The Sexy Brutale feels somewhat like real-time Clue meets Groundhog Day. The longer I played the more evident their attention to detail was in crafting the connections in this game.

You'll restart the day whenever the clock reaches midnight. One by one you follow and scope out the villains, eventually solving (and preventing) each individual murder. I had a blast sneaking around, listening to conversations, and manipulating time.

The in-game map automatically records the whereabouts of anyone you've seen at a particular time, you can fast forward and rewind the map to figure out where you need to be and at what time.

If you avoid guides and read the lore, The Sexy Brutale will take around 10hrs to complete. I highly recommend this game, it's worth whatever price you find it at when viewing this page.

Special thanks to the friend that gifted this to me, I may have missed this gem otherwise.

I bought this game based on the soundtrack and a small glimpse of the gameplay. I didn't know what to expect other than an amazing soundtrack. What I got was a work of art. While the puzzles themselves are not overly difficult and the replay value may not be high given the nature of a puzzle game, the entertainment I received was well worth the money.

The Sexy Brutale flips the idea of a murder mystery on its head. You know who the killers are, you know how the victims die, and you have to use time travel to prevent them. The art style is beautiful, the atmosphere macabre. The deaths are creative outside of the tutorial murder. The world feels alive with each guest and each murderer moving about the house. The music is excellent - the main theme is something I could listen to for hours.

I highly, highly recommend this game.

In The Sexy Brutale, you are a guest to a masked ball in a huge, ostentatious mansion - and like everyone else in that mansion, you are stuck in a time loop that resets ever 12 hours. Within these 12 hours, the staff off the mansion is killing the guests one by one. Your task is to prevent the murders, find out what is going on, and eventually break the loop.

Your presence is somewhat ghost-like. You cannot talk to or otherwise interact with other people (actually you have to hide from them), but you can investigate and manipulate objects as long as no one else is in the room. To prevent a murder, you first have to observe the actions of the characters, by peeking through keyholes into neighboring rooms, listening in on conversations, or hiding in cupboards. Once you understand the sequence of events, you need to find a way to break it, e.g. by manipulating a murder weapon before the killer picks it up. This creates puzzles which aren't overly complex, but imaginative and varied.

There are 6 of such murder cases to solve, with some of them having more than one murder to prevent. Saving a victim will give you access to another area of the mansion, where the next murder is taking place. You will also gain additional powers from each saved victim, which can be used to gain more information and reveal secrets throughout the mansion, giving you a reason to revisit areas you've already been to.

I found the puzzles and the mechanics of this game very engaging. Observation-based games can easily become a bit boring due to the passivity of the main gameplay mechanic, and games with a time-loop mechanic can easily get repetitive - but The Sexy Brutale never felt that way. I always found new interesting details. I felt that I was unraveling an intricately designed mystery, step by step, and the repetition of events affirmed me that my understanding of that mystery kept growing. (Also, once you prevented a murder, you don't have to repeat that ever again.)

I enjoyed the story and characters quite a lot. The characters are very distinct, you learn many little details about them, and the ending was appropriate and very touching.

The game's presentation is gorgeous. The graphics look splendid, and there is a lot of variation between the areas and rooms. The same goes for the music, especially the jazzy tones for the bar and casino evoke the atmosphere of such an upper-class establishment at some time in the last century perfectly. The sound design also integrates exceptionally well with the gameplay: sometimes you get audio cues from neighboring rooms, and certain events can be heard in the entire mansion. There is no voice acting, but I did not miss it.

For me, The Sexy Brutale was an amazing adventure, and I am really struggling to find something to criticize - apart from the godawful and completely misleading name. My biggest concern are probably the controls - keys cannot be rebound, and the control scheme assumes that the keys Z, X, 1, and 3 are close together since you have to press them frequently, often in time-critical moments. That's a problem for French, German, and Dvorak keyboards, and it's very disappointing that such an integral feature was overlooked in a game that is otherwise so finely polished.

Some players also complained about the game's length, but I think 20€ list price for a well-designed, highly polished game that took me 8 hours to solve and 10 hours to fully complete, are appropriate. Given that I have much less time now than I had 20 years ago, I actually appreciate games that pack high-quality content into an experience that can be fully had in a day or two. The Sexy Brutale fits that bill perfectly.

