The Shapeshifting Detective

You play as a detective investigating the murder of Dorota Shaw in the town of August. The suspects include three tarot readers, and your ability to take the form of people you meet gives you another way to question the town’s residents.

The game is a live-action FMV mystery built around dialogue and investigation. Move between locations, question characters, and choose how to respond; taking someone else’s appearance can open private conversations and reveal information they might not share with the detective.

You can remove dialogue options with the game’s delete mechanic, and your choices can affect how conversations and events unfold. The murderer is randomly selected from three suspects at the start, giving each playthrough a different culprit to investigate.

Players who enjoyed the game often singled out the shapeshifting premise, the noir atmosphere, and the cast’s performances, with some finding the mystery absorbing enough to revisit. Others felt that questioning became repetitive and that the story’s deductions or ending did not fully pay off; reactions to the writing and acting also varied.