Hermitage: Strange Case Files

This game is right up my alley. I'm not a huge fan of horror, but I'm usually totally absorbed by any Lovecraftian style horror stories. The characters are well fleshed out, and I actually quite enjoyed learning about Justin's backstory. However, this is a visual novel, and visual novels live or die by dint of their writing. The first two cases are quite well written, and I enjoyed both immensely. I was even willing to forgive the odd typo here and there. The third case was basically just A Shadow over Innsmouth, but not a bad story at all. However, I felt things went off the rails at that point. You switch main character perspectives, and the minimal interaction required goes down to almost nothing for the last two cases. It's almost as though the last two cases(and epilogue) belong to a completely different story, as most of the story threads introduced in the earlier cases are just dropped. Which isn't necessarily an issue, except that the game has a feature where it draws out all the connections between the cases, as if all of them are building to something. In addition to which, it seemed to me that the script gradually had more and more egregious errors as the game progressed. More frequent typos, blatant grammatical issues, even a couple of random apostrophes dropped in. The writing is enjoyable all the way through, if a little obtuse at times, just have someone proofread it first. This isn't a bad game, by any means, but I can't recommend this game for $20. It's just too unpolished.

It's pretty tantalasing and unique, except for three things: slow pace, inconsistent translation and trial-and-error gameplay. And those three things really ruin the experience. The translation is probably the worst part. That's because the game generally seems well written; you don't get obvious tells that this has been translated by someone not very good with English such as disjointed grammar, except maybe for the fact that the way the characters speak is a little strange. But that can be blamed on who they are, more on that later. The issue is that sometimes you need to do a deduction: connect three clues into some kind of conclusion. And that's where it becomes almost unplayable. You see, at some points you read strange old books to clue you in to what's really happening. There are plenty of red herrings, which is good, but generally if you pay attention you should be able to figure things out, especially after looking at your evidence board. Right? And here's the problem: the clues on the evidence board seem to have been translated by a completely different person. They use different phrases and different words than the main novel. As an example, let me bring up the Silkworm, the antagonist of the first episode. First of all, once you see it, it very clearly is [i]not[/i] a silkworm, but whatever, eldritch entities do not need to follow this kind of categorisation. But the bigger problem is that later on you need to connect the Silkworm to other evidence you have, but no pieces mention it at all. They mention some other monster, but your mind just dismisses it as something irrelevant, something that has nothing to do with the story. So you either fail and get a bad ending, or google the solution. And like I said, there are red herrings, so you can't just "guess" your way out of this by elimination. Next up is the pace. It's slow. Makes sense; it's a story about a shopkeeper of a bookstore with forbidden books and his unlikely allies who investigate cults and other weird stuff. There's a lot of "Imma take a smoke and consider the evidence" moments, which normally I love, but here it just feels rambly. Also the investigation sections simply take forever, and the dialogue drags on. The script feels like it could use some trimming. There is this particular scene in the second episode in which the characters investigate a residential building where someone died. There's this nice buildup, because it really seems like there's nothing there at first, and the people who live there are unfriendly, but in a normal way. But of course, eventually it turns out something is going on - after a quite long back-and-forth. But even then, you probably won't notice this, because of the third problem: The trial-and-error gameplay. To continue my previous thought, you'll only notice that something is up with those people if you do a perception check correctly. Basically, at certain points you're supposed to either ask something during a conversation or take a peek at a choice of body parts (face, wrists, clothing, etc). Now that all sounds good, but except for one case, I found absolutely no indication as to which part to look at or when. It just becomes a matter of trying and failing until something works. This is very frustrating, because IRL I'm a rather perceptive person (at least I think I am) and I'm no stranger to playing the game of "how to investigate closer without drawing attention to myself". Normally, your intuition takes over - both the when and the how. It's not really a conscious decision. But here, the game gives you nothing to work with. The character sprites don't change like in, say, Apollo Justice, to give you a hint saying hey, look closer. Also, you only get one chance; if you didn't save the game (why would you?) then you're outta luck. Bad ending incoming. In other words - lots of strange things and issues that you don't really see in other games. It's possible that this is because the game is Chinese - and just like Japanese games have their own weird stuff which we're used to due to their ubiquity, maybe it's simply a matter of getting enough exposure over time. Maybe it's a culture thing, style thing, who knows. If there's one thing I really liked about the game, it's the art style and the setting. The main character was also fantastic. Dark, cynical, mysterious even to the player; smart, but well aware of his limitations - but also not falling into being an annoying stereotype. A shame about the shortcomings; Hermitage could be something great. And yet here we are. [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/42922988/]Curator Page[/url]

The translation is quite bad. It feels like each individual sentence was translated without taking into account the context, resulting in dialogues that are very hard to follow without going back and forth. There are also typos and grammatical mistakes, although they are sufficiently few. As for the story, it's not sufficiently throughout. The chapters might as well be their own ministories, they neither have sufficient connectivities between themselves nor do they give enough payoffs to the final chapter. Speaking of the final chapter, it doesn't do enough to tie up all the loose ends it left throughout the game, in fact it feels very rushed. The game is still somewhat enjoyable, I would have offered a thumbs up if the individual cases were more interesting or if the final chapter resolved all the mysteries in a more convincing fashion. Unfortunately, that's not the case here.

