The Mermaid Mask Review: SFB Games Delivers Their Best Mystery Yet [Metacritic 85]

British indie studio SFB Games released The Mermaid Mask on July 16, 2026, for PC (Steam), PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo Switch 2. The studio's follow-up to the critically acclaimed Crow Country (2024), it's the third mainline entry in their Detective Grimoire series — a handcrafted point-and-click adventure where players investigate an impossible locked-room murder aboard a strange submarine. The game launched to a Metacritic score of 85, an OpenCritic top-2% ranking, and 99% positive Steam user reviews within 48 hours of release. An introductory 10% discount on Steam runs until July 23, bringing the price to $17.99.

Sources: Steam Store · Metacritic · Game Informer Review · Adventure Game Hotspot Review · Nintendo World Report Review

Quick Facts

About SFB Games

SFB Games is a small, independent studio based in the UK, best known for a track record of punching well above its size. Their output tells the story:

The studio tends to operate quietly between releases, and The Mermaid Mask represents roughly three years of work since Crow Country. That gap shows: this is the most technically and narratively ambitious thing they have made. The score — composed by Raphael Benjamin Meyer and performed by the Budapest Art Orchestra — is a full orchestral production, with every room and character in the game receiving its own bespoke musical theme.

The Setup: An Impossible Murder on a Submarine

In the pitch-black waters off the long-abandoned fishing town of Silkwirm-on-Sea sits the Mortuga Submarine, the world's strangest vessel. Its captain, Magnus Mortuga, has been found dead in a locked room — the only apparent clue a mysterious ancient cauldron beside him. Local legend held that Mortuga was an immortal time traveller. Others said he was a vampire, condemned to the deep. Whatever the truth, the crew are now suspects, and Detective Grimoire and his assistant Sally have been called aboard to find out what really happened.

The premise hits classic locked-room mystery beats, but the submarine setting — eccentric crew included — gives it a personality distinct from generic murder mystery fare. Game Informer's Charles Harte praised both the setup and its payoff:

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"The culprit in The Mermaid Mask is superior [to Tangle Tower], and the art and animation surrounding the investigation's climax are perhaps my favorite in the whole game." — Game Informer, 9/10

For new players: you don't need to have played the previous Detective Grimoire games. This is a self-contained case with an all-new cast of suspects.

How It Plays

Exploration: Players move between hand-painted rooms of the submarine, clicking to investigate objects. There are no highlighted hotspots — the background art is designed to draw the eye toward relevant evidence without pixel-hunting. Approximately 50 clues are scattered across the game. Collected evidence is stored as 3D models that can be rotated and examined from any angle, with running commentary from Grimoire and Sally.

Interrogation: Showing clues to suspects unlocks new information. Each suspect has a locked Suspicion Tab that becomes available only once enough evidence has been gathered to confront them about what they're hiding. This prevents the frustrating trial-and-error that plagues lesser games in the genre.

Deduction: The series' signature fill-in-the-blank conclusion mechanic returns. When Grimoire is ready to form a theory, players fill in logical blanks using the evidence assembled. Wrong answers receive guided hints rather than an outright reveal, preserving the sense of active deduction while avoiding dead ends.

Lock puzzles: Around 20 distinct 3D combination puzzles are embedded throughout the game, used to open hidden compartments and locked boxes. Each puzzle has a unique concept — a piggy bank with an expression dial, a grid of differently conditioned compasses, a mushroom species sorter — none of which repeat mechanics from the previous games.

Adventure Game Hotspot's Will Aickman described the overall effect:

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"The Mermaid Mask is the rare third entry in a series that not only lives up to the audience's hopes for it, but exceeds them." — Adventure Game Hotspot, 91%

Presentation: Art, Voice, and Score

The visual identity is immediately distinctive. Background artist Catherine Unger's hand-painted rooms are dense with character-specific detail — each of the Mortuga Submarine's compartments reflects its occupant in the furniture, decorations, and small objects that line the walls. The result is that room exploration functions simultaneously as character study.

The voice cast (English only) brings the full crew of suspects to life with performances that Nintendo World Report called "phenomenal." Grimoire and Sally's returning chemistry is a particular strength — their banter contextualizes evidence without being patronizing, and the comedic timing is reliably on.

The Budapest Art Orchestra score stands as one of the year's best game soundtracks. Every character and location has its own musical theme that shifts register and instrumentation as the investigation deepens. Gamer Social Club noted that "the score is critical when reinforcing each character's personality" and praised its range across genres, including throat singing and orchestral horns within the same playthrough.

Where It Falls Short

Two criticisms appear consistently across reviews:

1. 1A handful of underdescribed puzzles: A minority of the lock puzzles don't clearly communicate their solving premise. The hint system mitigates this, but players who want a pure deduction experience may occasionally feel blocked without knowing why.
2. 2Menu and auto-hint bugs at launch: Adventure Game Hotspot flagged "irritating bugs related to the menu and the auto-hint system" as the main quality-of-life pain point at release. SFB Games has a track record of prompt patches.

Neither issue materially affects the overall experience, but they're worth noting for players who want to wait for a patch before starting.

Critical Reception

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"The Mermaid Mask is the best Detective Grimoire adventure yet. Its art, music, voice cast, and puzzle design are all worthy of praise, but they're held together by a great story and a fun script, complete with all the quips and twists I've come to expect from SFB's mystery series." — Game Informer, 9/10 (Charles Harte)

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"The Detective Grimoire series reaches a new apex in The Mermaid Mask, which first equals and then outshines its beloved predecessors in nearly every way that matters." — Adventure Game Hotspot, 91% (Will Aickman)

Who Should Play This

Strong recommendation for:

• ▶Fans of point-and-click adventures (Tangle Tower, Return of the Monkey Island, Obra Dinn)
• ▶Players who enjoy cozy mystery fiction — Agatha Christie, Japanese visual novels, detective procedurals
• ▶Anyone who wants a polished, self-contained narrative that finishes in a single weekend (~12 hours)
• ▶Crow Country or Tangle Tower fans following SFB Games' output

Skip if:

• ▶You need action, combat, or open-ended progression in your games
• ▶You strongly dislike games with heavy dialogue and limited interactivity
• ▶You want to wait for post-launch patches to address the minor bugs flagged at release

Buying Options

A free playable demo is available on Steam — save data does not carry over to the full game.

Buy on Steam →