#nancy drewniverse
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MYSTERY OF THE SEVEN KEYS!
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Remember that brief window of time when Nancy Drew was renewed for another season, Tom Swift was premiering, and there were even talks of a Bobbsey spin-off
#the drewniverse could have taken over the world#MY roman empire#nancy drew#nancy drew cw#flythepost
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The Claw mug in the new Tom Swift episode!!!
#drewniverse REAL#also this means that tom’s been back to visit nancy#since the first time he went to horseshoe bay#nancy drew#nancy drew cw#tom swift#tom swift cw
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So it would seem that the CW is just about done with its "Arrowverse" programs associated with DC Comics and is transitioning to the "Drewniverse" and characters from the old (very old) Stratemeyer Syndicate.
Having started with Nancy Drew, which referenced the Bobbsey Twins, they now have a Tom Swift series.
With that being the case, which Stratemeyer characters should be next to get a CW series?
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alas the nancydrewnetwork march merch challenge is no more (though I wish @nancydrewnetwork all the best) I wanted to share what I was working on- inspired by HeR’s old postcard / ecard promos I thought it would be neat if you could buy postcard packs inspired by each game.
for SSH...
front/back of card, and other cards in the pack could be...
(ssh is honestly a p easy one as it’s a museum exhibit)
I also put some together for TRT...
(the marie antoinette from the top of the stairs and the one from the tower; wickford castle corporate card based on the brochure in the lobby that ended up looking a bit too much like a business card really; the 3 wisconsin cards from the lobby; the wickford brochure uses a picture of Inverary castle as a picture of wickford (the real one is in scotland), so here’s the real inverary; and one with a pic of manresa caslte, which is a real faux-castle-cum-hotel in Washington state)
SHA...
(scenery& etc from in-game incl a very questionable attempt at recreating yazzie’s logo; the ‘varmint’ card is in fact from the game files, it seems to be an unused + unfinished award; the petroglyph and b+w photo are from the pictures in mary’s shop; the ‘arizona’ and cliff dwelling cards are real postcards)
DOG...
(tbh most of these are p clearly inspired by the amount of time I spent being dragged around to provincial parks as a young thing... I imagine the educational fare at US state parks follows a similar vein. including ranger akers’ fursona was not a choice so much as it was a necessity)
and finally MHM...
(sthg for abby’s new-age bullshit; the golden gardenia; lizzie applegate; nancy and charlie’s san fran postcards; and a postcard that’s almost nancy’s postcard, but the one in’game was at an angle and i couldn’t get a workable pic. i would also probably include the mhm promo cards linked above - or better/updated versions of same - in this pack as well)
#i imagined there would be 12 cards in each pack i just never got around to finishing all 12 for each of the examples#nancy drew#clue crew#nancydrewnetworkchallenge#that's not really happening anymore but hey - tag is a tag#secret of the scarlet hand#treasure in the royal tower#the secret of shadow ranch#ghost dogs of moon lake#Message in a Haunted Mansion#ssh#trt#sha#dog#mhm#mygraphic#postcards from the drewniverse
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WIP of a Nancy I started painting tonight while @naancypants and I watched Clue at the same time 👀
#wanted to share!#nancy drew#clue crew#the clue crew#i draw sometimes#i wanted to do a lot of doodles but i instead went for the more complicated painting OH BOY 😂#maybe ill finish it after work tomorrow night or tuesday!#also kaitie thank you for watching and casting the characters as drewniverse characters with me!!
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Nancy Drew; The Cryptid, The Myth, the Meme, the Legend
This is going to be utterly hot garbage but I just wish to discuss all our Nancy Drew supernatural theories.
Now, my favorite is the one where the supernatural exists in the Drewniverse, and Nancy only gets brief glimpses of it from time to time, and the cases she solves either does not deal with it or because of her disbelief she never discovers it. This theory makes up for a lot of plot holes and I honestly kind of like the idea of a ton of stuff going on in the background and Nancy ignoring it haha.
One thing I love about old HeR is their consistent spooky atmospheres, on the brink of being supernatural and constantly coming up with ways to reference horror/spoopy stuff. You see this even back in their Vampire Diary days, which honestly is why I still like watching playthroughs of the game since you see the start of what is so often found in Nancy Drew games. I like to think the VD game really had an impact on how the Nancy Drew games were made.
Also, we have the concept that Nancy is at least an immortal from the 1930′s, and even going further the theory she is a vampire due to her having no reflection and the no aging thing.
I’d like to take it a step further and dare to ask: what if the Vampire Dairies game is a part of the Drewniverse? That Nancy is a vampire and the two are connected. (bum bah bummmm)
Plus I want to bring up the idea of second chances- what if they were some how actually a part of the game? That Nancy is aware of her continual deaths, and her supernatural power is being able to go back in time an unlimited amount and fix it, and that’s why she always survives ultimately.
(also that reminds me of a really awesome game called Ghost Trick, and now I need a cross-over) (also a Nancy Drew Supernatural cross-over would be cool)
I dunno I just really love diving into these dumb concepts XD
#idk maybe ill make some art in the future#nancy drew#nancy drew universe#drewniverse#supernatural#nancy drew pc games#clue crew
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About the Author
USA Today bestselling author C. J. Beaumont writes paranormal romance and urban fantasy. A lifelong book addict, mental health awareness advocate, coffee lover, and certified chocoholic, she constantly chases her fierce (and often quirky) characters through chilling adventures and wild worlds.
