Tell Me Your Story – A game review

From A Little to the Left to Unpacking, indie puzzle games have been receiving a lot of love from all types of gamers. They are known for their relaxing qualities and satisfying nature. Another game that also has these same attributes is RedDeer.Games’ – Tell Me Your Story. 

The game follows the story of our protagonist, Amelia, who is helping her grandmother Rose unpack. While she helps her unpack, she discovers her grandmother’s stories, the adventures she went on and how she met her grandfather. Already this game has the making of a homely and nostalgic experience. When looking at the developer team it is worth noting that it is primarily created by a team of women. This was a nice thing to learn after finishing the game as it is rare to have women in the majority when working on games. I think this also made the story feel more meaningful as our protagonists are two women from different generations. It felt like a right of passage, women passing on their stories to other women. That being said, I would love to see the grandfather’s story and learn more about the romance between him and Rose.  

The art style is simple, playful, and colourful which compliments the story very well. The colour scheme feels cosy with its pastel shades and hand-drawn scenes. In my opinion, this also opens up the game to younger players as the art style is appealing to children (as tested on my siblings). One puzzle that stood out was when you could almost ‘customise’ Amelia by adding colours of your choice to her face paint. This felt like you were directly interacting with the art style of the game however it would’ve been nice to see Amelia wearing the facepaint through some of the game as well. 

The puzzles are varied and there is a good selection of activities. At the end of each puzzle, you collect a sticker that goes into a journal. This gives you a nice feeling of accomplishment and you can see how all the puzzles you solved come together. There is also a recipe that you unlock and create. I think it was a nice touch to see all your recipes being used at the end when the girls go out for a picnic. Again, this game shows that it has a heartwarming quality. 

If you are seeking a heartwarming story and a game that relaxes you, this would be a solid go-to!

However, with all good things come some bad things. The first thing I noticed was that some of the puzzles didn’t feel like puzzles at all. They were simple and repetitive. For example, when we learn about Grandmother Rose’s first adventure we need to move some leaves that are covering the page. This repeats later on in the game when she travels somewhere else. Another example of the ‘puzzle’ element feeling a bit weak is when you have to spot animals in bushes or simply drag trains along the tracks. 

On the other hand, towards the end of the game where we go through the process of picking tea leaves and making our own tea, I feel that some puzzles were surprisingly challenging. The most difficult puzzle was picking the tea leaves. I still don’t understand what I was supposed to do and the hint provided didn’t help. I ended up having to rummage through Google, however, I noticed that different consoles had a different variation of this puzzle with different leaves. In the end, I waited for the game to slowly show me which leaves to pick as the correct ones began to shake after a period of inactivity.  

Another slightly more difficult puzzle was a tea puzzle where you had to drag the art to create shadows of your tea leaves. This time the hint was slightly more helpful, however, I feel that it was very misleading to create a pattern that fits your tea leaves perfectly as you need to find the shadow instead.  

In the end, I think the game needs to commit to its simple puzzles or sprinkle in more challenging ones to create a smoother transition between each element of the story. I also think that since the puzzles are simple, someone who is chasing the high from games like A Little to the Left wouldn’t enjoy this too much as they don’t require much effort. However, if you are seeking a heartwarming story and a game that relaxes you, this would be a solid go-to! 

Disclaimer: A code for Tell Me Your Story on the Nintendo Switch was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.