Your ND analysis videos are my favorites! I enjoy your analytical approach to ranking games and explaining where they excel and fall short. I’m so excited for more!
Nice. These videos tend to have a lot of rewatchability and entertainment value. I think it comes down to the personality and pleasantness of our host :)
@@WizardKittenYT Your videos are literally the best to listen to in the background when I’m doing housework, or at times if I’m sitting down to eat by myself, they’re great to just chill to, lol. Relistening to live streams especially.
Another thing! I think it is so interesting that you caught that 9 of the 10 of these games with worst culprits/endings are from the second half of the series. I agree with you so deeply on this as to being a major contributor as to why the games themselves didn't pack as much punch as their earlier counterparts. The weak villain motivations (if any is there at all), the low scare factor, and the weird ways the game creates detachment from figuring out the villain to closing the mystery (either through too-long puzzles or the bird's eye view perspective shifts) really detract from the entire mystery overall.
So glad to hear detectives agree with this!! It's an unfortunate shift for sure...and not to say that I don't still love the later games because I do! But there's something missing that the classics definitely had...
@@WizardKittenYT If you're interested, you should check out 'Unlocked! Nancy Drew Podcast' episode 18 with Max Holechek. He was the creative director for the games from Treasure in a Royal Tower through Curse of Blackmoor Manor. It is really interesting how he structured such a fast output with some of the best titles in the series... I'm so curious why HER didn't keep him on the team; or if he personally chose to move on?
I completely agree with your rankings. I honestly can't think of anything else to add, because you summarized everything so well. Thanks for another awesome list! 👍
Haha Always love the spicy reviews, Caitlyn! (Spoilers) To be fair about the RAN villain, you actually *can* have a conversation with Dwayne in Stay Tuned for Danger (if you call him right after diffusing the bomb), where he rants a bit about his failed acting career. The dialogue goes like this: "I've studied every aspect about acting: the classics, dialects, stage combat - everything. I was underrated and under-appreciated - but brilliant. And yet a phony like Rick Arlen is a success, and here I am... a talent agent." That said, the RAN ending was a devastating disappointment. Dwayne was arguably one of the best & scariest villains in the entire series, and they made him such a non-threatening dweeb, and a huge joke. Also, the fact that Nancy doesn't even remember his name is so lame, seeing as HER deemed him impactful enough to have him star as a villain in a second game.
That's so interesting! Another detective mentioned that conversation with Dwayne as well and I totally didn't know! But yes, still turned Dwayne into a...less than satisfying return villain, LOL.
This is such a good and well thought out video. I LOOOOVE watching your reviews and analysis videos based on the Nancy Drew Games. Since I just love playing the games, its fun to see others' opinions of the games too! I also love the way MID finds its way on ALL your 'WORST' lists! I think it deserves to! Do you have more analysis videos in the works? I just love your channel! Thanks
@@WizardKittenYT I have an intresting crime question is it bad writing or good writing if we the player or the viewer if its a tv show if we can figure out who the culprit by the time the game or show is over
@Kelsey that's such a good question!! I wouldn't necessarily say that a mystery or crime show has bad writing per say if you can guess the culprit, BUT I also wouldn't say that it has the BEST. In my opinion, the best writing has all the clues you need to figure out the culprit, but does such a good job of tricking you that you weren't able to figure it out!
@@WizardKittenYT You know I would love to hear your thoughts on the nancy drew cw show or on the hardy boys the hidden theft and if you want a paranormal series you can try the delaware st john series
@@kelsey1467 I unfortunately haven't watched the Nancy Drew CW show or the Hardy Boys show! They haven't sounded like wonderful adaptations based on what I've heard, so I've sort of been avoiding them, haha!
I'd maybe sub in Danger by Design because while I did love that game, I did think that the two mysteries were very separated, and solving one and then JUST HAPPENING to stumble on the answer and motivations for the other one at the end was a little frustrating. Plus that WILD final puzzle. Definitely one of those games that felt let down by its ending to me, far more than Malloy at least. Otherwise, you're spot on with my ranking!
I totally know what you mean! DAN was my #11 for this list because it is super random and pretty much an exposition dump. The only thing that saved it is that I think actually "fighting" a culprit is extremely realistic and isn't done any other time in the series, so I gave it points for creativity and realism!