When she’s not casting her spell on the witches, shifters, gods, and vampires who keep her busy, she spends her time reading, obsessing over the CW’s Nancy Drew, watching reruns of Arrow and Once Upon a Time, playing Skyrim with her kiddo, tending her small menagerie of rescue animals, traveling, and getting into delightful trouble on little adventures with her fun-loving rogue husband.
Her passion for writing comes second only to her worship of reading. If you’re a fan of her books, she recommends you check out Alice Hoffman and Sarah J. Maas. They’re her heroes.
C. J. lives in Baldwin County, Alabama, splitting her time between Bay Minette and Orange Beach. She travels often for a variety of reasons including family fun, writing research, writing retreats, visiting faraway friends, and taking romantic getaways with her husband whenever possible. Some of her favorite travel destinations and activities include the Smoky Mountains, Caribbean cruises, racetracks (where her husband and brother-in-law drive hard and sometimes scare the bejesus out of her), and various theme parks.
Connect With C. J. at https://sleek.bio/cjbeaumontpnr.
#drewniverse#cw nancy drew#cwnd#ndcw#nancy drew cw#bobbsey twins#gil bobbsey#amanda bobbsey#fanfic fragments#fic fragments#about the author#about me#fanfic
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i can’t fit all my thots on the blue lady of coffin hall in that blurb on the summary and reviews bit but here are some fun notes i have on our newest entry in the drewniverse (spoilers btw)
pros to this book since i’m trying to be a positive person
bess is great, george is great, their dialogue and jokes actually hit and don’t feel stilted or awkward
some actually interesting bits in the middle and beginning really sell coffin hall as a spooky sort of place (but this is only in the beginning)
yvonne coughlin was unironically funny as fuck for the first few minutes of her introduction (the unironic yet ironic use of girlboss and she-eo were fucking funny actually)
the scenes with the flooding and incidents around the building, at first, seemed to be a great mystery-building attempt
most of the book has strong enough pacing and i liked the prose fine even not considering target audience and just from a personal standpoint
and now cons because i thrive on negativity actually
tl; dr: me at the entire ending of this book
once you get past the part where they fucking livestream their evidence, the book just sort of runs head first into the wall that is its conclusion with zero time spent to stretch out or make sense of its own harried premise (in the ghost writer’s defense, this could have been the editor’s outline’s problem if they were provided one at all)
why the fuck did they want to spend so much time on harriet’s diary and the code when, in the end, it didn’t necessarily matter and got a half a sentence summary in the epilogue
miss irene and rosie felt like vestigial characters with no clearly defined role in the end and instead of telling them to escape a burning building nancy just tells rosie to go TOWARD THE FIRE without TELLING HER THERE WAS A FIRE in what is still somehow an extremely anti-climatic scene
what the fuck was that entire ending
actually starting up from the part where nancy runs into carrie ann and carrie ann makes no effort to disguise the dress she wore as the ghost or any of the shady shit happening at coughlin enterprises or whatever- this is where things started veering into too fast too furious territory
none of terry, izzie, and yvonne’s back story is given any sort of explanation past a few sentences which- considering the gravity of it in terms of its effect on the mystery itself- is a real damn shame that you wasted a character who faked her death for a toss-off motive that made no fucking sense
also if they were just going to set it on fire, they should have set it on fire- no mention of them trying to find the hidden fortune mentioned multiple times throughout the book which would have been a cliche but understandable motive (the closest we get is izzie mentioning trying to find the diary which, again, not enough time spent on why that was important outside of bess liking harriet’s story and wanting to break the code)
the entire podcast angle was overdone, but the livestream was the most egregious example of a modern concept inserted into a narrative because it happens to be something popular that readers of the age demographic contemporaneous with the book’s release might recognize
but okay i see how it was used to expose terry as a culprit that’s fine and it makes sense; however, the livestream crashing and burning within six hours of its inception makes it seem like it didn’t matter anyway besides a lazy plot device to hew together some of nancy’s evidence
nancy has the gull, the nerve, the audacity to boast about showing off her detective skills to ned when the entire scene at coughlin enterprises is her looking at things people left out, including the most damning evidence of all with a bad case of ‘right place right time syndrome’ also begging the question: if all this shit was just left out in the open, nancy could have visited coughlin enterprises first thing and solved everything before the sun went down on the first day as she already suspected yvonne as responsible from her comments made in the very first chapter/her introduction
there is just zero explanation about why all of yvonne’s employees look exactly like her it’s just a bizarre throwaway reference or possibly even a reference to something cultural i missed and later readers will definitely miss
yvonne seemed to have begrudgingly given terry the studio, but the fact that the studio exists means there was one in the first place or that she built it within weeks of izzie’s reappearance- giving no time frame for when their plans of vandalism shifted into outright arson
terry, yvonne, and izzie being childhood friends felt like an extreme cop-out despite the attempts to foreshadow it
i’m still not over the livestream thing like how the fuck did they think that would help and why livestream it outside of the excuse that they couldn’t watch the cameras themselves because they were busy only for them to watch the cameras all night regardless because bess and george were up trying to crack harriet’s code
the livestream is an awkward plot device introduced solely to tie into terry’s villainous plot of becoming the world’s most evil podcaster (and also for nancy and ned to honest to god use the ‘george, it’s for the exposure’ excuse when george is upset about terry taking credit for her website) and despite the amount of lambasting he does of nancy, ned, and coffin hall, they just skip over him at the end to focus on the coughlin sisters’ half-assed plot
that was way too much set-up to get to a second tier culprit who doesn’t even get a half sentence explaining his fate in the epilogue
and on that note, ned is the biggest fucking weenie in this book holy shit
as part of a compliment sandwich have one more positive
i thought it was funny that ned was a huge weenie actually
#okay nobody cares about my notes on this book#but this is my blog and i can post batshit long thought posts analyzing the newest entry if i want#mom says it's my turn with the semi public platform nobody cares about
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Drewniverse Aesthetics ⟶ Nancy Drew
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https://screenrant.com/nancy-drew-ace-hardy-boy-brother-evidence-explained/
Clue Crew! We may be onto something!!!!
