Duck Detective: The Secret Salami - #4 - Questionable Jurisducktion

[@kentonroush]

The detective story ending with the detective making the questionably-moral choice to decide for himself who should and shouldn't be reported to the police is a trope as old as the genre. Even Holmes himself occasionally lets the criminal go because he feels the law would be unjust. So the ending choice makes perfect sense to me. ...What *doesn't* make sense is *how* that choice is done. You should have the choice to report no one at all- Not to mention Rufus. Just feels weirdly tonally dissonant suddenly as it is.

[@timothymclean]

I also feel it's worth noting that Duck Detective is tonally out of step with the kinds of detective stories where the detective has to make that kind of choice. At the very least, there should be some kind of goofy twist. Something that fits a story where the Detective gets called in to solve a lunch theft, and multiple suspects are excited that a Real Detective is visiting the office, and the Detective is addicted to bread instead of booze, and one of the blackmailer's chief demands is a TV in his personal break room, and Laura is _comically_ overworked instead of _dramatically_ overworked, and Sophie makes a quip about how bad her own lie was, and the first mystery the Detective solves is "today is Sophie's birthday," and Freddy.

[@kentonroush]

@@timothymclean Yeah exactly. I get what they were going for, making this kind of final choice a thing. But they didn't manage to make it fit. It isn't funny. This felt like it was leading up to the whole thing being some big overblown office politics thing with no one or everyone equally to blame... And instead it turns serious at the last second.

[@DominoPivot]

Freddy can't be an investigator, he's a crocodile.

[@ember-fire7583]

At first, I didn't get it, but after a few hours the joke finally hit me! Bravo maker of this joke, bravo!

[@TheOneHistoryGuy]

I feel like if they were going to make the Duck Detective decide how all of this ends (which, in fairness, is a classic trope of the noir detective), you should have several more options: -Arrest no-one and explain why -Arrest Rufus and Margaret as well or separately -Arrest Manfred for STEALING LAURA'S LUNCH (because that's why you're were there in the first place) -Arrest Frederson as the true mastermind! -Arrest everyone (because Laura needs a break and Frederson is just annoying) It just feels a bit jarring to have it be this funny, absurd subversion of the noir style detective story and then have it kind of...end in the way it did. There's a bit of a weird tonal shift in the ending and it throws the whole thing off. Which is a shame because I really enjoyed this playthrough and the game itself.

[@sofer2230]

The fact that you can't even suggest to report Rufus for fraud and blackmail makes the ending even more... iffy.

[@TrinityLHearts]

Totally - tho I think that's part of the joke too x D

[@raulperez375]

This is a surprisingly dark game for its aesthetic. I was particularly struck by the duck detective investigating his reflection and concluding he's tired, destitute, and pathetic.

[@Grymhar]

The fact that the only crime that you can arrest people for at the end is the smuggling, which is just a far more victimless crime than the embezzling or the kidnapping, is so weird. It's not the crime you're hired to solve, either.

[@timothymclean]

It would be weird if you arrested someone for stealing Laura's lunch. Also hilarious. They should have done that.

[@craazyy1]

Calling smuggling victimless assumes the laws exist for no purpose. The victim is the government, and whoever the government intends to help with those laws. There's a real chance that you don't *agree* with the governments reason for the law, and considering this place seems a bit dystopic, there's a real chance I don't agree too, but there IS still a victim.

[@timothymclean]

@@craazyy1 Point 1, you could make that argument about any law. It's an argument against the concept of victimless crime. Point 2, it's a bad argument against victimless crime. You're assuming the law was made for a good reason and not a trade-war reason or a we-need-a-bus-crime-for-the-plot-to-work reason or something. Point 3, the comment wasn't complaining about being able to punish smuggling, but being unable to punish any of the other crimes. The blackmail, the fraud, the theft, the kidnapping. Even the voucher fraud has a much more direct negative impact on its victims (it's a mildly obfuscated way to steal money from the company), and also Sophie was tied up and stuffed in a bus luggage rack. That seems more relevant to Manfred's guilt than whether he had the idea to smuggle salami! 🎤

[@Grymhar]

@@craazyy1 I agree with all this, but I said *more* victimless. There are degrees to which crimes have victims, and this one is the least of the three.

[@timothymclean]

@@Grymhar *four You forgot about Laura's lunch getting stolen.

[@PlebNC]

When I look at Ducktective I keep thinking his little notebook is actually him cradling a wine bottle in his arm.

