While I found this game largely enjoyable, there were a few large problems that prevented me from really enjoying it.

This game's presentation is great, with a very unique aesthetic. On top of that, the voice acting and sound design bring a lot of weight to many of the game's moments. The music is pretty great too. I do have one issue with the game's visuals, and that comes from how hazy some things can be. There were a few instances where I genuinely couldn't tell what was happening without really inspecting the environment because of the 1-bit style. It was especially annoying when the cause of death was the last thing I needed, but that was hard to discern.

The game is all about finding out who was who, and how people died. Many of these instances are rewarding, where you can reasonably infer that information by observing the environment, photographs, and dialogue. There's many ways to decipher information, and using all the clues at your disposal can feel very rewarding. Other times, though, it becomes more annoying than fun. For instance, I figured out who the carpenter was by locating the carpenter's room, and checking every memory on that deck until I found something around that room. Lo and behold, eventually one memory had two people in the carpenter's room that I could now distinguish. It felt satisfying to deduce that. But some instances required getting rid of every other possibility first to solve them via process of elimination. It's not like you'll know that before you investigate, so you may just waste a lot of time scouring memories for details just to realize that you can't even figure them out yet.

There were some decisions that made investigation more cumbersome than it really needed to be. I would need to figure out the cause of death and the identity of the attacker, but I didn't know the attacker, so I couldn't get credit for the person who I knew everything else about. Also, it would have been good to introduce a few quality of life changes here and there. Being able to instantly warp to memories instead of backtracking across the boat would have been convenient without cutting back on the investigative feel the game revels in.

Now, there is one more thing I wasn't crazy about. Some of the investigation feels very granular, basing large assumptions off of not a lot of information. I can understand why this would work for others, but I personally found those moments of guesswork and studying of tiny details to be more annoying than anything else. Again though, not necessarily a flaw, but it wasn't something I much cared for.

Well, that was mostly complaining. But don't get me wrong, game's still pretty good. It's got a great setting, is very unique, and has wonderful presentation. Unwinding mysteries and stories of the ship is a cool and fun process. But I just don't think that this game really jives with me as much as it does with others. I can still recommend it, but it takes a lot of patience that I only sort of have.