Hey everyone, PushingUpRoses here and today I just wanted to put out a quick video showcasing
an upcoming adventure game called The Crimson Diamond.
As of right now there is only a demo available, but I was so happy with it I just had to take
a second to gush.
Developed by Julia Minamata, The Crimson Diamond is a text parser command game in the style
of an EGA Sierra game, more specifically it looks like a love letter to the Colonel’s
Bequest.
And it is!
I could not be happier to have another Laura Bow esque style murder mystery.
I’m going to be completely honest with you; when I saw the trailer I was a little skeptical
on whether or not I would like it; I thought it might be too similar to the Colonel’s
Bequest, and I have no idea why I took on such a cynical assumption early on, but I
am very happy to eat my words because after playing the demo I found that it had its own
unique personality.
You play as Nancy Maple, whose name, I assume, is a combination of Nancy Drew and Miss Marple,
two of the most well known female detectives in literature.
Nancy is a budding mineralogist, and is sent to the Crimson Lodge to investigate the discovery
of diamonds on the land.
She has some of the same exuberant mannerisms as Laura Bow; excited to do a good job but
also very perceptive, friendly, and frankly, really nosy.
As mentioned before, Nancy’s aesthetic, as well as the setting itself, takes a lot
of inspiration from Sierra’s The Colonel’s Bequest; the mechanics are also similar, wherein
the point of the game is to interrogate and eavesdrop; it’s less reliant on puzzles
than most of the titles in the Sierra catalog.
Another aspect of the game is, much like The Colonel’s Bequest, having a LOT of shit
to look at but not a lot to find.
You can open cabinets and drawers forever and not find a single clue.
That probably sounds like a bit of a slight, but I assure you; I would rather there be
fewer, but more important inventory items, versus a bunch of superfluous bullshit that
I carry around in my trousers the entire game and never use.
I’m lookin’ at you King’s Quest, quit putting random crap in logs.
An homage I really, really appreciate is the replicated shower scene, which is also an
homage to the film Psycho (Yo dawg I hear you like homages in your homages).
In the Colonel’s Bequest, you meet a grisly death.
In The Crimson Diamond, you can ALSO meet a grisly death, however, if you simply lock
the door, you’re aces.
This tickled me, I love it.
It did however, take me an embarrassingly long time to figure out how to turn on the
shower.
I have no idea how I function as an adult, that’s the mystery here.
I also spied this Moosehead, which has been a running gag/easter egg in a lot of the old
Sierra games.
Here’s one from King’s Quest III.
Doesn’t he look miserable?
I was quite happy to see elements from the sequel to The Colonel’s Bequest, The Dagger
of Amon Ra.
For example, one of the ways to eavesdrop is to find a glass and hold it up against
a door, similar to what you see here in Dagger.
There is also a promiscuous character named Margot; a lot of her mannerisms are similar
to those of Yvette; but even though it’s easy to see where the inspiration came from,
the characters are still their own and I was able to see them as their own individual personalities.
Since this is a demo you can expect some unfinished screens, to which the dev has added some humorous
quips to, but the setting itself, a cozy inn called The Crimson Lodge, looks really nice.
I enjoyed going through each room and reading the descriptions, poking around for clues,
and opening every closet I could find.
It really does feel pleasant and rather intimate; and the cast of characters is also good so
far.
I didn’t get to know them too well during my one hour playthrough of this demo, but
I can say that I finished it up feeling really intrigued, and I was engrossed with that I
was doing for the majority of time I spent on it.
I didn’t encounter any death scenes, but I suppose that would perhaps be too much of
a spoiler for a demo, so I understand not including one.
I am assuming there will not be any porcupine related homicides, but I’m very eager to
find out how the dev handles the murders; will they be fairly normal, or are they going
to be ramped up to fuckin’ 11 like the ones in Dagger?
I do have some minor nitpicks, however I know the game is still in development so I will
try to be as fair as possible.
I love the design of the text boxes; the command prompt has a cute little spyglass by it and
the description texts are framed by floor lamps; there’s some great detail going on
here, though I do find that the font itself is a little hard to read.
It sometimes hurts my eyes a smidge; it’s definitely an appropriate font, as it really
does look like the ones from Sierra games past, but there’s something about it that
makes it harder to process.
It’s also presently a little buggy; as I was eavesdropping on Margot and Jack, the
housekeeper, her clothes kept glitching.
As in they kept coming off and on.
Though, knowing the nature of this meeting perhaps it wasn’t a bug, maybe they just
had some weird kinks that involved quick change magic.
(purr)
I’m sure a lot of ahem, kinks, will be ironed out before release.
I give major props to the developer for her beautiful design work and for bringing back
that wonderful 16-color palette.
I cannot wait to see how this mystery unfolds so I will be awaiting the final product with
great anticipation.
The Crimson Diamond demo is currently on Steam for anyone interested in playing it, and if
you love adventure games as much as I do, then I hope you give it a whirl.
Hey everyone, thanks for watching my video on this upcoming game; if you want more adventure
game related content then do check out the rest of my channel, you might find something
you like.
If you’d like to support me more directly, as in, giving me money so I can buy my bird
sunflower seeds, then do consider becoming my patron.
I have rewards and shit!
Yeah!
As always, I’ll see you guys in the next one.