[@timothymclean]

Don't be ridiculous. He doesn't have a drinking problem. He has a bread problem.

[@PlebNC]

@timothymclean Me, dipping brioche into rum: "why not both?"

[@justalilguyyourhonor]

absolutely spot on readings of keyboard smashing 2:24 they just give a Vibe and i would not have been able to articulate it at all so well done 🤣

[@Finvaara]

Spoilers related to the ending. . . . . . . The fact that you can't report Rufus and Margaret so frustrating to me. We clearly uncovered evidence of their crimes and they seem to be the source of all of the problems. Not even an option.

[@chellie2188]

I wanted to arrest Rufus so much and the fact that the player could not do that irritated me and dampened how I felt about the game in general.

[@mossbugprincess]

OH MY GOD I KNEW FREDDY'S VOICE SOUNDED FAMILIAR literally at the start of the episode when you talked to him i went "oh this sounds like BDG doing a silly voice"

[@MrMisterkrazy]

I think the worst part of the ending is just making the player decide. If the Duck Detective just called the cops and told them about the conspiracy and all three got taken in for questioning, it would be a weirdly sober ending (especially if Laura had a similar reaction to Sophie's arrest), but at least not as uncomfortable

[@octochan]

Yeah, thats basically my headcanon for what actually happened. I booked all three of them and let the police and the courts sort it out

[@acecat2798]

No disrespect to the game overall, but this ending shows even more why Frog Detective 3 is the ultimate animal detective game of all time. No one should be sent to the Bad Room.

[@imveryangryitsnotbutter]

In most cases yes, but I would say that in the cases of criminals which pose a risk of bodily harm to the general public, they do need to be isolated in some way.

[@timothymclean]

@@imveryangryitsnotbutter The Bad Room (and its real-world equivalents) are bad solutions to the problem they claim to solve. To pick a low-hanging fruit, if you don't want to lock them up in the Bad Room and throw away the key, you run into the problem that extended time in the Bad Room makes people more likely to cause harm to the general public in the future.

[@imveryangryitsnotbutter]

@@timothymclean Then what is a better solution to prevent perpetrators of violent crimes from posing a continued hazard to other people's well-being?

[@timothymclean]

@@imveryangryitsnotbutter Why are you asking that question to a KZbin comment when you could go to the KZbin search bar and look for video essays about prison abolition?

[@timothymclean]

@@imveryangryitsnotbutter Also, "Do you have any better solutions?" is a weird response to "Your solution literally does not do what you claim it does".

[@TheIgle]

I feel it necessary to bring up that Arrested doesn't mean Convicted of crimes. I mean, I don't know what their post-arrest situation is in this fictional world, but it does seem as likely they'll be thrown in jail without any separate judgement or perhaps they would get tried by a jury of their peers.

[@henke37]

The resignation note had a rather curious typo. I mean, not even I misspell my own name. That often.

[@MaxIzrin]

The ending reminded me of Paradise Killer, where you play the detective Lady Love Dies, and act as judge, jury, and executioner. Good game.

[@DrDark0]

I think the dissonance with the ending has a lot to do with, as you said, tone. The game was very tongue in cheek with it's pastiche of noir tropes right up until the ending, which is suddenly very po-faced. Like, that ending is just a straight neo-noir ending, no subversion, no playing with the genre. It's like if someone spliced in the ending of Chinatown into the final five minutes of Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Baffling choice.

[@atoth62]

/Sees what you did there with the choice of those two movies.

[@TJ-vo3rv]

Brian David Gilbert voicing Freddy explains why Unraveled suddenly started popping up into my recommendeds after I started watching this series lol. The Algorithm knows all!

[@cocoacoconuts24]

You’d enjoy Aviary Attorney! Exactly what it sounds like, with actual divergent endings!

[@imveryangryitsnotbutter]

I second this.

[@gothblin]

In this episode, Choices about the game's tone are made! In spite of that, I did enjoy this playthrough. Thanks both!

