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Blasphemous 2
Blasphemous 2 might be the sequel closest to its predecessor that I’ve ever played. Sure, there’s lots of little tweaks and differences, but the vibe, the aesthetic, the experience…
The 46th Locked Room / ４６番目の密室
The 46th Locked Room is a murder mystery by Alice Arisugawa told from the point of view of a character also named Alice Arisugawa, but not that Alice Arisugawa.…
Shudder of the Mailer Daemon / メーラーデーモンの戦慄
Shudder of the Mailer Daemon is the final book of the Lychee Kamiki series about everyone’s favorite high schooler prostitute detective. It’s probably the weakest novel of the…
Monster Sanctuary
Monster Sanctuary is a great monster-catching metroidvania. That’s two distinct genres, so let’s break down how to intersect.The monster-catching is phenomenal. The developers clearly get it. I almost…
Death on Gokumon Island / 獄門島
I’ve read several Kindaichi stories that I just haven’t reviewed because they’ve all been bad, but not quite as bad as It Walks By Night, so it felt…
See How They Run
See How They Run is a movie eager to prove its view of murder mysteries correct. Unfortunately, that view seems to be that they are boring, arbitrary and…
Wake Up Dead Man
The best description I can give of Wake Up Dead Man is that it’s Knives Out with a better mystery and worse cast. That doesn’t mean it’s likely to…
The Thaumaturge
Earlier in the month I reviewed a Polish adventure game with RPG elements and a sci-fi setting 100 years in the future, so this time I thought I’d…
Gamedec
As it says in the blog description, I’m just a guy who likes mysteries, games, and mystery games. So you’d think Gamedec, a mystery game about mysteries in…
Those Who Submerge Like the Water Spirit / 水魑の如き沈むもの
And so one we come once again to a spooky murder mystery with Genya Toujou. I find it funny how for both series I review on a set…
The Perfect Outsider / 有限と微小のパン
They say don’t meet your heroes. Maybe that applies to books, too.I always knew I’d read The Perfect Outsider, the finale to Hiroshi Mori’s S&M Series. Well, “always”…
The Poisoned Chocolates Case
The Poisoned Chocolates Case is a fun trick novel by Anthony Berkeley. The premise is simple: the six members of a club called the Crimes Circle (a bit…
One Outs / ワンナウツ
If it isn’t already obvious from the blog, I’m a nerd. I don’t care for sports. So if you haven’t heard about One Outs before, it might seem…
Crystal Pyramid / 水晶のピラミッド
Crystal Pyramid is a grand, larger-than-life mystery that is perhaps a bit too grand and larger-than-life. Souji Shimada’s recurring detective Kiyoshi Mitarai investigates a murder that occurred at…
AI: The Somnium Files - nirvanA Initiative / AI：ソムニウムファイル ニルヴァーナ イニシアチブ
When I first finished AI: The Somnium Files - nirvanA Initiative, my feelings were a lot more positive than those for its predecessor, AI: The Somnium Files, which is admittedly…
Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition
Icewind Dale is the final game created in the Infinity Engine using Dungeons & Dragons 2e rules, after Baldur’s Gate and Planescape: Torment. Despite being made after those games,…
Numerical Models / 数奇にして模型
Numerical Models is the penultimate entry in Hiroshi Mori’s S&M series and features a model (person) murdered at a model (toy) convention, but unfortunately falls quite short of…
Planescape: Torment: Enhanced Edition
While I enjoyed Baldur’s Gate I & II and understood why they made a big splash when released, they were notably dated and I didn’t think they rose…
Baldur's Gate (I & II)
In discussions of CRPGs, Baldur’s Gate is often held up as the holy grail. It was celebrated by its fans for being expansive and deep, and maintained a…
Murder in the Crimson Manor / 紅蓮館の殺人
Murder in the Crimson Manor is lit. Actually, I think it’s just okay, but “Murder in the Crimson Manor is lit” seemed like a snappier opening, and obliques…
The Surge
The Surge is a sci-fi horror Souls-like that does everything competently but not memorably. The game takes place several decades in the future when Earth’s atmosphere has gotten…
Druidstone: The Secret of the Menhir Forest
The only reason I bought Druidstone: The Secret of the Menhir Forest is because it’s by the same people that made Legend of Grimrock . (I’d...
Salt and Sanctuary
If I told you to image a 2D version of Dark Souls , you’d probably come up with something extremely close to Salt and Sanctuary . It’s hard…
The Quarry
I hope you didn’t think I was done with Supermassive Games just because I finished reviewing The Dark Pictures Anthology ! Just like any goo...
