The Mermaid Mask

10/10 I have been playing the Detective Grimoire games since the beginning. When I found Tangle Tower a few years ago, it was like finding a twenty dollar bill in the pocket of an old coat, and I was cautiously ecstatic. I thought it couldn't be as funny and charming as it had been before, but it blew me away. The Mermaid's Mask is no different. Grimoire and Sally seem to have grown a little from the last game. They seem closer to each other in a way, and I'm glad to see the progression of their friendship and how it adds to the game. The only thing that was a downer for me was that I didn't really connect with any of the suspects at first, as I did with the Fellows and Pointers or even Harper and Folder. But after playing for a while, I did really begin to like and enjoy the conversations with them. Symmetry and Tadpole especially. I know how long you've been working on this game, and all I can say is please make another. The world you've created, the creatures in it, and the family secrets we're slowly uncovering make it such a pleasure to play. Cheers to you, and enjoy the much deserved praise from us all.

TRUST ME YOU JUST NEED TO PLAY IT!!! The story was beautiful and thrilling! The animation and art were divine! The puzzles were challenging but weren’t too difficult to make you ragequit or look up a guide. The voice acting! The clues! The writing! Did I say the art already? I’m obsessed with this series and this makes a fantastic 3rd installment! Anxiously awaiting the 4th!

I simply cannot believe they've done it again

[h1] The Mermaid Mask delivers a fantastic point and click mystery adventure with gorgeous art and a healthy does of humor and the supernatural [/h1] I'm happy to say that The Mermaid Mask excels as the newest entry to the Detective Grimoire series. It has all the things that made the previous games good: gorgeous art and use of color, great music and sound design, very fun and creative character designs, witty dialogue, quality voice acting, fun puzzles, and of course a healthy portion of the absurd and the occult. I was actually a bit surprised at how much i enjoyed the story. I liked how all the characters and plotlines really fit together. The supernatural element is a lot more prominent this time as well and is a lot more important to the plot. I was also really impressed by the evidence. Evidence gathering is already usually like 80% of your playtime in these games, so I'm very glad to see SFB Games putting more work in to elevate this part. The biggest upgrade from the previous games is that every piece of evidence you pick up is a 3d object that you can pick up and rotate, and in some cases fully interact with. This really added an extra layer of depth and immersion to the investigation. And the texture work on these are really well done, fitting in perfectly with the art style of the environments and making it feel right at home. The third thing that really impressed me was that if you present a piece of evidence to any character, you will almost always get a unique piece of dialogue. I'm not saying that every mystery game should do this. We all understand that sometimes a character just can't have anything meaningful to say about a piece of evidence. But in The Mermaid Mask, even if that is the case, the character will still say [i]something[/i] about it. And this will usually either show some part of their own personality, either through an observation or a joke, or they will say something about the person that is connected to the item, hinting something about that other person's personality and motivations. On the other hand, I was also very impressed when several times, a character would point out something on the piece of evidence that I had personally failed to notice myself while examining it. Overall, I can absolutely recommend The Mermaid Mask to people who love point and clicks, mystery games, and just generally gorgeous hand drawn art. As of writing this, the demo is also still up. Give it a try! If the art and humor have you interested, I am sure you won't be disappointed.

Loved this. Just the right amount of mystery to story to puzzle to keep you captivated, as is typical of the Grimoire series.

It's a quality game. The character designs, environments, character animations, dialogue, music, and voice acting are all really high quality and very professional. The interactions between characters and their respective quirks are fun. Most of the game is not too much work. You collect clues, and engage in dialogue with suspects. The only part that's somewhat difficult are the puzzles that are scattered throughout the game. They are not point and click puzzles, but rather discrete puzzles that are "pace-breakers" from the main flow of going around and gathering clues. The puzzles are well done and satisfying to solve. The only one I did not like was the puzzle in Mariana Moon's room as it was a bit too obtuse for me. The story in this game is solid, but not amazing, and its not incredibly "juicy," but it is more than serviceable and it's well thought out. It is fun to see how different clues relate to each other, or to be able to catch threads between clues and dialogue as a player. This isn't a game that completely rocked my world, but it was fun enough to play entirely through, and there really wasn't anything about the game i didn't like aside from one puzzle. My favorite part of the game is the music that plays while solving puzzles.

Gah how quick I wishlisted this game and I finally got through the game! Please let there be a new case I love Detective Grimoire!!!! The Mermaid Mask is what you'd want in a detective game - an intriguing set up, endearing characters, a super dense and fascinating mystery to untangle - and everything is done so much better than the previous game!