Reviews of the must-play "Case of the Golden Idol" and "Rise of the Golden Idol" mystery games
screenshot of Case of the Golden Idol
Firstly, the second game, "Rise":
A revelation in detective games with a lot of its own personality spin. Mechanics are demonstrated and used for solves, then immediately expanded upon. I have no idea how they managed to make just about every case feel novel and fresh with the expansion of one's puzzle logic, but it's beautiful.
The art evolves in rendering style from the first game but maintains its grotesque caricaturistic style; honestly it's a little too rendered for me vs. the first game's pixel art. With Case's art, there was more room for one's brain to fill in details and had a little bit of amateur charm to it as well, which Rise loses (not a problem unique to just the art, though). Weirdly, the UI/UX in the first game was also better in some ways, but the 'hide solving windows' toggle in this one is quite smart.
The more linear, thriller-like plot also stumbles a bit in its length compared to the first game's classical, detached setting and storytelling - occasionally there are just 'antics cases' in Rise which usually later are revealed to have some significance, but not enough to outweigh the initial "why am I solving a guy getting killed by birds". There were several mysteries within the plot that could have used more attention too, so it's not like they didn't have the material to work with... This kind of tighter story also suffers when there are no likeable characters, and the player's frame of view is that of complete detachment from events, so it's not like you could get attached to anyone anyways.
A note on the DLC while I'm here: it's fantastic, and especially 1 and 2 are maybe the pinnacle of the series. 2 ("The Lemurian Phoenix") actually manages to make an emotional arc within its cases too, which is the thing the rest of the series elides in favor of meaty mystery-solving! While I'm writing this, the 4th DLC is yet to come, but I am hella excited for it.
and then the first game, "Case":
As a forewarning, the Switch version (maybe other consoles) are missing an impactful patch which seriously improves UI/UX and some spelling/grammar mistakes which impact the experience. I'd highly recommend the PC version anyways, the input is just more idiomatic for mouse & keyboard.
Continuing on from my review of the sequel, this first game is like if you were alive when pizza was invented. The art is grotesque but charming, and the story is aptly detached and neutral matching the player's frame of interaction with the game, but especially the puzzling is just fucking great. I can't say enough good things about it; I loved the DLC especially which ratchets up the complexity while keeping everything within logical understanding (and even if you need a hint, they're pretty well-done). So, play on PC if you can, but definitely do play it - these are some of the most refreshing games I've played in ages.