misthold

Jenny LeClue, Detectivu (2019) is an adventure/mystery/puzzle game starring the titular character, a kid detective living in what only SEEMS to be a boring small town.

I picked this up for the Switch as a) I love mystery games, b) it has (excellent) full-cast voice acting, and c) it's kinda more on the visual novel end of things, such as having dialogue choices. And it's 80% off right now: score!

Immediately got sucked into the story, which is framed through the narrator/mystery writer whose book series which Jenny is a character in. He's forced to change up his regular book formula due to abysmal sales, including adding a murder and REAL mystery plot points. The whole game has his narration running throughout, and there's even some neat scenes where the book text hovers in the physical world as Jenny moves through it. It's very meta.

Jenny is dealing with a lot of personal stuff in this game, and her dialogue choices all involve either being kind, mean, friendly or distrustful. Normally I play as nice as possible, but tbh Jenny isn't a very nice person right now and so I thought it'd be more true to her character to be more stand-offish. That said, the major plot points seem to happen no matter what you do. Like, I refused the walkie-talkie but it shows up later anyway as it's a necessary plot point. Also stuff in your journal changes, such as a page with your personality type, but I don't know how that ties into the rest of the game. Reviews from other players say there IS no differences and it doesn't matter what you choose, so I guess it's not that important.

I'm planning on playing it again and trying the other dialogue option route, just to see. I also need to go back and find the rest of the stickers and postcard scraps. (I love it when games have little collecting side quest things.)

The puzzles are, for the most part, pretty easy to solve if you pay attention to your surroundings. I only used help guides twice, when I was nearing the ending and too impatient for the mystery to be solved to properly look around.

Honestly, I'd have liked to have seen slightly more difficult puzzles the further you went into the game. For instance, the "connect these wires to jump start this thing" puzzle appears three times, and it's all the same difficulty. Mostly puzzles become more difficult due to running back and forth between pieces, which takes forever because...

A couple niggles: the setting/tone screams kid-friendly game, but the dialogue is aimed more at teens/adults. There's also an extended section in a collapsed mine full of ghosts and skeletons that aren't exactly kid-friendly...

Walking is PAINFULLY slow, and running is just a slow gallop. It felt like moving through molasses. It took SO much longer to move through places than it needed to, especially considering there are several times you have to backtrack to get somewhere else.

And finally, the ending is a cliffhanger! It turns out this is an episodic game-- not something mentioned anywhere except in the reviews I didn't read until I already finished the game. Whoops.

Still, despite the disappointment of having an incomplete ending, I really enjoyed playing Jenny LeClue, Detectivu. It feels substantial, unlike some other puzzle games which tend to be shallow. And I love how the story gets more and more twisty the further you go into it. I'm planning on picking up the next part to this series, whenever it comes out!

Price: $24.99 (on sale regularly)

Available for Windows, macOS, iOS, Linux, Nintendo Switch, and Playstation 4(?). I played the Switch version and it took me about 5 hours to complete the story (with 83% completion for stickers/postcards).

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Wandersong (2018) is a puzzle adventure game where you play as a bard trying to save the world despite not being the Hero. The game mechanics are focused around music (because you're a bard!), though Deaf/HoH and colorblind players can still enjoy the game because there are directional indicators that don't rely on hearing notes.

I really, really enjoyed this game! I loved the art, the characters, the music, and especially the little special sprinkles of joy throughout. There's multiple LGBTQ+ characters, including the Bard who is canon nonbinary, as well as characters of color and characters of all ages. A well-rounded cast of people to populate an adorable world.

The art is cute and colorful, and the colors shift slightly between each chapter of the game. Also, each "dungeon" area was different. My favorite was the Moon/Sun castle area-- you have to jump at stars, sing to activate them, and then float through space to make it to the next ledge. Very pretty and super fun to play through.

The dialogue in particular was really well done: you can talk to over 100 characters and they each have something unique to say.