Switch Back / 今はもうない
The S&M series has always had a lot of character work and philosophical tangents, and while they sometimes felt a bit overbearing, they nev...
The Devil in Me
The Devil in Me is the grand finale to “season one” of The Dark Pictures Anthology . While it’s larger in scope than the previous games and...
The Locked Rooms of the Twin Snakes / 双蛇密室
The Locked Rooms of the Twin Snakes is the fourth book in the Lychee Kamiki series starring the titular high school prostitute detective, ...
House of Ashes
House of Ashes is the third game in the The Dark Pictures Anthology , after Medan of Medan and Little Hope . The first two games…
The Tragedy of 1 / 一の悲劇
I assume most people reading this blog know who Ellery Queen is, but for who don’t, he (actually the joint pseudonym for two cousins) is on...
Little Hope
Four college students and their professor are involved in a bus crash on a field trip, dumping them outside the small town of Little Hope in...
Process of Elimination / 探偵撲滅
Process of Elimination is another Danganronpa wannabe from Nippon Ichi Software, following in the footsteps Exile Election . Process of E...
Man of Medan
The elevator pitch for Man of Medan (and The Dark Pictures Anthology ) as a whole is that it’s a horror B-movie you can play. If you’ve…
The Wonder
Anna O’Donnell hasn’t eaten since her eleventh birthday four months ago. Or at least, that’s what she and her family claim. As word of the ...
Those Who Sneer Like the Mountain Fiend / 山魔の如き嗤うもの
Another Genya Toujou book, another series of bizarre murders in a remote village that are entangled with the local folklore. Those Who Snee...
Who's the Shadow? / シャドウ
Who’s the Shadow? is about Ousuke Gamo, a boy whose luck would give the Baudelaires’ a run for its money. First his mom dies, and then his...
The Devotion of Suspect X / 容疑者Xの献身
I had The Devotion of Suspect X on my bookshelf for a while. It was famous and supposed to be really good, so I eagerly bought it.…
The Maid
The Maid needs to clean up its act. Ostensibly it’s a cozy mystery, but in reality it’s more like a contrived, saccharine story about an au...
It Walks By Night
It Walks By Night is the debut novel of John Dickson Carr, and much better than the other one . It features one of Carr’s recurring detecti...
It Walks By Night / 夜歩く
It Walks By Night is an awful book that no one should read. This isn’t going to be a roast, because it’s not that kind of awful,…
Tyrion Cuthbert: Attorney of the Arcane
Tyrion Cuthbert: Attorney of the Arcane is, as you might surmise from the title, an Ace Attorney -inspired murder mystery video game. (Game...
Triangle Strategy / トライアングルストラテジー
Normally I’m not a fan of strategy RPGs, but the stars aligned for me and Triangle Strategy . I played the demo when it first came out, and…
Replaceable Summer / 夏のレプリカ
In the opening paragraph of my Illusion Acts Like Magic review, I described how Moe met her high school friend Tomoe Minosawa, and then nev...
Illusion Acts Like Magic / 幻惑の死と使途
Illusion Acts Like Magic begins with Moe meeting her friend Tomoe Minosawa and going to a magic show. Saikawa was supposed to come as well ...
Special Report Division / 特殊報道部
Who doesn’t like a good conspiracy theory? There are plenty of allegedly supernatural phenomena out there. Personally, I’m a skeptic. Despit...
Medium - The Medium Detective Hisui Jouzuka / メディウム 霊媒探偵城塚翡翠
Shirou Kougetsu is your ordinary, run-of-the-mill Japanese mystery novelist. He writes novels, goes on wacky adventures with teenage sidekic...
And Then They Never Die / そして誰も死ななかった
The protagonist of And Then They Never Die , Ushio Oomata, is a sleazebag. He’s crass, rude, and a fraud—he’s a mystery novelist, but the on...
Gloomhaven
Gloomhaven is a dungeon-crawling fantasy board game. First released in 2017, it revolutionized the genre and was hailed as one of the best ...
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is a isometric action-adventure puzzle game. The story involves Lara finding an ancient Mayan artifact...
House of Earth and Blood
The first sentence on the blurb on the back cover of House of Earth and Blood is “Half-Fae, half-human Bryce Quinlan loves her life.” And t...
Turnabout Airport / 逆転空港
In the world of Ace Attorney , it seems impossible to be involved with the law without getting accused of murder once. (Or thrice .) Yet des...