AW YES. Welcome to one of my favorite games in the series! The puzzles are kind of stupid, but the setting is fantastic and it’s full of character-driven drama and secrets. If I were to rank the games, it would probably come in at #3, behind The Deadly Device and Alibi in Ashes, which I also love for their character-related shenanigans. It takes place in an all-girls’ high school in the late 2000s, and I went to an all-girls’ high school in the late 2000s. It’s like a game about my LIFE.
Nancy’s been asked by the headmistress of the Waverly Academy for Girls to investigate some mysterious goings-on. The school is a prestigious boarding school in upstate New York, and ~someone~ has been causing accidents for its students. The last one was so bad that the victim’s parents are threatening to sue, and the headmistress is freaking out. Of course, Nancy has to be undercover, since she’s the world’s most famous girl detective, and the headmistress has forbidden Nancy to contact her. Nancy thinks it’s so as not to blow her cover; I think the headmistress, like all of Nancy’s bosses, just doesn’t want to do any work.
“I’m about to be tossed, totally on my own, into a world of bright, privileged, clique-conscious teenagers girls,” Nancy writes. “This could be my scariest case yet!” Scarier…than…all the people who have tried to kill you, Nancy?
By the way, none of the other games repeat their locations, but this will be the second game to take place in New York, although Stay Tuned for Danger took place in New York City, not upstate.
Instead of showing Nancy traveling to New York, we instead travel through time. Two weeks ago: IT WAS A DARK AND STORMY NIGHT.
A girl named Danielle finds a creepy note, just before she gets locked inside a closet. OH SNAP!
And so we arrive, and meet our new roomie, Corine. The more I stare at her, the longer her neck seems to get. We introduce ourself as our alias, Becca Sawyer, because the best way to ingratiate ourselves to a bunch of high schoolers is to remind them of their required reading homework?
Corine seems nice enough, if not a little neurotic. We mention that she seems really busy, and she starts babbling on about all the homework she has — a thirty page research paper, with annotations using six offline resources. What the fuck? I didn’t even have to start writing ten page papers until my junior year of college. Anyway, she tells us that “any normal student would hate having you barge in like this.” Heh. Corine has absolutely no tact and I love her for it. She tells Nancy that she doesn’t have time to show us around, but everything we need to know is in the Waverly student handbook. We’ll have to use the computer in the library, since we don’t have a laptop. “All you brought is that one little bag?” Corine asks, mystified. Nancy’s like, “Well, you know, if I actually brought everything I needed with me, then there’d be no way for characters to get me to do tedious chores for them.” Just kidding, Nancy lies that her stuff is being shipped from France.
Corine tells us that our floor of the dorm is only for senior valedictorian candidates. So it’s the nerd floor. The valedictorian gets a full ride to the university of her choice, “so it’s a pretty big deal.” Understandably! My school’s valedictorian didn’t get anything except bragging rights, which didn’t incentivize any of us to keep our grades up. Of course, we also didn’t resort to murder to get the position, so you know, it’s a double-edged sword. Anyway, Corine is confident that she’ll get the valedictorian spot.
Oh! And before we leave, Corine should totally tell us about the curse. Sure, that would be helpful, Corine. Someone’s going around calling herself “The Black Cat” and leaving ominous notes for the girls on this floor. The first note is a warning, but the second one is always followed by a bad accident. One girl got food poisoning and had to go home, and Corine’s ex-roommate — Danielle of the opening cutscene — was locked in a storage closet overnight. Danielle was claustrophobic, so she also had to go home. Nancy cottons on quickly: “The only girls to get notes from this Black Cat person are girls who’re in the running to be valedictorian?” Corine acts like that hasn’t occurred to her. HMM. Corine’s gotten a note, but only one, so nothing’s happened to her yet.
