Ranking the Nancy Drew PC Games by Darkness!! | Nancy Drew Analysis

[@alexandrabailey9341]

Carson Drew carries SPY he is terrified for her and is reliving what happened to his wife. If it wasn't for his voice actor's performance it wouldn't have near the agency.

[@WizardKittenYT]

Absolutely agree 👏

[@katherinepadilla858]

Loved this video and agree with that vast majority of it! I would bump STFD up to the next tier because the death threats seem VERY real, and the motivations of the characters are pretty mature. Plus it taking place on a soap opera set was a massive shift from the high school vibe of SCK.

[@zeducator99]

What's interesting is that some of the darkest games also have the goofiest moments. Haunting of Caslte Malloy has sheep hair dos and jetpacks, Captive Curse had Lukas and Karl. I do think the games need some humor to feel balanced, but i think they wpuld have been cool if some of the darker themes could have been more deeply explored

[@WizardKittenYT]

That's a good point!

[@nerdygeekgamer5528]

I wonder what darkness we fellow detectives will find in the Czech Republic in the country's capital of Prague if the GAME ever COMES OUT

[@WizardKittenYT]

Good question! It hasn't seemed that dark in the trailers, so I'll be curious to see!

[@Little1Cave]

It will be coming out this year! ^-^

[@Yggdra90]

Comments that aged poorly 😂

[@Tigerlyy]

Omg I haven’t seen Nancy drew in ages the nostalgia is so real

[@WizardKittenYT]

Yay! Welcome! Plenty of ND here 😊

[@writerspen010]

I'm really surprised to see how highly (or rather, darkly) you ranked Deadly Device. Despite the murder mystery aspect, when I think back on that game, i mostly think of the light and bubbly engineer who loves gummy bears and being able to mess up that one colleague's desk (I'm so bad with names lol). I find it very light-hearted, despite the mystery, so I would put it in the Mature Audiences category alongside Silent Spy. I feel inclined to think that Castle Malloy should rank darkest simply for what happened to Fiona. When we meet her, she's semi-feral from decades of isolation. Although the hope portrayed at the very end that she could be rehabilitated with proper care is great, I don't think that's a realistic scenario for a case like hers. Thinking deeply about what her adolescence and adult life must have looked like and how the village turned to superstition to explain how she carried out her existence instead of properly checking on whether she survived the explosion as a child disturbs me more than any other game plot/backstory.

[@WizardKittenYT]

Great points! I can definitely see ranking DED lower and HAU higher!

[@Sylvainjose-satoyumiyato]

AHHH I SHOULDNT HAVE BEEN LOOKING AT COMMENTS WHEN IM PLAYING THE HAUNTING OF CASTLE MALLOY 😭

[@sophinda6292]

Another great ranking WK, I don't know how you think of them all! I do think CLK is in the right place as it is a warm, bright and homely game. However, I find it quite dark. It deals with poverty and the cost of living, which as a slightly older ND fan I find very frightening. Obviously it is set in the depression, but all the characters are struggling for money or have lied to try and get some. Finding a will for income is a main storyline, the bank is in ruin, there is the cutscene of Jim turning away in despair, we have to make his wife's dress as he is too poor to buy one. Emily is struggling with her inherited business and her mental health is deteriorating because of this, Nancy has to pay for calls and petrol, making the player very away of money and budgeting. There is the orphanage.... I just always feel very aware of money in this game, trying to scrape by on low income, struggling to live and resorting to nefarious methods to gain money. I also see similar themes in TOT where charcters are struggling with money and with career prospects, employability and lack of success. (I do not think the tornedos, or lack of, are the dark theme). Sometimes I can't play TOT because it feels too 'real' and hits close to home as it is so hard to break out into the career sector you want and then to be successful and progress to higher roles and gain recognition.

[@WizardKittenYT]

True! Those themes are definitely there if you look for them, even if they don't play as central of a role.

[@sophinda6292]

@@WizardKittenYT Ah, that's where we would rank differently. I see them as very much playing the central role in their respective games.

