Murder at the Birch Tree Theater

Murder at the Birch Tree Theater is okay, I guess. Compared to its direct inspiration, Case of the Golden Idol, it manages to have clumsier UI while also bringing in some fresh gameplay and puzzle ideas. Slight meta-spoilers for the following paragraph: Nothing is explicitly said, but if you enjoy this type of games you might figure out what I am hinting at plot wise. The final scenario feels convoluted enough both gameplay and plot wise that I think it manages to tarnish the game a bit. Thus the ending feels bit disappointing. I might have enjoyed the conclusion bit more if the game made me put together the pieces instead of just telling me the conclusion.

A great Idol-like about the rise and fall (but mostly fall) of a community theater. I felt very invested in the characters and the story as each case got more and more twisted. The music is excellent and the art's super charming. I thought the puzzles were a bit on the easier side but I still enjoyed them. Overall, a very fun game!

很不错的金偶像代餐。初见以为是个水浅王八多的无聊故事，展开之后发现情节与人物塑造还是很细腻的。美术和音乐都挺好的，10个短章节，解谜偏简单一本道，基本靠传纸条大声密谋（除了最后一章终于把复杂度提了一下，有点金偶像味道了）。主要是很久没见过熊得这么彻底的反派（每次扫黄都有他），通篇玩下来发现这何尝不是一个大男主剧本XD [spoiler] 以及我一般不喜欢作品塞LGBT元素，但游戏里的两对因（少量）描写过于正常而显得好磕，再次说明剧本的人物塑造能力是真的好。 [/spoiler]

황금우상과 싱크로율 99% 다만 사건이 거의 연극에 치중되어있음. 황금우상 인생작이고 영어 해결되면 무조건 ㄱㄱ

Okay, this was MUCH, much better than it actually looked on the surface. Yes, it's a Golden-Idol-alike, but as an afficionado of murder mystery games, deductive games, logic puzzles, mysteries in general AND also musicals, this is genuinely one of the most impressive constructions I've seen in a long while. Is it BETTER than Golden Idol? I would say yes, purely on the level design and puzzle of the final case. This may seem like an odd comparison, but it felt more similar to games like Portal, where 90% of the game is pure buildup to the last 10%. Unlike other similar games where the giant levels are also something of a giant headache to keep straight or navigate around, the gameplay and narrative really came together to make it actually feel like you were returning to an old favourite theatre, one that you'd seen grow and change through the years. There is of course the same narrative issue that I have with Golden Idol, which is that there's no real explanation as to who 'you' are or why 'you're' investigating all this, or what the point of you investigating is, which... well, it doesn't HAVE to come up with an explanation for this and I'd say the story works regardless, but personally I do prefer the framing of something like Obra Dinn or Roottrees where you had some (magical, maybe even a little flimsy or handwavey but extant) justification for how 'you' are involved in the world. But that's more of a personal preference, I think, and I'd still highly rec this game. There's a lot more that could be commented about the fun plot and fun-nier characters and the sheer amount of effort that must have gone into the writing, music and art for this game, but a lot of that would be spoilers! And really best experienced by playing it yourself But as someone with a lot of theatre friends, I did find myself going 'hm, yeah, checks out, seems about right' at quite a few points.

Great theming and a lot of heart elevate this above most of the other "Golden-Idol-Likes" out there.

Really fun (and cosy) murder mystery game. Great for little musical theatre nerds like myself, as well as fans of The Case of the Golden Idol and the book The Appeal by Janice Hallett.

A very good Golden-Idol-like. Has some rough parts - no hint system, some of the prompts for words to click are NOT easy to see. At the same time - very clever, very good mysteries, and if you like Broadway the sheer amount of parody and reference is wonderful.

this is a pretty fun golden idol alike, my only problem with it is that, while it copies the golden idol 1 system of needing to click on every word, to add them to your word cloud, and points of interest being highlighted in yellow, which then turns to red after you investigate. they didn't copy the part of the system where if you don't get every word out of the POI, it stays yellow to indicate that you have more to find there. The only points of pain in my playthrough have come from needing to painstakingly go back through every poi to find a word that im missing. so i think im done playing this game after more than hour on the last puzzle with 2 missing words, no idea where to find them, its a real disapointing end to a game that i was enjoying. so be diligent if you play this

An excellent Golden Idol-like, very entertaining with fun references to real musicals sprinkled throughout. It's a bit easier than Idol, but I felt that it had enough challenge to keep me engaged and give me a sense of accomplishment when I solved a case. My only negatives are 1) I would've liked some kind of indicator of where my last one or two words were. I'd clicked on everything, so their bubbles were all red, and it took some work to find the last yellow words. and 2) I'd like a zoom function to see all the scenes in more detail. I also liked the text enlarger, but I would've liked a way to zoom in on the originally formatted documents - and the fact that the text enlarger doesn't include yellow highlights made it hard to find some of the words in smaller text documents. Overall, highly recommend to fans of the Case of the Golden Idol series.