London Detective Mysteria

One of the things that really stands out about London Detective Mysteria is the setting. I have played a ton of visual novel-style games over the years and this one here has a setting unlike any other that I have come across. It is the setting, along with the main character that really makes this a game that is worth checking out.

Hi, I Am Emily

The main character in the game is called, Emily Whitley and she is a young aristocrat who has returned to the city (after spending time in the country) after the mysterious murder of her parents. Emily may be super cute and wealthy, but she is a far more complex, fully realized character than that.

She joins a prestigious detective academy so that she can sharpen her skills and become a master detective and of course solve the case of her parent’s murder. I was very, very impressed with Emily. Many characters in visual novel style games are one dimensional and just all about hooking up. Emily feels far more like an actual real person who has a proper personality and actual goals and things she wants to accomplish. The other characters in the school are mostly good-looking anime-style dudes which is what you would probably have expected.

Ello Mate, Welcome To London

The setting of London Detective Mysteria is as the title suggests, London, but this is 19th century London. The game features characters from many well-known lineages. For example, have you ever played a game where you get to deal with the son of Jack the Ripper and Sherlock Holmes? Well play this and you can check that off your bucket list!

The setting of the game is great, but I do have one problem with it and that is the tone. I get the impression that they could not decide if they wanted the game to be 100 percent serious or if they wanted the game to be more “tongue in cheek” and have a lot of humor to it. As a result, the tone is kind of all over the place. The game more often than not would make me laugh which was great, but on the flip side of this, it kind of undermined the character of Emily and her plight. One thing that was great was the dialogue. I am actually from the UK so seeing this Marry Poppins “Dick Van Dyke” style British dialogue was something that I found very amusing.

Play To The End

As is the case with other visual novel-style games, London Detective Mysteria has multiple endings and paths and that is great. However, keeping track of what paths you have done, what to do and so on is not exactly easy which was a bit on the annoying side if I am being honest.

I really think that London Detective Mysteria has some great ideas. I just wish that the tone would have either gone all in with the goofy and funny stuff or the more serious side. The shifts in tone did kind of take me out of the story. Still seeing the son of Jack the Ripper and Sherlock Holmes, as well as other famous characters, is worth playing this game for alone! Not only that, Emily is a character that I really did like and wished she could have been in a more serious game.

Final Score: 7.5/10

Pros:

• The 19th century London setting is great
• Emily is a great character
• The story has many turns
• Seeing descendants of classic characters is interesting
• Different endings

Cons:

• The tone is kind of all over the place which takes you out of the game
• Keeping track of what path you are on is way harder than it should be