The game takes place in the titular Sexy Brutale, a combined mansion/casino, and it is essentially a puzzle game. I was worried the game would be too complex for me, but it's actually very forgiving. Saving the nine guests is spread over multiple chapters, and saving each generally only requires a few actions. The mansion gradually opens up throughout the game as you move through the story and gain new abilities, which means it's generally quite clear which section of the mansion you're focusing on in any given section. You spend a loop or two figuring out where the guests are and following them to see how they die, picking up items as you go. There's only a handful of items you can find and interactive with - and the game makes it very clear, visually, what those are- so trial and error is quite an efficient way to play. You can't directly interact with any guests or staff, which is where a lot of the puzzle aspect comes from, but that also serves to simplify the game. For me, it was exactly the right level of challenging to be enjoyable.
Once you've successfully saved a guest once, you don't need to worry about doing it again or remembering it for a golden run or anything like that. It's also not really possible to lose. The worst that happens is you run out of time - and once you have an idea of what to do, the timing isn't that tight - and start the day over. Handily, some puzzles and items remain solved or obtained, so there's a much lower amount of repetition than you might expect. You can also set your start point to different locations, so you don't have to repeat the route to the same area every single loop. The game is also forgiving as regards to collectables, of which there are several. Some are only available before or after other events, but none are too complicated, and many are hidden in plain sight or there's some hint available. Several items are only available after a character's death, but, even after you've saved them once, they'll continue to die on subsequent loops - it's only the final loop that matters after all, watch Groundhog Day - so you won't miss anything permanently. Some areas of the mansion are lost to you for a little while, but you'll be able to access them all by the end of the game. Even if you proceed right to the ending sequence - which I did accidentally, while stumbling around - you can choose to do a few more loops so you can finish exploring, though that does mean you have to watch some events happen again. You should be fairly used to it at that point though.
The in-game map is quite helpful. When you get a skill that allows you to interact with a new type of object, you can generally find it clearly marked. It will also show you where other characters are at different times, once you've seen them moving through the mansion. Entering the same room as another character won't kill you, it will just reset the loop if you linger too long. You generally have enough time to exit before that happens though.
One thing that did annoy me a little was that the controls are sometimes lacking in responsiveness. You're generally not trying to do anything too dextrous, and there's enough leeway that you won't ruin a loop, but I did gain the habit of hammering on a button 6 times or so for everything I wanted to do. There was also a bit of lag when moving between two screens, which might explain the lack of responsiveness. To be fair, maybe it's my PC.
I want to talk more about how story and gameplay are intertwined, but to do that properly, I'll need to include spoilers. Hence the section below, which assumes you have already finished the game. Highlight to read.
By the time I entered the garden and saw Eleanor, I had an inkling that, somehow, the character I was playing was Lucas battling with his inner demons, because that's a well-used twist for this sort of story. That's not a criticism - the game handles it extremely well. And what I realised at that point is that the Sexy Brutale - not bolded because I'm referring to the actual mansion, not the game - was built by a damn fool.
Lucas named his home the Sexy Brutale because it sounded cool, which isn't a bad thing, but it is the act of a someone who's a bit of a poser. He imagines serving - or possibly did serve - drinks filled with venom. He bought an expensive fish, knowing it wasn't worth nearly that much, purely for the story behind it. None of these things alone are bad - we all need a bit of magic and drama in our lives - but this part of his life, the hedonistic part, devoted to stupid, dramatic, poserish things, is 90% of his world. The bit he actually values, the important bit, is the little piece in that garden.
The fatal flaw in his character is what led him to try to commit insurance fraud, in a big, ostentatious, stupid way. He could have sold the mansion and declared bankruptcy. He could have just been poor. The plan was never going to work anyway, since it hinged on his insurance providers not realising that bombs could be set off with a timer.
Since I imagine Eleanor didn't literally prepare a nursery in a tiny cottage in the garden, there are no bathrooms and no master suite, etc, etc, and it's also spelled out in some of the dialogue, the world we see isn't a literal representation of the Sexy Brutale. Rather, it's symbolic, and represents Lucas' own knowledge of his flaws. Also, I assume this was clear to everyone, but Eleanor deciding not to attend the party and stay in another part of the grounds was something Lucas was imagining to make himself feel better. She died at the party, after all.
I really liked how the player themselves came to represent the part of Lucas' psyche that was working hard to save everyone. It meant that forgiving him/ourselves felt earned and a natural progression of the story. Alternatively, you might decide you hadn't explored enough and repeat the loop before going all the way to the ending. That made sense too. Since the day is always repeating, tomorrow can always be the day you forgive yourself.
