Guide to Absolute Sorrow: London Detective Mysteria Edition!

1) Start up the game.
2) Read whatever route you want.
3) Discover quickly that no man will ever match your perfect butler.
4) Exit game and cry because he has no route.

I have only one complaint about this game... though it is quite a BIG and SERIOUS complaint indeed...
My complaint is; HOW DARE THE WRITERS NOT GIVE PENDLETON A ROUTE!!!!!!!!!!!
How dare they create a character as gorgeous and perfect as our dear butler Pendleton, and NOT give him a route of his own!! Every time he appeared, I wanted to cry... it's almost a crime to put our poor hearts through such agony... AGONY!!!!!
Apart from that HUGE mistake... I LOVE THIS GAME!! Lol... I love the characters... I love the story line... I love the game! I won't go into detail, so not to give away any spoilers, but it's definitely worth the purchase peeps... so go ahead, tap the PURCHASE button... what are you waiting for!!!!! Then you can also cry and complain about the fact that PENDLETON DOES NOT HAVE A ROUTE along with me, because trust me, you will... XD.

I’m sure that London Detective Mysteria[noisypixel.net] is a visual novel that otome fans were looking forward to this year. I was especially excited when the release date for PC finally got announced after the PS Vita release. The premise of London Detective Mysteria already had my interest as the idea stems from becoming a capable detective while being surrounded by handsome detectives. Sure, it’s a huge bonus that every guy is super adorable, to say the least, and I have to admit I had trouble deciding on who to romance first since they’re pretty much pure eye-candy.

https://youtu.be/Cxw1HyJ9Y_A

The story follows Emily Whiteley who lost her parents but has a lovely butler, Pendelton, who looks out for her. She attends a birthday party of the Majesty the Queen and just happens to be eavesdropping while the sons of Holmes and Watson are trying to solve a case from the queen. Evidently, her cat is missing which was an important gift to her. Emily finds out that the queen was once very close to her deceased mother and thus, she decides to help her along with the two famous detectives. After solving the case, the queen wants to meet Emily again and ends up giving her a ring only trusted detectives of the queen posses along with an offer to visit a famous detective school her parents used to attend.

Each chapter feels like an episode where different events take place. This means that each case only lasts for the entirety of the chapter and is completed once the chapter is done. Although it isn’t a bad feature per se, I was a bit disappointed that the cases didn’t last long and were solved so quickly. I didn’t have enough time to digest one case as the next one already began. Throughout each case, I felt like a connection between the characters were missing although it works out well with its episodic presentation.

Something I noticed is that the romance starts off slow in the common route, solving crimes is the priority of the story. Sweet moments fall short and although they are indeed implemented in the game, some chapters don’t contain romance or any scenes where you can tell you’re going to get closer to your desired guy. That doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing though since the romance eventually rolls out and the story balances romance and crime just fine. You should be aware that if you’re not really into detectives and their cases, you might become bored after a while as it is the main focus in the game.

There are five different love interests available to romance although you can also develop friendships with side characters as well. For the main love interests, you can look up your status anytime and see how much affection you have with each guy which will influence your ending as well.

During the dialog, players able to increase their detective grade by selecting correct answers to responses, and when they do, a chibi version of Emily shows up in the right corner. I found this feature cute and it felt rewarding selecting the right choice. I especially liked selecting the correct love choice to see a note with a heart pop up. Something I found a little bit disappointing is that you don’t actually solve a crime by yourself but just select the right answers of who is suspicious after talking to all suspects. Additionally, there is a time limit on every choice, although you can easily return to the last choice to choose a different answer if you feel like you’ve messed up. I felt like the time limit was a nice change although, as you can tell, it was pretty pointless if you can just rewind every time and redo the choice. To me, it was like the purpose got nullified by adding another feature.

The artwork of London Detective Mysteria is beautiful and so stunning that when each CG got displayed I forgot to advance with the text. Although this game does not contain any animation, there are multiple facial expressions available which managed to describe the characters feeling well. Additionally, when a character is talking their sprite gets displayed next to the text so I immediately knew who was talking without having to actually read their name. A very nice feature here is that the facial expression changes with their reaction so it is impossible to get confused by the same sprite. Even Emily has her own sprite and this game offers voice audio for her, which is optionable. The soundtrack is lovely, to say the least, and perfectly fit into its theme.

London Detective Mysteria is an otome game through and through although it offers a nice balance with individual cases in episodic storytelling. Those, who are not interested in reading through crime themes, will likely get bored reading the events of London Detective Mysteria. With that said, it will be the perfect game if you happen to enjoy this genre and the added romance makes it all the better.

