The Mermaid Mask Review
“A captivating deep sea mystery” Written by: Hunter (@ReaperHunter23) Review Copy Provided by Publisher
I came to discover the development of The Mermaid Mask a little while after playing Crow Country a couple years back. SFB Games had a new fan in me. So I was elated when I discovered that they already had a series of narrative mystery games with a new entry on the way. They already impressed me with their horror game so I was eager to see how they play around in the space of one of my other favorite genres. The premise was plenty enticing. Solve a murder in a game that takes place entirely on a submarine? Sign me up. So without further delay, let’s dive into the game and see if my anticipation was warranted.
Image Credit: SFB Games, Panic Department
The Mermaid Mask has you assume the role of Detective Grimoire and his partner Sally. They have been hired to solve the case of Magnus Mortuga’s murder. Said murder happened on Mortuga’s submarine in a locked room that he was alone in when he died. It's up to Grimoire and Sally to parse through the information given to them by the assortment of wacky passengers aboard the submarine. That task is easier said than done since everyone on the ship has something to hide.
This game’s writing is its shining star. Sally and Grimoire managed to endear themselves to me before I even boarded the submarine. The banter between them just feels so natural. They genuinely feel like two friends just trying to crack each other with their observations. It also helps that this game’s sense of humor is right up my alley. More often than not, the dialogue I would get from examining a room or presenting a clue would result in something that made me laugh.
The passengers of the submarine are all fairly enjoyable. Each of them seem pretty by the book when you first encounter them, but further examination reveals each of them to have way more going on under the surface. One example would be Dirk Dansom: He’s a jovial, airheaded movie star that is built like a brick wall. Grimoire and Sally both write him off as being kind of dim at first blush. However, the more you interact with him and ask him about the other passengers, it soon becomes clear that Dirk is actually quite perceptive. Another example to a much lesser extent can be found with Symmetry, the stage magician. One of the quirks of her character is that she constantly speaks to you in a “Ye olde” renaissance fair dialect. However there are certain bits of evidence that make her break character. Hinting that the performance aspect of her personality does in fact have an off switch.
I was impressed with how the game fleshed out Magnus Mortuga. Fairly often in narrative mystery games, the consequence of the victim’s death is made out to be more important than the character of said victim when they were alive. It’s doubly impressive because he also falls into the dramatic and mysterious kind of character archetype but by the end of the game I felt like I understood Mortuga just as well as I understood any other character in the game.
On top of the general moment to moment writing of the game being a joy to experience, I found the way that the game constructed its mystery to be excellent as well. The story does a really good job at introducing you to the setting and then kind of just setting the stage for you to go poke around the submarine at your own pace for a while. And then once you’ve met everyone and gathered your evidence, the intensity ratchets up and things really start to click. The game deftly weaves a story themed around ideas such as the toll of duty, the potency of empathy, and the dangers of obsession into the bones of this mystery and it sticks the landing pretty emphatically.
Image Credit: SFB Games, Panic Department
The Mermaid Mask is pretty straightforward when it comes to its gameplay. There are a number of different ways you end up gathering evidence in this game. Some of the methods are fairly direct. This includes clicking on objects of interest in the environment and talking to the various suspects. However, some clues are acquired in a more roundabout fashion. There are various puzzles strewn about the submarine and each one rewards you with a clue.
The nature of the information gathering gameplay cycle was very complimentary to the writing. I never reached a point in this game where I felt stuck. Because I enjoyed the writing so much, I showed every piece of evidence I had to every character I would meet. In other games, this kind of thing is what happens when you’ve hit the wall and don’t know how to continue. But here, it was the organic way I went about playing the first couple of chapters in the game. I was never really at a loss for information. Sure, sometimes I didn’t really know what I was going to do once I moved on from the room I was in, but that was more because I was spoiled for choice rather than because I didn’t know how to progress.
The puzzles in The Mermaid Mask were balanced nicely. They were all relatively good at making me stop and think, while not being obtuse to the point of being annoying. It helps that they were all self contained. When I found a puzzle: I knew I could solve it right there rather than needing to go find the answer on the back of a clue or something.
Presenting evidence and working through the suspicions of each suspect was enjoyable as well. A lot of these would manifest as these fill in the blank sequences that were a solid way of proving that you were following along. The game also pretty often would make you be specific about the evidence you were providing by asking you to point out a specific part of it that supports your argument.
There’s a lot of subtle quality of life aspects to the gameplay of The Mermaid Mask. For starters, there’s a hint button up in the corner to nudge you in the right direction. If you answer one of the puzzles wrong, Grimoire and Sally will give hints with increasing detail. If you present the right piece of evidence but are trying to point out the wrong part of it, the game lets you know instead of acting like you were just completely wrong. If you present a clue that is relevant to the conversation, but not what is needed at that moment, Grimoire will usually say something like “Yes, but not yet”. It all comes together to provide an experience with minimal frustration.
Image Credit: SFB Games, Panic Department
The Mermaid Mask does a lovely job at bringing its characters and world to life. The game has a really unique artstyle. The thick white outlines around each character make them seem almost like stickers being placed on the really well drawn backdrops. The individual character designs are all very striking too. Dirk, Symmetry, and Gripp all look like they were rounded up from some manner of cartoon I could have seen back when I was a kid. Grimoire’s dual toned hair and deep v-neck coat make for a really neat design. My favorite design is probably for Mortuga himself. I really like the contrast between his past and present appearances. When we see him in the past, looks like a classic swashbuckler kind of design. In the present, he looks much more mythical. His hair looks like it is permanently being blown back by the wind, his jacket is torn in half to show off the cool marking on his shoulder. The guy looks like he’d be an immortal pirate captain in any other game.
The voice acting in this game is great. Grimoire and Sally’s line deliveries perfectly suit the conversational tone of most of their dialogue. Sally specifically has this really great subdued excitement that she’ll put in her voice when she sees something that she finds especially pleasing. I think Sinthia’s delivery did a great job at portraying her as someone who was taking her position as captain seriously, while still clearly getting across that she is just a kid who is out of her depth. I think my favorite performance has to go to Mr. Gripp. His ability to portray being a hapless knickknack merchant, to a seemingly brilliant map reader was something I found to be very impressive. All of these performances are perfectly complimented by a stellar soundtrack that went way harder than I was expecting it to.
Image Credit: SFB Games, Panic Department
Summary
The Mermaid Mask is a must play if you like narrative mystery games. The back bone of any good mystery game is the writing and The Mermaid Mask excels in that department. Everything surrounding the mystery was impeccable as well. The puzzles were a reasonable change of pace without getting in the way. The characters were all so compelling that for the first couple of hours of playtime, I was just talking to people and not even really trying to piece the mystery together until later. And when it finally comes time to solve the mystery, The Mermaid Mask knocks it out of the park with an exquisitely delivered final act.