Murders on the Yangtze River Reviews

Very fun ace attorney inspired detective game, some of the English translation is a bit wonky, but it never gets in the way of solving the cases.

This game follows the Ace Attorney formula, but it flows more naturally and less comedic effects. The puzzles are logical and require some thinking. The game also includes many historical facts which are quite interesting. Definitely recommended.

I enjoyed this game immensely. The gameplay, the story line, the plot twists. The character design, the graphic. The game was very well made. You get to interact more than just collecting clues, arguing in court and such, you get to do more. I think it is a nice change of pace and nice atmosphere. Would definitely keep an eye out of the developers decide to make another game.

This is the first game I have truly ever been moved to write a review for. Wow. Just wow. That's really all I can say about this incredible game. I am an aspiring private investigator, so I have been trying to find deductive reasoning games to sharpen my abilities. This game has been an incredible tool in that regard, not to mention the absolutely engaging story and larger than life characters. Easily the best $13.00 I have ever spent, but I would have happily paid at least $50.00 for this. I am definitely looking forward to a sequel!

I was really touched by this game and I can't really explain what it was I really, really connected to the cast. The ending was so incredible satisfying and gut wrenching. I loved every single moment and I really look forward to many more adventures to come! There were some ropey moments with the VA in English particularly toward the end that felt somewhat out of place, and the odd translation awkwardness. Other than that, absoloute, emphatic, recommend

Bloody amazing, I got hooked and couldn't stop until I finished the whole game

A soft recommend. While parts of it are genuinely brilliant and some of the best mystery/logic puzzles I've seen in games, other parts are poorly paced, lacking in emotional depth, and hampered by poor translations and the use of AI voices (I understand the limitations that may have resulted in this but it is a flaw of the game nonetheless). Pros: - A compelling period piece depiction of early 20th century China, a time period most westerners will not have much insight into. I really appreciated the real life fact inclusions, helping explain and give context to many of the things seen or mentioned in the game. I also enjoy that the game does depart from this setting at times to explore London, seeing a foreign perspective on many of the developments in the west and how they impacted China was fascinating. - Brilliant mysteries that always had me lighting up with satisfaction when the pieces came together - not always all at once as well! The game does a good job of helping you slowly unravel the mystery and see through the many tricks and deceptions. For the first half of the game, I was very engaged and felt like the solutions to the puzzles were both very reasonable once worked out while still being a fun challenge to piece together. The game pulls off a great connection of events from one mystery to another, building upon each other in a way that was my favorite in the game. It does this twice, with two different mysteries informing other ones, and "solving" one mystery only to realize it goes far deeper was super enticing! - The game has many moments that just feel fun. The presentation and drama, the goofy and expressive characters, they combine to make you feel like the super smart detective that figures everything out. People mentioned Ace Attorney as a comparison and I have to agree, the developers themselves even mentioned they took inspiration from that series and it shows in a good way. I'm also really reminded of the dramatic scenes in Danganronpa, especially the way cross examining evidence occurs. Cons: - In my opinion, the game greatly suffers in the back half. I never felt all that thrown by the deductions until the end of Chapter 4, which is mostly a great chapter, except for how it ends. You receive a bomb-shell twist that up-ends the case, but instead of returning to investigate and formulate a new picture of how the case must have unfolded like what occurred with previous shakeups, instead you are immediately asked to point out a suspect and explain their motives and movements. A way to take notes in game would have helped this moment, as would some way to categorize clues or mark them (as inconsistent with the new timeline for example). This problem persists through the next chapters, where the situations become increasingly far-fetched and verging into the moon-logic other "challenging" detective games fall into. The core mystery behind what happened to the brother is just so out there it was nigh impossible to solve, especially because the game introduces a new way of checking for clues which is confusing as fuck. (You have to put clues in specific spots, but there's no indication of why one clue needs to be in which spot? Like why must clue x be next to clue y for example? The confusing translations may have been a problem with this one.) - The budget unfortunately shows a little bit with this one, characters are animated quite clunky, and the game cuts to black during action scenes. The dialogue portraits and scenery are really well drawn, but the actual characters you control and see when moving around the world leave much to be desired. This also probably has to do with the very inconsistent voice acting. Some of it is incredible, it's clear real talent went into both the chinese and english voices, but especially in the last chapter.... I'm not sure if it was because these lines were re-written or added later but they clearly were not properly voiced, and were instead an AI trained on the actor's voice. It once shifted between the real voice and the ai voice within the same conversation, which was just so jarring. - The tone and pacing were sometimes not very great. I would describe the game as very "anime" sometimes, which is to say overly goofy and melodramatic. Beyond the art style, which is a little distracting when old chinese workers and farmers are talking to the hot anime husbandos, the emotional weight put on certain moments is also quite inconsistent. It's a bit hard to take the main character's inner turmoil seriously when it's represented by an "evil" version of himself who taunts him inside of his "mind palace." Or the tragedy and horror of an abusive father, destroyed by an addiction to opium and taking out his problems on his children is represented by a giant floating head that chases the kid through a hallway. Nothing really gets enough actual development to earn the emotions they try to force on you with sappy music, and I wish they would have just stuck to the mysteries. The best parts were the detectives professionally solving a case and dealing with the drama of others, not the main character's sulking and self-pitying because of the hangup with his brother's case. I enjoyed the game still despite its issues. Would recommend to anyone who likes these types of games, but maybe not to anyone who's new to them.

Fun little puzzle game with some neat history facts. Much like the ace attorney games, you have to collect evidence, connect the dots, handle any curveballs thrown at you and solve the case. I'm always down with that. Overall, I had fun solving the mysteries. Some cases were a little too easy, but still fun. I loved the hand painted art style, but I was not a fan of the chibi sprites... It looked like a pop up ad at times. Other than that, it's a solid short game for a weekend.

This is a strong recommendation for any fans of the Phoenix Wright games. Surprisingly quality writing, fun mechanics, and fun cases.

Great Ace attorney style game with a brilliant hint system. Solid voice acting and production that honestly feels better than some of the source material. Love the sprinkles of real world history and lore too.