Whoa, are we in Nik Blahunka territory already? I mean, I guess this game is kind of old — it came out in 2010! — but the whole era still feels relatively recent, probably because it was the last one before HER’s indefinite hiatus, so I feel this sense of surprise that I’ve made it to the “newer” games. I absolutely love this stretch of games, from Shadow at the Water’s Edge to Sea of Darkness. Even though it had plenty of entries that I enjoyed, Danger by Design through Trail of the Twister were something of a Dork Age for the series. They shuffled through a couple of different designers, which had some…not great results (like, not only are the Hardy Boys the Hardy Boys, they also had to look like that in Creature of Kapu Cave?) The games also got increasingly chore-heavy and puzzle-heavy — while I like Legend of the Crystal Skull, you have to admit that the game is basically one long scavenger hunt for glass eyeballs. That’s it. That’s the whole game.
I also like but don’t love most of the classic games, either — my big beef with them is that so many of their plots hinge on Nancy randomly deciding to solve a 200-year-old mystery which always just happens to coincide with random acts of vandalism occurring in the present day. I mean, admittedly that’s the classic Nancy Drew plot, but I overall prefer sleuthing, dialogue, and drama between the suspects, and that’s not really common in those earlier games.
Starting with Shadow at the Water’s Edge, though, the games started getting really good. Before anyone is like, “Shattered Medallion tho”, I will add that they totally had some clunkers, but overall — it seemed like they were conscious that the players were getting older with the games; the storylines got a little darker and the characters more fleshed out, with more emphasis on sleuthing and figuring out what was going on with and between the suspects, instead of just poking around for hidden treasure. With 10+ years of history to lean on, Nancy developed a personality, and that improved the dialogue and story end of the games. There were more meta jokes and a sense of internal continuity; Nancy’s relationships with her friends got more attention, and they were also developed into decent secondary characters, instead of being semi-robotic hint hotlines with a few stock character traits. This 2010-15 run was a good one, and then HER suddenly turned into a dumpster fire at the end of 2015. WE COULD’VE HAD IT ALL.
After we solved the mystery of who the shadiest person on P.G. Krolmeister’s storm team was, he’s decided to reward us with a vacation to Japan. Except it’s not really a vacation, and not just because we’re going to trip over a mystery while we’re there. No, Nancy is also working as an English teacher, for no reason I can see. It’s a completely unnecessary side plot, but okay, whatever. Nancy is meant to be the player proxy, so maybe HER was trying to capitalize on all the weaboo dreams of teaching English in Japan.
We’re staying at the Ryokan Hiei, in Kyoto. Nancy helpfully tells us that a ryokan is a traditional-style Japanese inn, although the educational aspect is ruined somewhat by the fact that she and everyone else mispronounces “ryokan” for the entire game. Mysteriously, the ryokan is known as one of the scariest places in Kyoto. HMMM.
We roll up to the front desk, where an Old Traditional Japanese Woman and her Modern Granddaughter are waiting for us. But before we can so much as get out a “Tell me all about your traumatic past”, the portrait on the wall falls down.
OH SNAP! Old Traditional Woman tells her Modern Granddaughter, “Do you believe me now?!” “Obaasan, it only fell,” Modern Granddaughter says. “It did not! You know better! She doesn’t want her here!” Old Traditional Woman snaps before hustling off. Rude! We can always stay somewhere else!
Modern Granddaughter introduces herself to us as Miwako, and gives us our room key. She’s like, “Enjoy your stay, please ignore what you just saw.” Oh, Miwako. You’re so naive.
So Miwako might think we’re just a guest at her ryokan, here to get our keys and not start nosing into her personal life, but she is dead wrong. There’s a a robotic cat sitting with her at the desk, and Nancy’s like, “What the fuck?” Miwako explains to us that the cat’s name is Suki (the go-to name for non-Asian writers trying to name Asian characters, cf. Avatar: The Last Airbender). Miwako’s not allowed to have a cat in the ryokan, so her boyfriend, Rentaro, built Suki for her. Dang. Ned needs to step his game up.
We can also ask what a ryokan is, and Miwako will educate us that it’s a traditional inn. The Ryokan Hiei has been passed down from mother to daughter for generations, since the 18th century. “So one day you’ll pass it down to your daughter?” Nancy asks, and Miwako gets very awkward that actually, she’s the younger daughter. Her older sister, Yumi, is the one who’ll inherit the ryokan. Nancy’s like, “That’s rough, buddy.” So let’s change the topic to something that’s totally less personal and invasive: what was the deal with that portrait breaking, and your grandma randomly deciding to be a dick to us?
