Grimm Investigation

Hi!
First thing, I have a question: did you play the MacVenture games (Deja Vu, Uninvited and Shadowgate... plus the new Spectacle)? Or other text adventures with pictures? They were quite popular a lot of years ago (I remember also playing some free ones, one fantasy, one horror and one named "Bronx" that was modern/crime styles), but I still think they have some charme. Many rpgmaker games tried to re-capture that old-style of adventuring and the same feeling of immersion, among these there are for example Swans in the Wallow and Dwoemer of the Drill Faced Goddess, two retro games that I reviewed in the past, made with different versions of Rpgmaker.

Well, Grimm Investigation, an Rpgmaker VX Ace by PianoTm made in 2017, offers a similar retro-adventure style: the games describes the setting and situation, also illustrating the scenes with (custom made) pictures, and then you have the various options and choices to select, like in the old good choose your adventure gamebooks.


Good old Red Riding Hood is cute but suspicious. VERY suspicious!

Pretty simple, isn't it? Anyway there are two different story arcs depending on the character used, and a total of twelve different endings! Whoa. It's really like those old gamebooks, but what what about the story?

In this game we play as one of the Grimm brothers, Wilhelm, or the sister, Cecilia Grimm, that are working as private detectives for the Grimm Investigation, created by their brother Jacob. And the case is about (surprise, surprise!) a missing sheep that Bo Peep the shepherdess wants to be rescued. Is the usual suspect the Big Bad Wolf the kidnapper? Or is somehow involved Red Riding Hood in this case? Good question, and no matter which Grimm you are, it's time to start an investigation!

As mentioned below, the game is super-simple (and this is not a bad thing at all!): you just have to select the various options that are generally "Look", "Item", "Ask for something" or a direction like "North" or "West". And that's all, there is no inventory or item selection, the right item is automatically selected when the option "Item" is selected. I admit I'd have liked some kind of reminder of the items I had, maybe even just a list on the right area of the screen that is left partially occupied by the Grimm Investigation sign, as it happened in the old games I mentioned before.
Anyway not a problem, remember that your action matters, and in some cases you have to repeat the same action more than once to get a result!

The graphics are all custom and very nice, they totally reminded to me these old games I used to play (style, use of color and quality is more or less the same). Simple but effective enough to immerse the player inside the setting, thanks to a suggestive first person view of the locations. The descriptions are short but well made, and that's all you need to understand what's going on.


What? There was no doubt! Of course it was one of the grey or a reptilian! THOSE ALIENS! They're always involved!

Final Verdict
Grimm Investigation is a short and simple, but solid and nicely illustrated adventure game that surely needs some replays to be enjoyed fully: see different epilogues and choose your favourite. And not only there are not many games of this kind, but also the setting is pretty original, mixing fairy tales with noir in a compact and well made package. So, if what I wrote and the pictures I posted made you curious and/or interested give it a try, it won't take you too much time for a single run, there is no death chance, and it's well written... a pretty fun game, if you like this kind of old-style adventures, and I'm sure that if you complete one run, you'll want to try another!