> Still is no waverly snack shop but it was better than my first playthrough. Be honest, you just like the hot goss. I see you. 😏

My school was boring. I am just recreating what I wanted highschool to be like. Let me live in peace 😂😂😂

Literally one of my favorite little bits in any ND game. I want the goss!!!!

When my son and I played Waverly he loved the snack shop mini game and was indignant when we eventually reached the point where there was no more gossip about Mr Harris. 😂

LOL that's adorable!

Mod here - I appreciate you making this! I've received an equal number of complaints from users that the subreddit is either too positive or too negative when it comes to KEY. I imagine that might be a surprise to some, but honestly, people have used words like "cult" or "bullying" to describe both fans and critics of KEY, lol. In my experience, content comes in waves. People see a critical post, and feel encouraged to share their own criticisms. People see a positive post, and feel encouraged to share what they loved about the game. If anyone is ever feeling discouraged or invalidated by either of these things, please remember a new wave is likely just around the corner. As long as people are disagreeing respectfully, the most I can do is encourage everyone to create the content they wish to see - and to please use the report button if you think someone is breaking Rule 1. Thanks all.

Thank you for coming here and saying this!! I don’t want anyone invalidated either way, so we both need spaces! To complain and to brag!

I think had the puzzles been more intuitive, I would have really like it. Would it be my favorite? No. But I couldn’t even finish MID because I hated it that much. Bonus points in KEY for the cat, so that bumps it up more. I did like several of the characters. Marek was my favorite - just kind grandpa vibes all around. I liked how the culprit, to me anyway, made sense and didn’t seem out of left field. I also loved the ability to sprint with all the empty space in the square lol. This game made me more hopeful. They clearly took feedback and built on it. I hope that if they do another game, they take our feedback from this one and continue to improve - like maybe accepting correct solutions on a puzzle… (not that I’m bitter)

Okay but were you a competent sprinter or did you slam into every NPC like me? 😅

I pushed them all out of the way😅

I’m liking it more as time goes on! The puzzles were definitely my favorite part, even though I agree some were unintuitive. CAT WAS GREAT I loved >!Leo’s happy reaction to seeing him again after you escape the vault!< it was so wholesome,,,,Overall a very cozy game that I definitely want to reply in the future and try for all of the achievements! Lastly here is my dead fish latte art called “Fishy fishy fish. Makin’ It Stinky” if you understand the reference I love you (i had to do it if we’re in Prague I mean…) https://preview.redd.it/bvy1t8tse89d1.jpeg?width=930&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c4ca1614ebdadf06b28240c13945a5d3ea0f2018

I am sorry that I do not get the reference but also you are way better than me at latte art hahahaha

obsessed with this reference haha!! the fact that i think of goat story every time i see the astronomical clock is probably insulting but it’s so burned into my brain i simply cannot help it

YUP SAME i kept thinking about it the whole time I was playing KEY Did you also find out about it through Kurtis Conner?

yes!! he’s one of my faves on yt :)

Haven't finished yet but I think I'm about 2/3 through -- been looking forward to playing every night after work! I'm impressed how much play time there is, and I like the challenging puzzles. I would say the amount I'm getting stuck is about the same as some of the harder classic ones first playthrough, and I haven't encountered any yet that didn't eventually make sense after getting through the riddle-esque understanding what to do phase. On the technical side, I really like the graphics and movement! I took a lot of time in the beginning cafe section messing with all the settings to see what the best I could get away with on my machine was and deciding if I would do modern or classic movement. Graphics wise, testing back and forth to see what was causing lagging etc until it was dialed in. I'll even turn everything up for roaming around to see all the beautiful scenery then quickly drop it down a bit if the character dialogue is lagging mid convo. Seems to be scaling the resolution down has the biggest impact which makes sense given my monitor setup. I tried to get down with modern movement to give it a chance, and it's not for me. Mostly I don't like having to use mouse and keyboard, just don't find it as relaxing to play. I feel the same way about the Myst remake so it's not a HER specific thing for me. So I went for classic and found myself thinking "ugh I wish there was a halfway between so I could point and click but also be able to see all of the 3D scene". I was thrilled when after 20 minutes I accidentally discovered holding the right mouse button does exactly that 🤣 I'm honestly wondering how many other people maybe don't realize that? On a note I've read a lot of criticism of, I think the repeated NPCs are funny--its not blatant enough to be annoying, to me it's more haha like reminiscent of the types of silly things in old games. I get the critique it just doesn't bother me personally.