I recommend this game wholeheartedly to everyone who likes adventure games and murder mysteries, especially if you have an eye for details and like the setting.

The name of the game isn't the game. The Sexy Brutale is simply the name of the mansion the game take place in. The game it-self is about the events that happens in The Sexy Brutale mansion.

The game starts pretty normally and maybe a bit confusing. Once you play for 1-2 hour(s) you start to undestand the mechanics and how the game works.

The gameplay is simple. You are a character who have to save the guests of The Sexy Brutale mansion from the staff. Everytime you fail, you can restart the day. Once you save someone, you gain a new power-up. Saving them isn't hard but few times it won't be very obvious but was fun for each guest.

The game TRUELY SHINES in it's last part and the ending. The ending was very good and satisfying. It's deep and original and worth the entire 7-ish hours of gameplay.

On top of that, the game has a very neat soundtrack, sound effects and great graphics. Overall it was way better than I expected it to be.

Hope this little review will help someone.
Thanks for reading

EDIT: Nominated this game for “Defies Description” in THE STEAM AWARDS 2017

One of the most unique game mechanics I've seen in years!

The Sexy Brutale game is about an extravagant party hosted by an enigmatic Marquis which didn't turn out to be the luxurious event the guests expected. The anonymous staff of the mansion are systematically killing the masked guests one by one, and if that wasn’t bad enough, every time the clock hits midnight the time goes back and the entire process is repeated in a continuous, deadly cycle.

You play Lafcadio Boone, a priest who is conscious of this never-ending masked ball and able to remember each loop's events, a gift given to him by a bloody mysterious woman. Your goal in the game is to learn the schedule in order to change it, tracking each guest's movements around the house and finding some way of avoid their death.

Each guest you save from the murderous staff members gives you a new power and grants you deeper access into the labyrinthine mansion. This can be done because of the fact that each time you rewind the clock to relive the same events, you owns a bit more information on how and when the murders take place, and how to stop them.

Once you understand how everything works. You realize which items to pick up to solve the puzzles, which doors to go through and when, or even when a murderer’s victim will enter the room. Finding that rhythm feels incredible and its a delightful experience.

The game also counts with some collectibles to look for and Steam achievements as well. Although are fairly simple in themselves. They are unlocked for solving every murder and finding some secret areas.

All in all, The Sexy Brutale's world is a wonderful place in which to immerse yourself. Story is so good, it feels really tied and each victim you encounter award you with a grand sense of accomplishment that will encourage you to continue through this gory adventure. Moreover, puzzles are fun enough, though they’re never precisely challenging.

A very decent time-loop puzzle where you need to save several people from deaths and unlock a deeper secret. It's less challenging than in looks at first glance (I expected that I'd have to save ALL characters in one loop at some point!), and some situations hinge on relatively moon logic, but it's still very fun to play.

Some triggers are weird — like all secrets unlocking at once or the fact that some room info requires you to find cards, which means you unlock it at a different momenf from the room itself. It's a minor thing that wouldn't matter if the game wasn't so surprisingly well-written — the characters are simple and over-the-top, but the emotional meaningful beats hit hard. Even the mediocre twist in the end was executed well.

Calling it "detective" or "mystery" is a bit off — you won't have to do much deducing, the bad guys are known from the start, and characters have little interaction among themselves. It's more about sleuthing and optimising routes. But exploring the mansion with new abilities has this unique "time metroidvania" feel that is definitely worth your time if you like puzzles.

I really enjoyed my time with this game. It is a puzzle game with no action so you can really take your time with every aspect of every puzzle.

You have to save people from being murdered and when you do, you get new powers. The time loop mechanic makes it possible to explore multiple areas in the same period of time, gradually building a bigger picture. You can find out a great deal about victims and murderors by following them around. The story kept me going and I really like the ending.

It is rather short and I'm not entirely certain of its replay value but at the same time it is not very expensive as games go so it offers very good value for its price. It kept me engaged almost the whole time I played it, which is very rare.

The soundtrack is some of the best I've ever heard and I like the arstyle.

