Murder by Numbers (2020)

The is pretty much a perfect picross game. Well, I think. I haven't played any other one. It's got a neat story, a bit of sleuthing and many, many (many) puzzles, in two varieties which are very well made, with plenty of options and hints for those in need.

The only reason this isn't getting 5 stars for me may be unfair - there's only so much I can care about picross puzzles.

Murder by Numbers combines a number of elements with varying degrees of success:

• The story is compelling and well paced, the dialog is quick and engaging, and the characters are charming.
• The artwork is lovely. The soundtrack is great, but some songs get repetitive over the course of a playthrough.
• The nonogram puzzles are fine. They're all solid enough, but they lack the surprise or challenge of a typical Picross game.
• The UI could use some work. There was no instruction or on-screen affordance for displaying your inventory of clues, no log to review if you missed some dialog, no indication of how your performance corresponds to rank, and no ability to fast-forward dialog while replaying a case.
• Searching for clues/puzzles is just a pixel hunt. I honestly could not tell if they corresponded to any particular aspect of a scene or if they are just randomly scattered along the backdrop.

All that said, I found the whole to be greater than the sum of its parts. While the Ace Attorney series has never sustained my attention through a whole game, I happily played Murder by Numbers from start to finish. I'd recommend it.

J'aime les nonogrammes. Peut-être que vous les connaissez mieux sous leur marque déposée, les Picross. Ce sont des puzzles ou vous devez déduire quelles cases colorier sur une ligne ou une colonne d'après les chiffres qui y sont notés. Si sur une grille de 5 de coté une ligne porte le numéro 5 alors toute la ligne doit être grisée. Si il y a les chiffres 3 1 alors il y a 3 cases colorées, un espace, puis de nouveau une case colorée. A la fin vous obtenez un pixel art.

De nombreux jeux ont utilisé les picross dans leur gameplay, il y a de très bons jeux de picross sur Nintendo dans l'univers de pokémon ou même de zelda. J'étais donc agréablement surprise de voir que le jeu gratuit de la semaine sur le Epic Games Store était un jeu de picross !

Dans les années 90, on suit Honor Mizrahi, actrice de série policière sur le déclin après son divorce compliqué et SCOUT, un petit robot amnésique. Lorsque le Showrunner de la série ou travaille Honor est assassiné, ces deux-là se retrouvent à mener l'enquête. Les picross représentent la compétence de scan de preuves du petit robot.

Il y a un coté très Phoenix wright dans les 4 enquêtes qui composent le jeu. On est face à des enquêtes improbables portées par des personnages hauts en couleurs et il faut le dire, un peu clichés mais terriblement attachants (K-C je t'aime !). De rebondissement en rebondissement le jeu nous emmène de fausse piste en surprise. On est finalement happé par l'univers du jeu surtout qu'il est porté par une direction artistique de style anime-manga super travaillée ! L'opening est entrainant, les chara-design profondément sympathiques et les décors variés ! Seul petit bémol pour les musiques de niveau qui finissent par se répéter et ne sont pas toujours dans le ton.

Bref, si vous avez récupéré ce jeu sans réfléchir foncez ! Vous passerez un bon moment !

Beautiful artwork, loved all the characters and the cases were fun but not crazy like Ace Attorney. Had fun with picross.

Choices don't matter in this game, the game will ask you to choose again if you've deducted wrongly. Sometimes I'd purposely pick the wrong one to read the dialogue. I liked it because there was no stress nor punishment.

The credits scene was satisfying to watch. But Scout's Memories was not worth it. A meager couple of sentences of dialogue, didn't add too much character flesh.

I started playing this because I love Picross and the story intrigued me (a story with a female lead set in the 90s? Hell yes!). My husband saw it and said "That looks fun. Can I try?" .. and so our obsession with the game began. Now my husband has become a Picross master.

So this basically is one part visual novel and one part Picross. If neither of those things appeal to you, this may not be the game for you. Then again, my husband hadn't played either of those types of games before and he loved it (he usually plays Mass Effect, Uncharted, and the like). So, take that for what it is.

