Ace Attorneyis perhaps the face of thedetective game genredespite not even being about actual detectives. Through the shoes of the plucky attorney Phoenix Wright and various friends, this series offersgripping murder mysteriesthat players are put in charge of solving, with plenty of twists and lovable characters along the way.
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But, while there’s plenty of Ace Attorney content, fans run out at some point, and it can be hard to find series or games that offer that same blend of excellent puzzles, wonderful detective mechanics, andgripping writing. While nothing gives quite the same experience, there’s plenty that can suffice for the various aspects and even more in their own ways.
While the detective work is incredibly engaging, one of the main things that keep people hooked on Ace Attorney is the charming and colorful writing, and for fans of that, they might fall in love with Bad End Theater. Bad End Theater is a puzzle game that sees you attending the Bad End Theater, experiencing the show through each character and changing aspects to achieve all the various bad endings.
The thing that makes Bad End Theater work so well is the charming writing, with each character being so lovable, as well as the writing and art just being so funny and cute. On top of that, the gameplay offers a fun if simplistic puzzle experience of needing to change the behaviors of certain actors to open up new branches and endings. Underneath it all rests an overarching story that is touching and beautiful. Despite being short, the game makes for a full package.
9The Wolf Among Us
While deduction mechanics are the best way to make detective games, sometimes those need to take a backseat in order to tell a rich detective story such as withThe Wolf Among Us. The Wolf Among Us is achoose your own adventurebased on the Fables comic series. You take on the role of Detective Bigby in a city full of fairy tale characters trying to live as humans, and you’re thrown into a murder case that shakes that entire city to its core.
Likeall of Telltale’s other hits, the game lives through its incredible writing and set pieces, offering up an absolutely gripping mystery that slowly comes together in such a satisfying way. Not to mention the cast of characters that are fascinating to crack open as the game goes along — especially the main character of Bigby — paired with a wondrous setting where every bit of it is a delight to explore, and you have the perfect detective story in the making.
8Hypnospace Outlaw
One of the things that can turn some detective fans away from the Ace Attorney series is how linear its cases can be, not really letting you explore the world or solve the mysteries fully on your own, but in this regard, Hypnospace Outlaw might be just the thing for these fans. Hypnospace Outlaw is a detective game that sees you as a moderator on a strange new internet scape you can use in your dreams. You find yourself having to enforce the rules and track down rule-breakers.
Hypnospace Outlaw excels in its level of freedom for the player, offering more and more forums as the game goes along, most of which aren’t even needed to solve the case but instead are just fun side stories you can follow along with. And, when it comes to the actual cases, these are some real head scratchers with the perfect amount of bread crumbs for each one and such clever solutions for them. The excellent story that underpins all these cases is one that creeps up on you before delivering some hard-hitting stuff in the ending.
7Outer Wilds
One of the main appeals of Ace Attorney is putting the mysteries of the cases together, but while it’s still good, it can be rather hand-holdy in how it leads you through the case. For players who want something more free-form yet experimental,Outer Wildsmay be just the thing. Outer Wilds is a space exploration game that sees you stuck in a time loop, exploring across your tiny solar system to discover its mysteries both ancient and present to find a way to save yourself.
Outer Wilds is a brilliant take on a mystery game as there’s no mechanics for solving anything beyond a simple note system. The only thing you have within Outer Wilds is your ship and your own mind, being asked to put it all together on your own and allowed to discover things in your own order. It makes for a truly gratifying feeling of discovery and is full of eureka moments as your journey and your successes have no hands to hold them and are truly your own.
6Her Story
Sometimes you want a mystery game that leaves a nice trail of breadcrumbs and helps you solve it just enough to make for a real brain tester… But other times, you want a true cold case that leaves you getting out the red string such as withHer Story. Her Story is an experimental detective game that sees you searching through an old database of police interviews, trying to piece together the case of a disappearance from a woman’s testimonies.
