(Oops, I meant to get this up much, much earlier. I did play it a few weekends ago — as well as Treasure in a Royal Tower — but I’ve been dragging my feet on writing about it. SIGH. Anyway.)
Huh. You know, I remember liking this game as a kid, mostly because it’s about San Francisco and the Chinese writing system, and I’m from San Francisco and I’m pretty familiar with the Chinese writing system. It’s like they made a game about my life.
That said, it’s kind of…boring. Maybe I’ve played it too many times? I don’t know.
But moving on! The good news is, this game was released in 2000, and the graphics are far less terrifyingly plastic than the ones in Stay Tuned for Danger. All the characters are pretty fun to talk to, the creepy atmosphere is effectively creepy, and the design of the house is actually pretty nice. On the other hand, HER hadn’t quite worked the kinks out of the navigation system yet (I can’t tell you how many times I took a wrong turn just because I could not tell which way I was facing), the puzzles aren’t really that fun to solve, and this game is also the first one to use the really annoying clock/alarm device, where you have to run up to Nancy’s room and take a nap every time you want something to happen. I’m also just generally not a huge fan of the games where you have to go hunting for treasure that was buried about a million years ago — I feel like I spend more time having to put together details from some dude from the 1800s’s life than actually finding clues related to the culprit, and it’s not really my cup of tea.
But enough whining. I’m a massive Grinch, so it could be that I’m just not giving this game its fair due. At the very least, a lot of other people seem to like it. And like I said, I played the shit out of it as a kid, so it could be that all the suspense is just gone for me now. That makes me kind of sad. 🙁
(By the way, I just looked this game up on Wikipedia, and apparently it was also released for the Gameboy Advance! Excuse me while I shed a tear for the turn of the millenium.)
ANYWAY. For what it’s worth, that’s not a mansion that would exist in San Francisco. Free-standing houses are basically nonexistant here. But whatever, I’ll try to keep my nitpicking to a minimum. I’m sure people who were from Venice regarded some of the details from The Phantom of Venice with a kind of a horror, too. So. LET’S DO THIS.
Hello from San Francisco! This time around, Nancy’s staying with a woman named Rose Green, who’s a friend of Hannah’s. Rose presumably wants Nancy to help out with some renovation work. I feel like that is an incredibly random reason to call someone halfway across the country, but whatever. Maybe Rose was trying to be subtle. Anyway, the renovation project is a Victorian house (repeatedly referred to as a “mansion,” but if I remember correctly, most Victorians are actually really small on the inside) that Rose and her friend/business partner Abby want to turn into a Bed & Breakfast. Apparently these are all the rage in SF. I wouldn’t know. The only SF hotel I can name off the top of my head is the Henry Hotel. But Rose and Abby aren’t having the best luck, since the house has been having a string of accidents. You know. “Accidents.” “Is there something more sinister at work?” Nancy wonders.
Yes, Nancy. Yes, there is.
We start off in Nancy’s room in the house, which is the “Chinese room.” Y2K graphics aside, this game really is very pretty, particularly this room. Across the room, in the suitcase, we can check out Nancy’s journal, which you can come back to see where we’re at with the case, or if you’ve forgotten a detail somewhere. There’s also a Significant Tapestry, which has a poem written on it.
I don’t want to go overboard on screencaps, but I figure it’ll be handier to have this image around later.
Certain words are in a lighter color! Could this Mean Something? You can also click on one of the bedknobs, which will cause Nancy to tell you that it’s stuck, which means that we’re probably going to have to do some vandalism and break it off the bed later. There’s also a dragon statue above the fireplace. When you click closer, you can read the plaque on it that says “Daughters of diligence earn the gold of nine dragons.” I don’t really know what that’s supposed to mean, but the important part is the hanzi next to the word daughter: 女. It’ll come up again later.
Let’s go meet Rose, shall we?
There’s a creaky floorboard on the left-hand staircase, so watch out for that when you’re trying to creep around.
