I have been playing these games since I was about seven years old. When I was a young detective, I always viewed puzzles as an obstacle I had to overcome. I much preferred talking to characters and exploring environments. Since I’ve been replaying these games as an adult, I now find the puzzles to be probably the most enjoyable aspect of the games. I’m trying to complete all of the games without any hints. Just funny how my love for these games has evolved over the years!
The amount of research you had to do for this video is WILD lol. The delineation between exploration/puzzle/mini-game in the series can be so vague sometimes 😅 my faves are logic puzzles, which I didn’t realize were quite as prevalent as they are- pleasant surprise!! Collection puzzles and mazes could disappear forever and I’d be happy
Me: THERE ARE ONLY 5 SLIDER PUZZLES!?!?!? *Caitlyn goes on to talk about navigational puzzles* Me: ooooohhh lol Also, I LOVED the conversation about the frequency of/and diff types of puzzles during different eras of the games!!! SO interesting!
What a fantastic video! I think something else you didnt mention is how well integrated the puzzles are into the game and the plot. This is probably a hard thing to measure, but i think it contributes a lot to my enjoyment (or lack thereof) of a puzzle. For example, one of the puzzles i hated the most was the vegetable picking puzzle from Shadow Ranch, because it had absolutely nothing to do with solving the mystery, and the whole premise for nancy being there was that she was supposed to be on vacation. On the flip side, i have fond memories of navigating the rotating tunnels in blackmoor manor (in spite of how tricky they were) because there were cool discoveries waiting for me on the other side, and i was willing to buy that some crazy Penvellen architect just went hog-wild on that basement in his free time lol
That IS a deep dive into the topic, wow!! Can't even imagine how much time and effort goes into creating this kind of videos, amazing content! 🔥 Also I've never realised there can be this many puzzles in a single ND game 😯 How many have you counted in total? There must be over 500?? Personally, I'm more into investigating the environment and using objects together and stuff to keep progressing the story (like the examples from The Final Scene that you've mentioned), but I don't mind puzzle-heavy games if the puzzles aren't super difficult and don't slow me down or even get me stuck on a certain point in the game for a while
Truly amazing how much research and time you put into these videos! I love each and every one. Thank you for continuously creating good Nancy content 🔎
I love slider, cooking, and logic puzzles, as well as cipher and collecting puzzles. Mostly all puzzles except frass, sudoku and nonograms lol. I really thought TOT would have been in the running for most puzzles. Interesting.
Oooh I’ve been wanting to explore this topic lately and you’ve done awesome work with this video! I recently gave a name to what I call “influence puzzles” where there is a specific final orientation, and adjusting one piece influences other pieces, e.g. Waldo’s grave, Cappy’s piano, Icicle Creek’s puzzle box, the power switches in DED, and the fan blades in MED. It definitely overlaps with your flip puzzles and some of your combination puzzles. I’m a huge puzzle nerd so I deeply appreciate this video. ❤
WOW what a lot of work and effort you went to for this video, thank you so much WK! All of us so appreciate it! I like logic, then organisation and then cooking (but not the coffee puzzle) puzzles. I am curious as to where you put the lighthouse puzzle in sea with all the coloured circles. Is it a unique one? I really love that puzzle.
I'd like to see a look at the puzzles least likely to actually exist, with at least one nominee for each game. That's not to say a BAD or unenjoyable puzzle, just an unbelievable one. For example, Aunt Eloise having a bear cage in her living room (Secrets Can Kill), which nobody ever looks up and notices. The safe in Zoe's hotel room has a combination that the hotel never would have known, and Zoe created *functional* buttons for it simply by drawing them on the wall in invisible ink (Silent Spy). Cave mouth locked with a picture puzzle which "turns into" a slider puzzle when you solve it (!). (Ransom of the Seven Ships). Girls boarding school has a lethal guillotine in their basement (Warnings at Waverly). Underground tunnels that let you travel the city on foot faster than you could in a car (Alibi in Ashes).
I would note that a tower of Hanoi doesn't necessarily have to include rings, any item with varying sizes can be subbed for them. I remember JumpStart 5th grade did a tower of Hanoi with boxes.
I have been playing these games since I was about seven years old. When I was a young detective, I always viewed puzzles as an obstacle I had to overcome. I much preferred talking to characters and exploring environments. Since I’ve been replaying these games as an adult, I now find the puzzles to be probably the most enjoyable aspect of the games. I’m trying to complete all of the games without any hints. Just funny how my love for these games has evolved over the years!
The amount of research you had to do for this video is WILD lol. The delineation between exploration/puzzle/mini-game in the series can be so vague sometimes 😅 my faves are logic puzzles, which I didn’t realize were quite as prevalent as they are- pleasant surprise!! Collection puzzles and mazes could disappear forever and I’d be happy
It was definitely a lengthy process, lol!! I love logic puzzles too!
