All posts tagged in Mystery
Jun 19, 2020
STRAY is an upcoming game that combines cyberpunk/cybercities, adventure, mystery-solving, and cats. The developers of STRAY, BlueTwelve Studio, are a small team from the south of France. Supposedly, they are “mostly made of cats and a handful of humans..”. Publishing STRAY is AnnaPurna Interactive, who also published the highly regarded ‘What Remains Of Edith Finch‘.
The Origins Of STRAY:
STRAY originally started off as a concept called HK_Project. The premise being that players explored a strange/modern city as a stray cat. The few images and gifs that were floating about the internet became pretty popular and piqued the interest of many. A few years on, after many had forgot about HK_Project due to radio silence, the game made a surprising reappearance. On June the 11th 2020, an official announcement confirmed that the game, now entitled STRAY, will definitely be released. Even more excitingly, the game seems quite close to completion. The cyberpunk aesthetic, and awesome graphics of STRAY can be seen in the awesome trailer below:
STRAY’s Gameplay & Plot:
The game’s official website says: “Stray is a third-person cat adventure game set amidst the detailed neon-lit alleys of a decaying cybercity and the murky environments of its seedy underbelly.” As a lost and alone cat, players must “Roam surroundings high and low, defend against unforeseen threats and solve the mysteries of this unwelcoming place inhabited by nothing but unassuming droids and dangerous creatures.”
With no humans about, it’s clear that their are mysteries to unravel whilst you try to escape this weird cybercity.
Seeing as you are a feline after all, the game lets you ‘cat’ in some fun and playful ways. With danger present, you must obviously be stealthy and nimble. However, you can be silly and mischeivous whilst exploring the strange world too.
Whilst exploring, you will befriend a small flying drone, called B12. Between you and your new companion, you attempt to find a way out.
STRAY’s Platforms, Release date, & Price(s)
The masterminds behind the game are aiming for a 2021 release. The game will definitely release on PC via Steam, as well as on PlayStation 5. It hasn’t been confirmed whether the game will be backward compatable with consoles such as the PS4. However, as the announcement is very recent, more information regarding gameplay, compatability, pricing, etc, is likely to emerge in the future. So make sure to stay tuned!
If STRAY piques your interest, why not check out a Street Cat’s Tale here?
- Oct 10, 2019
If you live in Japan, you might have already seen the new Detective Pikachu movie in theaters last weekend. For those of us living in the US, Canada, or UK, we have to wait until May 10th, 2019. Some countries may have to wait a couple days sooner or even several days later.
The upcoming live-action Detective Pikachu movie is based off the 3DS game of the same name. Play as Tim Goodman and team up with a talking Pikachu to solve mysteries around Ryme City. Furthermore, these strange occurrences happening around the town may or may not be related to the sudden disappearance of Tim’s father.
If you love this movie as much as I do, check out my list below of our top recommended games (in no particular order) that include plenty of detective work in order to solve crimes. Perhaps these games will scratch your itch for the mystery genre until you can see Pikachu in all his “Sherlockian” glory. All games are available to play now so happy sleuthing everyone!
Layton’s Mystery Journey: Katrielle and the Millionaires’ Conspiracy
Layton’s Mystery Journey, developed by Level-5, follows Professor Hershel Layton’s daughter, Katrielle. Solve puzzles alongside her talking dog Sherl and her friends Emiliana Perfetti and Ernest Greeves. When her father vanishes, Katrielle goes off in search of him, coming across various puzzles and mysteries along the way. You can play this game on the Nintendo 3DS now. However, you may want to wait as the game was confirmed to be released to the West on the Nintendo Switch this year.
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy
The trilogy combines all three original games including: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Justice for All, and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations. Although most of the action happens inside of a courtroom as you’re a defense attorney, you’re still tasked with investigating and finding evidence at the scene of the crime. You also have to discover who is innocent and who is guilty via cross-examinations. I’ve covered the game here and it’s available now on the Nintendo Switch eShop.
Trüberbrook
Trüberbrook is set in rural Germany in the late 1960s. Play as an American physicist, Hans Tannhauser, on a vacation and discover why your notes of your dissertation on quantum physics have been stolen. As you begin to investigate this health resort and town you notice something odd is happening. Speak to villagers, travelers, and spa guests to get to the bottom of this mystery! Trüberbrook is available now for PC, PS4, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One.
