Detective Grimoire is once again called to solve an elusive case: this time, they're taken to the eponymous Tangle Tower, a place in a mysterious island that houses the Fellow and Pointer families. Freya Fellow, one of the youngest in the former family, has been murdered, stabbed in the chest by... her own painting, found in the scene of the crime eerily holding a bloodied knife in front of her dead body.
A sequel to 2015's remarkable point-'n-click adventure Detective Grimoire: Secret of the Swamp, Tangle Tower improves upon its prequel in almost every regard. The game is rendered in even sharper visuals, with beautiful 2D backgrounds and fluid hand-drawn character animations, thanks to which its scenes and characters brim with life. A gorgeous soundtrack completes the immersion, with tracks that reflect the personality of each character and the atmosphere of each moment. The experience is worth the price of admission for the vibes alone.
Despite the seriousness of the case at hand, the tone of the writing is mostly on the light side, with eccentric characters and humorous exchanges. The game's Teen rating, however, is well-earned, as there are some tense moments as well as a subtle darkness hiding behind the island and its inhabitants. There is a history to this place, what with the mysterious nature of the lake surrounding the island, multiple members of both families having left for unknown reasons and the people that remain on the island each harboring secrets to be uncovered. And uncover them we will, because this is a detective game.
The original game's investigation mechanics were iterated upon, but the gist of the sequel remains more or less the same: Grimoire and his assistant, Sally, both of which are controlled by the player, move between locations by selecting them on the map, and examine the scenes point-'n-click style to find clues. Sometimes, said clues are gated by puzzles which, intentionally or not, end up being one of the standout points of the experience, being of a similar caliber to the more high quality puzzles from the best Professor Layton games. Even the BGM used during puzzle-solving is somewhat like of those in that series games.
The closest parallel for the overall mechanics, however, would have to be the Ace Attorney series, what with the assembling of a case file full of clues, the gathering of statements from each witness and the presentation of evidence to those same witnesses in other to have them set their testimonies straight. Grimoire and Sally, however, have the freedom to explore the many rooms of the titular mansion in a non-linear fashion, giving the investigation in Tangle Tower a more player-guided, deliberate feel that sets it apart from its inspirations.
Of course, which such freedom comes an increased chance of the player missing a clue or otherwise getting stuck, and the game is especially careful not to let that happen: a hint button in the map screen, when pressed, mentions a room that would yield a clue if investigated; in addition, whenever the set of evidence needed to press one of the witnesses becomes available, the game is even more explicit, with the playable characters notifying the player that the option to press on a suspicion is now available via voice lines and an on-screen call to action. The hint button is for the better, but its when these prompts come up that Tangle Tower's biggest flaw becomes more evident.
Progression to the final sections of the game is gated behind finding the contradictions in each of the witnesses' testimony. Crucially, this must be done at once, which is why the game makes a point of notifying the player that the option to do so is available, but because it happens right after getting a crucial piece of evidence, the result is that the player must, all at once, make several conclusions about that witness that they might not have had time to digest. This takes them away from the driver's seat as they are tossed into a gauntlet of multiple choice questions that, due to their very nature, stop short of spelling out the answer to the suspicion in question.
It's an issue with the design: had dialogue options not been standardized, and instead, had there been multiple opportunities to, piece by piece, break down lies and/or answer questions about the witness, the player could have been eased into the conclusions the game expects them to take without losing the feeling of agency. The Ace Attorney series also sometimes uses testimony records as pieces of evidence, and something in that direction could have helped give players more freedom to solve the case by themselves, for instance, by having to choose what to press the witness on.
Potential improvements to the investigation mechanics aside, Tangle Tower is still a very satisfying experience: the relaxing vibes, approachable tone and exceptional voice acting alone are enough to justify the experience; the intriguing mystery, great brain-teasers and, despite its issues, still entertaining detective work seal the deal. I sure hope this is not the last we see of Detective Grimoire and Sally, and that SFB Games puts forth a new case for them to solve coming up some time in the future.
A sequel to 2015's remarkable point-'n-click adventure Detective Grimoire: Secret of the Swamp, Tangle Tower improves upon its prequel in almost every regard. The game is rendered in even sharper visuals, with beautiful 2D backgrounds and fluid hand-drawn character animations, thanks to which its scenes and characters brim with life. A gorgeous soundtrack completes the immersion, with tracks that reflect the personality of each character and the atmosphere of each moment. The experience is worth the price of admission for the vibes alone.
Despite the seriousness of the case at hand, the tone of the writing is mostly on the light side, with eccentric characters and humorous exchanges. The game's Teen rating, however, is well-earned, as there are some tense moments as well as a subtle darkness hiding behind the island and its inhabitants. There is a history to this place, what with the mysterious nature of the lake surrounding the island, multiple members of both families having left for unknown reasons and the people that remain on the island each harboring secrets to be uncovered. And uncover them we will, because this is a detective game.
The original game's investigation mechanics were iterated upon, but the gist of the sequel remains more or less the same: Grimoire and his assistant, Sally, both of which are controlled by the player, move between locations by selecting them on the map, and examine the scenes point-'n-click style to find clues. Sometimes, said clues are gated by puzzles which, intentionally or not, end up being one of the standout points of the experience, being of a similar caliber to the more high quality puzzles from the best Professor Layton games. Even the BGM used during puzzle-solving is somewhat like of those in that series games.
The closest parallel for the overall mechanics, however, would have to be the Ace Attorney series, what with the assembling of a case file full of clues, the gathering of statements from each witness and the presentation of evidence to those same witnesses in other to have them set their testimonies straight. Grimoire and Sally, however, have the freedom to explore the many rooms of the titular mansion in a non-linear fashion, giving the investigation in Tangle Tower a more player-guided, deliberate feel that sets it apart from its inspirations.
Of course, which such freedom comes an increased chance of the player missing a clue or otherwise getting stuck, and the game is especially careful not to let that happen: a hint button in the map screen, when pressed, mentions a room that would yield a clue if investigated; in addition, whenever the set of evidence needed to press one of the witnesses becomes available, the game is even more explicit, with the playable characters notifying the player that the option to press on a suspicion is now available via voice lines and an on-screen call to action. The hint button is for the better, but its when these prompts come up that Tangle Tower's biggest flaw becomes more evident.
Progression to the final sections of the game is gated behind finding the contradictions in each of the witnesses' testimony. Crucially, this must be done at once, which is why the game makes a point of notifying the player that the option to do so is available, but because it happens right after getting a crucial piece of evidence, the result is that the player must, all at once, make several conclusions about that witness that they might not have had time to digest. This takes them away from the driver's seat as they are tossed into a gauntlet of multiple choice questions that, due to their very nature, stop short of spelling out the answer to the suspicion in question.
It's an issue with the design: had dialogue options not been standardized, and instead, had there been multiple opportunities to, piece by piece, break down lies and/or answer questions about the witness, the player could have been eased into the conclusions the game expects them to take without losing the feeling of agency. The Ace Attorney series also sometimes uses testimony records as pieces of evidence, and something in that direction could have helped give players more freedom to solve the case by themselves, for instance, by having to choose what to press the witness on.
Potential improvements to the investigation mechanics aside, Tangle Tower is still a very satisfying experience: the relaxing vibes, approachable tone and exceptional voice acting alone are enough to justify the experience; the intriguing mystery, great brain-teasers and, despite its issues, still entertaining detective work seal the deal. I sure hope this is not the last we see of Detective Grimoire and Sally, and that SFB Games puts forth a new case for them to solve coming up some time in the future.