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Her Story offers no mechanics to help you put the case together, not even a notes system; you’ll have to do that yourself. While this may initially seem like a negative, it actually helps you feel like a real detective as you keep track of the details and thus pay closer attention to the story. And, the story is definitely worth uncovering as it’s horrifying, dark, yet bittersweet in the end — a dive into two broken minds and how they meet their end.
5Disco Elysium
While Ace Attorney is a rather silly series in the grand scheme of things, it isn’t afraid to get more nuanced with its characters and tell darker detective stories, and for fans wanting more of that,Disco Elysiumhas you covered. Disco Elysium is anisometric RPGthat sees you as an amnesiac detective waking up in the strange world of Elysium, tasked with solving both your case and the mystery of who you are.
Disco Elysium may just be one of the finest written games ever made, as it goes miles beyond the deepest complexity Ace Attorney offers in even its smallest characters and plot lines, all of it being so rich and emotional. Though, it may be a hard sell for some Ace Attorney fans due to a lack of traditional case-solving and the fact the game is quite heavy, asking the player questions of politics and morality in a truly serious way. But for those willing to give it a chance, it’s a life-changing work of art.
4Professor Layton
For some Ace Attorney players, the story is just a side-dish compared to the puzzles the game offers, and for those wanting more brain-teaser experiences without giving up the fun tone and story,Professor Laytonis perfect. Professor Layton is a series of puzzle games that see you take control of the titular professor and his apprentice, solving several mysteries that end up much deeper than one would expect.
Professor Layton is all about offering unique puzzles to solve, providing dozens of puzzles — or even over a hundred — to solve throughout the game, each offering a unique mental challenge and being satisfying to solve. The games are completed by their delightful writing and atmosphere, having such a cozy and lovable tone to them mixed with genuinely interesting mysteries and light character drama.
3Case Of The Golden Idol
Creating a good mystery is hard. It has to have every detail lined up perfectly, be obvious enough to solve but not too obvious, and on top of all that, it has to have something interesting to it. Case of the Golden Idol manages to do that 10 times over. Case of the Golden Idol is a detective game that sees you observing 10 snapshots of tragedy and death, asking you to solve the details and piece together the plot underneath it all.
The game follows in the footsteps of Obra Dinn with its mechanics, using a system of putting together words that makes you have to truly understand what’s happening while still giving a gentle nudge in the right direction. The thing that makes Golden Idol stand out isthe brilliance of the cases it offers, each with unique aspects to make them their own and make the deduction process much different. Each one is a delight to finally put together and uncover the unexpected twists within them.
2Danganronpa
Whenever someone brings up detective games like Ace Attorney, there are always a few series that enter the conversation due to either being inspired by it or by being very similar in tone, butDanganronpais one that, despite similarities, manages to stand on its own two feet. Danganronpa is a detective series that sees 16 students, each an “Ultimate” in their field, locked within a location and thrown into a killing game where one must kill another and survive a class trial to escape.
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Danganronpa is a series that is carried by its characters, with a limited and never expanding cast, you really get to know the 16 students of each game deeply, each of them usually having a complex backstory to explain their quirky behavior and lots of growth to go through. This makes it all the more heartbreaking knowing any of them could either kill or be killed at any time. The mysteries themselves are also a blast to solve — not to mention how each dives into the characters even more.
1Return of the Obra Dinn
Crafting good detective mechanics is a hard task, as they have to toe a fine line between not holding the player’s hand and also making sure they actually get the answers right, as well as preventing brute force solving. Despite the hard task,Return of the Obra Dinnmay have perfected it. Return of the Obra Dinn sees you as an insurance agent in the 1700s, investigating a ship once thought missing that’s now returned, using a strange pocket watch to solve the deaths of its crew through snapshots of their death.
Return of the Obra Dinn is a masterclass in immersion, as it keeps finding the clues as something you have to do organically, analyzing the environment, dialogue, and hierarchy of the ship to piece together everyone’s identity, making sure the player has to go through this method by using a word system that prevents guessing. The game is intricately designed to make doing this as natural as possible, with outfits, character relationships, and locations thought out to make it all make sense. The story that underpins these mysteries is fascinating to piece together, going in horrifying directions one would never expect and leading to a heartbreaking ending.
