I couldn't resist it so I played The Mermaid Masks's prequel: Tangle Tower
It was fine
Maybe if I played it before The Mermaid Mask I would've thought it was totally awesome
And of course, the art, the voice acting, the music was amazing
But I felt like it was lacking the same thing that Mermaid Mask had
like it didn't really make me feel anything
Mermaid Mask completely shook me at my core
this one didn't
it also was much shorter i finished it in approximately 5 and a half hrs (it says 6.2 cuz I had to pause it a few times)
not that I think that is an issue
anyways
so, what are my complaints?
Spoiler Warning for both games
first of all, some of the puzzles just felt like ragebait like it might just be a me-problem but I really enjoyed the puzzles of Mermaid Mask these ones I did not again, might just be a me-problem
the characters. I loved the whole cast of the Mermaid Mask and got attached to a few of them pretty quickly obviously, I loved the designs and their little movements in Tangle Tower, too, but I didn't have the same feelings for any of them
the interrogations and suspicions they felt quite lacking compared to the Mermaid Mask like Fitz's was just about a potted plant and how he cares for it and how Poppy used to dress differently when she was younger so she had a bright pink casette tape, ykwim in Mermaid Mask the characters actually had stuff that were suspicious for example Tadpole's convo with Mortuga or Dirk talking about killing someone with some unknown person or the whole deal with Sinthia and the contract and stuff now that I'm looking back, and having read some other players' comments it does seem like that Gripp's suspicion was the only one that's like about a stick he flings around but yeah you get it
also. the murderer. I feel like I could rule out Flora, Poppy, Fifi, and Felix quite easily Fitz's alibi was backed up by Poppy that leaves us with Hawkshaw, Pointer and Penny Pointer's suspicion act seemed genuine enough and the detectives believed him, too and it wouldn't have made sense for an outsider to kill a teenager for seemingly no reason, as she never left the tower that leaves us with Penny as the most suspicious one, and yeah, yk.. in Mermaid Mask, however, I couldn't just suspect one or two persons mostly everyone was suspicious and I never expected Gripp to be the one
while we're at it, let's mention that there was like no suspense at the finale in Tangle Tower, that is in Mermaid Mask, I was on the edge during the entire like solving how the murder was carried out, and then talking with everyone and how the little wooden ship slowly opened up after smashing the bottle, revealing the murderer inside... it gave me the chills in Tangle Tower Hawkshaw just shows up and at this point it wasn't surprising how it was just a disguise then Penelope explained how she is a cold-blooded murderer and then she just escaped like it just happened and we didn't even get to witness it
it also annoyed me how there we were left with several unanswered questions like how did Penny sneak into Flora's room and how did she fill up the paint pot? i've seen people suggesting it was animal blood that she prepared in advance, or that she simply filled it with Freya's blood (scraped it up from the floor??); one could argue that these unanswered questions are nothing burgers and it adds to the mystery of the game, but I feel like this is a pretty significant part of the murder, the crime scene just to be left like this
there were some others that I won't list cuz this person in the Steam Community summed them up pretty well:
These are things I cannot find satisfactory answers for at the end of the game: How Penelope arranged for Flora to hold the Inkdip feather,
again, I have nothing but praises for the art, music, voice acting..
like the environment?? the architecture of the tower??? the colors of the whole place????
the whole ambience was perfect it felt magical but also uncannily peaceful
anyways this is just a random person's rant on the internet, nothing to be taken seriously
but I appreciate it if you read through the whole thing :3