المراجعات

• gamedeal user

  Jul 9, 2022

  I'll give it a thumbs up for being a lovingly-made indie game, but this game didn't work for me. The most important warning I can give is that this is *not* a mystery solving game with picross. This is a *visual novel* with picross, and one with no real choices at that. There's a bit of interactivity in dialog choices and showing clues to characters clues, but these have no affect on the game and are all but absent in latter cases. I've got nothing against visual novels, but the characters, writing, and plot were just not for me. As I mentioned, you never solve anything yourself; instead, the protagonist jumps from wild speculation to wild speculation. Multiple times each case, the protagonist gets someone arrested and then immediately discovers evidence that exonerates them. This trope is clearly to stretch the length of the cases, but it's no fun to helplessly watch the protagonist be frustratingly incompetent over and over. The mysteries themselves were silly and incoherent, full of switchbacks and red herrings that don't stand-up to a cursory application of common sense. The picross itself is fine. There were some quality-of-life things I missed (like a setting to only drag in straight lines), and they ramp up the difficulty by having smaller numbers instead of larger maps (I believe there is only one map larger than 15x15). I personally enjoy larger maps over smaller fiddlier maps, but YMMV. The picross is like pizza...if you like picross, this game will hit the spot. One other thing that annoyed me: you get a ranking for each case, and each rank unlocks a few bonus picross puzzles. However, because there are no meaningful choices outside of the picross, your rank is entirely based on how many of the picross puzzles you solve without hints. I played the very first puzzle on easy, locking me out of the S rank for the first case. The only way to get S rank (and unlock the only puzzle in the entire game I missed) would be to replay the entire first case again (which has no new puzzles and nearly linear dialog). Not a big deal, but an example of how the mechanics of the game just didn't come together well. Ultimately, this game has maybe 16 hours of picross puzzles, and maybe another 4 hours of dialog that did not work for me. It's up to you whether that's the kind of game you want to play.
• gamedeal user

  Dec 7, 2020

  [h1]Pros[/h1] Gripping (if at times predictable) story Gorgeous character illustrations Varied character building Amazing soundtrack Wide variety (and decently large number) of picross puzzles ranging in difficulty [h1]Cons[/h1] Missable puzzles Lack of accessibility settings for the hacking puzzles Main menu credits softlock Ability to stray into wrong columns/rows when filling in a bunch of cells Unskippable tutorial Inability to save mid-dialogue (unlike traditional VNs) With Fall Guys being a runaway success for Mediatonic, it can be particularly easy to forget that that game was not the only one they released this year. Earlier, they released this game - Murder by Numbers, which melds picross solving and visual novel into one package. I'm not huge into visual novels, but picross is one of my guilty pleasures. I've played a variety of picross games on Steam over the years, of varying quality. In terms of that, Murder by Numbers slots in into the above half - but there are issues with the picross engine that hold it back from the top. It's great that it isn't that easy to accidentally overwrite filled cells with the opposite type of mark, but it is ridiculously easy to stray into adjacent rows or columns while marking in most of a bunch of cells and ruin the puzzle altogether. The puzzle difficulty is really comparable to most other games, ramping up slowly but gently. The last few ones in the main 'story' can be quite the challenge, but are still ultimately easily solvable, and they never get too big (unlike the 20x20 or larger grids you might see in other games). The 5x5 hacking puzzles are a good change of pace, but multiple people have reported struggling with the time limit required to solve them. As for the story, it is actually rather enthralling, no doubt helped by the exciting soundtrack and the gorgeous character designs. Give me a sequel to this game (though with some much-needed improvements over the first). [h1]When to buy[/h1] Easily worth full price for hours of gorgeous picross solving. If both Hatoful Boyfriends are in your collection you can also pick up the Murder Most Fowl Collection bundle for an additional 20% on top. [h1][b]8.5/10[/b][/h1]
• gamedeal user

