Silence of the Clams: The Mermaid Mask Review

An underwater murder mystery awaits!

The sea is a scary place. That’s coming from someone who can’t swim very well, but I think we can all agree that the endless abyss vibe it’s got going on is rather creepy. What’s even more disturbing is what lies in its vastness. Hell, a quick Google search says we have yet to map out 80% of the world’s oceans. 20% has sharks and whales the size of a double-decker bus; what the hell lies in the other 80%?  That fear has proven to be a fantastic horror setting in video games, from Subnautica to Dredge, and this time it’s become the perfect setting for a mystery. The Mermaid Mask utilizes the sea’s eerie quality extremely well in a murder case that takes place in a submarine, blending the big blue with the foreboding of the unknown. 

If you’re a detective mystery game extraordinaire, The Mermaid Mask may be an anticipated sequel. It definitely was for me. For new fans, though, this isn’t Detective Grimoire and his sidekick Sally’s first adventure. The Detective Grimoire series started way back in 2007 as a Flash game; the devs considered it a prototype for what was to come. The series enjoyed its first success in Tangle Tower in 2019, which is where it established its signature visuals and witty dialogue. Finally, we arrive at the modern day with The Mermaid Mask, and it feels like SFB Games has nailed it on the head and set up a series that I hope will only keep expanding. On the surface, The Mermaid Mask is a standard deduction-style murder mystery game, but it proves to excel in every aspect that makes up these kinds of games. From its witty dialogue to its beautifully hand-drawn art, it is a feast for the eyes and mind.

The Mermaid Mask’s gameplay is extremely reminiscent of the Professor Layton games, and I think that’s one of its greatest appeals. You navigate the town of Silkworm-on-Sea through a point-and-click system where you can interact with any object on the map. At first, it was a bit concerning that important objects weren’t particularly highlighted; instead, the background is all one solid image, so I thought it would be quite easy to miss a key item. However, I didn’t find this to be the case at all. You’re rewarded by analyzing your surroundings through unique dialogue for everything you click on. I was expecting some mundane objects to elicit a basic line like 'It's just a barrel,' but the detective duo has something to say about every small detail in the environment. Also, if you hang around long enough, you'll find that some items begin to sparkle to draw your attention to them. It’s not an effect that’s in your face but will catch your eye if you’re paying attention. 

The clues you begin to find on your hunt for the murderer will be added to a dedicated clue menu, so you can go back to look at them at any time. Every clue is presented in a 3D format so you can tilt them and spin them around to uncover details that are not apparent at first glance. Newspaper articles can be read, lockets can be opened and shut, and bottles can be shaken. All this detail made clues feel very dynamic. Analyzing clues isn’t ridiculously in-depth like they are in games like Ace Attorney, where careful prodding can unlock a secret mechanism, but there’s enough to chew on that makes you revisit certain clues to piece together the mystery. There are a lot of clues to find, and tracking who has said what can be a bit confusing, but the game helps by attaching important comments to each clue, signifying who has said them so you can analyze the clue while being able to view important context.  Like the backgrounds, I was also very impressed by all the unique dialogue each clue had when presented to different suspects. No matter how insignificant, everyone will have something to say about everything. 

After you’ve searched high and low for clues, it’s time to question the many suspects on board. Each character has the exact same menus to navigate. The first has a list of relevant topics you can ask them about, from how they came aboard the submarine to what they were doing at the time of the murder; the second is a list of the suspects aboard; and the third is just your clue log. A choice I really enjoyed in The Mermaid Mask is how they presented people’s timelines of events during the murder. Instead of just talking about it, it's all done in a uniquely animated segment that sees small chess piece versions of the characters moving from room to room, so you can visualize where they went and comprehend the information much better rather than listening to it being explained. 

All three menus can be revisited at any time. The first menu also has the all-important suspicion button, where, once you’ve gathered all relevant clues and information, you can finally find out if they murdered the suspect or not or what their ultimate motivation is. This asks the player to present key evidence (often highlighting specific parts), answer questions, and fill in scenarios to come to a resounding conclusion. If you get any part wrong, you can always try them again. I found the game never lets you feel too confused and phrases its questions very deliberately so there isn’t much room for questions. For example, when I needed to present evidence to Dirk, the game specifically asked me ‘what audio evidence’ shows Dirk’s motivation. For some players, this may make the line of questioning a bit underwhelming and obvious, but I personally found it to be okay. 

Both screens also come with hint options that you can click on at any time to reveal what clues you should be presenting to certain suspects and another hint option attached to the suspicion button that points you in the direction of how you unlock relevant information and/or clues to be able to properly interrogate a suspect.

Normally, it asks you to investigate a certain room or talk to a certain suspect. There is also a hint button on the main map itself to guide you to where you need to go next. But I never found myself using many of these hints, as there was always plenty to find and people to speak to. 

Overall, the game felt quite smooth in its difficulty. I never found myself struggling with finding information or knowing where a suspect's motivations led. With these types of games, I just recommend taking your time. Question everything and look at everything, and you’ll be rewarded. Hell, get out a pad of paper and track points of interest if it helps, but I never find these games to be all that challenging, so keep that in mind. The only areas where I struggled were in some of its puzzles, but not in a frustrating way. Clues that normally sway the course of your investigation are usually locked behind the game’s puzzles. There is a nice range of them, and I appreciated a lot of their design.

