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Shadow at the Water's Edge
Plot:
As a reward for solving the previous mystery Trail of the Twister; Nancy, Bess & George are off to Kyoto, Japan. Nancy works days teaching English to local children but at night is investigating the ryokan (Japanese Inn) where she is staying. Nancy finds that strange events are scaring away customers and the ryokan might be haunted by a young woman who died there suddenly. It’s up to you as Nancy Drew to figure out if there’s more behind these hauntings than meets the eye.
The plot is a big part of why I wanted to play this game, that, and I heard this was the scariest ND game! The game is loosely based off two books none of which I’ve read but it’s a pretty believable & interesting plot.
Characters:
Miwako Shimizu: Miwako runs the inn with her grandmother and loves doing it. She doesn’t want to leave since she is very devoted to her family heritage. Unfortunately, being the second born daughter by tradition she will not inherit the inn, instead, her older sister Yumi will. She gets very upset when you mention her mother (the woman that died), enough so that she will not speak with you.
Miwako wasn’t a bad character, she rightfully got upset when Nancy would bring up her mother & I thought some of the time the things Nancy said were a little inappropriate. She would continue to ask Miwako about her mother even though she was obviously already upset & didn’t want to talk about it. You didn’t have a ton of interaction with Miwako but she was always behind the desk if you wanted to talk to her & most of the time she told Nancy to not worry.
Yumi Shimizu: Older daughter and rightful heir to inherit the ryokan, Yumi is a free spirit and moved into her own apartment in the city as soon as she could. She works full time at a Bento Stand & doesn’t get along very well with her younger sister. Yumi wants no part in running the ryokan and enjoys her free lifestyle.
Yumi was funny, very spunky & the complete opposite of Miwako. I loved her apartment & her outfit really fit her personality. I didn’t really enjoy doing bento boxes as they were extremely difficult to figure out on your own (in my opinion). I had to watch a tutorial to grasp the concept then needed to actually write down what I had to figure out the rest.
Rentaro Aihara: Handyman to the ryokan and boyfriend of Miwako, they grew up together and seem like the perfect couple. Rentaro loves working on mechanical things in his work shed and is always trying to do nice things for Miwako. He would love to move to the city but Miwako feels too tied down to the inn.
Rentaro was nice & sincere. I think he truly did care for Miwako he just had difficulty showing it. Again the puzzles he gave us were very difficult & I used a cheat on all of them especially to figure out the back of the frame of Kasumi that broke in the lobby. I mean, c’mon….
Takae Nagai: The grandmother to Miwako & Yumi, Takae is extremely traditional and feels that the inn means everything to the family. She doesn’t understand why Yumi will not fulfill her duties and run the ryokan. She also still feels Kasumi’s (the girls’ mother) presence in the ryokan. Takae teaches classes on origami, calligraphy & the proper tools used in a tea ceremony.
Talk about a slow talker… I don’t even understand that. She knew English but couldn’t… quite… say… it… quickly. She was extremely (to me) annoying. Every time Nancy brought up what happened to her she said she was ‘mistaken’. Yeah, don’t think so… it got really frustrating talking with her because in her mind everything is one way & you’re wrong.
All together the characters were, alright. Not one of them stood out to me except for I guess Yumi but that’s because her personality was so completely different from the others. It would’ve been cool to have seen Savanah & Logan but they were just phone friends. I found that Yumi & Rentaro were the only characters that helped progresses the game; Miwako & Takae were just… there. This might be random but I wondered what happened to the girls’ father & Takae’s husband, he is mentioned but nothing more than he loved the ryokan blah blah blah.
Settings/Graphics:
The graphics were great, and there was a lot of space in the ryokan. Floors and floors of rooms, the outside garden, you could also take the train into the city where you found Yumi at the Bento Stand. There was a Pachinko Parlor where you could play games & win prizes and my favorite was Yumi’s apartment which was so cute. My only complaint was that the entire game play was at night since Nancy taught during the day & a lot of the graphics especially the outside garden where just backdrops and looked odd on my laptop screen.
