Mirage Noir Demo Review
Entry 2 of the Steam Train Mini Series
Dearest reader,
Steam Train mini series notes:
• All games that will be mentioned in this series are single player
•Most of the games will fall under the Otome or visual novel genre. I have been playing Otome games since I was a pre-teen and in high school I truly adored finding demo reccs from tumblr and playing them. Of course, not all Otome games I’ve played have been enjoyable or objectively good and I know they’re not everyone’s cup of tea and that’s okay! Even if they’re not a genre you play, hopefully this newsletter is interesting enough!
•Most of these don’t come out for 1-3 years😭 Yes, I am suffering🙂 I get it 100% but I also NEEEEDD to know what happens next
•I’ll make sure to mention any important content warnings but always make sure to check the full list from the developers.
•These reviews will not contain character or plot spoilers!
Alright, full steam ahead!
Mirage Noir
Studio Chawan, 2024. Mirage Noir. https://studiochawan.itch.io/mirage-noir
Genre: Mystery Otome
Release Date: 2026
Content Warnings: Due to the nature of this being a detective game, there is visuals and discussions of violence and death but there was no gore in the demo.
Game Summary:
Yunie once believed she had her whole life ahead of her. With a degree and brand new job in hand, she thought for sure she’d pave her way in the detective world in no time.
Two years later and she has 1 friend, a terrible boss and has spent the better half of the last two years trying to prove herself despite not being allowed to take cases.
But things are about to change for Yunie because an opportunity has revealed itself and there is no way she isn’t taking it. When the case reveals to be even stranger than she initially thought, she is thrust into the middle of an eccentric team and for the first time she feels understood and confident in her abilities. She decides that no matter what, she isn’t going to regret this at all.
Even if it means crossing paths with a serial killer.
Demo Playtime: Playing through all the possible routes of the demo totaled at 4 hours of gameplay.
Main Review
I ate this demo up! I was a massive fan of mystery games growing up but I am also a big scaredy cat so I haven’t found ones that weren’t too spooky for me to play as an adult. This however was such a perfect balance of romance and mystery. I really enjoyed the user interface and the games visuals are gorgeous, the color palette and character designs are all stunning and fit the games vibe well. The interface was easy to follow with notable icons and in game aids to remind the player where to find certain information necessary during deduction scenes. If you’ve played Ace Attorney or Bustafellows, the gameplay has similar components with the use of point-and-click investigations and timed decision prompts mixed in with the usual components of a visual novel Otome game like untimed dialogue prompts and flashback scenes. There are also a few mini-games incorporated into the gameplay with a mention of a side-quest given to Yunie by Sami. I won’t spoil that one, though ;) I’d be remiss to not mention the writing, the writers on this game did a fantastic job! The story is immersive and interactive, giving just the right amount of detail so that the dialogue and story fed to the player never gets boring or cumbersome. I appreciated that the there really wasn’t any info-dumping past the very first opening scenes as the rest of the dialogue, timed-choices and story are segmented with mini-games and interactive components. I will admit that I do skip dialogue on games that are ill-paced but Mirage Noirs was perfect so I didn’t skip any of the dialogue.
Overall, this game has incredible amounts of promise. This demo was crafted with so much thought and if the writing, plot, and gameplay is as strong in the full game as the demo then this is truly a gem of a game.
Romanceable Characters
There are four romanceable characters that are introduced to us in the game demo.
Alexei- 27 years old, Gangster
Studio Chawan, 2024. Mirage Noir. https://studiochawan.itch.io/mirage-noir
The youngest brother of a notorious gang in the city with a reputation that precedes him. Alexei in actuality is incredibly mischevious and laid-back and is the true ‘core’ of the romanceable characters connection with each other. Alexei is nothing if not loyal to those he respects and cares for and his demo route did not disappoint. I am ecstatic to play through his route in full when the game comes out (was it obvious that he’d be my first playthrough choice?)
Thierry- 27, Prince
Studio Chawan, 2024. Mirage Noir. https://studiochawan.itch.io/mirage-noir
The overworked diplomat who has a penchant for secrecy and a dislike for meetings that definitely could’ve been an email. In the demo alone we get to see glimmers of a snarky and observant man behind his diplomatic and slightly cynical exterior.