L.A. Noire
L.A. Noire (Rockstar Games) blends the breathtaking action with true detective work for an unprecedented interactive experience. Solve brutal crimes, plots, and conspiracies inspired by real crimes from 1947 Los Angeles. This post-war boom of Hollywood’s Golden Age was one of the most corrupt and violent times in L.A. history. Search for clues as Cole Phelps, an LAPD detective, chase down suspects, and interrogate witnesses as you struggle to find the truth in a city where everyone has something to hide. If you want to watch the Nintendo Switch trailer, I’ve got that here for you.
Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments
Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments is developed by Frogwares and published by Focus Home Interactive. It’s available for PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One since 2014. This game makes this the oldest one on our list but it is definitely still a must-play crime-solving game. Step into the role of the most famous detective, Sherlock Holmes, and use his amazing talent for deduction.
The setting is in London and its suburbs in 1894 and 1895. The gameplay is largely focused on finding the right culprit and making the moral choice of absolving or condemning them. Furthermore, Sherlock Holmes is split into six cases of murders, disappearances, and thefts, written in the tradition of Doyle novels. We’ve also listed this game under Most Calming Games to Cozy Up and Help You Relax.
Thimbleweed Park
An economy crisis has hit Thimbleweed Park as well as a murder. Two FBI agents, Ray and Reyes, have come to solve the case. Switch between five playable characters and discover the secrets hidden in this town with a creepy and dark atmosphere (but still with a sense of humor). Thimbleweed Park is a point-and-click adventure game developed by Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick for PC, mobile devices, Xbox One, PS4, and Nintendo Switch. Find out more about this game with us here.
Oxenfree
Oxenfree, developed by Night School Studio, is a story-driven, supernatural adventure where choices you make affect the outcome of the game and your relationship with other characters. You play as Alex, a young teenager, who brings her new stepbrother to an overnight party on an island. That island used to house a military base but it was decommissioned. When Alex tried to tune an old radio, she inadvertently opened a dimensional rift. While you’re all being haunted by ghosts, discover the secrets of the island and close the rift. This game might give you a bit of a “Blair Witch” vibe but is a lot less terrifying. See photos and more information about Oxenfree here.
What Remains of Edith Finch
The story follows Edith Finch as she makes her way through her family’s old house that her late mother Dawn would never let her explore. This is because her mother chose to seal up all the doors in an attempt to hide her family from a curse that has taken the lives of many other family members in strange and mysterious ways.
Make your way through the house and discover the stories of her family members and how each of them died. This game will seem like you are merely just watching a movie as there aren’t that many puzzles to solve but if you pay close attention, you may be able to piece together some clues yourself. We, myPotatoGames, have a review here for you in case you’re interested in taking a look before playing!
Firewatch
Firewatch is a first-person simulation and adventure game developed by Campo Santo. Set in 1989, you play as a man named Henry who is a fire lookout in the Wyoming wilderness. Something strange leads you to explore the nearby forest, forcing you to make decisions that can both build and destroy relationships. Talk on a walkie-talkie with your supervisor Delilah and stumble upon a conspiracy and mystery of years past. The visually beautiful game is available now for the PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.
Interested in simpler, more relaxing Facebook games that have puzzles and investigations? We’ve got you covered with our article of Most Popular Crime Investigation Games on Facebook.
- Sep 17, 2019
Jenny LeClue, created by Mografi, is about being a detective, crime-solving, and helping Jenny make some tough choices along her adventure which will ultimately shape her destiny. Now the developers have announced that the game will be releasing on Steam, GOG, and now Apple Arcade on September 19th, 2019! That’s only a couple of days away for us to be able to investigate the strange town of Arthurton. There isn’t a release date yet for the PS4 and Nintendo Switch versions but there’s a possibility they will be coming later this year. For more information about Jenny LeClue, check out our previous article here.
Thanks to Apple Arcade, the indie developers of Mografi have expressed that they can launch with the localization in 14 different languages, and original music by SCNTFC. SCNTFC, AKA Andrew Rohrmann, has composed and produced the soundtrack for Oxenfree, along with other amazing indie games.
