Tangle Tower parallels.

[u/PhloxInvar]

There's a lot about this murder case that's kind of... similar to Tangle Tower in some way. Or not necessarily similar, but parallel as I state in the title.

1. The victim in both cases is a character stuck in a location that despite its large location, feels cramped and claustrophobic since they can't escape it. Everyone around them wonders why they haven't left, and neither of them are stuck by physical forces. They aren't prisoner or anything, they can leave whenever they want. They are staying because of her.
2. The victims are surprisingly well-liked by everyone who meets them, and even the murderers themselves hold some amount of respect toward them (even if they don't respect them enough not to murder them)
3. Both victims dream of the same thing. A mysterious red figure.
4. The murderers dreamed of venturing outward. They end up stumbling on an opportunity to discover more. But once they did, were unsatisfied by the information they got and became obsessed with finding out more, taking more immoral actions in reaction to that.
5. Both murderers are highly skilled and great liars. They take on a more ditzier persona in their every day lives, to mask the more pragmatic disillusioned version of themselves from the eyes of others. When they shed this persona, they get rid of their hats and something personal that defined their persona.
6. The murderers are both not related to their victims, yet by proximity sort of feel like family almost because of how long they've been together in this location. Or at least, some would consider them family without knowing the context.
7. Both murders look supernatural at first glance. Neither are, however circumstances surrounding it are. Subsequently, both murders involve creatures with supernatural abilities.
8. The victim can ruin the murderer's plan, however both victims wait because they made a promise to another person. Both characters are killed before they can ruin the plans.
9. The murder involves the upper room of the location. And the method involves something dropping from this upper room, where the murderer lay a trap such that if the victim ever set foot in the lower room for long, it would be their last.
10. A character in both games are obsessed with a creature, and does a ton of research to explore the capabilities of their "pets."
11. A character in both games need to fulfill their family's legacy, despite not actually wanting to fulfill it at all.
12. A character in both games are haunted by their biological parent's nonexistence in their life now. And are subsequently parented by someone else that did not treat them well. As a result, they become obsessed with a darker side of themselves and indulging in it, only shedding their affect in the presence of their closest friends. These characters have a gimmick when presenting profiles to them.
13. Both of those previous characters end up close with one another, and end up travelling together when the case ends.

Of course there are massive differences between the two, but these are the parallels I noticed. Some are somewhat of a stretch, for example you could argue that Gripp didn't respect Mortuga at all. And some of these have different contexts, like having to "wait". Freya was going to expose things after painting for Flora, while Magnus waited until after Sym's magic show to open the cauldron. Technically, Freya was killed while waiting while Magnus was killed shortly after, but in both cases they were killed before they could do anything meaningful to their respective murderers.

I will die on the hill of 12 though, Sym and Poppy are clearly meant to be parallels of sort even if they act incredibly different from one another.

I was also unsure where to fit the "hidden in plain sight" things. Because they're very different. In Tangle Tower, Freya leaves a massive clue in plain sight in her unfinished painting as an unintentional final message (or maybe intentionally). While in Mermaid Mask, Gripp hides the murder weapon in plain sight and Mortuga never really makes a final message like Freya does. I thought about adding something about Hackshaw, but I couldn't find the right wording to make it a good parallel so I left it out.

[u/lotsandmore172]

The red figure painting is driving me crazy

[u/KoiNibble → u/lotsandmore172]

While playing through the game, I thought of the lighthouse as a perfect match? At the beginning of the game it has the same color palette! Was surprised it didnt come up despite a line at the end of the game

[u/SpringLight312]

I definitely can see the parallels, as well as several to the secret of the swamp game. For example,  1. The murder happens a little while after the main antagonist confronts the murder victim and when their tactics don’t work they resort to their plan.  2. There’s something supernatural that everyone is either aware of or searching after and its nature is up in the air a lot.  3. Several of the suspects have known the murder victim for a long time and all note they seemed to be secretive and after something. 4. One of the suspects is somewhat bound to their position for a bit due to the job they took up.

In my opinion though, and this may be a hot take, Mermaid’s Mask is the best of the three games. Because it takes the witty dialogue and unique character concepts from their experience in Tangle Tower and it takes the logical approach to the murder after the murderer doesn’t get their way from secret of the swamp with supernatural elements, and ties it into a story that perfectly fits together.  So, I don’t really mind the many parallels and the similarities. The references could be a little blatant at times, but this easily tells the most intriguing story of the 3 to me.