[b]I should have never done that ritual.[/b] (Note: I had to play in offline mode while I was going through the main story, about 18.5 hours for me, with 4.3 hours to get the achievements I missed) I actually somehow came across Hermitage: Strange Case Files long before it got translated, around the time it originally released. While I can’t read Chinese, and the only part that was in English too was the title, I found it interesting. Staying on brand, the visuals really interested me and the screenshots showing some gameplay (away from the usual odd lines to draw you into the visual novel) looked interesting as well. So I wished for an English translation to happen, along with some others that managed to find it as well. And well, you can imagine how happy I was when one day, I had the urge to look up Hermitage again, only to find that there are now two listings; with the one unreleased being the official English translation. Now that it has finally released, and that I finally read through the visual novel, how is it and did it live up to how interesting I found the visual years ago? In Hermitage: Strange Case Files, you will mainly read from the perspective of the mysterious man only dubbed as “Store Manager”. Poor guy doesn’t have his own name, but as his title suggests, he’s the store manager of the equally mysterious bookstore called Hermitage. While Hermitage is pretty hidden and not obvious that the building is indeed a bookstore, those looking for it and needing help will find it with enough persistence. Now why is it so hidden, wouldn’t bookstores want people in buying books? Well, Hermitage is a unique case as it holds strange, unique, and old valuable books that dive into subjects that not a lot of people will be interested in. Not to mention that some are hard to understand, either by how it was written or not being translated and are linked to paranormal, horrific activities, or even Lovecraftian horrors that no one but those that were unfortunate to come across or know. Though if you do go in needing help, even if it’s more than just finding a book (and trust me, he’ll know), he will help you out as much as he can. Throughout all six chapters, Store Manager will be doing just that, helping out the few people that manage to come across the bookstore and need help with their dilemma. Like the first case, which is present in the demo, where you learn about how terrible Cecile, a young school girl, is being treated at her school and that she found herself at Hermitage. While her problems are in part because of the bullying, she’s also having these strange dreams that feels so real, to the point where she feels like she was there herself, after her friend lights some special incense. But with some digging from Store Manager, and Cecile helping with anything requiring leaving the store, they will find out how to solve the problem. You won’t know what’s going on at first, but as you get more information things become clear. There is also an overarching mystery that is hinted at from the beginning and will be solved by the time you reach the end. Giving you more of a reason to keep reading. You’ll find yourself asking why Store Manager can’t leave Hermitage, what’s his real name (if he even has one), who is the owner of Hermitage, and who's that mysterious buff figure that showed up here and there? Every so often, Store Manager also gets a visit from a mysterious man who drops off books for him to sell. Granted, Store Manager doesn’t as he’s quite suspicious of him, but they strangely link to what’s happening. To the point where they actually help him figure out what they’re going up against and how to defeat it. So, who is he really? To help with gathering information, there are a couple avenues you can take outside of the visual novel sections. Between the visual novel story sections, there is some downtime for Store Manager. While you’ll be getting clues naturally by just progressing through the story, there will be some that you’ll have to find yourself. There is a bookshelf that he will visit, holding the books the mysterious stranger drops off, that you can go and get a summary on what it’s about and some of them will give you a clue. There is also an old computer that you can check posts on an internet forum, which you can read to see what’s being posted or to see if there are any clues to get (though, I wish it made it obvious which replies are new to the post). There are also times where you can have Store Manager ponder over his thoughts, see what’s on TV, or visit his clue board which links everyone by relationship (with some having their own bio for you to read) as well as important sequences for you to watch again. You’ll then put these clues to action to piece together what’s happening, to prove the Store Manager’s deduction. He’ll write down at least four questions/doubts that he has throughout the chapter and eventually it’ll be time to figure it out by piecing together the clues you gathered. All you have to do is drag the clue pieces you think is correct and submit them to see if they are. Though, I didn’t really like this aspect as much as I would like. This may be due to the translation or just how the game just is, but these are quite hard to figure out. There are some that I did know (or know mostly) what to put, but some are weirdly worded making it seem like you’re supposed to be deducing something else entirely or not being that obvious on what the answer could be based on the clues you have and what you’ve been reading. Some are even to the point where I’m sure I never would have thought, or guessed, was related to the question. Luckily, you do have three tries to get the deduction right (and there is a guide on what clues are correct), but getting it wrong all three times will cause you to go down the bad ending path. There are also a few choices (both dialog and what you want the character to do) that does determine what ending you’ll get as well, which you won’t suspect as they don’t have any affect normally, but some of them are based on information you were told earlier. Otherwise, just do what you think is best. In terms of the translation, I’m sure many are worried on how good it is. Well, don’t worry about it. Aside from some words being misspelled and a few sentences not making sense, the translation here is actually pretty good. This can be quite wordy at times, often describing too much or basically saying the same thing twice, but it is good and was able to bring out the character’s different personalities quite well. [h1]Verdict[/h1] While Hermitage: Strange Case Files does take a while to pick up, can be a bit too wordy at times, and some of the deductions can be hard to figure out due to the weird wording, the story here is pretty great. I also found myself really liking the characters here, and I’m glad they’re reoccurring characters that help you out rather than being a one and done deal. Once Hermitage gets going, it really gets going. Making you sit at the edge of your seat as the characters plan out what to do, execute that plan, and see the result. For those looking for a visual novel in the paranormal mystery genre, this is worth picking up and sticking to just for the story alone. [code]💜 Check out my other reviews at [url=https://witchsreviewcorner.com]Witch’s Review Corner[/url] or visit my Curator[url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/28714255/] The Witch’s Corner![/url] 💜 [/code]

