Part 12: Episode 2, Investigation: My Nemesis, Hunt-the-Pixel

Part 12: Episode 2, Investigation: My Nemesis, Hunt-the-Pixel

Music: Silence



The time is now 11 minutes later than the last update.



Our hero arrives, just too late to do anything useful.

Huh, that's strange. Guess the chief left without me.

She said her sister was coming over so we should all go out for dinner...

...



Blood...?

Music: Suspense





I was wondering if this game was really going to be all courtroom, but it looks like we get to move around and investigate in some scenes, too.



Clicking "Examine" gives us a little magnifying glass to go pixel-hunting for clues. Right now though everything we click gives us the same text:



I have to check and see if Mia... the chief's okay!

I took a 3-day break from playing here because I didn't want to see what happened next. Eventually though we have to "Move" on...



We've given a list of destinations; right now our only option is to go into the office.

Music: Silence



...

The killer's still here!

*sob*

Never mind, it's probably Maya, she was supposed to meet us around the same time, too.

Sis...



Phoenix is refusing to look around and I understand completely, but now...







Chief? Chief...?



We fade to black for a moment, and I almost stopped playing again.



...

A crash, and we fade to black again...



(I went back to the chief where she lay under the window.)



(I could feel it when I held her shoulder.)

(Then, all too quickly, it began to fade...)



Just in case, like me, you were still holding out hope. Apparently we only deal in murders here. So are we going to jump in cold on whatever trial Mia was worried about, or is Maya going to be accused of Mia's murder?

Music: Investigation - Core



I know it's a trope for the older mentor character to be killed early on so that the young hero can come into their own, but I was not expecting anything like this until the game started dropping hints at the end of the last episode. And even then I kept hoping I was wrong.



Time to investigate! To my delight, the magnifying glass changes color when there is something worthwhile to see! You can just click anywhere to move the magnifying glass and click again to examine something. You can also sweep the magnifying glass around with the arrow keys to look for where it lights up.



Like this nice window!



The "Gatewater Hotel." A nice, luxurious place.

Seems to be a play on "Watergate", an American political scandal involving, among other things, using the federal government to spy on political opponents, that eventually wound up with the sitting president resigning from office (the only one to ever do so). Here the reference could just be flavor text, or could be a hint that someone was spying on the Fey Offices? We saw that the earlier phone call between Mia and Maya had been recorded by someone else, after all. I'm probably reading too much into it.



This game really is user-friendly. Once there's nothing more to see at a particular spot, the magnifying glass gains a checkmark. Further clicks just repeat the previous text.



No, I'm not avoiding looking at Mia, I'm just being... thorough.



They seem to be the remains of a glass light stand.



Fine, fine. If you've played through any crime adventure games of this nature, examining the victim is usually pretty high on the priority list.



It's hard seeing her like this, but if there are any clues here...

She was struck on the head with a blunt object.

She probably died instantly.



Again.



Up until now, the Court Record has just had our attorney's badge and the profile for Mia. These investigation scenes seem to allow us to collect new evidence on our own, rather than just relying on what the prosecutor gives us.



We're not done yet - the glass shards we looked at earlier are suddently relevant now.



I didn't actually click on the light again, this text just continued automatically.



Not sure how these will fit in yet. But you can often reconstruct what happened during a crime like this one, by where the debris ends up, and more importantly what's underneath vs on top of it.



This statement is incorrect. Can you see it?



A piece of paper! It must have fallen from Mia's hand!

What could it be?



We actually have to click on it this time.

!



"Maya"...? Did Mia write this?

Okay we're totally going to be defending Maya.





Looks like we have a common theme of the actual killer framing our client once again here. Writing someone's name in your own blood... easy interpretation is that they were identifying the killer! Except we just saw that it seemed like Mia was killed instantly...



(I'd better call the police...)



The game also helpfully identifies when you've found everything important in a scene.



We're not actually forced out of the investigation though, so we can continue to collect flavor text. Some evidence will have slightly different dialogue the second time you click it, so the magnifying glass stays lit up without the checkmark in that case.



How ironic that this became the murder weapon... again.

Just in case you had any doubts that this statue/clock was the murder weapon again. Though to be fair, this particular statue/clock is not the same one that was the murder weapon in the first episode; this one is the second copy, given to Mia by Larry.



It's painful to look... but I have to, for Mia's sake.

Looks like she was hit in the head with a blunt weapon.

She probably died instantly.

Eh that one was mostly the same. One more here:



The chief's chair.

A simple, functional design. Feels pretty good to sit in, too.



If you click somewhere that isn't lit up...



Thanks.



Anyway, now we're done. Wait, what's that "Slide" option?



Oh, we get to see the rest of the office. This part must be how we call the police. I'll leave the phone until last though. First, the shelves here.

All the chief's important documents are packed in here.

This is where she filed her case records and recent rulings.



Any interesting data in the computer itself?

Surprisingly, the chief was never good with machines.

About all she used this PC for was e-mail.

She picked up this ancient model at some garage sale for practically nothing.

Apparently not. Moving on...



How about the desk?

A perfectly normal office desk.

The chief had a very particular policy about office décor:

"Spend big on stuff the clients use, but keep your own stuff simple."



Looks like this book can be examined separately...

The Fey & Co. ledger book.

Everything is written in the chief's ultra-neat handwriting.

It's a small office, but it makes a good bit of money.

Nothing there either. Does the ultra-neat handwriting match the bloody receipt? Eh, even if it didn't, I guess the trauma could explain that.



Let's finally look at the phone.



...?

That's funny...



It looks like someone was halfway through taking it apart.

Despite that interesting revelation, we don't get to take the phone into evidence, because...



We're interrupted!

Please, come quick!

(Wh-what was that!?)





...!

She's staring right at me!

Well, that wasn't suspicious at all. A lookout for the killer maybe? Would fit in with the hint in the name of the "Gatewater" hotel. More evidence that will no doubt be used to frame our client again.





Fade to black, and we're back at the investigation screen. Let's see what the phone has to say this time.

The phone receiver is missing a few screws.

I'd better not use it.

But it's not evidence for the court record? Eh, whatever. Maybe the killer got interrupted taking a recording device out of it?



Looking out the window again doesn't do anything, so it's time to head back to the main entrance...next time!