My daughter isn’t really much of a gamer but she just played (and finished) Homesick and she’d like more in the same vein.
Specifically she’s looking to explore and solve mysteries, preferably with a horror theme but without threat, or at least without combat. Apparently you can fail sections of Homesick but can immediately replay them with the knowledge of what to do - she’s fine with that. She also prefers first person.
Oh, as another reference she also really enjoyed What Remains of Edith Finch.
This isn’t really my area of gaming (although I did suggest The Last Door which I think she’s interested in), so I’d be grateful for any suggestions. Thanks in advance!
THe obvious answer for me is Gone Home & Vanishing of Ethan Carter. I’ve started on Everyone has gone to the Rapture, but got bored and never finished it.
Soma with that no enemy setting. But it’s a terrifying game, with or without some silly puppet trying to catch you every few hours. Also might haunt your sleep for quite a while (possibly the rest of your life).
I feel like any actual mystery involved in the Phoenix Wright games are kind of ancillary to the experience. Not to say they’re bad games, I enjoy them a lot, but they’re much more traditional adventure games in that you’re finding things and figuring out where and when to use them, talking to people with dialog trees, moving the plot forward. But, that may be what this person is looking for.
I also think the Frogware Sherlock Holmes games are pretty good, at least as far as presenting mysteries for you to solve. They generally don’t involve a lot of supernatural elements, though some of them do.
I dunno. The PW games are definitely about solving, or at least unravelling, mysteries if you ask me. It’s true your agency in doing so is pretty limited. You very much have to do the things it wants you to do in the order it wants you to. But that’s also true of, say, Gone Home or Edith Finch. They just give you slightly more illusion of freedom.
The distinction may be too narrow for someone who hasn’t played a lot of adventure games, but I think the agency part is a big piece of it. I think Obra Dinn is much more open-ended in how you approach and solve its mysteries, and therefore in my opinion a little more satisfying. But as I say, stuff like Phoenix Wright and also Gone Home or Edith Finch are also great experiences, just scratching a different itch.