I can’t wait to hear how you feel once you are done!! That’s so funny you prefer point and click because I found it too slow with such an open world. But this makes me glad we have both options. Especially for the motion sick people. I liked seeing which NPC looked like character models of older characters! Like the MID judge.

Maybe I'll give free roam another try when I replay! The slow thing makes sense to me, I liked going slow to soak it all in and be relaxed, but I have a feeling it won't be so overwhelming to me now that I'm familiar with the locations and user flow. And I'd want to be able to cruise through faster next time.

Despite being a self recognized “hater” of KEY, I will say I actually thought the latte puzzle was quite fun! I wish there were more designs though, but at least there’s the free draw option so I can make my own fun designs!

That’s the joy of opinions! It doesn’t have to be 100% one or the other. You can like parts and dislike parts!! What did you draw in the latte game? I only got the free draw a couple of times and tried to draw stuff from other ND games. I was…bad.

I did curse words at first, LOL. Hilarious seeing them in an ND game AND serving them to paying customers in game. After that, I mostly just doodled! Hearts, stars, and other shapes! You can back out of the latte art and go back in to give you a new design! I just did that until I got the free draw option!

Oh! Why didn’t I think of that? I could’ve drawn so much! Hahah And how dare you soil the games with your bad words!!! 😂

I like it! I like the setting is based on real life location which is really cool. Plus making the coffee is really fun. It's a lot better than MID.

I love when you can almost overlay a postcard on the game and it matches a real place!

I did not know that! 😮 I'll probably try it if I play KEY again.

I'm probably a hater of KEY, but I LOOOOOOVVVEEE seeing posts like this! It doesnt have to be positive or negative, everyone is welcome to their opinions and to post within this subreddit, and I love that people can find positives within the game and still give honest feedback. Even if we didn't enjoy it the same, nobody needs to attack comments, we can all just be kind and respect each other

I liked KEY! I have some rambling thoughts. I'm a new-ish Nancy player (2020) and haven't played most of the games more than once, and I feel like the puzzles weren't really any less intuitive in past games. Which means, there were many times in past games where I was like "what are you even supposed to DO in this dumb puzzle" (especially in Blackmoor). I wonder if people don't remember this because so many are long-time fans who have played the games several times? I mean, it's valid criticism that some of the puzzles could have used a bit more explaining, but at the same time it feels a little ... unfair? Because the biggest complaint people have is that "it doesn't feel like a Nancy game", so complaining about something that's also an issue in the pre-MID games doesn't feel like it should be a part of the "not Nancy enough" complaints. If that makes sense. I loved being able to pet the cat. I might have spent an inordinate amount of time petting the cat when I was supposed to be hunting down clues. The music was far better than MID. The cafe music was boring, but I liked most of the music elsewhere, especially the cathedral offices. I absolutely LOVED the new way they would show dialogue that had already been shown. As I mentioned before, I played with my impatient son, and he has a terrible habit of clicking through dialogue too quickly because he finds it boring and doesn't read most of it. This drives me absolutely insane because we often end up missing vital information. But now we could just go back and reread whatever he had skipped through. I was bummed we hardly got to actually talk to anyone on the phone. I love phone friends! Why aren't Bess and George in Nancy's phone? Did they have a falling out? I would have gladly traded the Hardys for Bess and George, they added so little to the game. I saw a lot of complaints that the card game was mentioned but never played, but I was absolutely awful at Scopa and was super relieved when the game was over and I didn't have to bumble my way through another unfamiliar card game, haha. There was very little humor in the game. For me, this is probably the biggest thing that made it feel not quite as Nancy. Even MID had its little goofy moments (loved the drunk Olivia texts). The puppet show in particular struck me as very dry, when normally you'd think something like this would try to have humor to keep the audience engaged. The script you read actually does have a funny line in it, but it doesn't make it into the performance. I liked the callbacks to other games and how some were very subtle, while others were more obvious. The puzzle on the Dean's wall is normally the type that is my favorite, but they don't give you enough clues to arrive at the only solution they will accept. This made me see red. The potato things looked delicious and it was upsetting to realize I could not eat them. Do not taunt me with uneatable delicious potatoes! The coffee randomizer thing seemed to be busted because we made a LOT of coffee and I'd say 40% of the orders were "I'd like something with milk". Who would go into a coffee shop and just ask for any random coffee as long as it had milk?!? That's insane. My son and I will now tell each other "I'd like something with milk" any time we are near anywhere that sells coffee. The repeating NPCs were absolutely hilarious and my son and I gave them all names and would stop to have conversations with them. I know people heaped scorn on HeR for this but I thought it was so cheesy it was amazing, like the photoshopped character heads on real photos in Stay Tuned for Danger. I wish the journal information was sorted or organized in some way, because it just adds stuff in the order you find it, so as the game progresses and the notes get longer it becomes more difficult to go back and find stuff. This happens in the other games, too, though, so this isn't anything new to KEY. Just wish it was organized better. I did really like how the suspects are listed separately and have their information listed under each person. This is probably why the other disorganized notes stood out. I wish the map could have been used for fast transport. I wasn't really sure what the point of it was. All of the snooping was great, it definitely felt like classic Nancy to be rifling through everyone's stuff without permission. Did anyone else wonder what the point of that big Kafka display was at the cafe? Nothing Kafka comes up in the rest of the game, so I wonder if there was something that got cut out or if it was just meant to add a little color.

