RIDDLE JOKER [EN]

DESCRIPTION

Riddle Joker starts by introducing you to Satoru and his sister by showing them taking down a minor criminal for the organization. They use their powers to work outside of the law to do things that the police are not equipped to do. People already think of astrals as ‘creepy’ and they are often discriminated against, so crimes committed by them only worsen the reputation. The organization wants to stop these quietly and wants to work to improve the reputation of astrals.

Satoru and his sister are assigned to infiltrate a school connected with astral research in order to solve a case. The school takes in astrals who have been thrown out due to their powers being discovered or similar cases. This is relatively common, so having them enroll as transfer students wasn’t suspicious.

The story continues as they meet and get closer to the students at the school, trying to live a normal student life by day while continuing missions as secret agents by night. With the research going on in the connected facility and a lot of high-risk students attending, the security makes this difficult. Through an accident, he ends up being found out by one of the students there. He lies and says that he’s there to protect her. At the same time, he finds out one of her own secrets.

Review RIDDLE JOKER

I liked the world they built for Riddle Joker and its concept. By adding in the element of Satoru being a secret agent and special powers, it avoids falling into the standard high school setting, despite taking place at a high school and having many of the same types of events. The focus was often on keeping up the pretense around friends, avoiding detection, and completing the missions that came up. The idea of working to make astrals more accepted helped to give a purpose to the missions too, rather than just being hunting down criminals.

After a big mission, the story breaks into one of five character routes. I felt that three of these were very good, one was good and one was a bit disappointing but still enjoyable. The best ones added to the story well, feeling like a natural continuation. They developed the characters well and revealed a lot of secrets. One route notably, leans very heavily into the idea of a secret agent falling in love with his target, which was a really good read. Some of the routes connected with each other too, leading to similar events happening, but taking a very different route there.

I enjoyed all of the stories included in Riddle Joker, some more than others. Each one had something about it that I enjoyed, as did each character.

I would recommend Riddle Joker if you enjoy action adventures told with a light comedy style. It’s reasonably lighthearted despite taking on some serious topics and stays engaging throughout. It has some endearing characters and while the plot isn’t groundbreaking, it certainly kept me interested until the end.

[Review by Nookgaming]

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