Storyteller

Criticism that a game is too short is also praise in its own way. It means that it is so good that it leaves you wanting more. I don’t think being short is necessarily bad. I prefer short and sweet over long and tedious. As I have gotten older and found free time becoming increasingly scarce, I’ve looked less for long epics and more for bite size experiences I know I’ll complete. Therefore, for those looking for something quick and easy to pick up, lovers of fairy tales, avid puzzle game players, and people of all ranges in experience with video games, I highly recommend Storyteller.

Storyteller feels like the perfect game to play over a few sittings with a cup of coffee in the morning. I enjoyed seeing how various scenes I tried putting together played out with lovely animations, but hoped to see more possibilities for solutions. In its current state, Storyteller is a short but great experience that I recommend to anyone wanting to experience something only possible through games. It also has been a joy to play in handheld mode on Switch. Storyteller is great, but it would definitely benefit from an expanded release that also sees a retail version on Switch.

Storyteller is a unique experience, very original and fun, although the core idea ends up feeling a bit unexploited.

A highly original puzzle game that turns the act of telling a story into an entertainingly convoluted process of logical deduction and amusing plot development.

While our hopes for some secret, extra-hard levels or some post-credits challenge were quickly dashed, Storyteller features a small tease of the possibility of more in the future, and after just this short taste, we sincerely hope Benmergui and Annapurna give this clever premise a sequel.

With its original concept, Storyteller is one-of-a-kind and we really hope to see more of it in the future, maybe with a sequel or some DLCs.

Storyteller is a well made game with a strong sense of novelty which forces you to think but comes to an end too soon and sometimes isn't really clever how it should have been.

Storyteller is a wonderful game that uses a simple mechanic in a clever way. Linking panels is addictive and due to this, you’ll want to peruse the pages and continue to the next chapter. Unfortunately, you’ll fly through and reach the end in no time at all. While there is no incentive to revisit the chapters, you’ll still thoroughly enjoy your first read-through of this charming telling tale.

Storyteller makes the player a would-be narrator, with a focus on finding the correct story under the guise of narrative independence. It’s a polished experience that’s very interactive and easy to pick up. The levels pad the game’s length out nicely to create an experience that can be played in a single sitting if you don’t get stuck. It’s just a shame the replayability suffers when the player realises there isn’t room for agency in a prewritten story.

For those more than happy with a brief game with a singular-though-solid concept at its heart, Storyteller serves up a pleasant, though far from extraordinary, take on the art of narration. A premise, though novel in its approach and easy to grasp from the word go, that sadly stops short of anything radical or surprising to help this leap off its figurative pages. Even so, a familiarity in presentation that lasts right through to the end, short and to-the-point its offers may be, there’s a sufficient sense of delight to be found in the way Storyteller hones in on the allure of storytelling as a mechanic in of itself. Something that few puzzle games truly experiment with and apply from a gameplay standpoint, but one Storyteller, if nothing else, prides itself on and more importantly succeeds in showcasing.

Storyteller is filled with charm and offers interesting mechanics, which really do make it feel like you’re telling a story. Unfortunately, it just takes too long to get going for a game that ends so soon. I completed every level in the game, including the alternate challenges, in about two hours. For the right price, this is definitely a story worth telling, though, and those in need of a new take on the puzzle genre should have a good time.

Storyteller has an alluring concept and some great visuals but doesn’t engage you fully until it’s almost too late. While providing some laughs and including some solutions that modernise fairy tales and tragedies for today’s audiences, the puzzle aspect doesn’t boggle the brain consistently enough for my liking.

Storyteller is a mediocre game that can GENEROUSLY be called a puzzle-solver, but isn’t nearly as creative as it thinks it is.