The Séance of Blake Manor

Loved this game so much. I didn't realize, when I was playing it, that you could have different outcomes. So after I played it the first time, I immediately played again to try and do better! Loved the soundtrack, the art style and the game play. I hope to have more games like this!

The Seance of Blake Manor is an investigation game where you look into the disappearance of the world's greatest rage baiter, who has pissed off seemingly all of Europe. Now to be clear, the story, art, music -- all of that is good. It creates a great atmosphere with some good intrigue and all that. My problems with this game are mainly about the gameplay and the investigation. The game regularly treated very obvious things as surprise reveals. For example, the fact that [spoiler] this one shaman lady who is vocally against the seance and is doing a ritual near the well [/spoiler] is, in fact, [spoiler] against the seance and is preparing a spell to protect against the seance for when it inevitably goes wrong. [/spoiler] Yeah? Doesn't seem like much of a secret, but I'll spoiler tag it anyways. See, investigation games often run into a very particular problem: When the player figures out something before the player's character does. Perhaps ironically, this doesn't always help guide the player in the right direction. It can lead the player to frustration as they try to find the correct trigger that gets the protagonist to realize something the player figured out hours ago. I ran into this problem quite a few times. One time in particular, I was very frustrated with trying to find the trigger to get the main character to realize that [spoiler] "Um, I was praying in my room alone" [/spoiler] is not a rock solid alibi, and should be something you press upon. There is no reason why I should not be able to knock on a door and get the room's occupant to come out and answer some questions for me. The most annoying thing about this game however, is how many loading screens there are. Every room gives you a new loading screen. And the amount of time you spend in loading screens adds up as you sprint around the manor looking for the one person you want to talk to. If you're into occult stories, give it a shot. But as an investigation game, I can't really say I recommend it, no.

A very substantial and fun mystery game. I loved the characters and thought the comic book-feel was super cool. I will admit that the time mechanic did stress me out a lot at the beginning, but there is ample time to solve every mystery and plenty of clues scattered about to keep each thread going. The game does a great job overall at weaving Irish folklore, Irish history, and the supernatural into the story as well [spoiler](though I would recommend paying close attention to the mythological elements presented for the ending to make sense)[/spoiler].

Very rare for me to 100% a game. This game is such a delight I even did the worst ending playthrough. Really hoping for a sequel or atleast a new game made in this style. Great characters, and story. Some minor nitpicks are there are a few moments where you've clearly solved a mystery, but need one specific piece of evidence to officially clear it. A clue or something in those instances would be nice. Maybe a fast travel once you've been to a location would be nice too.

I personally have never played any game like this and will definitely be seeking others like it in the future, currently trying zero parades for dead spies and the golden idle game. If you enjoy deep engaging mysteries that keep you guessing till the very end this is for sure something you don't want to skip out on. It has a deeply developed and unique cast of about 25 characters if you include the player character as well. As you flesh out each of their mysteries and reasons for attending the seance you begin to slowly piece together the story like a dark and much more extensive game of clue. The ending was great, if you think it looks interesting go for it you wont regret it.

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Disappointed. The atmosphere is fantastic. The manor, the gardens, the dark tone, and the mystery surrounding the disappearances create a very compelling setting from the start. The problem is that the gameplay consists almost entirely of talking to characters and gathering clues to form hypotheses. Since every action consumes limited time and much of the information feels like filler, the investigation often ends up feeling random: you rarely know what will matter and what won't until you've already spent your time on it. There are also very few actual puzzles. Aside from a handful of simple ones, most of the game revolves around conversations. This is especially disappointing because the environments are large, detailed, and visually interesting, yet they are barely used for gameplay. Instead of environmental puzzles or meaningful interactions, exploration usually amounts to clicking on furniture, books, clothes, and other objects that consume time but rarely lead anywhere. The manor itself feels like a missed opportunity. The clue-tracking and document systems are good ideas, but I encountered several issues, including important clues and documents not always being recorded properly. Overall, a decent game with an excellent atmosphere and a promising premise, but a frustrating investigation system, very few puzzles, and an execution that never quite lives up to its potential.

Wow, such a disappointment. There's absolutely no difficulty here whatsoever. The time mechanic is only difficult during the tutorial. The rest of the game? It doesn't matter. There are way more units of time than things to investigate during the game. I had pretty much solved the mystery day one but due to certain mysteries being time gated I had to wait. Ispent most of my time at the hour glass waiting. The suspects? 90% of them are irrevelant. You basically solve their problem and then never speak to them again. It is extremely obvious who the culprit and key people are mere hours into the game. The whole game is just solving the guests own mysteries and making sure they don't go to seance. These guests are also not written that well and for the most part, extremely boring. This gets old extremely fast and you have to do it 10+ times. There are no branching paths and everything is extremely linear. I don't even know how you can get the bad ending without deliberately trying to. The game is so easy it feels like a joke. I do not understand how this is overwhelmingly positive on here since it is SOOO surface level. If you're looking for a game like the Golden Idol series (like me) avoid at all costs. You will be severely disappointed.

太牛逼了，神作，美术风格和恐怖氛围很喜欢，大半夜突然一个鬼魂冒出来吓我一跳，限制时间探案挺有趣，推理很简单，找人物之间的关系背景很有意思

nice puzzle game , mostly easy but has its difficult moments from time to time, horror aspect is very well designed.