Samantha Lienhard's Blog, page 7

Celebrating All Things Mysterious: Touch Detective 2 1/2

As I mentioned when we discussed Touch Detective earlier this month, the Switch collection Touch Detective 3 + The Complete Case Files contains all three Touch Detective games and their bonus content.

So for our next mystery game this May, I moved on to the second game, Touch Detective 2 1/2.

Like the first game, Touch Detective 2 1/2 was originally released for the Nintendo DS and is built around the touchscreen, with an alternate control scheme using a cursor to simulate tapping the environment. It’s pretty much identical in structure to the first game, so check out my review of Touch Detective if you haven’t.

While the first game only had four cases, the second game has five… but although it’s a longer game, the pacing is faster. There isn’t quite as much back-and-forth, and objectives feel a bit more intuitive. As a result, I didn’t end this one feeling tired of the formula like I did after the first game.

It also adds a bit more of an overarching storyline, with a mysterious thief known as the Cornstalker who appears as an antagonist throughout the game.

The character interactions are as funny and enjoyable as in the first game, and while I thought the introduction of a new rival for Mackenzie in the form of Inspector Daria overshadowed Chloe’s role a little, they were both still entertaining enough that I didn’t mind.

One odd thing is that there are a few hints about the Cornstalker’s identity that are never resolved… but maybe they wanted to keep it open for speculation (or maybe the third game will touch on it).

Now, I was tempted to say this game isn’t quite as weird as the first one, but then I thought about the cases and realized I just got used to it instead. Or maybe playing D4 warped my perception of “weird.”

I had fun playing Touch Detective 2 1/2, so I’m even happier now that I decided to pick up Touch Detective 3 + The Complete Case Files. Will we get to the third game this May? Stay tuned!

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Celebrating All Things Mysterious – D4: Dark Dreams Don’t Die

Today we’re going to talk about D4: Dark Dreams Don’t Die. It’s hard to know where to even begin.

Its full title is technically D4: Dark Dreams Don’t Die – Season One. There will never be a Season Two.

D4 was directed and written by Hidetaka Suehiro, or Swery65, the man behind games like Deadly Premonition. It was developed by Access Games and published by Microsoft for Xbox One and PC. Season One contains the prologue and first two episodes, and Season Two was meant to continue it. But when Swery65 left Access Games, any chance of seeing Season Two vanished.

What’s left is a partial murder mystery with no solid answers and a cliffhanger ending, but while that means it doesn’t provide a lot of satisfaction plot-wise, it’s still worth playing for how utterly weird it is.

You play David Young, a detective whose wife was murdered under mysterious circumstances, leaving him with only her final words, “Look for D.” He can’t remember anything else that happened that night, but he gained the ability to travel back in time using certain key objects called mementos. By doing so, he hopes to learn the identity of “D” and possibly even undo his wife’s death.

The controls are very strange, most likely because it was designed for Kinect controls. You click certain areas to walk and click things in the environment to investigate them, but many actions are handled through motion – click a door and then swipe the cursor to the side to open it, grab a cup and swipe up to drink, click key spots during a fight to avoid taking damage, etc.

Everything you do costs stamina, which you can restore by eating food. Food you’ve eaten is recorded like a collectible, along with all the documents you can read and other interactions. If you really want every piece of lore and story, you’ll spend a lot of time in David’s house opening drawers, checking out books, and stumbling across memories of his wife, which gives it an almost slice-of-life feel when you aren’t back in time gathering clues. There are even small “side cases” that range from having dinner to taking a quiz on airplanes.

None of this is why I called it weird, by the way.

D4’s weirdness is hard to explain. If you’ve played Deadly Premonition, you probably have an idea of how weird it could be, but magnify that even further. Every second of D4 feels like insanity. It really is impossible to describe in words.

Fortunately, I’ve found some videos online.

I think that says it all.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time with D4: Dark Dreams Don’t Die – Season One, a surreal adventure game experience where anything could happen and be treated as normal and you never quite know what to expect.

While I’ve highlighted the weirder aspects here, I should also mention that the overarching mystery was pretty intriguing and I’d love to know what it was building up to. It’s a shame we’ll likely never get to see Season Two, but at least Season One still exists as a curious relic of what could have been.

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Celebrating All Things Mysterious – Fonzi Fuddy: Ace Defective

Our next mystery game is a short, free PC game called Fonzi Fuddy: Ace Defective.

