Mosaic of the Strange

失望，愤怒。倒不是说作品本身有什么问题，而是那些被阴谋论者强加于其上的立场与观点，让我不得不举着放大镜去审视。游戏内，人类学博物馆的置物架上，那块不起眼的“杜立巴石碟”静静地躺着。关于它的描述，有一句话让我格外在意。在对照了简中、繁中和英文三种版本的文本后，我确认，这就是作者有失偏颇的“别有用心”。事实上，从来都不存在所谓的“the China-Tibet border”。即便曾经有过，那道隔阂的边界，也早已在七百多年前的碰撞与融合中消弭于无形。在地理学上，我们通常称这道天险为第一级与第二级阶梯的分界线；而在文化与血脉里，我从不认为两地同胞之间有什么不同。也许Mosaic系列还会推出续作，但作为一位不被尊重的消费者，我会在此告别。

[h1]新しい試みは悪くないが、失敗に終わった作品[/h1] 過去シリーズと異なり 　・ストーリー付き 　・特殊ステージあり（数字が記号に置き換わる＆早解き） といったような要素があるが、どうにも成功しているとは言い難いと感じた。 ゲームのボリュームも過去作より減っており、満足度はやや低い。 [h1]ローカライズ[/h1] ストーリーがメインとなっていて、超常現象による殺人事件を追う物語となっている。 女性と男性のバディがその事件を追いかけるのだが、 　[b]・女性側は普段は女性口調だが唐突に男性口調になる 　・男性側が唐突に女性口調になる[/b] となっていて、とてもではないが集中して読めたものではなかった。 [h1]ステージギミック[/h1] 終盤の3ステージのみ通常の数字とは別に1～9に対応した独自の記号が登場する。 ステージ中は画面左下にそれぞれ対応した数字が表示されているが、記号を解こうとするたびにいちいち画面左下に視線を移さなければならないのが手間でしかなく、楽しいプレイ体験にはつながらなかった。 3ステージ目で左下に目をやらなくてもだいたい覚えきることができたが、その頃にはもうゲーム終了直前で「せっかく覚えたのに覚えた意味がない」といった体験になったのでアプローチに失敗している印象。 記号にマウスを合わせたら対応する数字を表示するようにするか記号問題をもっと早めに出すべきだったように感じた。 [h1]まとめ[/h1] 新しい試みは悪くなかったが、良質なプレイ体験にはつながらなかった。 ゲーム開始後、序盤の「どうすれば先に進めるのか」というパズル以外の進み方のわかりにくさやステージ開始箇所の一部のわかりにくさ、小マップ内の問題をすべて解くと、クリア済みの箇所が未クリア表示になる（実際はクリア済みにちゃんとなっているが）など細かい粗も悪印象として残り、新しいことをする割には遊びやすさの追求がだいぶ甘かった。 全体の遊び心地は過去作と変わらないので、「問題を解きたい」だけならボリュームダウンはしているが、まぁ楽しめるかもしれない。 サムズダウンするほどではないのでサムズアップにしているが、割高な割には過去作より出来の悪い作品だった。

It's okay, I'd give it a neutral score if that was an option. One of the weakest of these mosaic games imo, so I'd definitely recommend checking out the other ones first. Some are even free! This game does have something new: a story. A pair of detectives solving a strange case! The problem is that the story is very... slight. You don't so much advance the plot as you unlock dialogue that muses on possibilities for the case in question. You meet new characters but they don't have much to say. The dialogue is okay, nothing particularly noteworthy, but more importantly the mystery doesn't feel like something that's coming together really, it's only expanding the possible options. I haven't seen how it all wraps up yet (these games are pretty long) but I HIGHLY doubt my opinion will change after seeing how it concludes. What DOES bother me quite a bit is the information snippets you get when you've solved a puzzle. This isn't new to these games, and in fact has been a nifty lil bonus in the other games for me. I've enjoyed learning small bits about theme-appropriate subjects. And this one sounded interesting too! Occult stuff, cryptids, strange paranormal things. The problem is that this game is not careful enough with how it writes these. Quite often I've seen things written as if there is conclusive evidence of these things, simply due to poor word choices or lack of clarification. These things aren't facts like what previous games dealt with, so the information conveyed has to reflect this difference. For example, there isn't photographic evidence of ghosts, there's photos CLAIMING to be evidence of ghosts. This conflation of what we know and what people say happens all over the place, in both overt and subtle ways, and it's a problem.