Not even lying, I think I blew myself up about 200 times before I FINALLY figured out that puzzle at the end of Haunting of Castle Malloy. Soooo infuriating! Great list, by the way!
I know it's kind of random but I was binge-watching bunch of your videos and came up with a fun idea for the possible video. Smth like top 10 funniest or easiest ways you can earn money in the games. Maybe also top 10 worst ways or the most time-consuming ways to earn money
A new video by Caitlyn is always the best way to start my day :) also rewatching livestreams while I study and run errands as background noise. Thanks for the videos as always!
What sucks about a lot of these villains is that they could have been much improved with just a few bits of dialogue of items sprinkled throughout the game. Maybe some old bills or letters that could hint at motivation. And for the shattered Medalion culprit, why not make them related to some previous villain which could work into the whole "betrayal" thing. Great video and I look forward to a best culprit list sometime in the future :)
You certainly aren't alone, there are some other fellow detectives who let me know that they like those games too! They tend to be less popular overall, but not always!
You didn't know Dwayne used to be an actor? Mattie told us that she met Dwayne while they were both working on "Romeo and Juliet" (and you can see him in Shakespeare's garb on a poster in his office), and if that wasn't enough, in one of our phone calls to Dwayne, when Nancy asked him if he was jealous of Rick, he said that Rick "can't act his way out of a paper bag" that he'd spent years working on his craft, but because "I'm not a blond, blue-eyed fool, I had NO PLACE IN THIS BUSINESS." He then apologized for his outburst, and says he still regrets not pursuing his acting career further. And if memory serves, Mystico listed him as "a failed actor". So while there's plenty of bad to be said about RAN, they were at least going off of an established fact. I cut SCK a bit of slack on Mitch, just because he also came out of nowhere in the book as well. And I give the HER team this much: A kid messing with a drug dealer and getting killed makes a heck of a lot more sense than a kid messing with a Soviet spy and getting killed.
I love your ranking videos! I usually have the same/similar rankings as you but you’re able to break it down in a way that I never thought about. Really insightful! You continually show me a new way to enjoy these games 😊
I don't really see a problem with the idea that Dwayne secretly wanted to be an actor. I do think it's vaguely implied in Stay Tuned For Danger. He was an agent for actors, and he was hugely jealous of the actor he repped who made it big. He ran around in that Owen Spader disguise, which was acting of a sort, and seemed to gloat a lot about fooling Nancy and Lillian with it. Frustrated actor? Yeah, that sort of makes sense. The timeline is wrong, though. Since Nancy never ages, we have to assume that every game in the series takes place in the same semester off that Nancy mentioned in Secrets Can Kill. Not time for ANY villain to go to jail, be released, and come back for revenge. Of course, that doesn't work either, as, if we kept track of season changes in each game, we could probably deduce a minimum number of years that must have elapsed since Secrets Can Kill. That's assuming that the games took place in the order that they were released. If they didn't, if, say, all the winter games took place one after the other, and so forth, then all bets are off.
But the problem with supposing that the games didn't take place in the order we see them is that for most of the series, there's a trailer where Nancy verbally announces what her "next" case is.
I have to agree that I don’t enjoy the chemical puzzle at the end of Castle Malloy but I get a great deal of joy at the explication of it all: “it’s not a banshee (cause those aren’t real); it’s just your run of the mill feral old lady with a jet pack” like who came up with that?
Ugh, I really loved Castle Malloy and it’s ending. I know it’s not a traditional culprit, but it was great and the puzzles in that game, including the ending, were great. You’re not the only one who complains about it (so does Vote4Holt and others), so I get it, but man, for some reason I love that game.
Haha, fair enough! And I can definitely see the positives too! I think the non-traditional culprit reveal is actually very cool, I just struggle so much with the huge puzzle barrier between, "we know the ending now" and "resolution." Do love the culprit situation though! And I think I'd enjoy the puzzles at any other time stamp in the game! Thanks for your thoughts!!
Oh hard agree on these, less so on Labyrinth, but I understand why you ranked it the way you did. And Shattered Medallion is my least favorite game for that reason, among others. It's just . . . New Zealand, Sonny, Nancy, Bess, and George all deserved better.
