Developed by: Happy Broccoli Games.
Every once and a while, it’s nice to be surprised by games you weren’t aware of, Duck Detective was that for me. Reminding me of when I was a kid, going to Blockbuster or GameStation and seeing games that you weren't aware of.
That piqued your interest, by just the cool box-art. Recently with retail stores becoming a thing of the past, part of that magic is gone. But when I had my biweekly scan of the eShop, to see if games on my Wishlist were on sale, I came across Duck Detective. From the thumbnail, cheap entry point and my love for visual novels, I knew I had to pick it up!
Over the past couple years' there seems to be a real renaissance for animal character games, especially those based on the niche genre of visual novels. I’ve played a handful of them myself, Frog Detective and Aviary Attorney to name a few. Varying all over the place in quality, there hasn’t been a breakout hit for a good while. Which is a shame as I’m a big enthusiast myself, I’m just glad someone is making games for the genre.
I was taken aback straight away noticing every member of the cast is fully voiced, an unexpected, nice surprise. It’s a rarity nowadays to find visual novels having any voice acting, let alone the whole game be so. The vibe of the game is an American noir mystery, even down to the vaguely familiar tropes. Eugene McQuacklin is a recently divorced duck, struggling to make ends meet with his current job; a private investigator. Most importantly, the detective struggles to cope with his fiendish obsession with bread! The story is very self-aware and slapstick-heavy. Luck is on the duck detectives’ side when he gets an anonymous tip on a crime committed that needs immediate resolution.
The whole game is near enough entirely based in the BearBus offices, the scene of the crime: a sandwich stolen by the titular - Salami Bandit. Presentation-wise the character models are most like the cardboard cut-outs you’d find in the Paper Mario series. The few supporting characters are exuding personality and have over-the-top stereotypical accents. The game doesn’t take itself too seriously, Eugene has an amusing waddle animation paired with a pointless and unnecessary dedicated quack button, that has no use, bar just being a laugh.
Getting to know each and everyone that’s working at BearBus, is the best part of the game. You’ll soon learn that the conversations you have are very familiar to anyone that’s been in any work environment before. people gossiping about each other’s business behind their backs and overblowing any small inconvenience.
Eugene must use ‘Deducktions’ investigating the scene of the crime and finding new key words to use in his own deductions to find out what has happened. He can also inspect suspects to gather more information into the hidden motives and backstory of the cast. The way the detective does these interrogations reminded me a lot of the way they’re portrayed in the BBC’s modern adaptation of Sherlock.
To anyone familiar with games of the same genre, there’s nothing new here you’ve not already experienced before. Just fresh interpretations on the tried-and-true tropes into solving mysteries. earth shattering in difficulty as the game highlights key areas to investigate in a bold yellow which is hard to ignore. Linking up the words in statements is a cakewalk too, very basic sentence structures and pronouns used basically give away the right word to use.
The last time visual novels were in the mainstreams view, games like Phoenix Wright and Hotel Dusk were marketed as accessible titles, that even the broader audience could get behind. Even Nintendo, had their own subdivision marketing certain games (Touch Generations). While trying to tell a story, they included hard puzzles which most definitely turned away a lot of the casual audience that were unfamiliar with stopgaps in videogames.
It’s been nearly two decades since the last golden age of visual novels. Games still have the same puzzles and occasional fetch quests but with standardized accessibility options that can help casuals with a gate of entry. Auto-advancing text is a QoL improvement I like, not having to mash a button to advance through the text is a blessing. Another is the story mode, that autoplays the game like you were reading a book and bypassing puzzles to keep frustration at a low. Both of these feature here.
I do bear in mind it's all-optional stuff, maybe it’s the boomer in me but the over-simplification of interaction from the player isn’t a good idea for trying to capture the interest of casual players. Today most people have low attention spans, I can’t see this ‘dumbed down’ entry point being a deciding factor, for someone to pick a video game over a film or TV show to tell a story.
Many uninformed non-gamers/casuals naively believe that video games are still in their infancy period of telling good stories, with graphics only now reaching undisguisably life-like standards. It’s a big issue in the games industry as of late, ‘interactive media’, large parts of recent AAA games blurring the lines of cinematics and gameplay, so close to realism but confusing many players when their participation begins and ends. While flashy and screams blockbuster, loses personal involvement of playing a vital part of what makes a video game, a video game.
On the better side though, Duck Detective has a new accessibility option I hadn’t yet seen, a dyslexic font mode. Making an easier to read font and spacing of letters, for people who struggle with reading sentences in a concurrent flow. I’m all for any additions to video games that help less-able gamers to play whatever they want. It’s great to see developers of today; most notably PlayStation Studio titles, include a plethora of options to make any game be as accessible as possible.
Its runtime is its biggest problem. I don’t mind short games, I welcome them nowadays over the triple AAA over-bloated open worlds. I beat the game in under two hours, while that’s good usually, I didn’t feel personally content when I hit credits. It's over before it begins, it feels under-developed even with the game being solely based on one small case and limited gameplay twists, I was yearning for more when I reached the end. I guess with the small asking price, I shouldn’t have expected much more than I got. I still felt unfulfilled with the promise it showed in its storytelling.
Being more than familiar with games of the same genre, Duck Detective didn’t wow me in ways I hadn’t been with other visual novels. The abruptly short runtime does hurt my lasting thoughts of the game but with what is here; the humour, charm and overall presentation, it's worth the price of admission and couple of hours to beat, for anyone that is fan of the genre. Here’s hoping that the developers are hard at work on a meatier follow-up.
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Hours to beat: <2 Hours
Pros:
Accessibility options
Humor
Cons:
Runtime
Very easy
Rating: 6/10
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