#cordona

[professor-winter]

"ɪ ᴛᴜʀɴᴇᴅ ꜱʏꜱɪᴘʜᴜꜱ ɪɴᴛᴏ ᴏᴢʏᴍᴀɴᴅɪᴀꜱ, ᴀɴᴅ 'ɴᴏᴛʜɪɴɢ ʙᴇꜱɪᴅᴇ ʀᴇᴍᴀɪɴꜱ.'" - ᴠᴇʀɴᴇʀ ᴠᴏɢᴇʟ

[pedroam-bang]

Sherlock Holmes Chapter One (2021)

[artyella]

some messages from frogwares, hidden around Cordona

[hey-sherry]

Fish interlude!

Just a small curiosity, but: there is a little pond in the park across the theater, and if you go inside, it doesn't register as water (the screen doesn't darken). There are no fish there... because they are below the map.

[shadowstarkanada]

hey, random question, but i keep seeing you post about a “sherlock chapter 1”, and everything i’ve seen you say about it looks super interesting. if it’s not too much trouble, may you point me to where i can get into it? or perhaps present a short intro? it’s cool if you don’t want to, dw, but it sounds awesome and i trust your taste ehe

Aha! Absolutely! A chance to talk about Sherlock Holmes Chapter One! It's an open world mystery game, with an overarching story and a bunch of smaller ones. It's on multiple platforms but there's a sale on right now on Steam! (Are Steam sales global? Uh...) I bought it on PS4, and it came with all the DLC.

Save 70% on Sherlock Holmes Chapter One on Steam

In this story-driven detective thriller, a young Sherlock Holmes struggles to prove himself as he navigates an exotic, dangerous island in t

Sherlock Holmes Chapter One features a Victorian-era young (21-ish) Sherlock. It takes place on the fictional island of Cordona— I can't tell if the deluxe edition comes with all the DLC, but you will want that if possible.

There's a lot of meta I could say about this game, but I think the thing I like most is that Sherlock is allowed to be wrong. You are probably not going to think that he solved all the cases right, and your in-game confirmation is generally "of course you're right, you're Sherlock Holmes and you're ever so smart" even though the solutions can be divergent and in at least one case I felt like Sherlock was ignoring a possible solution because he was discounting the possibility that a girl was involved. That can bother people who want definitive answers and puzzle solutions, but I think on a meta level, it works really well for this game.

This Sherlock is young, arrogant and traumatized in a way that just feels right.

Mycroft is also in this game. He's barely in it, in terms of voice acting and dialog and interaction, and yet his presence is really strong, and it is absolutely beautiful. I really love the Mycroft that they set up. He's a man who's raised his younger brother from the age of 11, and really, he's almost certainly traumatized too, just with a much better stiff upper lip than Sherlock himself.

I can't speak for most of the rest of the series. I enjoyed the remake of Sherlock Holmes the Awakened, which is a Cthulhu crossover and not open world. These games are made by Ukranian developers and The Awakened was developed during the war with Russia.

I've probably gushed enough, but if there are more questions, I'd be happy to answer them!

Ah. There's one caveat: It's also Victorian. IIRC, there's an in-game content warning about racism, classism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia. As well as those, the game includes themes of child abuse, mental illness, the shit medical attitudes of the 1800s, and even some animal cruelty. And, obviously, murder. If those will stop you from playing, best to know about them now.

[storiesbytoria]

At The Archives - Vignettes of Sherry + Jon

An excerpt from my Tales of Cordona fanwriting on A03, a series of short one-shot glimpses into Sherry + Jon and their adventures/moments on Cordona. I went with the concept of a real Jon for most of these just because I absolutely adore him and his relationship with Sherry 🤍 lol

A03 account: https://archiveofourown.org/users/storiesbytoria

WARNING: May contain spoilers for Frogwares’ Sherlock Holmes Chapter One and The Awakened.

Summary: Sherlock and Jon are at the Archives, and Jon is bored lol 

"Sherry."

"..."

"Hey, Sherry..."

"..."

Jon clicked his tongue. He didn't enjoy being ignored. Hopping down from his seat on the table, Jon strode over to where Sherlock was hunched over a mess of news articles and legal documents. Though he was interested in their latest case, at this particular moment, he was more interested in not being ignored.

"You're going to shrink when you're older if you keep sitting like that. Though, I'd finally be taller." Jon rested his hands on Sherlock's slouched shoulders, feeling a little bad for the way Sherlock startled out of his focus - but only a little. After all, he had been ignored for the greater half of the afternoon.

Jon waited as Sherlock blinked away remnants of focus, likely retreating from his mind palace at the interruption. It was obvious he hadn't heard him.

"I think there's something missing, Jon. Something we might have missed back at the docks." Sherlock rustled through another few articles, and Jon could see him starting up the stairs to the palace again. He caught Sherlock's chin before he made the first landing.

Sherlock blinked, and Jon couldn't help the smile that tugged at his lips.

"I know something we've missed." Sherlock raised a brow, but didn't pull away.

"I find it unlikely that 1) you found something and didn't say anything and 2) that you even found something I hadn't already noticed." Jon chuckled, leaning in to press a brief kiss to Sherlock's forehead before releasing his chin and taking a seat on the modicum of space left uncovered by papers.

"I was talking about lunch. It's nearly supper, and you haven't eaten." Sherlock blinked again, and Jon wondered how such a brilliant man could look as equally oblivious as he did just then.

"Oh..." Sherlock glanced over at the large window across the room. The sky over Cordona was a brilliant scarlet and rose.

"I suppose you're right."

"More times than you give me credit for, I think." Sherlock got to his feet with a shake of his head.

"Nonsense, Jon. You know that's not what I think." Jon grinned, making a grander gesture of getting to his feet before helping Sherlock collect the archive entries to be returned to their shelves.

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[cordona-chronicle]

Cordona Full Map

[pedroam-bang]

Sherlock Holmes Chapter One (2021)