London Detective Mysteria doesn’t make it is necessary to romance one of the male interests. So you can just deepen your friendship with instead. The game is an all-around lovely visual novel, where you can solve unique cases and admire some handsome detectives at the same time.

[Updated August 9th, 2019] [Time shown is not accurate - was left running]

The common route is satisfyingly long and entertaining during the first run-through. After that, one can use the Skip function, as well as the Go to Last/Next Choice functions, to proceed quickly to the next route/ending. I would prefer a clearer indication of when the "main route" starts, but any guide will tell you. (I'm just stubborn about not using guides until I've done most things on my own, or I think there's a glitch).

The game is reminiscent of Code Realize (Otomate), though it is more light-hearted - so far. Given what I've seen from further on in the game, things do get more serious. [Note: They do. Themes include discrimination (race, gender, class, wealth), as well the darker aspects of love, and while there are happy endings, the game doesn't pull its punches as much as I expected.]

The main characters are effectively in their final year of high school, so it's not surprising that they seem younger than the Code Realize crowd - they are. I hadn't realized there would be such an English private school background to the first part of the story, but it was enjoyable.

That said, and despite the young-looking sprites, the characters are generally well-portrayed as young *adults*, and act accordingly. The protagonist does suffer a little from the "sheltered naive young girl" syndrome of many of these games. However, she does get to be intelligent and brave, and she does have her own story, as well as the story centred on the potential love interest.

Overall: the game is well done, the stories and characters are interesting, the art is lovely, and the backgrounds of turn-of-the-century London (late 1800s) are excellent.

I will admit that my Agatha Christie loving soul was thrilled to see a Miss Marple to go along with the ubiquitous Holmes and Watson and Lupin(e). Holmes and Watson have their semi-expected roles of tsundere detective and outgoing, engaging partner/assistant. Lupin looks like he'll be interesting, and now that I've played a few routes, I can see that he's as flamboyant in his Gentleman Thief role as ever - only his cover role is (insanely) shy and awkward. I'm looking forward to learning more about the other characters. Pendleton the Butler reminds me of another butler I've 'met' recently, and he's a lot of fun.

So far this game has the polish I look for in this type of Japanese otome. I have no regrets about getting the game for the introductory 10% off, and look forward to finishing the routes I have left.

~ Imp

Uneven but ultimately well-worth the many hours of investment you'll have into the story & characters. Expect a heavy dose of "anime logic" - like a whole school of brilliant, observant detectives wasn't able to figure out that John Lupine had anything to do with Jean Lupin.

---

IMHO, the opening is very rough. I didn't get a good impression of the MC, nor did I start getting attached to the characters until about 1/4th of the way through my first route. However, once I did start getting attached, it was strong.

Don't expect to actually solve mysteries. You're rarely quizzed & when you are, most are easy enough that you probably won't have taken notes. If you wish to try to solve the mysteries before the characters, tools are provided, but the game doesn't always give you all of the clues the characters (including the MC!) have at their disposal. The only time it will be useful is when the cryptography puzzle comes in. You're better off following a guide there since you probably won't have the time to solve the puzzles anyway.

I'd say that most of the game is PG rated, but there are some areas that take it up to higher levels.

- The racism warning is very real. It is only a few short uncomfortable scenes.

- Most of the game is very chaste, never going further than kisses & implication things may have happened between scenes, but there is a CG with the MC nude (nothing showing) being embraced by someone protecting her from freezing. There is some light sexual peril, but nothing that goes beyond statements of intent & being grabbed by attackers.

- Violence is heavy. At least PG-13+. Jack the Ripper's real victims are given spotlight in one of the routes, even putting you in their head as they are murdered. All deaths are described pretty vibrantly and these real murders in particular are described in grotesque, fairly historically accurate, detail. Putting yourself in the shoes of real women who were murdered gruesomely may be extremely uncomfortable, but they are treated with respect otherwise. (Excepting their murderer.)

- If you are sensitive to weight issues, two characters will frequently remark on the (tiny and petite) heroine's weight. One does it purely as a form of tough love & takes it more to comical territory. The other is a jerk.

There were a few typos, but nothing awful.

The cockney slang is so thick that it was troublesome to read and, tbh, in places didn't even seem accurately represented. It could have been done in a less heavy-handed manner & been much more enjoyable.

I know crashes are possible, but I avoided it by not often using the feature likely to cause them.

Largely lovely - even gorgeous! - but in some places it could be very awkward. Most of the CGs were well worth the "reward" & they were quite generously handed out. It's unfortunate that it's only a port of a PSP game & larger assets couldn't be used.