Nancy notes that she hears cello music, and Corine says that that’s another girl on the floor. Well, we ought to go meet her, yes? Corine says bye, then adds: “I’m not so bad, right?” ‘Cause see, she’s not exactly the most well-liked girl on the floor. Aw. I like Corine. Her neurotic, Hermione Granger-ness really speaks to me.
We’ve brought this picture of Bess and George with us, apparently from our vacation during Ransom of the Seven Ships. When did we have time to take this picture? Was it during the kidnapping, or right before we refused to stay on the island anymore due to severe trauma?
This game sets new records by having a character that Nancy hasn’t even met yet hit her up to do some chores. Some girl named Rachel wants us to come by and help her on a project, since we don’t have any homework yet.
We head out to go find Rachel and the cello girl, and run right into this chick. “Whoa, watch it! Oh, your hair’s on fire — no wonder you’re in a hurry.” Ginger jokes? Did we transfer into a British boarding school from the 19th century?
Anyway, this is Izzy Romero, class president and resident mean girl. As I mentioned, I went to an all-girls’ school in the year this game came out (2009), so I feel qualified to comment on the level of realism in this game. Izzy gets an A for looking exactly like at least ten of my classmates — the big ol’ hoop earrings! the pointy nails! the aggressive eyebrows! I bet she has pictures of Jay Sean and Drake taped to her Trapper Keeper. Sadly, though, my school’s uniform did not have a sweet waistcoat component. Izzy hooks up our phone to the school’s network, so we can get schoolwide texts. She tells us that, as class president, she knows the good dirt on everyone (not in so many words). So if we need her, she’ll be in the library.
Let’s go meet our next door neighbor. All the girls have whiteboards on their doors — Corine’s has a drawing of a chinchilla(?) that says, “MR. MINGLES SAYS HI!” Dammit, guys, I relate so hard to Corine. That’s exactly the kind of thing my 16-year-old self would’ve put on my door, thinking it was cute, only to find that all my classmates thought I was a total weirdo.
Anyway, the next door over belongs to “Mel Corbalis,” who apparently is in need of detergent.
This is Mel, a lone goff in a school full of prepz. She’s immediately all impressed with us, because she heard that Nancy was kicked out of a boarding school in France. Nancy clutches her pearls all, “I would never!” and Mel shrugs that the rumor mill’s already started circulating. Plus, it is pretty weird to transfer in the middle of your senior year. Nancy’s like, “Whatever, you don’t know my life.”
Speaking of rumors, what are people saying about the Black Cat? Mel thinks it’s a stupid prank that nobody should take seriously. She’s like, “I mean, it nearly killed my old roommate, but that doesn’t mean it’s like, worth caring about.” Don’t cut yourself on all that edge, Mel.
We also ask her about Corine, and Mel says that she’s probably the person who knows Corine best — they usually hang out together, since they’re both social outcasts. Corine is super smart, but also hella thirsty for validation and her obvious neediness bugs the rest of the girls. Fair enough.
We can explore Mel’s room a bit — she tells us that she taught herself to play the cello — and we find an old-looking sampler in the corner. It tells us to “Read Much followed by Moore.” Mel tells us that the sampler was made by her great-great-whatever-grandma, who was one of the first Waverly graduates. Mel is a legacy student, and was admitted automatically because all her ancestors went to Waverly. Mmm, nepotism. Anyway, I bet at some point we’re going to have to go digging into the history of the school, and when we do, we are coming for you and that sampler, Mel!
I like the design of this game a lot, especially during the daytime. There’s lots of sunshine on dark wood, and I dig the hardwood floors and old-fashioned wallpaper. This is totally what I thought boarding school and dorms would look like as a kid. I also dig the designs of each girl’s room — frankly, it must have been a pain in the ass to come up with various posters, stickers, and knickknacks to indicate each character’s personality, but the game pulls it off.