[@MyAlternate-k7k]

I'm gonna somewhat disagree about the tone being wrong (at least in my opinion). I think the comparison that it should have been more like the Frog Detective games is somewhat off, despite the similar titles. The Frog Detective is funny by being constantly absurd and completely innocent. This game more so bases its humor on juxtaposition. The first sentence in the game is "I was a freshly divorced duck , not able to pay next month's rent." followed by by the "bread addiction/alcoholism" comparison. Or how when you look in the mirror he looks like a simple cartoon duck, but zooming in reveals detailed baggy eyes full of sadness. It is silly, but its silly because of an implied seriousness that is usually found in the detective genre. Not saying the ending is necessarily great or anything. I don't really think the choices are a meaningful addition but more of a genre trope. But to me, I thought the point was more so the juxtaposition where everyone is upset by the revelations and accusations, only to be followed by Freddy interrupting with "you Quacked the Case".

[@gyrrakavian]

2:43 I agree with Carrie's interpretation of the keyboard mash. 3:16 I can't be the only person who turns of autocorrect. (The inbuilt dictionaries are missing SO MANY words.) 4:49 You gotta start somewhere (brass section starts looping as a fiddle starts to play) 6:43 "Don't stalk people, Freddy!" 35:25 The kingpin penguin! 57:33 In this case, same. 58:56 Oh right! The Duck Detective is an ex-cop. 1:01:45 Isn't bread meant to be a stand end for booze?

[@spiller194]

I think you mean Quacktionable Jurisducktion

[@1e1001]

6:41 fun fact, that's a real bluesky profile

[@red5_skywalker]

Before twitter exploded, it was a real twitter profile too!

[@scorpioneldar]

so the letters on the safe are positions. not people. I wonder if BD for buss driver means how many bus drivers not something to do with the one bus driver we know. the note says there are 4. its not Boris that is connceted to the number. its the position that is. CS well we have 2 CS desks. so perhaps there should be 2 CS workers. Haven't figured out the OO number yet. however... I do wonder if that is it. I am at 22:54 and I wanted to put my thoughts down before we continue.

[@scorpioneldar]

YES~! I was RIGHT!

[@jameshart2622]

So I have to add my voice to the folks complaining about the tonal shift at the end. I absolutely agree. That said, it did give us a wonderful chance to have the pun in the video title, so not a complete loss.

[@NotMeButAnother]

Ignoring for a moment all the reasons to dislike the ending, I think it's weird fewer people chose to arrest Sophie than Boris, despite him pretty clearly the most innocent of the bunch. Choosing Manfred if you have to choose someone on the other hand makes some sense, because even of you'd want to let everyone go for the smuggling, kidnapping is kind of a more serious deal.

[@MrMisterkrazy]

On my first go, I chose Manfred and, reluctantly, Boris, and let Sophie off the hook because it seemed she was about to turn the whole crew in anyways, plus she's had an even worse experience (getting kidnapped, tied up, and stuffed in a bus locker) than the actual victim of the inciting incident who just got their lunch stolen! I'd imagine the global statistics follow a similar logic. That said, after seeing everyone's reactions, and especially Sophie's lack of remorse and Boris's lack of comprehension, I reloaded and did Manfred+Sophie. Strictly speaking, in a decent criminal justice system, Boris would be safe to arrest too, counting on the jury to sympathize with him, and probably reducing Sophie's sentence too, to my prior concern. But then, it's probably NOT a decent criminal justice system given that they're letting a small-time private detective tell them who and who not to arrest, instead of letting the police listen to his testimony and deciding on their own...

[@Doomsword0]

The voice acting in this game is great, especially Sophie

[@christopherlundgren1700]

I don't know how much it would assuage your guilt for getting three people arrested, but all you did was report their crimes--which they did--to the police. After that point it would be up to the criminal justice system to prove guilt and assign penalties where appropriate. Kidnapping is a pretty serious crime, but being an accomplice in a salami smuggling scheme maybe not-so-much. Edit: I do feel like it could benefit from the option to arrest or not arrest every character. If you don't limit it only to the three directly involved in the smuggling, then the player gets to decide how seriously to take the end. Do you turn in only the people who have committed the most heinous offenses, or do you turn in people for increasingly more ridiculous "crimes"?

[@red5_skywalker]

Does the end of this mean the return of Just Crow Things?

[@UndeadGirlCyber]

Duck Detective and the Slommy of Sadness :(

[@Rick586]

I called this game "Duckso Elysium" in the comments of the first episode, but I didn't expect it to actually head a little bit in that direction at the end.