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Meet the Clue Crew: Over/Under Tell us three things that you think are way over-rated and three things that you think are way under-rated. You can keep it strictly ND-related, or show us another side of you. Once you’ve shared, pass this message along to anyone else you’d like to include! (If you’re not feeling it, save it for later or hit delete—I won’t mind!)
Most of the fandom's popular opinions I agree with, actually. I have a few hot takes, which are not objective assessments, but personal opinions. 😉
Three things that are over-rated:
-Having a crush on Henry Bolet. Don't @ me, I just...I can't comprehend the appeal of this skinny, anemic-looking white boy. He clearly isn't taking his recommended daily multivitamins. Henry doesn't need a girlfriend, he needs a therapist, Prozac, a walk in the sunshine and a hardy meal of steak and salad.
-"Shadow at the Water's Edge." I don't like math or jump scares. It wasn't the worst game, but it definitely wasn't the best compared to other games in my opinion.
-"Warnings at Waverly Academy." I didn't hate it, but I don't rate it as highly as many fan do. Also...gosh darn air hockey...gosh darn spoons.
Three things that are under-rated:
-Mini golf in "Secret of the old Clock." A lot of people find it annoying but back in my day I was a miniature golfing QUEEN.
-"Sea of Darkness" as a game. Everything about it was stunning and I don't think fans acknowledge it enough.
-"The Shattered Medallion." A lot of people were disappointed by it, and the plot WAS really bizarre, granted, but I liked the ambiance and the games. It was bright and cheery and the absurd characters made me laugh.
#nancy drew#her interactive#clue crew#nancy drewniverse#nancy drew pc games#the clue crew#Henry Bolet
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I'm so happy for Tian Richards 🥺
#i wonder if they'll do tom swift ensemble style like nancy drew#tom just picking up new friends along the way.. i need found families to be a drewniverse requirement lol#but i've loved tian ever since he did that live with kennedy and now it's finally gone to series! 🎉#can't wait#tom swift#tom swift cw#flythepost
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MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: @mrshenrybolet!
Big congratulations to Austen for being selected for the second member spotlight! She is one of my nearest and dearest friends and to see her able to shine in the spotlight was incredible as she’s so deserving! Check out her answers to the questionnaire below :)
Q: What is your earliest memory of the Nancy Drew games?
Playing TRT with my sister when I was 9 and pretending that Dexter was chasing us through the vents and elevator shaft trying to kill us. Most intense game I've ever played.
Q: What is your favorite game, and why?
WAC! I adore the aesthetic of this one and it is such a comfort game for me. It reminds me so much of where I went to undergrad and I honestly love every part of it! Plus it has the snack shop, and that is indisputably the best minigame there is.
Q: What is your least favorite game, and why?
MID for too many reasons to name. It exists outside of the canon Drewniverse and I will never accept it as a true Nancy Drew game.
Q: Who is your favorite character, and why?
Henry Bolet Jr. The world has been unkind to him, despite him having a pure heart hidden behind a facade of cynicism, and he deserves every happiness in the world.
Q: What is something you’d like to see in an upcoming game?
Henry Bolet coming back! (In OG ND style only, no MID rendering allowed). Really though, I would love to see a game set in a hospital with a plot surrounding sabotage and murder, or a game surrounding the Russian Ballet.
Q: What is your favorite memory from the games and/or the books? Honestly there are too many treasured moments to pick just one! These games have always been a huge part of my life and I have so many amazing memories attached to them.
Q: What is your favorite thing about the Nancy Drew fandom?
The kindness and support that permeates through these online interactions. The people are beautiful, warm, and hilarious, and our little community brings me so much joy.
Q: Anything you contribute to the fandom (such as fanfiction, artwork, graphics, memes, reviews, meta, etc.) that we can give you a shoutout for?I created text liveblogs for every game (exc. MID) as I played them! Also I wrote a Henry Bolet one shot, "in which may rain shows more compassion than summer," and a brief analysis of Henry's psychological makeup advocating for the understanding and protection of his beautiful heart.
Q: Any other hobbies and/or interests?
I love musical theatre, thrifting, and closet cosplaying/disneybounding!
Q: Do you have any pets?
