Carto

I really wanted to love Carto. It has such a gorgeous art style and the story is charming and wholesome. I loved the first half, and would have had nothing but glowing words for it if it has continued to the same standard. Overall, it's a very enjoyable game, but it feels dashed off towards the end. The quality of both the puzzles and writing declines as you go through the game. In contrast to the first half - which really shines with making the way forward intuitive and nicely flowing - the latter half has a few times where the ability to progress is gated behind a conversation that the game doesn't give the player any indication is the likely next step. The return to the island, especially, has one where you have to go to leave the island before you're allowed to complete the cartography puzzle, very strange.

The big negative for me though is the hidden achievements, some of which require you to play through a significant chunk of the game again just to trigger a tiny interaction. That kind of this is really annoying, especially with a story based game like this that has almost no replayability; not that it should, just realise that your players will not want to sit through the same unskippable conversations again. It really soured an otherwise excellent game for me.

This game is a cute little story, has a lovely art style, and nice sound track, but the "game" part is pretty light. The puzzles are very simple, and the whole thing is completely devoid of any real decision making. For the first 4 chapters or so I honestly just found myself wondering when I was going to get to play "the game part" because all of the things it had you do were painfully straightforward.

I'm leaving a positive rating for the game because it isn't a bad experience, it isn't a bad thing, I enjoyed the back 70%, but its a thing, and doesn't so much feel like a game - more an interactive story/movie/thing.

An adorable game about using your magical cartography skills to reunite with your grandma after separated by a storm.
You play as Carto, a young, very quiet girl who is separated from her grandma and their airship during a storm. Along with being separated, the map you both use to navigate the world has been lost to the wind! Your mission is to find those pieces in order to reunite with your grandmother. In order to do that, you must manipulate the pieces of the map you have, and help others along the way.
This gameplay feels very unique, and relaxing. Some puzzles are incredibly simple, while I did have to look up help on others. Overall I'd say they're more simple than thought provoking, especially compared to other puzzle games. The adventure and characters were very fun, and I really enjoyed the story. I wasn't planning to 100% in, but I was only missing 4 achievements (plus the achievement for getting all other achievements) so I figured why not - the game comes with a nifty 'chapter select' when you finish, so it didn't take long.
Overall a very relaxing time!

I really enjoyed the puzzle nature of this game. It was simple at times, but also nicely challenging at other times. The stories through out were very nice and interesting to discover. I wish that the map puzzles had a more cohesiveness to them, that there was a solid map at the end of it all, but I think that is just the type-A personality in me. Overall, this was a very fun game to play.

I absolutely loved this game!
It goes beyond its brilliant concept—a blend of Zelda where the map itself is a puzzle you piece together to progress—with a very cute but rich story, endearing characters and stunning visuals!
Yet another indie gem just waiting to be discovered!

Fun and creative puzzles in a wholesome setting and with interesting characters. Highly recommended!

Relaxing puzzle game with beautiful artwork and a warm story. The puzzles were quite straightforward, and it didn't require a lot of looking for hidden things unless you were looking for secrets and all the hidden achievements.