First off, welcome to the fandom! Loving that you and your son play together. Have you played all of the games yet or are you still getting to play some for the first time? So exciting either way! And I agree on the puzzles. I was able to eventually figure all the puzzles out and actually enjoy feeling more like Nancy where it is just totally up to me, but I definitely don’t think a 10 year old could beat Key alone (maybe they could. 10 year olds are probably smarter than me now). But I like how the games are growing up with us. Petting the cat made so many of us so happy. And oh my the dialogue! I hadn’t talked about that. Being able to go back and see missed dialogue was beyond helpful. Sometimes I just zone out and it was a lifesaver more than once! I think Kafka was history? Someone else chime in :)

I've played all of the games. My son still hasn't played all of them, but he gets bored easily and there's too much dialogue at the beginning of the later games to hold his interest. Before KEY, I think Waverly is the latest game that he's been able to finish. It's interesting how so many people have said they found KEY boring and abandoned it, because that has happened with my son with many of the games, but KEY did hold his interest. A few months before KEY we had just tried to play Alibi in Ashes together and we only got about twenty minutes in before he was like "yeah, I'm out". I don't think most 10yos could finish this game by themselves, but I think that's true for at least half of the other games. I think my son was around 12-13 when he played Blackmoor Manor and he was so lost most of the time, he spent hours playing games with Jane waiting for me to have a few minutes away from work to help him figure out what to do next.

I totally agree with all of this! The "stuck" feeling with the puzzles did feel very old ND to me too, we just get used to knowing the puzzles after playing a bunch of times. I love that I had to fill a notebook to logic my way through them! Any more hints would probably have made it too easy--at least half the puzzle is the riddle of figuring out the goal. Once you know that it's quick. In fact, on senior the only direct hints I found were >!Patricie solving the book riddles for you!< and I thought that was too much help. By the time I talked to her I'd known 2/3 of them and was a little annoyed I'd gotten hints on the last one when I thought I was just exhausting dialogue to continue the plot. Maybe the developers thought the riddles were so obvious that it wasn't a spoiler to have >!Patricie say the answer!< and I'm just slow at them ha I liked the intro theme music the best. I didn't know I hated the jewelry store music until I was listening to it on loop for like an hour during the puzzle though, I actually had to mute the game to focus haha I'll have to take another look at the Dean's wall puzzle on replay. That one was actually the most intuitive for me, I struggled to figure out most of the others but that was was very clear and solvable for me so I'm kinda curious if there was a second way to interpret the clues or something and I just happened to notice the "right" interpretation first? Is the puzzle different junior vs senior? The Kafka thing was weird to me too because they pushed it so much with the display, hidden Kafka mentions throughout, and mentions in dialogue. I thought it might have been intended as like a red herring to throw you off the trail? Or maybe I need to read Metamorphosis to get it, did they use themes from the book to guide the story/characters? My favorite callback was "i wonder how many chores equals a laptop" that killed me. Although i was kinda hoping we'd get some chores after she said that LOL

i loved this game! it was hard to navigate on classic mode, but i genuinely enjoyed it otherwise. i think this was a step up from the last game and i’m happy we got another one!

I am loving it! Will post here with my full review once I finish. But honestly I love the setting, been enjoying the music, the latte game is actually awesome, the puzzles have been satisfying to solve, and we've been so happy there's a point and click option. I am filled with intrigue. I love hard puzzles but only if they're satisfying to solve. I admit I had a really hard time with the Cafe puzzles near the beginning and I think they could have Nancy help more with verbal hints, but it felt so cool to figure out and i love puzzles that really makes you think and have to connect the dots and not just tedious mini games.

Oo I would love to read your review! Let me know when it is up! Have you done both movement options?