I have a Maltese and a 21-year-old frog!
Q: What is one thing you'd like everyone in the fandom to know about you?
I am Professor Beatrice Hotchkiss in the making.
Q: Anything else you'd like to add? This is your time to shine!
NANCY! Please be careful! I just want to tell you that I've always-
Congrats again, Austen! And thank you so much for all the things you do for the fandom! :)
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All Aboard the Hardy Boys — Thoughts on: Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon (TRN)
Previous Metas: SCK/SCK2, STFD, MHM, TRT, FIN, SSH, DOG, CAR, DDI, SHA, CUR, CLK
Hello and welcome to a Nancy Drew meta series! 30 metas, 30 Nancy Drew Games that I’m comfortable with doing meta about. Hot takes, cold takes, and just Takes will abound, but one thing’s for sure: they’ll all be longer than I mean them to be.
Each meta will have different distinct sections: an Introduction, an exploration of the Title, an explanation of the Mystery, a run-through of the Suspects. Then, I’ll tackle some of my favorite and least favorite things about the game, and finish it off with ideas on how to improve it.
There will be an additional section between The Intro and The Title on the Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys Supermysteries, as this game is the first to pull from them and because the game (and the Hardy Boys) benefit from exploring and understanding that universe.
If any game requires an extra section or two, they’ll be listed in the paragraph above, along with links to previous metas.
These metas are not spoiler free, though I’ll list any games/media that they might spoil here: TRN, mention of ICE, mentions of WAC, mention of John Grey in SAW, SPY.
The Intro:
Yeah, I’m not sorry for that title.
Coming off a solid, in-joke heavy game like CLK, Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon could have been anything — and it rose to the occasion like few other games in the entire series. It was the unprecedented 13th game in a 12-game series, and boy did they start the next phase with a bang.
Our next jet-setting game, we leave 1930s Titusville behind in favor of the modern day — albeit the modern day inside a train from the late 1800s, staffed with every kind of celebrity from the 2000s — socialites, authors, tv personalities, and Miami-Vice-meets-Ice-T cops.
Honestly, had they included a teenybopper pop star, I would have said that this game wasn’t just an excellent game, but a time capsule for 2005.
This odd location for a game not only solidifies its place in the Jetsetting Games, it also behaves as a Locked Room Mystery, the first one in a while (FIN being the only other one so far). Nancy can’t leave the train until 2/3rds through the game — but neither can anyone else, resulting in not only the perfect place to commit a crime, but also the perfect place to interrogate suspects.
TRN is perhaps most famous for its on-screen appearance of the Hardy Boys, who invite Nancy with them on this invite-only trip to make it more fun for themselves (and so that HER could experiment with playing from a non-Nancy [and even better, a Frank] point of view, even if it is just to make cheeseburgers). Honestly, it should be famous for it.
Not only is this a huge mechanics change, but it also blasts open the Nancy Drew Universe — the Drewniverse, if you will — and introduces both the games and players to the world of the 80s/90s Supermysteries by basing itself on #8 of the series, aptly titled Mystery Train (which we’ll talk about in the following section).
TRN also boasts one of the largest casts in the Nancy Drew games series, with 7 voiced in-person characters, two phone friends, and 3 extras. The choice to put in more characters into a smaller location really helps the locked room feel of the game, and leads to a game that is slightly more centered around interrogation than concrete investigation (which is the correct choice for a locked room mystery).
While TRN’s historical backstory isn’t quite prominent enough to get its own section here, it is worth dipping our toes in it here in the intro section. This game’s backstory (handled with a light hand) takes place during the late 1800s and finishes early years of the 1900s — 1903, to be exact, during the Edwardian Era and before World War I — when Jake Hurley’s beautiful train is found abandoned with only the dead engineer onboard. It overlaps with the Colorado Gold Rush in the United States, where Americans and immigrants alike made a mad dash out west in order to strike it rich.
This was a time when trains were the beautiful and incredibly fast (relatively) way to travel in America, especially out west as they were safer and quicker than taking the route in covered wagons or handcarts. Public trains were well-furnished and comfortable, but private trains like Jake Hurley’s were luxuriously and gorgeously decorated with all the amenities that were possible at the time and were meant to entertain guests as well as convey them from point A to point B.
The lush decorations in Camille and Jake’s cars are especially good representations of just how comfortable and flashy private trains could be; these trains that exist today in museums or private collections recall a bygone age where travel was a thing to look forward to, rather than a necessary evil to be suffered through.
The last bit of introduction I’ll do for TRN proper before we delve into the Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew supermysteries is its wonderful way with locations. By limiting its locations to really one at a time, TRN very neatly creates a semi-linear playthrough while still allowing the player the freedom to solve Jake and Camille’s mysteries in most any order they choose. It’s a great trick to make the game feel a bit more open while still telling a linear story, and TRN pulls it off better than most other early Nancy games.
Now that we’ve introduced the game, let’s get on to the Drewniverse.
The Supermysteries:
Pairing Nancy Drew actively with the Hardy Boys (live and in person) was hardly a new thing in 2005, even though it was the first time it had been accomplished in the game series’ history. The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew TV series from the 70s was the first big screen meetup of the two sleuthing parties, both owned by the Stratmeyer Syndicate.
