Mystery Case Files: Dire Grove, Sacred Grove

Mystery Case Files: Dire Grove, Sacred Grove is the eleventh in the series, and the second (and last) entry made by Elephant Games. This time, the Master Detective returns to Dire Grove to investigate the sudden temperature drop (again), except this time some guy trespassing is the reason why.
This entry is notable for the idea of evidence to collect to continue the story and choosing the Master Detective's gender before the start of the game, possibly to finally put an end to the age-old debacle.

Debug Keys#

Like its predecessor, Dire Grove, Sacred Grove has some debug keys, accessible by creating a profile with the non case-sensitive name of Cheater.

F1 - F6: Teleports the player to a specific location in the story, along with all the items they would have at that point.

Key	Location	Items	Evidence	Notes
F1	Outside Dire Grove	Suitcase	None	Plays intro cutscene
F2	Old Tree (version 2)	Key Card, Amulet, Fueled Lighter	Mistwalker's Oath, Mistwalker's Prophecy	Plays "Mistwalkers attacking hunters" cutscene
F3	Old Tree (version 3)	Fueled Lighter, Wrench, Hunter's Badge	Torn Picture, Chemist's Recorder, Bjorn's Diary	None
F4	Old Tree (version 4)	Fueled Lighter	None	None
F5	Car	None	None	Plays Bonus Game intro
F6	Derek's House	Fueled Lighter	Torn Picture, Chemist's Recording, Bjorn's Diary	Plays Alternate Ending intro

Tab ↹: Highlights anything on the screen that can be interacted with. Objects that can be interacted with are enclosed in red boxes, and collectable objects in Hidden-Object puzzles are highlighted red.
U: Completes the main game, regardless of actual progression. Unlike in Fate's Carnival, it can be pressed multiple times for the same effect.
A: Does the same thing U does, but for the Bonus Game instead. There is no known equivalent for the Alternate Ending.

The options menu. The build number is there normally.

Unused Cursor#

The files cursor_use, cursor_use_1 and cursor_use_2 are parts of an older version of the "use item" cursor. A completed version of the cursor can be seen in the Help menu.

cursor_use_2 (background added for visibility)

A mockup made from the previous three files.

Unused Dialogue#

The Master Detective has several unused voicelines, primarily for collecting evidence.
Since both male and female versions exist and are the same word-wise, any filenames have had the "male" and "female" tags omitted.

aud_think_4_voc.ogg#

Male	Female	Transcript
		This must have belonged to someone here in Dire Grove.

This was probably intended for finding the tape recording in the chest by the hotel.

aud_think_5_voc.ogg#

Male	Female	Transcript
		I believe this was Samuel's.

This line is most likely for collecting the first section of Samuel's diary.

aud_think_6_voc.ogg#

Male	Female	Transcript
		This is handy - someone's been tracking the weather here.

There's a line for finding the electronic weather report...

aud_think_7_voc.ogg#

Male	Female	Transcript
		Another section from Samuel's diary!

...and for receiving the second part of Samuel's diary from Ted.

aud_think_8_voc.ogg#

Male	Female	Transcript
		A history of the Mistwalkers. This should tell me more about them.

A line for the Mistwalker history book, found at the banshee statue.

aud_think_9_voc.ogg#

Male	Female	Transcript
		This sign is very old.

The numbering for this line is rather odd; the only piece of evidence referred to as a sign is found much later in the game than the rest of these unused lines are intended for.

aud_think_10_voc.ogg#

Male	Female	Transcript
		This tablet looks ancient!

The final evidence-collecting line seems to be for the tablet found at the Druid Shrine.

aud_think_13_voc.ogg#

Male	Female	Transcript
		I'd better talk to Samuel. This is more complicated than I thought.

This line may have once been used after reaching a deduction for the first set of evidence; the Master Detective has a similar line during the first deduction cutscene in the final game, internally named aud_flashback_1_p5:

Male	Female	Transcript
		I'd better talk to Samuel. He seems to know everything that goes on in this town.

aud_think_17_voc.ogg#

Male	Female	Transcript
		That was one tough case.

Who knows what this could've been used for.

Unused Text#

Many of the early-game callouts have an unused, extra response included in the file strings.xml. Fate's Carnival cycled between two different responses for each callout; this functionality isn't really used in Dire Grove, Sacred Grove. Callouts for objects later in the game usually copy one message twice instead of having two unique messages.

<Row Index="41">
    <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">bbt_controlpanel_use_brokenfork_2</Data></Cell>
    <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">Maybe I can make something that'll fit.</Data></Cell>
   </Row>

A callout for trying to get the banshee statue control box's lock open at the Crossroads.

   <Row Index="80">
    <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">bbt_droppedsack_use_paperclip_2</Data></Cell>
    <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">Maybe I can find another slider.</Data></Cell>
   </Row>

This line is for attempting to open the backpack found at the hotel path. The internal name suggests that at one point a paperclip was the solution to the puzzle, rather than a replacement zipper.

 <Row Index="135">
    <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">bbt_door_use_hotiron_2</Data></Cell>
    <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">It'll take a lot of heat to melt this.</Data></Cell>
   </Row>

 <Row Index="196">
    <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">bbt_firestand_use_hotiron_2</Data></Cell>
    <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">I should melt the ice.</Data></Cell>
   </Row>

<Row Index="309">
    <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">bbt_bearpost_use_hotiron_2</Data></Cell>
    <Cell><Data ss:Type="String">There's only one sure way to melt ice - heat.</Data></Cell>
   </Row>

All of these extra lines are for trying to free the various frozen animal figures dotted around Dire Grove.

Oddities#

The Mistwalker Camp is strangely called rm_carpark internally. There's nothing like a car park in the game at all. For comparison, the Garage is called rm_garage.
Copies of various graphic files for the Dire Grove Museum's pit are stored in the Druid Shrine's location folder.