I don't want to say too much about the story, but there are lots of characters here including a really cute robot that you will fall in love with. Also, if you're a nerd like me there are lots of technology references that will make you go, "OMG that's a real thing!"

The game has a few minor flaws. Near the end of the story when Jena dies, it's a heavy moment in the game, so it feels weird to cut the mood and just be like "oh and here's another puzzle". There's some fast action puzzles that less skilled puzzle gamers might find hard to complete. My husband had a hard time with them because he's not a fast-puzzler kind of guy. Not impossible, but be prepared to get knocked down a few times. Also, we tried so hard to not use hints on any puzzles, but there were a few we did have to. And because of that you may not get a perfect rank and unlock all of the puzzles necessary to see Scout's memories. A simple YouTube search fixes this and you can see what you missed. But it's still annoying. Also, if you're afraid to play the game because you're worried the robot might die and you can't handle that, you can check this spoiler tag: The robot definitely does NOT die. You're safe!

This game is a treat but I would NOT recommend playing it as a co-op title, because it's not really intended as one. My husband and I did enjoy talking about the story together but it's hard for two people to play Picross (although co-op Picross modes do exist in other games.. just not here).

The writing in this one really charmed me! Which is great, because the picross puzzles were far easier and less engaging than I'd hoped for. This isn't necessarily a bad thing -- it makes it approachable for all skill levels of players, which means the plot is very accessible and most people probably won't get stuck.

The art is just wonderful, and the main characters -- especially Scout, the robot -- are easy to love. It's nice to see a diverse cast in a visual novel, too. And the soundtrack is absolutely solid, something you won't get tired of listening to as you poke at pixels.

Even if you're not a picross fiend, if you enjoy visual novels and games like Phoenix Wright you definitely shouldn't miss this one.

Can't believe this Picross game has a character named Cross but it isn't the character who becomes a PI - almost unforgivable!

Don't think I'm quite enough of a Picross nut to get the most out of this but the story was compelling enough that I soldiered on. The two parts of the game don't seem terribly well integrated but the characters are fun and the music is infernally catchy.

This was a fun little game. I'm a huge fan of picross and it was nice to get something a little different with this. The story was funny and quirky and most of the puzzles were well done. There's definitely room for improvement, but I would certainly play more picross games like this in the future.

Highly recommended for picross and puzzle fans alike.

If you've never played picross before, I would probably recommend playing one of the Picross S games first to get your feet wet since there are many more easy puzzles in the Picross S games to get you up to speed.

This game couldn't have been more perfectly tailored to my specific interests. An Ace Attorney style visual novel built around Picross puzzles? Sign me up! Murder By Numbers certainly delivers on its premise with much higher quality than I initially expected from this indie title.

Much of the game's enjoyability comes down to two major strengths: the sound track and the writing. Hiring Masakazu Sugimori, composer for Ace Attorney and Ghost Trick, was an inspired decision and did a lot of the legwork in establishing the tone of the game. The guy knows how to write an earworm. In my experience with other Picross titles, the sound track has huge potential to grate if not carefully considered. They did an excellent job here.

I was most surprised by the writing, credited to Murray Lewis and Ed Fear. Characters are nuanced and diverse in a way that adds color and character to the world, and not in a way that seems like tokenism or pandering. The story went in a different direction than I was expecting, even when things seemed like they were being obviously telegraphed. Complementing all this are colorful and attractive character designs by Hato Moa and Damurushi (although the decision to mirror sprites in dialogue sequences leads to some visual inconsistencies).

This is pretty damn close to what I consider to be a perfect game, but ultimately lacked a layer of polish that would have made for a more complete package (which seems strange to say about a game with its own theme song and animated opening sequence!). The Picross design elements are not always well considered, especially considering that's the heart of the game. Some examples:

• It's far too easy to wrap your cursor from one side of the screen to the other.
• There's no way to restart a puzzle when you make a mistake other than to quit and reload the game. Whyyyyy??
• I don't personally use touch controls and can't fathom why anyone would but it remains true that a not insignificant number of nonogram fans refuse to play games without touch controls. To not include them risks alienating a huge part of the potential audience for what I have to imagine is already a very niche title.