  Mar 18, 2020

  This is a cool mashup of Phoenix Wright and picross puzzles that needed just a bit more polish. The characters designs are great, though their writing feels like it could've used a little more work. The music (from the composer of Phoenix Wright) is fantastic , but it gets old real fast listening to a single song on repeat while you solve a puzzle. But I could overlook all those. The bigger flaws are that the game seems to ignore various features common in visual novels and in picross games that make this game a pain to play. It's very easy to skip dialogue boxes and there's no conversation log to go back and check what you've missed. There's a weird little scanner you have to use to hunt down evidence that's reminiscent of pixel hunting in old adventure games, and quite frankly adds nothing worthwhile to the game. The puzzles don't give you the ability to clear the board, and don't lock your mouse to a row/column when you click and drag to mark a bunch of stuff at once. I've also softlocked my game twice and had to edit a save to get unstuck. Overall this game does a lot right, but it just a little too annoying to play at the moment. Even if the usability were better, I'm not sure the concept works. The puzzles never go above 15x15, which isn't that exciting if you're a picross fan, and the writing and VN segments are.. fine, but it gets really tedious when a cool plot revelation is undercut by making you solve a puzzle.
• gamedeal user

  Mar 18, 2020

  A hybrid visual novel/picross game. My play time is nearly 40 hours, but I'd estimate the VN parts are only about 10-12 hours of that; I spent most of the time staring blankly at picross boards and erasing/restarting after making a few bad moves. Turns out I'm really bad at picross! But I still found it a satisfyingly fun challenge, and it's a lot more manageable in easy mode. The character artwork is lovely and very expressive, and I'm a fan of how the chunky white outlines make everything pop from the background. The writing is entertaining, with some memorable characters and amusing dialogue. It's very Phoenix Wright-esque; not as over-the-top in tone as Phoenix Wright, but enough so that things like "how exactly do police investigations work in this universe" and "why would the killer do something that obvious" don't really feel out of place. The conclusion of the story is pretty predictable, but there are some surprises along the way. The music unfortunately gets gratingly repetitive during the longer puzzles, but aside from that, my main criticisms are purely technical: - No backlog or skip text options. - No way to skip puzzles when replaying. - No way to undo recent moves or automatically clear the board. - Minor save/load bugs; saving in the middle of a question drops you back to the main investigation screen on loading, and saving in the middle of a puzzle resets all the completion indicators on loading. Hopefully these can be fixed in a future update. The game was enjoyable enough that I didn't find the technical issues too annoying, and I'd still recommend it to fans of casual puzzle games and stylized mystery VNs.
• gamedeal user

  May 19, 2022

  I wish I could post a neutral review, but overall I wouldn't recommend this to my friends. Also, if you're looking for an "Ace Attorney" replacement, I would definitely not suggest this game. A "guilty until proven innocent" not-even-a-real-detective kinetic novel with mandatory nonograms. This is a very "rough draft" of a story. I absolutely liked the personalities of the characters being built, but the story formula was so terrible. Terrible plot ideas, such as "how do we move this character to this scene?" "Let's just completely disregard common sense and make her run back to the guy with the gun." Or "hey you're connected to the crime, you did it, and I'm gonna shout it to the world and make you look bad." Basically, the good guys are literally bullying innocent people because they don't get the answer they want. I just started on the last chapter, but I feel like I'm dragging my feet through the rest of this story to see how everything connects. Characters interrupt for dramatic effect, but if you read too slow, you won't catch what's going on. Definitely needs a "backlog" for the visual novel element. I wish the puzzles had more random-ness rather than chapter 1 being easy puzzles, and chapter 3/4 being really long puzzles that seem to use "yet again another square object." (E.g., yes nonograms are square, but I'm tired of solving for a box in a box.) I've had a few bugs where I needed to exit the game and relaunch just so I could continue to "investigate." Seems more QA should have been involved. The artwork is FANTASTIC and AWESOME. Again, I like the characters and how they support each other. Jokes are good. Overall needs more polish.
• gamedeal user