[@YondaMoegi]

Sadness :(

[@ArtfulTarrasque]

Nice one Carrie🤣 0:12

[@chriswest6988]

I never noticed before that there's a credit for a different person who wrote the alien fiction. Edit: or that Freddy drives the taxi he called

[@cyclopsboi]

@4:43 so humans and bananas i believe share around 60% of the same DNA so its possible that ducks are a little higher. That fact might not be THAT wrong

[@essneyallen6777]

If they said 70% or even 80% I might have believed it, but animal and plant have a fairly substantive genetic distance. Human and ducks are a lot closer, for instance. Both are vertebrates, so practically siblings in the grand scheme of things. If human/banana is 60%, I'd wager it would be practically the same for duck/banana. To find commonality between duck and banana you have to go back to the the fact that they are both eucaryotes, which is a *lot* more distant. I don't think 90 is believable, but it's been 12 years since my molecular biologist days so I'm not confident 😅

[@YondaMoegi]

Would you like to continue playing silly short indie Detective games? You can try "Honked! a clown noir" where you play a Clown Detective!

[@timothymclean]

1:17:24: Nah, that's justified. I'm also confused by the ending. To me, it feels like something that the author decided to include early on, and the rest of the game changed around that Ending Choice, and the ending was not changed to account for how the rest of the game was different. It does not feel like the ending the rest of the game was building towards. And that's weird, because this doesn't seem like that big of a game. It's one thing when the last couple volumes of a 166-chapter manga are tonally dissonant with the chapters published four and a half years earlier, but it's another thing when it's a small standalone game like this. 2:10: No, that's a keysmash. ...wait, Dan can't participate in this bit. You know, the one that ends with Dan smashing a single 7 or something. 28:25: DUCK FACT: "Server" is not short for "salami". 47:50: Ducktective's brain clearly does not work on linear time. Unless you uncover clues and solve mysteries in a specific order, known only to him. 58:35: "Should Duck Detective get arrested? Should Manfred's phone get arrested? Should the birthday cake get arrested?" 1:12:39: If 100% of players replayed all six possible endings, every character would be 50/50. Since Manfred was convicted 98% of times, no more than 2% of the statistics came from playthroughs where people spared the obvious mastermind to see what happened. 5:00: The Venn diagram of qualified detectives and detectives willing to take such a petty case is two circles. 7:50: "Well, maybe I'm cheap too. That's why Laura hired me." 18:22: Maybe lower your standards. Stop requiring an advanced degree and 5-10 years of experience for entry-level positions! 34:40: You went from "3 things must be wrong" to "3 or more things are wrong" the instant you went from voucher embezzlement to salami smuggling. 45:50: If I caught someone snooping in my secret crime room, I would _not_ act suspiciously angry about people going into that room. 52:50: Extremely plausible. He has an empty bus _right there._ 1:01:25: At least one person is having a good day. 1:05:30: Category Error Detective 1:09:10: I feel like Rufus's blackmail is at least as illegal as whatever Sophie did. 21:40: Oh! Four bus drivers! You think it's Boris because BD, Bus Driver, but what if it's just the number of each kind of employee??? 26:00: Oh. I guess that makes my guess a spoiler.

[@rmsgrey]

With three suspects, each of which can be declared innocent or guilty independently, there would be 8 possible combinations. Since you can't find everyone innocent, that leaves 7 possible combinations, with each suspect arrested in 4 of them, so it'd be 57% each if every player tried every allowed combination (assuming there are no other banned combinations). The 98% is still compelling evidence of Manfred getting arrested almost every time.

[@timothymclean]

@@rmsgrey I don't know how I forgot that "all innocent" isn't an option when I wrote that.

[@TheIgle]

I feel it necessary to bring this up. Arrested doesn't mean convicted. I mean, given the "east' vs "west" perhaps they won't be tried by a jury of their peers but they should be able to tried for their crimes.

[@timothymclean]

@@TheIgle Irrelevant to the discussion at hand. We're not talking about a real court case; we're talking about how a work of fiction chose to present its fictional criminal investigations. Also, the thing you describe is pretty much universal in detective stories, and pops up in a lot of police procedurals and even courtroom dramas. If the detective or detective-adjacent figure presents evidence and comes to a conclusion, and nothing comes up that contradicts that narrative, the case is as good as closed. When was the last time an _Ace Attorney_ murderer went on trial, instead of just breaking down during some innocent guy's trial?