Miwako tells us that the portrait was one of the last remaining images of her mother — because this family doesn’t believe in cameras? — and her grandma believes its breaking was bad luck. Nancy’s like, “Oh shit, my mom’s dead too, WHAT UP.” Miwako decides to pass on telling us all about her painful family life, and instead tells us to go up to our room. If we try to inspect the portrait, she’ll hustle us away from all the broken glass.
On our way up to our room, we get a call from Bess. She and George are also here in Japan, although they contribute very little to the game and don’t really have a reason to be in it. George is here for some kind of technology convention, with Bess tagging along for…reasons. Bess tries to conference George into the call, and a ton of beeping ensues, with Bess wailing, “Why is this so hard?” “It so isn’t,” George deadpans. Heh. We start to tell them about how very weird that whole portrait business was, but then they’re like, “Whatever, we gotta go do something that’s not being in this game. Bye.”
We can explore the ryokan a bit, and we find this Ghost Stories of Japan book. ~*~SPOOKY~*~
We come across this room, and when we try to go in, this dude jumps out at us and yells that the sauna is men-only right now. Okay, I actually walked past this room because I knew that character meant “man” (I thought it was the men’s bathroom), and didn’t realize I had to try to enter in order for the game to progress. The game is a little weird in that respect; Nancy’s been to countries where she doesn’t speak the language before, but Danger by Design and Phantom of Venice didn’t base their mysteries or puzzles around untranslated bits of French or Italian — or rather, if they did, it was always with the assumption that the player would eventually find a translation. This game, on the other hand, assumes that the player can’t understand any of the signs and is just blundering around the ryokan. It’s kind of cool — I appreciate the concept that Nancy’s totally locked out of the language and only knows what the suspects choose to reveal to her. It’s also kind of a pain in the ass, because if you do know some Japanese, the answers to certain puzzles or clues will be right there and the game won’t let you acknowledge them.
Anyway, this guy is Rentaro, Miwako’s boyfriend. He was presumably fixing something in the baths, as he’s carrying a toolbox. He tells us that he’ll be out in the garden if we need him. As he walks off, he bumps into the wall. Heh.
The ryokan has two wings, connected by the garden and main lobby. We pass Rentaro in the garden shed, but let’s not talk to him yet.
On the other side of the garden is the “Cultural Room”. When we go inside, we find Old Traditional Grandmother, who introduces herself to us as Takae. (No, the game doesn’t pronounce her name properly, either.) She talks so…damn…slowly…in…the…fakest…Asian…accent…ever. She (slowly) apologizes to us for being a dick about the portrait — it’s just that things are very stressful for her, “especially now.” Hey, Takae, what do you mean by that? She awkwardly changes the topic instead, and she tells us that she’s going to teach us to write our name in Japanese.
Takae babbles on about how katakana looks difficult, but we just need to learn to “see more than we’re used to seeing,” like it’s some mystical Asian writing and not just the alphabet for foreign words. The katakana writing is a total pain in the ass. Takae stops you every third character and tells you that you’re fucking up and to start over. I’m trying my best, Takae 🙁
As you can see, I’m a dumbass and kept doing the stroke order for “shi” wrong. I will spare you all my screencaps of not realizing I was doing this, and skip ahead to the rest of the conversation with Takae.
Nancy compliments Takae on the ryokan’s garden, and she tells us that she takes care of it. She advises us to start our own garden, as it’s the place that makes her happiest. We note that the ryokan seems very important to her, and she goes off on a rant about tradition, like this is Fiddler on the Roof. You’ll recall Miwako told us that her older sister Yumi will inherit the ryokan, but Yumi is nowhere to be found. Nancy’s like, “If Yumi’s off not caring about the ryokan, how come you want her to inherit it?” and Takae’s all, “Because it is TRADITION!” Okay, Reb Tevye!
Let’s go up to our room. Our finished katakana name is hung on the wall, and we can look through a folder with our students’ English homework. We have to correct their homework every day. We also have a folder with information about the ryokan and Kyoto, which we’ll need to get around, and a train pass and a dictionary in our suitcase.
