We’re pretty lucky when it comes to Switch and Switch 2 mystery games. Between Capcom rereleasing games in the Ace Attorney series and titles like Blue Prince being playable on the systems, there are a lot of opportunities to solve different sorts of puzzles. Path of Mystery: A Brush with Death is Aksys’ latest visual novel with point-and-click elements, and it’s got the same sort of tone and investigative element as the Phoenix Wright games. It’s interesting and the sort of title more people should be talking about.
Path of Mystery: A Brush with Death begins with Doppo Akazawa heading to the village of Narumizawa. He’s part of Teito University’s Mystery Research Club, having joined after his friend Kotaro Izawa convinced him to become its fourth member. The two of them, alongside the group’s “Blue-Blood Detective” Alice Nanjo and “leader” Kagero Tono, headed to the region to try and see what they could turn up about the Sanmei Incident cold case involving the murder of the artist Suiryu Uchida. His wife was considered responsible, but the group is going to using their “training camp” to determine if that’s really the case.
Path of Mystery: A Brush with Death is an adventure game with mystery and point-and-click elements. Things start small, with a quick tutorial “case” involving the theft of a young man named Takeru Muto’s idol merchandise on a train and Doppo helping determine if A-kura, B-tani, or C-ba is behind the “locked-room” mystery. This allows us to see Doppo’s retrocognition ability that allows him to see into the past. After an incident two years ago, he can sometimes see purple haze around objects that indicate he can explore past memories to solve mysteries. When he makes use of this, we see “low resolution” versions of the past we can investigate to see what happened prior to current events.
What really makes Path of Mystery: A Brush with Death stand out from the very start are its production values. Rather than other visual novels or point-and-click adventure games, it feels very cinematic. There are a lot of dynamic perspectives and viewpoints shown. We see zoom-in and zoom-outs on important individuals. There’s a sense of perspective, layering, and positioning when character portraits appear during conversations. There are also a lot of different character expressions used. When situations call for it, such as an early “practice” case on the train, we see moving backgrounds through windows. It’s a great touch.
So is the way things look when Doppo uses retrocognition. Path of Mystery: A Brush with Death initially uses a menu-based approach with this gameplay element. When it triggers, we see pixelated or low resolution versions of spaces. A menu then appears that allows us to do things like “investigate,” “take,” or “talk” in that period. We get a limited number of actions during these scenes to explore and find clues to present a sense of urgency as we explore this different time and space than the present. Once you get that information and those clues, you need to go through and explore the current version of the scene and make deductions in the present with point-and-click mechanics to gain points, prove assertions, and discover the truth with your analysis.
I mentioned the tone of Path of Mystery: A Brush with Death is a highlight as well, and there’s a great balance before more serious and dramatic moments alongside more comedic ones. For example, Kagero and Kotaro are both used in sillier scenes. But at the same time, the Sanmei Incident is treated with a sense of gravity, as are Uchida family situations and ones involving Doppo Akazawa’s family.
I also appreciated how there are little extras to the Path of Mystery: A Brush with Death experience. Yes, we’re exploring and working on a murder. However, there are also other elements. Getting to collect keychains by taking time to explore different parts of Narumizawa and talk to people ended up being more entertaining than I expected. There are also some retro-style arcade minigames along the lines of Heiankyo Alien/Digger and Asteroids. They aren’t amazing, but they’re okay enough as optional time sinks.
Path of Mystery: A Brush with Death ranges from dramatic to comedic as we watch college students attempt to solve a cold case, and Imagineer and Toybox handled its execution and presentation well. It looks great, with dynamic scenes, vivid character portraits, and clear visual distinctions between the past and present. It also manages to balance the tone well, hitting the right sorts of beats with appropriate emotions. It definitely reminded me of the Ace Attorney series, and I think folks who liked one would enjoy the other.
Path of Mystery: A Brush with Death is available on the Nintendo Switch.
Path of Mystery: A Brush with Death
Path of Mystery: A Brush with Death ranges from dramatic to comedic as we watch college students attempt to solve a cold case, and Imagineer and Toybox handled its execution and presentation well.