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edit: the unity launcher got enabled for windowed mode and resolutions.

mystic pillars takes you on a journey to india, where villages are suffering from drought. pillars of the mystic variety appeared out of the blue and are blocking the rivers. as a traveler you come across the first of these villages and decide to help.

there's more to the story, won't spoil any of it, but it's very nicely presented, as is the entire game, and while the conversations and village descriptions aren't voiced, cutscenes are. unfortunately, the english one doesn't sound much better than text-to-speech. I don't speak kannada, so wouldn't know if that one's any better, but it probably is.

the music is fantastic. each village has its own theme, though a couple of them are on a very short loop and became grating after a while, at least for me. separate volume settings are available, but they can only be accessed from the main menu, which is a shame.

as for the gameplay, it's basically a number/math game. every level has a bunch of pillars, some with and some without gems, their number indicated on the top of each pillar both by the gems and big numbers. arrows connect them in various ways, and your goal is to reproduce the configuration of numbers shown on the side in a limited amount of moves, without undo, which isn't really necessary, as the longest level is around 8 moves, but more options never hurt, so it would've been a nice bonus.

clicking on a pillar picks up every gem there, and you can move them as far as the number of gems. for example, if you have 3 gems and click on a pillar 3 arrows away, all 3 gems will move there. if you click on a pillar 2 arrows away, 2 gems will move there and 1 will remain in its place. easy, right? and no need to wait for move animations to finish, you can play as fast as you can click, which is excellent. both mouse buttons do the same, no need for anything else.

there are 100 levels, but they don't get a lot more complicated, difficult or different as you play, though there will be a few you might not solve on your first few tries. there's only one new mechanic that isn't present initially, one-way arrows.

the map is divided into 8 villages, each with its background info and unique looks (and music, as mentioned above), and as you progress, dry lands become green and lively again, it's a really nice touch. often more than one level is available to play, as paths are branching for the most part.

there's concept art and similar things to unlock, and not only can you watch cutscenes again and skip them, it's also possible to go back and forth during dialogs, which should be a standard. a lot of care and attention went into making the game, but there are still a bunch of minor issues. nothing that couldn't be easily fixed or would be a dealbreaker if not, and windowed mode and resolution options are possible after the first patch through the unity launcher.

mystic pillars is a great puzzler and I'm not even a fan of math-based ones. the story and lore are pretty interesting, both the audio and the visuals are great, there's enough content to last a few hours, so it's definitely recommended even at full price.

Mystic Pillars is a puzzle game with a presentation and story taking inspiration from Ancient India.

A traveler arrives at a land blighted by magical pillars that have stopped the flow of water through it. As the traveler destroys these pillars they gradually restore water and life to the land and along the way learn about the history of the kingdom that once stood among the villages long ago.

One nice feature to the game is that the story's voice narration can be in Kannada for a more authentic feel.

The pillars are the main crux of the game's puzzles, as in each of the 100 levels in the game, there will be pillars and orbs in them, and the player must move the orbs to certain pillars in order to clear a level. The game displays what pillars must have how many orbs in order to clear it.

The game itself has a simple presentation and the puzzles are quite good, although generally have the one method only to solve a level, which can be disappointing to those who prefer puzzles that offer multiple ways to solve them. Non the less I still find the game is well worth trying out for its theme and relaxing atmosphere.

Performance-wise, for some odd reason, the game would not register my mouse or any of my inputs in the first 2 times that I ran it, but magically worked fine on my 3rd attempt. I've not encountered any major bugs as the game ran quite well for me.

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“You are a traveller, seeking adventure and intrigue in your journey around the world. After countless days of exploration, you reach a desolate place which is tinged with the unmistakable aura of magic. As you continue further, you notice silhouettes of colossal pillars dotting the landscape. Captivated by their mysticity, you approach these pillars.”

After a small introduction you reach the colossal pillars and wonder how they came into being. Then you get a feeling that you can interact with the pillars. This is where the game begins with a tutorial on how the game works. After completing the tutorial, you find a mysterious book at the foot of one of the destroyed pillars. The book is decorated with motifs of the pillars, magic and with a delicate carving of a woman’s face. You take the book with you feeling that it might be of use in the future.

Next you notice a silhouette coming towards you from a village near by, it’s an ailing woman and a child. After greeting them you ask what this place is called and why it’s so deserted. She explains this is the kingdom of Zampi. The kingdom had once been prosperous for all under the rule of the great Zampi Kings. However, those days have gone, the people are weary and weak ever since the pillars appeared. The pillar’s rose, magically on the river Tungabhadra, blocking the water supply to the various villages along the Tungabhadra. A drought soon took hold of this once vibrant and prosperous kingdom.

Asking if you can help in any way, the woman says that she’s unsure you can be of any help. Unless someone destroys the pillars then the kingdom of Zampi will continue to suffer. However, she tells you to follow the path to the once thriving agricultural village of Hosapete. So, you head down the path towards Hosapete, wondering if you can help the villagers and destroy the pillars.