Game Play/Puzzles:
Big red flags here, I mean everywhere you turn just to get a little bit farther in the game PUZZLE. It was nonsense. Barely any snooping and then when there was, oh wait, you have to do a puzzle first. It extremely disappointed me. I love snooping & finding a real mystery, investigating what’s going on instead of just doing puzzles! Not to mention the fact that I found them very difficult & time consuming. This game took me a little over a week to play and that was with help of cheats & walkthroughs. I had to do several puzzles over and over especially the timed ones and the big one at the end, talk about UGH.
Scare Factor:
There’s a very good reason why this is called the scariest ND game, that’s because it is. Out of all the ND games I’ve played that is. It really gave me goose bumps! However, depending on how old you are I’d say that makes a big difference. It didn’t scare me enough to not sleep at night or to hide under my pillow, it gave me a quick scare then I was on my way to solving more puzzles… if you’re very young, it’s a different story. It might help to play in the daytime or around other people if you are easily scared. I also kind of felt creeped out at some points but it was mostly “OMG WHAT IS THAT” then it’s over lol.
Music:
The music wasn't my favorite in this game, however you did feel as though you're in Japan. It was, at times, very repetitive. When you had to play the mini games, they would take a good amount of time to get though so you have the same tune playing over and over-it got to be too much so I'd turn down the volume.
Ending:
Seriously? (My reaction at the end) After all the puzzles you have to go through this is the ending they give you… it’s actually cool though cuz if you save your game at a certain point you can see both endings, I actually really liked that & thought it was a good idea. But c’mon! The end was so easy & the culprit way predictable. I don’t know, I just think HeR dropped the ball when it came to the end like they were rushing through it. Womp, womp.
Overall:
Honestly I’m not sure if I’d ever play this game again! There wasn’t anything that stood out to me that I really enjoyed enough to go through all of that again. I like playing CRE over because I love the beach, collecting shells, fishing & making ice pops. I love playing TRT & MHM because they’re not so difficult and riddled with puzzles that I want to rip my hair out. I played CUR a 2nd time but again, too many puzzles to really enjoy the game plus it takes days to get through everything. This is just my opinion; I know a lot of people like SAW & will play it over & over… I just think this game was more trouble than it’s worth. If you like puzzles then this is the perfect game for you & I hope you enjoy it. But do check it out just because it’s an ND game and they’re awesome!
Hope you enjoyed my review; please leave comments, and your views/opinion’s etc…
Plot:
As a reward for solving the previous mystery Trail of the Twister; Nancy, Bess & George are off to Kyoto, Japan. Nancy works days teaching English to local children but at night is investigating the ryokan (Japanese Inn) where she is staying. Nancy finds that strange events are scaring away customers and the ryokan might be haunted by a young woman who died there suddenly. It’s up to you as Nancy Drew to figure out if there’s more behind these hauntings than meets the eye.
The plot is a big part of why I wanted to play this game, that, and I heard this was the scariest ND game! The game is loosely based off two books none of which I’ve read but it’s a pretty believable & interesting plot.
Characters:
Miwako Shimizu: Miwako runs the inn with her grandmother and loves doing it. She doesn’t want to leave since she is very devoted to her family heritage. Unfortunately, being the second born daughter by tradition she will not inherit the inn, instead, her older sister Yumi will. She gets very upset when you mention her mother (the woman that died), enough so that she will not speak with you.
Miwako wasn’t a bad character, she rightfully got upset when Nancy would bring up her mother & I thought some of the time the things Nancy said were a little inappropriate. She would continue to ask Miwako about her mother even though she was obviously already upset & didn’t want to talk about it. You didn’t have a ton of interaction with Miwako but she was always behind the desk if you wanted to talk to her & most of the time she told Nancy to not worry.
Yumi Shimizu: Older daughter and rightful heir to inherit the ryokan, Yumi is a free spirit and moved into her own apartment in the city as soon as she could. She works full time at a Bento Stand & doesn’t get along very well with her younger sister. Yumi wants no part in running the ryokan and enjoys her free lifestyle.
Yumi was funny, very spunky & the complete opposite of Miwako. I loved her apartment & her outfit really fit her personality. I didn’t really enjoy doing bento boxes as they were extremely difficult to figure out on your own (in my opinion). I had to watch a tutorial to grasp the concept then needed to actually write down what I had to figure out the rest.
Rentaro Aihara: Handyman to the ryokan and boyfriend of Miwako, they grew up together and seem like the perfect couple. Rentaro loves working on mechanical things in his work shed and is always trying to do nice things for Miwako. He would love to move to the city but Miwako feels too tied down to the inn.
