The Mermaid Mask

Shockingly, a good detective/mystery game is hard to pull off. I can only name a few games that are genuinely good mystery games. The Mermaid mask is now at the top of the list. The developers clearly learned from the shortcomings of their previous games (don't get me wrong, still great games!) and delivered a fabulously delicious experience. The characters, the art, the world...the mystery itself! A perfect length mystery game with fun puzzles and more than enough interrogation of lovable characters about many strange happenings aboard the submarine. AND a great ending to top it all off!!! I genuinely can't wait to see whatever is next for these developers as I'm now trying to fill the Mermaid Mask sized hole in my heart upon completing the game, and remembering...there is no other detective game like it! Sigh! (Guess I'll just have to play again...)

Look, if the (currently) "Overwhelmingly Positive" dosent sell the game to you, the previous entry in this non-indicated franchise (goes on sale for dirt cheap often) and the demo for this game will, happend to me. Charming characters, great banter, and so much voice acting. Its a great mystery, and investigating it just does something many other mystery games fail. Only have one grivence (which the game inherited from the previous games): when getting new info on a piece of evidence that certain suspects could provide more info on, yet both dectectives and suspect acts if the evidence is as it was before the new discovery.

Excellent storytelling, writing, character design, art and voice acting. Great humour and chill vibes. Overall a definite recommend. At the same time, in the unlikely event the devs are reading this, I would like to jot down some feedback. As a mystery/puzzle game, it is not very intellectually challenging. Or rather, it doesn't reward when you figure something out yourself before you're supposed to. You may only get to investigate stuff you've figured out from the get-go at a very late stage or need additional clues to be able to pursue an angle of investigation you've already realised you need to look into. This can sometimes lead to a feeling of "yes, we knew this" when there's a reveal. The big-picture mystery is well done and I didn't figure the overall solution out way ahead of time or anything, but it's frustrating when you have to stick to the Correct Sequence of Investigation™. At several points in the game, there's a minigame puzzle to open a container. Putting stuff into the right pattern, mazes, kinda stuff. Some of these ([spoiler]sailboats, pirate figures[/spoiler]) made no sense and were not fun to figure out. I do also play real puzzle games, but some of these felt off and were just something to get through. However, it's a minor part of the game and you can always google for hints and focus on the investigation.

9.8/10 I first started playing the grimoire detective games back in elementary school, of course I'm talking about the old flash game on y8. That first game made me fall in love with the murder mystery game genre but I never really found another game that really ignited the same passion I felt exploring that creepy amusement park. years passed by until I had found only recently that SFB games came out with Detective Grimoire: Secret of the Swamp, and I was hooked again! Their game development journey and the passion behind this series has been incredible not only to watch but to feel as I play this game. I can tell that every pixel of the final product was carefully crafted for the experience. The art style blends whimsy with the allure and fear of the unknown. Each progression in the story opened up new rabbit holes and questions to explore. Even now after finishing this game I'm still left with questions regarding the connections between these characters and the stories I experienced in the previous two games. All in all I throughly detected to my hearts content, and I'm almost upset I only paid twenty bucks for the experience. This could've easily been worth a 30-40 dollar price tag. Keep in mind after finishing this review I will be looking into more ways that I can support the developers and hopefully ensure they keep the ball rolling with another entry into the series. MY ONLY CRITICISIM: I'm impatient. This game relies on mechanics that are similar to the Phoenix wright series in which you have to answer the right questions in the right order to procede. I found this to be a little frustrating at times when I had already brought myself to certain conclusions based on the evidence at hand but had no way to present those conclusions or confront certain characters. The game does try to offset this by interrupting you once you've collected all the evidence necessary to confront someone, mentioning that you have certain "suspicions" about them. Still, it becomes frustrating when you don't get to accuse someone of shooting a gun at someone only because you haven't realized yet that you haven't actually found the bullet, only a smoking gun with their fingerprints. I had to use the in-game hint buttons quite often when I hadn't understood what I could possibly be missing. I would appreciate in the next game that instead of having so many ways to get hints about what to do next, simply allow the player to confront characters with their suspicions early only to fizzle out when we get to a point in the process that we can't yet explain. This would hopefully give us direction regarding what to investigate while also keeping the mystery and sense of exploration alive (but of course the in-game hints don't hurt too much either). Anyways, if you've read this far thank you. Now go buy this game! You won't regret it. I recommend snacks and planning out multiple sessions. If you have one, grab a friend to enjoy this with. Then sit down, relax, and click everything!

Great, point and click adventure!

Troisième volet de la série, le plus long et le plus fourni. Par apport au second jeu, celui-ci a beaucoup plus de clins d'oeil et de clés de compréhension du lore global que l'on a seulement en ayant fait tous les jeux. Notre duo de détective est toujours aussi amusant. Les personnages, dans la grande tradition de la série, sont extraordinairement intéressants dans leurs designs, personnalités, animations, voix/dialogues et histoires. L'intrigue était prenante, je me suis engloutie le jeu d'une seule traite alors qu'il est bien plus long que Tangle Tower. Quelques mécanismes sans/très peu d'explications où j'ai eu un peu de mal mais Sally et Grimoire finissent par donner quelques indices sur ce qu'il faut faire donc pas trop de frustration. Vivement le prochain ! Bravo aux équipes !

После запоминающейся первой части игры, я сразу побежала покупать эту и ни разу не пожалела. Интересная игра, которая не отпускает тебя до самого конца. Много разных сюжетных линий сплетаются вместе, создавая захватывающую историю. Было увлекательно находить новые улики, делать выводы и гадать, кто же это сделал. Где-то на середине я поняла, кто это, и оказалась права. Головоломки приятные, не сложные. Здесь, как по мне, важнее было раскрыть дело. Мне нравятся игры, где нужно ходить, опрашивать свидетелей и сопоставлять факты. Советую всем любителям детективов. С нетерпением жду третью часть)