May 212025
As I mentioned when we discussed Touch Detective earlier this month, the Switch collection Touch Detective 3 + The Complete Case Files contains all three Touch Detective games and their bonus content.
So for our next mystery game this May, I moved on to the second game, Touch Detective 2 1/2.
Like the first game, Touch Detective 2 1/2 was originally released for the Nintendo DS and is built around the touchscreen, with an alternate control scheme using a cursor to simulate tapping the environment. It’s pretty much identical in structure to the first game, so check out my review of Touch Detective if you haven’t.
While the first game only had four cases, the second game has five… but although it’s a longer game, the pacing is faster. There isn’t quite as much back-and-forth, and objectives feel a bit more intuitive. As a result, I didn’t end this one feeling tired of the formula like I did after the first game.
It also adds a bit more of an overarching storyline, with a mysterious thief known as the Cornstalker who appears as an antagonist throughout the game.
The character interactions are as funny and enjoyable as in the first game, and while I thought the introduction of a new rival for Mackenzie in the form of Inspector Daria overshadowed Chloe’s role a little, they were both still entertaining enough that I didn’t mind.
One odd thing is that there are a few hints about the Cornstalker’s identity that are never resolved… but maybe they wanted to keep it open for speculation (or maybe the third game will touch on it).
Now, I was tempted to say this game isn’t quite as weird as the first one, but then I thought about the cases and realized I just got used to it instead. Or maybe playing D4 warped my perception of “weird.”
I had fun playing Touch Detective 2 1/2, so I’m even happier now that I decided to pick up Touch Detective 3 + The Complete Case Files. Will we get to the third game this May? Stay tuned!
“Playing D4 warped my perception” yeah I can totally see that based on how weird that game seems to have been lol. Perhaps the third game will reveal the identity of this mysterious Cornstalker!
The interesting thing about the Cornstalker is that there are several hints that he’s a specific other character in the game, but they never actually reveal or refute that. So I could see them wanting to leave it unrevealed as almost a wink to the audience for knowing the truth when the characters don’t, but it felt like I was waiting for a reveal that never came.
I want to make a reference to a character in FFXIV Dawntrail, but I can’t cuz you haven’t gotten that far yet. 🙁
Suffice to say there is another corn-based character with a similar name, which makes me wonder what the big deal with corn is, haha.
I’ll get there, I’m working on it, hahaha.
Interesting, haha. The names in Touch Detective have all been changed for localization, but Cornstalker’s name in the Japanese script is Kaitou Morokoshi, which looks like it’s still a corn pun (together with his corn-based design), so now I’m also curious if there is a reason for corn-themed villains.