With all that out of the way, we can go talk to Rentaro. He immediately remarks that it’s surprising that we’re still here — but NEVERMIND THAT WEIRD COMMENT! So we’re American! Is Nancy from New York? Ha, as if. Nancy tries to tell him about her petty crime-ridden hometown of River Heights, but if we’re not from New York, Rentaro’s not interested. He tells us that he’s always wanted to go there, but for now, he’s just the ryokan’s handyman.
Then he gets all snarky about if he should bother getting to know us, or if we’re just going to peace out like everyone else. You know, being passive-aggressive wasn’t cute on Colin, and it’s not cute on you either, Rentaro (even though I love him in all other ways). Rentaro explains that the ryokan was listed in a “haunted hot spot guide” a while ago, and ever since then, they’ve been getting ghost hunters. “And that’s always a treat, because they’re totally not obnoxious,” he deadpans. Hee. Apparently, though, the ryokan really is haunted (or at least terrifying in some way), because all the ghost hunters get spooked and leave after a few days. Well, good news, Rentaro! Nancy Drew ain’t afraid of no ghosts! It’s probably just a sleazy antiques dealer trying to take over the ryokan, or a sleazy ranch cook, or a sleazy reporter, or a sleazy patriotic Eastern European skier.
“So some people think this place is haunted?” Nancy asks, interest sufficiently piqued. “Kind of like how some people think the moon landing is faked, or some people like adult contemporary. Don’t be one of those people,” Rentaro says. Heh.
Rentaro’s whole deal is that he hates words and loves numbers, because words are lame and numbers can do stuff like build bridges and send people to space. And then once you get to space, how are you gonna describe what the fuck you’re even seeing up there without words, Rentaro? Huh? HUH? Another thing numbers can do that words can’t: you can do a PUZZLE with them to make pictures! Oh, sweet Jesus.
So what Rentaro gives us is a book of puzzles, which are mostly optional, but occasionally the game will force us to play along with Rentaro’s bizarro hard-on for math and we’ll have to complete one to progress.
After giving us the puzzle book, we can take notice of Rentaro’s workspace, and ask what he’s doing. He tells us that he was inspired by Suki the robotic cat, so now he’s working on a robotic dog. He plans on giving it to Miwako, who he calls his “robotic muse. Well, she’s not robotic. Not that you’d think she is. And this is why I work with machines, they’re totally oblivious to awkwardness.” He tells us that he’s glad Miwako liked Suki, because he’s had to buy her a lot of gifts this year: “Either she’s getting crazy sensitive, or I’m becoming a huge jerk. Hmm, hard to say.” Dammit, I’m so charmed by Rentaro. I’m even willing to overlook his love of math.
Finally, we can ask him about Takae, and he notes that she’s harsh, but fair. He wishes she’d take a vacation, but every time he suggests it, she gets mad at him. Interesting.
On our way back into the ryokan, we overhear some drama coming from the lobby. One of the visitors is yelling at Miwako over how ~*~spooky~*~ the ryokan is. They weren’t expecting to be scared to death while they were here! Then don’t stay at one of the most haunted places in Japan, lady. She rants about how the ryokan should be shut down immediately, and she wants a refund and a car to take her to the airport. “I’m very sorry,” Miwako deadpans, in that voice you get after you spend a year in customer service.
After she leaves, we can approach the desk and see that there are only two guests left: Nancy, and someone called “Williams.” Oh snap!
Let’s ask Miwako what all that was about. She deflects and just says that travel is difficult on everyone, and they’re not being scared away, it’s just…something else. Oh, well, that’s not vague.
We can now return to Rentaro for more exposition. Note that the portrait from the lobby is now on his desk. When we ask, he says he’s working on reframing it. But it’s a lot harder than he thought it would be — ooh! Wouldn’t it be awesome if Nancy could help him? Yeah, yeah, I know where this is going.
Everyone I know — and by “everyone” I mean “the three people I know who also play Nancy Drew games” — hates this puzzle, but it’s really not that hard. I actually have an app on my phone for it because I love it so much. (Hey, there are people who genuinely like the Fox and Geese puzzle. Don’t judge me.) The goal is to arrange the black buttons so that the strings attached to them don’t cross each other. I’ve always found it really easy if you pull the buttons as far apart as possible first, to see which strings go where. Your mileage may vary, of course.
Once we finish untangling the backing, we can pull it off and find some papers behind the portrait. The first is this exorcism certificate from a “Savannah Woodham.” Look at that A-OK star! It must be super legit.