Calling it a deep dive and then starting with DED music was such a good plan 🎉
Hehe thank you!!
It’s nice that you included the new game in this analysis.
It's part of the canon now! 😊
Me: THERE ARE ONLY 5 SLIDER PUZZLES!?!?!?
*Caitlyn goes on to talk about navigational puzzles*
Me: ooooohhh lol
Also, I LOVED the conversation about the frequency of/and diff types of puzzles during different eras of the games!!! SO interesting!
LOL! I was so anxious about missing puzzles in my count this whole time!! There's so gosh darn many!
This was fascinating! Thank you for putting so much work into this video!
Absolutely! I'm so glad you liked it!
What a fantastic video!
I think something else you didnt mention is how well integrated the puzzles are into the game and the plot. This is probably a hard thing to measure, but i think it contributes a lot to my enjoyment (or lack thereof) of a puzzle.
For example, one of the puzzles i hated the most was the vegetable picking puzzle from Shadow Ranch, because it had absolutely nothing to do with solving the mystery, and the whole premise for nancy being there was that she was supposed to be on vacation. On the flip side, i have fond memories of navigating the rotating tunnels in blackmoor manor (in spite of how tricky they were) because there were cool discoveries waiting for me on the other side, and i was willing to buy that some crazy Penvellen architect just went hog-wild on that basement in his free time lol
That IS a deep dive into the topic, wow!! Can't even imagine how much time and effort goes into creating this kind of videos, amazing content! 🔥
Also I've never realised there can be this many puzzles in a single ND game 😯 How many have you counted in total? There must be over 500??
Personally, I'm more into investigating the environment and using objects together and stuff to keep progressing the story (like the examples from The Final Scene that you've mentioned), but I don't mind puzzle-heavy games if the puzzles aren't super difficult and don't slow me down or even get me stuck on a certain point in the game for a while
This one took hours of data gathering, lol! It was a doozy, but I'm so glad you liked the results!
Truly amazing how much research and time you put into these videos! I love each and every one. Thank you for continuously creating good Nancy content 🔎
Thank you so much!! That is so lovely to hear!
I love slider, cooking, and logic puzzles, as well as cipher and collecting puzzles. Mostly all puzzles except frass, sudoku and nonograms lol.
I really thought TOT would have been in the running for most puzzles. Interesting.
It definitely still had a lot, but its repetition made it much less diverse!
Oooh I’ve been wanting to explore this topic lately and you’ve done awesome work with this video!
I recently gave a name to what I call “influence puzzles” where there is a specific final orientation, and adjusting one piece influences other pieces, e.g. Waldo’s grave, Cappy’s piano, Icicle Creek’s puzzle box, the power switches in DED, and the fan blades in MED. It definitely overlaps with your flip puzzles and some of your combination puzzles.
I’m a huge puzzle nerd so I deeply appreciate this video. ❤
Ooh, I like the idea of specifying "influence puzzles." That would help balance out the combination category a bit!
Super interesting video. Thanks!loved the time and research it took. I watch your livestreams alot.
I'm so glad you liked it!!
WOW what a lot of work and effort you went to for this video, thank you so much WK! All of us so appreciate it! I like logic, then organisation and then cooking (but not the coffee puzzle) puzzles. I am curious as to where you put the lighthouse puzzle in sea with all the coloured circles. Is it a unique one? I really love that puzzle.
Thank you!! That is so lovely to hear! And yes, I believe I counted that one as a unique puzzle :)
I'd like to see a look at the puzzles least likely to actually exist, with at least one nominee for each game. That's not to say a BAD or unenjoyable puzzle, just an unbelievable one.
For example, Aunt Eloise having a bear cage in her living room (Secrets Can Kill), which nobody ever looks up and notices.
The safe in Zoe's hotel room has a combination that the hotel never would have known, and Zoe created *functional* buttons for it simply by drawing them on the wall in invisible ink (Silent Spy).
Cave mouth locked with a picture puzzle which "turns into" a slider puzzle when you solve it (!). (Ransom of the Seven Ships).
Girls boarding school has a lethal guillotine in their basement (Warnings at Waverly).
Underground tunnels that let you travel the city on foot faster than you could in a car (Alibi in Ashes).
Ooh that's an interesting idea and a great point! The puzzles that IRL simply couldn't happen.
I would note that a tower of Hanoi doesn't necessarily have to include rings, any item with varying sizes can be subbed for them. I remember JumpStart 5th grade did a tower of Hanoi with boxes.
True!
I guess I like "puzzle medium" games. Ransom made me furious because it was JUST puzzles. But MID was way too few
True!!
I would love to see different graphs for all this data! I think it would be so interesting to see a visual representation of your findings!
📈📊📉
I did consider graphs and sort of just ran out of time! But if I do them in my spare time, I'll send them your way! 😁
I agree. I would like to see this too! Or just send me the raw data and I will happily make graphs for you loool