Okay I shouldn’t be reading opinions of these games on reddit before I actually play them but I do and this game is an interesting case. I can’t tell what the popular opinion on it actually is. I’ve seen plenty who hate it, say the character gimmick ruins it, put it at the bottom of tier lists, and say it’s a disappointing entry. On the other hand, I’ve seen a number of people list it as their absolute favorite game in the series and all the reviews on this site seem to adore it. There’s a lot of passionate defenders of this game, and I can kinda see it. I don’t agree, but I can see where some people are coming from

Setting: It’s…ok. The map is nothing special or especially interesting. Maybe if you’re a fan of the actual book series there’s a lot more charm in seeing Nancy’s hometown. But I’ve only ever been here for the games, so I’m lukewarm on the initial idea. The main locations you explore are all pretty good, graphically. They just aren’t fun to explore. The ice cream store has like two spots, we’ve already been to a much more interesting antique store in Crystal Skull, and the jail doesn’t have much going on. Nancy’s house is just…so white. oh my god it’s so blindingly white inside how do you live here

The map did not need to be so huge with so many useless locations. At least like, highlight the important ones. It took me a while to get familiar with their spots on the map.

Characters: The suspects are really the highlight of the game, considering the plot and the small variety of puzzles available. I think they were all pretty interesting, I enjoyed figuring out their motives and why each character hated Nancy so much. There were some neat stories in there, it just involved a lot of talking. And going back and forth between different Nancy friends and different suspects and locations and back to Nancy again and back to Bess and oops back to Nancy because actually I need Ned for this

Everyone was a believable suspect and piecing together the crime from talking to everyone was fun. I didn’t love anyone in particular and no one was over the top in a fun or bad way, but at least I didn’t hate talking to any one suspect.

I did hate having to swap between Nancy and the Clue Crew though. Boy that gameplay mechanic really does suck. It would have been much more tolerable, still not good, but slightly better if you could switch off between friends. But no, you need to be Nancy to select anyone. If you’re Ned but only Bess can get more dialogue from this suspect? Gotta switch over to Nancy and then you can switch over to Bess. It just adds so much unnecessary time to this already not that exciting game.

Puzzles: I finished this game a few days ago and I am drawing a blank on what puzzles were present. I think…I stacked objects to reach something in the beginning? I remember there was an annoying number puzzle at some point. All the puzzle solving present here is very lightweight and takes a backseat to the story and characters. I barely took any notes, actually all I ended up writing down were a few numbers and a reference guide for the tunnel puzzle (which I fucked up twice and then cheated on because I only have so much patience)

This is definitely a dialogue heavy game and I can respect that, but I don’t really like it. Nancy Drew games are, for me, at their best when I can explore fun locations, find things and then use things to solve neat little puzzles. While occasionally chatting with some wacky characters to advance the plot.

Story: So, if this game is all about the story, how is the story?

idk I guess it was pretty good. It certainly wasn’t the most captivating plot, despite the fact that it should be. Nancy getting framed and trapped in jail for a mysterious crime? That should be pretty exciting, but I just didn’t really feel any urgency. Ransom of the Seven Ships suffers from this problem too, a plot with stakes but no urgency to back it up. I mean, Ransom suffers from a lot of other problems too and that’s honestly one of the lesser problems. But this game is a lot better than Ransom and deserves a bit more Oomph in the storytelling.

The Final Scene does a great job at conveying a sense of urgency with the dialogue and music, even the lack of puzzles makes you feel like you’re not wasting any time trying to find the victim. But the puzzle scarcity in Alibi in Ashes just highlights how boring the constant switching and navigating the map is when there’s not much there to break up that cycle.

am i even still talking about the story? Anyway, the setup felt a little ridiculous to me. what the fuck is a clue competition what is up with this weird ass detective town. And what a convoluted way to frame Nancy. I’m still not clear on why a snowflake ice cube caused an old building to catch on fire or how exactly the culprit set that up to frame Nancy. Is it possible I didn’t get all the details because I couldn’t be bothered to exhaust all the dialogue options? yeah, that’s pretty likely actually.

I did like the theme of corrupt small town politics and how some will ignore justice in order to advance their own goals and I think the story handled these topics pretty well. And Alexei’s story ties in well with Nancy’s current situation, even if internally i’m like “ok damn how many teen detectives does this town produce.”

I wish I liked this game as much as others do. It felt special. We get to explore Nancy’s hometown she’s talked about for 24 games now (and probably much more in the actual books that I sometimes forget exist) and all of Nancy’s friends are here (except for the hardy boys) and it’s a pretty exciting plot setup for a Nancy game. It just doesn’t hit all the marks I expect from these games and it ended up feeling a bit disappointing at the end of it all.