I wanted to like this, and thought I would, since I tend to love investigative and mysterious games. This game just didn't make sense too many times, and the pacing has been really really slow. So I can't recommend it.

[h1] Cattrific Body Swap and Solved Mystery! [/h1] I am not much of a reader of Lovecraft works but this VN has a certain cosmic twist to it. I bought it thinking this is a sort of paranormal detective ghost hunting type of story, but nope I encountered an amazing group of members who found each other and interesting entities. Being someone who has not read a single Lovecraft book I was a bit confused on what is happening and I feel the story is not direct. It might take a lot of thinking to comprehend the story properly. [b] Story: smooth confusion [/b] I played the VN twice, first time to experience it. Second time to get the achievements. It was progressing smoothly throughout the first 1-3 chapters with the 4th one I couldn't comprehend much what is going on. This a story that starts mysteriously and ends mysteriously. You have the store manager his name is just that. And the real owner of the store called "the deliverer" The store manager is a scholar hiding after a mysterious incident which happened in a supernatural origin. Things did not go well and he had to take refuge inside this book store which he manages. Strange incidents starts happening around the city, mysterious phenomenons and he tries to get the bottom of them. First chapter is about a hallucination drug among high school students, second one about experimentation about fish men, third one about a mysterious machine that can swap bodies. The fourth one seems to be a past recall of the incident that seems to start it all. There is a single good ending and several bad endings. All clues need to be gathered and all puzzles needs to be solved to get to the good ending. But what happened as the good ending i don't understand. Still, join the store manager and his crew in solving the cryptic cosmic mysteries and figure out the mastermind in this 28-hour long noir love craftian inspired VN. [b] Characters: dark but warm [/b] The characters are not those bubbly ones you find in anime, they are serious, grave and are dealing with the supernatural. They have insane backstories, harsh pasts but extremely talented. But all are united to put the city out of danger at the expense of their own lives. You have the main chara the protagonist, smart and calculative yet warm person. Cigarette smoker. Scarlet, a lawyer? she has connections everywhere and seems rich. Neko who is well a kid but a tech savvy one. Joining from the chapter completion you have Cecile, a shy warm highschooler. Zack, fearless and street-smarts, very delinquent. Then lastly Justin who is a freelance detective. I love this group they are fantastic, they progress, they have emotions, they look after each other. Sometimes you get some info about their personal lives which I feel like I would love to know more about them. The chemistry between them is fantastic, especially neko and justin or neko and zack is entertaining. I would say my favorites are Zack and Justin, just love their character development. [b] Game play: interesting [/b] I found the VN has some interesting elements in terms of game play, at one point you get to direct a fight sequence, another time they give you an old school RPG like move around using arrow keys to inspect doors and such. When you play as store manager you can check your book shelf, the owner comes and give books which relates to important info. So if you are playing always check the bookshelf once or twice. You can also check the news and computer for clues at night time. I really loved the night scenarios its so creative. Sometimes when talking to new characters you can inspect their posture/behavior. The game teaches the functions clearly, the tutorials are good. The game has the skip button but I do wish the skipping is faster. You have to make deductions when you find the clues and this can be a bit tough sometimes. A save before the deduction would be good. You cannot save during the puzzle cracking. There is also a nice bulletin board same as how cool detectives have if you are looking to replay the scenes. [b] Art: Noir/Gloomy [/b] The artist uses the dark palette and undertones for the artwork, sprites and I think it's atmospheric. I wouldn't say this is everyone's favorite but it is well-polished. Also I loved the fact they went for the extra mile and added animations, 3D, smoke to make it super creative. Even the entities have their own small animations which is a nice perk. [b] Achievements: Lvl easy [/b] The achievements are okay to get, just getting all the endings, even bad ones will trigger an acheivement. Might need to replay the game twice and that would be it. Reading all the computer postings, books and just being the true snoopy detective would make you get half of the achievements automatically. [b] Overall: Lovecraftian fan then buy it! [/b] I think this is a very noir dark interesting insight into the paranormal; getting away from the usual norm and giving out something completely new with cosmic elements. Definitely deserves another sequel or prequel because of the characters, i would buy it. It is a new way of publishing paranormal based detective visual novels. If you are a fan of H.P Lovecraft I would say this is a must have.