Overall, I do highly recommend the game if it sounds like something that interests you. I think the story is a lot of fun and well worth enjoying even if you're not that into puzzles, especially considering how many difficulty settings there are. I really hope the game sells well, I would love to see a sequel that builds on the core concepts presented here.

As a balancing act atop the 'by,' it feels more a visual novel dragged down by repetitive Picross puzzles than the inverse. Regardless, its confident writing and presentation save the day.

Hats off to Scout's designers for making that thing fly.

There are two ways of looking at Murder By Numbers. As a Picross game neatly enhanced by its story or a visual novel dragged down by unrelenting Picross breaks in its momentum. A little of column A and...

Almost then, but not quite. It's hard to be scathing of my time when I come out a mostly Picross convert and charmed by its interspersed plot. Murder By Numbers is a balancing act atop the 'by.' Whilst it threatens to be weighed down in favour of the 'numbers' out of sheer frequency, its 'murder' mysteries are strong enough to weather the interruptions.

I don't want to know.

It's the goddamn character on display that wins out. True to its makers, this is a Hatoful Boyfriend visual novel through and through, right down to its presentation. It's ultra minimalist, from the static backgrounds, cut-out figures and limited emotional range of characters. It's like a digital paper puppet show - characters bobbing in and out of the scene. It works surprisingly well. It's versatile enough that it can carry moments of levity and heavier subjects of murder (as you'd expect), corruption and divorce equally. The writing is such that themes of self-discovery and self-determination after being controlled feel maturely handled. The developed relationships between Scout, Detective Cross and K.C. feel believable and satisfying. Scout in particular is so goddamn lovable. It's good stuff.

Will they ever stop talking about The Last Jedi?

The Picross feels more of a missed opportunity. It's an excellent place to learn it and I had my most fun in the hacking 'minigame,' in which you face multiple small grids against the clock. This isn't just because they're quick and easy, but because there's a critical lack of variation otherwise. You need to be an extreme Picross fanatic not to get frustrated at being removed from the story at pivotal moments for the same grid you've completed a hundred times over. Skipping them out of frustration is neither quick or any fun. Whilst these grids complete pictures of items you're discovering in the world and it ties neatly into Scout's 'scanning' of the environment, there's no way use the item identity for assistance in completing the puzzle and they just end up feeling entirely divorced from the visual novel. This is for Picross players who want to play some grids, but could use some spice, then. Even then, the late-game grids' difficulty wouldn't satisfy a fanatic.

Clever Picross joke.

It's frustrating, since I can clearly see some opportunities to bind the puzzles more to the plot. What if puzzles held a time limit if you've sneaked onto a crime scene and Detective Cross is going to be imminently back? What if Scout short-circuited and caused the difficulty to spike? What if you have to ascertain what the murder weapon is and do so from the Picross picture shape that emerges? The hacking grids show another way was indeed possible, but the development time clearly didn't permit it or perhaps the intent really wasn't ever there.

It doesn't help that the game feels LENGTHY and so precludes that kind of fine design. This would obviously not usually be cause for complaint, but some of the cases, particularly the final one, do drag. In the honeymoon stage of learning the Picross ropes and seeing the early story develop, this isn't particularly bothersome, but my my is the last case hard work. Again, I must stress, perhaps only half the game is really aimed at me. From only the perspective of a newcomer, I can only conclude that I haven't been entirely won over. Then again, I still found experience to be largely positive. Call me conflicted.

Completed with pride.

As a balancing act atop the 'by,' it feels more a visual novel dragged down by repetitive Picross puzzles than the inverse. Regardless, its confident writing and presentation help save the day. This is a title that was almost, if not quite, drowned by numbers - lying on a lifeboat of words.

PROS

• Dozens of picross puzzles to keep enthusiasts busy
• Surprisingly detailed plot with lots of Ace Attorney influence
• Art is mostly pleasant, which is more than I expected from a picross game
• Hacking sequences speak to untapped possibilities of picross puzzle design
• Scout is a cutie

CONS

• Extremely weak thematic/mechanical integration
• Squanders the perfect set up for lots of interesting twists on the picross formula
• Most puzzles are in the easy/medium difficulty range even late in the game
• Investigation sequences feel like a waste of time