Previously on Nancy Drew: Mystery of the Seven Keys: We arrived in Prague to investigate the mystery of stolen jewels from the necklace of one Adela Czerna. However, you might notice that the title of this game is not The Mystery of the Stolen Jewels — could something else be afoot? In the meantime, we got settled into Prague, had some coffee, and pointedly did not learn anything about Kafka.
So Oskar invited us to talk with him at the castle jewel exhibit, so all we have to do is walk like two yards over and say hi. The doors across from Valdena’s shop will pop open once we finish the call with him.
We walk in on Oskar having a suspiciously angry call with someone in Czech, whom he claims is his assistant. HMMM.
We immediately try to ask him about the jewel thefts, but he shuts us down. He’s all passive-aggressive about how they have excellent security, not that he wants to tell us how said excellent security failed to prevent jewel thefts last time, because that would also be a security concern. Sigh. More passive-aggressive stonewalling. Should I start shipping him and Vladena? They are clearly meant2b.
Oskar is equally passive-aggressive and annoyed when we ask him about how often he checks the exhibit items for fakes, or if he has any helpers. He’s like, “I don’t need helpers; the government appointed me to my position because I am perfectly competent.” Well, damn, Oskar, I wasn’t judging your jewelry skills; I was just wondering because this seems like a lot for one guy to do! I’m just worried about your work-life balance!
We ask him about Vladena and SecondShine; much like Vladena, he’s generally judgment and dismissive of his competition. He sniffs that SecondShine deals with “common heirlooms”; they’re not in the real jewelry business. He also calls Vladena a “mere appraiser” who doesn’t truly understand jewels or their history.
That’s all our conversation options for now, so let’s look around. We can lift this priceless artifact out of its box and manhandle it right in front of Oskar. Uh, can we circle back to that part where the government thinks you’re competent, Oskar? Anyway, Nancy will note that it opens somehow, but we don’t know how yet. Then Oskar will be all, “What are you doing?” (Once again, tragically not the way Thanos said it. Come on, game, work with me here.)
Nancy’s like, “You don’t understand! This thing is covered with bizarre symbols! Clearly there is some kind of strange, ancient riddle that no historian has ever noticed before, and only I, an amateur teenage detective, can crack it!” (Seriously, this is basically what she says.) Oskar, like so many before him, realizes that resisting Nancy Drew is futile and says we can futz around with it as long as we do so under his supervision — and by that, he means while he’s standing around staring off into space. Fair enough. We’ll be back, Oskar!
We can also poke around the exhibit further; there are lots of displays and signs about medieval-era Prague, largely devoted to alchemy. Hmm, will alchemy be important in this game? We can also read about stuff like Dalibor of Kozojedy’s violin and King Ferdinand I and Maria Theresa. Like I said, this is all interesting information about Czech history, and I think it’s cool that HER is trying to make the setting less hokey than past game locations have been — but I gotta say, I did not feel compelled to read all that text.
The pertinent plaque we want to read is about the “Safety of Seven.” The Prague crown jewels, i seems, are protected in a vault inside St. Vitus Cathedral (the very cathedral we’re standing in, you’ll recall). For extra protection, the vault is locked with seven keys and can only be opened when all seven key-bearers unlock the vault together. Seven keys, you say? That wouldn’t have anything to do with the title of this game, would it?
We also see this exhibit of jewelry, which states that the jewels inside are just samples for staging — borrowed from Zlaty Custom Jewelry! Hmm. (I don’t believe this plot thread goes anywhere, however, so it could just be a red herring.)
Here’s me being too lazy to turn the camera and running while scraping Nancy’s nose against the wall.
There’s also a second level, which has a door. Is the door locked, or have I just not shoved my face against it hard enough?
No, okay, it seems locked. We’ll come back.
Let’s go back to the cafe, since I finally read a walkthrough figured out how to crack that stupid secret text message we received earlier.
That weird guy who spoke to us earlier is still here, but we can’t talk to him about anything yet. Adela is also hanging out here, but if you click on her, she’ll just say, “I have nothing more to say.” Well, dang, Adela, maybe I just want to hang out and chat 🙁 What do you think the Czech Republic’s chances are at Eurovision this year?