From using mirrors to alter facial features to copying patterns. They are very basic to understand just from reading the one-line instruction. I found them to be quite fun, with some clicking much faster than others. There were one or two that had me scratching my head for a while, though, as I didn’t quite understand what they wanted me to do; that may just be a me problem, though. Again, there isn’t much challenge to be had here; there’s no real brain twister like you can find in the Layton games, but they serve their purpose well. 

The Mermaid Mask has my favorite story in the series, as it uses the backdrop of a misty seaside town with the mystical, yet foreboding, nature of the sea to create a supernatural murder mystery. Detective Grimoire and Sally have been called to investigate the locked-room murder of the submarine’s captain, Magnus Mortuga. The crew has found Mortuga with his throat cut, lying dead on the floor of the ominous ‘Illusion Theater.' The door to the room was shut, and an ancient cauldron that has never been unlocked is open, with scratch marks adorning the insides. With no murder weapon or suspect in sight, it’s up to you to find out what happened. Thus begins a spectacular mystery of curses, mythological creatures, and dreams. The story isn’t totally grounded in realism, as you will also be uncovering the mystery of what lies beneath the waves and a twisted family tree that involves a lot more faces you recognize than you realize. The game is also very much connected to Tangle Tower, with characters referencing familiar faces and recalling certain events that have a minute bearing on The Mermaid Mask’s story.

There are 8 characters to meet in The Mermaid Mask, and they are all kooky and lovable. They’re all exaggerated caricatures that you’ve probably seen done before, but they all fit snugly in the town of Silkworm-on-Sea. You can feel that they’ve grown up in this small town and each has a differing connection to the sea. You have the sarcastic, solemn writer who has boarded the submarine to find more inspiration for his next novel and a haunted young girl who has fled her life in the illusionist arts to pursue mysteries of her own. The detective duo we play as is also just as charming and witty; their back-and-forth banter is a delight to listen to, and you can feel their chemistry. Grimoire is more of a subdued detective lead than his other contenders in the genre, and Sally is sassy and looks tired 90% of the time. 

They are all truly brought to life through their phenomenal voice acting and fully animated portraits. This game is extremely dialogue-heavy; each character has reams of dialogue when talking about clues, other suspects, and the mystery itself, and all of that can be quite tiring. But what kept my eyes glued to the screen were the dynamic animated portraits of its characters. Every single line of dialogue corresponds with their portrait, bringing not only the characters to life but also the mystery too. 

I’m never one to look out for choices in sound design, but that’s all I could notice in this game. Every object, clue, puzzle, and menu had its own unique sound that once again made the goings-on in the submarine feel alive. From Grimoire’s voice sounding echoey and far away when they are descending into the submarine for the first time, to the swoosh of fire that sounds whenever you enter the parlor that is lit up by a roaring furnace. It all comes together to make the submarine's atmosphere creepy and creates a strong sense of ambiance that I struggle to find in other detective mystery games. The music in The Mermaid Mask is enchanting to say the least, creating a feel of grandeur and mystery in the submarine’s corridors. My absolute favorite was the puzzle screen music, which sounded extremely reminiscent of the Layton puzzle music, but with the added layer of a sea dirge playing in the background that made my skin crawl.

What ties all of The Mermaid Mask together is its stunningly enchanting visuals. It really feels like the complete package when you combine its soundtrack, story, and visuals. I would have just enjoyed it as a visual novel, as its style and atmosphere are that strong. Each environment you enter is hand-drawn and perfectly captures the cramped, claustrophobic feeling of a submarine while also making it feel grand and mystical. Environments are covered in objects to interact with, but they don't feel artificially created. Everywhere feels lived in, with messy bunk rooms full of belongings and a mess hall with half-finished glasses of wine and a card game left unfinished. I also really appreciated the lighting in each room. The furnace I mentioned earlier has an ethereal pink tint to it that bathes the parlor in a pink glow. It's mesmerizing to look at and reminds you how this mystery isn’t as straightforward as you think. 

The Mermaid Mask runs pretty smoothly on both my PC and my MacBook Air with only a couple of crashes where my screen froze. This never took me out of my experience and wasn't a big deal in the long run. In terms of settings, there isn't really much to take note of either. Those hint buttons I mentioned earlier can be completely turned off if you know you won't be able to resist the temptation, but you have to click on them to activate a hint anyway so I don’t think it's a game-changing feature. The game also has an art gallery you can unlock after you’ve reached the credits which includes some environmental and character art to look at.

As I said back at the start of this review, I would be more than happy to see the Detective Grimoire series continue to flourish and produce more mysteries. They proved they had cracked the formula back in Tangle Tower, but there is something about The Mermaid Mask that really resonated with me. Its mysticism and blend of the supernatural, mythological, and standard murder mystery intrigue all came together in an addicting detective experience. The puzzles still need some refining to make them feel great, not just standardly okay, and you may feel a bit put off with how it can guide you through a lot of the mystery, but it really does excel in everything else, from atmosphere to dialogue to the grand mystery that sweeps up every character in sight. Because of this, I'll be giving The Mermaid Mask a silver genie lamp; it just needs that extra oomph to make it the pinnacle detective mystery experience. It makes me excited to see what the team does next.

Pros

Clues feel dynamic and intuitive in 3D form

All the characters feel comedically unique 

Its visuals and soundtrack are beautifully atmospheric 

The mystery has a great mix of grounded realism and supernatural mysticism

Cons –

The game overall is not too challenging

Puzzle design is a bit lacking

Dialogue heavy for those who don’t like that

Who’s it for?

Detective Grimoire series fanatics 

If you’re looking for a smoother/easier detective mystery experience

If you are a fan of the Professor Layton games

GREAT