[@EliseT_1012]

It may not have been central to the plot, but dang it if Sea of Darkness isn’t still the only ND game that made me bawl like a baby! 😭

[@divine.gabiii]

I love games with a mix of both. CAR is a great example as it basically is a story about processing grief, but the game doesn’t wallow in that feeling. Like you said, there’s many lighthearted moments that balance out the game.

[@karricompton]

Ima have to disagree and say SEA is for mature audiences. Just Gunnar’s story alone is tragic. I don’t really see much of a spook factor in ICE, but it’s also not fair to put it in innocuous. Great video!

[@WizardKittenYT]

I could see that!

[@fadalerabrasool3563]

ghost of thorton hall for me has more emotions involved than shadow at the waters edge. the shimizu family were very guarded and prickly with their grief for kasumi until yumi and takae were able to have it in them to finally tell nancy. The thorton family carried alot of emotions when it came to jessalyns disappearence and charlottes death. claras driven to insanity over her guilt and role in charlottes death. harper feeling shunned from her family. Jessalyn on finding information on her moms involvment and disavowing her marriage to colton. Plus the theme is more darker than the former.

[@WizardKittenYT]

Agreed!!

[@TheCompanyRepresentative]

Kapu cave deserves at least spooky simply because of THE SCIENTIST, all I remember is that it starts with A (A for angry😬). And you cannot deny that man was the scariest character in the game.

[@WizardKittenYT]

True! If we had gotten some night time scenes, I think I'd agree with it be spooky.

[@reachaheart9170]

Oh my... not me clicking on this video thinking about literal darkness, like those games where we get to investigate at night... 😭😭😭

[@WizardKittenYT]

LOL! I mean they could honestly be ranked that way too 😅

[@joshuas8596]

I think your rankings are valid for your parameters! love the video! But I feel like based on just the story Danger by design is pretty dark I mean a woman stealing precious French works of art to protect them but then withholding them because she is a victim of rampant rumors accusing her of being a Naz* sympathizer. On top of Minette committing an act of Cold War level international espionage. Is pretty intense!

[@WizardKittenYT]

Definitely intense, I agree with you there! And perhaps more mature too, so I could see moving it up a level!

[@climbinguphill]

I am definitely a dark game girlie lol all of my favorite games are in the first two categories. Tho I do love Warnings, I think mostly because it is an exquisitely executed game overall

[@WizardKittenYT]

A darker storyline can add so much to a game!!

[@lovelyluna961]

Not me reading the title as Duckness and being disappointed about the lack of ducks

[@WizardKittenYT]

LOL, quack 🦆

[@gabrielplays3065]

Video idea: figuring out which Nancy Drew characters belong in which Hogwarts house. Also I would say that curse of Blackmoor manner and The silent spy are definitely a lot more darker than the rest of the games

[@alyailithyia]

When Mrs. Wizard Kitten uploads, it is an instant like! Hope you and your family have been doing amazing Caitlyn

[@WizardKittenYT]

Aww, thank you!! I'm so glad you like it!

[@Queen1001N]

With GTH and SAW, even when the ghosts weren’t real, the family was most certainly haunted.

[@jacksampsonforever]

Honey, wake up. You don't exist, but Wizard Kitten just released a new video. 5:45 BAHAHAHA!! Thank you for putting Ghost Dogs were it belongs. I know that couldn't have been easy for you. ;) Another killer video. I really liked it.

[@WizardKittenYT]

Yay! So glad you liked it!

[@RSully94]

"If a game is supposed to be about tornadoes, it needs to be scary" - the weather nerd in me will forever wonder how different TOT could have been if it came out after the infamous tornadoes that occurred between 2011 and 2013 (specifically the 2013 Moore EF5 since it was also in Oklahoma). TOT could have definitely been in the middle category had they integrated the tornado activity or in the mature audiences if they went darker with the storyline (which again, if it had come out after 2011 or 2013, I feel like the game could have been darker because so many big tornado events happened after the game was released that made national news and are still talked about by the weather community to this day). - I knew Ghost of Thornton Hall would be #1. Easily the darkest game in the series.

[@WizardKittenYT]

TOT really had so much potential!