While the earlier episodes of the show trade back and forth between Nancy and the boys, the second season saw increasingly frequent mashups of the two separate storylines, allowing for much bigger risks and much more satisfying stories — and, of course, the now famous love line between Nancy Drew and Frank Hardy.
After the TV show, there was now an uptick in Nancy/Hardy Boys interest — the two had become linked by more than just the Syndicate. That interest created the space for the 80s/90s series of books referred to as the Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys Supermysteries (not to be confused with the series of the same name that came out after the turn of the millennium, which are less flirty, less well-written, and much shorter as a series).
Wildly popular, the Supermysteries have 36 titles to their name and span over a decade of heart-racing, Nancy-tingling fun. The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew are either assigned to sister cases or discover the other party on the same case, and take turns helping the other out. Often, Joe separates (sometimes with whatever party Nancy brings along or with a pretty suspect) and leaves Nancy and Frank to work in tandem, giving opportunities for the two sleuths to flirt (and sometimes more) in relative peace.
If there’s one thing that the Supermysteries are really famous for, however, it’s the relationship between Nancy and Frank. Seemingly every book starts with reminding us that Frank and Nancy both have “steadies” back home, to use Dave Gregory’s terminology, and then promptly describing Frank as an Adonis and setting Nancy’s “tingle” (80s/90s code for arousal) ablaze as they work in closer and closer quarters and have some Experiences together, including an on-screen kiss and a sexy fade-to-black — and then reluctantly going back to their boyfriend/girlfriend at the end of the book.
TRN is based specifically on parts of Supermystery #8, Mystery Train, where the Hardy Boys are lured in by the promise of $25k if they can find the Comstock Diamond, stolen 15 years earlier. Nancy happens to be on the same train, accompanied by the best of the best sleuths of the day — and a beautiful actress that catches Joe’s attention.
You can see the ties to TRN — a ‘beautiful’ socialite, a band of detectives and researchers, a lost treasure — all present in both the book and the game. Though the game takes a slightly different course, it owes its strong foundation to the Supermystery that proceeded it.
The Title:
Harking back to Supermystery #8 (Mystery Train), Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon is one of the finest titles that HER ever came up with. Appropriately pulpy, it gives a sense of urgency, history, and mystery all at once while still pointing to the focal point of the game: the train.
After playing the game, it’s also a little ironic — it might be the last train to Blue Moon Canyon, but it’ll hardly be the last visitor to the historic spot, once the world gets wind of exactly what was there and the history behind it.
Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon is honestly a much better title than Mystery Train, and the title (plus the wonderful cover art) is part of the reason that this game is so well-known among casual and hardcore fans alike.
The Mystery:
Summoned by her good (phone) friends the Hardy Boys, Nancy embarks on a train ride to Blue Moon Canyon, the last known location of wealthy eccentric Jake Hurley’s personal train, and rumored to be the spot where he left his treasure. The train having been purchased and restored by socialite Paris Hil — ah, I mean Lori Girard, it once again houses the notable travelers of the day…and possibly the spirit of Jake Hurley’s wife, Camille.
Not 10 minutes into their journey, Lori disappears with a scream and a crash, and the hunt is on — not only to find their missing hostess, but to unravel the secrets of Jake Hurley’s train, Camille’s ghost, and the treasure that may be hiding in Blue Moon Canyon. It won’t be an easy task even for three seasoned teen sleuths, not with a cagey wonder-cop, irritable historical romance writer, and techy ghost hunter all trying to keep their motivations and actions a mystery.
TRN is superb in most respects, so it shouldn’t come as any surprise that the mystery is 90% perfect — barring one unfortunate plot point, which I’ll cover in at least 3 sections below, and the next paragraph. Tightly paced with suspicion spread thickly and nigh-evenly, TRN doesn’t run into the trouble of knowing who the culprit is from the first 20 minutes of the game and doesn’t feel the need to clear one suspect earlier than the others so that they can help Nancy — Frank and Joe take that job instead, leaving a pretty clear field through most of the game.
The biggest problem with TRN is the identity of the “final” culprit — that is, the culprit who leaves Nancy behind in the crumbling mine in order to generate some good publicity for herself and who knows about Jake Hurley’s final “treasure” all along: Lori. Her reveal as the first culprit is wonderful and logical, even if it’s not too hard to figure out that she kidnapped herself. Her reveal as the second culprit, however, is so odd and against her character that it doesn’t just feel like a mistake — it actually reads as a mistake as well.
To have the entire game culminate in a culprit that 1) doesn’t make any sense to be the culprit and 2) must behave in a completely out-of-character way in order to be the culprit is the one black mark on TRN’s otherwise spotless record. Other than that, this mystery is one of the best of the series so far and is a fully enjoyable ride from start to almost-finish.
The Suspects:
Lori Girard, Paris-Hilton-expy and socialite extraordinaire, is the hostess of the little trip down to Blue Moon Canyon with a streak of ruthless camera-whoring that nearly matches the level of the other camera whore on board (see next suspect).
Lori is, rather gloriously, the first culprit — the one who kidnapped herself, showing her love for flair, her smarts, and her enjoyment of detective stories. Kidnapping herself is right along with the character we see she has, and makes so much sense that it doesn’t feel like a let-down that the player (and a few other characters) figure it out — rather, it feels like her character is introduced strongly and well.
