Little Kitty, Big City
Little Kitty, Big City
Game
Game2010
SEASON OF MYSTERY: The Cherry Blossom Murders
Developer Square Enix
Your husband Richard lies dead beneath the cherry blossoms of Old Japan, and the police are of no help. Step into history and uncover the truth when no one else will. Find devilishly hidden clues, explore exotic locales, and bring the killer to justice! From the Steam store page
196 reactions from 1 source (Steam reviews) · newest Jul 3, 2026 · last updated Oct 8, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
80
LovedLoved
157 positive · 39 negative
95% range 74–85%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 157 | 39 | 0 |
Steam's own rating
Very Positive
265 of 327 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What people are saying
Mostly positive, but some find it repetitive and easy.
Many players enjoyed the game's story and setting, with some praising it as a great bonding experience. One player noted, Great game, generally. Played the game with my Mom... Wouldn't take anything for the great time we spent together. [1]
However, several critics found the gameplay repetitive and the puzzles too easy. One player said, Puzzles are way too easy... you have to go 10 times to the same scenes. Another added, "The story is quite boring." [33]
Praised story · setting · music · bonding experience
Criticised repetitive gameplay · easy puzzles · short length
Summary drafted by an AI model from the 36 reactions it cites ([n] links open each post), then checked by code: every paragraph cites real posts and every quote is verbatim. Written Oct 8, 2026. Method
Reactions
60 of 196 · most liked firstGreat game, generally. Played the game with my Mom (80 years old) while visiting for a week at Christmas time. Hooked a HDMI cable from the laptop to the big TV so she could see well. She looked forward to playing it every night. We finished the game at 2:30 am the last night I was there. Wouldn't take anything for the great time we spent together. I play it sometimes just to relax.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A solid HOG with good art and decent story by Square Enix. Has moderate replayability due to an above average amount of objects hidden per scene, with each scene sequence choosing a modest random selection of them. However, it lacks "Collector's Edition" features, so there's no way to just replay specific scenes. <6 hours to 100% with no walkthrough (2 playthroughs). A sloppy playthrough using hints takes about 2 hours. <2 hours to 100% with walkthrough and cutscene skipping.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I thought we'd always be happy together Season of Mystery: The Cherry Blossom Murders is the first hidden objects game made by Square Enix, a very famous developer who brought us many amazing RPG titles. The story sat in the 18th century, a woman named Irene lives with her husband in Japan as he works in the U.S. embassy, one day she discovered his dead body in his office. To her horror, the case was closed as a suicide, but knowing her husband wouldn't commit such an act, Irene determined to…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →First things first, this is a hidden object game, so you should be aware of whether or not that's your thing before you consider purchasing. Unfortunately, even for someone who enjoys hidden object games, I can't really recommend this one. Positives +Interesting setting in 19th century Japan +Music is really nice +The backgrounds are very pretty and make good use of colour +No voice acting, so I don't have to listen to some painfully dire actor hamming it up Negatives +Hilariously terrible…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Overall a good standard hidden object point and click, nothing groundbreaking here. I liked the fact it was set in Japan, the story was reminiscent of Agatha Cristie stuff. Worth getting on sale/bundle if you are a point and click fan, good for a break from intense games.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Please read this review as to why I don't recommend this game. Honestly, I loved it but the cons outweigh the pros here. SEASON OF MYSTERY: The Cherry Blossom Murders is a hidden-object game in a mystery genre that takes place in the 1890s of Japan. First...I'll start with the good: The story. Story: The story follows Irene, an american woman who came to Japan with her husband. Irene's husband was murdered and deemed to be suicide from the police. However, Irene believed that it wasn't…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I bought this for my Mother who loves hidden object games and she absolutely loved it. Nothing is timed she was able to enjoy the images and the music. Man, the music is amazing. It is one of the better hidden object games I've seen while looking for them. Highliy recommend it.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Not a bad little game for the casual user. easy interactions and puzzles, lots of pretty scenes to do the hidden object searches in. The hints make it almost too easy, but if you just want a fun little game to pass the time this works. It comes with a "violence" warning, because it deals with murder/suicide/death etc, but I think only -really- young kids would be bothered.