Star Apprentice: Magical Murder Mystery

An absolute blast! difficult but reasonably so, with charming characters and charming dialogue. Magical girls and murder mysteries don't seem like two things that would work well together, but the mesh is excellently done with a story that keeps you on your toes. I like it a lot!!

As a mystery fan, I do not strongly recommend this game. It leans more heavily into the bullet hell gameplay than you the player getting to put clues together, so this review more reflects my mismatched expectations. In short, if you are coming to the game for bullet hell gameplay with a cute story and characters attached to it, then this is worth playing and I think you will enjoy it. If you are coming for the mystery genre or visual novel genre, then I think that you will find the gameplay (not much puzzle solving) and also the mystery lacking. As far as a bullet hell gameplay, I found the controls (with PC, not using a controller) fluid. The story serves more of a framing for the bullet hell game play. One standout aspect is how the bullet hell gameplay is impacted by the story. For example, the patterns and sequence of the bullets reflect the character you are interrogating. One stand out movement is at the climax of the story game where the developers use the visuals in the bullet section to reflect what the main character is emotionally. Unfortunately, I am not a strong fan of bullet hell (but thought I could put up with it for a fun and satisfying mystery), and so it was not for me. As far as the visual novel and the mystery itself, the clues did not seem to support the conclusion of the mystery, and I did not find the motivations of the characters compelling. With that said, the art, the music, and the character are endearing (I especially love Minnie and Roxanne). But the core of the mystery was not satisfying for me. I don't think there was enough of a story to satisfy people who are only coming to the game for the mystery elements. This game was made with a lot of love and is charming. I would recommend it to people who like bullet hell gameplay. If you don't and are coming for the unraveling of clues and the mystery, then you may want to skip this one.

TLDR: It's like if alien space invasion and murder mystery visual novels had a baby. The best 2.2 hours I've spent today, I skipped my history lecture for this, was feeling a relative emotional low, but this perked me right up, should stop worrying about my feelings and worry about games instead fr fr, 10/10 made me less want to die. If you like games like danganronpa, ace attorney, this is great, not to mention its free.99, it has a cute art, interesting characters, storyline flows nicely, not super long, and if you're stuck on a level just toggle *infinite lives* in settings and bam, you're immune but if you're looking for some excitement( or a masochist), toggle 1 life, so each time you get shot you restart, fun times! Great soundtrack if you're into the electronic vibe of it, charming character and did I mentioned that it's free? It cost nothing to try and you should try it. I am excited for what else the Will-o-Works is going to be releasing with danmaku detective, Minnie my beloved. THE NITTY GRITTY As far as murder mystery novels goes, this one was relatively simple however still fun, you could almost guess whodunnit within like the middle of the game. The mechanics of the game are nice, very cute sprites and the png of the characters are very cute and expressive, it is not a point and click game unlike most murder mystery, you do interact with the clues but the main focus of the game is the bullet shooter hell, which the patterns are very fun and can be hard. Character dialogue flows smoothly no complaints there, well written and easily followed. Art and animation of things are extremely well done, that if you had said this game was 11 buckaroos, I would buy it however it is not 11 bucks but free.99 so it gets a star for this section too. OVERALL THIS GAME IS GREAT AND IF YOURE IN AN EMOTIONAL TURMOIL LIKE ME, YOU SHOULD PLAY IT :3

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[i]Star Apprentice: Magical Murder Mystery[/i] is an indie bullet hell visual novel murder mystery RPG - a formula that works surprisingly well despite sounding conceptually incoherent on the surface. The game is quite short, requiring only a few hours to complete depending on the selected difficulty (which is surprisingly flexible and able to be tailored to the individual player.) The gameplay is fundamentally solid and reasonably enjoyable. The story is straightforward but executed and the case builds up very naturally in front of your eyes. Owing to the short length of the game, the characters are somewhat underdeveloped but each of them has enough personality flair to not overstay their welcome. The graphic design is excellent, even if the art style wasn't quite for me. The sound department perfectly supports the narrative and gameplay, but is not particularly memorable, Personally, I absolutely adored the game's creative use of visual metaphor. Every single character has a distinctive attack pattern that perfectly compliments and harmonises with their persona such that even though they never given the opportunity to be fully fleshed out, you can still glean a lot about them from their gameplay alone. The dialogue is also written quite well, though like with the soundtrack, nothing in particular stands out above all else enough for me to keep thinking about it. Overall, a very solid game that is worth picking up and playing if you want to be a magical girl detective for an hour or three.

Warning - Light Spoilers The game has charming pixel art and fun gameplay. I don't think it's perfect, but it does everything mostly pretty great. The writing of the characters feels authentic to their personalities, and so do the bullet patterns and mechanics (I especially liked the twins' last attack where you had to go either left or right to cancel projectiles, and how Charlotte utilized them all for a sort of boss rush). The game is short, but that doesn't take away from the stuff it does well. The music is awesome and fits the mood (I liked how it would intensify after each phase, and certain alterations of it would play on Iris and Lily's sections and then merge together). There's also a cat. If that doesn't sell it to you, I don't know what will