Weird House by Richterwilker

  

Alan was hired to work as a couple therapist in a strange place, where his decisions can lead to unexpected consequences, both to him and the individuals around. Not only that, but there are ghostly figures, giant spiders and other strange creatures roaming around, and the path forward is not as clear as it seems.

 

 

Weird House is a dark and surreal adventure, but unlike the previous games of this author, there isn't really a mystery to solve, but a situation that can develop in various ways. The mystery is in the setting where the whole story takes place, in any case expect esploration, puzzles and real-time action sequences. Graphics are minimalistic but original and peculiar. The game includes a day-night cycle and various possible endings.

 

Download Link

Itch.io

Rmarchiv.de

Rpgmaker.net 

 

Random Fact: the most dangerous monsters came out only at night, so it's safer to move during the day.

Final Verdict: a really weird game! This is basically an open world adventure with visual novel elements, action sequences and old-style graphics. 

aunt EMILY by Richterwilker

 

Aunt Emily recently passed away. Being her only parent alive, her house in the small town of Broken Falls now belongs to you. But there's a catch: her ghost still lives within the house, and will not leave for the afterlife until the mystery of her death is resolved. With help from the FBI agent Desmond Miles, it's up to you to investigate find out what happened to your aunt… between performing various activites from farming to fishing, working as a waiter and even dungeon crawling! 

 

 

Richterwilker is back with another open world mystery adventure set in a rural american town, but this time the game seems to homage farming games such as Stardew Valley (the changing seasons mechanic is present here too!) and Harvest Moon. However the focus of the game is still solving a mystery, like in the previous games I posted before, so expect exploration, minigames and action sequences, but also many weird events. Visually it also reminds to me of Earthbound/Mother, after all the protagonist this time is a kid. 

 

Download Link

Itch.io

Rpgmaker.net 

Rmarchiv.de 

 

Random Fact: the FBI agent Desmond Miles, hero of The World Needs You and Deadly Woods is back to take the role of supporter: like agent David Parker helped Bob in Similar Mountains, Desmond will help the protagonist to solve the mystery. Well, can we trust him?

 

 

Final Verdict: another open world adventure but with different style and mood. This time the game isn't inspired by Deadly Premonition or Twin Peaks, but has a more cartoonish look and a simplified Stardew Valley feel. A peculiar and complex game: on one hand it's impressive for details and quantity of things to do, on the other hand it would be really helpful to get some hints (for example how can I dispose of the equipped items? Where can I send the treasures?), moreover there are some little bugs (like the damage that will lock you to face one direction) and glitches (I was able to use a scyte to "shoot" zombies sniping them from afar! REALLY!). A pity, these are just small problems anyway, there are many cool things like for example the randomized dungeons (remember that you can jump traps pressing Shift, but do that standing still).

Deadly Woods & The World Needs You by Richterwilker

 

A series of murders have been happening in the countryside of the USA. All of them are connected by the fact that the victims are all woman. The last one was of Sarah Anderson, a young girl resident of DreamVale, a small and pacific town surrounded by forests. FBI Special Agent Desmond Miles is sent to town, with the purpose of looking for possible clues that would lead to the culprit, and to try and stop any more killing from happening.

 

 

Deadly Woods is often considered an upgraded version of Mystery Falls: the plot, setting and characters involved are technically different, and there are various possible endings, but the graphics and gameplay are basically the same. Day/night cycle, minigames, shooting and action battles, puzzles, three dungeons, this game offers lots of content, whote gameplay is inspired by games like Deadly Premonition and Shenmue, While the story was developed in a way to be like a serialized murder mystery, similar to Twin Peaks. There are several optional sidequests that enrich the main investigation, telling details about the various characters involved.

Download Link

Itch.io 

Rpgmaker.net

Rmarchiv.de

Random Fact: the game had a prototype called The World Needs You that was a sequel to Mystery Falls about FBI Special Agent Desmond Miles investigations the disappearance of agent David Parker from Mystery Falls. It uses some slightly different graphics in some parts, anyway see this below.

 

Final Verdict: Deadly Woods is more like a return to the origins of Mystery Falls, but it's very good with more than double the content. The word here is variety! You play a console? Bam minigame! You do an autopsy? Bam... (sort of) minigame! And even if not every activity is perfectly realized, I think that the Rmk2003 was used in a clever and excellent way.
And the setting and characters are interesting even if the recall the usual stereotypes of the horror/mystery movies (the sheriff, the jock, the goth girl, the rich girl, the old hotel owner and so on...).

New players may find themselves lost due to the amount of things to do and the freedom of the open world, anyway it's really a game that stands out. 

 

 

EXTRA - The World Needs You: FBI Special Agent Desmond Miles was sent to Mystery Falls, a small town in the countryside of the Casa Island, to try and solve the disappearance of an M.I.A. agent, David Parker. He was investigating strange cases of people disappearing in this town, and he may have become a victim himself. But Mystery Falls is not the only place that requires his attention, as a series of murders are also happening around the Casa Island.
As the investigation advances, it may get harder and harder to trust in the citizens of the island, as it seems that most of them have secret lives, and some of them may be involved in dirty deeds that may or may not be related to the main investigation. 

