A postcard from Finland

My playtime: ~15 minutes

Intro
A postcard from Finland is a short visual novel where you are investigating your friend's murder.

Graphics
The game uses a combination of 2D, anime-like characters and real-life, blurry photos. Although both blends smoothly, the blurry background bugs me sometimes. It still does well to represent the places that the characters are located though, as there are a lot of backgrounds with different settings in the game - yes, the character moves around a lot.

Story
The game starts with a skippable intro from the developer which tells you about what you should expect from the game. Although I didn't mind reading these kinds of texts, they might be better off placed in a separate section of the game since it doesn't affect the story at all.

The story starts by introducing two characters and their backgrounds. Not a lot of things are happening in the intro - you just need to read a lot of text to get a better context of what is happening. It wasn't until a while that something happens and a new character is introduced off-screen to progress the plot. As a murder mystery game, an introduction of a new character right after a murder starts doesn't sit well with me, as you are supposed to be given a list of suspects at the start to start deducting.

The story is also predictable. Not in the way that you can guess how the murder is happening, but more about who the perpetrator is. I mean, there is only one other character besides the main character and victim that is introduced in the game, and if the other character is not the perpetrator, a new one will bound to happen off-screen, which again, is not fun for a murder mystery game. I'm never good at guessing the perpetrator in murder mystery games, although I do enjoy getting lost in the dark and having those aha moments after everything is explained.



There is too much spoonfeeding in the ending. Although the game is concluded nicely, it doesn't feel as if I'm playing a murder mystery game at all. Sure, you know the perpetrator and their killing method in the end, but the game sorts of dumping all of it right after you solved the case. Again, part of what makes a murder mystery game fun for me is to find out how the killing is happening. It feels discouraging to see that everything is explained right away at the end by the narrator - I'd rather have the main character figuring out and explaining it himself, rather than being fed with all of the info like this. It feels as if I'm looking for an explanation of the ending since I couldn't understand the story from the in-game texts.

All things aside, the writing is decent. It does a good job of letting you know how the events are progressed, and characters are unique from each other. I didn't get bored in reading the story until the end, and aside from some supernatural thing that doesn't make sense (like how someone who is killed a few days ago is being resurrected as a cat that looks like a few years old), it is good enough for me. The pacing and dialogue work well in a visual novel game despite the strange decision on the murder mystery aspect.

The Game
Gameplay
Surprisingly, you're not bound to read text all the time. There are two scenes where you have to gather evidence in a room, similar to hidden object games. The objects that you are supposed to find are obvious, yet blending nicely with the background at the same time. It's nice to do some action in the game aside from some writing.



Length and Replayability
I finished the game in around 15 minutes. There are 2 endings based on what you did during the hidden object scene. I found the bad ending to be ridiculous, although in a good way. I didn't expect that it will go that way and was satisfied with it. On the other hand, the good ending is decent. I already covered it in the story section though, so I'll leave it as it is.

Problems
Some texts in the options are still in French.

Pros:
- 2 endings
- Hidden object scenes to gather evidence

Cons:
- Some characters are introduced offscreen, which is related to the murder
- Too much spoonfeeding on the characters

Final Rating: 3/5
For a first visual novel game, this game is surprisingly good. As someone who tends to get bored reading visual novels, I kept on getting hooked with the writing. Dialogues are flowing smoothly with it giving you new facts as time goes. However, despite it being a murder mystery game, it is lacking the important parts of it. Introducing an offscreen character kills the joy of deducting the murderer, especially with you having no other suspect to base your accusation from.