The minute I saw the Steam page for the demo of Mazey Village, I wanted to play it because I loved the graphics. It’s a super cool looking game with lots of features – mazes, town building, decorating, quests and exploration!! The problem is I’m no good at mazes. And the game is about mazes, it’s even called “Mazey” Village. The mazes in the game actually look like a cross between a maze and a Sokoban puzzle, which I’m also bad at!! But I wanted to play so badly that I downloaded the demo and jumped in with both feet, hoping I could master the mazes.
The Prologue of Mazey Village
I began the game in the Prologue, which was a beautiful wintry wonderland full of snow and ice! As expected, I was immediately in love with the graphics; everything looked so real and yet so whimsical. I was able to really customize my character and was told I could change these customizations later if I want. I could also play as a boy or a girl.
I was told my task in the game would be to create a map and unlock a mystery. I met Mira, who gave me a good rundown of how to play. Basically, she told me to enjoy myself, take my time, talk to everyone I see and explore. That’s my kind of game! My character always runs everywhere to, and I appreciate that. Games with slow walking characters kind of annoy me.
Within the prologue, I saw land tiles drop from the sky, which added some walking paths and opened up new areas. I was also given a couple of quests, which were fun. I was taught how to do the mazes which are contained in each area. I often need a lot of handholding at the beginning of a game. I thought Mazey Village did a pretty good job of teaching me what I need to do.
The Backstory of Mazey Village
Once I completed my tasks in the Prologue, a portal appeared. (I love portals!!) The Mayor of a Mazey Village came through and told me that a tornado had struck the Village and the residents needed a lot of help recovering their lost items. Because I’m so nice, I volunteered to help!! Then I went through the portal into Mazey Village.
The Village was, in fact, in bad shape. Buildings needed repair, and residents needed their personal belongings (and pets) returned to them.
After speaking with the Mayor again, I got right to work! I found a simple maze where a lost cat was trapped and set about solving it. It wasn’t too difficult, but the mazes will get harder as the game progresses. That concerned me a little because, as I said, mazes are not my strong suit, but I loved the world so much that I wanted to keep going. It was very gratifying to return the kitty to its grateful owner, and I was even presented with a chest to open as a thank you!
The Gameplay of Mazey Village
Mazey Village has no timers, day/night cycles or energy requirements. I like that a lot! The demo has a quiet, soothing soundtrack playing in the background.
The gameplay is a loop of speaking with NPCs to determine their needs and then usually solving standalone mazes to fill those needs. Sometimes items are scattered within the larger game areas. But solving mazes is key to progressing in the game. As I mentioned, the mazes are standalone items, sort of a mix of maze and Sokoban puzzle. They are 3D, and you can rotate your view as well as zoom in. For maze or Sokoban lovers, this game is perfect!
After about half an hour of gameplay, I had a little confusion about how to proceed, so I reached out to the developer for advice. I received a reply very quickly, along with a great explanation of the game. I always appreciate and recognize when a game dev jumps in to help a player. It shows a commitment to the quality of the game that is being developed. We had a few more interactions to make sure I was 100% clear on my objectives.
Decorating and Town Building
After about an hour and a half of gameplay, I did a favor for one of the villagers. In return, he gave me a house!! I was instructed to speak with the Mayor about this, and he gave me the tools for town building and decorating within the Village. Using the game’s decoration mode, I can also clean up parts of the Village, such as picking up and replanting trees. It makes the Village look so much nicer!
However, I had a real hard time navigating the menus for these aspects of the game. Another player helped me out, and once I got a feel for it, it wasn’t that tricky. As I’ve often said, I am a player who needs a lot of handholding at the beginning. I would have liked a bit more guidance with this aspect of the game, but that may be a ME thing!
I had a nice conversation with the dev, and he will watch the comments of other players carefully. If others feel they need more help with this part of the UI, he will tweak it. I thought that was fair since it may be a ME thing.
The Game Areas
So far, I have been in Mazey Village and The Meadows. The portals to those places are just as visually stunning as the rest of the world. I really like the graphics of the game.
The Meadows is a lush green area complete with a fishing hole. The game has a fishing mechanic that’s pretty nice, mainly because it’s so simple! When I want to fish, I stand on the blue circle and just press A (on a controller) to cast. Press A again when the fish nibbles. That’s it! I caught 2 fish fairly quickly and sold them for coins. As I’m waiting for the fish to bite, I can see frogs in the pond jumping from one lily pad to another. Real sweet detail!
Mazey Village is similarly lush and green, but it seems to have more buildings on it as well as a village square with a fountain in the middle of it. Many villagers are living there, and they all seem to need me to complete a task for them. In addition, as the game progresses, I can buy items from the villagers. I think Mazey Village will be the base area of the game, with all the portals leading to it.
A really funny feature of the game is that all the residents are really upset because of the tornado. (Of course they should be) But they run around town waving their arms in the air in a panic, and it’s humorous. I probably shouldn’t laugh at them, but I do!
Another really sweet detail I need to mention is that whenever you re-enter a new area through a portal, all the town buildings drop down from the sky to form the area, and after that, the residents enter via parachutes! So cool! Last, I can zoom in and out anywhere in the game so I can get some great close-up views of things. (Did I mention I love the graphics?)
Final Thoughts
Visually, Mazey Village reminds me a bit of Animal Crossing and some of the gameplay is similar too, so it feels familiar, which is nice. But there’s a lot that’s different. The main mechanic in this game is completing mazes to progress, and sadly, as I noted before, I’m not very good at mazes. That’s a ME problem. I tried the game in the hopes I would be successful with it, but I wasn’t. So this game isn’t going to work for me. It’s too bad, I really loved the look of it. Even though I could not proceed with the mazes and therefore could not progress in the game, I spent another 45 minutes today fixing up the Village. It was very fun and satisfying to get the trees standing up again, fences put back in place, etc. I had a lovely 4 hours playing the demo and wish the devs the best.
The game was created by a small indie studio based in Belgium. They have already created much of the final game but are fine-tuning it. At this time, a final release date has not been determined. The final game will include other areas to explore, like a desert region and a winter village.
The gameplay to complete the story should keep you busy for about 10 hours. But the game developer told me, “Just like in Animal Crossing, you can keep expanding and decorating the town, with the money you get from doing daily quests and the milestones. Daily quests involve things like talking to villagers, petting certain animals, placing decorations or replaying mazes or playing dynamic mazes. The shops reset every day, as do the fishing ponds, to gather fish to sell”, meaning you can play forever if you want.
If you love mazes, adventure, cool graphics, town building, quests and decorating – this is the game for you!! I encourage you to try the demo of Mazey Village. This game has everything. I’m really disappointed it’s not for me, but maybe it’s your perfect game.
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