I was going to suggest that you make the top 10 best/worst culprits videos; you must have been reading my mind, Caitlyn. 😄 I knew that Silent Spy would be on your list because I can never forget Ewan's reasoning for being the culprit. *In Scottish accent* "Because I can!" I was shocked that Midnight in Salem wasn't #1 since you severely dislike it so much. If they had set up Ransom of the Seven Ships better and had more characters as potential culprits, do you think using a past culprit could have worked somehow? If so, who would you choose? I like the idea of having a returning culprit, but only if it's done right. This might be too much of a challenge, but I'd like to see you do an analysis video about which Nancy Drew PC games would benefit from if they were made into feature films based on the problems that particular games had (that a movie could fix) and how storylines/characters would be better if they were expanded upon. Does that make sense? It'd also be cool if you said which actors you thought could play the roles. I had an idea for a photo series on the WizardKittenYT Instagram; the different animals prominently shown in the games (those with names like Isis🐺, Coucou🦜, Loulou🦜, Iggy🦎, Uri🐱, Bob🐎, Casper🐿, Tumi🐶, Bernie🐊, Suki🐱, etc.) You could show the other animals in the games that weren't named too. I know how much you love animals, especially Queen Mel 👑, so I thought you might be interested in that idea. One last thing, I wanted to know if you've ever bought anything off the HER Interactive website because I want to know how reliable the site is when using a debit/credit card. I'm interested in a few of the soundtracks and thought you'd be the person to ask. Great video as always!
Raeimarie coming in yet again with the awesome suggestions!! Thank you for all those great ideas! I'm always skeptical about returning culprits just because it hasn't really been done well before, but that doesn't mean it couldn't!! And I would say that ordering the soundtracks from the website is totally safe. That's where I got mine and it went great!
Trail of the Twister seemed out of order and like it was missing dialog. Had options been added to talk more about evidence and some parts rearranged to make more sense story-wise, it would have been decent. I'm sad because I can see the missed potential with that one
How is it that you don't have Secrets Can Kill? If you can't find it, periodic checks of Half Price Books and/or eBay have a good chance of catching it. I'm pretty sure I found my copy at Half Price Books.
I agree with a lot of these but I think one of my least favorite endings/culprits is Louis in the Haunted Mansion. I felt like that ending was a little too brief and too simple and left a lot to be desired.
I replay old Nancy Drew games all the time, but I honestly really dislike much of the newer ones. Some are standouts to me (I loved Ghost of Thornton Hall, but I'm a big fan of southern gothic, so that's no surprise) but I never much enjoyed the likes of Alibi In Ashes.
Ewan McGregor?? I hardly think that Obi-Wan Kenobi would want to take down Cathedral🤣
OH MY GOSH!! I'm laughing so hard right now. Must've been a Freudian slip. Always thinking about Ewan McGregor over here, LOL XD
Rofl, I was wondering about that too!! But I let it slide.
@@WizardKittenYT
It's over Nancy, I have the high ground!
23:27 YES! If the plot stinks, I couldn’t care less about the “better” graphics 🙄 We’re here to solve a mystery so please GIVE US ONE.
My thoughts exactly!! It's a mystery game not a pretty game! LOL
I’d love to see your top endings/villains based on the same criteria!
Coming soon! :D
This video is like my morning coffee ❤️
Aw, that's so kind and lovely to hear!! Thank you!!
Your ND analysis videos are my favorites! I enjoy your analytical approach to ranking games and explaining where they excel and fall short. I’m so excited for more!
Aw yay! Thank you! So happy to hear that!
Yay!! A new Wizard Kitten video to start my day!
Yay!! So glad that it's a fun way to start the day!
Nice. These videos tend to have a lot of rewatchability and entertainment value. I think it comes down to the personality and pleasantness of our host :)
That's so kind of you to say!! Thank you so much!
@@WizardKittenYT Your videos are literally the best to listen to in the background when I’m doing housework, or at times if I’m sitting down to eat by myself, they’re great to just chill to, lol. Relistening to live streams especially.
@@VexatiousFluff That's amazing to hear!! I'm so glad they can be some peaceful ambiance!
I like the "Uff Da". LOL Never be afraid to let you Minnesotan shine through! :D
LOL, exactly, gotta sneak a few uff das and oh yeahs in as much as I can!