But more than that: they each have something INTERESTING to say. It's not just repeating three phrases, or random unhelpful info. These characters have EMOTIONS! They philosophize! They wonder about their life, the world, each other, etc. and they're actually personally interested in the Bard and want to be their friend. It's adorable, and it made the game much more enjoyable and impactful.

Alongside the dialogue thing is a well-written story. Saving the world isn't just about defeating bad guys and using a big sword; the actual Hero character is really mean, and Bard and their friends struggle to handle that situation alongside the inevitable end of the world. There are other, smaller stories happening too-- two countries have been at war for so long that they've forgotten why, a pirate captain searches for his mermaid, some ghost infest a town and scare the neighbors.

Then there's the character growth and individual stories happening between the Bard, their friend(s), and the various people they meet. It's incredibly detailed and rich for a puzzle/adventure game, something on par with what I'd expect from a visual novel. There aren't any storyline choices, but if you choose to skip most of the dialogue then you'd miss a huge chunk of what's enjoyable about the game and story.

Wandersong is actually pretty simple and easy to play, and there's not really a "collect these things and level up" aspect or really anything beyond the main story. There's lots of cute puzzle games that are fun to play, but don't interest me beyond a few hours of play. Wandersong kept me hooked for three days! What makes it special is the story, and the fostering of deep emotional connections to the people who populate that world. It an INTENSE game and well worth picking up, especially if you enjoy games like Undertale or visual novel games.

I absolutely adored it!

Price: $19.99

Available for Windows, macOS, Playstation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch. I played the Switch version, which is currently on sale for a few more days.

After finishing Wandersong I went looking for "behind the scenes stuff" and found out that the creator was determined to make an uplifting game to make people feel better (paraphrased). It 100% worked and I'm so happy I played it.

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adjacency (2017) is a 2D abstract puzzle game where you click shapes to move colors around into other shapes. It looks like a perfect mobile game, honestly, something you can zone out to while listening to podcasts.

Has a good selection of customizable options depending on how you like to play. Like, you can turn on/off the score and par, depending on whether you feel anxious or emboldened by seeing how you stack up against the computer.

60 total puzzles; I played maybe 5 before ditching it. Love the ambient background music! (Available as a separate download, too.)

Price: $2.99

Available for Windows, macOS and Linux. I played the Mac version.

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One-Eyed Lee and the Dinner Party (2019) is a puzzle/visual novel game set in a fantasy world where spirits exist and, sometimes, merge with living humans to become...something else. One-Eyed Lee is a something else, and Beracus is the doctor trying to figure out how to change him back. Or at least make him less volatile...

Beracus and Lee get tipped off about a whole heap of spirits in an abandoned bunker-- only to become trapped inside with a family of living skeletons. You (playing as Beracus) must solve puzzles, talk to the skeletons (whether they like it or not), and keep Lee alive to get out of the bunker!

I had heaps of fun playing this game. The art is fantastic, Beracus and Lee have a very interesting partnership, and the bunker-skeleton family setting was great. It starts off uncanny, as a post-apocolyptic bunker without an apocalypse to go with it, and then gets super creepy by the time you leave and find out wtf really happened.

The puzzles are solved through finding clues (e.g. clicking on everything), talking to the skeletons, and matching clue to mystery in a specific order. I'm not sure if it was just my computer or if it's part of the game, but there was a small amount of lag between hovering over a clue and the highlight turning on, which mean I had to go a little slower than I usually do. Also, the highlight was a dark red color, which was a little difficult to see even for a non-colorblind person like me. (The whole bunker is heavy on red/orange tones.)

Side note that you can click on objects multiple times, and some of them lead to funny interactions! Or new clues! So that's cool.

Because you're also talking to people, you have some choices on how to proceed through the puzzles. For instance, there's some tricky situations where you could lock yourself out of a set of dialogue cues that change interactions between Beracus and Lee. Or you could leave behind an item that would come in handy at the very end! There are 8 total endings, so it's worth going back and trying different routes to try and get them all.