...is a time-puzzle mystery game. Lafcadio Boone wakes up in the Sexy Brutale Mansion, reliving the same day over and over, as he attempts to prevent tragedies from happening all while trying to figure out what secrets are kept in the deepest rooms of the mansion.

As you begin the story, you are guided by the mysterious Bloodied Girl that has you witness the assassination of a guest. But thanks to a pocket watch she gives you, time rewinds back to 12pm, allowing you to visit different rooms and uncover what happened from a different point of view. From that point on, it is up to you to prevent other tragedies from happening.

You can walk around from one room to another, interacting or observing various objects. The catch is that you cannot be seen by anyone. If you do, time freezes, and their masks lift off their faces to kill you. Therefore, you must avoid any contact with employees or guests. Instead, you hide in closets and peep through keyholes in an attempt to see what each character says and does at any given moment.

Every time the day ends, your clock rewinds and most of your inventory returns to their original location, keeping only your knowledge and collectibles. However, you can sync your pocket watch with any clock so that the next day, you wake up at the foot of that clock. Additional powers are given to you as you progress, allowing you to go places you couldn't before and uncover information you didn't know of.

It's pretty interesting to know that the entire mansion, every character and piece of dialog, happen exactly as timed. You might walk around and hear a glass break at 4pm, then later be in a completely different location and see what shattered the glass. You may see guest telling someone else of a secret passage they found, and then retrace that person's steps a little bit further day after day until you see where the secret passage was.

You'll find the story very compelling. Even once you saved someone, the day will start over, and that person will die again. You will hear that person die, hear a gunshot, hear a bang, every day, knowing that person you saved earlier just died again right on schedule, while you're now busy elsewhere trying to figure out how to save someone else. You'll uncover the mystery at the heart of it all one piece of the puzzle at the time, until it all comes together in a surprising finale where it all makes sense.

A unique aesthetic, bright, colorful and unnerving, welcomes you to this extravagant place. Each room, each corridor, is distinct and highly detailed. The map allows you to see what was in each room, or who will be there at any given time, being allowed to scroll through the day from the map screen to see what happens where and when as you discover more.

I feel some of the puzzles were way too easy. As soon as you figure out what's the next murder you need to stop and how that person dies, it's often extremely straightforward to just stop it the next day. There could've been so much more detective work, following and spying on some people, but these moments are few, and while most of the spying serves the story, it rarely serves the actual game.

On a few occasions, the map stretched underneath HUD items, making it difficult to click on some doors or interactive objects. More than once, movement stuttered or didn't work well, the character trying to figure out how to get to where you're clicking rather than the usual intuitive control of going forward toward the cursor and allowing you to determine where to walk.

No alternative path, no different ways of saving anyone means there really is no replayability whatsoever. Even the collectibles can all be found in one playthrough (the entire map unlocks near the end for you to get any you may have missed).


Although I wished the game had more content or was longer, that's only because I enjoyed it so much. Truth be told, the game is long enough to make sure it isn't overstaying its welcome, but you end up caring about these characters, you wish you could spend more time with them. The Sexy Brutale is an excellent game, I loved every minute of it!

—————————————————————————
This was just my opinion.

If you found this review helpful, please consider giving it a thumbs up, and feel free to check out more of my (purely opinionated) reviews.

Rewinding a set period of time is novel but not really a new idea. On screen we have seen movies such as Groundhog Day, Run Lola Run and recently Edge of Tomorrow -- there's even one X-Files episode built around this idea (S06E14). However, in video games, it's still rather innovative and refreshing, if executed correctly, i.e. Majora's Mask, but we don't see good games built around this mechanic often -- by deliberately mentioning mechanic, I exclude games merely featuring a time travel or time loop story. And now, we have the Sexy Brutale:

In the Sexy Brutale, you relive one day until you put an end to it. The masquerade is a trap, the pocket watch the key. The action of guests and staff the puzzle, and to preserve life your goal. Each action they perform is assigned to a specific time, making their death inevitable -- that is, until you, Lafcadio, intervene and break the cycle of timed tragedy. And that, is the core gameplay: you stalk them (you are not allowed to confront anyone face to face) and study their death. Each time you fail, the day starts over, until you manage to save them, which in turn unlocks new abilities and areas to further your show in that looping Saturday, in that haunted mansion -- until you discover the truth buried underneath.

