Review: Jenny LeClue, Detectivu (2019) [pixietails.club]

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====== Review: Jenny LeClue, Detectivu (2019) ======
Original post: https://misthold.dreamwidth.org/14109.html

**[[https://jennyleclue.squarespace.com/|Jenny LeClue, Detectivu (2019)]]** is an adventure/mystery/puzzle game starring the titular character, a kid detective living in what only SEEMS to be a boring small town. 

I picked this up for the Switch as a) I love mystery games, b) it has (excellent) full-cast voice acting, and c) it's kinda more on the visual novel end of things, such as having dialogue choices. And it's 80% off right now: score! 

Immediately got sucked into the story, which is framed through the narrator/mystery writer whose book series which Jenny is a character in. He's forced to change up his regular book formula due to abysmal sales, including adding a murder and REAL mystery plot points. The whole game has his narration running throughout, and there's even some neat scenes where the book text hovers in the physical world as Jenny moves through it. It's very meta. 

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Jenny is dealing with a lot of personal stuff in this game, and her dialogue choices all involve either being kind, mean, friendly or distrustful. Normally I play as nice as possible, but tbh Jenny isn't a very nice person right now and so I thought it'd be more true to her character to be more stand-offish. That said, the major plot points seem to happen no matter what you do. Like, I refused the walkie-talkie but it shows up later anyway as it's a necessary plot point. Also stuff in your journal changes, such as a page with your personality type, but I don't know how that ties into the rest of the game. Reviews from other players say there IS no differences and it doesn't matter what you choose, so I guess it's not that important.

I'm planning on playing it again and trying the other dialogue option route, just to see. I also need to go back and find the rest of the stickers and postcard scraps. (I love it when games have little collecting side quest things.)

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The puzzles are, for the most part, pretty easy to solve if you pay attention to your surroundings. I only used help guides twice, when I was nearing the ending and too impatient for the mystery to be solved to properly look around.

Honestly, I'd have liked to have seen slightly more difficult puzzles the further you went into the game. For instance, the "connect these wires to jump start this thing" puzzle appears three times, and it's all the same difficulty. Mostly puzzles become more difficult due to running back and forth between pieces, which takes forever because...

A couple niggles: the setting/tone screams kid-friendly game, but the dialogue is aimed more at teens/adults. There's also an extended section in a collapsed mine full of ghosts and skeletons that aren't exactly kid-friendly...

Walking is PAINFULLY slow, and running is just a slow gallop. It felt like moving through molasses. It took SO much longer to move through places than it needed to, especially considering there are several times you have to backtrack to get somewhere else. 

And finally, the ending is a cliffhanger! It turns out this is an episodic game-- not something mentioned anywhere except in the reviews I didn't read until I already finished the game. Whoops. 

Still, despite the disappointment of having an incomplete ending, I really enjoyed playing Jenny LeClue, Detectivu. It feels substantial, unlike some other puzzle games which tend to be shallow. And I love how the story gets more and more twisty the further you go into it. I'm planning on picking up the next part to this series, whenever it comes out!

Price: $24.99 (on sale regularly)

Available for Windows, macOS, iOS, Linux, Nintendo Switch, and Playstation 4(?). I played the Switch version and it took me about 5 hours to complete the story (with 83% completion for stickers/postcards).