A truly unique visual novel that was a pleasure to read. It is chock full of supernatural twists in the style of Lovecraft, with plenty of homages and mentions to those tales and its familiar creatures, but still telling its own stories. The characters are written well, the story is interesting and the ending is well done and very creative, just like the rest of the game. That is not to say that there aren't some issues. The game was translated from Chinese to English, so some of the sentences sound a little strange. There are also quite a few spelling mistakes scattered here and there - not enough to really be a problem, but still noticeable. The only form of gameplay comes in the form of a few decisions and movement "puzzles" in the story, as well as "Suspicion" sections, in which you have to decipher the truth about something based on clues. This can be difficult due to the odd translation of some of those clues, but guides are available. As a whole, though, the translation is solid. Some bad ending achievements are also not (legitimately) working at the moment, though this may be patched at some point. Still, a very good visual novel that deserves a lot more attention for its eccentric writing and unique storytelling. It also has a sweet soundtrack!

A Chinese developed VN inspired by Lovecraft, not your typical visual novel experience. Somewhat flawed but an interesting read. The first and last chapters are easily the best, but the middle of the game can feel a little like filler at times. The writing is good overall, but the dialogue can come across as a little dry and overly literal- not sure if this is an issue with translation or simply the intended style but there are some really good lines here and there. I myself haven't read much Lovecraft so I expect there are a number of references and inspirations that went over my head. Most of the game is not particularly scary but there are some concepts that can give you a sense of dread if you dwell on them. There is limited gameplay which mostly consists of choosing which three clues will answer a particular mystery- however it can be hard to understand what the game is going for, resulting in some trial and error. The game is linear but each chapter has a bad end depending on whether you make any deduction errors in these sequences or in the confrontation with the final enemy of the chapter. You can also browse forum posts, and at times explore areas in a very rudimentary way via an overhead map, but 90% of the time you're still in a typical Visual Novel format. The art is above average with a dark and moody style that really works for the storyline. I recommend checking this out on sale when you're looking for something a little different.