Let’s check in with Patricie. She immediately strongarms us into helping her run the cafe: first we have to find some pieces to put together the coffee machine, then we have to make coffee. Finding the missing pieces isn’t too hard — I’ll grant that it’s a little tricky because there’s a lot of random crap lying around the cafe, but it doesn’t take too long to just walk around and look at everything, and you only have to find three items (a handle, a portafilter, and the coffee recipes book).
Once we find everything, it’s food minigame time! As you probably guessed, we have to make several cups of coffee for customers, matching the recipes in the book. If they order a latte, you also have to top the drink off with some latte art. There’s a bit of logical guesswork (e.g. sometimes the recipe will call for “twice as much milk as another recipe” instead of a specific number) but overall it’s not too difficult. (That reminds me, I replayed Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon recently, and I distinctly remember the burger-making minigame being more high-paced and frantic than it was. Maybe it was always that easy and I was just a deeply stressed-out college student last time I played. Who knows.)
The hardest bit of the latte-making is the fact that picking up the items is still really clunky — basically, you have to click the item to pick it up, then click on the item you want to use it with (or click its spot to move it back down). The items will move on their own once you click them, but there’s a bit of lag that tended to make me think that either I hadn’t clicked the right spot or that I needed to drag the items, so I would generally be clicking or moving my mouse and whatever was happening on my screen was not matching that at all. It got frustrating.
That said! While I saw a lot of complaints about this, I really didn’t find the latte art hard at all? (I finally have a separate mouse instead of a trackpad for playing games, so maybe that’s why). You basically just have to use your mouse to trace the design and stay inside the lines. It helps to keep the cursor in the center of the line and go slow, I think, because then more milk will pour and fill in the lines for you, instead of risking getting close to the edge and going outside the lines. Not sure why it was so troublesome for so many people — glitchy game mechanics? (I also tapped out of making the coffee as soon as I could, so I didn’t get up to any of the more complicated designs I’ve seen.) Anyway, once you serve a few customers, you can quit, but you can click the coffee machine to make some more lattes in your free time if you want.
And here’s not!Lauren, hitting up rival coffee shops. Her bosses at that random kiosk across the plaza won’t like that.
Now, it’s time to investigate SecondShine. We click the link on Adela’s list, which will open it up in our tablet. Before we can see the website, we get a popup about using Loutkari’s public Wi-Fi. Nancy wonders who — or what — Loutkari is. Uh, Nancy, you should know this, since I read that Loutkari pamphlet earlier. What is the point of me running around picking up everything I can get my sticky paws on if you’re just going to ignore my contributions??
Anyway, as we can see, SecondShine is a bit…well, it might’ve looked cool and legit in 2002, maybe? (Sidebar: You know who needs to update their websites? Traffic schools. I had to take a traffic course once and went to the websites of schools recommended by the DMV and they all looked like this and had URLs like freestatetrafficschoolonline.biz. I swear.) Anyway, the website has a phone number, so let’s go ahead and call them.
We call the phone number and manage to get the CEO, Hans. Wow, he’s accessible. We ask him a bit about SecondShine’s process and security — kind of oddly, he says that people don’t have to send their jewelry to them, saying that storing and appraisal are an extra service. Okay, but…how do they decide what to resell the jewelry at if they don’t inspect it themselves? Whatever.
According to Hans, all jewelry is logged in the DEGAS system upon receipt, and is re-checked against the DEGAS entry before being returned to the seller, should the seller want their jewelry back as Adela did. “What’s DEGAS?” Nancy asks. Well, we could always look it up in our journal, because the game glitched and put the explanation of it in there before the conversation explaining it happened.
Regardless, Hans immediately calls us out on apparently being a jewelry reporter and not knowing what DEGAS is. Hans, have you ever read a news article about anything you have a mild interest in? You’re lucky Nancy is even bothering to ask. He huffs that SecondShine has never had one complaint and we can look at the necklace’s DEGAS file if we doubt him. And now, if we have any further questions, we can talk to his lawyer. Good day!
