Ghost of a Tale

They say “Shoot for the moon, because even if you miss, you’ll land amongst the stars.” I feel that statement most adequately sums up this game.
Ghost of a Tale is a good game that could have been a GREAT game. For every strength bolstering its position there’s an equivalent downside yanking it back. It’s a stealth RPG that sees you play as Mousey Minstrel ‘Tilo’, who has been arrested, placed in a dreary dungeon and must now sneak out of the castle using everything from bottles to distract enemies, to combustible pinecombs. As his adventure progresses he becomes gradually wound up in a conspiracy involving forces at play far greater than he could have imagined.
It needs to be said that there should be MAD respect to the small yet dedicated development team for crafting such an endeavor. This is what most modern AAA titles WISH they could achieve, especially in regards to the graphics and story. The graphics are stellar, and I was consistently impressed by even the smallest attention to details; grass and vines move away from Tilo as he walks through it; the armor glint changes in radiance based on shadow or the time of day. I even found myself taking screenshots of scenery to utilize as my desktop backgrounds. The story is engrossing and continually feeds enough information about the exterior world and its lore to make it truly feel this is a world brimming with history, culture and conflict between the different animals. I would read each and every footnote on locations, events, and people to get an idea of how these character’s environment functioned. The lore definitely leaves you wanting to know and see more, setting it up perfectly for a sequel. Other standouts include the music – both the overall soundtrack as well as Tilo’s minstrel songs – and the game’s sense of humor, reminding you this is all in good fun.
Yet for all the positives there were some serious drawbacks which can’t be overlooked. Each quest, even in the main story, seemed to devolve into constant ‘go fetch’ tasks, which by the end of the first Act were mundane, and by the 15th hour of gameplay were downright arduous. I chalk this up to the game’s lack of actual combat, since Tilo cannot defeat enemies larger than a crypt spider – even with explosive pine combs – and ends up needing to hide whenever spotted to clear the heat. Even this stealth aspect was obsolete after the pieces of guard armor were collected, and there were no additional challenges or twists in basic game-play to compensate for that, again due to ‘no combat’ for Tilo. Level designs were rather maze-like and confusing, leading me to watch the green pointer on a map to find my way around instead of intuitively knowing where I was. Ultimately, the largest shortcoming as I saw it was the sheer volume of backtracking involved, and I mean TOO MUCH. It hampered the game’s final third for me and, admittedly, made it somewhat difficult to convince myself to finish as a result. These are issues I’d love to see rectified in a sequel.
If you can overlook the backtracking problems I would recommend this game and hope to see more from these developers in the future.

Ghost of a Tale is one of the most charming little games i've played in a while ,and even though you play as a little mouse , by calling it little i don't want to belittle it whatsoever.... well that was a mouthful.
This game is 'little' not because it is very short or there's a lack of content, it is 'little' because of the homey feeling it gives of. A lot of different things contribute to invoking that feeling . Art style is cozy and nice, soundscape as well. Overall theme of being a little mouse trying to sneak around giant rats you can't defeat works towards that as well.
But the main thing which makes this game so special for me is that sense of adventure and being lost in a best possible way. This will sound strange perhaps but Ghost of a Tale is first game since i've played Dark Souls back in early 2010's which gives me that adventurous sense of being lost and slowly but surely piecing layout,story and everything else together. It is a strange comparison to make i guess, but the feeling is that exact feeling i got from the DS back in a day.
Where two games are really very different is that Ghost of a Tale essentially has no combat hence you are a little mouse set against giant armored rats (imagine vermintide ) . Gameplay evolves around stealth and various tools to help you out. And that , sadly , is the weakest part of the game. It is extremely easy to be honest. There are save points literally every 10 steps and even if you get noticed you can easily run away from the danger because your assailants are not too keen on chasing you around for too long.
There are couple of nice touches like day and night cycle and certain npcs will or wont be in a place depending on time of day. I havent encountered any serious technical issues besides very little stuff, game is an Indie one so there's a lack of polish here and there but nothing to take away from the experience as well.
Overall a game for ones soul if you will. Strongly recommend for 'vibes' as kids say these days.

As someone who spent all my time in Skyrim on just sneaking and stealing things, this game is great.
It's not very complex to understand, yet still quite immersive.
- Hehe sneak and run
- Puzzles are intuitive and not frustrating
- Quite beautiful graphics with great controls
- Nice characters and world-building
- Most important: Enjoy your time as a cute mousey!!!!
Would definitely recommend.
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Edit: Review from when I finished the game
One of a kind game. I'd recommend this for everyone! Even if it's not typically your genre, not typically your type of game, this game allows you to experience its amazing worldbuilding and storyline at your own comfortable pace. Please give it a shot!!! GHOST OF A TALE 2 ANNOUNCED!!! I CAN'T WAIT!!!!!!!! I LOVE YOU DEV TEAM!!!!!!
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Edit: Oh I used mouse and keyboard for the whole thing and it was fine.

A beautiful game that evokes works such as Redwall and The Secret of Nimh. As someone who reads a lot and enjoys fantasy stories, this game captivated my heart.

Pros:
Good story, great characters, map felt super old school-- small but big somehow, stealth was fun for the first bit.

Cons:
Lots of back tracking, some VERY annoying where's Waldo quests, armor basically removes any stealth mechanics in the game

This is the most beautiful game I have ever played, the only bad thing about it is the feeling of emptiness after playing it and not being able to find a game that can give me the same feeling.

This has been on my backlog for years and I'm so glad I finally got to it. It was a joy to play. It would most closely be associated with something like Deus Ex; it maintains a lot of immersive sim stealth elements, but with a much stronger emphasis on exploration and character writing. The writing is amazing; I burst out laughing a bunch of times and thought everything else was genuinely emotional. The gameplay was fun and immersive, oriented around assembling disguises and hunting down secrets in a castle. And the story is, omg, someone has to make a CRPG in this world or something--also why has no one ever made a Redwall-inspired CRPG wth--the detail is wonderful, and the game mechanics reward you for engaging with it. For example a common occurrence is to be asked to play a song appropriate for a situation (you play as a musician), something that requires you to research the songs, what they mean, and their historical relevance. Which I really liked, and the lore was also really well written and interesting. It's a post-apocalyptic redwall fantasy world and I was all for it the whole way through.
Cons: anyone who hates backtracking should pass. It does a LOT of backtracking, though always with new context, shortcuts, and/or secrets to uncover. The game is one giant fully realized castle shaped puzzle box.
The soldier disguise really shouldn't have let you steal things off of guards; while wearing the soldier disguise you can literally walk up to a guard in broad daylight and grab the key off his belt. It trivialized a lot of content, and in a way that was frustrating because you move slowly while wearing it. At the same time, the soldier costume was one of my favorite parts of the game, because it wasn't just a gimmick. There is a whole half of the game making friends, questing, and chatting with the castle guards.
Additionally, I think the UI could have been a little easier to use; you spend an arduous amount of time adjusting your gear--perhaps an equipment set system would have helped a lot
It does occasionally show its budget (I think it's just a three person team); I had a couple of game breaking bugs but all were fixed via restarting the client.
All in all, I loved it. I checked with the developer right after finished and was excited to see a sequel in the works. I happily followed and can't wait for more.