I love timeloop video games because they stress a resource more precious than health or money: time. Games like Dead Rising, Lightning's Returns and Ghost Trick have managed to create a meaningful gameplay loop entirely off of the thrill and friction of limited time. The Sexy Brutale attempts to do the same with a groundhog day-style series of murders you seek to prevent in its eponymous mansion. Rather than embrace the sandbox side of timeloop games, it is more so a series of mini loops in the form of linear puzzles a la Ghost Trick. Its a small indie game and so I have no problem with such a reduction in scope as long as the puzzle design benefits from a more linear and iterative approach like Ghost Trick but this is unfortunately not the case. The solution to saving each of the mansion's guests don't become anything more complex than "interact with one or maybe two specific object out of a bunch of red herrings at a specific time and win". You are always given more than enough time to carry out the intended sequence and so the 12 hour limit ends up being a percunctory feature, something that really disappointed me given how few of these games there are. There's no eureka moment of realising the solution and subsequent thrill of trying to complete it within the time limit. In spite of its fantastical "all bets are off" roaring 20s aesthetic, the only emotional high I ever achieved while playing this was 'mildly engaged'. The ending was the high point of the game but was this half-hearted timeloop structure really the best avenue to get there? This was the first game me and my friends played as part of our monthly game club and I'll derive more enjoyment from time spent discussing The Sexy Brutale than the time I spent playing it.