Ghost of a Tale

...this game had voice acting. If by some miracle this game had voice acting with talents who could convey the humour, it would be a total masterpiece. As it stands, it's just 90% of a masterpiece. Great game.

Absolutely beautiful, entertaining stealth gem. A bit on the difficult side, at least for me, and eventually I felt like I'd reached my level of incompetence and quit. But it wasn't a rage quit. I was truly sad, because I really, really, really liked it. I'm sure I'll go back and give it another go one of these days. P.S. No bugs or crashes for me. Would recommend at any reasonable price.

Hey - you! Still haven't played "Ghost of a Tale"? Because -- even though it's looking gorgeous -- you heard the game's horribly broken? Let me tell you: Now is the time. You do not want to miss this gem! I had GoaT in my backlog for the longest time - and my eyes on it for even longer. But I held back all these years because apparently it was riddled with bugs. Well, after years of updates, it may not be completely bug-free, but what game today is? I can happily report that - after resolving some initial issues when starting the game - I encountered very few bugs, most of them harmless. Even the rare "game-breaking" error was fixed by simply restarting. If there is one word I would use to describe this game it has to be "luscious". The graphics and animations are - even by today's standards - unparalleled. This game is stunningly beautiful and you can see the passion for detail all around. But it's not just a looker. Gameplay-wise, GoaT is a very competent, more-ish action-adventure. As Tilo, the mouse minstrel, you have to escape a prison fortress, which involves a lot of sneaking and quest-solving. It's fun to explore the many corners and secret passages of the aforementioned fortress and its surroundings. The world is by no means huge - especially compared to the likes of Skyrim or Witcher 3 - but not every game has to be. What IS there, is more than enough - quality over quantity, and all that. Also, the game has no quest markers - you actually have to find your way around the old-fashioned way. And I absolutely LOVED that! It does a lot in terms of immersion. If I have to criticize anything it would be the fact that the story feels like only the first chapter of a much larger epic. And that some gameplay features and story elements feel a little bit... well, undercooked. Not bad, just underutilised or inconsequential. But these are just minor complaints to what is otherwise a great game you don't want to miss out on!

Gameplay first. There's barely any combat in the game, you mostly hide, explore and pickup objects for quests. There is some puzzle solving and looking around involved. The map is fairly large with shortcut unlocks as you progress to speed things up. World and NPCs. The game provides you with some backstory baked in the dialogues by giving you the option to click and learn more about some names and history. The main characters you meet throughout the game are decently fleshed out, full of personality and fun dialogues thought limited in the overall interactions as its a short game anyways. The story. The most important part of the game in my opinion which also happens to be completely subjective. If you like fairytales and you are still a child at heart i am most certain you will enjoy this. I did. The negatives. The only negative i found is that the game completely froze if i alt tabbed while in full screen mode. Worked fine in windowed but i don't enjoy playing in windowed mode so i was a little annoyed, still not enough to substract a star from this whimsical game that teaches us that courage lies within every of us regardless of size.

What a great game! Really enjoying it.