Anyway, let’s go see what Rachel wants from us. (Her door says, “Don’t forget study group tonight!” which reminds me of another girl I went to school with, who was constantly asking everyone if we’d done the homework or studied for a test. Her senior quote was, “Did you guys study?”) Rachel tells us that she has a web design project due, but she also has two papers to finish, so if we could just take all the pictures she needs for her web project, that would help a lot. I mean, she tries to make it sound like taking the pictures for her is a small part of the project, but let’s be real, she’s basically asking us to do her homework for her. “I don’t even know you,” Nancy protests. In total fairness, that has never stopped us from running errands all over creation for anyone else before. Rachel babbles to us that she’s from Pittsburgh, she’s here on a scholarship, and she blew her AP chem test so she probably won’t be valedictorian unless ~something~ were to happen to the competition (HMMM). Oh, and she likes math. Get out of here, Rachel. After this rant, Nancy agrees to help her, probably just to shut her up.
Rachel gives us the list of everyone who needs to be photographed. Once we’re done, we should check back in with her, because “I may need you to do something else.”
Did you hire us to come out here, Rachel? Are you paying us? No? Then shut up and deal with your shitty grades on your own, like the rest of us plebes had to.
We get a mass text saying that “Becca Sawyer has landed.” Nancy takes this as a piece of scathing gossip for some reason. By the way, the only person who’s met Nancy in the hall is Izzy, so that “Unknown sender” isn’t fooling anyone.
Since we’re on the phone, let’s call Ned. Nancy tells him that so far everyone seems to like her — probably because they’ve noticed that they can hurl random-ass demands at her and she has to do them, like she’s Ella Enchanted — which is good, because the social pecking order around here is no joke. “It is brutal,” Nancy says. “Like junior high on steroids.” Well…junior high on steroids would be high school, right? And that’s exactly what this is, so…yeah. Ned doesn’t have much to say yet; he’s just boring and concerned for Nancy.
Let’s go back to Mel and get her picture. We ask about Rachel, and Mel says they don’t hang, because Rachel’s kind of weird. You’re not saying that with that hair, Mel. Then we ask where we can find the next girl on our list, Leela Yadav. Mel says her and Izzy’s room is on the other side of the study area. Except then we ask if Mel has a picture of her ex-roomie, and Mel says no, and to check with Leela — who’s probably in the rec room downstairs. Which is it, Mel?
Since we’re here, we’ll get Corine’s picture, too. She gets all up in our face for not having a Facebook (a “YR Page,” whatever). I think we’re supposed to think she’s creepy for stalking Nancy online, but it’s not like that wasn’t super common in 2008 or so. I feel like it’s actually become less common since then, with a lot of people becoming weary of social media and deleting theirs, but there was totally a time when everyone had a Facebook and everyone wanted to add everyone else in their class to have as many friends as possible. Anyway, Nancy BSes that she deleted hers for personal reasons, and Corine’s all pushy about what that reason was, and do we have a boyfriend, and is he cute, and do we cheat on him with Frank Hardy sometimes, etc. Yikes. We change the subject to Mel, and Corine’s like, “Did she say we’re friends? She likes me, right?” Aw, Corine. Once again, I don’t want to relate to her insecurity and neediness so much, but dammit, I do. We ask if Mel has any other friends, and Corine tells us that Mel and Leela used to be friends, but now Leela’s a jock and Mel’s a goth and they don’t sit at the same lunch table anymore. Mel told Corine that they just drifted apart, but Corine thinks something else must have happened.
We can ask Corine about everyone we’ve met so far, and unlike Mel, Corine will actually spill all the gossip about them. Honestly, I too am a nosy, gossipy grandma at heart, and I appreciate Corine for enabling me. She tells us that Izzy acts nice upon first meeting, but she’s really just sizing us up to see if we can sit at her lunch table. It’s a good thing the girls in this school wear uniforms, because I think even Corine would ditch Nancy if she saw her rocking those horse shirts. Corine doesn’t like Rachel much either; she calls Rachel “flakey.” I feel like someone as unpopular as Corine can’t afford to be so picky; on the other hand, even Corine wasn’t graceless enough to ask someone she just met to do her homework for her.
