Anyone who knows me would tell you that this game is basically made for me... and not *just* because of the amazingly cute protagonist (though honestly that would have been enough to get me to buy it in and of itself). When I get to play as an amazingly well animated character like that, my enjoyment of a game immediately goes up considerably... yet even with that taken into consideration, I can't recommend this game.

I'm sure this review will get buried beneath the slew of positive reviews with <5 hours of playtime, but for the few folks who actually see this, I hope I can shed some light on the things they aren't telling you.

The art direction in this game? Inspired. It's clear that a huge amount of effort went into creating well-crafted, well-animated art assets and the love that the modelers and artists had for this product shows. It's by far the best thing about the game. The first half or so of the game's world is incredibly well done - detailed, stylized, believable... I was feeling quite fully immersed in this world and its characters and the story. So what changed?

If I had to guess, I'd say the developers got about half way through making this thing and got bored, or ran out of time, or ran out of money, or something, and just scraped the second half together. There are bugs - ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ are there bugs - and some of them systematically dismantle the experience from its core.

Anyone who only played the first 3-5 hours of the game probably never encountered any of this, and will read this and think I'm crazy for not recommending this game, and if I'd only played 3-5 hours, I'd be right there with them, but once you get to the middle / end of the game, the lack of polish becomes readilly apparent. Holes in the world geometry abound. Leaving the pathways and going to explore the outdoor areas of the game - particularly the 'Shore' area - is just asking to fall through the world. It's clear to me that basically no testing was done in this regard, because you don't even have to try to do it. Luckily, when you fall through the world, the game puts you back on the surface - or, it tries to. All three times this happened to me, the game put me back under the world and created a loop of falling - respawning - falling that forced me to alt+F4 the game and restart it again to continue.

A lot of sounds are just flat out missing. Music exists in some areas and not others, and when you transition between them the music track starts playing in the middle and is quite jarring. There are events that should have sounds associated with them (ringing bells, for instance, or combat happening mere feet from your character) which make no sounds at all. Coincidentally these sounds are primarily missing from the second half of the game - see a theme developing here? No dialog is voiced, and some of it really could have used it. In fact, there's no cutscenes of any kind except the ending which only qualifies by the barest definition of a cutscene, and while the sounds that *do* exist are very well done and really add considerably to the experience, the ones that are missing will pull you out of the game and destroy your immersion.

Speaking of dialog, dialog loops and sequence breaks frequently create nonsensical situations. I'm going to try to be spoiler-free here in case, after reading this, you still want to play this, but there's an encounter near the end of the game wherein a rather monumental event takes place, and a number of guards in the prison the game takes place in watch it happen (or... should, in theory? They were standing literally 10 feet from it...). They then proceed to not react to it in the slightest. This may not sound terribly egregious, and without major story spoilers I can't really illustrate why it is, but trust me when I say that it's completely immersion destroying.

Hopefully you don't just click through the dialog and skip that monumentous story event, but if you do, it's okay - after the event takes place, you can go and talk to an unconcious character and the game will *play the entire event again as if it never happened*, with unconcious characters talking to you, conversation repeating, and those characters getting knocked unconcious again. This is clearly not intended.

The final encounter in the game is the most uninspired, infuriating thing I've experienced in recent memory. Imagine that you're playing Mario, and you're comfortable with the mechanics of Mario and how the game operates, and then in the last level, the game switches to the N64 Superman game. This is the closest approximation of this ♥♥♥♥-show that I can make without completely spoiling the story, but but let me assure you that it is utterly ridiculous how contrived it feels. Not only that, but you're required to utilize some objects to complete the encounter. There's about... 8 of them, if I had to estimate, and when you use one, they're consumed. You need to use 3 of them successfully to proceed (why is it always three in these situations? It's like the magic number of gaming bosses.) Here's the rub - if you fail the encounter, and use the 'Load Last Save' prompt that you're given when you do, any of those objects that you used previously *are still gone*. On my third attempt at this steaming pile of an encounter (which I should add is basically a die roll as to whether you can successfully do it, due to a restrictive timer mechanism and utterly unpredictably laughable AI), there were only two of these objects left, and I had to close the game entirely and re-load it to try again.

