Little Locked Rooms

To be honest, it's as perfect as a game for a mystery fanatic as myself can be. The ambience is cosy as hell, the music fits perfectly, and while there isn't really a main story apart from the family shenanigans (which are very relatable, so bonus points for that), the cases themselves are really well written. If you're also a fan of other mystery works, you may recognise some of the ideas presented here (for example, I knew the very first case's solution thanks to an episode of Detective Conan), or guess them out given the practice with the genre. But that doesn't mean they're easy! Half the time, you'll find yourself scratching your head trying to piece everything together, especially in the last case. They're very well written, clever, and with a noticeable love and care behind them, as the rest of the game has. Also props to the art style! It's as lovable as the rest.

This game was just okay. The basic premise is that you have a small diorama of a locked room mystery and have to figure it out. The frame story is the dioramas are made by a dad for his son and daughter to test their mettle with. You solve the mysteries via dialogue options and by clicking on items in the dioramas. The idea is nice, but a few things held it back and I ended up underwhelmed. For one, it has some really tired and grating character cliches. It has both the “serious little boy studying for his career while little girl is bubbleheaded and careless” thing, as well as the “girl is competent and boy can’t believe it and says she’s just a lying cheater.” These are bad tropes. There was no reason for this game to be sexist about children and it was really irritating. It also decided to make the “thief” in the first story dark-skinned which was… A Choice. I’m shocked no one pointed out the optics of some of this to the developer because this was like “don’t be a jerk 101” kind of stuff. The bigger problem for me was that two of the mysteries were ones I knew. I recognized the theatre one instantly — I can’t quite figure out where I know it from but the game even says it’s an old story, so who knows where I saw it. The final case is just a John Dickson Carr story, “The Shadow of the Goat.” I haven’t read it but I must have read about it at some point because it was extremely familiar to me from the getgo. It’s disappointing for the game to not have tried to come up with its own plots, and somehow I get the feeling Carr’s writing wasn’t used with permission, which feels not great — I also find it kind of iffy to only credit him in a line in the end credits when it would have been so easy to have the dad character say, “This one is based on a short story I like,” which feels more honest to me. This is such a tiny game — four plots, finished in 77 minutes — that it feels pretty egregious the dev couldn’t come up with something original. It makes me wonder if the other two were recycled stories as well — I recognized the solution to the first one, but assumed at the time it was just an old mystery trope; now I wonder if it was lifted wholesale from a specific story that wasn’t credited. So for those keeping count that's... 75% of the game made up of preexisting stories. If all that doesn’t bother you, you may get something out of this game, which does have a very cute premise and runs well enough, but to me it felt like kind of a waste of the idea. [b]edit:[/b] I am absolutely not going to change the review because you're upset I suggested there were some Unfortunate Implications. Lol. Lmao, even. Grow up.

Very fun, very cute... and unfortunately very short. Just as the complexity was ramping up and getting juicy, the game was over. I enjoyed it the whole time, but it was like a small slice of really good cake. I want some more cake ;_; That said, this is a fantastic first start from an indie dev. I'd love to play more just like this!

This is a rather cute, short game. I like the mini-dioramas and the ninja people. I like the portrayal of the siblings/their relationship with the dad. As for the mysteries... I liked reading them... But let's just say that I should [i]never[/i] be allowed to investigate. Lmao.

Um ótimo jogo, com enigmas interessantes, e muito bem feito, além dos personagens serem legais, o único problema é que o jogo é bem curto, tirando isso é ótimo. Recomendo bastante vale a experiência

This was a hard game to figure out how I felt about it. One one hand, i really like the idea of the game and locked room murders, and I did enjoy some of the scenarios at parts. On the other hand, there were plenty of times where either the logic was a bit moony or there could have been other scenarios, and thus required me to guess at what the dev had in mind. There was also times where some information was presented during the discussion of the scene at the beginning but was not avaliable in the notes I also would have likes a better way to examine the environments...frequently the camera was giving me issues in being able to select to move to certain places. I do hope this dev makes more games in the genre, and I did have some fun playing the game, but for the price, length of game (short), and the issues I encountered, i wouldn't recommend it at full price.

This game is BAD! One you don't get to peak around like they make it sound. The sets aren't very detailed and you can't really move the camera around to really see from all angles. I stopped after the Ballet mystery because of the MASSIVE NUMBER OF PLOT HOLES. OMG! I can't point out any here because of spoilers but it's really really bad. Not trying to be rude but it looks like someone thought they were a LOT smarter than they actually are, when making this game. Plus, the whole thing is ONLY FOUR dioramas. I got this on sale and I paid too much. Ohhh!!! It's still under the two hour mark excuse me while I get my money back.