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's a fun murder mystery, point-and-click puzzle game. I've always liked word searches and hidden object puzzles and this is just one big, beautifully illustrated hidden object puzzle; with some other types of puzzles as well. Plus you have the story of trying to solve your husband's murder even though the police ruled it suicide. I'm not so sure the "Stirring, Japanese-themed soundtrack " is an accurate portrayal because it doesn't really make me think Japanese but it's still pretty nice…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is all about the HO. Pure Hidden Object goodness. It's pretty much just many hidden object scenes tied together with an interesting mystery story. There are a few puzzles here and there and a few times you need to use inventory items on a specific spot. But, as I said, mostly it's search search search for those items. And many of the items are cleverly hidden. Add in some nice music and Steam achievements and you have a fun little game if you're an HO fan.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Short version: 65% Season of Mystery may be old and outdated for a hidden object game, but the accompanying murder mystery visual novel is worth the gameplay inconveniences. Long version: Season of Mystery: The Cherry Blossom Murders was made in 2010, but it feels more like a hidden object game from late 2007: gameplay is nothing but hidden object scenes, of which several have to be replayed up to three times. The low-resolution graphics and some of the incredibly cheap tricks to hide some…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Oooooh, boy. Normally I love these hidden object games and am happy to suspend my disbelief for the genre's usual missteps (like cartoonishly large objects that defy the law of gravity, random anachronisms, lackluster characterization, and the whole "I've found the crucial piece of evidence I needed to solve my husband's murder, but first I need to find three more butterflies and an artichoke!" thing). But the story here is dull, the puzzles in between are easy but tedious and repetitive (time…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's actually pretty challenging for a hidden item game, and has a decent storyline to go with it. Unfortunately, there isn't a ton of replayability once you've beaten it once, other than for getting any achievements you might have missed the first playthrough. Overall, though, it's nice if you're looking for a casual time-killer.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really love these kinds of games and this one combines so many that I love. You look for objects that are hidden in a range of difficulty at every location. There's also a variety of puzzle mini games that are also very clever. It's story isn't bad either, it makes for a great mystery. I suggest also trying to play it with friends, it can become a fun bonding activity/race to see who can find what. It's also an awsome feeling while refusing to use the hint button to finally find that object…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is mostly just a series of HO scenes with cutscenes and very few puzzles inbetween. There's absolutely no need for exploration and there are just a handful of cases where one has to use an item from the inventory to progress forward. As I said, 95% of the game is HO scenes. The graphics are beautiful, the HO scenes are not overly junkpile-ish, they are actually enjoyable as far as HO scenes can go. The music is okay too, one of the songs is quite good, the other one that I remember is…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Detailed review of the game means basically unfolding most of the plot ruining the experience. The crux of the gameplay is to find the deeply hidden objects in a scenery, and solving mini puzzles in between like matching the pairs, form a sudoku, finding the key combination. You will have to find the hidden objects in the same scenery multiple times, intermingling the objects and randomly spewing them everytime you launch the game. I can't say for sure, if the hidden-object is my kind, but…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I would not recommand this game because : - Puzzles are way too easy - Not a lot of places to visit (you have to go 10 times to the same scenes) - Graphisms are quite poor and hidden objects are not well integrated in the scenes. - The story is quite boring. - No timer, no points, no challenge.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I love these hidden object games. Good story. Nice music. Irene is a strong woman!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The late 19th-century Japanese setting is beautifully styled, but the core gameplay is a pretty standard, paint-by-numbers hidden object experience. While the narrative keeps you somewhat engaged in the detective work, the puzzles and mini-games are incredibly easy and offer zero real challenge. You also end up backtracking through the exact same environments way too often, which artificially pads out the playtime. It’s a decent, cozy title to mindlessly click through while watching a show, but…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm quite patient when it comes to first impressions in a game. But I've only played for a few minutes and I already can't stand it, even as a hidden object enjoyer. The items are just too blurry, bizarrely sized and obscured and it becomes more of a game of randomly clicking every pixel on the screen as opposed to actually looking for them with your eyes. When you're looking for a harmonica, you don't expect to be finding a 5 foot tall one propped up against a hallway. When you're looking for…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →My son has been in the ICU for the past week. This game has helped me re-focus and relax during one of the most stressful weeks I have ever experienced.