[@bookworm598]

I always love when you come at an analysis like it is a literary analysis- I dont think enough people recognize video games can be great examples of story telling. (I will also admit when I first saw the title of the video my mind immediately went to literal darkness aka how many curtains do I need to shut to be able to see everything on the screen haha) I think it would be cool to do a compare and contrast with The Final Scene and Ransom of the Seven Ships and discuss how to write a good kidnapping story. You make an excellent point about the dissonance in RAN between what is supposed to be a high stakes mystery and the bright and cheery environment with pink sand beaches. I was thinking about how I would rewrite the story to fix that and I actually started thinking about how the story would work better in the setting of Treasure in the Royal Tower (isolated ski resort, trapped by a snowstorm, old castle with hallways that lead to dead ends, maybe add a hedge maze a la The Shining?). Maybe instead of getting a ransom note right at the start, it could be that Bess goes missing and there is a sense of danger because of the weather (like ICE but dialed up to a 10), sort of like what TOT could have been, following along with the line Nancy says in the TOT teaser "Join me as a I learn first hand which is more dangerous, mother nature or human nature". This also got me thinking about how some of the games create a sense of urgency and danger and how some do not. Sorry this comment was all over the place, this video just jump started my brain a bit!

[@WizardKittenYT]

This was so fun to read!! I loved hearing your thoughts! And I'm so glad you enjoy the lit analysis style! 🙌

[@joshmitchell9477]

Another great video! Please keep them coming as I look forward to them :)

[@WizardKittenYT]

Thanks! I'm so glad you like them!

[@MiloOnYoutube]

most of the culprits in the series do it for greed 😢 many would go as far 2💀 Nancy or other characters 🤔 I’m guessing the pattern is the history of each case & characters

[@WizardKittenYT]

Yes!! It is so interesting how often greed plays a role!

[@monah_art]

Wow.... It's interesting to see someone else's perspective on this scale. Personally I would put "the captive curse" into "spook factor but not dark" category. Yeah there are missing girls but I felt very disconnected to them (sorry idk how to spell it) throughout the game not only because it's just some vague written stories but mostly because it's all shown in non-serious light - as if they were actually taken by some fictional monster. So to me the game made the disappearances for the sake of atmosphere only and Nancy never seem to care about what actually happened to the victims. At least that's how I remember it be... it's been a while I played it. Not saying it's bad but it wasn't dark and not memorable to me at all.

[@PennyRoyalTi234]

I think the haunted carousel needs to be under mature audience. Stay tuned for danger and the silent spy need to be bumped up to dark. The haunted carousel the most depressing character Joy, who is running an amusement park while blocking out all of her memories due to trauma, while trying to figure out who caused accidents at the park to get it shut down. And the talking oven robot just seems dark and creepy 😂 Stay tuned for danger has constant attempts on lives all stemmed from jealousy. Each characters potential motive is very dark...except millie. Silent Spy manipulates Nancy's actions/emotions to work (or not work) with a terrorist organization that had plans to release a deadly virus and create a new world order. The game uses the death of her mother to mess with her mind, all for the culprits gain in their mission. Your top 5 are on point. I would just throw those other 2 up there.

[@33Dagwood]

Im currently playing alibi in ashes

[@kelsey1467]

would ransom of the seven ships be better if it had a time limit like the final scene like a tornado approaching and if you went over that how i would write ransom of seven ships video i apologize

[@WizardKittenYT]

Definitely! That would have made the stakes higher!

[@kelsey1467]

are there any games you wish were darker and also i like when kids games are dark because believe it or not kids like dark themes so the should do more of that but i wonder what would be too far for a kid audience to me don't make it too gruesome theres a difference between dark and gruesome

[@carterplaysyt]

YES

[@carterplaysyt]

Pre-guessing: GOTH is at top!!! 😄

[@WizardKittenYT]

Yippee!! Enjoy my friend!!

[@big.fav0r]

ghost of thortan hall is about slavery

[@WizardKittenYT]

Yeah, a topic that should have been more directly addressed in a game about the history of the American South, for sure

[@GN77340]

❤❤🎉🎉

[@WizardKittenYT]

Hooray!!