L the ProLogue to Death Note: Spiraling Trap

L the ProLogue to Death Note: Spiraling Trap (L the proLogue to DEATH NOTE -螺旋の 罠トラップ -, L the proLogue to DEATH NOTE -Rasen no Torappu-) is the third in a series of Death Note video games. The story is set before the Kira investigation depicted in the original manga series.

The game was released in Japan on February 7, 2008, two days before the release of the film L: Change the WorLd.

It also features the exclusive appearances of characters Jeffrey (a former Wammy's House orphan), Housekeeper and Alois Batesman.

The game was not released outside of Japan.

Plot
The game begins revealing a fictional island facing the Caribbean Sea known as Criella. The island is undergoing the crises associated with a civil war between government forces. Many people from the island have fled as refugees, particularly to the United States. However, the people of Criella are hearing stories of a development in America; immigrants have soon been found dead. Those responsible for these murders, as it has been assumed an individual or an organisation are causing these immigrants to end up like this, are known colloquially as The Moon of Criella. The FBI are said to attempt an investigation and continue to find themselves in very difficult situations, some involving fatalities. They would discover areas of potential interest and unintentionally set off complex explosives.

The nature of the case interests and leads to the involvement of L, who introduces a Communicator device agents should possess on their person should they work on the case and discover explosives, in order to defuse them safely with his guidance.

The player assumes the role of a rookie FBI agent who is knocked out during an undercover investigation, with Naomi Misora or Raye Penber depending on the gender selected. The player wakes in a strange hotel setting laid with the difficult traps found previously by other FBI agents. Possessing a Communicator, the player is assisted by L in their escape, feeding him information gathered while investigating their environment.

Gameplay
Similar to a point and click investigation game, you are tasked with moving through the different rooms and floors of the hotel. Each room has various different items you can click on, such as pillows, drawers, safes, clocks, and lamps. Investigating these different items in each room will either enhance the story, unlock a sweets recipe (to be used in the L Communicator Mode), add an item of interest to your bag, or trigger a trap. L will warn you if you have no checked everything in a single room, especially if you have missed anything important. Its best to check the same areas several times as new items may spawn in already checked areas. After completing a floor, often times a trap will need to be diffused to unlock the next one.

During the prologue to the game, you may wander around and spend as much time as you'd like on floor 1. But, upon entering floor 2, chapter 1, you will have 9 minutes to clear all floors with time not being reset. This likely means that multiple playthroughs of the game will be required to fully beat it, having up to and possibly more than 20 floors to clear within 9 minutes. The timer is paused when interacting with items in the environment, looking through your bag, talking with other characters, trap mini-games, and deduction battles.

Items of Interest
Items of Interest are items collected from searching rooms within the hotel. These items include scissors, razors, health replenishes, screwdrivers, crowbars, and other important items for diffusing traps or entering new rooms. Depending on the item, some will be removed them from your inventory upon use, while others will remains in your bag indefinitely

Traps
By triggering a trap, the player will be thrown into a timed mini-game. These mini-games act as the games enemies, scoring you experience points and level ups after each defusal. Depending on the traps difficulty, more experience can be gained. There are several types of traps, each requiring different items to diffuse them. These segments often begin with investigating the trap, figuring out which items to use, and following L's guidance through the mini-game. Each traps difficulty depends on how many steps the bomb takes to diffuse; the more you learn about the bomb, the easier it becomes to finish a step. Each new piece of information grants the success rate different percentages. At 100% success rate, the step will be completed. Anything lower than a 100% will throw you into an execute game. successfully passing this game will proceed you onto the next step; failure will cut your remaining time by 1/4 and make you play the game over again. Failing to successfully diffuse the bomb in time, or making fatal errors during the process, will cause the explosive to detonate, costing you your health. The trap will de-spawn, but taking too much damage will end the game. Certain traps will cost you larger portions of health, especially plot-important ones.

There is also an option to ask L for help within these trap mini-games. You start the game off with only one call per chapter, but pleasing him, talking to him, or any action that raises his trust in you will grant you more calls. Calling L will immediately skip over one step of the trap on most occasions. If the trap is plot important, calls may not work.

Deduction Battles
During certain key parts of the story, you will get the chance to play as L in deduction battles. These battles are held with enemy characters of the game where you use certain phrases and topics you've gathered from your investigation. By sorting out which information is the most important, you can either win the battle of wits with the enemy or fail, either gaining advantages for future floors by winning, or gaining nothing at all from losing. Losing does not effect your health, your relationship with L, or story progress. Similarly, you cannot replay these segments if you fail.

L Communicator Mode
The software also includes a separate "L Communicator" mode in which users can make friends with L (if male) or gradually involve themselves romantically with L (if female) by encouraging him to talk and giving him sweets you find in the main game. You will also unlock different backdrops for L the more sweets you provide him. A heart meter is displayed to the top right hand side of the display screen. This is an indication as to L’s perception of the player; three hearts are the maximum you can achieve.

The L Communicator Mode acknowledges the time selected on the player’s device, and he will comment about these when they visit him. For example, L asks if the player is unable to sleep should they visit him during the night. In addition, the sweets L prefers also varies throughout the day. You can judge this with a preference indicator next to the sweets when selecting which to give. There will a number of hearts from one to five.

L also knows the date. He discusses the spring, summer, autumn and winter month weather with the player. If the player visits L on special occasions such as Valentine’s Day and Christmas, they will unlock a relevant, special confectionary they can gift him.