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Review
Originally posted on intfiction. Minor edits were made.
I greatly enjoyed Lamp Post Projects’ The Secrets of Sylvan Gardens and Fantasy Opera: Mischief at the Masquerade when they were submitted last IFComp, and was very hyped when I saw the return of the fantastical Italian opera setting for the 2026 Spring Thing.
Like the first game, you play as a private investigator investigating trouble, this time strange dreams affecting the musicians, before an important performance. Compared to the first game’s crime, here I personally found the conflict much more relatable and insular. (Spoiler - click to show)I certainly feel the fear of a wasted life and being envious towards a superior, so I could relate to Vitale.
Gameplay was smooth, with helpful tutorial popups and score information (the latter can be turned off). There is a handy notepad and history log section for reviewing evidence and the theater layout. You can even download the history as an HTML file to read as a full narrative, if you wish. You can select pronouns (including rotating sets and inputting your own), your race (mainly the well-known D&D/Pathfinder races), picking two out of three of musical prowess, magical aptitude, or architectural knowledge, and whether you’re a charmer or really good at detecting people’s tells. Nothing substantial is tied to race bar some comments and selectable choices for roleplaying purposes, but skills are tested through d4 die roll skill checks, where a random number is rolled and you add your skill bonus to the check. You automatically fail if you roll a 1 or automatically succeed if you roll a 4 regardless of how good or bad you are at a skill. Success mainly determines if you can get clues out of the people you interview, or can find out some hidden facet of the theater’s construction or possible magical influence.
It was easy to guess the culprit, as I passed most of the Observe skill checks which gave me the text equivalent of a red flag waving “this one is really sus” before I even talked to the other two suspects. However, the final setpiece is not reliant on skill checks, but is pure deduction, a rather involved puzzle where you (Spoiler - click to show)direct five of the victims to a specific row and section of the theater corresponding to the contents of their dreams in order to break the curse. I had a good time solving the puzzle, it wasn’t too hard especially when the game gives you a handy automatically updated notepad, dream log, and full text history (nice try being sneaky with that (Spoiler - click to show)“I normally play harpsichord but this time I’ll sing” move, I almost fell for it). I’m glad that The Theater of Memory’s climax is much less dependent on being lucky compared to Mischief at the Masquerade (though I did like Mischief’s more fast-paced, action-y third act)
The epilogue where you go back to the theater with a work friend/date could be expanded. I recognized some of the names from the initial preset character options but I couldn’t remember who exactly they were, and the narration didn’t go into any detail. It felt perfunctory compared to the first game, whose romance/date options were at least people you spent some time with in the story and could get to know further.
If you’re in the mood for a light and friendly mystery, I would push this game forward. Try putting on a performance of, say, La flora (or another period-appropriate opera) in the background to go with it!
