Detective Grimoire Is Back in The Mermaid Mask, and the Clues Are Now in 3D

SFB Games has a knack for the kind of mystery you can actually solve, one where the clues are laid out fairly and the fun is in fitting them together. Their 2019 game Tangle Tower earned a devoted following for exactly that, and on July 16 the studio brought its sleuths back in The Mermaid Mask, the fourth entry in the Detective Grimoire series and a direct follow-up to Tangle Tower.

A body, a locked room, and no weapon

The setup is pure whodunit. Detective Grimoire and his sharp-tongued partner Sally are called in to unravel the death of Captain Magnus Mortuga, a figure so wrapped in rumor that people cannot agree on what he even was. Depending on who you ask, he was an immortal time-traveler, a cursed vampire, or something stranger. He is found dead inside a locked room, with no weapon anywhere in sight. That single image, a sealed room and an impossible death, is the engine the whole game runs on.

If you played Tangle Tower, the flavor will feel right at home: a colorful cast of suspects, each with their own secrets and their own version of events, and a mystery that slowly opens up as you press people on the contradictions in their stories. Grimoire and Sally’s back-and-forth carries a lot of the charm, and this time it is fully voiced, with Edwyn Tiong returning as Grimoire and Amber Lee Connors as Sally.

The clues finally have a third dimension

The most interesting change under the hood is how you handle evidence. Tangle Tower let you examine clues, but The Mermaid Mask introduces truly 3D clues you can pick up, rotate, and inspect from any angle. SFB Games has called this a major step up from the previous game, and it is easy to see why it matters for a detective story. When you can physically turn an object over in your hands, spotting the scratch on the underside or the initials carved into the base becomes an act of investigation rather than a scripted reveal. It puts a little more of the deduction back in the player’s hands.

That is the tricky needle a mystery game has to thread. Make the clues too obvious and there is no satisfaction. Bury them too deep and players get stuck and frustrated. Manipulable 3D evidence is a clever middle path, since the answer is right there in front of you, but only if you think to look at the object the right way.

A tidy, self-contained indie

At roughly four to six hours, The Mermaid Mask is not trying to eat your whole month, and that is a strength. It is a complete, focused mystery you can start and finish over a weekend, which makes it an easy palate cleanser between longer games. You do not need to have played Tangle Tower or any earlier Detective Grimoire game to follow it, so it is a fine entry point if this is your first time meeting the pair.

It is also a nice fit for the Switch specifically. A relaxed pace, a story you can chew on in short sessions, and the kind of gentle presentation that suits handheld play all point toward the platform where this genre tends to thrive. The game runs on both the original Switch and Switch 2, alongside PS5 and PC.

If you like your mysteries fair, charming, and hand-crafted, SFB Games has a strong track record, and The Mermaid Mask looks like another well-made puzzle box. Sometimes the best kind of game is one that respects your time, gives you a good knot to untangle, and lets you feel clever for pulling it loose.