There are some very good ideas behind Ghost of a Tale. Lionel Gallat clearly has a talent for building spaces and his use of scale is clever for a story where you play as a small mouse in a big rat's world. Other qualities, ranging from its Brian Jacques-esque story to disguise system, are also broadly well done.

But Gallat's ideas aren't always well-executed. From stealth to movement in armor, there's too much that slows the player down from start to finish. I would have also liked for disguises beyond the armor and ranger's gear to be more broadly useful, rather than necessary for only a few conversations. Additionally, I think that the location of important objects in the world doesn't match the coherence of its spaces. While good for a treasure hunt, I often didn't see the logic in item placement beyond making a player crisscross maps repeatedly. That, coupled with the tradeoff of slower movement in exchange for avoiding stealth, hurt the pace of the game.