So this is Rose Green! Hi, Rose! Her hair is still unfortunately plasticky, but she’s much less terrifying than Mattie Jensen. I had nightmares about that face. We can ask her some questions, but she’s not overly forthcoming with information: she doesn’t know much about the house, although there’s a box with a bunch of old papers in the parlor that we can check out later. She thinks it might’ve been a hotel at one point, since there’s a saloon in the basement. This gives me pause because hardly any homes in SF — or California — have basements at all, but maybe they specially built one for the saloon. Wait, why do I care so much? Anyway, she tells us a bit about the accidents — recently some scaffolding collapsed, and they’ve also had a gas leak. Apparently Abby thinks that they’re being caused by a “restless spirit.” Oh, okay. Abby’s kind of weird, as we’ll see later. “But enough chit-chat!” Rose brought us here for our free labor, not our detective skills. Our first task is to put together an inlay on the floor — “Abby and I tried for hours, but it’s just too complicated!”
I can see how they might have had problems.
(By the way, if you take another conversation option re: what’s causing the accidents, Rose will tell you that, for her part, she thinks maybe Charlie — who we’ll meet later — just isn’t experienced enough to handle the renovation. “Sometimes I wonder if this place wouldn’t be worth more burned to the ground.” HMMM.)
Anyway, the inlay takes like two minutes to finish, but I won’t judge Rose and Abby. Not everyone can deduce puzzles like Nancy Drew. Once you’re done, though, Rose will immediately tell you to go grab a chisel and take off the broken tiles on the hallway ceiling. Seriously, we just got here. We can’t have some lunch or something?
Before we go do that, though, we should poke around the room. I’m not really sure what to call this room — it’s the dining room, I guess, although there’s so much furniture that it looks kind of like it has its own living room? Whatever. On one of the tables is a schedule, and we can see that Louis is here from noon to 5 PM, Charlie from 8 to 5, and Abby is out from 3 to 6. This gets kind of annoying because you have to check the little clock next to the dialogue box to see if you can talk to them, and if you’re too late, you have to go set Nancy’s clock and “take a nap” until they come back. BAH.
We should go see Abby, yes?
Hi, Abby! Maybe it’s just me, but she’s actually kind of cute. Although that Cindy Lou Who nose isn’t the best look, but nobody’s perfect. She immediately needles us about not believing in ghosts. She also senses an aura of ~danger~ around us because, duh. We ask her if her ~spirits~ are the ones causing the accidents, but of course she doesn’t know anything about that — although she senses that the name “Valdez” is closely connected to this house. And by “senses”, she means that she’s read some of the newspapers down at the SF library. Come on, Abby. You can do better than this! We’re still skeptical, but she tells us that we’ll come around to her way of thinking after ~tonight. Gee, I wonder what that could mean. I choose to have Nancy snark that we’ll let her know if we see a ghost hanging over our beds in the night, and she gets snippy (“Do you dare mock the supernatural?!”) and shuts the door on us. Uh…yeah. Abby, everyone!
(Hilariously, you can hear her “OMMM”-ing as you walk down the hallway. Bless.)
I get turned around twice but eventually I make it back downstairs. You’ll notice that in the hallway leading to the dining room, there’s a broken dumbwaiter. We’ll have to fix it later, as part of our neverending chores. It’s like Rose doesn’t want us to have free time to solve her mystery! SUSPICIOUS.
The saloon in the improbable basement is where Charlie hangs out. He’s kind of weird and shifty: we ask if he thinks the B&B will open on time, what with all the delays, and he says, “Um, yeah, well, now that you’re here…sure!” Pfft, as if that’s going to get by Nancy Drew. “You don’t sound very convinced.” “You’ve got to expect a few things to get out of control with these big projects. Accidents happen, you know?” Isn’t “accidents happen” like, #12 on The List of Things Villains Say To Throw You Off Their Trail or something? I’m onto you, Charlie. I mean, I’m not sure what it is I’m onto, but I’m onto it. We say that he must have a lot of experience with renovations, then, and he kind of beats around for a moment before admitting that no, he doesn’t — but he learns fast! And Louis has been helping him! Hey, who’s Louis? Charlie tells us that he’s an antique dealer who’s helping consult Rose about furnishings or whatever. Louis sounds kind of shady, but whatever. My radar is always way off for these games. Anyway, Charlie kicks us out so he can get back to not having any idea what he’s doing. Bless.
