#GIVING PHOENIX SO MANY COMPLIMENTS THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE GAME

[perky89]

"I always believed in you, Professor" he says as he turns his whole body towards Layton and holds his hand out for a handshake.

Phoenix Wright is gay as fuck for Professor Layton and you cannot convince me otherwise.

[agent-calivide]

So, no one asked for this, but since I've been playing Silent Slayer: The Vault of the Vampire, I figured I'd toss an honest to god, detailed review out for it for those who like IEYTD and saw the game was from Schell and were just curious what it was like before buying it.

Spoilers for gameplay and story beats ahead

Brief Summery:

In Silent Slayer, you play as a vampire/monster hunter who's mission is to kill the entire Clan of Zar, working from the bottom of the pecking order and killing your way up. But, you are not alone, as you have a Grimoire of sorts assisting you. The book talks, is sentient, and walks the line between helpful advice and throwing shade. All of the vampires you encounter are asleep, as your character has one night to kill the entire Clan before they rise and complete a ritual that would make them unstoppable. Your job is to break into their sealed coffins and exterminate them. There is a lot of weight put on the fact that this is your one night, your one chance to take out Clan Zar, and you cannot afford failures, but as far as I've seen (as someone who died a ton) this is more of an artificial thing to up the ante or make a more compelling narrative. You won't actually be punished if you die, say, five times on the tutorial for example or if you take the time to read the whole book's chapter before going into the level.

Gameplay:

Throughout the game, you need to use various tools to help break your way into the coffins of the vampires, and the game is very good about introducing these mechanics at a comfortable pace. Nearly every level introduces a new mechanic and is explained by the book before you enter, but also repeats the mechanics from the previous level to ensure that while you learn the new tools, you don't get rusty with the old ones. Many of the later puzzles build off of the previous ones, like having trip wires that have to be cut later getting a magic charge you have to be sure isn't activated when you go to cut them.

I previously described the game as a spooky IEYTD, but I cannot emphasis enough that is incredibly inaccurate and was mostly for comedic purposes. They are both VR puzzle games made by Schell, so the art style feels similar at moments, some things float in the air like the book and specific puzzle pieces, and the hand/gravity mechanics feel similar, but Silent Slayer is much. Much. Slower. There is a ton of weight put on being slow and cautious, there is no wild "Agent Phoenix" throw it at the wall and see what happens vibe. The game is built on tension, every part of it is the slayer having to take their time, go slowly, and at moments completely freeze. If slow games aren't your thing, I wouldn't recommend this game for you.

There are also jump scares, both in the level and when you fail. Though, I will say the failure jump scares are probably the least frightening aspect, and I mean that as a compliment! Before you get a failure death, you'll know you messed up because the game plays an audio cue and gives you a moment to brace, the volume isn't cranked to hell on the actual jump scare, all in all I think the death scares are done really well. As for the jump scares while you're opening the safe, they're generally as loud as anything else you would hear in the level, which does give a nasty jolt. This can entail bats, creaking, steps, the vampires jolting like they're about to awaken, and spiders walking on the coffin or dropping in your face, though there is a toggle setting for arachnophobes if spiders are a particularly nasty ick for you. While there are jumpscares, I wouldn't say they're as egregious as the ones in say fnaf, they mostly lean into trying to up tension, not punish you for failure save for the death jump scares I covered earlier.

Mechanics:

Silent Slayer leans into a safe cracking sort of game play experience, with a heavy emphasis on using the right tools to break into the vampire's coffins. This entails things like pulling blockades off, prying nails out of the coffin, finding the right keys, using a hook on a rod to reach into the coffin to pull things out without touching the vampire, etc. Slayer leans heavily on the need for you to go slow and take your time to stay quiet, akin to the most high stakes quiet-chip-bag-opening ever. There are certain traps that force you to freeze, to hold your arms in sustained positions for prolonged windows of time, and lots of gentle finessing.

These mechanics are particularly rough if you struggle with shaky hands and/or depth perception, but with enough patience you can get through it.

My one big critique is the actual process of killing the vampire, staking them through the heart. The way you kill the vampire is finding their heart with an enchanted heart that allows you to see where it's located, as vampires hide their hearts in strange places on their bodies to try and keep them secure. Once you locate the heart and draw out runes, you stake the vampire in the place you detected the heart earlier. But, I personally, struggled immensely with getting the stake to actually go into the middle of the target I placed, resulting in a death that made me restart the level from the very beginning. Of course, I do think that there's nothing wrong with a little challenge, but I had times where I lined up the stake, went to stab, and watched in horror as it went in completely off course. This may be due to user error, my friend who also played along didn't have this struggle, but it's a thing to keep in mind if you struggle with shaking.

While there is not a visible overall timer, there is a time limit of roughly 10 minutes, which doesn't sound like much but honestly is more than enough time for the most part. After roughly 4 minutes and 45 seconds, the book gives you an audio cue that you're going slow, at 9 minutes the book tells you there's only seconds left, and from there you have roughly 60 seconds to finish the level. I honestly have yet to get that second time warning outside of the time I chose to die on purpose to time it out.