To make it easier to get the different endings, the game has a History option (to read back through the text), a Skip option (to zoom past text you've already seen), and a Back button if you immediately regret choosing a specific option. There's also a Journal tab, which keeps short notes about the story/clues, and even gives a few subtle hints on where to go next if you're a little stuck.

It took me about 3 hours to get all 8 endings; I used some hints from the dev (on the Itch.io page) to figure out what I needed to do at the end, and made sure to try different options than I did the first time. The last part is very tricky! I did notice that once I got the happiest ending, the loading screen illustration was also happy! When I got the bummer ending(s), it was super sad. Such a nice little touch in an already detail-filled game.

Great characters, good writing, humorous moments and spooky ones, too: I really enjoyed playing this and highly recommend checking it out!

Price: $4.99

This is apparently the first of a series of games the dev is planning on making with Beracus and Lee, and I can't wait to play them!

Available for Windows, Mac and Linux. I played the Mac OS version.

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cityglitch (2017) is a puzzle game set in sci-fi (/fantasy?) world with little pixel people and animals. Pretty difficult! Controls are point-and-click, and you can only move in straight lines. Art style seems heavily influenced by vaporwave. It's turn-based, and there are things trying to kill you or block your way, so you have to time your moves with their moves to get to the exit. Luckily the puzzles themselves are pretty contained, only 5x5 grids, so you're not trying to move across huge platforms.

I played about 10 levels/10 minutes before quitting; there are a total of 95 levels, so a good amount of play time available. Would be really fun as a mobile game, I think!

Price: $2.99

Available on Windows, Linux, Mac and mobile. I played the Mac OS version.

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Data Loss (2020) is a puzzle game where you play a hacker trying to infect an evil corporation's computers to steal their money. It's fast-paced and fun, with an old-school design like a 1990s computer.

To find the computers to infect you need to switch between two modes: Search and Infect. Search will briefly pop up nodes; Infect will then let you click on the nodes to, well, infect them. However, once you switch from Search to Infect, the nodes turn invisible, so you'll need to remember where they were in order to click on them.

Complicating the game play is: a timer, limited moves, and a scanner which will suck away your time if it intersects with either your Search or your Infect actions. Because nodes are connected, sometimes you hit a node that goes further than you expected, and the scanner finds you when you meant to dodge instead.

Running out of either time or moves without completely infecting every node will take away money from your bank. Go into a negative balance and you're out of the game and have to start all over.

Also, the further along you get into the corporation, the more penalties pile up. You might lose some moves, or un-infected node prices rise higher.

Things that will help you win: finding a special green node adds 15 seconds to your timer and slows down the scanner, leftover time/moves gives you bonus money, and you can buy upgrades to either dodge the scanner, infect nodes faster, or get more money at the end of the round.

But! Buy too many upgrades and you'll be more prone to running out of money when you inevitably have un-infected nodes the next round.

So you basically have to have a decent memory for where the individual nodes are, be fast at clicking, and figure out the scanner pattern to dodge it enough to finish the level. It took me about half an hour before I was good enough to make it to level 10 (out of 25), and I think the more I play the better I'll get at it. (Update: I played again after writing this review and got to level 15!) I really liked it, and I could see getting sucked into a couple hours' worth of playing.

Bonus points for customizable colors so red/green colorblind players can adjust to something easier to see.

Price: $3.00 CAD

This game is still in development.

Available for Windows, Mac and Linux. I played the Mac OS version.

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Jam and the Mystery of the Mysteriously Spooky Mansion (2019) is a point & click reverse whodunnit set in a haunted house. You play as Jam, a tween detective with ambitions higher than her mystery-solving capabilities. At the start of the game, you've already captured the villain and now you need evidence to prove what villainy he was doing.

Explore through different rooms clicking on things to find "clues," solve easy puzzles and put together "solutions" to solve the "crime." These involve picking up both clues and interactive elements, and figuring out which element interacts where (it's not always obvious). It's a short game and not hard to play-- the fun comes through the dialogue, the spooky atmosphere, and Jam and Alexandre (the villain) interacting.

