Ghost of a Tale Review (Nintendo Switch)

Game: Ghost of a Tale
Genre: Adventure | Puzzle | Action | Role-Playing | Stealth
System: Nintendo Switch (also on Steam, PS4, Xbox One)
Developers | Publishers:   SEITHCG | Plug In Digital
Age Rating: EU 12+ | US E 10+
Price: EU $24,99 | US $24.99 | UK £22.49
Release Date: October 8th, 2020

Review code used, with many thanks to Plug In Digital 

In 2017 Ghost of a Tale was successfully crowdfunded on Indiegogo to the tune of €48,700. Developed by game designer Lionel Gallat, formerly of Dreamworks and Universal Studios. An early version of the game was released for PC and now finally, Ghost of a Tale has scurried its way on to the Nintendo Switch.

Little Mouse: Tilo

In Ghost of a Tale, you play as Tilo, a mouse minstrel that finds himself trapped in a hostile world of anthropomorphic animals, ranging from rats through to badgers, hawks and crabs. Set in a medieval world where Rats rule over all other creatures, Ghost of a Tale weaves a grand, yet intimate story combining elements of a classic adventure, exploration.

Unfortunately for Tilo, mice are not loved in this world, thanks to their role centuries ago in siding with a threat to all other living species, a green flame that spawns the undead! Tilo finds himself imprisoned in a dank, dark, dungeon in Dwindling Heights right from the beginning of the game. Tilo has to escape and go on a quest to piece together exactly what happened in the past and rescue his wife, Merra, who has been trapped at the top of a tower.

Avoid the Rat Guards

Dwindling Heights is a dangerous place for a little mouse, and Tilo’s hardly a fighter. Armed with a mouse’s talent for stealth, agility, and disguise and a minstrel’s talent for music, you’ll explore the decaying keep. After a short introduction tutorial, that explains the controls adequately you’re off sneaking around Dwindling Heights and avoiding the rat guards. When confronted by deadly enemies twice your size, and since Tilo hasn’t a weapon, you’re left with cunning and swiftness as your only allies. You can use bottles to throw at the guards in the hopes of knocking them senseless, or spread oil on the ground and watch them come crashing to the floor.

The stealth action works well and is instantly familiar as the enemies have little meters above their heads that slowly fill up as they become more aware of your presence. Tilo has to be quiet and quick, you’ll be able to get around without arousing too much suspicion. Additionally, there are all kinds of hiding places you can use. Assuming the enemies don’t see you jump into a barrel or wardrobe, they’ll lose track of you and eventually give up the pursuit. I normally don’t play many games with stealth in them as it’s not an action I enjoy.

But in Ghost of a Tale, I found the stealth action to be really fun, working out how to get past some of the guards can be a little challenging. In saying that, the stealth is forgiving in a way that it does not become annoying as the A.I. isn’t too aggressive. Ghost of a Tale is first and foremost an exploration game and in this department, it does an excellent job.

Quests to Complete

Once you have mastered the controls and the art of sneaking as Tilo, you’ll be ready to move on to the more role-playing focus of Ghost of a Tale, which is the quests. Throughout Tilo’s adventures, many quest givers will make themselves known through conversation and should you help the right ones you will find that they can lead to some fantastic exploration opportunities in a world that just asks to be uncovered.

Though they are mostly fetching quests, the fetch quests themselves are fine but the rewards are the real winning factor for completing the quests. Throughout the quests, it’s possible to unlock a range of different costumes that Tilo can wear.

The costumes are broken down into several pieces to find, such as a chest-piece and eye-patch and so on. Once all the pieces are found and collected you can turn Tilo into a pirate, a guard, a king or a thief.

The benefits of Tilo equipping each piece will change Tilo’s stats, some will make him speedier at the expense of making enemies more aware of his presence. The real benefits are found once you’ve discovered every piece of a costume as Tilo gets some major stat boosts, and the costume that you’re wearing can affect how those around you that interact with you, such as making the guards more trusting of Tilo. Apart from the stat boosts that the costumes give Tilo when he is wearing them, they also change his appearance and make him look even more adorable.

You could say I’ve gotten quite attached to little Tilo during my playtime with Ghost of a Tale, I mean who wouldn’t just look at that cute wee mouse!

Visuals and Controls

As for Ghost of a Tales’ overall graphics and sound design, they are very realistic. The characters, including Tilo, are all brought to life with quality movement and animation.

The world feels lived in, and you genuinely feel like a tiny mouse in a big rat’s world. Where everything is clearly designed for someone larger than a tiny mouse.

The game is full of memorable characters and charming dialogue, with a world of lore to discover. The music is great and the sound effects are spot on. You can hear the wind rustling through the trees. And the clanging of the wooden doors closing, all of these add to the player’s immersion in the game.

However, it can sometimes be plain to see that the game was originally made for PC. There are a few instances where the camera will clip and cut through the surrounding scenery. Though it’s not game-breaking by any means. Nevertheless, it can interfere with Tilo’s view, especially when you are trying to see which way a guard has walked.

Ghost of a Tale is fully controlled by the joy-con and all that works as you would expect it to.

Conclusion

Ghost of a Tale has charming characters, lore, and brilliant storytelling.  All together they provide an immersive world for the player to get lost in. While it does have a few little hiccups with the graphics, it is not enough to spoil the gameplay.

Ghost of a Tale is a lovely game with a meaningful story. With a great cast of characters, a game all enthusiasts of adventure, role-playing genres should try.

I challenge you to not fall in love with Tilo. It is a challenge I would say is impossible as Tilo is so cute!!

Final Verdict: Two Thumbs Up