Paper Perjury Review: A Solid Mystery Game

I first learned about Paper Perjury when fellow editor David Silbert dropped me an X thread in our Discord. He knows I love detective video games, and when I saw the launch trailer for Paper Cat Games’ debut title, Paper Perjury, I was ecstatic. A junior police desk clerk with great hair starts noticing discrepancies in the evidence?! And she’s going to solve crimes?!?!? And it’s inspired by Ace Attorney?!?!?!?!

A few weeks after its December 9 launch, I’m thrilled to share that Paper Perjury is a delightful, solid mystery game for fans of the genre and the Ace Attorney series. It’s an interactive novel with a good amount of investigating crime scenes and presenting evidence. While it doesn’t do anything ground-breaking, it’s a well-executed indie mystery.

Welcome to the Case

Paper Perjury oozes a familiar kind of charm. The pixel art style, combined with its point-and-click gameplay, instantly invite nostalgia. There’s background details to click on, evidence to sift through, and lies to catch criminals in. Each case begins with a short briefing, then investigating and talking, and ends with a few suspects in a police room for an interrogation. The classic pacing and mechanics will be comforting to any players who are seeking a new mystery game.

There are some stand-out elements. The game’s text is largely dialogue, and this writing is well-done. Each character has their own specific voice, with different values, accents, tics, and interests. I was drawn to the game’s character sprites, which are delightful, though some characters are more detailed than others. (One recurring character who’s supposed to be a senior business executive in his ’40s or ’50s looks like he could be a spoiled college student.) Appropriately exciting but nonintrusive music helps keeps the story moving.

Paper Perjury is a loving tribute to the Ace Attorney series. When the bad guys get caught, their character animations spiral out with rage. There’s a few inside jokes, such as one about step-ladders. Many characters have pun-related names, like a magician named Annie Card. Several times, Justina feels as if she is out of options—but at the last moment, she’s able to bring it home! You can almost hear someone shout, Objection!

It’s this inspiration, however, that may be what’s holding Paper Perjury back.

An Imperfect Crime

There have been many mystery games over the last few decades, some better than others, and developers have had to create their own niche. Paper Perjury is held back by some of its own ambitions, starting with the title and the launch trailer’s promise to go from “paper-pusher to crime-solver.”  I was hopeful for the premise of Paper Perjury—what if a lowly desk clerk who was sorting paperwork was able to find something that detectives had missed?

Unfortunately, aside from the game’s opening case, Paper Perjury doesn’t return to that more unique premise. It quickly becomes a pretty regular detective game of investigating scenes, gathering evidence, and grilling suspects. Protagonist Justina Smith, new paperwork clerk, is allowed free reign of crime scenes and to lead interrogations, which doesn’t quite make sense. A few other moments also took me out of the game, like a maid who is also somehow a key accountant of a multi-million-dollar real estate firm.

There are five interconnected cases; the initial ones are stronger. Toward the end of the game, I felt like I was just trying to get through data collection so I could present on what I knew had happened. The game can be completed in about seven hours, though it could take 10 if you investigate every single background item (like me) and/or struggle with some of the latter cases’ interrogations and have to brute-force your way through by presenting every single clue (also like me) to find exactly what the game wants you to suggest, even if multiple items might’ve worked.

Furthermore, the game’s scope occasionally stretches in unusual ways. The protagonist’s main partner changes halfway through the game, and even more strangely, there is a singular, abrupt, short-lived perspective shift to an antagonist lawyer’s POV where the player is trying to pick apart the protagonist’s argument. It’s a strange and disconcerting choice that doesn’t feel “earned.”

Still, the ending of each case, and the game, is ultimately satisfying.

A Fun Mystery Game for Fans of the Genre

There are some moments of writing that are particularly heavy-handed with worldviews, but the upside is that each character’s perspective is, at some point, honored and seen. Just like the real world, nothing here is ever black-and-white. Paper Perjury has real heart to it.

Paper Perjury is the first game from Paper Cat Games. I watched the credits, seeing only a few names and what seemed to be an impressive combination of freelancers. The game’s press kit shares the following:

“Paper Perjury started because the creator James Acosta wanted to use Ace Attorney mechanics outside of the standard courtroom setting… While not a professional writer or programmer by trade, his interest in video games and love of mystery games motivated him to start working on his first commercially sold game… Rebecca Collins joined the team after discovering the original demo of Paper Perjury, and strived to make it even better.”

I love seeing people make and try new things. Big kudos to James and Rebecca for launching this heart-warming and thoughtful mystery game!

While it’s not a game for everyone, mystery fans and Ace Attorney lovers will find Paper Perjury a case worth solving.

Oh, and you can pet this cat, thank goodness.

Score: 8.0/10

Paper Perjury, developed by Paper Cat Games, was released on December 9, 2024, and is available on Windows PC, Mac, and Linux. MSRP: $19.99.