Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is a isometric action-adventure puzzle game. The story involves Lara finding an ancient Mayan artifact, the Mirror of Smoke, which releases Xolotl, an evil spirit bent on destroying the world, as well as Totec, the titular Guardian of Light. Lara and Totec team up to track down Xolotl and save the world. The plot is pretty basic because the focus is on gameplay, where the game delivers on its promise of a fun co-op adventure.

The Silver Case / シルバー事件

The Silver Case takes place in 1999 in the (fictional) 24th Ward of Tokyo, where the murderer Kamui Uehara committed the titular Silver Case twenty years prior. He's thought to now be harmless, until he escapes from the mental hospital at which he's being detained. We play as the unnamed sole survivor of the unit first dispatched to recover Kamui, who then finds himself swept up into the 24th Ward's Heinous Crimes Unit, which investigates... heinous crimes.

428: Shibuya Scramble / 428 ～封印された渋谷で～

428: Shibuya Scramble is an amazing game. It's a visual novel whose gameplay consists solely of reading and making choices, yet despite being a relatively reserved format, it feels like 428 was developed with the guiding principle of making as many components of the game as possible provide entertainment in some way, which is what allows 428 to transcend the bounds of the format.

Chaos;Head Noah / カオスヘッドノア

Takumi Nishijou is just your ordinary, run-of-the-mill reclusive socially anxious MMORPG-addicted anime-obsessed self-absorbed rude cowardly acerbic loner Japanese teenager that lives alone in a storage container on top of an apartment building. Y'know, the usual. One day weird things start to happen, and Takumi wants them to stop, and... that's pretty much the entire plot of Chaos;Head. (I'm not calling it "ChäoS;HEAd," sorry not sorry.)

Tangle Tower

You wouldn’t be able to tell from the title, but Tangle Tower is the third game in the “Detective Grimoire” series—or, if you ask some people, perhaps the “second” game. Detective Grimoire started off as a free flash game way back in 2007. A full commercial game, Detective Grimoire: Secret of the Swamp was released in 2014 with a completely new art style. Since Secret of the Swamp was a complete revamp, one could argue that that is the first game... but as someone who played the original flash game way back when, Tangle Tower is unquestionably the third game.

But enough pointless history, let’s talk about fun things—like murders!

Steins;Gate / シュタインズ・ゲート

In my Raging Loop review, I said that one of the things that I thought made the game work so well was that the protagonist was intelligent and approached the situation in the same way the player would, creating a narrative flow that was engaging, natural, and aligned with what the actual player wanted to do even though there was very little direct control.

Steins;Gate is not like that.

Simulacra

A phone has appeared on your doorstep. Who owned it? And more importantly, what happened to her?

Detective Conan: Rondo of the Blue Jewel / 名探偵コナン・蒼き宝石の輪舞曲

The release of Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice in 2016 was the first time I played an episodic murder mystery adventure game on the current-generation Nintendo handheld involving a plot that progressed concurrently in both Japan and a small fictional country and revolved around a lost national treasure from said fictional country. And yet little to my knowledge, five years prior had seen the release of Detective Conan: Rondo of the Blue Jewel, an episodic murder mystery game involving... well, you can probably guess. Overall it's a decent game that perfectly captures the feel of Detective Conan. While there are a few areas that felt like they could have been polished up a bit (this is a licensed game after all), it delivers in the areas that are more important for the type of game it is.

I'm going to assume that you know the basic premise and characters of Detective Conan (also known as Case Closed in the West), so if you don't, now is probably a good time to skim the Wikipedia page.

The Room

This may tear you apart, but no, not the movie

The Room (not to be confused with The Room) is an atmospheric escape-the-room game about, despite the name and genre, opening a series of puzzle boxes. Unlike most escape-the-room games, The Room has full 3D graphics and physical control, making it feel quite close to actually manipulating the boxes yourself. While there a couple of corners that feel like they could be smoothed out, The Room is a high quality puzzler that I recommend if you enjoy the genre.

Contradiction (+ Her Story Bonus Review)

Contradiction: The All-Video Murder Mystery Adventure is, as the title suggests, a murder mystery game where all scenes are done in full-motion video (FMV) and the core gameplay element involves finding contradictions while interrogating witnesses. You play as Detective Inspector Frederick Jenks, who is investigating the death of Kate Vine, a PhD student in the small village of Edenton. While the large amounts of alcohol in Kate's system imply that it may have simply been a suicide or accident, there are a few elements that suggest foul play may have been involved. Moreover, much of the town seems controlled by Atlas, a local business course that may be a front for something much more sinister...

When I first finished playing Contradiction, I was lukewarm towards it. When I initially began writing this review, I said that I would describe pretty much every element of the game as "good, not perfect, with flaws that are there but not major." But the more time has passed, the more problematic I have come to regard the game and the less I find I like it. Contradiction is a game without a... vertebrae. I can't say it doesn't have a heart or soul, because it does. What it's missing is something to keep it straight and sturdy; a plot. But because it doesn't have one, it ends up weak, mushy, and forgettable.