Fantasy Opera: Mischief at the Masquerade

this is the kind of game i generally love, queer-positive fantasy with a customizable pc and a puzzle-y aspect that isn't too hard but feels satisfying. you play as a detective investigating a planned theft at an opera premiere in fantasy venice. you have a bit less than two days before the theft is supposed to happen, which keeps the size of the investigation small.

nonetheless, there are (what feels like) a lot of colorful characters to meet, with hand drawn portraits and everything. i can take or leave character portraits usually - ive liked some vns but it's also nice to be able to imagine characters the way i want to - but here i think the art is very nice and really creates a unique look/vibe for the game.

despite the time crunch, the vibe is pretty low-key and chill, and you have plenty of time to fully investigate all your leads. there's an rpg-ish stat system with dice, im not always that into randomness in an investigation type game but this seemed pretty forgiving, with multiple ways to get the same information based on different stats. im not very smart and did need a hint, but i solved the mystery and got 90 points!

i was excited by the romance genre tag but it was just a little bit and entirely at the end. it was cute but didn't feel integrated with the rest of the plot. i guess it would be hard to integrate it more with the timeline but idk i was kinda disappointed. that's why this is 4 stars instead of 5 but maybe that's unfair bc i think it could've been 5 if it didn't list the genre that way... mb ill change it later! but it just wasn't what i expected.