Before we leave, we can check out the saloon piano, as well as a newspaper talking about SF’s “bed and breakfast boom.” I’ll take the game’s word for it. What interests me is the article off to the side talking about how affordable housing in SF is vanishing. This game was published in 2000, right? I should’ve heeded its warnings. I’m probably moving back in with my parents soon tbh.
Anyway. Louis hangs out in the library, and we have to go through the parlor to get there. We can check out a box full of old papers on the couch. And hey, I see the name “Valdez”! And the address is the same one as the house! Didn’t Rose say that Abby was the one to find this box? I think I know how she ~sensed~ his connection to this place. There’s also a piece of paper that details the ownership of the house by one “Ladies’ Protection and Relief Society.” Can I just say, one of my favorite things about the 18-1900s were all the hilarious names of organizations? The Boston Gleaning Circle! The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America! The Swiss Ecclesiastical Chant Federation! It was a beautiful time, to be sure.
(Although perhaps most upsettingly, the game refers to the house as being on “California Lane,” which does not exist. It’s actually called California Street. I feel disproportionately offended by this.)
The rest of the room is pretty boring, although like the rest of the game, it’s quite visually appealing, with lots of dark wood and florals. There’s a fire extinguisher in the cabinet and an old-timey phone on the desk, the latter of which is what we’ll use to call Bess and George. Also in the desk are letters from Rose to her friend, Hue (?), offering to let him (her?) stay in the Chinese room once the B&B’s opened. There’s nothing particularly incriminating in the letters, although Hue mentions that the last time s/he spoke to Abby, Abby rambled on about the great spiritual significance of gold. I can’t argue there. Gold would fulfill me spiritually. Or at least my student loans.
So! Louis!
…is not here. Well, hey, that’s okay, that just gives us opportunity to look through his stuff! Because, I mean, privacy, pssshhht.
Since this is the library, there’s also a few books you can pick up and look at. One of them details what a phoenix is, in case the eight-year-olds playing this game don’t know (I knew what a phoenix was when I was eight, but that’s only because I was born in the year of the rooster, which I thought was super lame, and everyone tried to comfort me by telling me that some people call it the year of the phoenix. Anyway). You can also read a book on how to play chess (which I did not know how to do when I was eight. And still don’t). You also have to look at two books, one about music theory, and the other about an actress named Lizzie Applegate. (Who, according to Wikipedia, is not a real person. Boo.)
There’s also a bunch of mahjong tiles. I got a bit too excited at the prospect of being able to play mahjong in this game (if we had been able to gamble, I would’ve forgiven this game everything, including the boring Valdez subplot), but unfortunately, the tiles are only good for pointing out the character for four (四). I always remember that character because it reminds me of curtains. I have no idea what that has to do with the number four. But whatever.
Over by the fireplace, you can try clicking on…well, actually, I have no idea what they are. Serpents? Birds? Well, whatever: they’re levers, but, as always, they’re “stuck.” Of course they are. Nothing ever actually functions correctly the first time around in a Nancy Drew game.
That’s about it for the library, and Louis won’t be back for a while, so we might as well go chisel off those broken ceiling tiles. The chisel is in the main hallway, under a paint tray. The broken tiles themselves are up in the hallway near Nancy’s room. So we go back upstairs, and hey, what does this do?
So there’s a nifty pulley-type thing here that’s attached to the chandelier — every time you click on the knob, the chandelier comes a bit looser. This…seems like a safety hazard to me, but I guess Rose isn’t bothered. And of course, I was an idiot and wondered how many times you could undo the string, and then I sent the chandelier crashing down and Rose kicked me out of the house. Yeah. I am the best detective.
ANYWAY. So, these are the ceiling tiles. You basically just click on the dirty tiles to chip them away and…that’s the whole puzzle. Really, Rose? You called us all the way across the country for this?
Anyway, the tiles are chipped away to reveal…a trapdoor! Of course. What would a Nancy Drew game be without a trapdoor?