I really liked how the player themselves came to represent the part of Lucas' psyche that was working hard to save everyone. It meant that forgiving him/ourselves felt earned and a natural progression of the story. Alternatively, you might decide you hadn't explored enough and repeat the loop before going all the way to the ending. That made sense too. Since the day is always repeating, tomorrow can always be the day you forgive yourself.
You might choose to collect a full deck of cards and give (in) them to your 'old habits', representing a return to hedonistic escape rather than closure. This is genius - if you do that that means that you, the player, valued playing the game, exploring every corner and getting every achievement, over getting to the end of the story, in exactly the same way as Lucas valued 'playing the game', as someone who's hedonistic tendencies and gambling led to the events of the game, over being more sensible and boring. That's his tragedy - if he'd been even slightly less of a hedonist, his debts might not have built up as much, or perhaps he would have just sold the damn mansion instead of trying to commit insurance fraud. And, from the previous paragraph, Lucas knows that and yet there's still a risk that he might fall back into his old habits. Such is addiction.
The mansion's guests are a commentary on this as well. Greyson dies because he can't let go of the treasure he's been hunting, with Redd dying trying to save him. The former spells out the consequences of Lucas' hedonism, while the latter is probably something he wishes he could do - die to save the others - while also reminding him that his guests were people with their own relationships and loves who were destroyed. Clay dies because he can't stop gambling and drinking. Since the latter also results in Trinity's death, and the method for preventing it involves clearly spelling out what's happening on a giant screen, this probably also represents Lucas himself. His wife died because of his own hedonism, and he clearly (based on the game existing) wishes someone had put a giant screen showing the consequences in front of his face in enough time to prevent them.
The mansion's guests are a commentary on this as well. Greyson dies because he can't let go of the treasure he's been hunting, with Redd dying trying to save him. The former spells out the consequences of Lucas' hedonism, while the latter is probably something he wishes he could do - die to save the others - while also reminding him that his guests were people with their own relationships and loves who were destroyed. Clay dies because he can't stop gambling and drinking. Since the latter also results in Trinity's death, and the method for preventing it involves clearly spelling out what's happening on a giant screen, this probably also represents Lucas himself. His wife died because of his own hedonism, and he clearly (based on the game existing) wishes someone had put a giant screen showing the consequences in front of his face in enough time to prevent them.
Willow also dies because of Lucas' hedonism. The stupid fish he bought for the story and the drama. Sure, it was also an expression of love for his wife, but billions of people are able to express their love without going into massive amounts of debt. It can also serve as a metaphor for hedonism leading to depression, since Willow's symptoms and death look like depression, and depression is probably the best label for what Lucas' - the real, outside Lucas - is experiencing during this inner torment.
Aurum and Thanos also die because of Lucas' hedonism and carelessness. However, they die on the elevator leading to the basement, where Lucas' symbolism starts to unravel and become more literal representations, so it makes sense that their death - by fire - is fundamentally the same as their actual deaths. It also occurs to me that Aurum and Thanos were both hired for specific skills, and weren't family members or given their own rooms in the mansion. Maybe Lucas was able to envision their deaths as they literally happened because he wasn't quite as close to them. Alternatively, maybe theirs were the only bodies he actually saw, in real life, and that's what the imaginary versions are based on.
I found Tequila's death to be one of the most interesting. Her skill was the one you need to reach Eleanor and to eventually find forgiveness. She also wrote a song for Lucas and Eleanor, so perhaps that's why her singing is needed for player-Lucas to see Eleanor in the garden. In both cases, it's her song and her voice bringing them together or celebrating their being together.
I found Tequila's death to be one of the most interesting. Her skill was the one you need to reach Eleanor and to eventually find forgiveness. She also wrote a song for Lucas and Eleanor, so perhaps that's why her singing is needed for player-Lucas to see Eleanor in the garden. In both cases, it's her song and her voice bringing them together or celebrating their being together.
And yet, the staff say horrible things about Tequila - calling her a 'jealous tart' at one point, if I recall correctly - and don't just kill her but throw her corpse down a chute to be eaten by a spider. I feel like Tequila and Lucas' relationship was a little more complicated than his friendship with his other guests, especially since her death occurs while she's singing a song about her jealousy over Eleanor.
Then there's her name. Perhaps the scorn and hatred for Tequila - despite her being a beloved friend - is because she's linked to the most hedonistic part of his life, to the drinking and the gambling, and maybe womanising. Maybe, secretly, deep down, Lucas believes that, if he'd spent less of his life with Tequila and more with Eleanor, he wouldn't have become the sort of person who'd end up in the situation he did.
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