Try out the Death Note DS games

[Avalanche_Rick]

A new Death Note game coming out in 2024 feels a little weird to me because I remember playing the DS games as a teenager in the 2000s. I remember being very obsessed with Death Note when it first aired on adult swim and like many people I also had no idea how Death Note in general can work as a video game. Anyway, Im here to share my knowledge from the 2000s about 3 Death Note DS games by Konami nobody outside of Japan played because they never got official translations. In recent years a group has made English patches of all the games except for 1. I'd like to think that will change sometime soon but I don't know what they're currently working on but I have heard they're interested.

Death Note Kira Game
If you've ever played Mafia or Werewolf its basically the same rules. The game loosely follows the plot of the manga / anime and you play as the role of Kira or L. As Kira you are tasked to figure out who is L and the same concept if you're playing L. As Kira and L you can have other players gain trust and possibly get a hint who Kira or L are. As Kira you are allowed to use the Death Note and kill whoever you think is L or convince the other players suspect your target is Kira causing them to get locked up instead of you. I find the Kira role more fun to be honest with you because the L role is pretty much the same without the use of the Death Note. You can play against another person IRL as long as they also have the game. Nobody I knew at the time could read Japanese but I'd image it's a lot more fun. This one has an English patch available.

Death Note: L's Successor
This one out of the 3 games is by far my favorite. I've played more with this one than the other 2 for how fun it is. It is pretty much like a tactical RPG and you must track down Kira or L within a certain number of turns. The higher the difficulty the less turns you have to win. Like with Kira Game it loosely follows the plot of the manga and anime. As Kira you have to kill the opposing players by using scraps of the Death Note. They act as traps for the other players. You are fully aware of where the detectives are at all times. As L its basically the same minus the Death Note use and you do not know where the Kira player is on the map but you are given an idea of their general area if I remember correctly. You can play this one with another person IRL as long as they have the game. Unfortunately, as im typing this the game does not have an English patch but I hope that changes soon because its really fun and my favorite. I believe even with limited Japanese knowledge you can play the game as long as you can memorize the menus and how they work.

L the Prologue to Death Note: Spiraling Trap
This one I've spent the least time with but if you love L then this game might be for you. As the title suggests this takes place before the events of the manga and anime. This is a point and click puzzle game where you are an agent working for L. You investigate areas and solve puzzles by defusing bombs to clear the level. You have the opportunity to have a bond with L and you can feed him sweets (no I'm not kidding). I do not believe you can play this with another person IRL but I remember that you can use the DS Download Play function to transfer data to another DS to somebody who doesn't have the game. I believe it's just the L stuff where you can feed and talk to him. This one has an English patch available.

Anyway, thats all of the previously released Death Note games. If Death Note Killer Within doesn't sound so interesting or if it ends up being disappointing then give the DS games a try. Enjoy!

[Ζephir]

ty, never knew they existed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sQBvrVN7Pk

[Avalanche_Rick]

Not a whole lot of people did unfortunately lol
At least maybe if this new game doesn't do it for anyone there's always other Death Note games out there