More like 3.5 stars we need half stars Grouvee!! Spoilers at the bottom. I have Things To Say about this game so this is gonna be a long one

Story: Premise had promise but the plot went off the rails in the second half. Considering they had such a cool theme centered around a rarely (in media) explored culture (it's usually just insert Baron Samedi into random games/movies/TV shows and call it a day), what they went with in the end makes me wanna cry. I think that if they wanted to make a game this short and simple, they should have just gone for a simpler topic.

Characters: Again, they have potential (especially the Voodoo Detective himself, Mary and Ricky) but are underdeveloped and underutilized in my opinion. I liked the puns in the dialogue tho, cracked me up, and just in general the dialogues are actually decently written and I didn't want to skip them. Good voice acting too. Love the art!

Gameplay: Eh, passable. Don't go into this expecting something new or refreshing. The potential was there with the voodoo concoctions and Grammy's book of recipes but this is no Strange Horticulture. It plays more like any old point & click where you find items, combine items and use them to help you get to more items etc. Nothing wrong with that but why make it seem like you're basing your game on this cool concept of voodoo and then go and do absolutely nothing with it. I honestly found myself forgetting the book of recipes even existed and I finished this game in a single day so... Yeah.

What I'd do differently: Spoilers ahead! As someone who's been excited about myths, legends, old religions, rituals etc. since I was like 5, it really pains me that this game is so bellow average in terms of atmosphere, storytelling and characterisation. For starters it needed a deeper story or at the very least one that had more to do with voodoo. More backstory, more depth to characters - for example, we are using Grammy's book of recipes and we know she was a mambo (priestess) but other than that, we know zilch. It would have been cool if we could find bits of her story scattered about and even better if the plot ends up somehow connected to her. I'd also definitely cut the weird island part with the ghost of the french chef who wants to fix his makeshift jacuzzi @ ShortSleeveStudios ???) and the entirety of the Island Kitchen plot with soul food being literal. I get why it tickled the devs but they should have just laughed and moved on.

As for gameplay, I'd add more recipes, more voodoo elements, more demigod involvement, more of all of that! I'd also have Mary/Genevieve join VD repeatedly bc she's tired of being cooped up in her hotel room and just finds excuses to join the investigation. It would give us a chance to enjoy her company more because I really liked her design and personality, and also to grow our relationship with her (especially considering the romance ending exists). Some multiple choice dialogue options for her would have been nice during this time. Also, the dialogue tree could use some work. Some choices the devs made seem strange and require you to go through repetitive dialogue lines over and over again for no reason? I'd also cut some of the character greeting lines after the first time you talk to them because it's just unnecessary.

After finishing the game there's still one question I have no answer to: Why is the man so obsessed with desks?!?