Lori is, completely unbelievably, the second culprit as well. Lori’s previous stunts — i.e. her previous ‘kidnapping’ before the story begins, the train disappearance — involve herself, have no danger to them at all, are intensely theatrical, and rely on the willing cooperation of others. Trapping Nancy in the mine and trying to kill her doesn’t involve Lori at all, has a ton of danger (not to mention a death toll), and isn’t theatrical at all — it happens all ‘off camera’.
We’ll get to more problems with this in The Unfavorite, but making Lori the second culprit was a huge mistake, and her character — and the game — suffer from it.
Tony Balducci is a self-described wonder cop and sometime lover of Lori who wants nothing more than to toot his own horn…provided he leaves out some of the less flattering notes. Having caught two bank robbers by luckily being in the right place at the right time, Tony now tries to live up to the name of ace detective — mainly by being a giant douchebag towards everyone.
As a culprit, Tony would have been an interesting choice, as someone driven by the hanging spectre of his own ego, desperately trying to catch it while knowing deep down that he’s just not good enough to do so. He’s just a little too obvious, a little too hateable, and a little too in-your-face to be the proper culprit for this game.
He instead lives to fight another day to show up in ICE, where no one asked for nor wanted him. A douche to the end.
Charleena Purcell of Secret of Shadow Ranch fame is live and in person this time, having accepted Lori’s invitation out of curiosity for what really happened to Jake — and a bit of a guilty conscience.
As a reoccurring character, Charleena wasn’t going to be the culprit, but I do love that she’s a character who does some morally questionable things — like taking Lori’s suggestions for a new book and incorporating them without crediting Lori. While legally she’s fine, it is a total dick move, and she deserves to get reamed for it.
I love that Charleena’s a bit uptight and snappy while still being a ‘good guy’ (or at least not a baddie), and I do love that she did something wrong that has no impact on the actual crime at all. While she’s not in my top 5 of reoccurring characters/characters that appear in more than one game, she is a nice representation of what most authors are like (dedicated researchers and hard workers, not people who have wacky hijinks with the mystical people in their head that talk to them).
John Grey is a ghost hunter who relies more on tech than on spiritual intuition and hosts his own TV show dedicated to proving the existence of ghosts and spirits. He’s convinced — or rather really hoping — that he can prove the existence of Camille’s ghost and attribute her power to all the wacky things happening on the train.
He also really hates it when Nancy plays the piano around his sensitive audio equipment, which is the biggest reason to play the piano around his sensitive audio equipment that I can think of.
Heartbreakingly, John is the perfect culprit; he lies just under the radar enough not to be immediately obvious, but isn’t immediately discounted either. He also has the perfect motivation: with his show failing, he really needs a show-stopping apparition like Camille’s ghost to boost his ratings and save his show. He’d be an Abby Sideris-type culprit Writ Large, but this time he’d be manipulating people’s perceptions of an actual ghost that truly exists on the train.
John’s status as, frankly, no villain at all is the single biggest flaw in TRN, and it makes me sad every time I play it.
Listed officially as a suspect, Fatima of Copper Gorge is a Charleena fangirl and taffy enthusiast, with a temper as wide as Copper Gorge itself. She constantly wears an old-timey miner’s costume — foam head mask and all — and can apparently even sleep in it.
As a culprit, Fatima would have obviously been a poor choice for a Nancy Drew style game — she barely appears, and is there for a puzzle and a task and that’s pretty much it. She is however incredibly intriguing, as…well, she never takes off the mask. As a fair-play mystery, Fatima was never an option; she does stand out among all masked characters as one of the few that is never revealed to the player/Nancy.
Though they’re not officially suspects, the Hardy Boys both deserve a breakdown in this area.
Franklin Hardy is the elder of the two and barely counts as a teenager (being 19), though he does work for ATAC (American Teens Against Crime, which is the funniest acronym in the world). Detail-oriented with a dry sense of humor, Frank is the de facto leader of the Hardy Boys and far less hot-headed than his brother Joe.
A great researcher and planner, Frank knows a little bit about almost everything, and is more cautious (as most older siblings are) about the danger of any particular situation than either Joe or Nancy tend to be. Fiercely loyal and indisputably protective, Frank believes in the power of teamwork and is constantly on watch for people who might want to hurt his friends and family. In SPY, his bio specifies a “strong connection to [Nancy]” as not only an example of this loyalty but also as a point towards his feelings for her.
It would do Frank a disservice to boil his entire characterization down to his relationship with Nancy, but it is worth mentioning briefly. There are hints of his affection towards Nancy pre-TRN, but it’s really post-TRN that it kicks into high gear (probably because of working in close circumstances with her during TRN).
TRN is, possibly coincidentally and possibly not, the last game where Wayne Rawley voices Frank, as the man/myth/legend Jonah Von Spreecken takes over in the next game Danger by Design. Not only is JVS’s Frank a little less subtle about his feelings for Nancy, he’s also a little younger sounding (more like his actual age) and a little more enthusiastic (while still being very dry). As any reader of any of these metas could probably tell you, I find JVS’s Frank to be the best of his VAs, and he’s only enhanced when Nik takes over from WAC on.