You play “a,” a detective intern whose first day on the job is marred when she accidentally stabs someone to death. Oops.

Now it’s time to investigate the case alongside your detective partner, Fonzi Fuddy, with the help of the Backwards Corruption Jump device.

This device lets you force a suspect to tell the truth when you find a contradiction. If someone makes a statement that contradicts the evidence, you present the evidence to them. Then you have to fight them in a simple RPG battle. Once you defeat them, time rewinds and they replace their lie with the truth.

On the other hand, if you have evidence that appears to incriminate someone else, you can always make an accusation and get them accused of the crime instead…

There are early endings if you choose to accuse someone, as well as one full ending if you pursue the truth all the way to the end to untangle the full mystery of what happened.

It’s cute and silly, and it’s full of charm. The gameplay is pretty simple, including the combat system, and it takes less than an hour to beat. It looks like it was made for a game jam originally, with a complete version that came out later.

It also ends on a note that suggests there could be a sequel, and I’d love to see a full game in this style. Fonzi Fuddy: Ace Defective is a short game, but it’s worth taking a look at.

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Celebrating All Things Mysterious: Tokyo Psychodemic

Tokyo Psychodemic caught my eye when it was first announced, and I ordered a physical Japanese copy for the Switch that came with a promise English would eventually be patched in.

That happened in November, so it joined my lineup of mystery games to review this May.

Although I played the Switch version, Tokyo Psychodemic is available on Steam and PlayStation as well. It’s an adventure game that uses both a 2D visual novel presentation and live action videos as you try to solve its cases.

Set in the aftermath of a viral epidemic that led to a lockdown, it follows two detectives trying to solve strange cases while searching for clues about a cult of psychics.

Tokyo Psychodemic begins with a message to the player that all of its cases can be solved with real-world science, which holds true for most of the game until the main plot actually comes into focus near the end, because the main plot is legitimately about people who developed psychic powers due to a cult’s unethical experiments. I’m not sure why they included the disclaimer, unless it’s meant to make sure players know they should be looking for realistic explanations for the cases.

This is a game that at once feels complicated and yet simple. You have a bunch of tools at your disposal – an image analysis machine that lets you compare videos and images, an audio analysis machine, documents to examine and find key words, and a computer where you can contact members of your secret network to ask for information and new data – and it can seem overwhelming. At the same time, it’s often a very guided experience that tells you exactly what you should analyze and what tools to use, with only a handful of times when you’re left on your own to figure out where to look for the information you need.

The result is a combination that might turn some players away, but I enjoyed it. It feels like you’re actually putting in real detective work to solve the case, without being so obtuse that it’s frustrating. For example, in one case you need to watch security camera footage (which is live action), scan the faces of passersby to see if they match the victim, and send that information to your contact to track the victim’s path across the city.

(Although there is one point where you need to figure out a password by recognizing a Japanese melody… if there’s a way to identify the melody in the game, I missed it.)

Most of your time will be spent on this sort of analysis, moving from one screen to another and searching for clues. When you aren’t locked in to a particular activity, you can move around the tiny area that serves as your base to feed your cat or go outside. Going outside at these points gives you a series of optional visual novel scenes that help to flesh out the characters and their relationships a bit.

Unfortunately, it’s not quite enough. The visual novel scenes are nice, but there weren’t enough of them for me to get attached to the characters or especially invested in the plot. The player character might as well not even exist; Tomona (the girl in the cover art pictured above) feels more like the protagonist in most scenes. And until near the end, the main story takes a backseat to the mystery solving.

But solving the cases is interesting, and I enjoyed its approach to analyzing evidence for clues. Tokyo Psychodemic ends on a sequel hook, and although it wasn’t an amazing storytelling experience, I’d be interested in trying the sequel if and when it’s made.

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Celebrating All Things Mysterious: Alternate Jake Hunter: Daedalus – The Awakening of Golden Jazz

We’ve talked about the Jake Hunter series twice now, first with Memories of the Past on the DS and then Ghost of the Dusk on the 3DS.

Despite the next console game, Prism of Eyes, getting rated under its English title , we have yet to see localization of that one.

But the one after that did get translated, so today we’ll be talking about Alternate Jake Hunter: Daedalus – The Awakening of Golden Jazz.

(I played the Switch version, but it’s also available on Steam and PS4.)

