The Case of the Serialized Killer

Overall a bit boring, so many conversations just to set the story, but the game let's out 3 or 4 words at the time. This approach force you to click 3 times on average (meaning there's more) to fully read one single sentence, I didn't find it very engaging, fell asleep on the couch between clicks to be honest. Not really a point and click investigation game, you don't collect clues, you don't combine anything either. There are a couple of scenes where the player must click on various areas to read some more text (more clicks) to analyse the scene and understand clues to interpret later. Characters are somewhat confusing, some interactions come out as bit cringy and definitely not relevant to this story. I found it disappointing, hoped for some more investigation and less forced irrelevant details. Would have been fun if there was a reason for all that, but simply there wasn't.

As a murder mystery, it’s a bit meh, but I still enjoyed the distinctive characters and their quarrels.

Акварель смотрится очень необычно и красиво, и персонажи прикольные, и фоны. Очень интересная вселенная, о которой хотелось бы знать больше. Удивлена, что о ней никто не говорит, потому что эта хоть и небольшая игра стоит внимания... Русского языка на стиме нет, но в новелле нет выборов на время, так что с переводом не возникло проблем

A fun and engaging, well-written detective story with gorgeous watercolour art. This one was a real pleasure to play! Appreciated the LGBTQ representation too :)

A short but sweet supernatural murder mystery with a lot of drama and worldbuilding crammed into its runtime. Plenty of humour and heavily nudge-nudged gay romance. The protagonists are visually rather ripped off of Good Omens, but their characters and psychology are individual; the expressive and otherwise quite original sprites add to the remarkably unsettling atmosphere.

Визуальная новелла в жанре детектива с элементами фэнтези и тёмного юмора. Игрок берёт на себя роль опального демонолога Гарольда Лудикаэля, которому поручено расследовать убийство известного иллюстратора. Чтобы восстановить репутацию, герой должен раскрыть преступление — несмотря на то, что даже вызвать призрак жертвы ему не по силам. Плюсы: Атмосферная ручная рисовка — акварельные иллюстрации персонажей и локаций создают запоминающийся визуальный стиль и усиливают погружение в мир. Несколько концовок — выбор подозреваемого и решения в ходе расследования влияют на финал, что мотивирует к повторному прохождению. Необычный сеттинг — сочетание классического детектива с фэнтези‑элементами (демоны, магия) придаёт истории оригинальность и выделяет игру на фоне других новелл. Минусы: Короткий основной сюжет — прохождение занимает около 3 часов, из‑за чего история может показаться слишком сжатой. Ограниченная интерактивность — большая часть геймплея сводится к чтению и выбору вариантов, без сложных головоломок или мини‑игр. Специфичный юмор — тёмные и ироничные шутки могут понравиться не всем, особенно тем, кто ищет серьёзный детективный нарратив. Итог: подойдёт поклонникам визуальных новелл, детективов с необычными сеттингами и тёмной эстетикой. The Case of the Serialized Killer увлечёт атмосферой, акварельной графикой и вариативностью концовок, но может разочаровать короткой историей и акцентом на текст вместо интерактивных механик.

I have a bit of mixed feelings about this game. While I don't want to be heavily critical of what seems to be a first project, and especially a free one at that, I did find myself disliking it quite a lot. The soundtrack is absolutely formidable and I like the artstyle as well but everything else feels a bit dull and unpolished. For such a short game, it took me quite a bit of time and a hefty dose of motivation to finish it. I would expect a murder mystery (and especially a visual novel!) to be much more exciting and intriguing but it was, for lack of a less blunt word, quite boring. The pacing is a bit off, with a huge chunk just being the introduction and the setup - and when you FINALLY get in the grip of it, it ends in an instant. I'm also not sure if I like the endings because they felt quite rushed compared to the rest of the story. I also think there should have been more story between the setting up of the scene and the ending - I got the true ending right the first time, but it felt too much like guessing the vibes instead of piecing all the clues together. The payoff isn't very rewarding and it feels very monotone - I didn't reach the ending feeling good that I solved it, but more like "oh, that's it". The writing is, at times, amateurish, if not eye-roll worthy. I will admit that the humour is not my cup of tea whatsoever, which hindered my enjoyment of the game. The characters, however, were interesting, and while I think that the overall humour of the story worked against it and its characters, there was still bits of lore that made me curious to find out more. It's not a bad game, per se, especially considering it's free. I give kudos to the effort put into this! But I do think that there's a lot of improvements to be made here. I am still going to play the prequel that was released after this one (also free!) and see if there were any improvements.