The Incident at Galley House

fun premise and mechanics. Loved the mystery and the voice acting. highly recommend

TL;DR - It's a really good mystery/detective game, buy it! Mechanically, the game is about discovering scenes by working out when and where they happened and who was present. It reminds me a lot of TR-49 (another excellent game), where you unlock books by figuring out who wrote them and when they were written. So far though, I prefer the setting and story of Galley House, and the mechanics are a bit more complex too (in a good way). The game also has a lot of really useful quality of life features. There's a notebook you can type in, you can save or highlight dialogue you think is important, and you can easily search through all the dialogue you've discovered. The last one is an incredible feature that I wish all similar games had. It sucks when you remember someone mentioned a violin three hours ago and then have to spend ages hunting through conversations trying to find it again. In general, the game is really good at showing you the information you want, where you need it. This means the challenge comes from actually working things out rather than fighting the UI or trying to remember where you saw a particular clue. Unfortunately, it lacks the exploration aspect of something like Return of the Obra Dinn, although I still don't think we've really seen a true successor to Obra Dinn. Nonetheless, it's an excellent detective game, easily up there with Golden Idol, Roottrees (from the same publisher), etc. If you like deduction games, I strongly recommend it, even at full price. I paid the full price myself, and am very happy with the purchase.

面白かった。 ヒントを使わず９時間くらいでコンプ。 詰まったのはごく最初くらいで、その後は比較的サクサクと進んだ。 [spoiler]呪い？にかかるのは直前に死んだ人のことを思い出した一人だけ[/spoiler]ということに気づいたのがクリア後だったので、[spoiler]「この終わり方で防げるの？」「どこかに知らない呪い保持者がいたりしないの？」「主人公が同僚のことを思い出したら終わりじゃないの？」[/spoiler]と思ったが大丈夫だった。なるほどね。 「Golden Idol」みたいに、根源が語られる別作品とかあっても面白いというか、知りたい気持ちになった。無くても納得は出来るけど。 最初のシーンの招待状に関する会話で、超常的な話と予測してすんなり読めたが、そこに気づかずに現実的なミステリー、探偵ものとして読み始めると肩透かしを食らうかもしれない。 「知らない人からもらった謎の招待状に、なぜだか応じて来てしまった」からはじまる事件。ここは押さえておいた方がいいと思う。 いや、そもそも謎の過去再生心霊装置で捜査してるわけだけど。それは例外としてミステリの文脈で読んじゃう人の気持ちもわからなくはない。

After finishing the game, I can confidently call it a masterpiece of the genre--far and away one of my favorites. Tones of Obra Dinn, Unheard, Utter a Name, TR-49, and of course The Roottrees are dead. The voice acting is immersive and high-quality, the art is consistent and charming, and most importantly, the mystery tickles the brain just right. It's well-paced, difficult without feeling unfair, and thought-provoking. Above all else, it's a game that respects your intelligence and doesn't hold up progress for getting little things wrong (other games will stall you for "oops, you forgot to click on this little thing" or "can't unlock the next chapter until you speak to so-and-so about such-and-such!", but that never happened in Galley House) I will be missing this game for a long time and looking very much forward to the next Evil Trout game.

10/10

I can't believe how such a simple concept could be so much fun. It's a cold case. You must pick a time, a place and who was there. If you pick correctly, you get to watch an event. Every event gives you clues to find other events and unravel the mystery.

Such a unique way to tell a story. Incredible and bittersweet