This mechanic combined with the heartily designed mansion -- with its every nook and cranny full of exquisite details -- brings forth a wondrous experience. Throughout the game you are growing increasingly familiar with the corridors, halls and chambers, unearthing the story behind them and the guests. Which leads to...

Its great narrative. At first, you are going to be confused. Names you don't know seem to be randomly popping out, characters talking about things that are completely irrelevant -- you can't even portray them, everything is arbitrarily and randomly throw at you. However, as you progress along the story, things start to make sense, suddenly you can understand perfectly what Mr. A is talking about, why are Ms. B and Mr. C having a conversation concerning Ms. D, why is Mr. E doing this at that time. With tons of flavor text that do absolutely nothing to the gameplay but world building, the Sexy Brutale and its guests just seem so vivid. That being said, the main plot is nice too, though they didn't choose the most subtle way to conclude the story, the ending is still impressive and left me with satisfaction. One must atone for the sins, but it's also time to move on.

Aside from gameplay and narrative, the game offers wonderful and consistent aesthetics, which enhance the sense of extravaganza and eerieness of the mansion, and beautiful music scores that corresponding to the current location, time and event. The exposition is amazing as well: fixed camera angles and the way you peek through doors allowed developers to decide not only what you can see, but also how you see them, delivering some spectacular scenes. Sound effects are also well designed and placed: after several rewinds, you will know which sound indicates what event: A gunshot around 4 o'clock means the death of Mr. A; bell tolls for the untimely demise of Ms. B.

But alas! The game is far from perfect. Although the sound design is informative and decent, it can be obnoxious at times. While the map design is exquisite, each "mission" is rather segmented, rarely demanding you to traverse the map, leaving the abilities and areas a bit underwhelming and not fully utilized, and thus the puzzles are often too easy: there was even once I just stumbled upon the solution without realizing it. Level design just ceases to improve when there's plenty of room for the game to be great.

I hate to admit, but the game could really use some time to work on general polishing. Wonky UI, jerky control, awkward animations and occasional framerate shutter just give the game -- an attentively designed and produced game -- a sense of cheapness. That said, I do cherish my experience playing the Sexy Brutale.

Now for something completely irrelevant. You may stop reading and move towards the next review if you haven't made your decision.

1. The game is short. I beat it in 6 hours and I believe that's average, which makes its $20 price a bit steep. But I also believe that play time does not necessarily justify the price; experience does. For those who thinks every dollar should provide 2~3 hours of play time, think about how bland checklisty sandboxes are.

2. Oh boy, though flawed, this game should have totally been a bigger shot, but two things happened. Firstly, for the love of god Tequila Works is so bad at marketing. Not the notorious way of bad, but the awkward way and it's almost making me sad. I think it's safe to say it beats every other indie sharing the same release time, making it eligible to be the game of the day. Well, surprise madafaka, out of nowhere then came Bayonetta PC, with not even the slightest hint, she just charged into the battlefield and smashed everything down to pieces. I'm not saying Bayo is a bad game -- it's great, it's one of the best action games PC has to offer. It's just not very honorable for a 3A game (aight, a remake of a 3A game) from a major publisher such as SEGA to launch a sudden assault. Indie games avoid overlapping their release date with 3As for a reason, given that major publishers usually have the basic decency to disclose release dates. Fingers crossed, I hope RiME have better luck -- if it does have the quality in the first place.

Despite The Sexy Brutale's odd choice for a title, I've been keeping an eye on this game since it was first announced. I'm not a huge puzzle game guy, but I loved Majora's Mask's time rewinding elements and it's not every day that you get to play a game with time travelling mechanics. I didn't have high expectations walking in, because of my disinterest in puzzle games. However, I was thoroughly impressed with this game, and was compelled enough to complete it in one sitting, something that is extremely rare for me to do. There's definitely some room for improvement, but I would be lying if I said I didn't have a great time playing this hidden gem.