“Maybe I should talk to my lawyer,” Nancy muses once he hangs up, which is of course a cue to call Carson. Nepotism!
Before I do that, let’s break up these conversations with a little puzzle. So the anonymous text message we got was pointing us to look at the bookshelves in the cafe, each of which have a number labeling its subject. “Fall in love” indicates we should check out the Romance section, which has a number of 11. “Our past” refers to the History section (6) and “Find your own way” indicates the Travel section (9).
We enter 1169, and the file unlocks to show a map. The layout of the map matches the cafe, and we can see that a spot has been marked on one of the bookshelves.
So we go over to see that there’s a mysterious book in the Kafka section…
…which is locked with a puzzle, because of course it is. The solution to the puzzle is also on the map sent by our mysterious contact — it has a compass showing directions, as well as several numbers, and the hint that “Outer Ring + Outer Ring = Inner Ring.” So basically, we have to arrange the numbers so that the outer ring numbers equal the sum of the inner ring numbers between them (e.g. in the screenshot above, there’s a “3” between the 1 and the 2 in the outer rings on either side). The map has some numbers to get you started (e.g. there’s a 4 on the outside of the cafe wall — meaning it’s an outer ring number — and matching the “east” side of the map, so it’s on the right).
When that’s done, the book will open to reveal a key. What for? We don’t know yet, so let’s just stash it away and move on. We can also, finally, check off the “Explore the cafe” task which has been haunting me since the start of the game.
Alright, let’s call Carson. He doesn’t pick up (what, is he touring Africa again?), but we leave a message asking him to investigate Hans and SecondShine for us. This would’ve been a good place to utilize Ned, if the game was going to lean into the investigative-journalist characterization Ned sometimes gets, since (spoiler) Ned otherwise has literally nothing to do in this game (well, okay, maybe that’s not much of a spoiler).
Actually, why don’t we call Ned? I’m a good girlfriend, and we can tell him about that clock we saw earlier!
Or not. Come on, Ned, do you want me to call Frank Hardy?
Let’s check in with Patricie one more time before we go. We can ask her about the Loutkari popup we saw earlier, and she explains that they are Prague’s biggest cybersecurity company. We also ask about the key we found, but Patricie claims not to know anything about it — she adds that many of the books have been here since before she was even a little girl (implying the cafe has been in her family for a long time). Nancy says she thinks the book must have been put on the shelves recently, as it’s too noticeable to have been ignored otherwise. I think Nancy is overestimating how many people in cafes actually read the books instead of just parking themselves at a table with their laptop. (Look, if I get a table at Paris Baguette, I’m not wasting my time on bullshit like actual books and history and culture. I got recaps to write about Nancy Drew and Koko Kringles, you know?)
Anyway, I do a few more rounds of coffeemaking because I realized you have to do several for the game to actually count it as being done — specifically, you have to make a cafe con hielo, a latte, a flat white, and a Sweet Sunrise. Once I do, Patricie gives us an antique snow globe. We’re like, “What is the point of this and why are you giving it to me, a random tourist” and she’s like, “Eh, I don’t really know what it is and don’t care, have fun figuring it out.”
“Investigate Vladena” and “Investigate Oskar” still cannot be checked off on our tasklist, so let me go see if there’s more to talk about with them.
Vladena makes the same crack about us looking tired as she did earlier. Vladena, that joke was mildly funny the first time; repeating it is embarrassing. Anyway, we can now ask her about DEGAS, and she explains that DEGAS is a computer system wherein jewelers enter information about pieces, such as the type and quality of the gems, whenever they change hands. (Nancy will explicitly compare it to the provenance tracking system in Labyrinth of Lies.) Vladena is not a fan, mostly because she does not understand all this newfangled technology. Heh.
(DEGAS, by the way, was just invented for this game. It seems to be named after the (French) painter? Not sure what that has to do with jewelry or the Czech Republic, but whatever.)
Vladena claims that she didn’t create the DEGAS entry for Adela’s necklace; she just updated it after she appraised it and saw that all the gems were fake. Nancy asks if the entry could’ve been wrong from the beginning — because it sounds like jewelers can enter whatever? Are they just relying on jewelers not lying when they fill in an entry? — but Vladena’s all, “Who knows?” a la Joanna Riggs.