New Release Date Trailer
As you can see, I, Henry, love to play mystery games like these ones here! Moreover, I have to say, I’m pretty good at getting to the root of things!
- Aug 30, 2019
Shipping Out! is a brand new indie game about friendship and adventure. What’s more, you can go download it right now, for the fabulous price of…whatever you want to pay! (What price could be better than ‘name your own’?) It is not a long game, so it won’t eat up too much of your time. Take a look at the Shipping Out! trailer.
In Shipping Out!, you will first create your character. There’s lots of customization available, so make your avatar in your own style! And in a very unusual feature, it seems that you can even customize the appearance of your own parents.
Once you’re satisfied with your style, go experience your first day at a new school. Make friends, and be mystified by the strange goings-on happening around your new town, McGuire. Things are going missing. Are they being STOLEN? We hope this screenshot doesn’t indicate that even the pets aren’t safe!
With friends at your side, you will find the reasons behind the rash of disappearances (or thefts?) happening in McGuire. You can download Shipping Out here. And if you like their game and want to support these indie devs, don’t forget to follow DPandaHeart on Twitter. Boost their signal by hitting ‘like’ and ‘retweet’, folks! If this game does well, who knows what other awesome games we may see from them in the future?
If you like indie games about friendship and adventure, take a look at Sayri Adventure, due out for consoles and PC this year!
- Aug 14, 2019
The publisher of Root Letter: Last Answer, Pqube, have announced on their Twitter page here that the game is releasing on PS4 and Switch in Europe on August 30th, 2019, while the North American PS4 and Switch versions are coming on September 3rd, 2019! The developers of the game, Kadokawa Games, have added new updates to this localization since their Japanese release of the game back in 2018. This includes: a new epilogue, improvements to gameplay, and a live-action mode. See below to learn about this upcoming visual-novel and to view the new gameplay trailer.
The Day-One Edition includes 100-page artbook About Root Letter: Last Answer
The return of the best-selling interactive mystery visual novel! Follow in the footsteps of Aya Fumino, a school penfriend allegedly involved in a tragic murder 15 years ago. Explore the prefecture of Shimane, uncover clues, and use the letters you wrote to each other to track down her childhood friends for questioning. But perhaps these friends, now adults living a peaceful life, will not be eager to let their painful memories resurface…
Key Features
- Solve a 15 year-old mystery – Many years have passed since the last correspondence with your pen friend Aya Fumino. While those memories have been long left behind, a confession of murder revealed in her last letter has resurfaced. It is now up to you to uncover the truth behind her disappearance.
- An interactive visual novel – Navigate your way around Aya’s hometown, search for clues in the environment, and confront her former friends that have now reached adulthood. Use the items and evidence at your disposal to make them confess!
- A story with different outcomes – Your replies to Aya’s letters will have lasting consequences, and impact your relationship. Choose your answers carefully and shape a story with up to five different endings.
- The complete experience – In addition to several gameplay improvements, Root Letter: Last Answer adds brand new epilogues that conclude Aya Fumino’s story and a live action mode.
New Live-Action Mode
The new live-action mode lets you experience the story in a whole new way! Meaning, 90 different real-life actors portray the characters from the original game. The backgrounds are even real-life screenshots of the city of Matsue in Japan. You can alternate between modes from the title screen at any time while playing to see Shimane Prefecture’s real locations.
If Root Letter sounds like the game for you, check out the Ace Attorney trilogy which also mixes a visual-novel narration with investigative gameplay. Furthermore, you can solve another murder mystery with this game here: Jenny LeClue: Detectivú – A Narrative Mystery About Detectiving and Choosiness.
- Aug 3, 2019
Hive Quest is a whimsical journey through lush, enchanted woodland filled with ancient magic, intriguing puzzles, and more! We thoroughly enjoyed playing the demo, which you can read about here, by sole developer Rod Tyson from Golden Heart Games. You can even try it out for yourself on Indie DB or Gamejolt, and Wishlist the game on Steam here. Below are the details of the current Kickstarter Campaign if you’d like to support Hive Quest, as well as a few more details about the game.