Unlike the previous Jake Hunter games we’ve discussed, which contained multiple cases, this one contains a single story. It’s a prequel to the rest of the series and follows a young Saburo Jinguji as he travels to New York to investigate his grandfather’s murder and the significance of his final investigation into something called “Daedalus.”

Yes, I said Saburo Jinguji.

You might recall that Memories of the Past changed its setting to America for the localization and gave the characters American names, with the main character Saburo Jinguji becoming Jake Hunter. Ghost of the Dusk then changed the setting to a vague fictional country so Jake could investigate in definitely-not-Japan but also talk about how he once visited America. Well, for this game they dropped that stuff entirely, and now we’re following Saburo as he leaves Japan for the aforementioned visit.

I actually like this decision, but it does make the lack of localization consistency for the series even funnier. I was near the end of the game before I realized Yoko was the character the previous localizations called Yulia and I was seeing how they first met.

(It also makes the game’s English title downright hilarious. “Alternate Jake Hunter” incorporates the English title for the series, but to someone unfamiliar with how the previous games were localized, it must seem completely random. Meanwhile, “Daedalus” is plot-relevant, but I have no idea what “The Awakening of Golden Jazz” is meant to signify.)

Okay, that’s enough rambling about translation and names. Let’s talk about the game itself.

Unlike the previous games, this one doesn’t have you select your actions from menus. Instead, you can freely rotate the camera to look around a 3D area and select an area to investigate, which then switches to 2D art of that area for you to examine in point & click format. While this can be a little annoying when there’s only one thing to investigate (ex. select the phone to switch to a 2D view of the phone and then select the phone again), I like the idea.

Your ability to look around freely persists even through dialogue, which is also interesting for a game that otherwise presents itself like a visual novel.

In addition to interacting with the environment, you can also interact with characters to ask them questions or see if they have any information to share. Instead of conversation topics being presented as a list, they’re not in a straight line, so sometimes it can take a few tries to select the one you want.

Daedalus is filled with oddities like that. Scenes often end with the narration stating that you went to a different location, followed by a fade-to-black, only for you to be in the same location and need to travel to the new one yourself. The fadeout might make sense if the character with you disappeared, but most of the time there’s no change.

Now, this one is far lighter on the point-and-click adventure elements than the previous games in the series. It is almost entirely a matter of inspecting the environment and talking to characters.

There are two exceptions. As you gather clues, they form a symbolic tree in your “mind orchard.” Once you’ve gathered all the clues for the mystery, you will then have to answer questions by choosing which clue provides the answer. A few other sections put you in situations where you’re given multiple options and have to pick the correct one to survive. During conversations, there are also times when you can pick a “stance,” which basically just means a dialogue option.

Certain options throughout the game are flags for getting the true ending. The good news is that once you’ve finished the game, you can replay specific chapters and the chapter select screen shows which flags you’ve obtained. The bad news is that there are no manual saves and chapter select puts you at the start of the chapter, so if you missed a flag near the chapter’s end, you’ll need to replay the entire chapter to get it.

The story itself is… fine. Occasionally the dialogue feels like it doesn’t quite follow logically, or it will act as though you don’t have information you learned in a previous scene, but it’s not a major problem. There are some interesting parts to the mystery, although it struggles a little in its presentation. An early chapter has you play through a flashback from when Saburo was a child and met his three American friends. I expected a past storyline to develop alongside the present case, but not only did that not happen, the friends don’t play a large role in the story beyond occasionally driving Saburo from place to place.

Click for major Daedalus spoilersYes, Leo actually is important to the story, but that would have had so much impact if the three friends weren’t such background characters the entire time.

Overall, I think making the story a little longer to flesh out some of the plot details and character relationships more would have worked to its advantage.

So, how was Daedalus – The Awakening of Golden Jazz? It was fine. Nothing brilliant, but nothing terrible. I like its presentation, and I wouldn’t mind seeing another Jake Hunter game done in this style again, preferably with its rougher edges smoothed out.

And I’m still waiting for Prism of Eyes.

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Celebrating All Things Mysterious: Duck Detective – The Secret Salami

For our latest mystery game, we’re going to jump back in time to a game I played a little over a year ago – Duck Detective: The Secret Salami.

You can read my full review over at MonsterVine, but the long and short of it is that you play a divorced, bread-addicted duck investigating a case in a game that’s as wacky as it sounds.

You search each environment, investigate for clues, and question characters about information you’ve found in order to make “deducktions.”