Jem- 28, Full-Time Streamer
Studio Chawan, 2024. Mirage Noir. https://studiochawan.itch.io/mirage-noir
If sunshine was a character, it would be Jem. A popular streamer with pastel pink hair and a cheerful personality who has a fondness for cosplaying as law enforcement. Throughout the demo, it’s clear that Jem truly just wants to feel useful and help others and I can’t help but have a major soft spot for him.
Sami- 25, Programmer
Studio Chawan, 2024. Mirage Noir. https://studiochawan.itch.io/mirage-noir
Sami is described as inscrutable by the devs but I found him to be just a slightly cynical introvert who just genuinely doesn’t have many positive interactions with people outside of the team. As a programmer who spends all his time holed up in his house, I felt like his difficulty expressing himself was pretty understandable. Through his route in the demo, though, we get to see glimmers of his true personality.
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I played all four routes in this demo and all the opportunities to interact with these characters were unique! Despite all of these characters wildly different personalities, occupations, and motives for working together it melded so well and that speaks volumes to the thought and preparation the developers have put into this demo.
Playable Character
You playable character is a rookie detective who has a set story, personality, and character design so there are no other options for character customization. For that reason, in this piece I will continue to refer to the playable character as Yunie.
Studio Chawan, 2024. Mirage Noir. https://studiochawan.itch.io/mirage-noir
Yunie is a 24 year-old rookie detective who is such a lovable playable character and has a true heart of gold. She is a bubbly over-thinker who often tends to dismiss her own abilities and capabilities in both her personal and professional life. She also has impeccably timed humor and her inner thoughts often had me giggling throughout the demo. She has one true friend within the city that is often mentioned and makes multiple appearances throughout the demo.
Studio Chawan, 2024. Mirage Noir. https://studiochawan.itch.io/mirage-noir
Fio is a childhood friend who has known Yunie for years and is a 25 year old hostess who works at a popular club in the city. She is everything Yunie expresses she wants to be; gorgeous, cool, confident and popular. Fio, though, could genuinely care less what anyone but Yunie thinks of her unless it’s getting her free drinks. Fio is far more impulsive than Yunie is and I felt like their dynamic of introvert v. extrovert was incredibly realistic. From what I could see within the demo, I think she is intended to be an important fixture within the full game.
Accessibility Features
I think it’s important to mention the accessibility components of games and this one has a few notable ones. You can actually toggle off the timed segments which is a really neat accessibility option for those who have longer processing times or just generally don’t find that enjoyable in a game play. In the settings it’s also possible to change the text speed, auto-forward time, disable visual transitions, lower/raise sound or completely mute it. It is also an option to opt into story-mode that focuses more on the plot and leaves out the deduction sequences. This basically just means the correct answers will be highlighted. That being said, I already felt like there were multiple safety-nets in place within the deduction sequences that even if you were to get the answers wrong, the game redirects you in some manner that allows you to continue to investigate and choose the correct answer. So the stakes aren’t that high in terms of game play which I feel is fine in this story setting, though, I am personally partial to a choices-matter game style.
The ‘help’ screen for keyboard and mouse directions for the game can be found within the ‘menu’ icon in the top right corner of the game screen. I noticed the game included an assistive self-voicing option that can be toggled on by clicking V on the keyboard which was cool! An accessibility screen can also be accessed in-game via shift+A with options to override the default text, change text size and line spacing and enable high contrast text.
Extra Thoughts
I stated this in my last review but I always play all the routes possible for fun, not just because I am reviewing them and I love when developers create a little bonus for the players for playing all the routes. That’s right, y’all, there are BONUS SCENES unlocked once all romanceable character routes have been completed! Also, something the dev’s did which I appreciated was that you can skip to ‘the beginning of the second demo’ after your first play through which means you can skip all the world-building and character introductions to just play through each characters romance route in the demo. Shout out to the devs for creating that, honestly, y’all are real ones.
Until next time dear reader,
Dev xx