Kickstarter Campaign
You can help support this indie game through Kickstarter here from now until August 16th, 2019 with some awesome stretch goals to reach for and tons of goodies as rewards. Moreover, extra funding will also help the creator personally so he can continue developing this game as well as giving him the ability to obtain new 3D models for new levels and content, create more artwork, and add more voice acting and music! The Alpha is slated for December 2019, the Beta is April 2019, and Steam Early Access around the Summer of 2020.
Stretch Goals
- The four different tribes currently in the game will get a cool make over.
- A wider variety of plants, trees, mushrooms, insects, birds and animals.
- Puzzles, more mystery and more lore!
- Crazy encounters along with more spiffy voice acting.
- More creature pet choices, to keep the Shrublet company.
- A bigger world! More themed locations to explore.
Rewards
- Digital Wallpaper Pack
- Digital Art Book
- Special Edition Magic Portal Poster
- Beta Tester Access
- Alpha Tester Access
- Ancient Secret – Your name and a short message in a secret location
- Easter Egg – create something cool with the developer himself
- Special Kickstarter Hive Drone Skin
Hive Quest – Strange Adventures in the Wild Wood Updates
You play as drones that are part of a Hive Mind and establish yourself in your new home. Manage your resources, create new buildings, have creature pets find ingredients and guardians to protect your hive. There’s so much more to explore, magical characters and spells to discover, and puzzles to solve in this rich and enchanting world! We’re talking witches, fairies, woodland sprites and more!
Lore
The four insect tribes mentioned above even have their own pantheon of gods! Each of which will play a role in the game. There’s definitely ancient magic at work here.
- Mara : the goddess of peace and harmony. Her servant is Yuna the guide, who you will meet very early on in the demo.
- Angrith: the god of destruction, too be invoked in times of war.
- Nexir: the dark god of betrayal also exists, but his motives are shrouded in mystery.
Subterfuge and Warfare
You can create beacons from pebbles and other stuff lying around with the aid of a Beacon Spell. This will beguile the drones from an enemy hive. Furthermore, you can also use a Zealot as a spy to infiltrate an enemy hive and change its allegiance. When there are enemy hives that need squashing, you can grab a bunch of your drones and point them in their direction. You can also bring to life piles of old sticks to make a Stick Knight that will further defend your hive.
Finally, the developer has fixed many bad bugs since the last demo so you might want to return to the Old Orchard and have another go! You can grow your Hive into a powerful kingdom in Hive Quest although just relaxing and enjoying the beautiful view flying around is also a treat! Follow Rod Tyson on Twitter here to stay updated on Hive Quest’s progress.
- Aug 2, 2019
Jenny LeClue is a thrilling crime-solving game created by indie developer Mografi (Joe Russ), based in Florida. You can download a free playable demo on iOS here and PC here (Gumroad, itch.io). The game is set to release this Fall 2019 on Steam, Humble, iOS, Android, Windows, OSX, Linux, PS4, and the Nintendo Switch. Become a detective and make hard choices along the way while trying to find the real killer behind this murder mystery.
About Jenny LeClue
Jenny LeClue is a handcrafted adventure with awesome gameplay, memorable characters, and a unique aesthetic. It’s also a coming-of-age story about the blurred lines between right and wrong. This is a game about your choices and how they affect Jenny and the author’s story. It’s a rich metanarrative with delightful surprises and interactions. Jenny LeClue also explores mature themes, complex characters, and an epic tangled mystery.
You play as Jenny, a brilliant young detective, living in the idyllic college town of Arthurton. Jenny is a sharp-eyed, relentless pursuer of the truth. But nothing exciting happens in Arthurton, and Jenny longs for real adventure.
Jenny gets more than she bargains for when her mother is accused of murder, and begins an unexpected journey to find the truth. She soon discovers every cloud has a dark lining, and nothing in Arthurton is what it seems. Unseen forces will stop at nothing to keep Jenny from the truth. And she will have to use all her skills of deduction to find the real killer.
Key Features
- Beautiful Handmade Art Style – Sleek and gorgeous hand drawn style with vintage midcentury aesthetics.
- A Living World – The goal is for everything to be interactive, to reward players who poke and prod at every last item and object with insight, secrets, and humor.
