The GWJ Adventure Game Club - Game 34: The Sexy Brutale

The Sexy Brutale (2017)

IMAGE(https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/552590/header.jpg)

An adventure puzzle video game developed by Cavalier Game Studios and Tequila Works, The Sexy Brutale sets you loose in a spooky mansion where its inhabitants are being killed off one by one. Perk: you're stuck in a time loop! It's up to you, preacher Lafcadio Boone, to figure out just what is happening during this yearly party called the Sexy Brutale, and save folks from their gruesome deaths.

You can find the game's official website here, usual spoiler warning apply. How Long to Beat estimates about 8 hours to completion. Available platforms are PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Microsoft Windows, Xbox One.

The main thread is over that way. We'll be playing The Sexy Brutale in August 2021, with an extra month for stragglers like me.

I've had this installed and untouched since, um, December 2017. Thank you Eleima (and everyone who voted) for giving me the kick in the pants I need to finally fire this up.

This is an awesome game! I'm curious to hear what people think. If work eases off a bit in August, maybe I'll replay it.

I played this within the last couple years. Curious to see what people think of it.

I'm in!

I also played it a few years ago. I thought the art direction was fantastic, and it is a visual treat, but it is one of those games I could not get through without a guide. As a matter of fact, as I was reading the guide I could not believe somebody would be able to figure everything out without a guide. How can players come up with what to do? I know I'm not the best at thinking outside the box, but this game is something else when it comes to that, I think. Still, a very interesting game.

Tentatively tagging in.

I always seem to miss these threads until the month is already over. Wanted to play this game but honestly forgot it existed.

Mario_Alba wrote:

I also played it a few years ago. I thought the art direction was fantastic, and it is a visual treat, but it is one of those games I could not get through without a guide. As a matter of fact, as I was reading the guide I could not believe somebody would be able to figure everything out without a guide. How can players come up with what to do? I know I'm not the best at thinking outside the box, but this game is something else when it comes to that, I think. Still, a very interesting game.

I have absolutely zero shame in pulling up a guide these days. Thirty years ago, I had time to figure things out, try everything, brainstorm with my sister and puzzle it all out. These days, it’s a very different story, so… well, I’d rather enjoy the game and check a guide out if I get stuck instead of missing out.

Eleima wrote:
Mario_Alba wrote:

I also played it a few years ago. I thought the art direction was fantastic, and it is a visual treat, but it is one of those games I could not get through without a guide. As a matter of fact, as I was reading the guide I could not believe somebody would be able to figure everything out without a guide. How can players come up with what to do? I know I'm not the best at thinking outside the box, but this game is something else when it comes to that, I think. Still, a very interesting game.

I have absolutely zero shame in pulling up a guide these days. Thirty years ago, I had time to figure things out, try everything, brainstorm with my sister and puzzle it all out. These days, it’s a very different story, so… well, I’d rather enjoy the game and check a guide out if I get stuck instead of missing out.

Same here; I will try to wrap my head around stuff for a few minutes, but if it seems like I am making zero progress (no moving part click, no perceivable consequences manifest), I might check a guide to get on my way.

I'm definitely on the same boat. I enjoy the challenge, but if I feel like I have no chance, I'll look at a guide.

I don't remember if I looked at a guide for this particular game, but it's likely. That said, and trying to avoid spoilers, my recollection this is a game about observation. It's more about being a vigilant detective than about solving lots of puzzles.

I'm glad I'm not the only one having to resort to guides, haha.

I'm throwing down the gauntlet. I will be playing this a) blind beyond the one paragraph description and b) without a guide. This means I will be playing badly and much fun will be had. Everyone will die!

Edit: First impressions. 45 seconds in and I'm wondering if I got the Soundtrack with this game...

I'm excited for the pick this month. I loved the game when I played it years ago, and I've reinstalled it (although I may not get the chance to play it). I don't recall getting too stuck. The game did a good job of slowing opening up the mansion as missions get more complicated.

It is 11:20 and I had to force myself to stop playing. I've just unlocked the basement and what appears to be the final mask power.
So far there have been two points where I almost gave up my challenge and consulted a guide.
The first was after unlocking a new power and having no idea how to actually trigger it.

Spoiler:

Turns out the ability to light the voodoo candles comes a bit later even though the mask yells at you even if there's nothing you can actually do yet. Ignore the mask prompts and press forward.

The second was after unlocking a new power and having no idea where to actually trigger it.

Spoiler:

I was mistakenly expecting a prompt similar to other usable items for lockpicking. Instead the prompt appears in the top left 'mask' section and I had missed it when interacting with the place where I could use it.

I commend you for your resolve and your smarts, Rezzy!