The ending... well, let it suffice to say that there is no conclusion to the story. It's basically a 'To be continued...', but there's not enough content there for it to conceivably have been a cash grab to promote a sequel... it honestly feels like they got to the end of the game and decided to just not include any real conclusion. In fact, at the end of the game, things are *more nebulous than when it started*, which is kind of a feat in and of itself.

They had a few golden opportunities for branching storylines and a satisfying ending here. There were three scenarios I was speculating would be the end as I was playing, and I was excited to see if my speculation was correct - I would have been better off just not playing the last 20 minutes of the game and writing my own ending, instead. This lack of story wrap-up combined with utterly ridiculous immersion destroying game system choices (dialog is all handled via the game's equivalent of popup boxes, which pause everything else while they're taking place, and the game decides to, while you're being chased by multiple NPCs who're actively trying to kill you, suddenly pull you into a 5-6 line dialog between three characters... on MULTIPLE occasions... in the span of 2-3 minutes, during this ending...) completely ruined the amazing experience that the first 5ish hours of this game brings.

If you feel you must play this game, I wholeheartedly recommend that you stop when you reach the Shore area for the first time. Maybe even the Slopes, because that's where the problems really start becoming apparent. Just stop there, write your own ending in your head, and suffice to say that no matter how ridiculous your version of events is, it will be better than what the team behind this thing actually decided to include.

TL;DR: Bugs. Sequence breaks. Frustrating design choices. Ruined immersion. First 3-5 hours are amazing, one of the best gaming experiences I've had in the past few years. The second half of the game is a smoldering dumpster fire with little hope for redemption. You've been warned.

Zapowiadało się wyśmienicie: klasyczna baśń w mysim wydaniu, z przeuroczym, znakomicie zanimowanym, głównym bohaterem, z rozgrywką zawierającą elementy RPG i obietnicą przygody. Od początku zamysł mi się spodobał i postanowiłem wesprzeć twórcę jeszcze we wczesnym dostępie. Efekt końcowy niestety mocno mnie rozczarował, a rozgrywka tylko frustrowała do tego stopnia, że nie miałem nerwów gry ukończyć.

Pierwsze kroki są naprawdę smakowite, poznajemy mechanikę, tuptamy bosymi mysimi łapkami po zimnej posadzce, w poszukiwaniu wyjścia, unikając paskudnych i wrednych szczurów, zajadając robaczki i rzucając patyczkami. Wszystko jest na miejscu i sprawia wrażenie, że będzie dobrze. Z każdą jednak godziną czar powoli pryskał i zderzyłem się boleśnie z prawdziwym obliczem tej gry. Cała rozgrywka polega na bieganiu po wielkim zamczysku, klucząc po zagmatwanych korytarzach, szukając przejścia i różnych przedmiotów potrzebnych do popchnięcia fabuły.

Ni.by normalka, ni.by standard w grach, ale te poszukiwania tak mnie wymęczyły, tak frustrowały, że prędko odechciało mi się wracać do gry. Wszystko opiera się o skradanie, które jest zwyczajnie źle zaprojektowane, bardzo powolne i upier.dliwe, a nasi przeciwnicy szybko nas zauważają i zwykle kończyło się na gonitwie z nimi. Fa.kt, że nas zauważyli nie przynosił poważniejszych konsekwencji, gdyż szybko nas gubili i wracali na posterunek, nie podnosząc alarmu, nie zmuszając nas do obrania innej taktyki. Wystarczyło wrócić i spróbować ponownie. Pytanie zatem - po co się skradać gdy wystarczy sprawnie uciekać i się chować w rozsianych wszędzie skrytkach? Skradaniu nie pomagała również ciasnota niektórych lokacji, jednakowy wygląd tychże, kilometry korytarzy i ogólny schemat poruszania się strażników. Dodatkowo niektórzy z nich usilnie trzymali się jednego, istotnego dla fabuły, miejsca i bardzo szybko do ni.ego wracali, tak więc odciąganie ich czy ich uwagi niewiele dawało.