Another thing! I think it is so interesting that you caught that 9 of the 10 of these games with worst culprits/endings are from the second half of the series. I agree with you so deeply on this as to being a major contributor as to why the games themselves didn't pack as much punch as their earlier counterparts. The weak villain motivations (if any is there at all), the low scare factor, and the weird ways the game creates detachment from figuring out the villain to closing the mystery (either through too-long puzzles or the bird's eye view perspective shifts) really detract from the entire mystery overall.
So glad to hear detectives agree with this!! It's an unfortunate shift for sure...and not to say that I don't still love the later games because I do! But there's something missing that the classics definitely had...
@@WizardKittenYT If you're interested, you should check out 'Unlocked! Nancy Drew Podcast' episode 18 with Max Holechek. He was the creative director for the games from Treasure in a Royal Tower through Curse of Blackmoor Manor. It is really interesting how he structured such a fast output with some of the best titles in the series... I'm so curious why HER didn't keep him on the team; or if he personally chose to move on?
@@sorachicken That does sound really interesting! Yes, the stories behind those games are just so incredible and he's probably a big reason for that!
I completely agree with your rankings. I honestly can't think of anything else to add, because you summarized everything so well. Thanks for another awesome list! 👍
Aw yay! I'm so glad you enjoyed the list! Thanks for the comment!
Haha Always love the spicy reviews, Caitlyn!
(Spoilers)
To be fair about the RAN villain, you actually *can* have a conversation with Dwayne in Stay Tuned for Danger (if you call him right after diffusing the bomb), where he rants a bit about his failed acting career. The dialogue goes like this: "I've studied every aspect about acting: the classics, dialects, stage combat - everything. I was underrated and under-appreciated - but brilliant. And yet a phony like Rick Arlen is a success, and here I am... a talent agent."
That said, the RAN ending was a devastating disappointment. Dwayne was arguably one of the best & scariest villains in the entire series, and they made him such a non-threatening dweeb, and a huge joke. Also, the fact that Nancy doesn't even remember his name is so lame, seeing as HER deemed him impactful enough to have him star as a villain in a second game.
That's so interesting! Another detective mentioned that conversation with Dwayne as well and I totally didn't know! But yes, still turned Dwayne into a...less than satisfying return villain, LOL.
This is such a good and well thought out video. I LOOOOVE watching your reviews and analysis videos based on the Nancy Drew Games. Since I just love playing the games, its fun to see others' opinions of the games too! I also love the way MID finds its way on ALL your 'WORST' lists! I think it deserves to! Do you have more analysis videos in the works? I just love your channel! Thanks
Thank you so much for the lovely comment!! Yes, I do have more analysis videos in the works! 😊
I'd love to see something like a tier list in the end of these videos with summary of all stars the games gained. Love you videos, Caitlyn!
Oh that's a great idea! I'll have to look at adding that in for future analysis videos, thanks!
@@WizardKittenYT I have an intresting crime question is it bad writing or good writing if we the player or the viewer if its a tv show if we can figure out who the culprit by the time the game or show is over
@Kelsey that's such a good question!! I wouldn't necessarily say that a mystery or crime show has bad writing per say if you can guess the culprit, BUT I also wouldn't say that it has the BEST. In my opinion, the best writing has all the clues you need to figure out the culprit, but does such a good job of tricking you that you weren't able to figure it out!
@@WizardKittenYT You know I would love to hear your thoughts on the nancy drew cw show or on the hardy boys the hidden theft and if you want a paranormal series you can try the delaware st john series
@@kelsey1467 I unfortunately haven't watched the Nancy Drew CW show or the Hardy Boys show! They haven't sounded like wonderful adaptations based on what I've heard, so I've sort of been avoiding them, haha!
I'd maybe sub in Danger by Design because while I did love that game, I did think that the two mysteries were very separated, and solving one and then JUST HAPPENING to stumble on the answer and motivations for the other one at the end was a little frustrating. Plus that WILD final puzzle. Definitely one of those games that felt let down by its ending to me, far more than Malloy at least. Otherwise, you're spot on with my ranking!
I totally know what you mean! DAN was my #11 for this list because it is super random and pretty much an exposition dump. The only thing that saved it is that I think actually "fighting" a culprit is extremely realistic and isn't done any other time in the series, so I gave it points for creativity and realism!
