Aspire: Ina's Tale

The game looks great, having a seemingly perfect choices in coloring and lightning. The music is void from being annoying and is so constant it sinks into your mind without you realizing it’s still in the background. Puzzles are casual but at the same time thought-provoking, giving you a sense of accomplishment when you finally figure out you were just overthinking things. I really liked the way the game handled jumping, but not so much with turning and putting in/taking out the shapes for the puzzles. They make you pause for a second and wonder what you’re doing wrong, which takes away from the otherwise great flow. You don’t have to worry about sinking hours into this title, as it’s short and allows those who don’t have much time to finish it in an evening. For those that have more time, it might have been nice to have another section of puzzles thrown in. A lot of the ending is the same chase sequence with what could be considered a boss, but there are little breaks between that allow you to go back to doing some puzzles. I really enjoyed my playthrough and even going back to do some of the areas over again to finish up on my achievements was quite welcoming.

Nestling nicely among the raft of indie gems, Aspire: Ina’s Tale excels with a gorgeous art style, subtle yet engaging story-telling and excellent musical score. While you can largely solve the puzzles without much effort, your journey with Ina will be a compelling and rich adventure. It may not hold the loftiest aspirations, but Ina’s dreams are worth embracing.

Even with Aspire: Ina’s Tale being a simple and beautiful 2D game, don’t expect the story to be a happy one. It had an overwhelmingly melancholy tone. The ending may not have been the biggest surprise to me, but the journey was well worth it. With no collectibles and a short run time of about 5 hours, there is no need to revisit once completed. This may seem like a bad thing, but it isn’t. The game provides a focused gaming experience that achieves what it sets out to do. Aspire - Ina's Tale told a story, captured the imagination, and left me a variety of mixed emotions. It also seemed to know how to wrap things up before it outstayed its welcome and started to run too long, something a lot of games don’t seem to understand. If you’re a fan of 2D platformers, I recommend checking this one out.

Well attached to its inspirations and classic patterns in terms of narration and game design, Aspire: Ina's Tale offers above all a very beautiful show. The game draws its uniqueness from an absolutely masterful soundtrack and attractive architectures. On the other hand, it sins in its duration, its short story and some levels that are not always well thought out.

Aspire: Ina’s Tale will deliver some mixed feelings. The world-building, the scenes of identity and magic it manifests while travelling through the world are all to be loved, as is the main character of Ina and the creatures/characters she meets along the way. Some of the platforming and puzzle-solving is also decent but the movement of Ina becomes a bit frustrating at times, especially in terms of gameplay accuracy.

Aspire: Ina’s Tale doesn’t bring anything new to the table. The graphic design is superb, but I can’t recommend you play a game on graphics alone. I think fans of the genre could enjoy this, and for the amount of content I think it is fairly priced, but if you are interested I suggest you wait to pick it up in a sale.