YMMV / Mystery Case Files

• Alternate Character Interpretation: The revelation in Key that Charles fathered Gwendolyn and Charlotte, not just Victor, suggests that Rose may not have been as fragile or innocent as she'd seemed to be in the earlier games. Indeed, if she was sleeping with Charles while still living as Mr. Somerset's wife, it's conceivable that she'd attempted to help Emma escape out of jealousy, not fear for Emma's own welfare. And Charles probably knew it, hence his mistreatment of Rose while she was his Replacement Goldfish for Emma.
• Ass Pull: The ending of Fate's Carnival can be considered this. The last puzzle you have to solve is destroying Alister Dalimar's journal (which you've had since the beginning of the game) with a silver dagger. However, when that doesn't work, what do you use to stop it? Your silver badge — thanks to Madame Fate's advice — which was originally used as the logo for the franchise and which could've been used prior to the puzzle to end the game earlier!
• Even Better Sequel: According to the reviews at Big Fish, Incident at Pendle Tower is leagues better than the previous MCF installments produced by GrandMa Studios.
• Funny Moments: In 13th Skull, the bartender at the local dive asks you to unclog the toilet. When you succeed, you are heralded by the sounds of people cheering and applauding.
  • It's a bit of Black Comedy, but in the Workshop in Ravenhearst, there's a book that proves that Charles was beyond a doubt keeping Emma ill by spiking her food. The book's title? "How to Poison Your Wife." You have to wonder who wrote it.
• Nausea Fuel: The orders Charles's mother gives him in Escape from Ravenhearst. See also No Yay below.
• No Yay: Charles and the Master Detective's interactions in Escape from Ravenhearst. First, he asks her to "give birth to him". She does. Then he pulls off an Accidental Marriage trick on her. Gah.
• Tear Jerker: In Ravenhearst, you learn that Emma originally planned to return to Iowa when she heard that her father was ill, only to get sick herself and have to stay with Charles while she recovered. It's later revealed that Charles—in addition to poisoning her and likely being the reason she became unwell in the first place—was keeping all of the correspondence she got from her mother and sister hidden away. So not only was Emma unable to be with her father while he was dying, her entire family never knew what happened to her and likely assumed that she hated them for some reason because she wasn't writing back. Both Emma and her father died without knowing anything about the other's life or pain.
  • Also in Ravenhearst—the only reason Emma was poisoned in the first place is because she went to tell Charles that she had to leave. She was just trying to do a kind thing for someone she genuinely viewed as a friend, and it resulted in her extended illness, horrible murder, and over a century of suffering as a trapped ghost.

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