This is where the game begins, you find yourself on the world map, starting on the left-hand side at the first of one hundred pillars. These pillars follow a winding path which leads to the eight villages in the Zampi kingdom. The world map is dry and barren, although defeating a pillar level will allow the waters of the Tungabhadra to flow. This will bring back the lush green land and end the drought brought on by the pillars. You can find some information about each of the villages by selecting the name of the village. Each of the pillars are grey and have numbered grey clouds indicating the level of that pillar. Your current pillar level is indicated as a yellow cloud and you won’t be able to move on to the next pillars until you have completed the current one.

Selecting the current level will take you to the game screen, here you will find a set of pillars. These pillars will be displayed in varying numbers and how they appear on screen. They could be five pillars in a straight line, they could be six pillars in an oval shape for example. On the right side of the screen is where it displays the current level, home and reset buttons. It also details the winning solution for you to complete this level. Just below this is where it tells you how many moves you must complete the puzzle in.

Around the top edge of each pillar are some holes which can hold gems. These gems are what you move from pillar to pillar so as you can match the winning solution. The number of gems on a pillar if any is indicated by the number on top of a pillar. So, at the start of each level they’ll be some pillars with and without gems and you will need to move the gems, so it matches the corresponding image of the winning solution. So, for example, if there are five pillars in a straight line and the first pillar has three gems with the rest having zero gems (3-0-0-0-0) in them is what you start with. To win this level you will need to move the gems so that there are two gems in the second pillar and one gem in the fifth pillar (0-2-0-0-1).

If you want to move from the first to the second pillar, you click on the first pillar then select the second pillar. This will move one gem, if you were to move from the first to the third which is a distance of two pillars it will move two gems (1-0-2-0-0). In the case I mentioned just above we need to go from 3-0-0-0-0 to 0-2-0-0-1 and do this in three moves. So, our first move would be to move the three gems to the fourth pillar 0-0-0-3-0. Our second move could be to move one gem from the fourth to the fifth pillar so it would look like 0-0-0-2-1. Our final third move would require us to move the two gems in the fourth pillar to the second pillar as such 0-2-0-0-1. This would complete the level and the pillars would crumble away releasing the river Tungabhadra allowing you to move onto the next level.

Between the pillars you can find directional arrows, early in the game the directions between the pillars allow you to move gems both ways. In later levels gems may only be allowed to move in one way between pillars and these are indicated in green, two-way directions are yellow. The number of pillars and how they appear on the screen will vary, so will the number of gems as you reach higher levels. The puzzles will become harder and more complex as you progress, they can be quite frustrating at times. Although, if you sit back and just take a minute to think about what needs doing you will find the correct way to complete the level.

There are one hundred levels to complete the game and as you make your way through the game, you’ll be accompanied by a spirit. This spirit will tell you a story about the pillars and why they are there. You’ll learn more on the story as you free each of the villages from the pillars and free the river Tungabhadra to flow through the Zampi kingdom.

In the settings you find options for Sounds (Mute All, Mute Voice Over, Mute Sound Effects and Mute Music). Also, in the options is a choice of Languages (English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Arabic, Catalan, Chinese, Hebrew, Hindi, Japanese, Kannada, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Tamil, Telugu and Turkish).

Mystic Pillars is a very enjoyable puzzle game with a fabulous story set in India. The puzzles will have you pulling your hair out at times but once you figure it out, you’ll be like, bloody hell that was easy. The graphics and artwork are great as well as the music and sounds.

Positives
+ Challenging but enjoyable puzzles
+ Good artwork and graphics
+ Great Storyline
+ Has achievements

Negatives
- Can be a little frustrating
- No cards currently

Save the villages of the Zampi kingdom by bringing back the life-giving waters of the Tungabhadra river by destroying the Mystic Pillars.

8/10

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It's... ok? Not nearly as bad as many of the regurgitated garbage puzzle games on Steam, but still not good enough to recommend. I wish I could give it a 'neutral'.

I got to the third world before I realized they weren't going to introduce any new mechanics. The puzzles up to that point feel mostly the same. None of them were very difficult.

So, if you really like puzzle games, give it a try. Otherwise, there are too many better games to play.

I really like the art and the colorful style of this game. Most of the puzzles weren't difficult, but there were a few where I had to repeat a bunch of times, or stop and play another day to get a fresh point of view. A nice, relaxing puzzle game to play to chill for a bit.

As much as I'd like to recommend this game, what with being an Indian Game Developer and all, I don't recommend the game on steam. I have not played it on mobile devices, but I do not believe that the game is yet polished enough to be released on steam. I mean considering that the game is very simplistic, it's really necessary to have other parts of the game in a better state.

