“Staffer Retro” – Every Act Ranked

After playing “Staffer Case” a few years ago, I eagerly anticipated Team Tetrapod’s follow-up “Staffer Retro”. Now that it’s out and I’ve played it, is it a worthy sequel? Kinda. It has its moments, that’s for sure.

I’m going to rank all five cases or “Acts” in the game, and be warned – there will be SPOILERS ahead. Even the titles could give some things away.

Before we begin, you can check out some of my related blog posts below:

“Staffer Case” – Every Case Ranked

29 Great Detective Games

EVERY Game I Played In 2024 – Ranked

Sherlock Holmes – Cases Ranked (Frogwares Games)

Okay

5 – Act 4 “Homebound”

By far the weakest stretch of the game came in its penultimate chapter. In some ways “Homebound” is a set-up case for the finale, in others it’s its own story. It falls flat on both fronts.

The unique quirk of Act 4 is that it’s a series of flashbacks from new viewpoints that are interwoven with previous Acts, mostly Act 3. This sounds exciting on paper, but these flashbacks are unfortunately slow and don’t reveal a whole lot.

The main pull of Act 4 has to do with Verita’s parents. A lot of effort goes into getting them to reunite, and in a shocking finale her mother ends up killing her father. This is quite the thrill in the short term … but ultimately amounts to nothing come the game’s climax.

Good

4 – Act 5 “Moonlight”

After a lacklustre Act 4, I was banking on “Moonlight” giving me a finale for the ages. It didn’t. This was far less bombastic or dramatic than I wanted, but in a vacuum it’s a decent story.

The mafia storyline gets its conclusion, with Verita working out how the fabric Staff truly works. The mafia stuff is compelling enough, but the fabric mystery is drawn out, convoluted and quite an underwhelming way to end the game. The first game ended with a grand conspiracy within the Bureau … whereas “Staffer Retro” just has a local, underdeveloped mafia sect getting outed.

That’s the main problem with “Staffer Retro” – it peaked early. “Staffer Case” got better with each case, the momentum building to the grand finale, whereas this one closed with a whimper. What it needed was a surprise Epilogue to get things back on track …

3 – Act 1 “Destination”

The first half of Act 1 is fine, but I remember feeling a little underwhelmed in terms of it being a sequel. It had a new cast, a new location, and the gameplay had been tweaked to fit the new vibe. At first I wasn’t sure if it would tie together, but by the end of “Destination” I was on-board with the new style.

Most of “Destination” serves to lay the groundwork for the game to come. We’re introduced to Verita, Vero, Vering, Vassanio … and yes, all those “V” names in quick succession made it very hard to keep track of characters at first. Verita works in a Staff shop, which is an awesome premise that is woefully underutilized across the game.

In this first case, however, the Staff shop comes into play – Verita becomes embroiled with Zad Vering, a Staff seller, and the two of them have to track down an exploding rabbit statue and identify its trigger.

I wasn’t particularly enamored at first, but the ending twist that the rabbit statue and noisy brooch were connected took this up a level. A solid start to the game – albeit a slow one to begin with.

Great

2 – Act 2 “Immovable”

Act 2 wastes no time at all hooking you in. Verita and Vering investigate some supposed time-altering Staff in an abandoned mine, only to get trapped in the mines alongside Bryan (from the first game) and the ruthless businessman Vassanio. Great premise!

Being trapped in the mines adds a fun tension – as it’s early in the story, you don’t know if one of the side characters is going to meet their end. There are lots of twists and turns about the miners’ identities and the time-altering Staff in question, and the chapter wrapped up in a satisfying way.

Bonus points for how clever the time-stopping power was, specifically how it kept killing people – I never even considered how suspended water droplets could be deadly under such conditions.

BONUS – Epilogue “Starting Point”

I warned you that the titles would contain spoilers. The existence of an Epilogue is one of the biggest twists in this game – and, fortunately, it righted some of the wrongs about the previous two Acts.

While the actual gameplay and story content of “Starting Point” is a bit thin, it’s the ending which has stuck with me most. Verita figures out the origins of the first Staff and – crucially – the very first Staffer.

In an intense confrontation, the first Staffer is revealed to be none other than Vassanio. It’s an excellent twist, and although it’s predictable by this point of the game it’s still given the weight it deserves.

That’s what’s most impressive about this Epilogue – I wasn’t really vibing with the last few Acts of “Staffer Retro”, but after this extra tidbit I now can’t wait to see how the trilogy concludes.

Amazing

1 – Act 3 “Brand”

The best “Staffer” cases are the ones that flip your reasoning on its head by the climax. No case across the two games does this as effectively, and as many times, as “Brand”.

Verita and Vering travel to a small town that has supposedly been tormented by an immortal demon for generations. In a quiet manor they meet its patriarch, his young daughter and a Bureau agent on a separate mission. After the events of Act 3, nobody’s lives are ever the same.

The “youngest daughter curse” turns out to be perpetrated by the youngest daughter herself. Both Pandoria Redfins (in a brilliant flashback) and Verita realise this conclusion, but Verita goes one step further – it’s not the immortality Staff that is making this “demon” live forever, but the transformation Staff. In other words, the “demon” keeps swapping bodies with the youngest daughters of this poor family. Horrifying.

This series of twists – that Redfins was involved, that the “demon” is the young daughter and that the transformation Staff is the culprit – completely blindsided me. “Staffer Retro” didn’t have an ending that matched the first game’s, but this midpoint was incredible. Act 3 justifies this game’s existence by itself.

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