Her intro was very unflattering. I didn't care for her at all through the prologue. She came off as childish, reckless, not particularly bright, & utterly undeserving of being showered with the queen's favor. I expected to just write her off.

But she won me over once she started to gain more of a personality & polish from interacting with the other characters. In most routes, she became utterly charming & quite brilliant. You can absolutely see how she charmed at least five game LIs & warmed the hearts of several others.

Her VA was wonderfully expressive. Though sometimes the MC expressed herself in a childish spoiled whine, most of the time she had a very pleasant voice. The emotion the VA could put into a single breathless word really went a long way towards changing my impression of the MC, where the text alone wouldn't have expressed nearly enough. And, of course, there's a world of difference between hearing someone's attempt to soldier through heartbreak & just seeing the words.

I did like all of them. Even the one I liked the least. Keep in mind there are only five romantic routes; the rest are ambiguous.

- Marple: (F) for "friendship". This is meant to be the route you get when you fail to romance anyone. I hated it. It was a few "cute" scenes (I found it rather boring, tbh). Then towards the end you realize there was more going on than just "yay friendship". Yan-deredere Miss Marple wants so much to protect her dear friend that she conspires with Holmes to keep Emily from ever pursuing the murders of her family. It's even implied that to do so, Marple will give up her detective dreams as well as sabotaging Emily's to keep her safe. If you want to treat it as a FxF route after realizing that, then at least treat it as an unhealthy one.

- Kobayashi: (B) for boyish hopes. This is another friendship route ending. You can consider it more of a "TBC" than an ending. The only reason I give it a B is because there's little else to it beyond than his trying so hard to protect the hearts of his friends Akeshi & Emily. It's very sweet, though.

- Holmes: (D) for d-bag. Don't get me wrong - I liked him in all of the other routes (he made an excellent wingman in some of them, in fact). But in his own route I disliked him quite a lot. His tendency to belittle the heroine's intelligence, weight, & merits was disgusting. Every negative quality he had as a character was in full bloom. The heroine was undermined to the point that she and those close to her remarked how she was less of a person after falling for him (yet they helped them get together...?) Holmes made her dependent on him & smothered her light under his own. The epilogue for his story did some degree of mitigating it, but not by much. I refuse to accept this Holmes as the true Holmes considering he was a better man in the other routes.

- Lupin: (B) Rather the opposite of Holmes - I disliked him (sometimes intensely) in most of the other routes. But in his own, it's probably the most "flowery" of all the romances, even if he was often a scoundrel. I liked him best in his epilogue. YMMV on Lupin probably more-so than any other character.

- Akeshi: (A) If you're into the diligent, straight-laced type, he's an amazing example of it. I found him utterly sweet, dependable, & admirable. He had stiff competition or he would normally rank higher.

- Watson: (A+) If you're into the adorable good-boy types, he is that in spades. I played his route first & "fell" so hard for him that I was reluctant to leave him. It honestly pained me a bit to pursue other routes seeing how honestly in love he was with Emily in even the other routes. (All of the LIs were to some extent, but their love was more reserved than Watson's.)

- Jack: (S) I can't honestly say it's the best route in the game - but it was the one that finally upset Watson's ranking as my favorite. His feelings for Emily were at least on par with Watson's & it made me so happy that they effectively became the best broTP in the game. His route was the most dark & violent, but was the most satisfying for me.

It's a strange mixture of extremely clever writing that asks the reader to think & feel every subtle emotional beat + "anime logic" that tells you to just turn your brain off & go with the flow. There are so many plotholes & loose ends (presumably left open for the intended sequel that may never arrive) that I should do a tableflip over it but... I liked it in the end.

Get through the brain-dead opening scene & keep going. There are some real gems in there & most of the routes were good - & a few truly special.

I genuinely hope that the sequel teased in the epilogue one day becomes a thing.

I'm no where near done with this, and already hooked. I have gone way past feeling like I've gotten my money's worth and I've yet to see a single ending with my nearly 10 hours (as of this post) of time spent playing.

The writing - story-telling wise - has been entertaining, sharp, and hilarious at times. The Protagonist is, while slightly sheltered, neither dim, nor frustrating, nor amnesiac (which I don't mind, per se, but it happens a lot). She stands as much a detective as the others in a game where everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses.

The only jarring thing so far is the spelling. Sometimes it's for someone's accent, but it's not how I think a native English speaker would present such an accent. It's consistent, so you get used to it (or I have already), but it's really the only negative I can say for the game. Well, and the beginning is just a liiiiiiiittle slow, but once you clear the prologue it's a treasure minute by minute.