(Warning, some technical terms from game development used :P )
1. As for why the game is so big in file size, is beyond my understanding. Not sure if assetbundles were used in Unity or not? It's not like the videos/cut scenes are 3D, or even actual moving video clips. It's just full screen images. Audio is also very limited, and they would be compressed, I'm guessing.

2. I don't like the dialogue system, it just feels weird to me, I can't exactly put it into words.

3. I was recording the levels using twitch studio beta, and needing to click the "Record Video" button using the mouse meant that I was faced with a very unusual and weird bug. The click outside the game, i.e. in the Twitch Studio app would register inside the game and it would make/try to make a move. Clearly, InputSystem's or InputManager's listeners are not deactivated and re-activated in OnDisable. This is very annoying, especially having to record a 100 levels.

4. Which brings me to my next point, the game feels way too grindy/lengthy for a casual genre. It killed my interest after a few levels. It started to feel much like a chore to complete the game rather than enjoy it. It would have been okay if there was some gameplay variation along the way as well, but there is none.

5. The audio narration is very very weird. In certain cutscenes, the narration goes on at the correct pace, but mostly, it feels very rushed. There is almost no time/gap between 2 sentences, allowing the player to take in the information in the narration. This could be due to localization, but it breaks immersion for me. I mean, the game's title literally says "A story-based puzzle game". I could not enjoy the "story" part of the game for this reason.

6. During transitions between the Spirit and Warrior, there is some sudden flickering issue. Looks like 1 SpriteRenderer is being disabled and another one being enabled, but the timings don't match, so they also overlap for some time. Looks weird.

7. Also, sometimes, the skip menu goes off screen, or if you spam click the pause button to skip the dialogue, it freezes the game after completing the level. Have to Alt+F4 to quit the game.


Despite all this, there are a few good things about the game.
1. Easy simple mechanics.
2. Aesthetically pleasing visuals. Some nice details on the pillars as well.
3. Good music.


If you want to play a puzzle game, get the game on sale. As of the current state of the game, I wouldn't recommend it at full price, but if the bugs and kinks are fixed, I'd give it another shot :)

Its an ok puzzle game with Indian story and context, can get repetitive or slow, but had a good time of solving them in the office meetings.

get only if you like such games.

Mostly on the easy side with some quite tricky puzzles scattered throughout. There is no real increase in difficulty, aside from some near the middle. I spent a lot of time stuck on a few levels while some others took barely a minute or a few. Good clear tutorial at the beginning. Not a huge variety in the puzzles but since it is only a mid-size game this is ok. Encourages you to think a bit counter-intuitively in some spots, which is good. The arrows on the one-way links can be a little hard to see, they could have been bigger.
Levels are less than 10 moves, but an undo button would have helped even so.

The artworks, music and story add a lot. It was nice to be able to listen to the narrative in Kannada while reading the sub-titles in English. The theme of fixing a river and revitalizing the countryside is rewarding.

Recommended if your looking for a somewhat casual game that gives you more than a minimalist puzzle but doesn't require long sequences for solving levels. Also recommended for the story and art content.

I received a free product key from the developers but have been following Mystic Pillars for quite a bit. I immediately loved the premise of puzzle-solving mixed with interactions that brought Supergiant's Pyre to mind.

The basic premise is that you're a traveller who arrives in the kingdom of Zampi to discover strange pillars blocking the flow of the river across multiple villages. With the help of a mysterious book and wise-cracking spirit, you begin to unravel the mystery behind the region and what caused this phenomenon. The story-telling is presented through simple dialogue exchanges and well-animated cutscenes,the latter featuring some excellent voice-acting in Kannada, accentuating the game's South Indian setting all the more.

The puzzles themselves involve arranging gems in pillars to match a solution provided by the book. The number of places you can move a gem is dependent on how many gems are being moved (so two gems can be moved to a pillar that's two spaces away). Puzzles become more complex over-time, as you add and subtract gems over multiple pillars, and even become confined to shifting gems over a single direction. It's easy to grasp but there are some fairly wicked puzzles to discover as you go along. I'm about 49 or so levels in and still encountering some confounding situations.

The music is well done and the graphics are gorgeous with each new village feeling unique in both atmosphere and story pacing. While not the longest experience, Mystic Pillars offers some great puzzle-solving against the backdrop of an intriguing narrative. It's polished well with only a few minor bugs here and there. If you're looking for a solid puzzler with a unique identity and aesthetic, it's well worth checking out.

I'm quite disappointed in this game since it is claimed to be "original blend of intriguing puzzles and an immersive storyline set" and I bought it because of that, of this immersive storyline but in fact it's writing is very bad :( Such a shame because I would really like to play some story game in the ancient India setting.

So, pros:
- Levels art
- Takes couple hours to get 100% completion

Cons:
- Writing
- Gameplay (while it is not bad at all it is very monotonous; there is only one new mechanic which is added somewhere at the middle of the game)
- Cutscenes art
- Sometimes it hangs on opening new level