Storyteller is definitely a fun time, but I can't help but feel a bit frustrated with it. WARNING : my grievances here are pretty much personal so I think people will enjoy this more than I did! which means this is overall a pretty good game.
okay so positives first :
- the artstyle is really nice and cute and the game is really well animated.
- the game, while being short, is in my opinion of a perfect length for what it is (especially if like me you played it through your Netflix subscription), with just enough levels to spare the player from feeling like the game is repetitive.
- I found the majority of the puzzles to be really engaging and fun to figure out, it's also pretty cool to see the overall lil story being told when you find a solution.
on the technical side, I found the controls on mobile to be a bit frustrating, pages turning when i didn't mean to, the game giving me the wrong character or tile to move around, your playing space feels crammed in when playing on your smartphone. the game wasn't made first with mobile in mind but i wish we had some more adjustments made for the new layout made possible by the platform.
my main problem with the game, and sadly it tends to be like this for me when it comes to puzzle games or just puzzles in games in general (I may just be really bad at them), is that I found some end game puzzles to be way too tricky, with solutions that are hard to come up with by yourself. I had a lot of trouble with chapter 11 and the final chapter, I just couldn't wrap my head around what the game wanted out of me, which can be frustrating when the rest of the game was pretty much smooth-sailing, with moments of headscratching, sure, but where I never felt lost. here in the end stretch I just found myself lost enough that I had to look up some hints online on how to finish the puzzles (basically I didn't spoil myself the whole solution, just the first (two) panels and then went back to the drawing board from there). I kinda wish there was a hint system à la Professor Layton to give those struggling a push in the right direction.
that aside, I liked my time with Storyteller, the base concept and presentation are solid enough that I don't see myself giving this game a score THAT low. but if I hadn't struggle with the controls or on the puzzles, I would have loved Storyteller that much more.
okay so positives first :
- the artstyle is really nice and cute and the game is really well animated.
- the game, while being short, is in my opinion of a perfect length for what it is (especially if like me you played it through your Netflix subscription), with just enough levels to spare the player from feeling like the game is repetitive.
- I found the majority of the puzzles to be really engaging and fun to figure out, it's also pretty cool to see the overall lil story being told when you find a solution.
on the technical side, I found the controls on mobile to be a bit frustrating, pages turning when i didn't mean to, the game giving me the wrong character or tile to move around, your playing space feels crammed in when playing on your smartphone. the game wasn't made first with mobile in mind but i wish we had some more adjustments made for the new layout made possible by the platform.
my main problem with the game, and sadly it tends to be like this for me when it comes to puzzle games or just puzzles in games in general (I may just be really bad at them), is that I found some end game puzzles to be way too tricky, with solutions that are hard to come up with by yourself. I had a lot of trouble with chapter 11 and the final chapter, I just couldn't wrap my head around what the game wanted out of me, which can be frustrating when the rest of the game was pretty much smooth-sailing, with moments of headscratching, sure, but where I never felt lost. here in the end stretch I just found myself lost enough that I had to look up some hints online on how to finish the puzzles (basically I didn't spoil myself the whole solution, just the first (two) panels and then went back to the drawing board from there). I kinda wish there was a hint system à la Professor Layton to give those struggling a push in the right direction.
that aside, I liked my time with Storyteller, the base concept and presentation are solid enough that I don't see myself giving this game a score THAT low. but if I hadn't struggle with the controls or on the puzzles, I would have loved Storyteller that much more.