Yes, I loved “deducktions” when I wrote that review, and I still do. Deducktions. Deducktions.

(Can we get a Great Ace Attorney crossover and do a Dance of Deducktion?)

It’s a silly, humorous game with a mystery that’s a bit more serious than you might expect, and it only takes a few hours to beat. In my original review, I said I wished it was the start of a longer story, and since there’s now a sequel coming out soon, maybe I’ll get my wish after all.

…Deducktions.

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Celebrating All Things Mysterious: Touch Detective

I never played the Touch Detective games when they originally came out, but with the release of the collection for the Switch, I decided to give them a try.

Touch Detective 3 + The Complete Case Files does not exactly make it obvious through its title, but it’s a collection that contains all three Touch Detective games as well as bonus content.

(It’s only the English title, so I assume the reason is because Touch Detective 3 hadn’t been localized before and they wanted to emphasize its inclusion. Still a confusing name for a collection.)

The first Touch Detective puts you in the shoes of a young detective named Mackenzie who needs to prove herself as a detective by solving four cases (accompanied by her mushroom companion Funghi). It makes use of the touchscreen controls for movement and interactions, although you can use the buttons and joystick instead. This mostly works, although moving sometimes felt a little awkward.

Mackenzie also keeps a “touch list” of what touching different things feels like, so it encourages tapping everything on the screen to find interactions. I found a little over half of these by playing naturally.

It’s an adventure game, so gameplay mostly revolves around talking to characters for information, finding items, and using those items in the correct way to make progress. Although it’s decently straightforward, the back-and-forth between different characters and areas got tedious at times.

(After the main cases, you unlock short bonus interactions, and there’s also a separate side scenario starring Funghi, but I only did some of the bonus content since I found the formula a little tiring by the end.)

Now, Touch Detective has a pretty unique tone. It’s funny, and it’s also weird. When the first case began with Mackenzie’s ditzy friend claiming someone was stealing her dreams, I thought it would be one of those stories where it turned out to be a misunderstanding, but soon it was a legitimate investigation into a dream thief. It’s that sort of game.

It also has a pseudo-spooky vibe I did not expect, even though it’s fairly lighthearted.

But the character interactions in Touch Detective are what stood out to me the most. It doesn’t matter how silly or weird a case might be, because if Mackenzie’s rival shows up to make some absurd proclamation and then run off without waiting for details, while their friend is off in her own little world like usual and all the other characters are being oddballs in their own way, it’s all worth it no matter what the case is about.

I’ve only played the first game in the Touch Detective collection so far, but I do want to try the others. While I wouldn’t say the mysteries themselves are especially compelling, the characters and charm made up for it.

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Celebrating All Things Mysterious: Despera Drops

“Is Despera Drops a mystery game?” is a question I asked myself as we got closer and closer to May.

It’s probably stretching the definition a bit, but it’s a crime story and it begins with murder, so I say it counts.

Despera Drops is an otome visual novel about a young woman named Mika who finds herself falsely accused of murder and chained to six actual criminals in a prison van. When the van overturns, the seven of them go on the run together.

Now, learning who actually committed the murder isn’t a goal here; Mika knows who the true murderer is. But the people who framed her gathered these seven together as part of an unknown plot, and figuring out what they’re up against and what their enemies want becomes the heart of the main story.

The cast of characters is great, and their interactions are the best reasons to play this game. My favorite is Ash, quiet and distant and convicted for assault, but they’re all great characters in their own way.

They have an excellent group dynamic, and it’s fun to see these strangers gradually come to view one another as a team. Mika coming to terms with working alongside actual criminals and committing crimes while on the run is a big part of it, as well.

A lengthy common route serves to build up that team feeling, and there are some fun details like the glossary/encyclopedia having the characters give their own thoughts on the term or topic rather than just a definition.

To contribute to the crime/heist atmosphere, there are a handful of missions where you need to watch security camera feeds and make choices to get through successfully. This is interesting because you actually need to pay attention to what the camera feeds show and make decisions accordingly. On subsequent playthroughs after you’ve finished the common route once, you can skip this part, so that’s a nice feature.

Outside of missions, your choices on the common route determine whose route you end up on. While the routes are short compared to the length of the common route, they spend enough time on the relationship to make the romance and character arcs feel believable. Even for the characters I didn’t prefer as love interests, I still enjoyed their routes.