Mario_Alba wrote:

I commend you for your resolve and your smarts, Rezzy!

Stubborn persistence more like it, but thanks.
I do feel like I'm playing the game a bit wrong. Entering a new area I usually have to spend a couple of cycles exploring before I ever run into any characters. Then a bunch more cycles to figure out where the levers I can wiggle might be. Then a few cycles getting the timing right and in the process overhearing clues to the real solution and punching myself in the head while I figure out how to do THAT instead.

I'm going in all but totally blind so I don't quite know what to make of any of that stuff about powers and cycles and levers, but I'm excited to finally get around to this backlog bugbear!

Got to spend a little more time with this last night.
IMAGE(https://c.tenor.com/aftydFW3FzgAAAAM/hell-have-to-take-a-dark-detour-through-the-twilight-zone-the-narrator.gif)

I've been having a blast with this game. So delightfully macabre! Something about the gameplay is also tickling my brain in a way that's reminiscent of something else I've played in the past, but I can't seem to pin it down.

I've just hit my first wall, working on the second to last of the "guests to save" portraits. This is the first time I've really felt like I have no clear idea how to proceed, though I think I'll keep poking at it a bit before consulting a guide. I did run into one of the "how the heck do I trigger this power??" questions that you mentioned above, Rezzy, but I muddled on through and thankfully it became clear in due course.

Can't wait to see where this goes!

Oh wow, looks like it's mostly positive feedback from all of you, I'm so glad!!! Can't wait to dig my teeth into it myself!

I'm also really enjoying my time with it. I've solved the first four portraits so far, despite getting myself a rather stuck in the third one (twice). I never actually played Maniac Mansion or Day of the Tentacle, but from what I remember reading about those games, this seems like an homage/love letter to those classics.

Finished this up the other night, and that twilight zone reference is apt. I managed to stay guide-free through to the end, but afterward only one invitation was eluding me so I did grab a hint for that.

I was sort of hoping for a final big headscratcher of a puzzle, maybe an optional one to unlock an alternate ending - I'd even convinced myself that I'd found some clues for it - but no such puzzle materialized. That said, I thoroughly enjoyed sleuthing my way through the Sexy Brutale.

Ooh, I need to get back to this before I lose steam in the end-game.
Haven't taken the time to game and spent the week trying to pay off some sleep debt that had accrued. The interest you pay on that stuff is brutal!

I commend you for your achievement, benign1. And Rezzy, don't let us down!

The credits have rolled. The truth has been revealed. The Brutale has been sexied.

Now to decide if the nuggets of lore revealed by hunting down all the secrets will hold my attention long enough to 100% this game.

Congratulations! I am in awe of your smarticles!

Finished this afternoon. Ended up using a guide for some of it. I just have too many games to get through to spend as much time as I would want solving puzzles. Overall I liked it but I wish the map had more secret passage stuff going on so there was more to the spying then just looking through keyholes. I also would have like one or two more harder puzzles (I say having used I guide for the last two).

After spending several hours tromping through the mansion trying many many many different things to find the last card I had to give up and consult a guide (but I'm glad I did! The scene after collecting all the cards and getting them to the right place is worth it).

Spoiler:

Interact with the dumb-waiter twice! There's the mission item AND a card in there. I touched literally everything else multiple times hunting that damn thing. I stalked the guests like some kind of cursed ghost. I then stalked the ghosts like some kind of cursed ghost-ghost. Even with the guide I had to use a systematic process of elimination to track down what I'm missing. Since it had happened in other places I stupidly assumed that accessing the dumbwaiter for the mission had also given me the card.

100% completion, but only a partial success since I broke my pledge not to use a guide. I'm sorry!

Rezzy wrote:

After spending several hours tromping through the mansion trying many many many different things to find the last card I had to give up and consult a guide (but I'm glad I did! The scene after collecting all the cards and getting them to the right place is worth it).

Spoiler:

Interact with the dumb-waiter twice! There's the mission item AND a card in there. I touched literally everything else multiple times hunting that damn thing. I stalked the guests like some kind of cursed ghost. I then stalked the ghosts like some kind of cursed ghost-ghost. Even with the guide I had to use a systematic process of elimination to track down what I'm missing. Since it had happened in other places I stupidly assumed that accessing the dumbwaiter for the mission had also given me the card.

I was shocked to find that I didn't have to backtrack for any of the cards - I must have found that one by sheer dumb luck.

Pink Stripes wrote:

This is an awesome game! I'm curious to hear what people think. If work eases off a bit in August, maybe I'll replay it.

steinkrug wrote:

I played this within the last couple years. Curious to see what people think of it.

Same. I just finally played it myself in 2020 and probably posted in the main thread. But I want to read here and see if others are enjoying it.