Death Note: Kira Game

Death Note: Kira Game (デスノート キラゲーム, Desu Nōto Kira Gēmu; stylized in Japan as DEATH NOTE キラゲーム) is the first of a series of Death Note video games. It includes nineteen playable characters, multiplayer mode, a story mode that reviews the series' first half, and an extras gallery for the sound test and character art.

The game was only released in Japanese.

Gameplay
Kira Game is a strategy game where the player takes on the role of Kira or L. These are just titles, as any character can be Kira or L. The player will attempt to deduce who their enemy is (Kira will try to uncover L's identity and vice-versa). This will play out in 3 phases: Investigation, where the player will discuss the case and clues with other characters; Voting, where each member of the investigation team casts a vote on who they suspect is L or Kira based on the player's performance in the previous phase; L/Kira, where the player can either focus their investigation on one member to see if they are Kira (L part) or force a member off of the team (Kira part).

As Kira or L, you must punish your opponent before you lose (die, get arrested, or are the last one standing). You take turns speaking and saying who you think may or may not be Kira. This costs proposal points (which you get back on your turn) and increases and/or decreases a person's Suspicion (red) or Trust Level (blue). People with checks are more likely to be voted out as Kira. A high trust level makes a person less likely to argue with the person they trust. In addition, Kira also has a supporter.

Kira
Of the two roles, Kira has the most advantages. When someone's trust towards you is 100%, they will give you a hint as to who isn't L, or who may be L. Not only can you vote a person off as Kira, you can kill who you think L might be. If you kill someone who isn't L, your max proposal points are halved.

L
L can check to see if a person is Kira after voting takes place. If a person has an X, they aren't Kira. If someone has 2 circles, they are. After voting takes place, if you arrest someone who's not Kira, your max proposal points drop by twenty.

Game mechanics
Kira Game has a number of gameplay mechanics which vary slightly depending if you play as L or Kira. Despite being a text based game, there are many visual cues a player can use to navigate themselves through each Turn, theoretically making it possible to experience smooth gameplay even without the ability to read Japanese.

Turns and Remaining Arguments
With each game there are a set number of Turns and a set number of Arguments within those Turns. For example, when a Turn (ターン) begins you can see how many Arguments are remaining by glancing at the note at the bottom right of the top screen. It reads, "Remaining Arguments" (残り発言, nokori hatsugen) with a number besides it. That number, evidently, is how many Arguments are remaining. If there's you and then 5 other characters, then (including your turn) 6 Arguments will pass before going back to you. If your Turn started off with 18 Remaining Arguments and you went first, by the time it came back to you there would be 12 Remaining Arguments. Once the Remaining Arguments reaches 0, the Turn ends, and you go into the Voting phase.

Participation Points
Participation points (発言力, hatsugen ryoku), literally translated as "influential voice", are the green set of points out of 100 that you begin with. As you take actions, the amount of Participation points you have decrease. Some actions require more Participation points than others, marked by a negative symbol and then the amount of points they cost.

Before you state your argument, you will be given a handful of Participation Points. Things such as Special Abilities, speaking, Agreeing and Rebuttals all require participation Points. If you do not have enough Points to speak, you are forced to Pass (パス). However, this option is always present and is not relegated to only when you have no Points left. Each time a new turn starts after the Voting phase, you may have less Participation Points depending if you kill somebody who isn't L as Kira (which will cut your max Points in half next turn), or if you send somebody who isn't Kira to jail as L (which will cut your max Points by 20 next turn).

Trust
There are two main functions in Kira Game: Trust and Suspicion. Trust (信頼(度), shinrai(do)), or "credibility", plays several important roles in each game. When it is time to make your Argument, you have several options to chose from. Each speech bubble will have "信頼(度)" (written in blue) or "疑惑(度)" (written in red) to represent Trust and Suspicion. Based on the direction of the arrows, as well as how many there are, you can tell what claim you are making and how strong it is.

Each character has a blue meter underneath their portrait. How far that meter is filled up displays how much Trust you have in that character. Depending on who you play as, some characters will have a higher Trust meter than others for you; for example, playing as Light gives Soichiro and Misa higher Trust meters from the beginning, while playing as L gives Watari a higher Trust meter. When the Trust meter is yellow, it is displaying the Trust the character currently talking (who isn't you) has with the other characters.

Through Arguments, you can raise the Trust meter with certain characters. Some missions in the Story mode require you to reach 100% Trust with specific characters to pass. Gameplay wise, the advantage of having 100% Trust in a character means they will share with you who they think L is or isn't if you are playing as Kira; as well, they are less likely to argue with you. Raising a character's Trust also makes their Suspicion meter go down, making them less likely to be voted for during the Voting phase.

Suspicion
Suspicion (疑惑(度), giwaku(do)) is the offensive counterpart to Trust. When you begin a game, you will see a bar next to your Participation Points marked with a yellow and red line. This is your Suspicion meter. The higher your Suspicion meter is, the more likely you are to be voted for during the Voting phase. Passing the yellow marker gives you a check-mark on your portrait, indicating you as a Suspect. Passing the red marker gives you a second check-mark; every character has this bar, but only yours is visible.