The same can’t be said for the main plot. In every route, the main plot elements felt like they got resolved a little too quickly, and it’s not much better on the true route. Parts of the main plot have probably already vanished from my memory because it’s just… not that great.

Here’s how I view it. The plot of Despera Drops is an excuse to bring this group of characters together. It forces them to interact, get to know each other, and forge lasting bonds. The sinister organization controlling events from the shadows might not be as compelling a villain group as it should be, but it sets up the catalysts for each character to go through an interesting arc in his own route and lets the romance flourish.

In short, I wouldn’t recommend Despera Drops for its main plot, but if you’re looking for great characters with solid arcs and fun interactions, enjoyable romance routes, and a crime story that has both heists and humor, then it’s one you should look into after all.

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Celebrating All Things Mysterious 2025 is Here!

It’s May already? Part of me is still convinced it’s March, but the calendar has moved on regardless of how I feel.

So that means it’s time to celebrate mystery games all month long in this year’s Celebrating All Things Mysterious!

And by “all things,” I mean it’ll be games 99% of the time.

I’m still drowning in my backlog, but I’ve decided to return to multiple reviews per week this May anyway. Of course, a regular post could always be superseded by exciting enough news (this would be a great time for an Ace Attorney announcement, just saying).

As always, Celebrating All Things Mysterious 2025 will include a contest that you can participate in just by leaving comments on relevant posts!

ContestRules:No purchase is necessary.Only comments made between May 2, 2025 at 2:00 PM EDT and May 31, 2025 at 11:59 PM EDT will be counted.Each non-spam, non-anonymous comment on any Celebrating All Things Mysterious blog post earns you 1 point. Replies to other people’s comments, as well as comments on past years’ Celebrating All Things Mysterious posts, are also eligible.You must use an email address or website URL (or include another way of contacting you) in your comment so I can contact you if you win.The top 3 point earners will win prizes.The person with the most points will get their first pick of the prizes. The person with the second most points will pick second, and the person with the third most points will pick third.In the event of a tie, tied winners will be contacted at the same time. A tie for third place will allow for more than 3 winners. If tied winners choose the same prize, duplicate prizes will be possible.The winner will be contacted by June 2, 2025.Prizes:Domino Lady Volume 3 (ebook)Domino Lady Volume 4 (ebook)Phoenix Wright Trilogy (gift sent through Steam)The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles (gift sent through Steam)Apollo Justice Trilogy (gift sent through Steam)Ace Attorney Investigations Collection (gift sent through Steam)AI: The Somnium Files (gift sent through Steam)Judgment (gift sent through Steam)Lost Judgment (gift sent through Steam)$15 sent through PayPalYou pick a game for me to review!

If you choose the review option, your chosen game must be something I either own or is easily obtainable, which you can discuss with me beforehand. It must be a single game, not a collection (although the chosen game can be part of a collection). I will start playing it in June.

Promotion

In the meantime, consider checking out my Domino Lady stories (unless you’re hoping to win one as a prize). Both of these pulp fiction stories feature the masked vigilante on new adventures. In “The Domino Lady Takes the Case,” she takes on a suspicious murder case when the official investigation appears to be a cover-up. You can find it in Domino Lady Volume 3.

And in Domino Lady Volume 4, you’ll find my story “The Domino Lady Deceived,” in which she pulls off a daring heist only to discover that a mysterious rival got there first!

Conclusion

All right, look forward to a month full of mystery! Are there any mystery games (or other stories) you’re especially interested in these days?

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Let’s Talk About FuRyu’s Recently-Announced RPG Varlet

Last week, publisher FuRyu announced an upcoming new school life RPG called Varlet.

It’s being developed by Aquria and Team Noir, and it’s due out on August 28 worldwide for Switch, PS5, and PC.

The story follows a new student at Kousei Academy, who learns that the school overlaps with another world and some students have been replaced by monsters. It features both school life systems where you’ll take on requests and spend time with friends, and a combat system where you can use either “leader” style to grant buffs to allies or “ruler” style to crush enemies.

According to the website, there are also six social stats that change based on your choices and open up different options to you.

They recently shared the opening movie, as well.

Varlet sounds pretty interesting and looks like the sort of RPG I’ll want to keep my eye on. I’ve heard mixed things about Team Noir’s previous RPG, Monark, however, so I’ll probably wait to see what Varlet’s reception is like first.

(It’s not as if I’m lacking games in my backlog, after all.)

What do you think of Varlet?

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