That’s all the new conversation options for her, so we can end the conversation here. Vladena tells us to let her know what we find, to which Nancy says, “I’ll leave that to Adela.” “I’m a good friend,” Vladena says. “If I had anything to hide, why would I have told her the gems were fake?” Because…you did it and you’re trying to frame SecondShine? Don’t try me, Vladena.
We’re now able to check off investigating Vladena. To Oskar! He’s standing so aggressively behind that table.
We ask him just how reliable DEGAS is, and Oskar is like all offended that we’re besmirching the honor of their provenance system. He also weirdly says, “If we had DEGAS before, maybe we could have discovered the switch of the gems sooner.” The switch when…the crown jewels’ gems were stolen before? Because they definitely have DEGAS now, so I can’t imagine this refers to Adela’s necklace.
Whatever, I don’t care that much. That single extra conversation was all we needed to check off “Investigate Oskar”, and now we get a text from Ned! Hi Ned! I was just considering cheating on you with Frank Hardy; let this be a lesson about texting more often.
Ned calls us an “international woman of sleuthery”, which I find charming, and asks if we can talk. Nancy says she’ll call him when we get back to the cafe.
Actually, the fact that the “investigate Oskar’s mysterious artifact” task isn’t checked off is bothering me, so let’s do that first. The hint to solving this puzzle is to “Refer to Kepler’s law.” You can find information on this in the books in the cafe. Or you can cheat. Let’s do the latter.
So basically, you want to first drag the ball clockwise around the circle, then drag the sun to the right, then drag the ball clockwise around the ellipse.
That will cause several symbols to slide into view, so we want to rotate the correct symbols into place in order to unlock the box. There’s a poem in Vladena’s shop that will give you a hint as to the order of the symbols. Or…we could…
…cheat 🙂 You know me 🙂
Yeah, so anyway, this is the correct alignment for the symbols, and once the puzzle is done, a compartment will slide out with a bunch of gems. Despite my penchant for cheating, I do not yet know what we need to do with these, so let’s step back.
Oskar is, like, disgusted that we managed to crack the puzzle, but Nancy just flips her hair and is like, “It’s kind of what I do.” Heh. He tells us that the artifact was found in “the tunnels” underneath the castle. Aw shit! You know what this means!!!
Oskar gives us some background on the artifact and which Czech king hid it and it’s kind of boring so I’ll only explain it if it becomes relevant. Anyway, we then ask him what he plans to do now that the artifact is open, and he gets all cagey and weird about how it’s none of our business. I mean, it’s not, but also fuck you, Oskar, everything is my business!
Alright, with that accomplished, let’s go call Ned. Back at the cafe, he tells us that Carson is busy working on some lawyer case (Carson? Doing his actual job? I guess there’s a first time for everything), so Ned is stepping in to help. We first ask him about the DEGAS system; like me, Ned is just like, “The painter?” Hee! We’re both cultured! Let’s visit the Topeka Commission of the Arts together, Ned! <3
Ned admits he’s not familiar with the jewel-tracking system, and Nancy’s like, “Aha, but you know who might be? The Hardys!” Ned gets all sadface that Nancy is planning to hit up Frank Hardy, and Nancy totally blows off his concern and starts talking about SecondShine. Hee. Oh, Nancy. Anyway, Ned says Carson hasn’t dug up anything incriminating on Hans Feiersinger yet, and that’s basically it for Ned.
We then cut to a loading screen, which is weird, because we then cut back to exactly where we were, in the cafe. Our new task is to speak to the Hardy Boys, so let’s just get that out of the way.
Jeez, I’m not usually a Frank Hardy apologist, but I feel like this portrait is not doing him any favors.
The Hardys are of course familiar with DEGAS and boast that they can get their hands on any file for any piece of jewelry, as they’re friends with some Special Agent who can hook them up with the files. Uh, I guess I don’t blame this guy for giving the Hardys access to the DEGAS system if he had to for The Greater Good of solving a case, but I don’t know what his excuse is for continuing to enable them. Anyway, the guy’s name is Zane Garrett and the Hardys say they’ll ask him to send us the DEGAS file for Adela’s necklace. They add that we’ll need a laptop, since the file will be too big for our phone.
