Some review weeks arrive like a parade. Big names, big embargoes, the usual noise. This one has a quieter shape. The most interesting new release I found was The Mermaid Mask, a point-and-click detective game from SFB Games that launched on July 16, 2026 for PC, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo Switch 2.
OpenCritic currently lists The Mermaid Mask at an 87 top critic average, with three critic reviews counted and a 96th percentile placement among scored games on the site. The range is tight rather than chaotic: Shacknews gave it 9/10, Gamer Social Club gave it 9/10, and Loot Level Chill gave it 8/10. That is a small sample, so nobody should treat it like a settled canon score. Still, three early critics landed in the same neighborhood for roughly the same reasons. They like the cast. They like the locked-room setup. They like how the game turns old-fashioned clue gathering into something warmer and stranger.
The result is one of those releases that does not need a giant campaign to make sense. It needs the right kind of player to hear about it before the week buries it.
The Mermaid Mask review scores so far
The Mermaid Mask is developed and published by SFB Games, the studio behind Crow Country and earlier Detective Grimoire games. OpenCritic lists it as a July 16 release across PC, PS5, Switch, and Switch 2. The setup is wonderfully direct: Detective Grimoire and Sally board the Mortuga Submarine after its captain, Magnus Mortuga, is found dead in a locked room.
The early score spread is narrow:
- Shacknews: 9/10, reviewed by TJ Denzer
- Gamer Social Club: 9/10, reviewed by Vikki McGowan
- Loot Level Chill: 8/10, reviewed by Kieran Singh
The OpenCritic average, 87, is the kind of number that can overstate certainty when there are only three reviews. What matters more is the shape of the agreement. These outlets are not all praising the same surface detail. They are circling the same core: The Mermaid Mask seems to work because its mystery, characters, art, voice work, and puzzle structure all support each other.
Shacknews calls it "a mystery full of quirk and intrigue" and says it keeps the player moving through "a riveting story of wayward souls and their mysterious benefactor." Gamer Social Club calls it "polished, clever, and thoroughly charming," while Loot Level Chill says it is "one seriously compelling whodunnit packed with charm, wit and driven by a memorable cast of characters."
Those quotes tell you where the game is landing. This does not sound like a puzzle box that only wants to prove how clever it is. It sounds like a mystery built around people first, clues second, and deduction as the thing that brings those people into focus.
Why critics keep coming back to the cast
The strongest thread in the reviews is not the murder itself. It is the submarine full of odd, wounded, funny people orbiting the murder.
Shacknews spends a lot of time on the Mortuga Submarine as a home for wayward characters: Dr. Zephyr, Sinthia, J.D. Wirman, Dirk, Madam Tadpole, Mariana Moon, Symmetry, Mr. Gripp, and the rest of the ship's strange little society. Denzer's review praises the fully voiced dialogue, the individual character themes, and the way each suspect reacts to both clues and other people. That matters in a detective game. If suspects feel like vending machines for information, the mystery dries out fast. If they feel like people with habits, histories, and blind spots, every conversation has weight.
Gamer Social Club lands in the same place from a slightly different angle. McGowan frames the game through the pleasure of classic detective fiction: the right amount of misdirection, enough clue work to feel fair, and a denouement that does not feel pulled from nowhere. Her review says the suspect designs are superb and that the long conversations rarely become tedious because each character is fully voiced. The Mortuga Submarine, in her reading, becomes a character too: cramped, distinct, and useful as a way to keep the investigation focused.
Loot Level Chill is even more direct about the emotional hook. Singh says his initial impressions were a little cold, but that changed once he reached the submarine and was pulled into the cast. He points to the game's "genuinely excellent" supporting characters and says the vessel feels like a refuge for the weird and wonderful. That phrase gets at the thing these reviews seem to value most. The Mermaid Mask is not just asking who killed Magnus Mortuga. It is asking why all these people ended up around him in the first place.