Cała fabuła, może i baśniowa, tak jednak sprowadzała się do wymagania od nas poszukiwań przedmiotów i kluczy do drzwi rozlokowanych w różnych zakamarkach, których szukanie było nużące i zupełnie nieoczywiste - zamek jest ogromny, a te rzeczy mogły być dosłownie wszędzie. Gwoździem do trumny jednak było schowanie przedmiotu fabularnego w dialogu, dostępnym dopiero przy drugiej rozmowie z pewną postacią. Czyli można spędzić kilka godzin na szukaniu przedmiotu i nie wpaść na to, aby ponownie zagadać do tej postaci. Zirytowany bezowocnymi poszukiwaniami sprawdziłem w sieci gdzie go mogę znaleźć i powiem szczerze, że nie wpadłem na to zupełnie. Skoro reszta była pochowana gdzieś, to logiczne dla mnie jest, że ostatni też gdzieś jest.

I ni.by można sobie urozmaicić grę wykonując zadania poboczne dla napotykanych postaci, ale szybko okazuje się, że są to typowe i na odwal się zaprojektowane fetch questy. Można by to jeszcze przeboleć, gdyby nie zatrważające ilości rzeczy do znalezienia. Szczerze mówiąc nie widzę niczego ciekawego w szukaniu kilkudziesięciu grzybków w lesie. Nie uświadczymy żadnych elementów zręcznościowych, żadnych zagadek czy poważniejszych interakcji z otoczeniem.

Graficznie z początku jest nieźle, ale niestety większość świata jest szarobura, kolorystycznie jest wyjątkowo brązowo, w wielu miejscach są problemy z oświetleniem przez co trudno cokolwiek dostrzec, a dostępne świeczki czy latarenka wiele nie pomagają i przede wszystkim mocno ograniczają nasze poruszanie się, które i tak jest już niewygodne, bo wytrzymałość spada bardzo szybko i powoli rośnie. Taka myszka powinna zasuwać bez zmęczenia, a nie opadać z sił po paru metrach. Nie pomaga również interfejs, który sam w sobie jest dosyć czytelny, ale niestety zawiera wiele tekstów pisanych trudno czytelnym fontem.

Atmosfera też szybko pryska, bo zasadniczo muzyka w tej grze występuje sporadycznie, przygrywa w kilku miejscach nagle i równie nagle się ucina, brak typowego ambientu, odgłosy świata są bardzo ograniczone i najczęściej słuchamy melodii ucieczkowej, która powtarza się do bólu, bo ucieczek jest wiele. Tak już miałem jej dość, że musiałem ją wyciszyć.

Nie spodziewałem się cudów od tak małego studia i można by rzec, że nawet nieźle im wyszło technicznie i graficznie, ale niestety nie znalazłem zabawy w tej grze, nie zaciekawiła mnie, nie wciągnęła mechanikami, nie wessała jak powinna. Męczyła mnie i frustrowała tym ciąganiem po bezsensownie pogmatwanym zamczysku, tą tandetną mechaniką skradania, wszędobylskimi strażnikami, ciasnymi korytarzami, swoją szaroburą kolorystyką, brakiem muzyki i mało ambitnymi zadaniami.

Bardzo chciałem ją polubić, bo zamysł ogólnie mi się podoba, ale wykonanie niestety już nie. Z żalem pożegnałem się z uroczą myszką, bo zwyczajnie nie mam ochoty tej gry kontynuować. Może ktoś znajdzie w niej frajdę i nie będzie go frustrowało przeszukiwanie każdego zakamarka, ale ja się odbiłem i raczej nie wrócę. Tak więc najchętniej wystawiłbym tutaj ocenę neutralną, ale pada na negatyw, bo po prostu z czystym sumieniem tej gry polecić nie umiem. A szkoda i to wielka.

Ocena: 4/10

Brak spolszczenia pomimo że są chętni tłumacze.

Jakieś takie monotematyczne. Na jedno kopyto.
Znudziło mnie po 2 godzinach. Może jak sie przemogę by grac dalej, to zmienie ocenę.

Ghost of a Tale is gorgeous. I love the scenery, the characters, and the lore of the world.
Unfortunately, that's about where all the positives end.

