LONDON DETECTIVE MYSTERIA
Love is the greatest mystery of all
Love 19th- and 20th-century detective fiction, especially when it’s spiced with a dash of romance? Then London Detective Mysteria should interest you. But you’ll have to look past its presentation as a fairly rigid-feeling visual novel, which in places very much feels like the port of a 2013 PSP game that it is. 1
The plot follows Emily Whitely as she enrolls in what is essentially a Victorian London school for detectives. Emily’s given a ring from Queen Victoria herself, which is nice, that gives her special permissions as an investigator for the Crown, and she ends up solving a series of intriguing crimes alongside her classmates. The cases she investigates are, for the most part, selfcontained episodic stories.
Adding to the flavour, almost all these side characters are based on other famous detectives from popular culture, mostly being relatives. The sons of Holmes and Watson feature most prominently, but so too do the niece of Miss Marple, the son of gentleman thief Lupin, and the much-lessfictional Jack The Ripper. And, as this is an otome-styled game, 2 you can romance most of them if you get a good enough ending with them. SaucyJackindeed.
While the detective stories are fun enough, there’s often not a lot to them. This makes the game feel a little too lightweight, as it flirts with the idea of having more detective gameplay but never really manages it – for example, you’re able to save statements in your diary, which is fairly pointless, as the most complex it gets is giving you some multiple-choice decisions to make.