I'm not sure how to feel about Riddle School 5; on one hand some of the puzzles are nice and I like that the other characters get even a bit more screentime, but at the same time this game just doesn't leave much of an impression on me. Stuff like the steak puzzle and the mug puzzle are really cool and kind of sum up all of the game's features well, but they're cut up with stuff like the grid puzzles which are just horrible and completely destroy the pacing of the game.
Actually I just want to complain about the grid puzzles for a bit, because both of the Riddle Transfer games after this have some variation of this - the horrible geometric puzzle that isn't really preceded by anything so you just kinda have to slam your head at it until you figure it out. You figure out the 7 and the 0 pretty quick just by clicking around but it's not like you learn anything about this puzzle that helps you the second time it shows up; it's just a thing to fluff out the game. Every single let's play I could find of this game online uses the route that Jonochrome has in his walkthrough of the game or cuts to when they solve it, which in my mind connotes either looking up the walkthrough or a long period of boring aimless clicking - neither of which are really signatures of the "run around and get things" general gameplay loop of the rest of the Riddle School series.
I feel like some of this jank can be explained by the nature of how this game was created. As you may or may not know, Riddle School 4 was released on April 1st, 2010 and Riddle School 5 was released on the 2nd. The initial idea of Riddle School 5 was to make a stupid ridiculous game in a long line of stupid ridiculous games to make people get tired of the Riddle School series. While I'm glad he didn't do this - and am not confident or cynical enough of the creator to say he intentionally botched the puzzles to make the game less approachable - I feel like this is the reason for a game where so much stuff just comes out of nowhere without much fanfare.
Actually I just want to complain about the grid puzzles for a bit, because both of the Riddle Transfer games after this have some variation of this - the horrible geometric puzzle that isn't really preceded by anything so you just kinda have to slam your head at it until you figure it out. You figure out the 7 and the 0 pretty quick just by clicking around but it's not like you learn anything about this puzzle that helps you the second time it shows up; it's just a thing to fluff out the game. Every single let's play I could find of this game online uses the route that Jonochrome has in his walkthrough of the game or cuts to when they solve it, which in my mind connotes either looking up the walkthrough or a long period of boring aimless clicking - neither of which are really signatures of the "run around and get things" general gameplay loop of the rest of the Riddle School series.
I feel like some of this jank can be explained by the nature of how this game was created. As you may or may not know, Riddle School 4 was released on April 1st, 2010 and Riddle School 5 was released on the 2nd. The initial idea of Riddle School 5 was to make a stupid ridiculous game in a long line of stupid ridiculous games to make people get tired of the Riddle School series. While I'm glad he didn't do this - and am not confident or cynical enough of the creator to say he intentionally botched the puzzles to make the game less approachable - I feel like this is the reason for a game where so much stuff just comes out of nowhere without much fanfare.