You can raise a character's Suspicion through Argument or certain character's Special Abilities (such as L's). As well, you can raise or decrease somebody's or your own Suspicion during a Rebuttal.

Choosing to be Suspicious in somebody will lower their Trust meter with you. However, you have the option to only Suspect them without lowering Trust, but this costs far more Participation Points.

Agreement and Rebuttal
Rebuttal (反論, hanron) and Agree (同調, dōchō) are actions you or another character can take.

Anytime a character makes an Argument about another character, you have the choice to either Agree or Rebuttal; both actions require 20 Participation Points to preform. If said character says another character is Suspicious, you may Agree or Rebuttal them. Or vice versa; if they say the character is Trustworthy, you can Agree or Rebuttal.

By Rebutting a character's Trust for another character and winning, that other character's Suspicion goes up instead. (ex. If Misa argued Light was Trustworthy and L won the Rebuttal, Light's Suspicion goes up instead). This works vice versa, too. (ex. If L was arguing Light to be Suspicious and Soichiro won the Rebuttal, Light's Suspicion goes down instead.)

By choosing to Agree with an Argument, you force it to go through. By Agreeing, nobody else can Rebuttal what the character had originally said.

If a character makes an Argument about you, you will have the choice to Agree or Rebuttal depending on your best interest. (If they say you're Suspicious, you have the option to Rebuttal and vice versa).

By replying to a character's Rebuttal, or by a character replying to your Rebuttal, you lock yourself into a Debate (対抗, taikō). Each Rebuttal in the Debate phase costs Participation Points, and will go back and forth until either one person gives up or runs out of Participation Points. The one remaining is the winner.

Rebuttals will be indicated by an angry red icon in the top-right corner, while Agreement will be indicated by a calm blue icon in the top-right corner.

Voting phase
The Voting phase occurs after the Remaining Arguments reaches 0. Everybody votes on who they believe to be Kira. The factors that influence the characters' choice are how high someone's Suspicion meter is and how much Trust they have with that character. A character needs to receive a number of votes that tally up to half or more of the cast present to be sent to jail. (ex. a character needs to receive 3 votes if 5 characters are present).

If you are playing as L, sending somebody to jail who is not Kira will cut down your max Participation Points by 20 during the next Turn.

If you are sent to jail, either as L or Kira, then you lose the game.

Post-Voting phase
Both Kira and L get a unique screen Post-Voting phase.

As Kira, you have the option to use the Death Note after every Voting phase. You may kill any one person, however there are drawbacks; if everyone else is dead or in jail and the only people left are you and L, then you lose. As well, if the person you killed isn't L, then your max Participation Points are cut by 50% during the next Turn.

As L, you have a free chance to guess at who is Kira after every Voting phase. Unlike the Death Note, this is mandatory and has no drawbacks; if you guess somebody who isn't Kira, then their icon (once a ? mark) will become the L insignia with a red X across it. If the person you guess does happen to be Kira, their icon will become the K insignia with two red circles around it. Finding out who Kira is can also happen from process of elimination. Once you enter the next Turn knowing who Kira is, their character portrait will be outlined with red.

Story mode
The story mode covers the events from when L reveals himself to the NPA to the time of L's death. Obtaining 16 apples also unlocks a bonus chapter where L deduces that the 13-Day Rule is fake.

Single mode
This is a free mode where the player may play alone as either Kira or L as any character they have unlocked. The player may also choose their CPU opponents.

Multiplayer mode
Up to two people may play using two separate cartridges. Players are restricted to characters the furthest player has unlocked. The game does not utilize Wi-Fi compatibility.

Playable

 * L's last name is shown in-game. To prevent spoilers, every letter after the L is scribbled over.

Single and multiplayer modes come with a 'Random' button on the character selection screen.

Non-playable

 * Ryuk
 * Rem

However, Ryuk still appears as an "adviser" in-between turns, telling the player how L or Kira may behave. (L generally attempts to gain the trust of everyone while his accusations are mainly flung at one person, Kira usually gains the trust of one or two people in particular while his accusations are usually aimed at various people.)

Unlockables
While the majority of unlockable characters are obtained from beating the first chapter containing that character in Story Mode, the following characters must have the necessary amount of apples to be unlocked:

Near: Get 5 apples. Mello: Get 10 apples. Teru: Get 15 apples. Neo Light: Get all 20 apples. (Obtainable only after Bonus Episode 12, unlocked after getting 18 apples, has been cleared)

Special Abilities
For 80 proposal points, a character can use their Special Ability. Special Abilities vary depending on the character.

Trivia

 * Light and L's seiyu narrated the TV commercial for Kira Game.
 * Neo Light is simply Light with his Kira-deranged face and the coat he wore in Part I of the main series.