I'd describe this game as a tedious scavenger hunt with some adventure elements. Most of the game is 'find the hidden item' which unlocks further area/story progression. That's fine and all, but when you add in a stealth element while you're running around the same areas for several hours sneaking passed the same guards... it gets old quick.
Gameplay is boring and repetitive.

I love the music when it actually plays. I find myself walking around hearing my own footprints when suddenly instruments begin playing abruptly, usually in weird transition locations. This game seems to lack some sound design too, like several sounds seem to be implied: I'm told someone's whistling, i'm told something screeches, that thing exploded...
but i didn't hear a sound. I don't know if something's broken on the game's end but it really takes me out of a scene.
The sounds/music are really good when they actually play

Story. I really loved the story this game has to tell. I love the way it was presented and how we learned about Tilo and the other important casts of characters. BUT then they END the story at the end of Act II. We're finally going to face-on the main plot, the climax of EVERYTHING but no.
THERE'S NO CONCLUSION TO THIS RELEASED GAME.

I can look past the boring gameplay and give some leniency when faced with some technical issue, but when you just end a compelling story I'm wholeheartedly interested in with no conclusion... it just turns this passable game into something I'd never recommend.

Edit 1: Had compared it to a point-n-click. Changed it to scavenger hunt to better clarify the nature of the game.

Ghost of a tale is a game I'm happy to have bought, supported, and all in all an amazing piece made by a team small enough to fit an average American garage. Charming, and at times witty, I was taken aback as I dug deeper into the lore, explore the well built world, picking mushrooms, doing odd jobs, and appreciating the fine artistic choices of conveniently well placed stools where a hidden item is out of reach.

The characters of this game is well thought out, with motivations clearly mentioned and if one goes through reading all the various books, footnotes, and dialogue, the world seems real. There is no black and white Saturday cartoon villains in this game. No gender stereotypes, every character seems to be, like real life, living within the lines of their own motivations.

The world is built to be explored, and almost every decal seems to be there for a reason. The shortcuts are made not to reduce your travel time, but seems to be there because of the characters in the game. You're just hitchhiking on a world that existed before you and functions well without you. Its not big, and with the many side quests, you'll be moving along this small bubble quite a lot but it never felt tedious. More than a few times I find myself moving around the keep, remembering intricate landmarks of where's where, not unlike exploring a newly bought double storey.

Artwork's splendid. The game is an impressive 3D spectacle considering how small the dev team is wtih an equally tiny budget. A small yet massive world was built on a tiny island that is far worthier of your time than a lot of AAA games nowadays.

There's more than a little criticism lingering.

There is no requirement to stealth despite this being a core mechanic; you can out run your enemies and since the AI clearly can't outwit a stick you can arrange a congo line of all your favorite halberd wielding rats all around the courtyard and hiding in a bucket in PLAIN SIGHT will baffle this well-trained army as they head back to their patrol route as though nothing happened. Spiders that can be kited and seemed more of an annoyance than a genuine threat. In fact, the stationary traps offers more of a threat than any enemy this game offers.

Bugs, yes, plenty, but mostly not game breaking. Many of the dialogue can be skipped by simply clicking the very obvious to progress the story, and hell, some of them don't even contribute to the lore. Kinda felt like it was there as filler . Plenty of items that have little to no use, food collected then forgotten, upgrades that you can easily do without, costumes that plays a role in the lore but in all honestly about only 3 from the available 7 is really required to progress the game.

Overall, despite my criticism, I still finished the game having a good opinion of it. So why is my thumb staring straight down? Its not so much the game as much as my disappointment over how the story, or more specifically, the final moments of the game, has been handled. Let's be clear: if you do nothing but the main quest and avoiding the many, many side quests this games throws at you, all you'll get is an hour long of a pretentious sisyphean chase with no closure. In fact, I only manage to trigger the last part of the game through trial and error since the clues provided amounted to giving you a map, pointing vaguely and telling you somewhere around there's buried treasure and to progress you're gonna have to find it. The ending is atrocious; I reloaded my save and relived the embarassingly bad final quest because I was absolutely convinced that the game bugged out when the credit sequence appeared way, way, way too early. There's more than enough material in the game to double if not triple the actual length of the game. The tale of a commoner searching for his wife in midst of a chaotic world. A rat civilization, an Arthurian inspired story of a prince raised by commoners who eventually proves worthy of the throne. An impressive political struggle between mice and rats, rebellion, and war. An ancient evil defeated in the past but risen again in search of revenge. Tons written about other parts of the world. Yet none of the above made it to the end, grasping only the edges of what could have been. The game literally pulled a Monty Python and the Holy grail ending, dragging all the lore into the shed and pulling the trigger with tears in its eyes.