- Choosiness On A Massive Scale – Players will make choices in their individual game, and some of those choices will be tallied to permanently influence subsequent chapters, essentially “writing” the story collaboratively. The choice players make about the cliffhanger ending of episode one determines the beginning of episode two.
- Female Protagonist – Jenny is a brilliant young detective, sharp eyed, intuitive and a ruthless pursuer of the truth.
- Dialogue With A Twist – Jenny is able to move the camera around during dialogue scenes and observe the subject for visible clues that might reveal their guilt or innocence that would otherwise go undetected.
- Story Within A Story – Jenny LeClue weaves a rich metanarrative. The “author” of Jenny’s adventures, Arthur K Finklestein, acts as narrator and guide, but his presence also allows you to change the way Jenny’s story is written. Players choices will also affect Finklestein’s own story.
- Not Just For Kids – Complex relationships will be explored with themes of family, loss, and identity influenced by horror, sci-fi, and mystery genres.
- A Diverse Cast Of Characters & Locations – Explore Arthurton’s expansive world including the abandoned mines, the forgotten graveyard, the misty mountains, the old observatory, the police station, the shops and eateries on Main Street, and Gumboldt University’s Library. You will meet many intriguing and suspicious characters, in a town whose population is representative of the US Census demographics.
More Information
To learn more about the game or to pre-order your copy, go to Jenny LeClue’s official website here. Furthermore, for more mystery games you can check out our articles here: The Good Life – Snap Photos, Solve a Murder, Turn Into a Cat/Dog and Top Ten Crime-Solving & Mystery Games.
- Jul 5, 2019
The Good Life is a debt repayment daily-life RPG co-developed by SWERY and Yukio Futatsugi, along with their teams at White Owls and G-rounding. Languages will be in both Japanese and English with the possibility of others as subtitles. You can still help fund them on their Kickstarter campaign here as they are very close to their big stretch goal; bringing to game to the Switch. The Good Life will release this Fall 2019 on Xbox One (as well as Xbox Game Pass), PS4, and PC. Look forward to snapping tons of photographs to earn yourself some money, and to discover this strange town’s secret as well as uncovering a mysterious murder!
About the Good Life
Play as Naomi, a journalist from New York who moves to a backwoods British town called Rainy Woods in order to pay off her massive debt. The only way for her to escape from debt hell is to take pictures of happenings in the town and report on them. Of course, ‘the happiest town in the world’ is not your average town…
The inhabitants of the happiest town in the world are some of the most bizarre people you’ll ever come across. You’ll live alongside them as you solve mysteries and experience a hearty helping of craziness. We’re sure that you’ll eventually come to love all the mystery, horror, and good old charm that this town has to offer.
The townspeople are also hiding a big secret…
In the moonlight, all the townspeople suddenly transform… And suddenly, the town is filled with cats and dogs! Once a month, everyone who lives there transforms into either a cat or a dog. Naturally, Naomi and the player will also turn into a cat or a dog. What happens in the town depends entirely on you! How the townspeople behave, how their lives play out, and how the story ends… It’ll all change based on your decisions.
You’ll be able to select whether you want to transform into a cat or a dog at the very beginning. But if you get far enough in the story, you may reach a point where you can freely switch between them…? Turn into a cat and climb up to high places, scratch walls, and steal fish and chips from kitchens… Or turn into a dog and dig holes, follow scents, and swim in rivers and lakes… It only happens once a month, so make sure you enjoy it to your heart’s content!
More Information
Note that the gameplay video above has some crude language dialog and is not geared toward younger children. However, the game is very relaxing and mostly centers on open-world exploration and taking pictures. You can take photos of anyone, anything, anywhere, and even see in-game what’s trending to earn yourself more money. Interact with every object that you see and place them wherever you want to take your own unique photos. Some photos will be requested from villagers to complete quests and push the story forward. You might even have to get crafty as some townsfolk will stop what they are doing if they can see you. Furthermore, upgrade your camera to take better quality pictures!
If snapping shots is what interests you, you can check out our other article on Pupperazzi here. If crime-solving is your thing, we’ve got a list of our Top Ten Crime-Solving & Mystery Games here.