Visual Novel plutôt plaisant. Hermitage est un Visual Novel assez inspiré de l'univers de Lovecraft, avec une version un peu revisitée (et plus actuelle) de certaines nouvelles de ce dernier, mais dont les auteurs ne se sont pas juste limités à faire des références en tout genre, mais bien en comprenant que Lovecraft c'est avant tout du suggéré, de l'implicite, et non pas des p'tits Cthulhu ou autres monstres tentaculaires dégueux qui apparaissent de partout au bout de 30 secondes... Bien que ce soit un Visual Novel, il y aura quelques rares phases de gameplay, qui viseront à obtenir des infos pour mener différentes enquêtes liées à des événements bizarres. Votre personnage pour d'obscures raisons, ne pourra pas quitter son lieu de « travail », diront nous, en tant que gérant d'une librairie de bouquins plus mystérieux les uns que les autres. Vous recevrez des bouquins dont il faudra parfois y extraire quelques infos, vous devrez aussi vous balader sur des forums (en jeu bien évidemment, pas IRL), ou poser des questions à des gens via d'autres personnages que vous suivrez. Vers la fin des chapitres (6 en tout, pour une 15-20aine d'heure l'ensemble) vous devrez valider vos suspicions selon les infos que vous avez reçues, vous menant vers des bonnes ou mauvaises fins. Honnêtement ce n'est pas super évident de savoir exactement ce que le jeu désire comme infos d'ailleurs... Autrement, j'ai plutôt aimé. Graphiquement ça se discute, j'ai beaucoup aimé le chara design, avec son style un peu à l'ancienne, le côté simpliste des décors à son charme aussi, ça s'intègre bien, après y'a des illustrations au style un peu différents que je trouve parfois moins réussis, en revanche (et surtout vers la fin) il y a des intégrations 3d dont je ne suis pas vraiment super fan, car ça fait très cheap. L'ambiance sonore, et les OST sont plutôt réussies, c'est toujours bien dans le ton, assez classique (et me rappelant un peu Spirit Hunter) mais efficace. L'ambiance générale quant à elle, est plutôt bien travaillée. Comme je le disais précédemment, à la manière des œuvres lovecraftienne, on a des enquêtes qui deviennent de plus en plus étranges, puis qui découlent sur des choses bien moins naturelles que prévues. Chaque chapitre sera lié à une enquête un peu différente mais avec des personnages secondaires qui resteront pour la suite. Personnages que j'ai globalement appréciés, en dehors de Zack qui est typiquement le genre de tête brûlé que j'ai envie de frapper, le reste j'ai aimé. Notamment la relation entre le protagoniste, Scarlet et Neko, qui semblent avoir un passé commun, et qui ont une très grande confiance entre eux, et n'ont pas besoin de se parler pour se comprendre. J'ai vraiment bien aimé cet aspect là, ce respect mutuel, même s'il y a quelques petites piques ci et là qui m'ont aussi faites sourires. De même que j'aimais beaucoup en savoir plus sur le fameux « livreur » des plus intrigants. En revanche je déplore quelque petites faiblesses, notamment sur le développement de certains éléments scénaristiques, et certains personnages au final on en saura pas grand choses, ou alors auront quelques blanc dans leur développement. Pas très fan non plus du chapitre 4, un peu particulier, de même que la fin qui l'est tout autant pour d'autres raisons, on aimera ou pas, en tout cas je ne m'y attendais pas spécialement. + super personnages + bonne ambiance et mystère lovecraftien + la DA un peu « vieille école » + l'ambiance sonore / OST - la 3d - le développement de certains personnages qui aurait été cool d'approfondir plus - Pas toujours évident de choisir les bons indices à valider... Bref, un super jeu avec une bonne ambiance lovecraftienne maîtrisée qui nous donne envie dans savoir plus durant les 15-20h de scénario. Le jeu mériterai un peu plus de visibilité d'ailleurs... En tout cas je le recommande si vous aimé les histoire de mystère, et l'univers de Cthulhu et sa clique. Je ne serais pas contre une suite d'ailleurs, voir une préquelle.

The manager of a book store is visited by a variety of locals that are struggling with various supernatural issues. With an aloof personality and a physical inability to leave his store, the manager does what he can to help these people in need with the resources he has around him. Spent a month or so with this on and off and its a difficult beast to really describe. There's a risk in fantasy stories to get bogged down in details and world-building and sometimes this runs the risk of doing that. But the majority of cases ultimately work because the game is more interested in examining the personal struggles of these characters than those magical systems. The first case alone is an excellent tragedy about school bullying and the extreme emotions that drives a person towards. What also helps is that the structure of the mysteries is entirely reliant on what the players are willing to research. Since the Store Manager can't leave his store, he can only solve cases through combing through books and reading online. The majority of clues depend on remembering which books on the shelves might be relevant to this situation. All other information requires the Store Manager's supporting cast to explore the world. This helps the other characters get show off their internal workings so we can understand where they're coming from. Still, I think the game's major problems can be demonstrated by tracking the steam achievements. 60% of players completed the first deduction. 35% completed the first case. All remaining cases hover around 15% completion. There's a HUGE drop between all of those numbers. But that consistent 15% is interesting. People that stuck with the game past chapter 1 really committed to it. Its slow, its plodding, it takes a LONG time for the characters to show off their personalities. And this isn't helped by the somewhat flawed translation the game is dealing with. But there's something really charming waiting if you're willing to put in the effort. Me, I'm a maniac who'll commit games for way longer than I should. I can't blame anyone who chooses to bail, particularly a slow-burn like this. But an urban fantasy game dripping with that Persona 5 aesthetic is just exactly my cup of tea. Also the climax of the final case is maybe one of the funniest ways I've ever seen heroes turn the tables on a villain I've ever seen. I've never laughed so hard at one ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥'s utter confusion.