The game even includes a few extra touches, such as Easter eggs (literally) and a bonus system that awards fun achievements to particularly careful or persistent players. Nancy uses her cell phone to take pictures of clues as well as her notebook to keep track of clues and suspects. The interface is also quite simple and effective, allowing players to navigate the game and interact with puzzles with ease.
#Nancy drew shadow at the waters edge series
The audiovisuals are what fans of the series have come to expect from the developer: picturesque scenes, well animated characters, excellent voice acting, and superb sound effects and music. The Junior Mode includes a checklist that will keep stumbling players on the right path. The game can be played in either Senior Mode or Junior Mode.
To pass the time quickly, Nancy can return to her room to sleep until a designated time. Sometimes she must simply wait for a critical event to be triggered, such as a package arriving at the ryokan or for Yumi to send a picture to her cell phone. A clock is always running in the background, and Nancy can only visit places and people at certain times. The game is also made difficult by its real-time nature. On a few occasions, I could not figure out what I needed to do to advance the game, and I wasted lots of time aimlessly wandering or trying to solve puzzles before I had all the necessary information. Unfortunately, for me, not all of the game's difficulty came from the puzzles. For the most part, these are fun puzzles, especially for fans of number and logic puzzles. Nancy will also get to do some paranormal investigation of her own, including recording some audio at spooky areas of the ryokan. Experienced adventure gamers will recognize most of the other puzzles, such as a mirror image color puzzle and a sliding puzzle box. Some of them can be quite challenging, particularly a giant Sudoku puzzle that Nancy must complete for George and Bess. Many of the game's puzzles are based on Japanese pastimes such as Sudoku and Pachinko. Ned, Nancy's boyfriend, is nowhere to be found. Nancy's best friends, Bess and George, are also visiting Japan, though they are both tied up with an expo and never meet Nancy in person. Although Nancy will only talk to them over the phone, they are still important and memorable characters. Nancy will also meet a couple of other characters-a female paranormal investigator and her assistant. Meanwhile, Rentaro, a goofy tinkerer who is in love with Miwako, wants to take her to the city, which he finds much more exciting than the quiet old ryokan. Miwako, the youngest daughter, loves the ryokan and wants to take the responsibility from Yumi, but the girls' grandmother, Takae, forbids it because of tradition. Rather, she prefers to work in the city, making bento and designing elaborate clothes. However, Yumi, who is next in line to inherit the business, has no intentions of staying behind with the family business. By tradition, the ryokan is passed down from mother to eldest daughter.
The former owner of the ryokan, Kasumi, has supposedly died by drowning in the ryokan's large bathing pool. Nancy will meet a small but intriguing cast of characters, each of whom seems to have a motive tying them to the mystery. To help fund her trip, Nancy is teaching English to some young students-periodically, she will have the chance to grade their homework. She can also learn some traditional Japanese crafts, such as origami and calligraphy. Balancing out the sinister ryokan are a bright and cheerful Pachinko parlor and a booth where Nancy can learn to make bento, a cutesy Japanese meal. Even though there is no blood or gore depicted on screen, the dark settings, eerie music, and (of course) the terrifying appearances of the ryokan's ghost, may frighten younger players. This game is the scariest game yet in the Nancy Drew series, with plenty of tense moments and startling encounters. All in all, this is a difficult but charming game with good educational value. Ghost sightings and other reports of supernatural events have driven away all the other tourists from the inn, and the inn's future looks grim if Nancy cannot get to the bottom of the mystery. Someone-or something-is haunting the Ryokan Hiei, the charming Japanese inn where she is staying. Naturally, this peaceful vacation is quickly interrupted when Nancy finds herself in yet another mystery. This time, the game takes the famous sassy detective to the bustling country of Japan. Nancy Drew: Shadow at the Water's Edge is the 23rd game in the long-running Nancy Drew series from Her Interactive.