I wanted this game to succeed and would easily fund any sequel the dev might be planning but the sad excuse of an ending was not able to overturn my unimpressed frown when I 'finished' the game. So, here's a few of choice words to the dev team, if any of them are reading;

- Do not built a world you are not prepared to see through to the end. And like, for ****sake don't waste my day reading through your impressively written lore if you're not gonna make it count. Putting a boat in near shore, telling me to use it to get to an island, but then not really letting me use it and the island doesn't exist. That's how this game felt at the end. Sequel baiting.

- Consider animating some parts of the dialogue. Or show us more impressive artwork of the scene. Anything would be better than a text dump.

- The title of this game. Well, there's a ghost, there's a tale, and there's a pun made of it in game. But you gotta be taking quite a lot of p*** to say any part of the game has anything to do with the title.

The only gameplay mechanic is stealth and early in the game you get a disguise which removes the need for stealth. At this point the game becomes a walking simulator, just a series of fetch quests with zero challenge.
Yes it is a gorgeous game with very pretty enviroments and brilliant animation, just a shame that it contains no actual gameplay after you get the disguise early on.

Graphically beautiful but the problem I have with these style of games, 'oh you see that little item in that windowsil that blended in with the background in one of the 20 rooms you went into? oh... that was important and necesary for the plot to progress'

I must say, the game looks wonderful: the protagonist is incredibly cute, the environments are impressive, the music is beautiful, and the lighting and day-night cycle engine immerse us into the world of a falsely accused minstrel mouse. I wish, however, that the gameplay matched the game's visual brilliance.

Positioned as a stealth game, it quickly undermines its own foundation right from the start, allowing players to wear enemy armor and completely forget about stealth. Even if you choose to forego the armor, you'll soon realize that running past enemies is faster than sneaking from cover to cover. Moreover, if you are spotted, the punishment is minimal - you may get hit once or twice, but once you hide from the enemy, you can continue running past their comrades with ease.

The quests in the game are quite dreadful. About half of them involve either waiting for a specific time of day or going to bed to skip time. Approximately 75% of the quests require collecting unnecessary trinkets like mushrooms, maps, clothing, flags, and other items, turning the game into a monotonous fetch-quest ordeal.

The primary mode of transportation seems to be sprinting from one short path to another to minimize the time spent on quests. In an apparent attempt to lengthen the game's duration further, the developers severely restrict stamina regeneration required for running during walking - stamina regenerates only to a "normal" extent when completely stopped. Even with the stamina regeneration upgrade (though there are ability, health, and stamina upgrades available, stamina being the most useful), players still have to come to a complete halt and wait for 10 seconds to regain enough stamina to sprint for 5 seconds.

Unfortunately, the gameplay remains stagnant even after obtaining upgrades and the infamous armor - enemies continue to patrol the same routes, and they don't recognize you when you're in disguise. Neither the opening of new passageways nor the narrative reveals about your disguise changes the guards' perception of you. You can leisurely move through empty locations where there were never any enemies and steal from patrol pockets while remaining undetected - there are no consequences for these actions.

The only real development here is in the narrative: characters' opinions about the protagonist change, they move from one place to another, and even the final location undergoes a transformation due to malevolent forces, which were hinted at early on and easily forgotten. The secondary characters are interesting, and interacting with them is enjoyable, but the quests they offer often ruin the overall experience. Adding to this frustration is the fact that players are denied the chance to conclude the story they were promised at the outset; it abruptly ends only midway through, dampening the enjoyment.

