Samuel Sage: The Mystery at Penby Inn
Immerse yourself in a thrilling mystery at the Penby Inn! A luxurious hotel set in the endearing English countryside, Penby Inn is coming under a lot of fire (literally) from mind-boggling mishaps, ghoulish noises, rumours of hauntings and gruesome murder!
To adds to the drama, the rich new owner Samuel Sage, who has conveniently inherited the hotel, is completely clueless about the incendiary incidents, the drama ensuing behind its glamourous doors and the dark secrets it holds!
Will Samuel triumph over the increasingly insurmountable odds, or will he succumb to defeat? Will he shatter under the weight of the heavy burden, or will the sweet refuge of a budding romance see him through the turmoil?
During the course of the game, you will join Samuel Sage to explore the hotel, examine evidence of hauntings, gather clues by talking to customers, contractors and employees; uncover scandalous secrets from his familial past and unravel the dark motives behind the horrific murder in Penby Inn. To take your mind off the grave and increasingly mysterious happenings, you can explore the charming history of the deliciously delightful Penby village and even indulge in a bit of spirited romance!
The game comes with convenient features such as a log for re-examining saved evidence and studying artefacts gathered during exploration. The game is available with English, Spanish, Japanese, Russian, and Simplified Chinese subtitles.
Game Discussion
Steam User 0
Very enjoyable detective story. Has a subtle supernatural element to the plot. Game play is linear but nevertheless enjoyable. Recommended.
Steam User 0
Short detective game. Great to play on your free day with a nice cup of coffee - simple controls and linear progression style means you can sit back and enjoy the story, which is solid and believable. It didn't feel rushed, but rather well thought out, especially when the player is given a deeper dive into cyber security. The crime solved logically with the clues found during the investigations, and our protagonist's personal life had something of a bittersweet twist at the end.
The characters cycled through a limited set of emotions during conversations. While there could have been more, it didn't really bother me when playing, but was something that came to mind as an afterthought. Music was fine, and the art style was clean and easy to look at. This game was overall a positive experience.
Steam User 0
The game has a nice story and a few good sound tracks. I would have liked more exploration scenes. It is not a very long game. Overall, I recommend it.
Steam User 0
A good game with a nice story. Very refreshing to play a visual novel with a different creative style. The game is a bit linear, but still very enjoyable.
Steam User 2
This is a good game for lovers of detective stories. I enjoyed playing it and would happily recommend it to others. The game is not very long, dialogues are well written.
Steam User 0
A marginal thumbs-up, mostly because I've played far worse visual novels. As long as you go into this VN knowing that it's short and linear, with no actual mystery-solving on your part, it's an entertaining trifle.
I appreciated the bits of animation on the characters as they changed expressions. The presentation could've used more polish, with variety in where characters entered, exited, and stood, and in how scenes transitioned. I was not entirely fond of the music choices, but that kind of thing is entirely subjective.
I found the world worth inhabiting for the two hours of this little story, though it was not compelling enough for me to truly care about the characters, who are all loosely sketched.
The writing itself was largely average, with its share of word-usage issues and not-quite-tight grammar. Sometimes the investigation screens repeated information between the description of the evidence up top and Samuel's thoughts about it down below.
When I come across a mystery game, I tend to expect a lot from it. If you tell me that a game has investigation, I want to be able to do that. Simply clicking everything there is to be clicked--whether they're evidence hot spots or a list of places to go or people to talk to--isn't really investigating. So this game does fall short in that regard.
But ultimately I don't begrudge it for that. I knew it would be a lighter read and a brief experience, and it delivered at that level.
Steam User 1
Being a fan of crime fiction, I enjoyed playing this game. It's a bit like some of those old Poirot stories. Story is well written, with a good but believable twist. Some of the exploration scenes were quite interesting. There are bits about cyber security thrown into the story as well as a couple of parts where the player has to explore some apps installed on computers for clues. Overall a positive experience.