Game: A Tale for Anna
Genre: Adventure, Casual, Indie, Hidden Objects
System: Steam (Windows & macOS)
Developers | Publishers: Far Mills | Alawar Entertainment
Controller Support: None
Price: US $10.99 | UK £8.29 | EU € 8,99
Release Date: September 28th, 2021
Review code used, with many thanks to Alawar Entertainment.
A Tale for Anna is a fairytale-like game that involves a number of different styles of puzzles. This game is an extremely colorful title with a lot of charm baked into it.
The Story
The story for A Tale for Anna was based on a story that one of the developers wrote for their daughter, Anna. It features a young girl who was raised by her talking cat. One day, her hidden magical powers awaken, catching the attention of an evil wizard that wants to drain the world of all magic. It turns out that Anna’s long-lost family has been captured by this wizard and only Anna can set it right.
Using her newfound powers, Anna has to collect items along her journey to help her to find her mother, her cat friend, and herself along the road to defeating the evil wizard.
The Gameplay
The gameplay is similar to many games in this genre; players need to point and click their way around the screen to collect needed items. Anna cannot collect items until they are needed, even if they are obviously items she will need in the future, like puzzle pieces. Once some items are collected, Anna will need to complete a mini-game puzzle to move on to the next area.
There is a very good hint system in A Tale for Anna; players collect little glowing blue leaves hidden all over the locations. More appear as time goes on, and once players gather six of them, they can get a magical hint to show them what to do next. It’s a great system as it gives the players a little time to figure it out, then they can start collecting leaves if they haven’t puzzled through what to do next.
The Pros of A Tale for Anna
If you like hidden object-style puzzle games, you will like A Tale for Anna. This game is bright, cheerful, colorful, and fun. While the story is simple and straightforward, it feels like a Grimms-style fairytale. The characters don’t have big personalities, but the landscape and the puzzles certainly do.
The hidden objects are actually integrated into the scenes; players don’t have to click to a special scene on the map in order to find objects. They also blend in quite well. Unlike some hidden object titles, players won’t be able to automatically tell which objects are needed and which are part of the scenery.
This makes the game a little challenging and much more fun than the games that make the hidden objects too easy to find.
The Cons of A Tale for Anna
I really like this game, but there are a few minor adjustments that would make this game a lot more special. For example, when Anna casts a spell, players have to trace a ruin in the air with their mouse. Tracing this rune is a surprisingly delicate operation; stray outside the lines even a pixel and it will force the player to start over. It’s a little bit silly as the runes aren’t really a puzzle or inherently difficult; it’s just supposed to be a fun little added feature. I wish it was a little less sensitive.
Hidden little Nooks
Another small issue I had with A Tale for Anna was that there are hidden little nooks and crannies that players can click on around the scene that allows Anna to peak into. These are integrated so well into the surrounding area that there is no way, short of clicking all over the place or asking the game for a hint, to know exactly what is a hidden scene and what is not.
While some might find this a positive as it adds to the difficulty of the puzzles, it seemed to add difficulty for the sake of adding difficulty rather than by actually making the seek part of the game more intense. I’m not sure what the fix for this would be and it was a rather small issue thanks to the generous hint system.
That being said, the hint system was a little bit wonky. For example, if you need three red strings and six blue strings, and you had already collected the three red strings, you would think the game would give you a hint for the blue strings’ locations. However, it instead would tell the player to put the red strings into the puzzle location as a hint. This was frustrating as I wasted a few of my hints on things I already knew I was supposed to do.
Conclusion
A Tale for Anna is a short, sweet six-hour game filled to the brim will hidden objects and mini-games. It’s bright, colorful, and a lot of fun. This is probably the best hidden object game I have ever played. I was surprised by how charming and lovingly crafted it was. An excellent game for the genre!
Final Verdict: I Like it a Lot.
