Ghosts of Miami

I wanted to like this game, but I just.. don't. It has a lot of little issues that are just getting to me. A lot of the usual renpy features are missing? And the rest of the game just isn't amazing enough for me not to be annoyed. -no text speed switch. -no 'saves'. you can replay a chapter, but if you want to restart you're stuck starting from the start of a chapter, not from last choice. -no menu hide. This would be less of an issue but... -no [i]gallery[/i]. You miss out on seeing the full CGs a lot because of these two issues -so many loading screens. SO MANY. I hadn't noticed them so much until I was replaying it a lot but GOD there are so many and it slows things so much. -skip function is bad. It isn't the normal crtl, and it doesn't only skip read text, it skips all text. Also if you do things in the 'wrong' order, you can have NPCs treating you like a stranger when you have totally been introduced. It's a bit jarring when that happens. Also sometimes the timeline stuff just ...

Content Warning: [spoiler]drugs, drug dealers preying upon high schoolers, abductions, serial killings, mentions of torture, systemic racism, xenophobia, mentions of homophobia, corrupt cops[/spoiler] Don’t let the colorful, bubbly appearance of the game fool you, because the story covers a lot of dark topics. Clearly, this story takes place in the [i]American 1980s[/i] within the city of Miami, Florida. The protagonist is a Cuban-American, who becomes an investigator, mostly inspired by her father’s disappearance. Amidst solving cases, Chelo can also find romance. [u]Praises[/u] • Encourages utilizing critical thinking skills • Forces the player to consider ethics/morals regarding several circumstances • Portrays a variety of immigrants in a positive way; hopefully, to cause people to sympathize with them and see them as fellow human beings • 5 romance options: - Luci – protagonist’s childhood friend; Colombian-American woman; family is a ...

Ghosts of Miami is an '80s-themed visual novel detective story (with, I assume, some romantic elements I have not yet unlocked b/c I got the WORST good(?) ending FIRST) where failure is totally an option. There is real challenge to the game; it's not enough to just choose each of the different places to look for your missing person, because how you proceed with the case will affect the outcome. However, this won't stop you from being able to take a new case! Perhaps the only letdown is no good way to skip sections I've played before, or save in the middle instead of only "Resume/Restart" a case. I imagine this would make the game a LOT easier in terms of solving the mystery, but I feel like my spacebar deserves a break. If for no other reason, get Ghosts of Miami for the fantastic soundtrack (totally not a blatant plug for a close buddy of mine NOPE!) and amazing animated intro! A great choice for visual novel fans!

Ghosts of Miami is a game that's occasionally fun but ultimately frustrating. The problem is that there is no way to get to the end of the game without randomly guessing the exact choices that the developer intended. If you make the "wrong" choice, you only find out several scenes (or several episodes!) later that you cannot progress in the game. This is infuriating, because many of the significant choices are either completely arbitrary (so you are replaying the same scenes for no reason whatsoever) or they force you to get into creepy relationships with people. This is horrible, horrible design and completely ruined my enjoyment of what otherwise might have been a reasonable private investigator VN. Game-breaking mechanics aside, the graphics are very nice and the writing is okay. Don't go in expecting lighthearted fare, it is a very dark and earnest game and there is no comedy. Unfortunately, I'll never find out how it ends because I'm not going to waste my time trying to "romance"...

With a title like “Ghosts of Miami” I expected something very grim dark with really boring choice of colors you’d see in a grim dark edgey triple A game complete with really cliche plot twists. Instead, I get a nice vibrant color palette with a very diverse and interesting casts. After I was done with the game the first time I was left wanting more of Chelo’s adventures. Craving for more cases to crack. The soundtrack is pretty decent too, a shame it’s not available for sale. For an investigation game, it’s unusual to get love interests to pursue at the same time while you are on the case. The choices are definitely interesting, 2 guys, 2 girls, 1 non-binary. They certainly are pretty balanced in terms of choices. What’s odd is that some of these character branch will be locked until you’ve beaten the game once. It’s something you’d see in some visual novels, not quite what I’d expect in a game like this. It’s not bad, just a bit surprising. So if you have you...

I really really wanted to like this game but I have so many problems with it. 1) The Mechanics: -no save function (if you mess up a case you have to restart entirely) -virtually no skip read text function (so if you replay you are just stuck frantically clicking) From what I can tell, you have to get the exact perfect combination of choices. I have replayed the first case three times and still couldn't solve it. I was starting to feel dense until I saw that someone else had chosen the same final options and succeeded. So clearly I understood the case but messed up the information gathering to the point of being unable to progress. 2) The Writing -Repetitive clue gathering. Maybe this is just the first case but I got the same clue multiple different ways from multiple different people, some without me even having to choose a dialogue option. It was strange to feel like the clues were being handed to me but still being completely unable to solve the case, as it seemed pretty obvio...

Omg this game is good <3. I loved the Rose of Winter with all my heart, and when I saw this game (only month ago actually), I was really surprised and sad that it has only 12 reviews. Ofc I bought it as soon as I could (because I wanted to support developers and also to try this game 'cus I loved the trailer), and it definetely was amazing! I love the characters and their diversity, plot is really interesting and Janet is my bae <3 When I saw the third case, especially after the second one (no spoilers), I was really invested into solving it lol. Also I love main characters of both games nearly as much as romance interests, it's rare for me to like the MC and relate to them, but this girls are likable af! Thank you, Pillow Fight, because your visual novels are always gonna be the ones that I refer to when I talk about good examples in the genre <3

Wonderful game with a diverse and interesting cast of characters. Great stories, well done detective cases, and solid dialogue coupled with a cool 80s vibe. Fantastic work!

4 areas in, and 4 great backing tracks. Really sets the mood and puts me into the setting. Love it.

Oh Ghosts of Miami... This game is complicated for me. All and all, I DO recommend it for several reasons. I mean the art is gorgeous, characters are diverse and extremely likable, the mysteries do a great job of incorporating the sociopolitical environment of the time, and the game centers marginalized communities at its core. I LOVE all of that! Chelo is an amazing protagonist and, too, the mysteries are really interesting. So, for the most part, it's an E A S Y recommend. Now, where I struggle are with two things in particular; mystery logic and the ending. As much as I liked the social events that the mysteries brought up and the camaraderie between Chelo and her peers, I didn't like some of the game design decisions. For instance, some cases have it where you, the player, have access to several spaces to gain clues, but you don't actually have enough time to see each one, so you have to opt to skip places. Why did I hate this? Because if you chose the "wrong" places to look into...