So we tell Rose that we’re done with the tiles, and also that we found a Secret Trapdoor (TM). Rose is unimpressed, and just tells us to go fix the dumbwaiter in the hallway. I’m glad she’s showing such interest in the property she bought for a million dollars. Nancy’s not walking away from this conversation without sticking her nose in Rose’s business, though, so let’s ask her some questions: number one, where did Abby find those papers in the parlor? Apparently, Abby said that they were in her room, although Rose doesn’t recall there being anything in Abby’s room when they first moved in. Suspicious! (Our room, on the other hand, has furniture that was mostly original to the house. Yikes. I hope that doesn’t include the sheets.) And how do Abby and Rose know each other, anyway? One doesn’t get the impression that they have a ton in common. (Although if Rose was moonlighting as a psychic, that would have been hilarious.) Rose tells us that Abby was a drama coach back in River Heights, which I totally believe. Although I still don’t get it — was Rose taking acting lessons? Did they work in a school together or something? I have questions! Anyway, Abby used most (all?) of her savings to help Rose get the B&B. Man, if this place doesn’t return on their investment, Abby’s going to be pissed. We ask WTF Abby meant by proving ghosts are real ~tonight~, and it turns out she’s putting on a seance in the basement, presumably to politely ask the ghosts to stop vandalizing the house.
I…kind of love Abby. She’s such a typical overdramatic ~spiritual~ derp. BLESS.
Moving on with the interrogation: what about Charlie? He probably wasn’t a drama coach back in River Heights. Nope, apparently he just showed up one day, looking for work. Coincidentally, he rang the doorbell about 20 minutes after Rose and Abby mentioned that they ought to hire someone. Charlie = that creepy doctor from Angel who can dismember himself and sneak into houses, y/y?
Finally, we get to Louis and Lizzie Applegate. Rose has no idea who Lizzie is — which I don’t think is a good move on her part, considering that she wants to add historical appeal to the B&B. Do your research, Rose! Unless she plans to just let Abby tell all their guests ghost stories. As for Louis, he comes and goes, but he usually leaves his laptop in the house, for no good reason I can think of. He doesn’t want anyone touching it, though, because he’s having trouble with viruses. Something about that makes me laugh, but I have no idea what.
Speaking of Louis, it’s now past noon, which means he should be in the library. Let’s go meet him, shall we? We could offer to fix his computer. He strikes me as the kind of person that would try to download porn thinking that “.exe” is a legit video file extension.
Yeah, that face isn’t creepy at all.
We ask if he and Rose are friends, to which he smarms “I’d like to think so” — but no, he’s an antique dealer, and someone told him that Rose and Abby had bought the property, so he decided to offer them his services. Fair enough. He tells us that there doesn’t seem to be anything special about this house in particular, though. Uh, maybe he should tell Rose that before she sinks any more money into this project. Louis is kind of an asshole. We tell him that Abby thinks it’s haunted, and he smarms that there have been ~documented~ hauntings in other mansions — and not always by friendly spirits. Et tu, Louis?
We also ask him about the accidents, to which he acts all surprised, and says that there have been some inconveniences — but he would hardly call those accidents. Louis and Charlie seem to be sharing the same List of Things Villains Say When They Want to Throw You Off Their Trail.
That’s about it for Louis. We leave him to his virus-ridden computer and go back out into the parlor — since we’ve met all our suspects, it’s time to make some phone calls!
But first, allow me to point out this letter in one of the drawers (which drawer? I don’t know). First of all, note the character for fire (火) in the corner. There’s no Chicago Avenue that I know of in SF, but 94105 is a real area code! It’s out near the Embarcadero, according to Google Maps. ANYWAY. Also note that Rose has this house insured for a million(!) dollars. That’s a lot, especially in the year 2000. And she’s the sole benefactor, which is weird when you consider that Abby chipped in for at least half of the property. Sucks to be her, I guess. Hey, didn’t Rose say the house might be worth more burned to the ground? I sense a motive. Oh, Rose.
Aaaaanyway. To the phone! I o-preciate the fact that the game doesn’t actually make you use the rotary dial. First up is Nancy’s house! You will recall that Rose is a friend of Hannah, Nancy’s housekeeper, so we can get all the dirt on her, assuming there is any. We talk a bit about the accidents, and Hannah reveals that Rose has blown her entire life savings on the house — if it doesn’t work out, she “won’t have thirty more years to earn the money back.” Hmmm, well, that one million would certainly come in handy then. But that would mean that Rose is purposely causing the accidents so that she’ll have a reason to burn the house down, which doesn’t gel with the idea that the insurance money is her Plan B — Rose wants the B&B to work out; there’s no reason for her to be messing with the renovations. But whatever. I’m putting way too much thought into this. That’s all Hannah is good for, so let’s hang up on her and go to Bess (and George).
