Ghost of a Tale

I was really taken by surprise with how great this game is shortly after starting it. I wasn't sure what I was getting into, as I received it for free not long ago as a GOG promotion, and I was just looking for something different and fresh to play to take my mind off things. And I just happened to find just that! Sort of got some Skyrim-like vibes from it in the very beginning. I wasn't expecting it to have such strong and somewhat elaborate RPG elements. Though it definitely isn't on the level of micro-management or any need of inventory sorting. What got me the most is the intricate wordplay of the character dialogues. At first, I thought, 'agh, I don't know if I feel like playing a game where I have to read right now.' Then, I humored the dialogue and found it was VERY well written and thought out. To the point where it actually feels like a genuine world. There's much backstory to the fiction presented within, and it's quite intriguing! The option to read definitions of uncommon words, places, characters, and slang I think is a stroke of genius. The settings, the characters, the detail both of the graphics and content as a whole... I truly appreciate this game as a work of art. I haven't played much into the game yet. Maybe 3-4 hours over the span of 2-3 days, but it has quickly become one of my favorites. Having stealth elements surely factors in to that as I am an avid fan of games that incorporate stealth mechanics. This is one of those games which are great to play before bed. And with how much detail is in the storyline, I genuinely feel fear and worry for certain characters. Even pondering whether I should trust certain characters I meet. There are a few bugs I've noticed here and there. Though not many, none game-breaking. Just small details that make me think, 'well, that's silly.' Really looking forward to continuing the adventure to see what other surprises and interesting characters and story elements lie ahead.

This is a beautifully designed, incredibly beautiful, incredibly detailed, cute, and at the same time not childishly cruel game about the minstrel mouse Tilo, who was separated from his wife and imprisoned on the island for refusing to play and sing to the rat king kingdoms a song about the cowardice of mice during the old war. The mouse needs to gather the will into a fist and get out of the cursed island to reunite with his wife. But all this is just the tip of the iceberg, called the plot! In the best traditions of Dark Souls, we collect the plot bit by bit throughout the game. And believe me, there is something to read there! The game has a lot of text, and not a single passable line. The feeling that you are reading a solid book. The game story develops into such an epic and mind-blowing tale that you just tear your hair out - I want to continue! I want a book! I want a cartoon. I want to love this lore and have access to completely different materials dedicated to Tilo and his world! But we only have a game created by a tiny studio and one hard-working animator. Are there any downsides? Of course, namely: the monotony of the gameplay (we just walk, hide and talk, no battles), the songs of the minstrel, I mean their musical part, are written disgustingly, there was not enough budget for good composers (on the other hand, Mathieu was involved in a number of compositions Alvado and the whole London Orchestra); the game is not devoid of minor bugs. And yet, I loved her with all my heart. Plunged into the world of small fauna headlong for a week, it was worth it.

I love the stealth genre and grew up with Metal Gear and the Thief series and later Splinter cell, but this game is just incredible boring and clumsy. The stealth mechanics are more than basic, the enemy A.I is not very intelligent and the gameplay is boring and shallow. The performance is still very bad and you will experience a lot of fps drops and stuttering. Side quests are fetch quests and not very engaging. You often need to find hard to see objects so you will wander around for hours just to be able to complete the missions. I wish I could refund or remove the game from my library.

It is hard to believe that such a little yet full game was mainly accomplished through the efforts of one man. The art, story, music, and coding were well integrated. It is fine for most ages, but by no means childish. I waited to write a review until I had a chance to play the game a second a time. The first time was for the experience, the second for a more critical eye. Everything was efficiently executed, be it level design, game mechanics, story. All simple, yet varied enough to be pleasing and not drawn out to boredom. It was not a difficult game as there were plenty chances to save. Most conversations end with an autosave and death is not penalized, save that you must go back to your last save or autosave. This would diminish the value of some games, but for this game, this point was unraveling the story, not the insides of some opponent in battle. This game was much akin to reading a charming fairy tale, a sort of Tales of Redwall endeavor, but much better written. The voiceless text-dialogue was a good feature which, in my estimation, enhanced the storybook feel by allowing the player's imagination some free reign. I am used to playing some of the older RPG's that either had text only dialogue or very bad voice acting if any at all. It is always better to spend more time on story rather than paying for actors. I considered giving this review a 5 star for almost everything was well executed, but I noticed that there were many bits of unfinished graphics: holes in the game textures, or floating stone pieces on wall whose backsides has invisible faces. There were also some coding glitches dealing with doors, quests, and entrances. While minor, they are noticeable. Near complete, so a near 5. I would probably rate it 4.5 if I could. If you want a relaxed, story-driven, light in game mechanics, game, than this game may be for you. I like complex games, but sometimes it is nice to sit back and be charmed by a lighter, yet well delivered, fare.

Got this game for free, got hooked and played until I finished the game. Absolutely detest the ending due to my own genre preferences, and the bugs were insanely frustrating. I hit a grand total of two game breaking bugs. The first bug had me trapped in the starting jail cell. The first metal door ("Screaming Door") was locked, and the guard, though alerted, simply wasn't coming to the door. The fix? Quit to desktop, reload game, start a new save. The second bug, I had to google the answer, and eventually found that I had to do a hard reset of all game settings so it could regen them on launch. This second bug was in the mission just before the final mission, and it was definitely confusing. To avoid spoilers, I'll simply say a chest on the shore wasn't triggering necessary scripts. Apart from that, the performance wasn't the best, which is fine, but every time the game froze to load a new area, it would read any mouse input for the entire freeze, and would then flip the camera like nuts over and over every time anything had to load, throughout the entire game. And I couldn't just let go of the mouse, since it'd freeze while I was moving the player character about. The quicker I let go of the mouse, the better, but it was still always an annoyance. Technical aspects aside, Ghost of a Tale has excellent graphics and an intriguing storyline, with interesting characters that I found myself rooting for throughout the game. Although I became stuck on several missions, as I am admittedly not an avid puzzle or linear-story gamer, I found each mission more fun than the last. It was a gloriously pleasing adventure, all things considered. As an aside, I found myself endlessly amused at the stalwart waddle of Tilo in his heavy armor. Looking forward, I want an open-world Ghost of a Tale, with fullly accessible regions and cities to explore. Something similar to a Redwall/Witcher3 mashup, essentially. Would be an excellent game to play and pour hours and hours into.