An actress, Serena Elsie, lies dead in her dressing room – stabbed through the heart with a hieroglyph-marked blade. On the other side of the mirror, her reflection, Iris, lives still. Iris is expected to start a new life, free from her “prototype,” no longer needing to be summoned every time Serena looks in the mirror. But Iris can’t just let go of the woman whose life she reflected so easily. Who killed Serena? Why was she killed? Can Iris find out the truth when she’s limited to investigating on only one side of the mirror? And should she – or should she put her prototype to rest and focus on building herself a new life in the mirrored world?
Still Joking is a mystery adventure visual novel game developed and published by Purple Brick Interactive. The first thing I want to say about the game is this: it is HUGE. There are tons of choices, many branching paths – and I don’t just mean “you pick different dialogue options in conversation and whoever you are speaking to responds a bit differently.” Each time you play through Still Joking, there is a massive amount of variance that can occur, to the point where it sometimes feels like you’re playing a totally different game.
Even with all of the time I spent playing Still Joking, I don’t think I’ve yet experienced every branch and twist it has to offer – and that’s awesome, because it means there is so much more to explore. You can become a heroic, positive influence on the people of the mirrored world, or a chaotic agent of destruction who wants nothing more than violence. You can befriend people, ignore people, support one (or none) of the factions governing Crystal City. It’s up to you! As a mystery fan, I tend to typically gravitate towards attempting to learn more about Serena’s murder and solve the case, which I definitely recommend as a great place to start because it is an extremely well-plotted mystery.
Iris is far from a silent protagonist – she’s sassy and opinionated, always willing to push people for answers and is not about to just sit down and accept the realities of her new life without questioning things. She’s frustrated with what she feels is unearned fame – a lot of reflections in the mirror world recognize her, but it’s because Serena is a famous actress, not because of anything Iris did herself. But Serena has picked up acting skills from Iris that she can put to good use, and also understands that her notoriety can sometimes be used to her advantage, something she’s not afraid to do. It’s a really cool examination of fame and its effects from a perspective that you don’t often see used.
The relationship between Iris and Serena is really interesting too – as Serena’s reflection, there’s some resentment there because Serena got to live a relatively normal life and Iris didn’t, but she also cared very deeply for the woman she reflected, and is uncomfortable with letting her murder go unsolved. It contrasts really well with all of the varied reflection/prototype relationships appearing throughout the game, which is really nice. There are people who are happy their prototypes are dead, people who are barely coping with the loss, people who didn’t really know their prototypes at all, and more. It’s a good variety that makes every character you meet feel unique.
Gameplay-wise, Still Joking is very simple and straightforward, with no extraneous mechanics to clutter things up. I found this very refreshing – I prefer simplicity in my visual novels, to give the story and the characters the focus they deserve. The investigation mechanics are well-done, with points of interest always highlighted on the screen so that it never turns into a frustrating pixel hunt. I especially liked the diary Iris starts keeping, which is a handy way of organizing the information you’ve gathered, the profiles of people you’ve met, and other important facts. There are a few QTEs, which didn’t feel super necessary or add too much to the game, but weren’t super disruptive or annoying either. And, of course, major points to Still Joking for implementing the number one element a good mystery visual novel needs: the ability to access your full dialogue history and every choice you have made so far with the single press of a button.
The art is clean and colorful, with distinctive and memorable character designs. Iris herself (well, technically Iris and Serena) is my favorite because her vivid red and black color scheme stands out very nicely in crowd shots. There were a couple of moments, such as the “welcome conference” Iris attends early in the story, where I felt that things lagged a bit because conversations would pause for a lot of small animations to happen at once (like people whispering to each other, applauding, etc.) which would lead to these gaps in the dialogue that felt too long, but this is an overall very small complaint.
My only other complaint is a mechanical one: the text size is fairly small, even with the “Big” option selected, and the text box is extremely close to the bottom of the screen, which can make it a bit hard to see at points. While I did get used to it as I continued playing through the game, it did frustrate me at times. Text and dialogue is so important in visual novels, so I think giving a bit more focus and priority to the text box could be a good improvement.
However, overall, Still Joking has everything I love in a story-rich visual novel adventure: compelling characters, straightforward mechanics, multiple paths to take, and a tricky, twist-filled mystery to solve. This is a genre that I always love to see expanding, and I’m so excited that Still Joking will be added to the ranks. I could easily see it becoming a classic among mystery fans – I’m definitely recommending all my fellow gamer sleuths check it out!
Kate played Still Joking on PC using a provided review code.
