One of the greatest treasures of life comes from the wisdom of our elders. Many of us at some point in time have sat down with an elder, family or stranger, and respectfully listened to their wise tales, adventures, and generational experiences. If you have yet to behold such a wonder, I highly recommend seeking out these stories. The lifetimes of our fellow humans will never cease to be amazing.
In Tell Me Your Story, a young girl named Amelia visits her Grandmother Rose’s cottage in the summer. Amelia discovers all sorts of unique artifacts and mementos in Rose’s home, and as it turns out, her grandmother was quite the world traveler in her youth! Rose journeyed to marvelous locations within Asia, Europe, and the Amazon. Players visually sift through Rose’s adventures in Tell Me Your Story, experiencing the beautiful bonding of generations and receiving the wisdom of a well-traveled lifetime.
RedDeer Games is the developer of Tell Me Your Story, and is available on the Nintendo Switch and on Steam. The game was published on April 26th, 2024.
Unraveling the adventures of Grandma Rose
Tell Me Your Story is purely a visual experience, lacking any voice-acted or text-based dialogue. As Amelia and her pet corgi–named Peanut–visit her Grandmother, players immediately begin to discover Rose’s acquired artifacts and learn about their origins.
Through beautifully drawn artwork, Grandma Rose chronicles about her youthful adventures in search of Aztec legends in the Amazon; her travels from Paris to Istanbul; and journey within the Yunnan region of China. In order to advance through the memories, players must solve series of puzzles. These puzzles involve finding and clicking objects and/or moving them around in a certain order or pattern.
It is a short and sweet narrative that perhaps takes no longer than an hour or two. This is about the same length of time it took for my own grandparent, in real life, to recount their own personal life journeys to me!
Curl up with a handheld puzzle
Tell Me Your Story is a relaxing puzzle game and picture-based adventure, fully relying on its artistically drawn scenes to guide you. There are virtually no hints aside from image-based cues . . . and even though there is a “hint” button, it probably will not aid you too much. The hints tell you what most players can already easily infer. The puzzles themselves do not take too long in theory, and there is a good amount of variety and creativity to them.
The artwork of the game is mesmerizing. Amelia and Rose are very sweet-looking and fun characters to see on the screen. The game makes a great use of vivid, dreamy colors and mini animations as you solve puzzles. Its soundtrack is also rather cozy, enough to relax players without distracting them from the puzzle-based challenges.
The “guessing game”
The biggest issue with Tell Me Your Story is that while it is considered a puzzle game, at times it feels more like a “guessing game” . . .
This title throws you to the wolves: there is absolutely no explanation at the start of the game. Tell Me Your Story, well, does not tell you the story, it shows you. Players must make inferences on both the narrative as well as to the solutions to the puzzles based on imagery and visual cues. There is a complete lack of text and dialogue for context.
Perhaps for some players, these elements make the game more immersive and cozy. You can hold your laptop or Switch close to you as you cuddle up on a couch; the music is softly playing and you can feast your eyes on wonderous graphics and blast through the puzzles.
On the other hand, this could prove to be frustrating. Some of the puzzles are honestly not intuitive at all, or require an awkwardly strict solution. The first puzzle, for example, is insanely particular about the way players must move the boxes and pots around. Even if you know the solution, you have to finesse the items around very specifically. If the game does not like the way you moved them, the object resets to its original position. The hints are no help at all, and if you are one to struggle with visual cues, the puzzles can be downright impossible. Since there is no context for the mechanics of the game, sometimes I just erratically clicked the screen until something happened. A “guessing game” at its core.
For some people, the lack of sound can be rather boring. Personally, I feel more immersed in a globetrotting tale like this one when something is spoken. At least some more sound effects would do. I was the type of kid who loved to be read to as I imagined the visual settings, as opposed to looking at wordless picture books. But, that is just me. This game will appeal to a particular audience.
Final thoughts
Tell Me Your Story is a very short romp with an interesting storyline, full of eye-catching elements. I wish the game was a tad longer to get more bang for your buck, but it is what it is. While I have my personal gripes, I think that this title can appeal to enjoyers of puzzles and picture-based stories.
This title has a lot of potential–it is relaxing, offers creative puzzles and solutions, and the characters are vivacious. However, there were many sluggish and frustrating moments. Overall, it is an adequate, cozy puzzle game, just do not expect too much.
