...

for the

Game Boy Advance The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console, manufactured by Nintendo, which was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, and to international markets that June. It was later released in mainland China in 2004, under the name iQue Game Boy Advanc ...

, marked the series debut on handheld platforms.

Seventh generation consoles

Beginning with a special 20th anniversary release for the

Nintendo DS The is a foldable handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens worki ...

, WorkJam would work with

in development of console games, now released exclusively on handheld platforms, predominantly in the form of the ''Tantei Jingūji Saburō Detective Story'' compilation line, with the addition of a

PlayStation Portable The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 12, 2004, in North America on March 24, 2005, and in PA ...

release similar in form to earlier PlayStation installments. WorkJam licensed a series of PlayStation Game Archives releases of the original Data East games to Expris, and continued their mobile game line, featuring contributions from writers such as then-

Flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of navy, naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically ...

affiliate

Kazutaka Kodaka is a Japanese video game designer, writer, and manga artist. His work is known for recurring themes of contrasting hope and despair, luck and talent, truth and lies, and mixing tragedy with dark humor, as well as using numerous plot twists. He ...

, to a total of twenty-four releases before it was retired.

Eighth-generation consoles

In 2011, WorkJam began to wind down production, with full responsibilities for the ongoing development of a special 25th-anniversary game for the

Nintendo 3DS The is a foldable dual-screen handheld game console produced by Nintendo. Announced in March 2010 as the successor to the Nintendo DS, the console was released originally on February 26, 2011 and went through various revisions in its lifetime, ...

falling to Arc System Works. Several WorkJam staff, including Nishiyama and Kaneko, would form a new studio,

Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower ** Orange juice *Orange (colour), the color of an orange fruit, occurs between red and yellow in the vi ...

, while rights to various company properties including the ''Tantei Jingūji Saburō'' series passed to Expris. For the next five years the series would remain largely dormant, aside from Game Archives rereleases of WorkJam's two PS2 games from Expris, and a cameo by the title character in ''Inuwashi Urabure Tantei to Ojou-sama Keiji no Ikebukuro Jiken Fairu'', a mobile game developed by Orange and scored by longtime series composer Seiichi Hamada. In 2017, Arc System Works announced that plans for a 30th-anniversary revival had led to its obtaining of exclusive rights to Expris' WorkJam-inherited properties at the end of the previous year. Following this, the company worked with Orange and Neilo to publish several titles for handheld and home consoles, while exploring new avenues for PC delivery and reviving the mobile line for smart devices.

Characters

The main character of the series is Jake Hunter (known in Japan as ), a thirty-something (29 for the first five installments)

private investigator A private investigator (often abbreviated to PI; also known as a private detective, an inquiry agent or informally a wikt:private eye, private eye) is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. ...

who operates a detective agency in the Tripudio district of the fictional American city of Aspicio (

Kabukichō is an entertainment district in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. Kabukichō is considered a red-light district with a high concentration of host and hostess clubs, love hotels, shops, restaurants, and nightclubs, and is often called the . Shinjuku Golde ...

Shinjuku , officially called Shinjuku City, is a special ward of Tokyo, Japan. It is a major commercial and administrative center, housing the northern half of the busiest railway station in the world ( Shinjuku Station) as well as the Tokyo Metropol ...

in the Japanese original). He was born the third son of a wealthy business enterprise owner, but chose to travel to

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

during his youth to work as an assistant detective. He is a heavy smoker, and often assembles his thoughts with the help of a

Marlboro Marlboro (, ) is an American brand of cigarettes owned and manufactured by Philip Morris USA (a branch of Altria) within the United States and by Philip Morris International (PMI, now separate from Altria) in most global territories outside the ...

cigarette. According to his in-game profile, his favorite alcoholic beverage is

cognac Cognac ( , also , ) is a variety of brandy named after the Communes of France, commune of Cognac, France. It is produced in the surrounding wine-growing region in the Departments of France, departments of Charente and Charente-Maritime. Cogn ...

, and he drives a green

Mini Cooper Mini Cooper may refer to: *Performance Cars of the original Mini series with uprated drive train and brakes, called the "Mini Cooper", made by the British Motor Corporation and also the successors 1961–1971, and 1990–2000 *Cars of the Mini (mar ...

. Hunter is persistently accompanied in his investigations by Yulia Marks (known in Japan as ), his

polyglot Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. When the languages are just two, it is usually called bilingualism. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolin ...

assistant, and often collaborates with his old friend Scott "King" Kingsley (known in Japan as ), a middle-aged inspector with the city police.