 

 

This game uses a similar concept compared to Deadly Woods and Mystery Falls, but relies on a world map, and also other aspects are changed even if there is still an investigation ongoing and an open world with minigames included. The graphics are also a little rougher compared to Deadly Woods, but they use a similar style.

Download Link

Itch.io

Rpgmaker.net

Rmarchiv.de 

 

 

Random Fact: this may be a prototype for Deadly Woods, but it is complete and has a single ending. The author suggest to play it after Mystery Falls and Similar Mountains, but before Deadly Woods.

 

 

Final Verdict: a little rough and not as good, refined and full of content like Deadly Woods, it's still an enjoyable mystery adventure. 

Similar Mountains by Richterwilker

 

Bob is a young man that lives with his mother in Similar Mountains, a quiet little town in the USA. Nancy, his goth girlfriend, mysteriously disappears the day of her birthday, so Bob tonight decides to investigate her disappearance. With some help from Kevin, a weird but nice childhood friend, and Lola, an acquaintance of Nancy's, he will explore town getting involved in many different situations to uncover the truth about what happened to the missing girl.

 

 

Similar Mountains is the spiritual sequel of Mystery Falls: while agent David Parker is back after the event of the first game, this is a totally stand alone adventure. The game is still an open world mystery adventure with some action, playable arcade games and shooting sequences, but this time the custom graphics uses a different style that reminds of some old classic videogames such as Maniac Mansion and Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards. The adventure has different possible endings.

WARNING: the game unlike the first contains some adult scenes and moments (even if it's all on the pixelated level, nothing more!). 

 

Download Link

Itch.io

Rpgmaker.net

Rmarchiv.de

 

Random Fact: besides David Parker, the game includes several cameos of various characters: Syd from Maniac Mansion, The little man from Twin Peaks, Enrico Pucci and other characters from Jojo's Bizarre Adventures, and there are also references to the X-Files, Twin Peaks, Castlevania and Metal Gear Solid. There are also some collectibles actions figures from other games like Mystery Falls or FF7 Before Crisis. 

 

Final Verdict: Similar Mountain is a nice addition to the series and it's probably a good idea playing Mystery Falls before this one (the presence of Agent David Parker is an important reason to do that!). I did not mind the adult scenes since in most cases are linked to humorous moments and situations, and they provide a contrast to the general mood of mystery and gloom of other scenes.
The game has a lot of variety compared to Mystery Falls for what concerns quests and minigames, it's bizarre but entertaining and pushes the player to play and reach the end. 

 

There is just one thing I absolutely hated about the game: Bob's friends! Yeah, these friends appears often from nowhere providing useless dialogues and casually follow the protagonist, sometimes blocking the way and in the end they are a real nuisance. They can also have a bad ending, but since they are less simpathetic than most quest givers, I did not mind that at all! I'd have preferred if they were listed as "party members" uttering a word of two during the quests to comment the situations, or maybe having a supporting role like Agent David Parker. But no, they are totally annoying (and never do or say anything remotely useful).

Ok, but despite this and other little flaws, there is a lot of improvement and I ended liking this game more than the previous one.

Mystery Falls by Richterwilker

 

Mystery Falls starts with the disappearance of a little girl in a small town of the United States, and the game protagonist is the Special Agent David Parker, who was sent by the FBI to investigate the case and try to find out what happened. The story will unfold as the player interacts with the locals, and some mysteries may be solved even before the end of the game, depending on whether the player is taking a linear or explorative route.

 

In Mystery Falls the gameplay is a mix of exploration and action. The music and scenery are inspired by the Twin Peaks series, while other ideas also come from the games Deadly Premonition and Mizzurna Falls. The game is not an rpg, but an open world exploration and investigation adventure game, with many features like playable arcade videogames, shooting sections, different outfits, a drivable car, and puzzles.  

Download Link

Itch.io

Rpgmaker.net

Rmarchiv.de

 

 

Random Fact: while Mystery Falls is the only game in which we can play as Special Agent David Parker, but this character appears in other games by Richterwilker. Each game is a self contained story and setting, and the next two seem to take place in the same universe after the events of Mystery Falls.

 

 

Final Verdict: a really immersive adventure game, a surreal thriller with a really weird story that includes cultists, zombies, aliens, dinosaurs and more. Action parts aren't the best aspects, but for the rest it's an impressive adventure with all custom graphics. 

The only bad thing are probably the deadly traffic and arcade games (you can die in both situations), but there isn't anything else worth mentioning since I saw the game as a wild surreal dream, and even if many things look weird (like the behaviour of some of the few named characters) or totally unreal (like the presence of some characters during the final parts, whose roles is never explained at all) ... this fits the overall feeling of a dreamlike adventure.