We chat a bit about Prague with them, and the Hardys add that they love Prague and hey, we might even find some treasure on the tracks there, wink wink. This is a not-at-all-subtle nod to a past Hardy Boys game, Treasure on the Tracks, which was released for Nintendo DS in 2009. I’m sure that joke was enjoyed by the like, two people who played that game. No one cares about your adventures, Hardys.
The conversation ends there, and we cut to another loading screen and the next day. Our new task is to access the DEGAS file for Adela’s necklace, but we’ll need to do some stuff first to trigger Zane sending us the file.
Let’s see, what do we need to do to get the file sent to us? Can we talk to Vladena some more? No, we can’t.
Can we talk to Oskar some more? No, we can’t.
Can we go into this shop in Old Town that I have been trying to get into since the beginning of the game? I think you know the answer to that.
Random screencap of what you see if you tilt the camera all the way up, since I thought it looked pretty!
Alright, well, time to go back to the cafe. As ever, we gotta check back in with Patricie. We can ask her a bit about our other suspects — what does she think of Oskar and the castle exhibition? Patricie goes on a bit about how important the Czech crown jewels are to their people and how rare and special it is to see them on display, but says she doesn’t know Oskar. What about Vladena? Patricie says she’s not nearly fancy enough to shop in Vladena’s store, although Vladena comes into the cafe sometimes. She takes her coffee black and won’t put cinnamon in it like Patricie suggests, so she’s dead to Patricie now. Not in so many words.
To our main point: Patricie, we need a laptop! Because it’s 2024 and Nancy still doesn’t travel with one! Patricie suggests we go to Arapát, which is the shop in Old Town that we have so far been unable to get into. But we can after this conversation, so we’ll do that soon.
(We also ask if her coffee machine is still working okay, to which Patricie says, “So far, so coffee!” Is that supposed to be a pun? I don’t understand.)
Before we can leave, however, Patricie asks us to deliver a coffee to one of her customers. Said customer coincidentally turns out to be the gentleman who dropped his playing cards the other day, who introduces himself as Leo Sokol. As you might be able to tell from his collar, he’s a priest at St. Vitus Cathedral. (Kind of weirdly, the game keeps referring to him as the dean of the cathedral after this, despite not mentioning that he’s the dean in this conversation. Or ever.)
We bring up the museum thefts, and Leo says that they’re in the past, but “perhaps the threat remains.” He says he’ll look into the palace security and invites us to meet him at his office in the cathedral later.
We then bring up his weird cards, and Leo says he won’t play cards with us because he’ll totally embarrass us with his mad mariáš skillz. Nancy tosses her hair and says that she’s totally familiar with trick-taking games and we could totally beat him if I hit the Second Chance button often enough. Leo suggests that we could play sometime if we find a full deck of cards and some extra players. We do not ever play cards with him.
That’s all we can talk about with Leo, so we’ll have to meet up with him again later. He tells us not to stay away too long, as he’s leaving town soon.
When we walk away from Leo, a cutscene starts with this dude, who grabs a coffee and leaves a pamphlet on the table. When we pick up the pamphlet, we see that it’s advertising puppet shows at that little wooden marionette theater outside. Intriguing!
We leave the cafe, and — hey, before we do anything else, let me call everyone to make sure there are no fun conversations I’m missing out on. Ned?
Okay, no. Hardys?
Also no. Dad??? Father???
Nope. Uh…Adela?
Jesus, okay, let me just call Hans Feiersinger again. I’m lonely, okay 🙁 We get SecondShine’s automated line; if we try to reach Hans, we’ll just get a message that he’s not there, and then the main line will say the operator isn’t there, and then it hangs up on us 🙁 You have the opportunity to do this in both English and German, and you get an achievement if you listen to the automated messages in both languages (which was like, the only achievement I managed to get).
Anyway! Next, we’ll go pick up a laptop and meet the rest of our suspects, and the mystery will finally (kind of) get rolling.
Leave a Reply