Voice acting

Voice acting was first used in certain game scenes in the 5th installment, and has been implemented in most subsequent releases, excluding those released for mobile, GBA and DS. Jingūji has been voiced by

Yukimasa Kishino is a Japanese actor, voice actor and narrator. He is also active in the theatrical entertainment field and is the chairman of his own theatrical group, ''Gekidan Kishino Gumi''. Some of the members of this group include fellow voice actors Kujir ...

Akio Ōtsuka is a Japanese actor, voice actor, and narrator from the Tokyo Metropolitan area. He is attached to Mausu Promotion. The astringent and calm quality of his deep voice has landed him many roles in films, dubbing, animation, and video games. He i ...

Jūrōta Kosugi is a Japanese voice actor. His major roles include Arlong in ''One Piece'', Asuma Sarutobi in ''Naruto'', Akio Ohtori in ''Revolutionary Girl Utena'', Isamu Kenmochi in ''Kindaichi Case Files'', Big Zenki in '' Zenki,'' and Jotaro Kujo in '' ...

, and Kaoru Katō; Yōko by Tsumugi Ōsawa, Yōko Saitō,

Fumiko Orikasa is a Japanese actress, voice actress and singer. She voiced Rukia Kuchiki in ''Bleach'', Meyrin Hawke in '' Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Destiny'', Chun-Li in ''Street Fighter'', Kanade Minamino/Cure Rhythm in ''Suite PreCure,'' Lotte Yanson in '' ...

, Kazue Nakamoto, Seiko Yoshida, and

Mamiko Noto is a Japanese actress and singer. Some of her prominent anime roles include Kotomi Ichinose in ''Clannad'', Rin in '' Inuyasha'', Kotori Monou in '' X'', Aoi Kannazuki in '' Kaitō Tenshi Twin Angel'', Durandal in '' Honkai Impact 3rd'', Ishm ...

; and Sanzō by

Fumihiko Tachiki is a Japanese voice actor, live-action actor, and narrator. Career Tachiki is known for his low voice. He serves as the narrator for ''Pride Fighting Championships'' and Dream. He and Toshiyuki Morikawa formed the band "2HEARTS" in 2003. Their s ...

Kōji Ishii is a Japanese voice actor. His major roles include: Koutaro Taiga in ''The King of Braves GaoGaiGar'', Giovanni Bertuccio in '' Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo'', Shigematsu in '' Toriko'', and Prime Minister Honest in '' Akame ga Kill!' ...

, Masaaki Tsukada, and Naomi Otome.

List of media

Mobile series

The mobile games began development under WorkJam for flip phones in 2003. The first four games were remakes of the original Famicom games, featuring (often significant) reworking of their stories. Following Arc System Works' acquisition of the series in 2017, the original games were collected in a smartphone app, and the line relaunched with a new series beginning in 2019.

Other media

The series has been accompanied by a plethora of tie-in books, the first of which, a choose-your-own-adventure style

gamebook A gamebook is a work of printed fiction that allows the reader to participate in the story by making choices. The narrative branches along various paths, typically through the use of numbered paragraphs or pages. Each narrative typically does not ...

for young adults, was released in 1988. After the series revival at Data East, Tatsuya Saito would pen a prequel novel documenting the first meeting between Jingūji and Kumano. A further novel would be published in 2000, followed by a novelisation of the eighth game. Another prequel, telling a story set during Jingūji's schooldays, was published by

Dengeki Bunko is a publishing imprint (trade name), imprint affiliated with the Japanese publishing company ASCII Media Works (a division of Kadokawa Future Publishing formerly called MediaWorks (publisher), MediaWorks). It was established in June 1993 with th ...

in 2004, followed by a brief sequence of releases at Sesame Books, ending in 2007.

Manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

adaptations of the third and sixth games were previously made available online, and several game guides were published prior to the series' shift toward handheld platforms. Several soundtrack CDs have also been released, featuring a range of music from across the series composed by series stalwart Seiichi Hamada and others. A Drama CD featuring three short vignettes was included with early copies of the sixth game. The first four games in the series were released on the

Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America, and in December 2006 for most other regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major home game console, f ...

Virtual Console The Virtual Console was a line of downloadable retro video games for Nintendo's Wii and Wii U home video game consoles and the Nintendo 3DS family of handheld systems. The Virtual Console lineup consisted of titles originally released on pa ...

in Japan.