Pabili Justisya

About Pabili Justisya

Pabili Justisya is a Filipino visual-novel mystery made by Fylows and Team “Skibidi Society”
for the Los Baños Game Jam 2025. You take over a humble sari-sari store with a second job:
finding out who the killer in town is. The game mixes the everyday rhythm of running a small
store — taking requests, stocking shelves, serving regulars — with a slow-burn investigation
that plays out entirely through conversation.

The hook is that everything runs through dialogue. You talk to townspeople as part of the
daily loop, and the more you listen, the more the picture sharpens. The developer describes
the tone as a mission to uncover a killer while doing your daily work, “and maybe, along the
way, discover the dark truth simmering beneath the surface.” It is not an action game: the
tension comes from paying attention to people and noticing who is hiding something.

The game is built with Godot and presented in pixel art. Music and sound effects are taken
from Pixabay, and the page states that no generative AI was used.

How to Play

The game opens into the store, and the first beats are about orienting yourself:

1. Run the store. Customers arrive and place requests, as in any sari-sari store game.
   Keep the counter moving so the day can carry on.
2. Talk to everyone. Click on townspeople and let the conversations play out. Their
   stories, gossip, and reactions are your evidence.
3. Watch for QTE prompts. At vital story moments, a prompt appears — click the item when
   it sparkles. These QTEs are described as “vital to the story”, so missing them matters.
4. Use the record book. The record book lists your suspects. Click the portraits for more
   information, and that is also how you make an arrest in later days.

The investigation is gated by the calendar: information unlocks as days pass, and the choices
you make steer which of the four endings you reach. The official page encourages finding them
all, which makes replays a designed part of the experience rather than a hidden extra.

The Investigation Loop

What makes Pabili Justisya distinct from a pure shopkeeper game is how the store and the
mystery feed each other. The store gives you a reason to be in the neighborhood and a natural
way to talk to residents — people come to you. The investigation gives the shopkeeping a
purpose beyond score: every conversation is a chance to collect a clue.

The record book is your memory. Because the dialogue is dense and the cast is small-town size,
keeping track of who said what is the actual challenge. Clicking a suspect’s portrait pulls up
what you know about them, which is the basis for an informed arrest rather than a guess.

Tips for New Players

• Read every line twice. This is a mystery first; the information you need is inside the
  dialogue, not on screen as an objective marker.
• Do not rush the QTEs. When an item sparkles, that is the signal to click — wait for the
  sparkle and click the correct item rather than clicking wildly.
• Open the record book early. Review suspects after each day while the conversations are
  still fresh; later days assume you remember the earlier clues.
• Replay for the endings. Four endings are advertised, and the branching choices mean a
  single playthrough shows you only part of the story. Replays are cheap and the game is short.
• Desktop browser only for now. The official page notes the game may not run on every
  device; the verified path is the desktop browser build via itch.io.
• Treat arrests as decisions. The record book says arrests are how the story resolves —
  take the time to compare suspects before committing.

The Setting

A sari-sari store in a small Filipino town is a natural hub: neighbors pass through for
everyday items, and the counter is where gossip lands. Pabili Justisya leans on that — the
store is the reason every character has to walk past you. The pixel-art storefront and the
Pixabay soundtrack keep the mood grounded and conversational, which fits a story about
uncovering a secret one conversation at a time.