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A breath of fresh air from the last hidden object game I reviewed, Season of Mystery: The Cherry Blossom Murders is a fairly decent, and lovely hidden object game! You play as Irene Pemberton, who moves to Japan with her beloved husband, Richard Pemberton, to enjoy the calm atmosphere of the land of the rising sun. However, tradgedy strikes when her husband is found dead in his office. Police are quick to rule it as a suicide, leaving it up to you to find out who killed Richard, and why. The…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →My wife and I had a blast playing this during a few of our "indoor date nights" that we started during the pandemic. We had a great time working together to find all the objects (cleverly hidden and fun) and solve the puzzles (not the highlight, honestly) without using any hints. We had never played a game like this before, and it was fun! However, I can't give an opinion on how it holds up against other games in the genre. Took just under 5 hours to get 100% of the achievements, if you…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Challenging! This is refreshing. Repetitive! Yes HOG's can be repetitive, but this one is especially painfully repetitive. I have played the same hidden object scenes more than 3 times..way too many repeats for a game this length. There is a below average amount of scenes. The music was good! but again repetitive was becoming annoying.... Otherwise the ambiance and story are enjoyable. The game is fun, but its fleeting fun. It really feels like something went wrong or they ran out of…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I enjoyed finding these objects. My poor husband.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Found this game on Steam by "accident", added it to my wish list and then bought it during the recent Steam summer sale and since im very interested in "all things" japanese and like puzzle/detective games... I thought why not try it out. I did not have any big expectations but I had a good feeling about the game before I bought it and it turned out to be well spent money for me since I didn't pay much for it and I really enjoyed it. It's a casual and relaxing hidden-object/puzzle/detective…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Took me 6 hours to complete everything with all achievements. NOT worth 4,99€, way to short and easy, didn't really try that hard. HOWEVER it is a great game, intresting storyline and fun while it lasts. Wouldn't spend my money on it though.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Square Enix made a H.O.G. :D
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Such a beautiful game! <3 The story, plot and detailing are really well thought out, buuuut the game can be very repetitive. Music and sometimes scenery stays the same... even tho it makes up for how gorgeous it looks and sounds! The game focuses more about story progression rather than new ideas for the scenes. The hidden objects often doesn't move from the last scene you just played, but who doesn't love some helping out? X3 The story is very clever, and finding clues in different crime…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I actually enjoyed this game. Well worth the price even though I got this on sale. It's a pretty simple and standard hidden object game so it's good for casual gamers or hardcore gamers who want to relax. Recommended. Pros: +Stunning soundtrack +Interesting storyline +Set in old Japan +Beautiful artwork +Fun yet relaxing mystery game Cons: -I couldn't play on full screen for some reason because the game screen glitches out. I played it on windowed mode which made it a bit of challenge to…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I can't believe this piece of ♥♥♥♥ has so many positive reviews. Season of Mystery is a really bad hidden-object game with mediocre graphics, laughable cutscenes with no voice acting, a few unoriginal puzzles and particularly bad HO scenes. I mean, the low resolution graphics are unclear, the objects don't respect realistic scale and are often virtually invisible. There are dozens of better HO games, like 9 Clues series or basically anything from Artifex Mundi. Stay away from this game. Square…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The story ended up surprising me twice, once for the ending, once for the overall feel. My first impression was of a middling, old-style hidden object game - and there are a LOT of HO scenes. If you want to do scene after scene of "find these objects", then this game is definitely for you. Also, they aren't easy scenes, since lighting varies (day, evening, night), objects are sometimes far out of proportion (big), and very occasionally completely out of place. BUT I give this game a thumbs up…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Recommendation: