The Mermaid Mask is undoubtedly the best of the Detective Grimoire series. Whereas the original was very short, and Tangle Tower ended rather abruptly, without concluding its mystery in the most satisfying of ways in my opinion, this game manages to wrap up in a fulfilling sense.
The main draw of this series, as always, remains its intensely charming art, and it is no different in this instalment. Everything about the visuals is as beautiful as ever, with the 'paper' look making each character be full of personality, and their voice acting adds tremendously to that. Somehow, once again, about half the cast has such soothing voices that I genuinely get the same effect as listening to ASMR. Zephyr, Mariana, hell, the entire killer reveal was so captivating, largely because of some stellar voice acting.
The puzzles in the game are fairly simple, but an enjoyable breaking up of the visual novel aspect. The hints are generally pretty well done, and I've always liked the three tiers of hints you have access to, depending on how often you fail. I do wish there was a bit more of a clear explanation of what elements in a puzzle are moveable, because sometimes I used the hints just for that, and nothing else. It's possible I overlooked some part of the UI telling me that they were interactable, but if that's the case, it's equally my fault, and the game's fault, in my opinion. It wasn't a big deal or anything, just like 3 minutes extra of game time here and there.
There is one puzzle that I wouldn't say 'aggravated' me, but I think the game could have done a better job of explaining that, perhaps I should explore more locations and talk to more people, before I try my hand at the puzzle. All the hints would say would be like "Hey, this is just like X's diary," which I already knew, but I didn't know I needed more information. It was the only puzzle in the game which I remember needing to explore more for, rather than being able to solve it the moment you have access to it.
Finally, let me talk about the writing, and the story. Because the writing is as enjoyable as ever. I love how every single thing you interact with has some kind of dialogue attached to it. It's a problem I've seen in many mystery games I've played over the past few years, where they do an alright, or even good job at the main story bits, but don't have nearly enough optional dialogue to really build their characters up. While the dynamic between Sally and Detective Grimoire might not be the most original, nor is their humour, that doesn't matter. Something doesn't necessarily need to be completely unique for it to work, and this game is proof of that, because I thoroughly enjoyed reading through every piece of dialogue. A lot of that came down to the excellent voice acting, but there were plenty of fun moments because of the writing as well.
The story... that's probably where I have the biggest problem with this game. And that's being overly dramatic, because honestly, right now, I'd say I count this game as maybe an 8,9/10. So, absolutely superb. However, while the story is much better than its predecessors, I was still left with some questions I would have liked to see answered. Not about the killer, or what ends up happening with them. I actually love that the game is smart enough to not explain everything about their fate.
But there's some evidence that I feel like had very little relation to the main plot. And not in the way that it was filler evidence, but I distinctly remember there being a recording of a character not seen up until that point, and never seen again, and I don't think the game explained what was going on with that. Maybe I'm mistaken, or maybe I missed things, but I went out of my way to present every piece of evidence to every character - largely because Zephyr and Mariana's voices made me so relaxed - and I still didn't get an answer.
It's also the case that I don't consider the actual murder or its method to be the most compelling. I love the motivation behind it, it feels so tragic, yet so believable. I could understand why the murderer did it, and even think that, had I been in their spot, I could have done the same. But the way the actual murder happens feels a bit throwaway, just like in the other Detective Grimoire games.
This is no Ace Attorney or Danganronpa, where you discover some insane method that the killer used. No, the actual practical stuff is somewhat underwhelming. I didn't go into this game expecting a revolutionary murder, because, as I've said, the other games in this series led me to believe that wasn't going to happen. But considering how much I ended up loving the motivation behind the murder, it's just a little bit sad that the method wasn't equally as captivating.
I paid approximately €18,70 for this game, and I would say that's less than what it is worth. The base price is €20,50, and I would say that that's about what I would value it at as well. Maybe more of a €20, but that's just because I prefer a round number. The Mermaid Mask is well worth its asking price, and it's currently looking like one of my favourite games that came out this year.
