I expected that this game would be a good Ace Attorney-like and it certainly is that in spades. There's plenty of detecting and lawyer-ing to satiate any AA fan.

However, the writers went above and beyond just a simple pastiche. Contained within this cartoony point-and-click adventure game is what I perceive to be some very well researched historical fiction based on Qing Dynasty China. The story touches on some deep themes here - in particular, the trauma imparted on the Chinese by things like the Opium Wars, the Unequal Treaties created by the Western powers, and in general many of the events that make up what Chinese historiography refers to as The Century of Humiliation. Here in the anglosphere, it's easy to see China as The Villain due to the way it's portrayed in the news media (and I'm not saying always unjustifiably so). But it's good to see the other side - how the Chinese view themselves in relation to the West.

The English localization is a little stilted, but it's not bad- it was good enough to get the point across. Highly recommended to fans of the Ace Attorney series, detective fiction, historical fiction, or those who want to see a Chinese perspective on the relationship between China and Western nations.

Absolutely beautiful. Although rather simplistic in the gameplay, the story and mediums of investigation offered are super engrossing and fun. Each individual case is a delight in itself and the underlying story that binds it all together emerges slowly and surely like a polaroid photo developing right before your eyes.
It's a shame that chapter 7 is as of yet untranslated and therefore unplayable.

Murders on the Yangtze River isn't what I would call an easy recommend.

The biggest problem is that, as a mystery game, it takes a lot of inspiration from series like Ace Attorney, something that the game does not shy away from acknowledging. And it will probably appeal most to people already familiar with these types of games. However, if you've already played Ace Attorney, this does not compare particularly favourably. So if anything, I think it's best experienced before you play the titans of the mystery genre.

The main reason for that, I would say, is a lack of ambition in the earlier chapters. I won't fault the first chapter for that, since it's setting up the characters and the world - which is historical China at the turn of the twentieth century, somewhere right before the First World War, if I'm not mistaken? But chapter two, three, and four, all feel like they were not ambitious enough in the mystery, having mysteries simple enough that I didn't really engage with the story all that much.

Which is especially sad in chapter three, as it has one of the coolest settings for a murder I've ever seen - an ironworks, where the victim body falls into active machinery and disintegrates. It's such a cool setup, and the mystery behind it just doesn't do it justice.

Chapter five is a bit weird, it both begins and ends before I expected it to. And really, it doesn't feel like a full chapter, merely a prelude to chapter six.

Then we get on to chapter six, which I will say, is a pretty good chapter. Not one of the all time greats, but a completely satisfactory mystery to end on. The mystery actually has some quite cool parts to it that I didn't expect, and while it's predictable that the game ends with the takedown of a powerful person, it's not unsatisfying.

Before I played through chapter six, I would probably have recommended against buying this game, but the final chapter has redeemed it enough to where I can say: If you're really into mystery games, this one is worth a go. But only if you can stomach sitting through a couple of 'meh' chapters. I will say that this chapter probably includes one of the most pointless characters & character 'plot twists' I've ever seen in a game, you'll know it when you get to it. It didn't really diminish my enjoyment of the chapter at all, but it was jarring just how little that reveal actually mattered.

Which is a nice segue into the next topic: The characters. And what I have to say here, is that they're all serviceable. None of them are aggravating, which is something that does tend to happen in the more mainstream mystery series, like Ace Attorney or Danganronpa. But conversely, none of them are standouts either. The simultaneous best and worst thing about them is that they are all plausibly realistic characters. That serves to make them believable, but it also serves to make them not very memorable.

The characters are part of the story, which is serviceable, if nothing special. It's fairly predictable, but it's enjoyable enough. I will say that the game wraps it up nicely enough in chapter six, even tying in some elements that I didn't really expect to see again from earlier. But I wouldn't call it a particularly amazing story. Competent and adequate are how I'd describe it.

Next up, the audio. I would say the tracks in this game range from decent to great. There's one track, the one that plays when you're really uncovering the mystery, that kinda slaps, and is a definite standout among the rest. And since that's probably the most important track to get right, that's a very good thing indeed. I've played enough games, even great ones, where I can't remember a single track as soon as I put the game down, so it's not an easy thing to create a track that actually sticks in my mind.

There is another side to the audio, and that's the voice acting. Now, I can't comment on the accuracy of the Chinese voice acting, but as to its quality, I will say that it all sounds pretty good. There's nothing about the Chinese voice acting that makes me feel aggravated or annoyed. The voices all felt like they fit their respective characters in terms of cadence and intensity. Though I have to wonder whether it's just a quirk of the Chinese language and/or culture that all of the characters sound very calming. It's not a bad thing, just an interesting observation.

I can't say the same for the English voice acting. Any time English dialogue appeared, I read the lines as fast as possible and skipped over the spoken words. It was seriously grating to me. I can't fully explain it either, it's far from the worst quality voice acting I've heard, but I just could not deal with it. It's not enough to recommend against the game, but it is something I'd advise you to be aware of before buying.

That brings me to the next topic: The translation. I would say that, even if you remove all Chinese aspects of the story, setting, and characters, you'd still easily be able to tell that this game is not made by native English speakers. There's quite a few occurrences where you can tell exactly what is being meant, but it's also not in correct English. Personally, this never bothered me in normal dialogue, but there were quite a few times when the game prompts you with a question, or asks you to provide evidence, and it's just not entirely clear what it wants specifically. Like, you know what the game wants you to prove, but not exactly what evidence they want you to show to do so. That definitely aggravated me a couple of times. But I do have quite a bit of tolerance for it, considering that the devs are, as far as I can tell, a small and independent studio.

Overall, the translation was good enough, except for one noticeably silly thing: Actually changing the game to English. You'll have to look that up, and it's actually very easy, but the game launches in Chinese, no matter your Steam language settings (and funnily enough, it seems like the saves are always in the Chinese time zone, rather than your local. Doesn't really matter, but it was weird to see.), and there's no pop-up at the start asking you what language you'd like to choose. This isn't something unique to this game, plenty of English games do this with non-English languages, so I'm by no means blaming the devs for this. I imagine the majority of players are going to be Chinese, but seeing as I'm not, I have to mention it.

Some further things to remark upon:

There's an in game glossary for certain historical Chinese events, terms, etcetera, which is very much appreciated. I'd honestly call it the best feature the game has, and I'm not kidding. It did a lot to make me more immersed in the world, which is based in that historical fact (with artistic liberties taken, of course). I was acquainted with a lot of the larger picture stuff, like the Opium Wars, the Unequal Treaties, etc... already, but not the smaller stuff. I would definitely say that you need no prior knowledge of China beyond "European imperialism was not good for the sovereignty of China" to enjoy the game.

The artstyle is charming in its sprite and CGs, though I never quite got to like the actual walking around art. It didn't really matter to me, that's not why I play these types of games, but it's worth a mention.

And finally, I played this game on Steam Deck, where it functioned perfectly well, though sometimes, things were a bit difficult to spot, and there were just one or two minigames which I felt did not work well with the controls of the Steam Deck, but you can luckily skip these.

All in all, I'd give Murders on the Yangtze River a recommend if you've already played most other mystery games, and are still hungry for more, as I was. But it's not perfect. I'd give it like a 5,9/10 in the mystery department (which is still very decent! Don't underestimate that score), but an 8/10 in terms of setting and feeling solid.