

It is also apparently haunted, giving the teen sleuth a much-needed mystery to fill her spare time. It has paper sliding walls, traditional Tatami mats, a beautiful garden, and a real sense of history.

Nancy spends her days in Kyoto teaching English to school children, while at night she stays in an authentic ryokan, or traditional Japanese guest house. And indeed, there is plenty of Japanese culture to absorb. Since I have been obsessed with Japan since watching Shogun, I was excited that Her Interactive selected this location for their newest mystery.

Most of them pretty much admit it, very early on.In Nancy Drew: Shadow at the Water’s Edge, Nancy gets to spend time in the Land of the Rising Sun. I’m not one of those people who try to piece together clues during a mystery to make theories about whodunnit–I tend to let the story take me there at it’s own pace–but even I knew, without trying, which of the characters were involved in the nefarious activities in this one. There wasn’t a sense of slowly figuring things out. The mystery aspects were pretty neglected. There was also puzzle saturation–I felt like I was being sheparded from one puzzle to another without any real reason behind it, or story to go along with it. There have been plenty of games which at least felt bigger and more open than this one. It didn’t help that I felt trapped in a small space by the setting. It just made everything about the world hard to believe. And the actors just hung out down there like it was no big deal and totally not weird that it existed. There was a whole atmospheric set-up which made no sense because no one would ever be able to see it. For instance, there was a theme park construction of the Underworld under the stage, complete with an actual river–things that couldn’t possibly be simply raised onstage for the viewers. At least the overall plot made sense, but too many other aspects didn’t. Least favorite aspects: I was really looking forward to this one, as I had a childhood fascination with Greek mythology. Premise: Nancy is working as an assistant in a museum in Greece, when she discovers that the artwork on display is being replaced with fakes–and suspects someone from the theater group performing for the museum is involved. There was even a joke at the end of one, where you get a trophy called “Spoiler Free” if you don’t use the in-game hint feature at all–the game congratulates you for looking up all of your hints online.Īnyway, I wanted to round up a few of the latest games (two good, two bad) and highlight some of the things that stand out about them. The games have always had an in-game hint feature, but it’s vastly improved in later games. And sometimes, you’re missing just one little thing that you need to do to progress the story. Not every step is going to be intuitive for everyone.

I think that might be the price to pay for such an involved game, though. Note I have yet to complete a single game without needing hints or a walkthrough, even on Junior mode–not once from when I started playing as a twelve year old to today. Even the ones you totally wouldn’t expect it from. A nice bonus is that every game has at least one secret passageway.
