Nancy Drew: Shadow at the Water's Edge
Shadow at the Water's Edge is the 23rd installment in the Nancy Drew point-and-click adventure game series by Her Interactive. The game is available for play on Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X platforms. It has an ESRB rating of E10+ for moments of mild violence and disturbing imagery. Players take on the first-person view of fictional amateur sleuth Nancy Drew and must solve the mystery through interrogation of suspects, solving puzzles, and discovering clues. There are two levels of gameplay, Junior and Senior detective modes, each offering a different difficulty level of puzzles and hints, however neither of these changes affect the plot of the game. The game is loosely based on two books, Tour of Danger and The Thirteenth Pearl.
Plot
Nancy Drew travels as an English teacher to Kyoto, Japan with friends Bess Marvin and George Fayne as a reward for solving the preceding mystery. Once she arrives at her Ryokan, however, she discovers that not all is as it seems. Strange events, supposedly caused by a woman who died there mysteriously, are scaring away guests. One by one, the guests leave the Ryokan Hiei until Nancy is left only with the secretive family that owns the inn. Unable to resist a mystery, Nancy works to discover who, or what is haunting the inn.Characters
Nancy Drew – Nancy is an 18-year-old amateur detective from the fictional town of River Heights in the United States. She is the only playable character in the game, which means the player must solve the mystery from her perspective.Miwako Shimizu – Miwako is the receptionist at the Ryokan Hiei. She is devoted to the Ryokan and her family heritage, although, being the youngest daughter in the Shimizu family, she is not going to inherit the inn. She is a very shy, polite, and delicate person, unlike her sister Yumi. She is very upset when she hears anything about her dead mother, Kasumi. Her traditional views create tension between her and her older sister Yumi and her boyfriend Rentaro.Yumi Shimizu – Yumi is the oldest daughter in the Shimizu family who runs a bento stand called Happy Bento in the inner city of Kyoto. As the eldest daughter, she is, by tradition, to inherit her family's Ryokan, although she prefers to live in the city. She has a very strained relationship with her family, due in part to her unconventional views and overbearing personality. Miwako considers her a brat, but Yumi thinks Miwako needs to have more fun.Rentaro Aihara – Longtime friend and neighbor of the Shimizu's, Rentaro is also Miwako's boyfriend and the Ryokan's handyman. He is into electronics, and bought a robotic cat, Suki, for Miwako. His goofy and quirky personality sometimes annoys the Shimizus, but for the most part, they get along well. Rentaro is a friendly but eccentric person. He dreams of one day moving to the city with Miwako, but Miwako feels too tied to the inn to move.Takae Nagai – Takae is Miwako and Yumi's grandmother. Having grown up and lived in the Ryokan her whole life, Takae has seen many things happen there, including the accidental death of her daughter, Kasumi. Still, she insists on following tradition, even if it's against both of her granddaughter's wishes. She believes Yumi should move back in order to take over the Ryokan.Additional voice work was performed by Chris Maxfield, Naoko Nibu-Butler, Akika Tanaka, Adrienne Maclain, and Sana Watterson.