There being a five year gap in between ND33 and ND34 is really confusing to me. I get that money is tight for HeR Interactive, and their CEO clearly cares more about turning the company into a profitable business rather than a crowd/user-funded indie dev studio... but like... where did those fives years go, exactly?
A lot of the assets used in ND34 were reused from ND33. Like all of the ambient NPCs in KEY being models of Frank, Joe, Lauren, Mei, the Judge, etc. wearing different clothes. The visuals were... a minor improvement, but five years of improvement? I don't think so.
The controls weren't exactly smooth. The P&C System was extremely finicky, and the Freeroam mode was typical Unity gliding around bullshit. The puzzles, out the gate, gained a reputation in the community for being improperly balanced and extremely difficult.
I know spitting out 2 games per year isn't sustainable (and even wasn't back in HeR's prime)... but five years for Nancy Drew: Mystery of the Seven Keys... What the fuck did HeR Interactive spend that time doing, exactly?????