Rentaro was nice & sincere. I think he truly did care for Miwako he just had difficulty showing it. Again the puzzles he gave us were very difficult & I used a cheat on all of them especially to figure out the back of the frame of Kasumi that broke in the lobby. I mean, c’mon….
Takae Nagai: The grandmother to Miwako & Yumi, Takae is extremely traditional and feels that the inn means everything to the family. She doesn’t understand why Yumi will not fulfill her duties and run the ryokan. She also still feels Kasumi’s (the girls’ mother) presence in the ryokan. Takae teaches classes on origami, calligraphy & the proper tools used in a tea ceremony.
Talk about a slow talker… I don’t even understand that. She knew English but couldn’t… quite… say… it… quickly. She was extremely (to me) annoying. Every time Nancy brought up what happened to her she said she was ‘mistaken’. Yeah, don’t think so… it got really frustrating talking with her because in her mind everything is one way & you’re wrong.
All together the characters were, alright. Not one of them stood out to me except for I guess Yumi but that’s because her personality was so completely different from the others. It would’ve been cool to have seen Savanah & Logan but they were just phone friends. I found that Yumi & Rentaro were the only characters that helped progresses the game; Miwako & Takae were just… there. This might be random but I wondered what happened to the girls’ father & Takae’s husband, he is mentioned but nothing more than he loved the ryokan blah blah blah.
Settings/Graphics:
The graphics were great, and there was a lot of space in the ryokan. Floors and floors of rooms, the outside garden, you could also take the train into the city where you found Yumi at the Bento Stand. There was a Pachinko Parlor where you could play games & win prizes and my favorite was Yumi’s apartment which was so cute. My only complaint was that the entire game play was at night since Nancy taught during the day & a lot of the graphics especially the outside garden where just backdrops and looked odd on my laptop screen.
Game Play/Puzzles:
Big red flags here, I mean everywhere you turn just to get a little bit farther in the game PUZZLE. It was nonsense. Barely any snooping and then when there was, oh wait, you have to do a puzzle first. It extremely disappointed me. I love snooping & finding a real mystery, investigating what’s going on instead of just doing puzzles! Not to mention the fact that I found them very difficult & time consuming. This game took me a little over a week to play and that was with help of cheats & walkthroughs. I had to do several puzzles over and over especially the timed ones and the big one at the end, talk about UGH.
Scare Factor:
There’s a very good reason why this is called the scariest ND game, that’s because it is. Out of all the ND games I’ve played that is. It really gave me goose bumps! However, depending on how old you are I’d say that makes a big difference. It didn’t scare me enough to not sleep at night or to hide under my pillow, it gave me a quick scare then I was on my way to solving more puzzles… if you’re very young, it’s a different story. It might help to play in the daytime or around other people if you are easily scared. I also kind of felt creeped out at some points but it was mostly “OMG WHAT IS THAT” then it’s over lol.
Music:
The music wasn't my favorite in this game, however you did feel as though you're in Japan. It was, at times, very repetitive. When you had to play the mini games, they would take a good amount of time to get though so you have the same tune playing over and over-it got to be too much so I'd turn down the volume.
Ending:
Seriously? (My reaction at the end) After all the puzzles you have to go through this is the ending they give you… it’s actually cool though cuz if you save your game at a certain point you can see both endings, I actually really liked that & thought it was a good idea. But c’mon! The end was so easy & the culprit way predictable. I don’t know, I just think HeR dropped the ball when it came to the end like they were rushing through it. Womp, womp.
Overall:
Honestly I’m not sure if I’d ever play this game again! There wasn’t anything that stood out to me that I really enjoyed enough to go through all of that again. I like playing CRE over because I love the beach, collecting shells, fishing & making ice pops. I love playing TRT & MHM because they’re not so difficult and riddled with puzzles that I want to rip my hair out. I played CUR a 2nd time but again, too many puzzles to really enjoy the game plus it takes days to get through everything. This is just my opinion; I know a lot of people like SAW & will play it over & over… I just think this game was more trouble than it’s worth. If you like puzzles then this is the perfect game for you & I hope you enjoy it. But do check it out just because it’s an ND game and they’re awesome!
Hope you enjoyed my review; please leave comments, and your views/opinion’s etc…