Corine told us that the Waverly handbook is on the computer, so we go to the library. We can’t use the computer, though, as we need a password. Okay, well, we have to get that from Izzy, and she’s right here, so let’s say hi.
Izzy is immediately all snippy about our roommate, and we’re like, “So…you don’t like Corine, huh.” “Nobody likes Corine,” Izzy snipes. Yikes. But it’s okay, as long as we disavow Corine, we can still sit at the cool kids’ lunch table. We ask if Izzy likes her roommate (Leela, you’ll recall), and Izzy chirps that they’re both super popular, so they get along just fine. More realism! In my school, the sporty girls were also the most popular (and also tended to be the most “girly” off the field, interestingly). We tell her we need her photo for Rachel’s website, and Izzy snarks, “Lucky you. Your first day, and you get to spend it with every loser in our class.” Heh. Izzy is rude as hell. She snarks on Rachel some more — “She has no business being here, either socially or academically, and she knows it” — and then we can ask her for the computer password.
Is Izzy just going to hand it over? Of course not. “Unfortunately, I need to finish this DNA model before I can give it to you. Too bad, huh.”
SIIIGH. Okay, here we go.
A lot of people have mentioned that the amount of tedious chores is over the top in this particular game, which tbh is fair. It gets to the point where literally every time you ask for a favor or some information, the characters will make you do something in exchange. The chores aren’t integrated very well; half the time these supposed valedictorian candidates are making you do their homework for them, and the other half they’re sending you all over creation for incredibly flimsy tasks that they could do themselves. I don’t really mind because I enjoy so many other aspects of the game — and I think that chores can be used well; they add to the realism of Nancy being an assistant/intern/whatever, you get to explore the game world while you do them, and I generally prefer them in place of puzzles — but I get the criticism there, absolutely.
Anyway, Izzy wants us to put together a DNA model for her. We have to link adenine to thymine, and cytosine to guanine, and make sure they’re all connected to sugars. If you’ve ever taken a biology class (and had to watch Gattaca), it’s pretty easy.
Once we’re done, Izzy gives us the computer password, and we can keep talking to her about the rest of our classmates and the Black Cat. Izzy has a serious hateboner for Mel. She thinks Mel is a psychopath — dang, Izzy, she’s just a mall goth — and therefore is probably the Black Cat. Izzy has also gotten a note from the Black Cat, but says that everyone on the “Val Can” floor has as well. Izzy tells us that the Black Cat moniker comes from an old Waverly legend — a long time ago, there was a teacher at the school who wasn’t very well-liked, and when the teacher died, her black cat went running off into the woods and caused bad luck whenever it appeared. Hmm. Interesting stuff.
The last girl we need a picture of — who’s actually here, anyway — is Leela. We find her on the first floor, hanging around in the lounge. She greets us by saying, “You must be the girl who came all the way from France with just the clothes on her back. Becca Something.” Charming! She tells us she’s working on two papers, but she’s taking a break. Whatever, she’s “taking a break” every time we walk by her. Leela is by far the most annoying character in this game, because every damn time you want something from her, she makes you beat her at a game. Like, I don’t mind running around doing errands for characters, but I don’t have time to play an entire round of air hockey with you, girl!
We tell Leela we need her photo for Rachel’s project, and Leela turns out to be yet another person who hates Rachel. Jesus, what did Rachel ever do to them? Leela says that Rachel is super weird — “She’ll say something one day then deny it the next, or she’ll do something then say she didn’t — she’s actually kinda scary.” Huh. Leela thinks Rachel is the Black Cat, since Rachel messing up that AP chem test took her out of the running for valedictorian (just as Rachel told us). Leela thinks Rachel is out for REVENGE! Dun dun dun!