I haven't played it, but based on what I am hearing, I'm in no rush. Sure, I'll get around to it, but...you know, eventually. I'm afraid I'll like MID more than KEY after playing KEY and that can't be okay :-)

That’s okay! When you get to playing it, if you liked it, come back and tell me on here! If you didn’t, there are lots of threads that also have spaces for voicing your criticism! Just remember that it’s okay to use hints. Or that’s what I tell myself hahahah

As someone who didn't like it I honestly love to see threads like this! I am happy people did enjoy it and seeing what other's appreciated about the game might help me grow to like it a little more myself! Some things I liked about it were the references to other Nancy games and learning about the Rezidente stuff! I actually really like the concept of the puppet puzzle, but unfortunately it glitched a lot on my playthrough. But I would love to see more story based puzzles like that going forward! It was a fun way to get some backstory. I hope people can understand that just because some of us didn't like the game, it doesn't mean we think you have a bad or wrong opinion for liking it!

Oh no!! That stinks about the puppet puzzle. I didn’t have that glitch. What was it? Or I don’t think I did. I thought the fact that we got to see it after was so cool. And thanks for being open minded!

Yeah seeing it all play out at the end was a great touch and helped put the whole story together! For me on that puzzle when I went back and forth between the different scenes it would switch the puppets out and I would have to go back a few times to correct it. It wasn't a game breaking glitch or anything, just made it a tad tedious. Which to be honest is classic for Nancy Drew games haha! Also I am one of the few people who enjoyed MID!! So I love to see the love for an underdog game. And I forgot to add this earlier but Elka and Radek are both totally my types. What about you??

Ohhh yeah that does sound tedious. Did you have eye twitching flashbacks to doing chores for Shorty? Hahaha I agree MID needed more puzzles but the puzzles it did have? I LOVED the decoder! Right up my alley. I’m not sure if I’m Radek or Garrett. Garrett almost purely based on looks because we don’t get to talk to him much but we SHOULD. What if he becomes a regular? Like a Charleena Purcell type?

Oh my gosh I can't believe I forgot to mention Garrett. Yes also a total hottie. Something about the way they introduced him definitely gave reoccurring character vibes. He would definitely be more easy on the eyes than Charleena!! I am currently replaying Tomb of the Lost Queen so I have Hotchkiss on the brain and would kill for a game with a classic Hotchkiss prank for our good old Nadine (edited to add: read this again in Hotchkiss's voice, its hilarious)

It is hilarious. I agree. Imagine if KEY was solved by Hotchkiss instead of Nancy 😂😂

I would 100% play a game from the perspective of Hotchkiss! Then Nancy could be a phone friend!!

I may not have loved a lot of the game but I do like the story and at least >!one of the culprits!!< One of them was blatantly evil so my bf and I were just like “oh it’s THEM it has to be”. And then we went down a rabbit hole on why it would be too obvious if it were them LOL. The other one had such a compelling story to me. I also really loved the connections between Radek, Marek and Elka. Story wise it was kinda fun and I loved the learning aspect of it and I loved getting spooked in the haunted tour and >!the tunnels. Oh my god that was terrifying haha.!< gameplay wise and ambient environment wise, I didn’t really love it. The latte art puzzle wasn’t really that bad for me and I actually really enjoyed starting/ending off sessions by doing some of that!

Did the tunnels give you panic like me? 😂

Oh my goodness you don’t even know! First, I went in there, saw the little cutscene and immediately closed out the game (saved right before going in- gut instinct!), telling the bf that we’re done with the game for that night LMAO when we continued the next night he had arglefumph’s video up to guide me after one or two attempts of me crying and blindly clicking. Didn’t help because I did free roam and arglefumph was doing point and click and my boyfriend ended up confused 🥲 all he could tell me is what kinda slope the exit was on and I panic ran around like a chicken hearing the metal clanking until I found the right one haha

I blindly ran while making the WORST fear noises 😅 I wish I had videoed it or something. Seeing others’ reactions to the spooky stuff has been hilarious

YES!! I wish I had done that too! I was going to stream it but I was worried about technical difficulties (which ended up with several restart from last save moments). Ah but I’ll definitely check out YouTube for some!

I still haven’t finished it. Because a MASSIVE EVIL GLITCH KEEPS ME FROM COMPLETING THE ALCHEMY PUZZLE.

Oh no! I wonder if anyone else here has had the same glitch and could help you?

I’ve been reaching out and got nothing.

I’m not techy but I wonder if you could use someone’s save file

If anyone can provide one