For anyone coming from Tangle Tower, that probably sounds familiar. For newcomers, it may be the better sales pitch than any score. You are not being asked to memorize lore before you can care. You are being asked to step into a locked room mystery where everyone has a reason to talk, lie, deflect, or perform.
The puzzles sound friendly, not frictionless
The second shared note is puzzle design. Critics are broadly positive, but this is also where the caveats start to show.
Shacknews praises the amount of puzzle work and the pleasure of connecting clues to suspects, but Denzer also notes that the game can be wordy and that some puzzle answers are similar enough to create confusion. That sounds like the familiar adventure-game edge: the fun is in the mental click, but the path to that click can sometimes feel mushy if several answers look plausible.
Gamer Social Club is kinder on the puzzle flow. McGowan says most puzzles can be solved on first pass if you study what is in front of you, and that Grimoire or Sally offer subtle hints after incorrect guesses. That is good design for this kind of game. A detective story loses tension when it either shoves the answer in your face or strands you in a room with no idea what the designer wants. The review suggests The Mermaid Mask mostly avoids both traps.
Loot Level Chill has the most useful criticism here. Singh calls the puzzle set a "mixed bag" for him, especially when symbols, number logic, or 3D item manipulation took over. He mentions one puzzle where the instructions and hint system felt insufficient, and says a few puzzles stalled his progress long enough to take momentum out of the story. The important detail is that he still gave the game 8/10. The friction did not ruin the experience, but it did affect the pacing.
That is worth knowing before you buy. If you love point-and-click mysteries because they give you space to think, The Mermaid Mask sounds tuned for you. If you mainly want the story and bounce hard off puzzle stalls, there may be a few moments where patience matters.
Where the criticism actually lands
None of the early reviews treat The Mermaid Mask as flawless. They just do not see the flaws as fatal.
The biggest complaint is density. Shacknews says there is a lot of dialogue and important information to track, even with notes. That is not automatically a problem in a detective story, but it does define the appetite required. This is a game about listening, sorting, and remembering. If you play mysteries half-distracted, you may miss the texture that critics are praising.
The second complaint is puzzle clarity. Loot Level Chill's stalled progress is the strongest warning sign, especially because mystery pacing is fragile. A difficult puzzle can feel satisfying when it breaks open. A vague one can make the story feel like it has stopped breathing. Singh suggests the issue is limited mostly to the first half, with the second half flowing better, but the caveat is still there.
The third complaint is more personal: the ending. Loot Level Chill says the mystery ties itself up neatly, but leaves one late event underexplained and includes a reference that may land better for players who already know Tangle Tower. That does not sound like a dealbreaker. It does sound like the kind of series continuity that can briefly make a newcomer feel they walked into a room one conversation late.
Put together, the criticism is useful because it is specific. This is not a case where critics are split over whether the game works. They mostly think it works. The question is whether its wordiness, occasional puzzle friction, and series callbacks are texture or drag for you.
Why this small score sample matters
Three reviews is not enough to declare The Mermaid Mask a consensus hit. It is enough to say the early signal is unusually strong.
That matters because games like this can disappear in release calendars. A detective adventure without a huge license has to travel by recommendation. It needs someone to say: this is worth your evening, and maybe your weekend. The early critics are saying that. They are also giving a clear picture of who should listen.
If you liked Tangle Tower, this is probably already on your radar. If you came to SFB Games through Crow Country, The Mermaid Mask is a reminder that the studio's range goes beyond retro survival horror. If you are just looking for a mystery game that treats characters as more than clue containers, this may be the sleeper to watch.
There is a nice fit here with how we think about games at Perthro, too. A score can help you notice something, but it rarely explains why it stays with you. The better record is the one you write after the credits, when you still remember the suspect who made you laugh, the puzzle that annoyed you, or the room where the whole thing finally clicked. Perthro is built for that kind of personal game journal: tracking what you played, rating it, writing what it meant, and keeping your own list for later.
For now, The Mermaid Mask looks like a small, confident mystery with better reviews than its noise level suggests. Those are the games I like catching before they become "wait, why did nobody tell me about this?" games. Consider this the note in the margin.