Little Locked Rooms

Short and sweet. I got it on sale, personally would not have paid full price for such a short game but YMMV. Puzzles are all logical. There are six cases and it's structured around reading case info, examining crime scenes (very simple, you literally just look at them, maybe zoom in and click to see how things move) and then answering questions based on what you see. The first two cases are kind of weak IMO, but they get stronger from there. The last case is great; challenging and rewarding. Surprisingly polished too - every wrong answer I put in got a custom response that acknowledged the train of thought I followed and why it was wrong. In a few cases, where an alternative scenario *could* have happened, or where you had an idea of what happened but chose an imprecise answer to represent it, the game acknowledges your answer as reasonable, nudges you toward the right answer, and gives no penalty, which I thought was nice.

This is a rather cute, short game. I like the mini-dioramas and the ninja people. I like the portrayal of the siblings/their relationship with the dad. As for the mysteries... I liked reading them... But let's just say that I should never be allowed to investigate. Lmao.

This game is okay if you have a couple hours to kill. I thought it would be more involved - that you'd get to do more on the actual dioramas (you can hardly move anything). It's short and oversimplified - it leans more heavily into the visual novel angle than the interactive mystery game one. The last case with the castle was the most interesting. I wasn't as interested in the kids bickering. It reveals information after you solve each case that the police would have known while they were investigating, which is a little frustrating (but then again I have been bingeing Poirot lately - and he's way more into the psychology of the various suspects than hard physical evidence - this game is all physical evidence and character information is considered irrelevant). Shoutout to Frances Glessner Lee - who is mentioned nowhere in this game, but did create actual dioramas of actual crime scenes that were used to train investigators. If you like forensics and history, check her out!