The second is this newspaper article. Nancy can’t read Japanese, but we know it’s about the late Mrs. Shimizu, because that’s apparently the only photo of her in existence. “I should hold on to this,” Nancy says, for no reason I can see. Nancy’s obsession with dead mothers really reaches its zenith in this game.
Now, the thing about this article is that the game is incredibly stupid about using it. If you ask Rentaro to translate it for you, he flips out and refuses. If you show it to Miwako, she gets mad at you. Everyone acts really jumpy and shady about it, and of course Nancy supposedly has no idea what it says, until the very end of the game when we find someone to translate it and the last piece of the puzzle clicks into place.
The thing is…if you can read Japanese, you already know what the article says. I’m not fluent, but with a little Google Translate and a kanji dictionary, I figured it out. And then you have to walk around for more than half of the game knowing what this big old mystery is, but the game won’t let you acknowledge it. Like with the bathroom signs earlier, the game makes this weird assumption that, unlike French or Italian or German, there’s absolutely no way the player understands Japanese. If you understand any of the bits that the game doesn’t think you can, and try to play accordingly, the game won’t progress. It’s just a little odd.
In the interest of not pissing Rentaro off yet, let’s save the newspaper conversation for last. Instead, we can ask if he really does think the ryokan is haunted. He gives us this philosophical speech about how the real ghosts are in our minds. Ghosts are people’s guilty consciences — that’s why they always want revenge for wrongs done to them. Well, that’s an interesting take on it. We’ll keep that in mind for later. Rentaro thinks it’s stupid that ghost hunters come to the ryokan looking for ghosts, then freak out when the ryokan gets creepy. Fair enough.
We can also ask about Savannah Woodham. Is she legit? “This certificate seems a little…less than official,” Nancy says. What gave it away? The A-OK sticker or the fact that it’s an exorcism certificate? Like, does Nancy think the government issues those? Anyway, Rentaro tells us that Savannah’s one of those ghost hunters, and she helped with the investigation after Mrs. Shimizu (“Kasumi”) died. Rentaro doesn’t really believe in all that stuff, but Takae wanted her there.
Finally we bring up the article, and Rentaro snaps at us to put it back. Back off, Rentaro! This piece of sensitive family history is our clue, not yours!
Miwako is less chill than Rentaro about the ryokan’s haunted reputation: she gets super upset and says that the ghost hunters have no respect. I guess that’s fair, since the ghost in question is Miwako’s dead mother. But then how come they had the place cleansed by one? Miwako doesn’t know anything about that, and gets upset when we tell her we found the certificate behind her mom’s portrait. “Maybe you should stay away from what isn’t yours. And maybe [Rentaro] should have the sense to know what is a family matter.” Damn! Miwako is ice cold! (And I love her for it.)
Maybe Takae will be more receptive to discussing the gory details of her daughter’s death. We tell her we’ve fixed the portrait, and she’s super vague about why, precisely, the portrait is so important. Maybe because it’s the only existing image of her dead daughter, Nancy. Nancy keeps pressing, but Takae shuts her down. Okay, well then maybe Takae can translate this article about Kasumi instead! We show her the newspaper clipping, and Takae freaks out and tells us to put that thing back where it came from, or so help her. Hmm, she’s the second person in a row to get upset over the article. Maybe there’s something suspicious about it?
So accidents are happening, everyone at the ryokan is acting shady — clearly, we’ve stumbled upon a mystery! The next logical step is obviously to poke around the ryokan in the dead of the night. We go up to sleep and wake up again at 1 AM, after the reception desk has closed. We can see that there’s a suspicious box under the desk, and that we need a password to unlock the computer, but we can’t investigate either of those things further, as Suki will raise the alarm if we do.
Behind the desk is a cabinet, locked by a special Krolmeister puzzle that involves putting colored cards into slots. We’re missing one of the cards, so we can’t proceed until we find it. Uh, aren’t we on first-name terms with P.G. Krolmeister now? Why don’t we just call him?
Everything else in the ryokan is locked, and its inhabitants are all asleep, so let’s leave these puzzles for another day. Back to bed!
Hey, are we seeing something kind of weird outside our door?
OH
SNAP
Did we just see the ryokan ghost? Nancy runs outside to check the balcony, but there’s nothing out there. “It must have just been my imagination,” she says. Yeah, I bet it wasn’t.
Up next: A whole ton of spooky shit happens. We meet the long-lost Shimizu sister, Yumi, except she’s not really that lost, and hasn’t been for that long, either.
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