My Dear Frankenstein Game Review

My Dear Frankenstein is a point-and-click adventure visual novel produced by the indie Japanese circle Number7. Moonchime Studios is pleased to bring international audiences their amazing work in English! As a newborn little monster, the protagonist will have to explore the City of Shipberry at night and search for the fragments of his heart that got scattered all around it. Players will get to delve into universal themes like life, friendship and grief through his experiences in this emotional quest. The game’s main features are adventure and exploration: enjoy solving puzzles and mysteries while getting to know its endearing cast!

“Come. While the darkness is still welcoming…”

Game Details

Point-and-Click | Adventure | Puzzle
Price: $4.99
Platforms: PC & Mac | Steam
Languages: English

Story

This all began a certain night when a storm was about to pass.
In a basement where the ceiling loomed over its guests like a tombstone over its
grave, a monster boy was born.
His name is Adam.
A ghost claiming to be Adam’s friend comes to him: “Your heart shattered and its
pieces got scattered about. Let’s collect them together.”
Led by the ghost, he goes out to the city night after night in search of the pieces
of his heart.
Meeting people, unveiling mysteries, recovering his heart…
One day, the secret of his birth shall be revealed.
Official Synopsis – Moonchime Localization

⭐Content warning: suicide, cruelty, references to death and the occult.⭐

Each night you and your companion explore the city solving puzzles and meeting the unique residents, like the sweet as pie, sweet’s shop owner Melanie; the friendly painter; and Miguel’s beautiful cousin, Paige. There are many secrets to be uncovered on your journey and each new heart fragment brings you closer to the truth and unlocking one of the game’s five unique endings.

Features

Explore the City of Shipberry and solve its mysteries and puzzles to recover the fragments of your heart! Play the main missions to enjoy an engrossing story and get to know your friend’s backstories through additional missions and puzzles!
Dozens of items and secrets to collect! You choose how your story plays out, how you solve the mysteries and how you combine the heart fragments to give Adam his reason and emotions back.
The choices you make will get you in up to 5 different endings! The more times you play it, the more you’ll discover.

A Spooky Cute Point-And Click Adventure

Take on the role of Adam, a newly born monster, the latest creation of a scientist named Miguel. With no memories of your past and no idea why you were created, you must travel around the city of Shipberry with your ghostly companion to find the shattered fragments of your heart. Collecting Adam’s missing heart fragments is the main objective of the game. Each one can be used to restore Adam’s Reason or Emotion, which is important when making in-game choices, as some choices require Adam to have a certain level of reason/emotion. From what I’ve seen the locked choices seem to lead to more meaningful interactions with the other characters and provide more insight into Adam’s past/relationship with those around him. You can choose to boost Adam’s reason/emotion however you like–during my playthrough I went for a more balanced approach which seemed to do well, but it’s completely up to you.

My Dear Frankenstein blends together the interactive gameplay of a point-and-click adventure with the immersive storytelling of a visual novel, which lends itself well to multiple replays, the more you play, the more you uncover. I quite like the puzzles, most were pretty straightforward and range from lighting street lamps to move a statue hiding a heart fragment to number puzzles. Some puzzles require the use of special items to complete which you can obtain by interacting with your environment or simply talking with other characters. Of course, you can interact with characters outside of puzzle solving, many of the residents of Shipberry will provide you with key insight into the history of the town and other characters.

As it is with most point-and-click games I will admit that clicking around a map to interact with items can get a bit tedious after awhile, but as a whole I liked the way the mechanic was handled in the game overall. But, where the game really shined was with it’s mystery–I am a sucker for a good mystery and fairly early on I was eager to get to learn more about Adam and the mysterious Barns family. As you progress through the story, Adam will have dreams that seem to be memories (or rather fragments of memories) and while it is unclear what they mean early on, by the end of it all the puzzle pieces all come together.

Final Verdict on My Dear Frankenstein

Overall, My Dear Frankenstein is a super fun game and I recommend giving it a try if you love mystery adventures. The puzzles are just challenging enough to be fun and I quite liked the mystery surrounding Adam and his past. The art is cute, and kind of puts me in the mind of a picture book, and the story does kind of feel like a spooky fairytale, so it’s definitely fitting. I loved the characters, especially Adam (baby boi must be protected)! All in all, if you’re looking for something to play going into the spooky season, My Dear Frankenstein should definitely be on your list!