The very start of the series.
"If anyone gives the Ayashiro family trouble, I will return from beyond the grave and bring harm to the transgressor..."
The series makes its start when the protagonist, known in promo materials for the Nintendo Switch remakes as Taro Ninten, was found by Amachi after falling from a cliff and brings the boy to his apartment to recover from the trauma before letting him go to investigate the cliff where the protagonist's friend, Ayumi Tachibana who had been looking for him discovered that he is suffering from amnesia and reminds him about being hired to find the true circumstances behind the death of Kiku Ayashiro.— Opening narration
As he resumes this investigation, he witnesses members of the Ayashiro family, who own a plot of land inherited from their ancestor, get murdered one after another while hearing a rumor about Kiku returning from the grave to kill those who threaten her family.
- Ambiguous Situation: The controversy regarding the deaths of Yuri Ayashiro and Takao Toyama is mostly explained except for the specific individual responsible for them, and it's never clarified whether or not Kyonosuke Kanda had any involvement with it.
- And the Adventure Continues: Implied at the end. The protagonist already chose his path in life, so he gives the symbol of the successor to Kazuto Ayashiro then heads back to see Ayumi Tachibana again at the Utsugi Detective Agency, as he'll presumably continue solving cases with her.
- The Atoner: Much of what Kiku does is to make up for her family's greed and the lives it's destroyed.
- Cartwright Curse: Taken to an absurd degree, as the Ayashiro family has been plagued with misfortune ever since the Sengoku Period. Sure enough, Kiku died shortly after the statement of her will , current members of the family are killed one by one, causing emotional grief for their loved ones, and even Yuri and her lover Takao Toyama have been dead for nearly two decades. The cycle is only finally broken when the protagonist hands over the symbol of the successor to Kazuto, the only living relative who isn't a part of the bloodline.
- Driving Question: What caused the protagonist to fall off a cliff?
- "Eureka!" Moment: Invoked at some points of the game, as you're expected to type out the answer to some of the conclusions that the protagonist makes.
- Foreshadowing:
- At one point, Genshin mentions seeing blood on Kiku’s tombstone. It turns out that the bloody portion of it was due to it being used to bludgeon Akira to death.
- Following the murder of Azusa whose fingernails were noted to have traces of human skin on them, Amachi has stopped appearing afterwards…until the protagonist is confronted by him in the labyrinth, revealing he was the murderer of the game. Azusa's fingernails had human skin because she cut Kanda's face with them when he strangled her to death.
- Guide Dang It!: At the beginning of Chapter 8, you and Kumada go to visit the cliffs. After some dialogue, you're given the option to travel to the station. What the game doesn't tell you is that you need to speak with Kumada one more time before leaving. If you don't, you'll miss the event flag needed to advance the plot. Making this worse is that whenever you gain the previously unavailable travel command, there's nothing left for you to do in the area.
- I Never Said It Was Poison: Chapter 11 seems to neatly wrap up and resolve every mystery relating to the case the protagonist was assigned to before his accident. However, he points out one noteworthy contradiction that can't be chalked up to his prior amnesia: he never actually knew about the talisman he supposedly mumbled about while he was unconscious, until Amachi told him of it. As soon as he realizes this, Amachi turns up and reveals himself to be Kyonosuke Kanda, who's the culprit for the murders and looking for the symbol himself.
- Identity Amnesia: The protagonist has forgotten his identity in the beginning of the story due to unknown circumstances, leading Ayumi Tachibana to help guide him to solving the case he was assigned to do.
- Karma Houdini: The powerful individual who covered up the truth behind Takao Toyama's actions, and by so doing essentially caused the deaths of both of the protagonist's parents, is never even named, let alone confronted and exposed.
- Never Suicide: The protagonist, Ayumi and Kumada are all suspicious about Jiro Ayashiro having hung himself, even though there's absolutely no good reason for him to do so. They're correct about this, as he was ultimately killed with cyanide poisoning.
- No Swastikas: The basement area the protagonist has to navigate at the end was redesigned from a Manji to a more generic mark with the change being reflected on the back of the hand mirror..
- On One Condition: The contents of Kiku's will state that in order for anyone to receive any inheritance, the symbol of the successor, which is in the possession of the missing Yuri Ayashiro, needs to be presented.
- Public Domain Soundtrack: The Ayashiro Family's theme is Bach's Invention 13 in A Minor, which many games use to represent wealth.
- Secret Test of Character: One of the more obtuse moments of the game requires you to do this by pretending to quit the investigation when Zenzou loses hope. You inspire him to not give up, and the case resumes.
- Shoo Out the Clowns: The majority of the game's quirky supporting cast stops appearing when you return to the Ayashiro residence for the last time and finally unlock the storage's back door.
- Tonight, Someone Dies:
- Chapter Three: The First Murder. Sure enough, shortly after the chapter starts, there's a news report covering the death of Kanji Ayashiro, who was running his family's company, which shifts the focus away from investigating the circumstances of Kiku Ayashiro's sudden passing..
- Chapter Five: The Second Victim follows suit by starting with the discovery of Jiro Ayashiro's apparent suicide, and the police's attempts to uncover any clues in relation to it.
- Wham Shot: A two-in-one example. When the Ayashiro Family's tomb is finally opened with Genshin's permission, Akira Ayashiro is found to have been stuffed inside, with Kiku's corpse nowhere to be found. Examining this causes the protagonist to finally remember how he fell off Unakami Cliff and lost his memory in the first place: Akira attacked and threw him away.
- White Sheep: Yuri Ayashiro is the only member of her family that's universally beloved by the locals, for her grace and beauty, even after she eloped with her lover decades ago.
- Whole-Plot Reference: Many of the story's beats are very transparently inspired by The Portopia Serial Murder Case:
- The plot is driven by investigating a series of deaths. The first victim is found stabbed, and the second hanged (though only the victim in the earlier game was an actual suicide).
- An initial suspect for the crimes is a young man with connections to the Yakuza, whose relation with one of the victims gives him a motive in the form of an inheritance. In both games, this figure is revealed to be innocent of the murders, though in the case of the latter he was working with and screwed over by the true culprit.
- The identity of an important character is revealed towards the end of the story by way of a mark on their body.
- The game's final real challenge involves navigating an underground maze during an Unexpected Gameplay Change (though the one in Famicom Detective Club is much easier to navigate).
- One of the final clues is a mark on someone's shoulder, which is only revealed when they remove their shirt.
- In the end, the culprit is revealed to be the very first character the protagonist sees in the game, who had acted as a close confidant while concealing his true identity. Meanwhile, the culprit's motive is revenge for the victims having driven members of his family to suicide. A notable difference between the two here is that Portopia's Yasu shows remorse upon learning that his first victim Kouzou genuinely regretted the terrible things he had done and had begun to take steps to try and atone for them, whereas Kanda shows no such remorse and carries on with his Evil Plan to the end despite presumably having learned about Kiku's regret over her family's past.