Mel told us that Leela probably has a picture of her ex-roommate, Megan. Leela does, but she won’t get it for us unless we (sigh) beat her at a game. Okay, let’s play some air hockey.
I lose air hockey miserably to her like three times in a row. I am amazing at air hockey in real life, so this just proves to me that Leela’s games are BS.
Once we finally win, Leela says she’ll go get Megan’s picture later. So we’ll have to come back to get it. In the meantime, though, let’s interrogate Leela about everyone else we’ve met so far. Leela says she gets along with Izzy, but is slightly less effusive than Izzy was about her. Leela doesn’t like Corine and Mel either — “weirdos of a feather flock together.” Oookay. And that’s it for Leela! She chirps that she’s waiting for her boyfriend to text — “He goes to Oxborough. That’s the boys’ school just down the road.” Dreamy!
So we got the password for the computer, and now we can roll through the school website. We’re assigned to snack shop duty, so every day we have to swing by the snack shop and serve everyone food. It’s kind of like kitchen duty in White Wolf of Icicle Creek, but at least this time we only have to do it once a day. There’s also a chart outlining the credit/demerit system. We can get demerits for things like sneaking around the school after dark, breaking into classrooms, climbing trees, i.e. all the usual things you have to do in a Nancy Drew game. If we get too many demerits we’ll get kicked out of the school, so we’ll have to be sneaky about this.
The school website has some interesting info for us: The Black Cat and Other Short Stories by Edgar Allan Poe has been stolen from the library. The Black Cat, you say? Hmm. There’s a school blog that’s maintained by Izzy, who’s worried about a thieving squirrel that lives on campus; and someone’s broken into a locked room using their ID card. We’ll need to remember this for later.
There’s a section for the valedictorian candidates, and that’s where we have to put everyone’s picture. We still don’t have Megan’s, though, so let’s do that later.
Our phone beeps because we’ve gotten a schoolwide text: Izzy is going to the Oxborough party, with LEELA’S BOYFRIEND! “Make that ex-BF!!” the text remarks. OH SNAP!
Leela is not pleased at all. She’s like, “Who does that to their own roommate?”, like there’s some kind of roommate code I haven’t heard of. Leela snarls that she’s going to wait for a while and serve Izzy some ice-cold revenge. I mean, there’s only one semester left, so don’t wait too long, Leela.
Izzy doesn’t give a single shit about having stolen Leela’s boyfriend. She’s like, “Survival of the fittest in the gritty world of high school dating!” Well, okay, then. Clearly we’re not going to wring a lot of guilt out of her, so let’s change the subject. What does she think her chances of being valedictorian are? Izzy is quite confident: “I deserve to be valedictorian, therefore I’m going to be valedictorian.” Also okay then! She snips that it’s not just grades; the school also looks at extracurriculars, leadership skills, blah blah blah. Izzy says that once she gets the valedictorian scholarship, she’s going to Harvard.
When we back up from Izzy, we get a text that Mel’s gotten another Black Cat note. Then like five seconds later, I got another text that Izzy got a note, too. Well, I’m already here, so let’s just talk to Izzy again.
Once more, Izzy does not give a single shit. She tells us she burned the note, figuring that it was sent by Leela to freak her out. This is Leela’s idea of biding her time? It’s been like five minutes!
Anyway, we can also ask Izzy if she knows what happened to the copy of The Black Cat by Poe, but she doesn’t know. “No offense, but the questions you ask are kinda strange,” she says. Heh.
So we have to do snack shop duty every day. We take orders from high schoolers while they gossip in the background about how hot the calculus teacher is. “I think he’s a doll,” one girl gushes. That’s exactly how teenage girls refer to their crushes, it’s true.
Once we’re done with the snack shop, we find a key. Mysterious! We’ll have to find out where that leads to, if we ever have time in between doing everyone’s homework for them.
Up next: Nothing happens. Seriously, nothing. We find some clues and do some more chores, and then the plot decides to show up at the very end.
Leave a Reply