[@Rick586]

Spoilers for ending: I'm disappointed in the ending for multiple reasons. Tonal dissonance aside, Manfred being the culprit felt pretty obvious due to his apparent indifference toward the crime at the beginning being extremely suspicious. Plus the whole voucher plotline went absolutely nowhere (other than Manfred referring to it once) so it felt like a waste of time. A plot twist where Freddy actually was the mastermind of a convoluted plan that tied together all the plotlines would've been fantastic. He was the one planning all the routes, so he was in a position to coordinate the whole thing. He could've learned about Rufus and Margaret's voucher side-hustle, so he could've gotten them to give free vouchers to his smugglers to keep his costs down (and thus make even more money) in return for him not snitching on them. Boris could still be in on it by taking a cut so he could earn more money to buy expensive gifts to try to win over Sophie. Manfred could've been getting bribed to turn a blind eye to the smuggling, only for Freddy to turn that on him by threatening to take him down with him if he got caught, thus leading to Manfred trying to help cover things up (and it would have been more satisfying for him be unaware of the voucher situation so we could have had a fun surprised reaction from him when it got revealed at the end). Sophie getting kidnapped due to the culprits' desperation is a good plot twist, but I think it's better if it was because she was innocent and stumbled across some incriminating evidence instead. Going through all of that so that Duck Detective could still conclude with "And THAT was why Laura's lunch got stolen!" (as if that's the greatest crime that had been committed) would've been a lot funnier too.

[@timothymclean]

And in the end, you decide if stealing Laura's lunch is a bad enough crime to get the perpetrator jailed. The other crimes go completely unaddressed, because Duck Detective only got paid for the one and Manfred isn't willing to pay for the other stuff.

[@Rick586]

@@timothymclean And when the police show up, Duck Detective explains the whole conspiracy to them but they also focus solely on the lunch theft too.

[@KitiRama]

It's unfortunate about how this game ends, so I thought I would recommend one you and Carrie might consider in the future called Hela , where you play as adorable mice.

[@TrinityLHearts]

57:00 This feels like a twisted version of Blue's Clues x D 1:05:40 x D, I guess Justice is subjective 1:08:30 But to that point Laura does mention a little earlier "read the room" so maybe in a sense Justice should be adaptive But firm & clear with accountability. 1:11:37 That's a good consideration, yeah, I might have to think on it where yeah it's a funny comedy game tho I do find this decision interesting or rather how it's set up - though it is somewhat muddled with how the UI is set up being somewhat unclear what the expectations are going into it and having to decide suddenly - with like coming out of left field. 1:12:15 And that's the other part is this even a meaningful choice given it mostly just plays out the same regardless of that choice. 1:13:47 Though I guess like if it were the police or rather a judge making these decisions instead of the Duck Detective / player - perhaps that's the idea they were going for is how would you slam the hammer of law with each of these three questions, and by extent how do they affect each other as like Danial joked at 1:05:40 with exploring how that deliberation plays out. (And like, where like whoever makes the 911 call has potential to spin what had happened - despite what had happened). But with being introduced at the end of the game then there's no set up for it or clear communication for what are the consequences of these choices; though I guess something like that could be utilized more maybe when making games generally, having those consequences be unknown. Though to that then I think of something like say for a comparison (though being a radically different game), Papers Please, where it engages with that question of ethics & morality in maybe a more engaged way. Which reminds of say the Game Maker's Toolkit video: "Morality in the Mechanics". Ramble aside though, this was a fun & funny playthrough, thanks! : ) (And I guess to clarify - I feel there's potential for the execution of this approach could have been done well but the execution is a duck flop here). (And with that ramble of mine considering if it could have been done well; 1:17:15 both of you, your points are as well 100% solid). 1:18:20 Yeah!

[@DominoPivot]

Huh, I'm with your there. It was a very fun game, but what a weirdly unpleasant ending

[@zendikarisparkmage2938]

I just watched a video of all of the endings. They're all basically the same.

[@Ahrpigi]

7:00 this account does exist, and those are literally the only two posts on it!

[@rubyseverinwhitworth9066]

With the how the title of the game is I am sure they will learn from how people feel about the ending for the next Duck Detective game

[@Doomsword0]

So many great PlayFrame playthroughs end with a ramble. I wasn't expecting this to be one of them, but I'm not complaining

[@NotaVideoEssayist]

I've never liked the ending of this game, because like in real life, it seems like incarceration is unlikely to do much good.

