Darkway: Murder of King Mere

MOKM is a great murder mystery mixed with some creative open-world exploring and even a little good ol' fashioned platforming. The visuals make it all worthwhile, and the game never gets boring to look at. It nails the retro feel right on the head without compromising any detail. The worldbuilding is rich and compelling, so I can't wait to see what other stories take place in the world of Darkway.

I THOROUGHLY ENJOYED THIS GAME (found on insta btw!) however i have some notes: - game felt short, finished in under 3 hrs - some areas (especially the wall around edgarallen crow) need terrain / collision fixes - voice acting needs a revamp, i think its super fun and sweet that your friends helped you with the va but the audio is so inconsistent w big volume changes and some audio clipping. also some of those accents might wanna be revisited - another big issue was that failed convictions didn't tend to have lasting repercussions, nothing seemed to change about how those characters or ones they had close bonds with interacted. feels like there needs to be more of a punishment system for stuff like that as far as some things i'd love to see as a player and now fan of this game: - fix for short playtime; i would LOVE to explore more of the world please please please add new levels that investigate mysteries in different parts of the empyre. that map is so extensive and there is so much cool stuff you could do (and maybe even add some sidequests bringing along cato!) - would enjoy a combat system for that end fight, maybe quicktime event style could work. the choice system is a little underwhelming - also i feel as though the pry ability is too much of a "give me the answer button" you can circumvent any downsides of prying by simply doing all the quests first, whereas if you added something like the aforementioned quicktime event system, some characters could outright attack you for prying too hard (regardless of favor) again really loved this game and i'm excited to see more, will be playing for each update :)

Impressive work from one singular dude. Awesome world building, honestly want to know so much more about it and would love anything else from this world. Compelling narrative and interesting mystery. I found walking around the city very fun, the updates the dev put in after initial complaints helped that a lot I’m sure. Parkouring some stuff was a little jank but not too horrible. I enjoyed the freedom in direction and the almost zero hand holding it gives you. The insight powers and system were also pretty unique. Music was great, voice acting was cute and honestly a great bonus. Overall vibes were very cool

An amazing adventure, worth every cent! I loved every second I spent with this game, the atmosphere, the way my choices mattered, the INCREDIBLE voice acting, everything! The world MOKM is set in is so intricate and has so many nooks and crannies to explore, I would absolutely love a game made by Ekpap again set in this same world! I honestly cannot recommend this game enough!

Amazing game, worked great on the steamdeck as soon as I changed the launch options. The story is great, the characters are interesting and I loved the pixel artstyle of the world. The quests were entertaining but never complicated enough that I had to look for a guide, which is a huge plus in a detective game

Genuinely an amazing game. It might not be the best in terms of visual or audio quality, but it feels nostalgic in a way and the story overshadows all the problems that the game might have.

Definitely a cute game. Saw the post on Instagram, thought i'd support a one man army that created a detailed world and a short but a very entertaining game. Before i go on with my review, for those who want to play this game on Linux: You can use Proton 11 (Beta) and input -dx11 as launch option and just play with the lowest texture settings. I'm on Bazzite and with 3070Ti, this was the solution to a playable experience. I liked the game, and the endings seem very well crafted and with thought-out choices. I only wish the 'key items' you look for were a bit more shown and the game a bit more optimized. Other than these, it is a fun detective game that bases its evidence-finding off of 'Favors' you make for the residents, which is fun! I wish there would be a higher variety of favors to complete and more reactive NPCs based on completed favors & found evidence, but considering it's around 2.5-3 hours it doesn't drag itself too long to be boring. Finding the culprit isn't that hard, don't look it up and enjoy the game!

Really cool game ! Not perfect (reaching this crow nest was a bit annoying, jumping is not precise and I kept on falling), but unique. The lore, the atmosphere, the characters were really interesting. A hiddent gem !

It's rough on the edges, but for a first game from the dev it is awsome! Especially the world building stood out to me. I hope we get see more of this world in future games. I get that people are critizing the Voice acting, but I perfer any voice actor of any skill over AI voices. And everything is voiced in this game. Even your own thoughts! You feel that there is a lot of love and thought in it and that for me makes is it completely worth it!

Solid little game. As a mystery fan, I burned a night on this and really enjoyed the characters, the cold and eerie city, and having to solve the mystery myself without much handholding.