It's going back quite a number of years now, but the DS and its dual-screen format helped deliver some intriguing narrative-driven gaming experiences. Fans of interactive storytelling with a grown-up approach may recall three particular DS releases that provided some notably stylised narratives on the portable - Trace Memory, Hotel Dusk: Room 215 and Last Window: The Secret of Cape West. The latter two were moody detective-style tales starring former NYPD cop Kyle Hyde.

Unfortunately Last Window was the last game that development studio CiNG produced before going bankrupt. Now, however, Arc System Works is publishing a story-based adventure game - Chase: Unsolved Cases Investigation Division – Distant Memories - being led by the director of all three of the aforementioned DS titles: Taisuke Kanasaki. The project also reportedly has other former CiNG staffers on board.

As you can see below it looks set to have a handsome art style and is a detective story at heart; we're not sure whether the character is actually Kyle Hyde, or just someone rather like the moody protagonist.

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In any case this is coming to the Japanese 3DS eShop in the Spring; whether it comes to the West is likely dependent on its success with that initial launch and whether Arc System Works believes there's popular demand for the title in the West.

Would you like this one to come to North America and PAL territories?

[source gematsu.com]