[@the6ofdiamonds]

0:11 Boooo. 3:57 Like, even if your job does benefit from it, do not advertise that you're good at following people around. 4:26 You're *beginning* to question Carrie as a source? 5:40 I don't know if that applies here? It might, but I don't think it does. 6:43 BlueSky kinda doesn't fit the whole East German vibe the game's been giving. Amusing, though. 6:46 "All"... ah, if only. The only reason I got a Twitter was to follow Hololive, and they're not moving anytime soon. 7:20 100% If anything, it makes the newer ones even more depressing. 7:32 100%, and very relatable! 16:09 Customer Service/Ops Officer/Bus Driver. Laura, Freddy and Petrovic, what number idk. I doubt employee numbers are single digit. 19:31 Alternative theory: number of employees in each dept. 21...7? 21:36 214, is my called shot. I think Carrie is overthinking options. 21:51 Idk, to me it tracks. There's no more than 9 employees in any given dept, you don't have a way to readily access employment history, you ruled out anything with names. The simplest 0-9 corresponding to depts is number of employees. 22:47 Why "shouldn't" it be? What else would those numbers be for? Why would they be remotely relevant? 23:30 I would love to understand your thought process on this. Why are the only highlighted numbers in the entire game up to this point feeling like the wrong path? How is it obscure? 23:41 Missing, no. Convinced it can't be the answer, yes. 24:02 What? What does Margaret's initial location have to do with anything? 24:55 Again, I've no idea how you got there. Her PC has her with access to bus vouchers for a personal vacation. Which can be reasonably assumed came from the manual for CS agents. 25:22 Huh, I had forgotten the it was explicitly stated. 25:30 What? It explicitly states *Freddy* is OO, not Margaret. Do you need more coffee, Carrie? 25:59 For the record, no I didn't skip ahead to give them flak. That'd be mean and wholly uncalled for. 26:32 Hol' up, that handwriting. 28:48 Yea, I want to have words with the IT guy. 28:52 The wires on the floor need to be cleaned up, but the rack... the management it fine, but the sparking sure ain't. 29:06 Even the duck knows! 32:39 "Legal Murder" is called "war"... I guess? 40:15 Guessing Herr Ernst is the bandit due to identical handwriting. No clue where Sophie is. 45:29 Okay, that feels like explicit "go wander around and look at stuff". I'd be terrible at this. 47:41 I'm glad this is a videogame, or that ship would've just sailed. 51:22 Had to convince someone into helping with smuggling, because the vouchers were being used against him. 55:31 ...you lost me there Detective. 59:01 OH GOD NO, no, stop Detective, stoooop. Not state police! 1:02:16 I mean, there are a lot of crimes just like this that end very similarly. I don't like how... emphatic the Detective was about it. The law was broken, though, and they do need to be held accountable, no matter how much it sucks. 1:02:57 Translation, German... East Germany setting confirmed. 1:09:43 That look on Sophie's face would have me reload and lock her up, too.

[@ACuriousTanuki]

I love the game overall, but not a fan of the framing at the end. Theoretically, the answer to all 3 should be yes, since [redacted] does not necessarily mean they will face penalties - only that they will be formally investigated by official, non-private investigators. He's the Duck Detective after all, not Duck Judge, Jury, and Exequactioner, and he has found reasonable grounds for formal prosecution. What follows is not his jurisducktion. The framing suggests harsh punishment is inevitable, which _shouldn't_ be true. (But who knows, unfortunately.) Agree re: the contrasts of tone at the end. Bit of a downer note on an otherwise really fun caper.

[@ACuriousTanuki]

A similar setup happened in Sable, when you assist an investigation in Eccria. The ending implies that the town guards act on your advice without further investigation, which felt super awkward, unjust, and out of place with the positive vibes that the rest of the game gave in basically every other regard.

[@ExileTwilight]

Bravo on all those duck puns :p

[@Psittacus_erithacus]

Ending = not great; but your handling of it was excellent. Thanks for showing the varied conclusions and articulating the shortcomings thoughtfully.

[@ExileTwilight]

I was surprised by how there was basically no variation in the ending other than the brief ending slide of who gets taken away and who looks smug, the rest is just a reaction to x or y being arrested in the moment of accusation..

[@ember-fire7583]

And so the mystery and case of the salami bandit has been solved by the duck detective! What a gameplay this has been, both interesting and a quackerful time!! 🦆🔎 (Er well, except for the arrests, of course.)

