The Mermaid Mask Review Summary

A worthy sequel with gorgeous art and superb voice acting, but poor translation mars the story and achievement bugs frustrate completionists.

Worthy Tangle Tower sequel: Players find this game an equal or better follow-up to Tangle Tower, with a compelling plot and enjoyable puzzles, though some find it more straightforward.

Beautiful art direction and design: The game features excellent art direction, beautiful painting-like visuals, and strong character designs that showcase personality.

Excellent voice acting quality: The voice acting is consistently praised as top-notch, impeccable, and phenomenal, enhancing the overall experience.

Self-contained story with ties: The story stands alone without requiring previous game knowledge, but includes satisfying references and connections for returning players.

Well-written engaging story: The story is intricately written, interesting, and provides a spectacular payoff, keeping players invested.

Poor translation and localization: Users report poor translation overall, including unclear mini-game hints, inconsistent terms like compass directions, and one instance of untranslated dialogue. This negatively affects understanding.

Puzzle difficulty frustrations: Some puzzles are considered finicky, frustrating, or requiring a guide, such as a final puzzle with many solutions and a ship steps puzzle that needed watching gameplay. One user found puzzles too easy despite mechanical complexity.

Achievements not unlocking correctly: Several players report that achievements do not unlock despite meeting requirements, including the achievement for completing the game. This is a widespread bug affecting player progress tracking.

Achievements missable requiring replay: Multiple users report that achievements are missable and require replaying the entire game due to save locks after certain scenes. This is a significant design flaw frustrating completionists.

No manual save option: Players cannot save at desired locations and report that pressing escape toggles fullscreen instead of saving. The lack of manual save and a dedicated save button is a recurring issue.

Mystery puzzle game: The game is consistently described as a mystery puzzle game with clue discovery and point-and-click mechanics. Many reviews emphasize exploration, deduction, and fair play clues.

Great art and audio design: The game features high-quality art direction, character design, and voice acting that enhance immersion. The atmosphere is praised for its attention to detail.

Engaging puzzle challenges: Puzzles provide eureka moments and reward intuition and experimentation. While some are challenging, hints and progression ensure players do not get stuck.

3D evidence examination: Evidence can be examined interactively in 3D, allowing detailed inspection. This feature enhances the investigative experience with realistic object manipulation.

Sequel with longer gameplay: As a sequel to Tangle Tower, this entry offers longer playtime (around 10 hours) and bigger content. Players appreciate the expanded scope.

Overall good performance: Several users report no performance issues, bugs, or problems, and note good performance and low system requirements. This indicates the game runs well for many.

Lag from alt-tabbing: The lack of a borderless window mode causes lag when alt-tabbing out of the game. This is a specific usability issue that affects workflow.

Play previous games first: Many reviewers strongly recommend playing Tangle Tower before this game for context and to appreciate the evolution, though it is not strictly necessary.

Fans of Tangle Tower: The game is particularly recommended for fans of Tangle Tower, as it continues the style and quality of that game.

Highly recommended overall: A large number of reviews strongly recommend the game, with phrases like 'cannot recommend enough' and 'highly recommended' frequently appearing.

Great for mystery fans: The game is recommended for fans of detective games, point-and-click deduction, mystery, and narrative-driven experiences.

New players welcome: The game is considered accessible to new players, with some reviews noting it can be played without prior knowledge of the series.

Community fair range: $10.00 - $20.00.

Game completion: 11.0h.

Story completion: 11.0h.

Session length: 8.0h.

The game is immediately engaging due to its charming characters, humorous writing, and compelling story hook, with no reported early friction or time-to-fun delay.

Tangle Tower Devotee: Follows the story and puzzles sequentially, appreciates references and connections to previous game. Motivation: To experience a worthy sequel that expands on the Tangle Tower universe and resolves its cliffhanger. Stance: buy.

Series Completionist: Plays games in chronological order, pays attention to series lore and developer evolution. Motivation: To experience the complete narrative arc and see the evolution of the developer's craft across all titles. Stance: buy.

Standalone Newcomer: Plays independently, enjoys the narrative and puzzles without references to previous games. Motivation: To enjoy a standalone mystery game without needing prior series knowledge. Stance: buy.