Joseph Hardy, to contrast, is the 18 year old younger brother (and, if HER is working off the supermysteries, skipped a grade to be in Frank’s graduating class) and the more impulsive of the two. Generally laid-back in contrast to Frank’s meticulous nature, Joe is no less quick and is noted in his character bio from SPY to be an “extremely proficient tactician” — a role generally reserved by lesser writers for more uptight characters.
While easily distracted and a bit prone to conspiracy theories, Joe is quick to discover interpersonal links and motives and is at least somewhat handy with mechanics. His seemingly odd fixations usually lead (in a roundabout way) to finding out the truth behind crimes and leading him to a cool treasure or historical fact along the way. He’s big-picture in a way that Frank is not, which helps him both as he sifts through Nancy’s mysteries, and when he and Frank are on the job for ATAC.
As of Lani’s departure as Nancy Drew, Rob Jones (Joe’s voice actor) is the only VA to have voiced the same character for the entirety of their presence in the series. As much as I praise JVS in all of his roles (Frank and others) Rob really deserves 90% of the credit for Joe being as loved and wonderful as he is. Rob’s voice gives Joe the correct amount of youthful enthusiasm, glee in bad puns, and continual just plain enjoyment of the world he lives in and the job he has.
The Favorite:
If it wasn’t obvious, TRN is one of my favorite Nancy Drew games — definitely in the top 5, almost definitely in the top 3 — and that makes this section really easy.
First off is the physical presence of the Hardy Boys. It feels really natural to have them appear after being in most of the games leading up to TRN, and they make every second of this game better. From Joe’s cheeseburger face to playing briefly as Frank and eavesdropping (a minigame that would reach its Pinnacle in WAC) to watching Nancy sit down with the boys and pow-wow to figure out the mysteries, the Hardy Boys are a delight from beginning to end,
My favorite moment in the game is that lovely moment where Nancy sees Camille’s ghost dancing along the train window. Camille’s spirit looks so cheerful and effervescent, gently bubbling along her beloved husband’s train, and it’s a beautiful moment.
It’s also a crucial moment in the Nancy Drew game series and lore as a whole, as it, for the first time, clearly and plainly establishes what it’s hinted at since MHM — that in the Nancy Drew universe, ghosts and spirits are real. They’re almost never the culprit, and they don’t often look like Scary Cartoon ghosts, but they’re real all the same. This moment does so much for the game and for the series that it will forever be one of my favorite moments in the series, not just in this game.
My favorite puzzle would have to be finding and placing all the gemstones. I’ve always loved gemstones, and this game really increased my love of them (and interest in their meanings/folklore). Figuring out which animal goes with which stone — and mastering what the “hand from the deep” actually looks like — is a lot of fun, and the animatic of all the different parts whirring and coming together is beautiful. It’s often placed alongside one of the best quotes of this game: “above all…let nothing happen to my train; it holds wonderful things”.
I also love the “true treasure” of the game; sure, Nancy’s line about friendship is a bit corny, but ND has always been a bit corny, and it’s a wonderful sentiment that a true gift can simply be your ability to make connections, rather than any material possessions or social standing.
Camille is one of my favorite “historical characters” in the series, and I know I’ve mentioned her ghost just above, but I love how personal and friendly she feels; you really do get the sense as the player that she’s there, helping Nancy along. It’s Jake’s mystery, and Jake’s mine, Jake’s friends, and Jake’s treasure, but to me, Jake Hurley’s train forever belongs to Camille.
The Un-Favorite:
As far as my least favorite puzzle in TRN goes…I don’t think I have one. I enjoy all of them for their varied styles, their tie-ins to the time period and to palace trains in general – they don’t exactly feel like puzzles, even, more like well-integrated plot points. I think this is one of the few — if not the only one — that absolutely no puzzle comes to mind, so good on TRN.
Alright, you knew it was coming. My least favorite moment in the game is where Lori reveals herself as the second culprit and tries to trap Nancy in the crumbling mine (and the fallout in the letter Nancy writes). I’ve already gone into how Lori makes no sense as the actual culprit from a characterization point of view — and TRN runs on characterization — so I won’t repeat it. But I do have problems with it besides that.
TRN feels like it was set up to have a “culprit” — Lori, kidnapping herself — and then an actual culprit. Lori wanting to find Jake’s treasure as a publicity thing is totally fine, but the whole mystery feels like there’s another sinister presence working on Lori and the rest of the cast the entire time, trying to steer them to where they want them for their own machinations.
It would shock me not at all to find out that this scenario was the original plan, cut for time. TRN came out in mid-September of 2005, not even two months after CLK. While I know that different games are worked on simultaneously, that’s still quite a quick schedule to keep — especially since game #13 (TRN) wasn’t in the cards at all, the game series meant to be 12 games in total.
The ending feeling slapdash — “ah, we don’t have time to work out a criminal, let’s just have it be Lori again” — isn’t shocking looking at the timetable and circumstances behind TRN even becoming a game. While I understand it, I feel like the lack of thought put into the last 5 minutes or so of the game is really noticeable, and undermines both character and theming.
The Fix:
So how would I fix Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon?
Unsurprisingly (and since the rest of the game is borderline perfect), the one change/fix I would make is to the identity of the final culprit. John’s ‘arc’ is somewhat anticlimactic — he’s the only character to sort of drop off the face of the game at the 2/3rds mark — and I truly believe that it’s because the seeds are there to reveal him as the true villain, but it was never carried out.