The voice acting is solid, the music is fitting, there's a billion little things I want to know and a few good twists already. It definitely calls out to Code: Realize in terms of Theme, but stands solidly on its own.

I haven't finished every route in London Detective Mysteria yet, but I am already in love with it! Initially, I thought it was too expensive, but the moment I started the game I knew it was worth the price. With lengthy chapters, immersive dialogue, and clever banter, you will find yourself completely engaged and wanting more!

If you're concerned about how some reviews claim the love interests do all of the actual detective work while the protagonist (Emily) does nothing, I have to disagree. Emily is a reflective and analytical individual, curious about the darkness of London outside of her noble bubble. She contributes quite a lot to their cases (unlike some...I'm looking at you 7Scarlet), and her own noble perspective often aids them in investigations. EDIT: (finished game) She learns and grows uniquely in each route (unlike Hakuoki, where each good route has the same formula) and this is the first otome game where I have enjoyed each character route and feel attached to every love interest.

Another concern I noticed when buying was that other reviews say they were left feeling unsatisfied with the grand ending. I cannot speak to this, but I'm willing to sacrifice my time for a disappointing ending 1. because I will still love the characters forever and 2. I am already scarred with how ridiculously repetitive, insulting, and anticlimactic Men of Yoshiwara was with each and every ending. #BoughtMyHusband

Lastly, if you just like the idea of living in Victorian England and being privileged enough to be a woman attending a detective college as ordered by the Queen, all while questioning whether you will align yourself with the law or with love as you meet handsome men throughout your journey, then this game is for you!

EDIT: Since this review I have not only finished the game, but replayed both Jack and Holmes' routes multiple times! This is my favorite otome game ever and I was very satisfied with the grand ending. My favorite thing is how diverse the routes are in their plots and endings. I also appreciate the fact that once you choose your love interest, the other characters don't simply disappear. They remain you friends (and sometimes your wingman!) and support you in solving the mystery at hand until the very end. London Detective Mysteria is a heart-warming game that leaves you with that good feeling when you finish a thrilling romance novel.

EDIT 2: Still love this game <3

Ever since this game has been announced I have been anticipating to play this in PC. And now I have and I can tell you, It was a wonderful experience playing this game.

We follow a story of Emily Whiteley. An optimistic, bright young heiress who came back to London with the main motivation of uncovering the deaths of her Parents. Thanks to some occurences she is given the honour of studying to become a detective. She meets several characters and goes through several ordeals depending on your choices.

Emily is such a fun, engaging MC, I enjoyed her character, although mind you, she does go through a number of 'damsel in distress' situations, it does not diminish her as a character.

She has 5 Love Interests she can choose and even 2 friendship ends with 2 characters, I can say I liked all the routes (some way more than others mind you), each story was interesting and each LI had their own charm (even Holmes) that you can fine endearing.

This game also has a true end that all but teases a sequel, unfortunately there is no news of it being in production so there's that.

Overall, for people who loves a good Otome and a nice story, I definately would recommend this game!

London Detective Mysteria was quite a long exciting adventure that is now over and I feel a bit sad. I'm gonna miss this impeccable butler a lot! Truth be told, I started playing this game some years ago but...quit. Scanning negative reviews I can relate to them a little bit recollecting the reasons why I stopped.
For me first of all, language-wise it was rather difficult to read, English is not my native language, I had to look up lots of words and practically all the time I found out that I know similar words, with the same meaning but the ones from the story were marked as formal, literary, old usage etc... I guess, they are perfect for creating that unique atmosphere of Queen Victoria England but I had to question all the time if my struggle was worthy of it. Do I even need those bombastic words? And when I started playing through Jack's route, deciphering his East Ender's speech became simply unbearable. I just gave up.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2701230152
So, years after, I returned to this story and started playing it again, from the very beginning. One of the reasons my play time is so huge :D I remember recently reviewing the visual novel that impressed me greatly, I shared an opinion that I must learn to quit boring stories not to miss similar hidden gems in my steam library. I have too many unplayed games. Playing through this novel I realized there's actually one more reason why I should quit VNs that I don't find enjoyable. Maybe it's not their time yet. As reading this story seemed like an ordeal years ago, now it's become the source of fascinating vocabulary, even Jack's manner of speech stopped being so troublesome. I'm so happy I didn't force myself through playing it before and had a great chance to experience this pleasant journey now.

