Storyteller- An Indepth Look At a Narrative Puzzler!

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Hey Folks, If you’re Keen to know more about Daniel Benmergu’s Storyteller- an adorable puzzle game focused around telling tales- you're in luck!

Narrative Nuance

And a bit of irony. Because, despite the fact that this is a game centered around the idea of storytelling- there isn’t really an overarching narrative to latch onto. Weird, I know.

Spinning Tales

Still, that doesn’t mean you’re bereft of stories. It just means it’s your job to piece them together. In fact, that’s the overall premise of the game- as each stage is based around fulfilling the prompt you’re given, such as ‘Everyone Rejects Edgar’ or ‘A Husband Kills his wife’.

And that’s where the neat puzzle solving kicks in- because in order to achieve these results, you need to make use of the scenes and characters it provides you in each respective mission. Here’s the thing, though- some of the more complex results will actually require a number of steps, as the manner in which a character interacts with a given environment or character can be influenced by prior events. Making normally cordial characters kill each other can take a bit of legwork at times- and that’s without even taking into consideration the other aspect of Storyteller.

Specifically, you have a -limited- number of panels in order to achieve the story's outcome- which can require some outside of the box thinking as you start to get into the more convoluted prompts. Suffice to say, by the time you get to the very last chapters- you will be putting all of those to very good use.

And that’s not even the whole of it either- since along the way, you’ll also begin to encounter stories with optional objectives. Some of these are relatively simple, such as breaking the hearts of every character in a story -without- killing anyone- But there are some absolute doozies to figure out in the mix- with one of my favorites being the mission which tasks you with solving a murder -without- a convenient witness.

Illustrious Illustrations

And as far as aesthetics go, Storyteller definitely looks good. The amount of effort put into the different animations for the various character and environment combinations is -really- rewarding. Even if they have no bearing on solving a puzzle, there’s so many little things you get to tinker around with.

And they’re all accompanied by cute little sound effects to boot. Which is then further accentuated by the soundtrack- which provides a solid assortment of tracks to listen to.

Happily ever after?

Here’s the thing though- at the end of the day, while this game does provide some clever puzzles to contend with- it’s ultimately a very short experience, and if you’re adept at puzzle and logic games, you might burn through it faster than you’d like. Still- I actually have to say that it made for a good afternoon’s worth of fun, enough so that I can call it a HIT. I’ll also admit that the ‘Storyteller Part 1’ thing left me hopeful for some more content in the future.