There are 16 different endings, 15 through presenting evidence and 1 secret ending that I stumbled on accidentally. Once you present one solution, you can go back to that exact moment and present the other 14 combinations, no need to backtrack. All the endings lead to very funny dialogue, usually with a wham shot because of the demon.

Cool things: the default font is in the style of a 1980s computer game, but you can adjust it to something easier on the eyes (like I did). Also comes with a spoiler-free walkthrough/hints, including an endings checklist to make sure you get all the clue pairings.

Took me almost an hour to go through everything, and I really enjoyed it. I'd love to play a sequel game!

Price: $2.00

Available for Windows, Mac and Linux. I played the Mac OS version.

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Codemancer (2019) is an educational puzzle game aimed at teaching children (ages 6-12) how to code! It's set in a fantasy world where you play as Aurora, a wizard student learning magic. Her spells are built through compiling different runes, and as the game progresses the spells get more complex.

The runes are, of course, the backbone of the code you're building to navigate through the different levels. It's very similar to Google's Grasshopper coding game, but with a more interesting and developed world setting. ( More words and 1 image )

I played about an hour before moving on to something else. Codemancer is still in development, but this first chapter is a good-sized chunk if you wanted to try it out or gift it to a child.

Price: $10.00, but currently free through July 6, 2020.

Available for Windows, Mac, Android. I played the Mac OS version.

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ISLANDS: Non-Places (2016) is an "artscape" game by artist Carl Burton. I played the Mac OS version.

Not so much as game as a collection of surreal, semi-interactive art pieces. The "game" part is just finding things that blink, clicking on them, and then watching the scene change into something else. It's meditative and very pretty, with calming background music. Watching a bus stop turn into an egg incubator (for instance) was fascinating; I liked watching the mundane world turn into something fantastic.

However, I would NOT have bought it for full price because it's not enough game content to make it "worth" the purchase. At only about 45 minutes max, and with minimal interactive elements...idk. I'm glad I got it as part of a bundle. I do appreciate its experimental nature, though!

Price: $4.99

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Goetia (2015) is a point-and-click gothic puzzle mystery that I bought because a) it was $0.99 at the time and b) I like gothic mysteries and c) I like to pretend I enjoy puzzle games.

Unfortunately, the Nintendo Switch port has HORRIBLE game mechanics that ruin the overall design of the game and make it basically unplayable.

But first, good stuff: the artwork and overall puzzle/story design are really good, the sound design is great, and the CONCEPT is fascinating.

The story is you're a ghost (who died in the 1890s) trying to solve the mystery of wtf happened to your family in the 1940s; there are demons and magic, and the only clues you have are letters and notes your family left behind in the course of using magic to summon those demons. The storyline is what kept me playing despite the other frustrations. I REALLY wanted to know what happened to the family.

And finally, there's a journal feature which helps keep track of which mysteries were solved, and gives hints on which direction to go next. That came in handy.

Now for the bad: the game mechanics. ( I don't recommend this version of the game. )

It took me roughly 5-6 hours to work my way through with the help of the walkthrough. If I didn't have the walkthrough, I would've given up because playing the game was so fucking frustrating.

Price: Steam is $15, Switch store is $9.99. I wouldn't pay any more than $0.99 for this for the Switch-- actually, don't buy it for the Switch at all. The PC version would be fine to pick up on sale, especially if you enjoy text-based puzzles with a spooky atmosphere.

Content notes: Dead children, parental abuse.

Originally posted at my personal journal.

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Misthold Welcomes You

tozka plays (video) games

Jenny LeClue, Detectivu (2019)

Wandersong (2018)

adjacency (2017)

One-Eyed Lee and the Dinner Party (2019) ♥

cityglitch (2017)

Data Loss (2020)

Jam and the Mystery of the Mysteriously Spooky Mansion (2019) ♥

Codemancer (2019)

ISLANDS: Non-Places (2016)

Goetia (2015)

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