The Mermaid Mask

Good game. Great Story. I was hooked ( oh, hey: an accidental nautical pun! ) for, what Steam recorded to be, roughly 15 hours of playtime. Not counting, one daily-life-enforced break between chapters 2 and 3: The near-sleepless night and following workday, which were both intermixed with pondering mysteries and yearning to continue play. I love each and every character. Their design, their personalities, their relationships. Even those I expected to have annoying quirks, because... well the quirks turned out not to be annoying. And again the story had me guessing back and forth of whodunit? No obvious bad guy/girl... even when thinking about each characters tropes. The "minigame" puzzle design is creative, self-explanatory and at the same time tricky. Just the right amount. The "clue presentation" puzzles had me stumped from time to time. Which I consider a good thing, as I had not noticed some details. I guess, I was playing too hastily. I recommend taking pen and paper notes. Small reminders on which clues are connected and what is left open to investigate. As for performance, there was some slowmotion with few 3D objects. And character portraits sometimes loading what I assume to be the default/idle position for a frame or two before playing the animation. Both of which I wasn't bothered by and chuck up to Steam's Proton having to translate Unity to linux running my ancient hardware. For reference, I played on the patch from Sun, July 19, 2026 @2:40 AM CEST. ... though should this be read by a developer: May I plead for a native linux platform release of this and/or future games? ... *cough* previous titles also *cough* ... Finally I am both happy and ashamed that I have forgotten most of the earlier two games stories in the Detective Grimoire series. Ashamed for forgetting at all; Happy, because I can reexperience them with a fresh mind, which this entry makes me want to do immediately. ( If it wasn't past midnight, I most likely would have instead of writing this. ) So, expect glowing reviews for those games soon. Ha, ha.

In a dev stream showing gameplay of the demo, one of the developers (Adam, I believe) referred to Mermaid Mask as something like "an artist['s] game", and I think that's the best summation there could be for it. The soundtrack, dramatic performances, script, visuals—there is SO much artistry and passion for the various crafts on display here. Not only are the smallest details paid attention to, but some actually matter in the story itself. The creators' enthusiasm for what they have created is so apparent that sometimes the characters themselves can't resist pointing out the apparent poetic meaning of an object or something of the kind. On the detailwork, something I appreciate about the Grimoire series (and SFB games in general) is that there are background elements that are totally optional to investigate, but unlike in many other detective game series, rather that solely dressing they often provide hints at other details of the world. A lot of the dialogue is very funny, sure, but it creates such a feeling of discovery to be able to sniff out a detail that solves or implies something about some trivial question on the side. It's also dearly appreciated that if you present a clue that's technically correct but jumping the gun a bit, rather than just marking it "wrong" the characters will assure you that it will be used in due time. It doesn't particularly matter in that there's no scoring, but it feels satisfying as a player to be recognized for having a solid thought process, even if you aren't saying exactly what the game wants you to. I'd have to marinate on whether I prefer this to Tangle Tower, but the mystery solving is FAR more engaging. There are more puzzles (yay!!!), more clues, and genuinely challenging lines of logic to follow, or at least they average much more challenging than Tangle Tower's. Every character's "suspicion" confrontation feels so much more involved, and pretty much every character makes a compelling suspect and has their own relevant baggage to bring to the table. Unusually for a detective game but true to form for Grimoire, some non-murder-case details are left unexplained, to varying degrees; sometimes it's pretty inferable, sometimes it's simply open. If you expect your mystery games to explain everything, this may be daunting for you (as it was for me initially). However, if you are an artist of any shape, sort, or form, HIGHLY recommend all the same. You just may find your perspective changed.

The Mermaid Mask is an absolutely fantastic game. If the demo or trailers are intriguing to you, do yourself the favor and pick up the full game. I loved playing the predecessor game Tangle Tower so much on Switch, I replayed it on Steam a while later. I did not expect The Mermaid Mask to be significantly different gameplay-wise, but I am happy to report that it is [i]even better.[/i] A few notes: - Incredible character animations, silly writing, and impeccable voice acting - Fun puzzles (some more engaging than others, but overall really enjoyable) - Compared to the 2D clues in Tangle Tower, clues are now 3D and contain more hidden info - Art Gallery with fun developer comments Small critique: It would be nice if this game had a chapter select or rewind type feature once the story is finished. Some achievements are missable once you start the final chapter, and it can take a bit of time replaying the game simply to choose a different dialogue option.

Estos juegos son buenísimos, recomiendo si te gustan los puzzles y buenas historias. Cada personaje es único y genial. Se nota que lo hicieron con mucho amor. <3

fun murder mystery

Great game, immersive atmosphere, phenomenal voice acting!