Art:

The game is absolutely gorgeous, each vampire having their own lore, room, and story explaining who they are, how long they've been a vampire, and in some cases how much the book disdains them personally. Each space is full of life (Despite the enemies being undead) and the tools you work with as the slayer all feel very real and are easy to see the aspects of when using them to take apart traps. The wire cutters are thin and straight so you know they're lined up, the hook and rod have a white claw that helps it stand out against the dark coffins when trying to grab things, etc. If you are squeamish to blood, occult things, dust, skeletons, spiders (though you can turn those off), eyes, or a sense of being watched, the game may be a bit rough for you, but it's a wonderful horror experience if those aren't things that get too under your skin. I honestly could (and probably will) go back to replay the game just to get screen grabs of the book throughout the various levels because the Grimoire in particular is just so well done.

All in all, Silent Slayer is a fantastic horror experience in my opinion, my one big thing is just don't go into it expecting a spooky IEYTD game just because it was made by Schell and is also a VR puzzle game. They're puzzles in the same way Escape Rooms and Puzzle Boxes are both puzzles. Similar, but very, very different.

[operationrainfall]

Title Ghosts of Miami Developer Pillow Fight Publisher Pillow Fight Release Date August 22nd, 2017 Genre Visual Novel Platform PC Age Rating All-Ages Official Website

Ghosts of Miami is a game in disguise. Behind the bright colors, Bryan Lee O’Malley-esque character designs, and upbeat tunes is a gritty detective story that holds little back. Digging deeper into the game, however, leads to frustrating design choices. Let me explain.

The story follows Consuelo Martinez, better known as Chelo, as she looks into missing persons cases. She performs her investigations in 1980s era Miami, which is very evident by the emphasis on neon colors and constant referral to President Reagan. Not only that, but many of the cases revolve around hot topics from the time, such as cocaine abuse. The game also dabbles in topics that are relevant today, such as immigration.  The fact that Ghosts of Miami subverted my expectations with such real-world problems behind such a cartoony exterior is truly one of its main highlights. The level of research inserted into the story further enhances the world of the game. The plot is further complemented by a diverse cast of characters. From Chelo’s stern landlord, Mrs. Woon, to Jed the drug dealer, even the game’s side characters are brimming with personality. As a visual novel, Ghosts of Miami works by complimenting a fleshed out and colorful world with an equally likable cast of characters.

Ghosts of Miami is a visual novel, though it doesn’t fully know what kind of visual novel it is at times. Sure, Chelo is investigating up to five missing persons cases, but she also must balance having a relationship on the side. The game’s cast is very diverse with a range of personalities, giving you five different characters to romance. Who will you choose? Luci Escobar is Chelo’s long-time friend whose family dabbles into legally gray areas, Janet is a cross-dressing king of the stage, Ethan is a kind and helpful paramedic, Richard is an older gentleman with mysterious motives, and Tala is a 19-year-old who is a fan of Chelo’s old high school band. Each character is relevant to the game’s story and plays some kind of role, though more so when they are romanced. However, what do you emphasize: your job or your relationship? If you focus too much on your relationship, you could miss out on valuable clues to your investigation. On the flip side, if you focus too much on your investigations, your love interest might not be happy with your choices and give you an ultimatum. Depending on your choices, you might not unlock the final case.

But here’s where the game falls apart a bit. Throughout each case, you build up a collection of clues and suspects to ultimately lead you to a final scene where you solve the case. However, most of the cases you can’t really fail. If you make the wrong choices, either the person you are looking for pops up on their own or you somehow still find the missing person anyway. The case will say “unsolved” but you will still have solved it in the eyes of the story. This occurred in case three, in which the story said Chelo found the person, but the game still said I didn’t solve the case. However, most solutions should be straightforward if you spent enough time investigating the right places. Whether you solve the case or make the wrong decisions, your actions feel almost irrelevant to the overarching story.

The save system doesn’t really help either. Ghosts of Miami only allows for one save, and it happens automatically when you choose to quit the game. It reminds me of the Phoenix Wright series, except it worked for those games because the story was very linear. For a visual novel that has multiple routes to choose from, having such a save system just leads to a lot of text skipping. In that case, a skip feature would have been very much appreciated, but that too is missing from the game. Unfortunately, I did run into a glitch in case four when, while talking to an NPC named Angelique, I quit during a choice and the screen it was completely black when I loaded my save, leading me to start the entire case over. At least you do not have to completely start the whole game over when you need to go back to a specific case; just pick which case you want to start over on and you are done. However, with your choices affecting multiple cases, a more robust save system would have been appreciated.

The look and sound of Ghosts of Miami work hand-in-hand to bring out the 80s feel. As mentioned, the artwork is full of bright colors that contrast the dark nature of the story. The art style is reminiscent of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim comics or perhaps more like the diverse cast of Steven Universe. Even the bright backgrounds with blurry details are charming in themselves. The sound as well is full of techno beats reminiscent of what you’d hear in an 80s cop drama. The animated opening fully demonstrates this TV show feel. With the art and sound direction, the game clearly shines.

Ghosts of Miami is a good visual novel. Despite the bright colors and upbeat soundtrack, the game delves into pretty heavy subject matter. However, where it fumbles is exactly where Chelo fumbles in her career: balancing a detective game with dating sim elements. With a better save system and the ability to skip text, completing the game 100% would feel like less of a chore. A single playthrough can take eight hours or less, each case running around an hour and a half or slightly longer. However, the game will take longer if you try to achieve all six endings. Ghosts of Miami is a charming detective story held back only by its inability to put everything within the player’s control. You can grab the game on Steam for $14.99.

[easyreview cat1title=”Overall” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”3.0″]

A copy of the game was provided by the developer.

REVIEW: Ghosts of Miami Title Ghosts of Miami