Somewhat depressingly, we can’t call Ned in this game. I wonder why. Perhaps he and Nancy are going through a rough patch. She probably made out with Frank Hardy again.
We tell them about Valdez, to which Bess and George squeal over how there’s probably a new mystery in the works!!!! That’s what makes them think something is going on? Not the accidents? These two have weird priorities. George demands to know more about the house’s history (seriously, I don’t know what’s up with her voice actress, but she’s way pushy in this game), to which Nancy chooses to respond by talking about Charlie…? Okay, whatever. We don’t know anything about the house’s history anyway. George suggests that Charlie doesn’t charge very much (heh, Charlie doesn’t charge. Okay, I’m done), which could be why Rose keeps him on despite his obvious lack of knowing what the hell he’s doing. Bess, of course, only wants to know if he’s cute. Oh, Bess.
(What’s really weird about this game is that, whenever you call Bess and George, they sound sort of…flirty? Maybe Bess is asking about Charlie to cover up all the sapphic cousin incest going on back in River Heights.)
Moving on, we also mention that Louis is helping Rose, although he doesn’t know a lot about the house’s history. George muses that it makes sense — if the house was built before 1906, most of the records were probably lost in the earthquake. Is that true? I feel like a bad San Franciscan for not knowing. At the very least, I don’t think knowing the history of this specific house is going to make a difference re: decorating the house.
The final person to call is named Emily. She has possibly the most annoying voice known to man and Jesus and irritatingly, is the character we call the most often. Grrr, Emily. Anyway, we tell her that we’re in SF, and she excitedly asks if we’re staying in the Haight, because that’s the only neighborhood people know. We tell her the address and she muses that we’re probably staying in “the Heights.” Pacific Heights? Excuse me while I laugh. (That’s not the neighborhood that lies inside the 94105 zip code anyway, not to mention most of the houses there are post-earthquake. But whatever. I should stop picking on this poor game.)
So Emily is doing an essay for her magazine(?) called “Dragons of San Francisco.” This segues into a nice infodump about dragons and Chinese people in San Francisco. It’s nothing anyone who knows a little bit about Chinese culture and/or the history of California (or has read a Laurence Yep book) doesn’t know, but whatever. We also ask if she’s ever heard of Louis, to which she responds with a negative. Hmm. What about Lizzie Applegate? Oh, sure, she was a super famous actress (and her BFF was named Lotta Crabtree), who owned a hotel that burned down. Good to know. Hey, what about Valdez? Nope, never heard of him.
That’s all we’re getting out of Emily, which is good because my ears can’t take much more. We have one more question to ask Rose, and then I can end this post, which is good because I just broke 4k words. Yikes.
Seeing as Louis doesn’t seem to be very well-known — at least not by Emily — we ought to ask Rose just how they stumbled upon each other. She informs us that he approached her, and seemed “awfully curious” about the house. I wonder why. I also wonder why Rose didn’t get a second opinion on this guy — how does she know he’s not feeding her lousy advice just to get more money out of her? Oh, Rose. I can see why you might think arson is your best financial option.
Finally, finally, the plot manages to move forward: after talking to Rose, we go upstairs. Remember that stuck bedknob in Nancy’s room? Well, we now have a chisel, which is awfully handy when it comes to breaking things off:
A key. Of course it’s a key. Why would anyone put a key in a bedknob? I swear to God.
Our last move is to go talk to Abby. You’ll recall that she had a seance planned for tonight, and it’s evening now, so let’s get on that.
I should add, there’s a lot of weird ~supernatural~ elements to this game. You’ll see shadows on the walls, passing through glass doors, etc. There’s one point where a voice will hiss “I CAN SEE YOU,” which surely didn’t freak out the eight-year-olds playing this game.
“The spirits wish to speak to you, Nancy. Tonight, I will channel their energies to deliver a message. Meet me down in the basement…if you dare.”
(Us? Specifically? I’m flattered.)
Up next: Abby contacts the ghost of Valdez, we figure out what’s behind the Secret Trapdoor (TM), and then the game devolves into running around trying to piece together a sordid romance from the 1800s. SIGH.
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