Detective/Mystery Video Game Tier List

My ranking of every detective/mystery game that I've played

This is purely my opinion, If you disagree, please I encourage you to make your own list! I'd love to see more people talk about this genre, the games they love and why they love them.

This is very subject to change with time and thinking.

This is just flat out my favourite game of all time I'm sorry
VERY debatable if it should be on this list
The literal only issue I can think of is case 1 is kinda okay at best. Aside from that, absolute zenith fiction.
Another debatable, but there is a murder and it is the major mystery. I also love persona 4 so.
I love this game but some days I remember Ryukishi as a human and hold a gun very tightly.
This game made me more poltical than I ever expected to be. God bless you Kim Kitsuragi
I am Hajime Hinata's most impassioned fan, he is my favourite protagonist in this franchise he is so great.
Kaname Date Cringe Compilation 1 of hopefully thousands more to come.
I love the ending, I think it's great. That is the basis for it being this high.
I AM VIRTUES LAST REWARDS BIGGEST DEFENDER I WILL NOT HEAR SLANDER FOR MY GOAT!!!! ZTD RUINED EVERYTHING WRAGHHHHHHHHHH
Edgeworth might be the best written character like ever maybe possibly.
I had to live through the trenches of this game being considered bad for this generation to realise how great it is if you ignore the boring (corner) and awful (seranade) cases
I have a thing where I compare media to Jojo part 5, 7 and 8. Part 7 is a flawless masterpiece, part 5 is consistently good, and part 8 has great themes with messy execution.

This is Part 8.
I WILL SLOG THROUGH 50 MORE APOLLO JUSTICE'S IF IT MEANS PEOPLE REALISING THIS GAMES GREAT!
This game holds up so well even though comparing its case writing to later games feels really strange. It feels quaint by later games standards but not archaic or outdated.
I like genuenly some days hate episode 2 and 4. Episode 2 is a filter that make most people drop the game because it takes so long to take off, and episode 4 is MISERABLE. But oh my god when dread of the grave starts playing I forgive you.
This is the start of Uchikoshi writing cool fun facts about topics he finds interesting and apparently a story unfolds around it. It's kinda goated.
This game has a lot of heart and spirit. It got that moxxy. It is swinging FAR above its weight class being here but it earns it for me. A absolute sleeper hit.
Shu Takumi should be allowed to cook more often. I love ace attorney but please let his shackles loose more.
This game has the charm, the writing, the music, the presentation and the character to make up for some of the most mediocre case writing in the series (ignoring case 3 and 5)
Kodaka I'm begging you, please keep writing Komaeda Males and not Teruteru Males. You have the ability to write really good characters man please stop writing perverts.
This game has a atmosphere that the later enteries never manage to really capture. Just this has the most wonky character writing out the series, its either the best or the worst no in betweens.
So like what I said about Great Ace Attorney. I adore everything about this game aside its main muder mystery, it's kinda not that impressive when actually solved but OH MY GOD THE MUSIC IS SO GOOD AND THE ART IS AMAZING AND I HAVE MULTIPLE PIECES OF MERCH FROM THIS GAME IT'S OOZING CHARISMA!
I'm not as stauch a defender of SOJ as I am DD but I still think this has really strong moments and cases, Magical Turnabout and Turnabout Time Traveller are some of my favourite cases in the series. Just, fuck the civil trial.
This game took me like 3 years on and off to get through because man this has really good ideas and writing but MAN THE DELUSION MECHANIC SUCKS AND I WOULD PREFER IF YOU DIDN'T FORCE DOGSHIT ECCHI BULLSHIT INTO THIS MAN. Anyway yeah its pretty great if you ignore the central mechanic of the game.
I wish I liked you as much as Umineko
It's good but it's main story didn't
engage me as much as other people
The fact that Kay and Lang don't exist until case 3 feels insane. They lighten any room they're in. That inlies the issue, they're not here for half the game and the case they are introduced in is the most mediocre case ever. Same goes for alot of the cases frankly, its the most 5/10 collection of cases ever.
How I wish this was finished

30

This premise goes so fucking hard I'd love it to be longer, get a sequel or have more DLC's. The overall story is kinda okay it is very much case by case basis of quality.
This is very strange to count on the list, I'm aware, I like the game alot but by the metrics I judge games on this list this feels right here: As aweird benchmark.
This has really good gameplay mechanics for deduction, I really like this system and hope it gets expanded upon in future. As a case by case basis? It's hit or miss, some are really interesting others are kinda obvious
I genuenly despise you some days, but Farewell, My Turnabout stops you from being the worst.
This is a fun little puzzle game with a quite good overarching narrative just I don't feel as strongly about it as others. Also 100%ing it was a mistake it made me hate some of the sections.
This is like the most gentrified detective game ever idk how to put it. It has a lot of spectical and budget but as a detective game the cases are kinda dry and the overall narrative is a pretty okay movie. This is ignoring some of the cases having logical issues but this all vanishes when this game is so funny, with bangers like:
"Do you fuck little boys?"
"ARE YOU A MADMAN!?"
Mystery kinda sucks but oh my god its so funny. Imagine David Tenant as a detective and thats the game
I like putting DND setting and mechanics into a murder mystery setting, as someone who has done that myself. This gets the feel down, sadly the puzzle isn't as fun as I'd hope and it's less of a murder mystery as it is just a fun short story. Enjoyable but by this lists own perameters, couldn't put higher.
The character writing is so good but the case writing is so awful jesus christ
Absolute letdown, this has the making of something masterful and tricked me into thinking it would end with the swagger it started with but it's ending and final deduction frustrated me more than it made me happy. Amazing setup and great writing let down by a bad mystery.
Not awful just I don't care much for sonic so alot of the charm is lost on me
Charming but thats about it. Never have I felt so burned being right in my life, I wasted time thinking about this case and that sucks.
Ghost Trick if you removed all charm and good writing that makes Ghost Trick a masterpiece. It has interesting ideas but just doesn't execute the main story well at all.
Absolute joke of a game
DAVID CAGE IS A FRENCH PEDOPHILE WRAGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH (Allegedly) ((Some of the Origami Trials and Scott Shelby are fun))
I just didn't find this funny I'm sorry
I don't know if this game can even be solved and even if it could, its really unfun to play.
I have seen a lot of other lists count this as a mystery game, and yeah there is a disappearence/murder I guess. Now it can comfortably stay for what might be the rest of its life as the worst game on this list. Chloe Price is actually my least favourite character in fiction it's not even funny

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