I love timeloop video games because they stress a resource more precious than health or money: time. Games like Dead Rising, Lightning's Returns and Ghost Trick have managed to create a meaningful gameplay loop entirely off of the thrill and friction of limited time. The Sexy Brutale attempts to do the same with a groundhog day-style series of murders you seek to prevent in its eponymous mansion. Rather than embrace the sandbox side of timeloop games, it is more so a series of mini loops in the form of linear puzzles a la Ghost Trick. Its a small indie game and so I have no problem with such a reduction in scope as long as the puzzle design benefits from a more linear and iterative approach like Ghost Trick but this is unfortunately not the case. The solution to saving each of the mansion's guests don't become anything more complex than "interact with one or maybe two specific object out of a bunch of red herrings at a specific time and win". You are always given more than enough time to carry out the intended sequence and so the 12 hour limit ends up being a percunctory feature, something that really disappointed me given how few of these games there are. There's no eureka moment of realising the solution and subsequent thrill of trying to complete it within the time limit. In spite of its fantastical "all bets are off" roaring 20s aesthetic, the only emotional high I ever achieved while playing this was 'mildly engaged'. The ending was the high point of the game but was this half-hearted timeloop structure really the best avenue to get there? This was the first game me and my friends played as part of our monthly game club and I'll derive more enjoyment from time spent discussing The Sexy Brutale than the time I spent playing it.

for what it is, the sexy brutale is a short, sweet puzzle game with an interesting environment that's fun to navigate and pleasing to look at. that being said, while i enjoyed figuring out how to solve each guest's murder and how to save them, i found it far too easy to miss the actual murder itself as well as brute force your way into saving somebody.

no spoilers, but the story was decent and served its purpose. nothing too special, but the way it wraps up is interesting.

i'm not sure if it's possible, but i think it would be fun to be able to save every guest within one loop. it might be tight, even impossible, but i thought that's what we were building up to, honestly.

I bought this game because I was itching for something similar to the Outer Wilds. In many ways it is similar, but in other ways it is different. The story portion of the game is fairly directed and restricted. I enjoyed the story and figuring out how to solve the problems the game presents are interesting enough. I just wish the game was more open earlier into the game. I didn't get to explore as much as I wanted until after I had finished the story. By that point, the game does not have much more to offer.

The revelation of the story is engaging and I was eager to see how everything unfolded. Once the story was done though, I was ready to say goodbye to the game and its characters.

Interesting concept which I would like to see more games implement. It is a detective/puzzle murder mystery where you actually have to spy on persons and use your deductive skill to figure out the solution.
It's not without weaknesses though, which lessens the enjoyment: collecting 52 card randomly places throughout is not fun; the isometric style is okay but the main character is sooo slow; some of the abilities comes too late and "fast travel" here is the most useless skill I've come across. The map is cool, but I wish the floors were layered on top of each other, not spread out beside each other.

A game I wish I liked more than I did, but still: if there ever is to be a sequel or spiritual successor I will check it out.

It’s so short that you can finish it in one go, but I enjoyed all 4/5 hours. It’s an investigative puzzle game where you can go back in time and prevent delicts from happening. Sometimes you have to get into the developers’ minds to find the right clues, but most dynamics were pretty straightforward. I also enjoyed finding all collectibles as they were quite easy to find even without a guide.

The plot is nothing groundbreaking but plays out more interestingly than I would have thought, and both the graphic style and music are perfect for this kind of game.

The puzzles are pretty simple, but they mostly just provide an excuse to go around the map and learn bits and pieces of the tragedies taking place. I got to a secret, non-canonical ending instead of figuring out what I'm actually supposed to do, and I think I'm satisfied with leaving it at that since the backtracking was getting a little stale by then. Can't say anything really stuck with me as definitively great, but there's enough charm here in the storytelling that I don't regret checking it out.