Not even lying, I think I blew myself up about 200 times before I FINALLY figured out that puzzle at the end of Haunting of Castle Malloy. Soooo infuriating! Great list, by the way!
LOL, that puzzle is sooo aggravating!
I know it's kind of random but I was binge-watching bunch of your videos and came up with a fun idea for the possible video. Smth like top 10 funniest or easiest ways you can earn money in the games. Maybe also top 10 worst ways or the most time-consuming ways to earn money
Ooh that would be really interesting to analyze! Thanks so much for the idea!
A new video by Caitlyn is always the best way to start my day :) also rewatching livestreams while I study and run errands as background noise. Thanks for the videos as always!
That is so incredibly kind of you, thank you! It makes me so so happy to hear that!
What sucks about a lot of these villains is that they could have been much improved with just a few bits of dialogue of items sprinkled throughout the game. Maybe some old bills or letters that could hint at motivation. And for the shattered Medalion culprit, why not make them related to some previous villain which could work into the whole "betrayal" thing. Great video and I look forward to a best culprit list sometime in the future :)
Exactly!! There really isn't a lot of work required to make a villain seem so much more dynamic! Little clues here and there really add up!
I’m still the only person I know that actually likes Trail of the Twister and Kapu Cave
You certainly aren't alone, there are some other fellow detectives who let me know that they like those games too! They tend to be less popular overall, but not always!
You didn't know Dwayne used to be an actor? Mattie told us that she met Dwayne while they were both working on "Romeo and Juliet" (and you can see him in Shakespeare's garb on a poster in his office), and if that wasn't enough, in one of our phone calls to Dwayne, when Nancy asked him if he was jealous of Rick, he said that Rick "can't act his way out of a paper bag" that he'd spent years working on his craft, but because "I'm not a blond, blue-eyed fool, I had NO PLACE IN THIS BUSINESS." He then apologized for his outburst, and says he still regrets not pursuing his acting career further. And if memory serves, Mystico listed him as "a failed actor". So while there's plenty of bad to be said about RAN, they were at least going off of an established fact.
I cut SCK a bit of slack on Mitch, just because he also came out of nowhere in the book as well. And I give the HER team this much: A kid messing with a drug dealer and getting killed makes a heck of a lot more sense than a kid messing with a Soviet spy and getting killed.
Ah, I guess I missed that in STFD, thanks for filling me in! Yeah, SCK is just kind of messy overall, but it's by no means the worst!
I agree that the Kapu Cave reveal is messy, but I think the method they use (poisoning the pineapples) is absolutely genius
Totally! If we had actually been able to uncover clues on our own that led us to that reveal, that would've been so cool!
I love your videos! We have VERY similar views when it comes to the ND games.
Oh yay! Thank you so much for the lovely comment!
It made me giggle when you said "Ewan McGregor", like the real actor, instead of Ewan McLeod! Hehe
Totally didn't even realize it either until the video posted 😂
I love your ranking videos! I usually have the same/similar rankings as you but you’re able to break it down in a way that I never thought about. Really insightful! You continually show me a new way to enjoy these games 😊
That's so kind of you to say, thank you so much!! I love making these videos! :)
I don't really see a problem with the idea that Dwayne secretly wanted to be an actor. I do think it's vaguely implied in Stay Tuned For Danger. He was an agent for actors, and he was hugely jealous of the actor he repped who made it big. He ran around in that Owen Spader disguise, which was acting of a sort, and seemed to gloat a lot about fooling Nancy and Lillian with it. Frustrated actor? Yeah, that sort of makes sense.
The timeline is wrong, though. Since Nancy never ages, we have to assume that every game in the series takes place in the same semester off that Nancy mentioned in Secrets Can Kill. Not time for ANY villain to go to jail, be released, and come back for revenge. Of course, that doesn't work either, as, if we kept track of season changes in each game, we could probably deduce a minimum number of years that must have elapsed since Secrets Can Kill. That's assuming that the games took place in the order that they were released. If they didn't, if, say, all the winter games took place one after the other, and so forth, then all bets are off.
But the problem with supposing that the games didn't take place in the order we see them is that for most of the series, there's a trailer where Nancy verbally announces what her "next" case is.