Quite possibly the best hidden object game I've played. Critique: This is a great hidden object game that manages to avoid most of the issues that other such games have, while being fundamentally the same kind of game as anything produced by the big HOG studios like Artifex Mundi. Season of Mystery: the Cherry Blossom Murders is more of the same, but it's just slightly better. Right at the start, I have to point out that there are no crows in this game at all. Well....I guess…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Funny, decent hidden object game. It keeps minimising when you click away but the rest of the game functions well and the hidden object pages are varied without being repetitive or obvious. The story itself is terrible and far-fetched but playing on stream and laughing at Irene with the rest of chat and cheering on Fujikawa as he tackles a man is worth the entertainment value. Wish it has a history to read the messages I missed and the cutscenes go slightly too fast, but hey, for £3 - I had…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's just a fun find objects game, relaxing.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →HOG from SquareEnix! O.O Japan during the 18th century. One night Irene finds her husband Richard dead. Local police chief evaluates it as a suicide, thanks to the note close to his body. There her husband, an employee of an US Embassy, admits his participation in smuggling precious and valued pieces of Japanese history and that the shame is too much for him to bear any longer. But Irene is convinced that her beloved husband would never do such a thing, so she decides to uncover the culprit of…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's a good hidden object game than the ones that I used to play. :)
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I purchased the Cherry Blossom Murders an the first puzzel was to find a Pocket Watch. There isn't a Pocket Watch in the puzzel. I surched for over a hour for it and clicked on everything! What a waste of money!!!
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I love hidden object games in general, and have lost count of how many I've played. This one just doesn't cut it. For me it comes down to this - the hidden objects are ridiculously hard to see; harder than any HOGs I've played before. So if you're after achievements, forget this one. Finish a scene in under 2 minutes? HA! I started micro-clicking all over the screen, at random, then in patterns, and still couldn't finish one in 2 minutes. You can literally click on the right object, and…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Solve the same puzzles OVER AND OVER again in attempts to progress the plot!! Seriously, there are only a few locations and you have to solve the same puzzles each time you revisit a location. After going to a location for the 4th time and finding the same objects, I realized that I really didn't give a ♥♥♥♥ about my murdered husband and stopped playing because I was sick of finding the same stupid things and solving the same puzzle over and over again. Buy this game for your grandma with…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It won't run on Windows 7 64-bit. I tried everything (Compatibility Mode etc.), but it always crashes upon clicking "Play". It's a C++ related assertion error (.\config\DDSManager.cpp; Line 91) and there seems to be no fix for it, no Steam update either. Verifying the Game Cache didn't help. There is no dev assistance on this issue on the game's forum, while quite a few people seem to have encountered C++ related error trying to play it. Very disappointing, the game looked very compelling...…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I was looking through Steam for games that got support for the Japanese language and eventually found this. It was on sale, of course, and I thought the game reasonable priced for its contents. The game reminds me of all those hidden objects games that were popular among Facebook-friends a few years ago. It easily becomes repeatable over time and if one does not enjoy such repetition then this game is not to recommend. I am pleased by the game so far as I did, for the most part, buy it to…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Got it at a discounted price, love it because it was set in historic Japan. The disappointing part was that that are much more point and click hidden object than puzzle games in this one. And you will be looking for the same item in the same place in repeat.. I was looking forward to a Square Enix production, but this one I wouldnt recommend it. Unless it's discounted or more, free to play. There're no extras mini games or additional games after you've completed the whole game.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →After playing this I went to see if Steam had any other hidden object games by Square Enix, so that's a vote of approval. About 3 hours of playtime. Heavy hidden-object, no real puzzles. Story-line was decent, but on-rails (no real options on where to go next). When all you are in the mood for is hidden object (which is usually true for me) then this is a good choice.