GHOST OF A TALE REVIEW

When the Earth was young and God was a boy, in late 2016, when the idea of a pandemic worldwide was still a topic for history as it only occurred after world wars, I made an Early Access video review of Ghost of a Tale.

The game is a 3rd-person stealthy-sneaky, item-collecting, puzzle solving game where you play as Tilo the mouse minstrel in a world full of anthropomorphic animals. It was also a game that I clearly remember being created by Lionel "Seith", a single dev. This is still a remarkable feat considering the level of the game.

It had only about a quarter of its full content released when I played it previously. However, I still enjoyed it enough to give it a moderately tentative recommendation to those who are looking for story-oriented games. I also criticized its stealth mechanics for being too basic. It was still something I wanted to revisit, and I enjoyed it for what it was.

The full game was released in 2018, but I didn't get to play it until last year, when I was battling a pandemic. I decided to give a full and updated review of the game in all its entirety.

This is a thought that I have had before, but it's surprising that not more games rely more heavily on anthropomorphised animal characters. There are so many possibilities, not only in terms creativity but also nostalgia. Ghost of a Tale, Armello and other games conjure up images of classic stories such as Narnia and Redwall. I believe Ghost of a Tale may be trying to emulate that tone. The overall mood is positive and upbeat, although the characters can be a little silly and take things seriously. It's a story about a cute mouse who embarks on an adventure. It's also very similar to Redwall and Narnia, although I haven't read the latter. You'd be happy to let your children play this book, which touches on death and corruption, loss, desperation, and final battles against all chances.

The game's writing is excellent, and the characters and world are both fascinating and believable. Tilo's initial mission is to escape the prison where his wife is being held. He also tries to reunite with her. However, he soon finds himself drawn into wider schemes and conspiracies in the castle. He will gradually learn more about his past and the history of the world through interactions with a few characters.

It's also home to some amazing lore, which gives the world and its inhabitants a sense of history. It feels like a living world with real people and events, but it is also past its prime, and there is darkness lurking at the edges.

It is also more complex than what it seems, which was an amazing pleasure to find. You must first deal with the soldiers and rat wardens who guard the castle and prison. The rats are massive and intimidating, compared to Tilo the tiny mouse. They growl at themselves, thudding about in their metallic armour and metal halberds. It is also revealed that rats are oppressed and browbeaten throughout the country by an uncaring and cruel rat government. It paints an uncomplicated picture of rats as vicious and uncaring tyrants and mice as the daring freedom fighters who are nipping at their heels.

It becomes apparent that things are not as easy as they seem. Although they can be cruel and aggressive, rats are the only ones trying to restore order and stability to the animal Kingdoms. Everyone else seems content to let it fall apart. Mice, on the other hand, seem to have a terrible habit of just wanting nothing but to play around and steal anything that isn’t tied down. There is a depth to the race, which is reflected in the characters you meet.

The game isn't all high-falutin and clever, however. It also has a great sense of humor and made me laugh many times. All of this really shows off the writing skills on display. The game is able to tell when it's okay to have fun, when it's time to be serious, and when it's best to stay relaxed.

The atmosphere and aesthetics of the game are outstanding. Tilo is adorable and all the locations are grand, even if a bit outdated. It is amazing that the project had such a small dev team. I am simply stunned at the level of visuals displayed. Aside from that, I must also mention my complete hatred for the spiders in this game. Although some of the clipping issues I mentioned in my video still exist, I suppose you can't have it all.

The gameplay is primarily stealthy and "puzzle" focused. Tilo is clearly not a fighter. He is at least physically smaller than most people he meets. This makes it clear that your only option is to use cunning and guile. Although you can knock off unaware guards with bottles after a while they will get back up again, for the most part, you'll be sneakily scurrying hither and yon, just like a good mouse.

This has the downside that stealth is not very effective. It's possible to sneak past guards and so on quite successfully. There's also the feeling that Tilo is smaller and has more options to find routes past their patrols. There are two main downsides to this. The first is that guards' detection of you will increase when you move (regardless how stealthily), and decrease when you stand still. Instead of sneaking around, you can sprint-and stop, sprint-and pause repeatedly for the same effect. It is also very easy to not worry about stealth. You can easily sprint from one corner to the next, past all guards, without being in danger. This is also useful if you're actually trying to stealth, as it can be quite easy to hide and escape.

Another problem is the disguise system, which is one of the most important aspects of the game. You will find different clothing items throughout the game to enable you to create disguises such as a mouse ranger, pirate or other characters. This is the introduction to the game and the first set you'll complete. You can act as a guard to walk around the area without stealth, completely negating the need for stealth elements. Although you may be slower when the guard armour is on, it can still be frustrating. It is not enough to stop you from using the armour. It's generally faster to just plod past guards than to try to sneak past them. Now you face the problem of stealth being ruined. Also, because you're wearing the armour constantly, you must walk everywhere which slows down the game's pace. (Alternatively, you can do more costume changes than a one man production of A Midsummer's Nights Dream).

It is a positive thing that I enjoyed the costumes aspect of the game. It opened up new avenues for me, which I found quite interesting. The same rat guard set also allows you to speak with a few of the characters. This is a nice feature.

This is the core of the entire setting. You explore further from the start cell block, finding more routes and paths that circle back to the same courtyards. In my video, I stated that I was optimistic that the game would open up more after you have gotten past the castle. Unfortunately, it doesn't. Although it is disappointing that so much of the world we don't know exists, it fits the story's more restricted nature. Tilo is drawn into larger conspiracies by his quest for his wife. However, throughout the whole thing, that's his main goal. Perhaps if the game allowed for more questing, it might have lost that focus.

Each location has its own map. This is to help you navigate and locate missing items. However, I find these maps are much less useful than you might think.

It would also have destroyed the central mechanic of the game, which allows you to explore the world and meet characters. All day, every day, fetch quests, fetch missions, and more bloody fetchquests. Every character you meet will give you a few fetchquests to help you find your wife. These fetch quests eventually devolve into many branching fetch quests. This is where the small world's limitations are likely to be helpful. You will need to go back and forth through every location several times before you can finally collect everything.

The music in the game is one last note. Tilo uses his minstrel skills to sing songs for bonus experiences. The music in the moment is fine. It was... A little strange. Given Tilo's profession as a minstrel, I had the impression that this was originally intended to be an important mechanic. However, it was too complicated to implement. It's also kind of odd in the way the songs are not all that great... They range from courtly ballads to sea shanties. But it's really strange that the game displays the lyrics but only plays the instrumental music. It feels like a missed opportunity.

This is because my genius can sometimes be almost painful. In my video review, I stated that Ghost of a Tale is not for you if stealth mechanics or gameplay are what you want. This is due to their vulnerability. Ghost of a Tale is a great choice if you are into story and narrative. The characters and plot really make the game. It was a joy to explore and immerse myself in the world of Redwa, Ghost of a Tale.