I recommend getting this game on sale if you want to experience a charming tale, but keep the following tips in mind:
- Don't attempt to complete all quests immediately; many are locked behind story progression and cannot be finished until the final act.
- As soon as you get the chance to speak with the prison commander, equip the armor and complete his quests to level it up and move faster in enemy-infested locations.
- Pay attention to button prompts for term explanations, steal handkerchiefs, open shutters, and learn the names of rats - they all reward achievements.
- If you don't mind the extra content, try to find the Rangr costume that increases stamina regeneration and complete at least one quest for the two thieving mice - they provide an opportunity to boost stamina regeneration.
- Spend money at the blacksmith to find quest items, as money won't serve any other meaningful purpose.

Good luck, scrunts!

Ghost of a Tale is a beautiful experience bogged down by a lot of tedium that ruins the experience.

You play as Tilo, a mouse that's jailed in a castle who finds a key under a loaf of bread allowing him to escape his cell. Now you must find out who rescued you and why, and more importantly, find out what happened to your wife Merra and your son Bryn. Along the way you meet a variety of characters and are given a lot of backstory of the world Tilo lives in.

Let me start by saying that the art in this game is absolutely beautiful, the character models and animations are gorgeous and the world matches perfectly. The visual fidelity is AAA. The sound matches pretty well and the soundtrack is lovely. The handdrawn art for the dialog for all of the characters is just as beautiful and lively. I loved just looking at this game.

However, the gameplay itself is not on par with the other elements. The game is primary a stealth title, there's almost no action, but the problem is that the stealth isn't that good. Sneaking around is easy, but Tilo is very slow and sneaking makes him even slower. It tests your patience a lot. The worst part is that sneaking around doesn't really benefit you in most situations, guards are slow and you can easily get to areas they can't access due to their larger size or inability to climb. Sneaking around is effectively pointless and doing it isn't rewarding.

The game is very "aimless," in that you're left to your own devices to figure things out. It's kinda nice, because it has this open feel but sometimes you'll get majorly stuck trying to figure out just where the hell to go or what to do. The quest log helps, but sometimes it's incredibly vague ie, "Go here to meet X" but where exactly in the area you have to go isn't clear. And a lot of the areas are large and winding. Being that Tilo runs out of stamina incredibly quick and takes forever to regain it, you'll be jogging back and forth around these areas more than you'll like. Keys are also insanely annoying, some keys are given to you via quests, some are just found on walls, some are stolen from guards and some doors can be circumvented by clever jumping or alternate paths. This gets you wondering what you should do when you find a locked door, should you look for a key? Find a way around? Or just wait to get further into the story to be given a key? While this sounds like it gives the player options, finding the right option can lead to a lot of time wasted just trying to get by a gate or door.

The gameplay isn't varied enough, all quests boil down to typical fetch quests. "Go here and get X, Y and Z," "Find X amount of Y item." Blah blah blah. One quest has you finding 30~ mushrooms, it's excessive. Bringing these items back will usually net you some information, another fetch quest, or a key. It's a really repetitive cycle and mostly feels like padding the game out.

Some areas of the game are incredibly under utilized, especially the Northern Cliffs and Shore areas, they're quite large but almost no quests take place in them and there's nothing to do other than run through them. It feels like they ran out of time implementing them properly.

This complaint is minor, and won't bother most people, but there's a little too much lore in the game for me. The game fleshes itself out very well in it's texts and it makes the world feel properly alive. However, when you spend most of your time reading and clicking through text over and over it breaks up the pacing of the game and brings it to a halt. This is also compounded by the fact that the game has a lot of names, locations and even it's own made up phrases that are presented in yellow text and clicking will bring up another dialog box with a paragraph of backstory on that single word. It's great, if that's your thing, but it became overwhelming for me trying to piece everything together.

Lastly, the game is too long. Around the 7 hour mark I felt like the game should have finished already as it showed everything it had to offer in regards to gameplay without changing anything up at all. But it didn't for another 5 hours. By the end I was wondering if I should just give up and uninstall as I was having little fun getting to the end. I soldiered on to find myself tasked with the most miserable "final showdown" I've had to endure in a game and an ending that didn't resolve a major question I wanted answered (presumably to make a sequel). I was disappointed.

For an indie game this is an ambitious work of art and should be praised for that alone, but sadly there's a LOT of fat that needs to be trimmed to refine the experience into something that doesn't end up feeling like a chore.