I have to agree that I don’t enjoy the chemical puzzle at the end of Castle Malloy but I get a great deal of joy at the explication of it all: “it’s not a banshee (cause those aren’t real); it’s just your run of the mill feral old lady with a jet pack” like who came up with that?
Ugh, I really loved Castle Malloy and it’s ending. I know it’s not a traditional culprit, but it was great and the puzzles in that game, including the ending, were great. You’re not the only one who complains about it (so does Vote4Holt and others), so I get it, but man, for some reason I love that game.
Haha, fair enough! And I can definitely see the positives too! I think the non-traditional culprit reveal is actually very cool, I just struggle so much with the huge puzzle barrier between, "we know the ending now" and "resolution." Do love the culprit situation though! And I think I'd enjoy the puzzles at any other time stamp in the game! Thanks for your thoughts!!
Oh hard agree on these, less so on Labyrinth, but I understand why you ranked it the way you did. And Shattered Medallion is my least favorite game for that reason, among others. It's just . . . New Zealand, Sonny, Nancy, Bess, and George all deserved better.
Ugh, I so agree!! Such a disappointing game!!
I hated Labyrinth of Lies until the ending. Those puzzles were amazing
They are fun puzzles, I agree! I just personally wish they didn't interrupt the ending!
I was going to suggest that you make the top 10 best/worst culprits videos; you must have been reading my mind, Caitlyn. 😄 I knew that Silent Spy would be on your list because I can never forget Ewan's reasoning for being the culprit. *In Scottish accent* "Because I can!" I was shocked that Midnight in Salem wasn't #1 since you severely dislike it so much. If they had set up Ransom of the Seven Ships better and had more characters as potential culprits, do you think using a past culprit could have worked somehow? If so, who would you choose? I like the idea of having a returning culprit, but only if it's done right.
This might be too much of a challenge, but I'd like to see you do an analysis video about which Nancy Drew PC games would benefit from if they were made into feature films based on the problems that particular games had (that a movie could fix) and how storylines/characters would be better if they were expanded upon. Does that make sense? It'd also be cool if you said which actors you thought could play the roles.
I had an idea for a photo series on the WizardKittenYT Instagram; the different animals prominently shown in the games (those with names like Isis🐺, Coucou🦜, Loulou🦜, Iggy🦎, Uri🐱, Bob🐎, Casper🐿, Tumi🐶, Bernie🐊, Suki🐱, etc.) You could show the other animals in the games that weren't named too. I know how much you love animals, especially Queen Mel 👑, so I thought you might be interested in that idea.
One last thing, I wanted to know if you've ever bought anything off the HER Interactive website because I want to know how reliable the site is when using a debit/credit card. I'm interested in a few of the soundtracks and thought you'd be the person to ask.
Great video as always!
Raeimarie coming in yet again with the awesome suggestions!! Thank you for all those great ideas! I'm always skeptical about returning culprits just because it hasn't really been done well before, but that doesn't mean it couldn't!! And I would say that ordering the soundtracks from the website is totally safe. That's where I got mine and it went great!
Trail of the Twister seemed out of order and like it was missing dialog. Had options been added to talk more about evidence and some parts rearranged to make more sense story-wise, it would have been decent. I'm sad because I can see the missed potential with that one
How is it that you don't have Secrets Can Kill? If you can't find it, periodic checks of Half Price Books and/or eBay have a good chance of catching it. I'm pretty sure I found my copy at Half Price Books.
I agree with a lot of these but I think one of my least favorite endings/culprits is Louis in the Haunted Mansion. I felt like that ending was a little too brief and too simple and left a lot to be desired.
I can definitely see that!
I really liked Malloy, but i don't like the Danger by Design, that ending was so weird and kinda lame villain and motive in my opinion
ten of my least favourite culprit reveals
Silent spy
shattered medallion
Labyrinth of lies
Ransom of the seven ships
haunting of castle Malloy
I replay old Nancy Drew games all the time, but I honestly really dislike much of the newer ones. Some are standouts to me (I loved Ghost of Thornton Hall, but I'm a big fan of southern gothic, so that's no surprise) but I never much enjoyed the likes of Alibi In Ashes.
I definitely skew more towards enjoying the classics as well, the stories just tend to hit better!