Does anyone have any mystery/detective game recommendations?

[Erik.]

I very much recommend Heavy Rain if you're a gamer that enjoys older titles. If I remember right, I think this game came out sometime in the 2010's, so the graphics are a bit dated. However, its story plays out somewhat like a interactive movie, mostly asking for you to push a button or two to keep it going while making decisions. It also does have mild gore if that's something you try to avoid in games, so keep that in mind too.

Out of this list though, Ace Attorney and Danganronpa are definitely my favorites. Firstly, they both have several games in their series, so if it does catch your attention, there will be more for you to play. Danganronpa has 3 games and AA has like 7 I think? The big difference between each series is your protagonist.

In AA, you play as a seasoned lawyer, so you'll get to interact with crime scenes, collect clues, and take everything you learn from your own investigations into the courtroom. Most times, the culprit may be revealed to you early, but AA does this often between their games. You may know who did it sometimes, but it's mostly up to you to piece the story together to prove that they did it!

For Dang, this game is a classic. The premise is that you're in a murder game with other students and you play as one of those students. When a murder happens, it's up to you to figure out who did it, and this game doesn't tell you who did it beforehand. You'll really have to rely on your thinking skills for this game, as you have to get the answer right to continue the game. If you guess incorrectly even once, it's game over. Though, it's not as hard as it makes it seem. A lot of times, you'll find yourself going "Wait, so when that happened with X person, then!!!" and you'll be able to connect the pieces together to figure out the case. I caught myself excited for each twist more often than not and that "I got it" feeling of solving a case will happen a lot when playing this game.

Additionally, I would steer from Rain Code for right now. That game came out last year and was made by the creators of Danganronpa. It plays out differently than its predecessor, and it helps to have an understanding of Dang before jumping into that game.

A bit off-topic but I still firmly believe they should make Heavy Rain into a movie or tv series.

[CattHead]

Nancy Drew games
This Bed We Made

[Guil]

not 100% sure if this is the same vibe but the game Escape Academy is really fun, its basically a digital escape room game with puzzles and stuff, i feel like it might scratch the same itch

[Symphonia]

I just finish the return of detective pikachu and it was a blast. Definitely recommend that one and its prequel. Phoenix Wright ace attonery is amazing too.

[Aero]

I just finish the return of detective pikachu and it was a blast. Definitely recommend that one and its prequel. Phoenix Wright ace attonery is amazing too.

+1 to both of these suggestions!

[Buizel]

Coming back with more recommendations!

Unheard - I regret forgetting about this one in my initial post, because I love how this game's mechanics work. Basically, you listen to conversations that happen in a room and have to piece together the crime / questions you're being asked. You play as a fly on the wall pretty much and you'll have to travel to each room to hear each convo. For example, John and Lucy could be talking about a murder in one room, while Tom is a detective sent to spy on them. So, you'll have to pay attention to how they interact with others around them and find out what exactly happened and who was murdered.

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PARANORMASIGHT: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo - This one is kind of recently released and I'm still playing it on my Switch, but it's a visual novel based on 7 folk tales set in Japan. From what I've gathered so far, each mystery has a curse item associated with it, and the curse holder has to fulfill a quota in order to bring someone back to life. But, it connects to old cases and the likes in the in game world, so it kind of plays like AI: The Somnium Files, in which you piece together the full case and solve each mystery tied to the folk tales.

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Process of Elimination - Personally, I loved this one on the Switch. You play as a rookie detective in a visual novel and you are trapped on an island with 10 (I think?? Can't remember off the top of my head lol) other detectives. Except, one of those "detectives" is a murderer for the biggest unsolved mystery to date. So, you'll have to figure out which one of you is the imposter detective. It's basically NIS's version of Danganronpa.

I recommend this review prior to purchasing, because although the story is really great (imo), the gameplay mechanics are a bit odd from other games:



Though, they aren't too hard to get the hang of, but it may not be everyone's cup of tea. Also, this review is spoiler free so the story isn't ruined.