[@solidreactor]

Weren't Rufus and Margaret the reason the buss company was loosing money in the first place? I thought if saying "no" to those 3 initial the game would provide you with an option or *another final hidden clue* to figure out the REAL reason behind it and then arrest Rufus and Margaret.

[@KevinDay]

*Ending spoilers* I mean, in reality, everyone should be *arrested* and tried in court... Doesn't mean they're all going to jail.

[@Doomsword0]

I think part of the end feeling weird is because it's about a fake crime like smuggling salami. So in our minds no one should be arrested because we don't consider salami smuggling a crime so it's like, well he's providing for his family and such so it's understable he'd do that and (far as we know) no one is hurt doing this, so no crime was really done worth being arrested for

[@KynElwynn]

Sadly, that isn't how law works

[@TheOneHistoryGuy]

If they treated salami as a dangerous substance or (to keep the 'who stole Laura's lunch?' mystery) have it that smuggling salami is bad for the local salami economy, but people smuggle in salami because it's actually better than the local stuff, then I could maybe understand the ending. I mean, bread is treated as a funny stand-in for alcohol/drugs so salami should really fit into that somehow.

[@Jake-gx4ow]

Really feels like a frog detective ending would have worked better- a “let’s all just be friends” ending fits a lot better imo.

[@Ubernerd3000]

Apparently, no one here watches LAW & ORDER; ALL the crime-doers get arrested; they just don’t all go to jail for what they did…

[@roundishwhale]

Youuutsch your right, this one didn't stick the landing. Neat comedy detective game before that part, but yeah... ehhhhhhh.

[@Duiker36]

To me, the problem is that the ending doesn't feel like it was actually *trying* to do anything. The variations on the endings are far too minor to mean anything; it's just "does Sophie cry". It might have been interesting if you got paid if you let Sophie go, since then you'd be in on the corruption too, but you don't. I find it telling that none of the characters are actually *mad at Manfred*. None of them are angry about the kidnapping or the smuggling. It's very weirdly normal. Not even Sophie's mad at Manfred, despite being his primary victim. There's just no point to the arrests. It feels like cruelty for the sake of cruelty. And that leaves a bad taste in my mouth for an otherwise amusing game.

[@Megaboss_Bor]

The studio is Germany based, so that explains the different perspective on cops

[@IRFine]

@@Megaboss_Bor that does somewhat put into context the Nuremberg-esque “who deserves to be punished?” question. Even so, weird choice.

[@Megaboss_Bor]

@@IRFine I think that's more a genre pitfall, and also game scope restrictions, this game is already very tight on scope.

[@timothymclean]

It doesn't feel like a foreign perspective on cops, it just feels like a genre-inappropriate perspective on cops. Like if the terrorists in an R-rated action movie tried to infect New York City with a bioweapon, and got tossed in a cartoon jail cell while the heroes lecture them about the importance of public health.

[@Duiker36]

And the setting is very blatantly an expy of East versus West Germany. West Germany is where all the luxuries are being smuggled in from. It's less clear to me if the "state police" are meant to be the Stasi or just regular East German police. Or if there even _were_ independent detectives in East Germany.

[@Phhase]

I do think at least the lunch theft should've been solved.

[@TADMOORE]

This game surely needs a quack patch to solve this honk of an ending

[@IRFine]

Yeah, not a fan of the way that ended either. Gives bad vibes; echoes of the Nuremberg Trials being like “who’s guilty: the one who made the plan, the one who gave the order, or the one who pulled the trigger?” Don’t like it. It’s a rabbit hole of an ethical dilemma that leads only to bad places when investigated (see: the Milgram Experiment)

[@timothymclean]

And none of the rest of the game set those themes up. The Duck Detective isn't trying to figure out who's responsible for stealing Laura's lunch after quickly identifying a complicated lunch-theft conspiracy, he's struggling to understand what's going on in this wacky office. This came out of nowhere!

[@lumination0923]

100% with Dan here, I despise the ending. I'm glad you two explained it far better than I ever will be able to

[@CamsEyeView]

I guess yeah the rambling at the end was a bit much. It felt like it took forever to be like "Hmm yeah this was odd to end the game." Instead of this odd morality diatribe that took up the last 10 or so minutes of the game. Cute game, but now that I've seen the whole thing, I feel like I may just get it on the cheap since it ends with kind of a dud despite it being on point for noir thrillers to end like that.

[@Sphagnopsida]

💙

[@SusieWisdom]

6th one on