My proposal is this: the vast majority of the game stays exactly as it is. Lori kidnaps herself, is found by Nancy, and rewards her by giving her all the information she has about the location of the mine — there being a small reference to Jake receiving a letter from an “important friend” or some such descriptor.
Nancy, of course, wonders briefly about the letter and then moves on to solving the location of the mind, working in tandem with the Hardy Boys — but because John has listening devices all over the train, he hears about the letter and begins to research on a hunch that this letter has information that can help him “establish” Camille’s ghost better and make her hauntings more plausible.
In this canon, of course, John’s show really is on the brink of being cancelled without being picked up by any major network, and his paranormal tours that the player finds out about in SAW (and is referenced again in TMB) aren’t doing so well either, so he needs a huge boost to his credibility. Camille’s story — and the treasure/letter that Jake Hurley left behind — is the perfect thing to get him back on top, if he could just get the nosy detectives out of the way.
By listening in on Nancy and the Hardy Boys, John knows just as much as they do — and more, thanks to his research team for Ghost Chasers turning up a connection between Jake and Abraham Lincoln — and decides that the best way to frame this for his show is to have “Camille’s wrath” come upon the uppity teen detective, collapsing the mine to protect Jake’s treasure as soon as she finds it (and he can take it from her).
Used to working in the dark and moving quietly, John, directed by Lori (who he’s manipulated into having him follow Nancy with cameras to capture the moment), follows Nancy into the mine, helping out with a few “good guesses” (actually his knowledge from listening in and researching) and snapping a few pictures of the treasure when they find it. After asking Nancy to hand him Lincoln’s letter so that he can film it better, John runs out of the room and blocks up the exit, standing outside to gloat to Nancy.
John talks about how he manipulated Lori, how he listened in, how this is the thing he needs to boost his show up to be the most-watched program in the ghost hunting business, how clever he was to run rings around Tony, Lori, Charleena, and most of all the Hardy Boys and Nancy herself. He then tells Nancy that she won’t live to tell the tale, but he’ll get footage of “Camille” causing a quake in the mine to protect her husband’s treasure — running as the mine begins to collapse.
From there, the game would continue as normal until Nancy catches the culprit (the only difference being who the culprit is) and rides to safety.
While this section seems really long, this change isn’t actually that big in the scheme of things — it just makes far more sense to have Lori only be the first culprit while having the second culprit be someone with a lot more to lose and a lot more to gain. In general with mysteries, your culprit should always be the person with the most to lose (though the detective and/or player shouldn’t know how much everyone has to lose from the beginning), and John suits that far more than Lori does.
That being said, this is the only change I’d make; I think the rest of the game not only was great at the time of its release but has also stood the test of time a decade and a half later. The change I’ve proposed would simply take the game from being a classic with a slight blemish to a truly perfect game.
#nancy drew#last train to blue moon canyon#clue crew#nancy drew games#TRN#nancy drew meta#long post#video games#my meta
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tagged by @naancypants and @professorhotchkissesta ❤️❤️ thank you ily 🥺🥰
♡ name: Caroline
♡ nickname: cj
♡ zodiac sign: capricorn ♑️
♡ height: 5’9
♡ nationality: american
♡ languages: english, semi-fluent in french
♡ what time is it?: midnight
♡ celebrity crush: wong yukhei (hes so gorgeous also a sweetheart)
♡ favorite fictional character: from the nancy drewniverse? henry bolet and george fayne. but outside of that, baz grimm-pitch and mika hyakuya
♡ favorite musician: everyone from nct especially taeyong
♡ favorite sports team: the rugby or soccer team that george fayne is a part of in an alternate universe
♡ favorite season: winter ❄️
♡ favorite flower: do people actually have favorite flowers? then i guess that one blue flower from minecraft
♡ favorite scent: burning marshmallow. sweet coffee. PEONY GOAT MILK SOAP >>>>
♡ favorite color: dark green
♡ favorite animal: cat, snake, raccoon, turtles, squirrels, mice, sea bunnies
♡ favorite food: this very specific dish at my favorite restaurant that shut down last year </3 also any italian food, and anything spicy
♡ dream car: i could not tell you the first thing about a car
♡ dream trip: italy, japan, korea, southern france, greece
♡ instruments: used to play the clarinet. i wanna learn the piano
♡ coffee/tea/hot cocoa: tea and coffee (both milky and sweet). rarely had hot cocoa that was good
♡ dog or cat: cats 100%
♡ following: 266
♡ followers: 107
♡ other blogs: none </3
♡ blog established:
♡ tumblr crush: anyone who ships deirge
♡ do you get asks?: not really but i would love to
♡ lucky number: 8
♡ what are u wearing: a tshirt with a dog on it and sweat pants
♡ drink of choice: water, unsweetened ice tea, milk tea, sparkling cider, or smoothies!!
♡ number of blankets: usually 2, one warm and one chilly
♡ average hours of sleep: 6-8
♡ random fact: i love makeup and im a makeup artist but i feel inadequate
if u made it here thank u ily????
tagging @knockoutqueenoftheunderworld idk who else but if you see this you’re automatically tagged by ME!!
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