As for the routes, all love interests are quite appealing. Art in general is gorgeous. Really lots of breathtaking CGs neatly organized in a gallery. It was difficult to decide whose route to play first. So, I started with the unsurpassed detectives Holmes :D By the way, that's one of the enchanting features of this novel—familiar characters (Holmes, Watson and others + their young sons) in this cute anime version. I've read all Conan Doyle stories about Sherlock Holmes, so it was especially captivating to read about him again in this new interpretation xD

I left Watson's route for last, as some kind of dessert, mainly thanks to his stunning long hair, plus he is the only one with mature, adult sprite at the end of the story, so he seemed like an ideal way to finish the story but, frankly speaking, his route was slightly disappointing. MC was especially annoying here. Honestly, that was unbearable to read through all her stupid actions, Watson was the only one who responded even in a more irritating way ignoring MC. I was pissed off to no extent. So, it turned out Lupin's and then Jack's routes became my favorite, absolutely unexpectedly for me xD
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2704292761
The story per se is quite long. It contains several detective stories within. Recently I started really appreciating otome stories which don't focus entirely on the romance but on the captivating plot. That vital necessity of solving the main mystery was the leading theme through all the routes. I really imagined myself a detective solving different cases but keeping in mind the main riddle anyway. That was amazing. At the end all cases are solved, though not all culprits are punished, the story gives some closure anyway. But the plot may potentially present so much more. The game ended with “To be continued...” line and it gives me some hope that the next part will be released, though no information is given when and even if. I'd buy the game immediately not waiting for any sales or discounts.

Some minor complaints about the game:
--despite being a real treasure of interesting vocabulary, the game has some typos, quite frequent hyphen instead of dashes was especially annoying. No spaces, so my first thought always was that it's gonna be some compound word but it was just misused hyphen all the time :(
--unusual controls, it took me some time to get used to it. For example, I've made 76 screenshots but every time I pressed F12, the menu was toggled, that was bothersome;
--there're not so many choices as I prefer in my visual novels ;) especially in such lengthy stories, plus choices have a timer. On the one hand, you have to think fast, pick the variant that comes to mind first without any long contemplations, but on the other hand, it's kinda irking. Though, it presents the opportunity to have one more choice: not to decide anything at all, sometimes it was crucial and it's a great feature on its own;
--I always save before choices, here it's impossible. You see the options, the timer is on, that's it, no way to save here and to come back later in case you dislike the outcome. At least there're enough save slots here, so you should just save after the choices instead xD
--I wish text size could be a bit larger.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1943520731
So, that was an impressive adventure I recommend to try, at least for the sake of incredible, perfect butler. That was great fun to dive into old-fashioned England, feel aristocratic vibe. Right now I feel both content and sad that it's time to say goodbye. I do hope to see the continuation. That new char looks fascinating and promising! \o/

I went into this game reading a few lackluster reviews of it, and it was not as bad as I was expecting. The concept (a girl going to a detective school and solving mysteries while finding romance) is very enjoyable to me.

I was worried about Jack's route based on reviews I read, so for those of you who might want a spoiler to know whether to get invested in his route: he is a murderer but not of his own volition and he is not Jack the ripper. He ends up in prison for a bit but he is let go and he gets to be with the main character. He becomes her butler and they get to be together but only in secret. She promises not to marry anyone else but they can not publicly get married. I was totally satisfied with the ending, I was expecting much worse for my boy Jack

To me, this game has a fair amount of drawbacks, including:
- The love interest characters are grainy and not very attractive (in my opinion). The sprites can get pretty funky-looking, and the cg art is sort of hit-or-miss. This greatly decreased my enjoyment of the game.
- Some of the voice recordings had bad sound quality, particularly from Herlock Holmes.
- The music is fine but pretty forgetable.
- The writing sometimes launches into purple prose, which can get very distracting. There are also some poorly translated lines.
- The non-romance parts of the plots did not keep my interest after the common route.
- You have to repeat a lot of game to get all of the routes. There is a lot of back-tracking. Because the game has a lot of mysteries, I really only enjoyed solving the mysteries the first time, so I did not love having to replay big chunks of the game.
- The main character is very impulsive and constantly gets herself into situations she can not handle. I wish it was more like Code Realize where on each of the routes the main character learned different skills from the guys she is getting to know (e.g. shooting from Watson, martial arts from Holmes).
- I wish they had made the tsundere jerk character Holmes lighter on the jerk, by the end of the story the heroine is constantly teary and seems traumatized by him.

But overall I have enjoyed it for what it is and it has some very cute moments, and if I had played this as a teenager I think I would have enjoyed it a lot.