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Normally I like hidden object games, but this one is just annoying. Finding an egg in a huge cluttered scene with no other objects to find is an annoyance. Especially if you don't want to use the hint feature in order to unlock the achievement. Decent graphics, but that's all I will say. I do not recommend this one at all. But seriously, how does finding an egg help the storyline? The Artifex Mundi games are way better than this one to be honest.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is boring, even for a point and click! The good: The art is acceptable and the younger detective is a little fun at times with Irene. The bad: It's boring! It doesn't know the difference between pine and sakura trees, the character are cardboard, the object searches are mostly useless (but that's true with most games), and it's long and tediously dull! I say give it a pass.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Season of Mystery: The Cherry Blossom Murders is a find the hidden object game where you solve the murder of your spouse in 20th century Japan. The music is competent but repetitive and the artwork stills are quite attractive. The gameplay itself is challenging because the objects can be especially well hidden on each game field. Fortunately the matches are not timed and a rechargeable hint allows you to find those sneaky objects that defy being located. The cutscenes and storyline are rather…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The hidden objects in this game are too pixelated and too low res to tell what they are. You also can't play at a higher res because the full screen just stretches the images. At least it's less than $5.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Good game to play if you have trouble sleeping.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Don't care for the story portion, it was a substandard typical mystery plot that is highly predictable. The backgrounds are pretty and the music is alright, but overall the game itself it not something that I can recommend to others. The hidden object portion was alright the first few scenes, but then you come back to the same scenes and the objects are in the exact same spots as last time and you have to find them again? Not exactly challenging. I liked some of the mini games but not enough to…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →One of the worst Hidden Object Games out there. Number one complaint - HOG scenes are unforgivably blurry and it's difficult to recognize objects. Also object scaling is ridiculous; a 300 meter spear, a two meter comb as examples. Nice music doesn't make up for a frustrating experience with game-play, and most of this game is HOG scenes.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →As old as it gets, still an amazing game !
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →In "Season of Mystery" you are a widow attempting to find justice for the murder of your husband. The story in this isn't bad but the game is way too repetitive. You end-up revisiting the same hidden object scenes multiple times, often looking for some of the same items you previously had to find. This tied with the extremely simple mini-games makes "Season of Mystery" pretty tedious to get through.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is very simple; it's just one hidden object scene after another, with a minimal story and a few easy puzzles to solve along the way. If you like the artwork in the screenshots, then you'll probably like the game (I did).
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Boring - there's no challenge to it at all. It's also not voice acted, and the dialogue scenes are annoying, since they refresh the screen with every sentence, and characters blink in and out of existence.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Classical pure hidden object game with some puzzles between. Relaxing.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This hidden object game has a Japanese theme, a murder mystery storyline and mini games. I enjoyed the story and theme and some of the objects were hidden in very clever ways. I enjoyed the mini games for a change of pace, but my least favorite one was the only one that repeated. There is also some repetition in the locations where you search for hidden objects and while I liked how this tied in with the story and I enjoyed looking for new items within the same scenes, I was less thrilled…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A Hidden Object game that tries to be a detective game. The story was fine for a game like this and it had a few twists, but this is no Agatha Christie whodunnit. While the HO game and mini games were OK, the biggest let down is, there is no endless mode after finishing the story.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This was a fun hidden object game. The story was good and the H/O scenes, even when revisited always had new items with the previous ones so it wasn't hard replay to get 100 % achievements. I enjoyed enough to replay the second(and final) time to finish the last of them!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The scenes for the hidden objects are great, mini games are fun but not very challenging. The story is very mediocre but that's run of the mill for these games and probably not what you're looking for. I enjoyed my time with it.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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