Yokai Landlord: Monster Mystery!

I liked it but I do have to warn buyers, it’s got some serious rough points, to the point where I have to make a negative review just to put it out there. The premise is good, the gameplay is fun, and I like the characters, but there’s a lot you need to look over -confusing mechanics: Most frustrating thing is that I still don’t know the requirements for accusing someone. For the first couple weeks I assumed it was 3 star evidence either pointing towards them being yokai, or against them. But one yokai had a 3 star evidence saying they lied (which yokai can’t do) and the correct evidence to present was something 2 star saying they were acting differently or something. I’ve never seen 2 star evidence work at any other point in the game, nor have I seen a 3 star evidence bit “not count” so it was seriously confusing. -massive unbelievable plot hole: You mostly figure out who’s yokai by the fact yokai can’t lie, so sometimes humans will mention they don’t know who the yokai is or don’t believe in them— impossible for yokai to say. So why the hell is the landlord not just asking “are you a yokai”??? I have to watch myself ask vague questions like “have you seen anything suspicious la…

Yokai Landlord has a great premise, but it squanders it with frustrating gameplay and unremarkable writing. You play as the landlord of a small, eight-unit apartment complex, which you now manage after the death of your father, the previous landlord. One day, a mysterious, cloaked person informs you that one (or more) of your tenants is a yokai, and you must evict them to protect yourself and your human residents. This repeats for five chapters, each of which have a time jump of 2-3 months between them. Unfortunately, I found the gameplay mechanics that you must use to flush out the yokai both frustratingly obtuse and painfully boring. In the first chapter, the mysterious person tells you that yokai cannot lie. In later chapters, he elaborates that that should not be the only evidence you rely on them find the yokai, but that's not really true. Most of the gameplay is not actually nailing down the yokai, but exonerating human residents because they said something that would be a lie if a yokai had said it. (You also do need evidence that points to the yokai as yokai, but most of it is circumstantial, and the statements that would be impossible for yokai to say from the human …

Overall I enjoyed the game a lot, but I do think that the gameplay is the weakest part of it. The story and characters, while not groundbreaking, were very endearing. I enjoyed learning about all the tenants and found the overall message and themes of the game touching. I had fun! The gameplay ended up feeling like it was meant to be a vehicle to deliver and support the story and its themes, and so that's why even though I think there are flaws gameplay-wise, I personally wasn't too bothered by that. However, that being said: While it was pretty easy to figure out who the yokai are and piece together the story, the game relies on you having the correct evidence to prove your theory. It ended up feeling less like deduction gameplay and more "preparing my evidence for court" gameplay. In my experience, most of the time this was fine - the game indicates what can be used as evidence, so the amount of options and combinations you can make to present isn't very high - but one thing that does make this a bit frustrating is how the game gives stars to indicate what is labeled as "Suspicious". You might think this then indicates how suspicious a piece of evidence is, indicating the likeli…

I first played the demo, which is limited to the first chapter, and then I excitedly bought the full game. The first chapter is a [b]great introduction[/b] to the mechanics and mystery, but the later chapters become tedious with the deduction gameplay. The characters, dialogue, and art make it a good visual novel. It takes a spin on deduction gameplay by allowing players to use [b][i]any[/i][/b] dialogue as evidence (referred to as "memo" in the game). Fortunately, players can freely record and discard memos from previous weeks; the text logs are pretty easy to navigate through since they're organized by character tabs. By talking with characters and recording their dialogue, players can organize those memos into suspicions. Only certain dialogue and combinations can become a "suspicion", though, and you'll need strong "suspicions" for each character/tenant in order to successfully make an accusation. Games like the [i]Ace Attorney[/i] series have similar problems: where specific evidence has to be used against specific parts of a testimony. This issue becomes more prevalent in "Yokai Landlord"—where [b][i]any[/i][/b] dialogue can become evidence (a memo). Rather than s…

Awesome game

A wonderful game about learning to trust others, despite the circumstances. I gotta say, I did start yelling at points where I was like "NO!!!! NOT THEM!!!!" and "THANK GOD *YOU'RE* SAFE". I hope we someday see the safe return of our lost residents...