藏独夹带私货编造中藏边境线（china-tibet border），必须差评了

if it's got strange I'm in

Mosaic of the Strange was an impulse purchase due to me having a soft spot for mosaics. I remember as a child playing with the different blocks and following the patterns to create the various shapes. And I'm both a bit dissatisfied and pleased with this game. Let me explain: The game follows 2 FBI agents who get called in to investigate a mysterious murder. A man was found in the middle of a forest tower with the door locked from the inside. So how did he die? And who did it? Let's be real: the plot isn't that good. I can't tell you any information that separates the characters from each other as they're mired in archetypes. From the X-Files. I'd be lying if the atmosphere isn't good. Reading about the various weird and unusual things from around the world is interesting. The other main pull are the puzzles. The idea of creating mosaics is what grabbed my attention. And in a way, you are as once the puzzle is completed it turns into a colored pixel artefact to read about. So each puzzle is essentially a game of Minesweeper (minus the pressure): each 3x3 grid has a set filled and empty set of boxes. As you fill in the grids, they'll eventually form an image. So the goal is to figure out how each part of the various grids comes together to form an image. And each part can be completed with logic. And if you get stuck or lose track of where you need to go next, there's a handy hint button that'll take you to a spot that you can solve. There were times that if I slowed myself down a little bit more, I would have solved them without assistance. However, it isn't a very good adventure game. Plot elements are rewards for completing puzzles. There's no additional puzzles to solve to move things forward. As such, I felt very disconnected from the game's world. Furthermore, finding the puzzles to complete can be a little hard to find as they typically blend in with the environment. Graphically, the game is solid pixel art. There's some animations, but there isn't a lot. It isn't anything special. It is done in service of the gameplay. Sonically, there's like 1 track. And it's a little too serious compared to the mellow gameplay. It isn't bad. I will give them credit for the sound of the tiles as they're satisfying to put down. In conclusion, Mosaic of the Strange is not a bad game. It is a solid puzzle game. I enjoyed sitting down with it after work due to how mellow the gameplay is. The only reason it took me 34 hours to complete is because there's a lot of puzzles to complete and some of them are rather large. Solving each puzzle is satisfying. The game isn't worth the full price. Pick it up on sale.

murder mystery framing is a ton of fun (though it's completely on the rails/there's no player input on that end) and was just what this line of Mosaic puzzle games needed to freshen up a bit after i had started to reach a point of fatigue after hammering out the rest over the past two years. with that said, i largely just prefer when this was part of a big image/mural instead of separated pieces. the nature of the puzzle segments structure wise is making an already lightweight puzzle type even easier. which is fine for the most part, i usually chip away at these while listening to music, watching movies/tv, etc. definitely worth looking into some of the scattered difficulty settings this comes with, especially if you've played one or more of these before. i'll be sure to do that in the next game if it keeps them or if i ever revisit.

I'm always excited for a new mosaic game. My favorite are the yearly recaps, but the stories are fun and the gameplay has some variety in layout as opposed to one big board. Great for achievement hunters. Runs great on steam deck.

Great relaxing puzzle game! Minesweeper adjacent with a flair of paranormal investigation, and makes for a chill background game to dip in and out of.

前作と違ってストーリー仕立てとなっていて、細々色んなパズルを解いていく形式だったので休憩どころがあってこれも良かったです！ あと最後当たりで記号が混ぜ込まれたパズルが出てきて解き甲斐があり楽しかったので、次回作があるなら是非この形式も入れてほしいです！！！！！！！！！！！