First of all, this artstyle wasn't my cup of tea at first glance. Similar to my experience with Furi, I thought this game looked rather ugly based off of the screenshots. However, just like Furi, I was quite shocked by how good everything looked once I played it. The mansion itself oozes charm, with the different areas where you rescue the victims all being unique in different ways, which made the puzzles quite fun to watch when you completed them. All of the guests' appearances are just as varied as the areas are, with everyone looking interesting in their own way. However, the visuals are held back by some animation problems, namely when one of the guests starts singing and their mouth is out of sync with the music.


I wouldn't call this game innovative, as there are plenty of games that have used a time travelling mechanic well, however these games come out very rarely. This means that The Sexy Brutale is quite a breath of fresh air in the abundance of open world games that have plagued 2017. The game flows very nicely, and there wasn't a point where I felt something was dragged out for too long or way too short. As much fun as I had with this, the gameplay also showed quite a few glaring problems I had with this game. The controls, at least on PC, are awful. I constantly misclicked and nearly screwed up massively. There's also no way to change them, so I was stuck dealing with the poor controls for my entire playthrough. The puzzles, while they were pretty satisfying to complete, weren't very hard at all. I was able to save most, if not all of the guests on my first or second attempt, usually not knowing what I was doing. Despite all of this, the gameplay is still pretty solid in my opinion.


At the time of this review, I'm also playing through NieR: Automata, and I noticed a very interesting aspect found in both games. This aspect I'm referring to is how both games are great at hopping from being lighthearted and humorous to being dark and philosophical. I don't want to spoil the game, however I will say that The Sexy Brutale has nailed the tone down. When I started making some progress in the game, I noticed a few little details that seemed out of place, and I was concerned that it was due to a lack of polish. Luckily, all of my concerns were put to rest during the very satisfying finale to the game. Some might not like it, however I thought it was an appropriate way to conclude the game. The main story was interesting from start to finish, and I loved every second of it. The characters had a lot of depth to them, and there wasn't a single guest I was saving where I thought to myself, "Why do I have to save this guy? He's a total ♥♥♥♥." If I really had any complaint here, I would've loved to see the game get even more in-depth with some of the characters. There were definitely some interesting things I noticed that could've been touched up on a little.


I'm a huge fan of Electro Swing music, and I enjoy playing jazz music. Seeing it in action here gave my ears an orgasm, but I also loved how subtle the details in the music were. The music changes based off of what's currently happening in the area you're at, and that rush you feel when the music becomes increasingly hectic gave me a sense of dread I don't normally feel in soundtracks for any form of entertainment. Just do yourself a favor and listen to the music on Youtube. I don't need to say any more about that. There's no voice acting, but I didn't really mind because it would've probably been distracting and would've messed with some of the game's mechanics. The sound effects are also top-notch, as they're also very subtle and help play a part in signifying when a guest is killed. All the little audio details fit together nicely, and for a musician like myself, this type of interconnectivity is extremely satisfying and an absolute pleasure to listen to. Where the audio falls short, however, is in the transitions. Why? Well, there's no transition. Want to look at your map? BOOM. Sudden cut to different music. Enter a room with ghosts in it? Well, prepare for some horribly obnoxious earrape. I felt this killed the mood a little bit and removed any tension and suspense that was building up. If they spent some time adding some form of transition between pieces, then that buildup won't abruptly go away.


Although the game itself isn't very long, it stays consistently interesting and doesn't overstay its welcome. Because of this, I'm actually considering going back and 100%ing this game, something that I almost never do. I'll give this category some extra credit for being a fun game to 100%, despite it not being too difficult.


To conclude, The Sexy Brutale was a pleasant little surprise and it kept me entertained the whole time. The game lacks general polish, but otherwise you're looking at one of 2017's most underrated gems. If you're uncertain about it, then wait until a sale. Otherwise, your $20 will be well spent putting it towards this game.

Graphics - 8.5/10
Gameplay - 7.5/10
Story - 9.5/10
Audio - 9.5/10
Replayability - 6.0/10

.:8.2/10:.
"Great"

+ Unique and fleshed out characters
+ Satisfying ending
+ Extremely good soundtrack
+ Compelling main story
+ Changes the tone very smoothly
+ Gorgeous art style
+ Consistently interesting mechanics

- Puzzles are too simple
- Lacks polish in general
- Odd controls