Detective Grimoire is back in an upcoming sequel called The Mermaid Mask. This time the case is an impossible locked-room murder mystery, and it’s up to you and Sally to solve it. If you’ve played SFB Games’ previous instalment, Tangle Tower, then you’ll be familiar with Detective Grimoire and his partner Sally. Together they investigate the strange and mysterious, but instead of a tower, this time you’ll be heading into the strangest submarine.
In the pitch-black waters beyond a long-abandoned fishing town, the enigmatic captain of the world’s strangest submarine has been murdered. Some say he was an immortal time-traveller. Others say he was a vampire, cursed to stay hidden beneath the waves forever…
If you’re a fan of the mystery genre and get a kick out of Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot’s adventures, then you’re going to want to keep this on your wishlist. The Mermaid Mask arrives on July 17th 2026 on the PS5, Nintendo Switch 1 & 2, and PC – Steam (check out the demo on Steam).
What’s the Case, Detective?
Step back into the polished shoes of Detective Grimoire, joined as always by his brilliantly sharp-tongued partner Sally. Forget a cozy English manor. This time, you’ve been summoned to the Mortuga Submarine, a vessel that looks like someone bolted a Victorian study onto a deep-sea diver’s nightmare. It’s parked off the coast of Silkwirm-on-Sea, a fishing village that stopped being human a long time ago.
The victim? Captain Magnus Mortuga. Rumoured immortal. Possible vampire. Alleged time traveller. Very definitely dead.
He’s been found in a locked room, crumpled beside an ancient stone cauldron. No visible wounds. No forced entry. Just a very dead captain, a very confused crew, and the distinct smell of magic bubbling under the surface.
This is a classic impossible crime setup, but it filters everything through SFB’s signature wit. You’re not just solving a murder. You’re untangling whether a curse did it, whether one of the submarine’s deeply eccentric crew members did it, or whether the truth is somehow even stranger. (Spoiler: It’s always stranger.)
Gameplay: How To Solve Things
The Mermaid Mask is a handcrafted point-and-click investigation with real texture.
Here’s how a typical case beat unfolds:
1. Examine The Clues: Every clue is a fully realised 3D object. You rotate it. You flip it. You find the hidden compartment, the faded inscription, the tiny detail that breaks the whole case open.
2. Interrogate the weirdos: The crew of the Mortuga isn’t just suspicious. They’re memorably suspicious. Fully voice-acted, sharply written, and animated with that signature SFB bouncy-but-eerie style. Sally, bless her, is at peak “Sally-ness”—which means she will say exactly what you’re thinking, usually with more sarcasm.
3. Build the contradiction: If you’re a veteran Ace Attorney player, this part will feel familiar to you. Clues don’t just stack. They clash. You’ll find a witness statement that directly conflicts with a physical object’s hidden detail, and the game trusts you to bridge that gap yourself.
The Mermaid Mask
SFB Games has a quietly incredible track record. Tangle Tower (2019) was a sharp, funny, beautifully drawn mystery that understood something crucial: adventure games live or die on their characters and their puzzles, in that order.
The Mermaid Mask follows the same two detectives. Same voice cast. Same lovingly hand-painted environments. But the scope feels bigger. The submarine isn’t just a single location—it’s a vertical puzzle box, every room hiding something that recontextualises the room before it. And the locked-room mystery? It’s genuinely clever. You’re not just asking “who did it.” You’re asking “how do you kill someone who might not have been alive to begin with?”
The Mermaid Mask launches July 17th, 2026, on the PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch (1 and 2), and PC. The demo is on Steam right now.
