Its so cute and fun and honestly this series just keeps improving with every game. I do recommend playing both of the other games before this one as there are plenty of easter eggs from the previous games. The puzzles are fun and I feel mechanically the mystery is better interacted with. The art, as always, is flipping amazing. I wonder if there is a printed Detective Grimoire artbook for all the games????

At the bare minimum, this game looks absolutely fantastic. The art is stunning. Location and character design are gorgeous. Then you add crisp, funny writing delivered by excellent voice acting and you get a truly wonderful game. Had a blast playing through it! Can't wait to catch the next Grimoire (and Sally!) game!

I’ve now played the three detective grimoire games currently out. This, by far, is the best one. Thank goodness too, as tangled tower was a let down in my opinion. Imagine my relief as I dove into this masterpiece.

This game has a hauntingly interesting story to tell, all wrapped around a classic locked door murder mystery with an interesting twist. A fantastic gallery of characters, each with their own secrets to hide, are skillfully voiced and animated. Puzzles are interesting and challenging without being unfair. The sounds track is so good it drew my wife in to play with me. The story, while on the shorter side, unfolds at a satisfying pace and leaves you with a haunting yet thought provoking conclusion that makes sense with the revelations of your investigation.

If you like detective games, then this will be a fantastic addition to your library. If you’re just curious: give it a spin and you’ll quickly find yourself hooked. I dare say this may be SFB Games’ magnum opus. Though I hope not, as I can only pray they’ll make another to surpass the lofty bar they’ve now set with the mermaids mask.

Highly recommended. I played this with my wife and 7 year old and everyone loved it.

I first encountered Tangle Tower through a YouTube playthrough many years ago and thought it was REALLY cool. I'd also tried Detective Grimoire, the first game in the series, but Tangle Tower was the one where the series really clicked for me. I played it myself less than a year ago and was surprised by how much I still loved it, even knowing the story.

So I came into this sequel with a lot of affection for what Tangle Tower had established. And while I think this is a more polished game overall, I found myself appreciating it a little less.

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The characters are still fantastic. They're so distinct, expressive and funny. I got quite a few loud laughs from the quips, references and meta-jokes, and Symmetry's dialogue in particular seemed packed with Easter eggs. Revisiting the characters afterwards actually made me realise how much I enjoyed just having them around. I really liked Wirman's wit, Tanya's coolness, and of course Godric's ridiculous animation.

The animation and facial expressions are excellent, and the voice acting is amazing. The voices feel so distinctly like the characters' voices, rather than just voices attached to dialogue.

The environments might be my favourite part. Every room has such vivid colours and personality, and the aesthetics feel so attuned to each character's story that the world genuinely feels alive. The cardboard cutouts were hilarious. I especially loved the airlock: chic, feminine and completely suited to its character.

There are also some genuinely clever additions to the detective work. Evidence can now be examined in 3D, have moving or interactive elements, and even voices themselves can become things to sleuth. I really liked these additions. They gave me more ways to investigate and showed how much more polished and elaborate the whole game had become.

The music was lovely too, although unfortunately my computer speakers made it overpower the voices. I ended up turning the music down quite significantly and eventually stopped paying much attention to it, which was a pity because what I did hear of the soundtrack was great.

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Where I felt the sequel was less successful for me was the feeling of discovery. The new investigative mechanics are good, but I often recognised puzzle mechanics I'd encountered in other games before. They worked, but I didn't always get that feeling of “oh, this is such a Tangle Tower thing to do.”

I've also played The Case of the Golden Idol, which gave me a very different kind of detective satisfaction. It was tougher, and some of the eventual realisations were absolutely WHOAAAA. But I don't think Tangle Tower needs to become a harder deduction game. What I wanted was more moments where its own strange world rewarded me for thinking like a detective.

There were a few times when I found myself doing that naturally. I wondered whether there might be more under the cane's hat than met the eye, for example, but couldn't investigate it. I also noticed the initial bloodstain pattern seemed significant, but because I couldn't explore it at the time, I assumed it probably wasn't important, only to have to remember it much later when exploration opened up.

Those moments made me realise what I was missing. Not necessarily more mechanics, because the sequel absolutely does give you more. I just wanted more mechanics or discoveries that felt like they belonged specifically to this strange, wonderful world.

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I also found the character secrets a little more predictable this time around. Having played Tangle Tower, I knew to expect secrets from the characters, and the locked feature in each dialogue menu rather helpfully confirmed that there was one waiting. The reveals themselves were still great, though. I loved the animations and the slightly more noir-ish feeling of those introductions.

I don't actually know what new mechanics or “rules” I would have wanted instead. That's probably the difficult part of making a sequel to something with such a distinctive identity. The team has clearly spent years making everything more elaborate, expressive and polished, and it shows.

I think Tangle Tower was the game that made me fall in love with this series' particular language. This sequel speaks that language beautifully and confidently, but I sometimes wished it had surprised me by inventing a few new words.

And honestly, the fact that I'm revisiting all the characters after finishing the game and wishing I could replay it says a lot. I still really like being in this world. I just wanted the investigation itself to give me that same feeling of discovery again.

Huge thanks to the artists, animators, writers, voice actors, programmers, designers, testers and everyone else who spent years bringing this to life. The care and craftsmanship are visible everywhere, from the character animation to the rooms to the evidence itself.

A very good sequel. I just missed being surprised by it.

Absolutely gorgeous game. Not necessarily long but thoroughly engrossing. ALL THE CHARACTERS ARE SO INTRIGUING, you'll most likely end the game with at least one of them being your favorite.

I had played Tangle Tower before and had fallen in love with the game series. The Mermaid Mask takes what Tangle Tower already did well and builds upon. The animation is definitely one of my favorite aspects of the game, that coupled with the individualized character and room soundtracks make for such an in-depth and captivating gaming experience.

I will say, one of the lesser aspects of the game for me were the puzzles and case building portions. I say this only because they're pretty hand holding and I'd wish for a bit more of a challenge. Still, the story is so enthralling that it more than makes up for it.

10/10 so fun

Love love LOOOVE this game

A clear improvement on the already great Tangled Tower, a must-play for any fan of puzzle/detective games. Simply Amazing.

What a phenomenal little point and click mystery. Just absolutely fantastic!

Very very dull. Love the art style and characters and voice acting but the game itself is literally clicking through the entire dialogue tree for every character, to trigger deductions. You can't combine items or do anything with items like in other adventure games. It tries to do deduction like the rise of the golden idol but does not have punchy and interesting scenes like that game - just endless dialogue which, while excellently-done, is not exactly a game.

This game was absolutely incredible every step of the way. The art, the characters, the twists, the turns! The Mermaid Mask clearly had a dedicated team of people who truly cared to make this the best it could possibly be. I couldn't say enough good things about the puzzles. While some were fairly easy to discern what to do, there were quite a few that I spent much more time on than I'd like to admit (a couple that my partner even had to help me with). If you enjoy a good mystery novel, you will find that this game keeps your apt attention for every minute of play. Enjoy!