  Feb 16, 2021

  I like nonograms. If you like nonograms too you might like this game. That being said if you aren't a fan of picross like puzzles you would probably steer clear. The puzzle aspect of the story is a main driving force for this visual novel. The story is similar to that you are solving murders and have to figure out whodunit. Though unlike the Phoenix Wright series you don't have to pay much attention to the story to reach the conclusion. I enjoyed this game for both the puzzles and it's cast of characters. In addition to solving various murders you are also tasked with piecing together your computer partner's Scout's past. As you play through each case you uncover bits of his memory. My main gripe with this though is that for the amount of work you have to do in order to recover the memory fragments it doesn't add much to the overall story of Scout's past or give much relevant additional information. It's almost negligible. That said I'd still recommend it. I enjoyed the puzzles, characters and story. It wasn't boring but it wasn't genre defining either. I'd like to see more puzzle hybrid VN like this though. It breaks up the monotony of "just reading"
• gamedeal user

  Aug 6, 2021

  [h1]More please[/h1] Murder by Numbers is a VN + Nonogram puzzle fusion via Phoenix Wright-style murder mystery. Surprisingly, it works! [b]The VN[/b] I don't normally consume VNs - I'm an avid Nonogram puzzle player and that's what I was looking for first and foremost, and I was surprised by how quickly I took to it's VN aspects. I am a fan of the Ace Attorney games so that aspect was very easy to like. It doesn't hurt that the artwork is gorgeous and the writing is stellar. Dialogues are snappy and the characters are interesting, well rounded and lovable, though I liked them so much that I was a bit disappointed that some of them don't make a return in the last episodes. [b]The Puzzles[/b] As a veteran player, the puzzles felt a bit easy, except for two at the very end they never go over 15x15 in size, though they're pretty good and I do understand that they must've wanted to keep the pace of the story going rather than locking you in a single puzzle for too long. I read some other reviews saying that there were too many puzzles, and I guess that really depends on what you're looking for. Personally I loved them and there were just enough of them for me, so I guess YMMV. Most of the expected functions for this kind of puzzles are there, though locking on to the line you're marking would've been nice. Also, while the music is really lovely, some of the tracks that play when you're doing a puzzle get a little too hyper for this kind of game and I had to turn the volume down until I finished them. Also, while most of the puzzles play like traditional Picross puzzles, the game does introduce some variety with the hacking minigames. I hope they explore stuff like that in the future should they make more games like this. [b]Representation[/b] I wanted to make a special mention of the diversity and representation in this game. When the first gay character appeared I was worried for a second that he might end up being just another stereotype but was so pleasantly surprised. KC ended up becoming my favorite character by far, and I like that characters' lives, sexual orientation and gender identity are commented on plainly, openly and in an uncomplicated manner instead of skirting around it. Some reviews might disagree but all the queer characters read true to my experiences. [b]The full picture[/b] If you love Picross puzzles and don't hate VNs, if you love VNs and don't hate picross puzzles, or especially if you love both, get Murder by Numbers. It's an excellent story that looks amazing and plays great. I hope there's a sequel coming sometime!
• gamedeal user

  Mar 18, 2020

  A cross between Picross and Ace Attorney. I'm not a fan of picross (especially the 15x15 grids) but there are ways to pass the puzzles without actually solving it yourself so I don't mind it so much. Play as an ex-actress and a flying computer to investigate murders and look for evidence with the power of picross scanning XD I loved the characters and the 1st case became very relevant to what happens in the end so the overall plot somehow got explained within 4 cases and I'm satisfied. There are a lot of extra puzzles for picross lovers to solve within SCOUT's memory to unlock but I'm too lazy to solve them even if it is to unlock some scenes @_@
• gamedeal user

  Mar 27, 2020

  The gameplay is basically just picross. If you dont like it, this game isnt for you. Besides that, the music is fantastic and the story is imo pretty good. I didnt expect anything from it, but because of that, i was surprised. Very well thought out story. 30 hours of gameplay just for the story. Then there is an extra mode without a story i didnt even touched. Well worth full price. Pretty cheap actually.
• gamedeal user

  Jun 12, 2020

  The game has only a handful of tracks, so you hear the same ones over and over. The largest puzzles are 15 by 15 and get somewhat repetitive as you get into Case 3 and Case 4. The story is functional but I didn't feel like any of the game's twists are too unexpected. (You might say this game is rather [i]by the numbers.[/i] The puzzles are enjoyable in short bursts but I wish they had some sort of additional gimmick to them to keep it from going stale since it's [i]the[/i] core gameplay.