Game: Order of the Sinking Star
Genre: Puzzle
System: Nintendo Switch 2 (Also on Steam (Windows) and PS5)
Developer | Publisher: Thekla, Inc. | Arc Games
Age Rating: US Everyone | EU 3
Price: US $29.99 | UK £26.75 | EU € 30,49
Release Date: October 8th, 2026
Review code used, with many thanks to Arc Games.
Ten years in the making and with over 1,000 puzzles, it’s not surprising that Order of the Sinking Star is defined as “a mysterious, living puzzle unlike anything you’ve played.”
Let’s see if this puzzle game sinks or swims.
A Foggy Start to Order of the Sinking Star
You launch straight into the action playing as The Queen. It is clear that she has no knowledge of where she is, and is questioning whether this place is the afterlife. Throughout Order of the Sinking Star, all characters are fully voiced with accompanying subtitles.
There are no instructions as to movement, but using the left stick allows you to guide The Queen north along the visible path. As she progresses, you hear her call out, looking for her entourage, but nobody replies. As you go through the gate, you’re given your first puzzle. It’s nothing complicated, just a fenced-off path along which you can navigate to listen to the first of many entries from an audio diary. These recordings from a previous traveller give their thoughts on the challenges ahead.
You’ll quickly learn the basic principles of pushing rocks to unblock paths, the very crucial rewind function, and the importance of checkpoints. Order of the Sinking Star ensures you are not penalised for any mistakes in your attempts at solving the puzzles, and believe me, you’ll make plenty of them, whether that’s moving the wrong block, getting burned by a dragon, or falling off the edge and drowning! Any mishap can be rewound and the correct action or next guess applied.
Once you’ve completed the tutorial, you find yourself at the Crossroads. This central area of the Order of the Sinking Star allows access to the four main puzzle routes. An audio diary recording suggests you travel north first, and then progress in a clockwise direction if (or more accurately when) you become stuck. The map is a large grid-like area which wraps around itself, both horizontally and vertically. Hence, if you travelled north, you would eventually appear at the bottom of the map in the south, likewise travelling east and appearing in the west.
In certain squares of the overworld grid, there are yellow star patterns, and these are the access points to the puzzle rooms. You guide The Queen onto the square containing the star and enter the puzzle room. In the puzzle room, you’ll play as different characters, each with unique skills. The majority of the puzzle rooms require navigating to a teleport pad, which will take you back to the overworld, where you continue playing as The Queen. The yellow star pattern turns white to indicate it is complete. There is only one solution to each puzzle room, and some are incredibly prescriptive in the method. Hence, you learn that every object in the room is there for a specific purpose.
Some stars are larger and more decorative, and in addition to being a slightly harder puzzle, they need to be completed to unlock special platforms. Fast travel points can also be unlocked, allowing easier movement between the different regions.
You’ll quickly realise that the Order of the Sinking Star overworld is a puzzle in its own right: a complex labyrinth of passages and challenges. As well as unlocking black stars, some of the puzzle rooms unlock overworld cages, which give access to objects and open up more paths. Some of these overworld objects can be reset, so you might use a rock to build a bridge going east. However, resetting the object means you can use it to protect yourself from a fire-breathing dragon in the north.
Puzzles in Every Direction
I definitely recommend travelling north. The starting puzzles in this direction are relatively straightforward. Along this path, you’ll meet a total of six heroes. The first is The Warrior, whose skill is being able to push heavy objects (rocks, monsters, or fellow travellers). The second is The Thief, who can only pull a single object, and the third is The Wizard, who instantly swaps places with objects he looks at. Once you’ve completed four puzzle rooms for each of those three, you’ll progress onto puzzles which involve multiple heroes, all working together to get to the teleport pads.
It would be far too easy if the only obstacles were rocks; you’ll have to deal with monsters, either by avoiding them or moving them to fight each other. None of the characters can battle with a monster, so The Cleric is particularly useful in these rooms. Her own invincibility and ability to protect a traveller in close proximity allow you to move right next to the monsters. The Bard will charm any object within a two-square radius and cause it to move as she does, and finally The Druid will turn living objects (travellers, monsters and plants) to crystal.
Once you reach a sticking point in the north, you can return to the Crossroads and head east. In this direction, you’ll find The Mirror Isles and play as The Trader. As the name suggests, the puzzle rooms in this area are based on using the ability to reflect yourself and other objects. The Trader can push mirrors, like any object around the available land, but cannot change the angle of reflection.
Travel south from the Crossroads, and you’ll encounter The Sailor and her talking boat. Like The Trader, The Sailor can push objects, and in this region you’ll use skipping stones. These small rocks bounce across the water, causing ripples, and if the ripples are close enough to a floating lily pad, the pad will move. As you progress, you’ll discover that the skipping stones can be rebounded back, that crystal versions are reflected in mirrors, and that colliding stones will sink. Many of the puzzle rooms featuring The Sailor are played over several screens, weaving your way across multiple islands to get to the goal.
Timing is all-important in this region, and if you haven’t already discovered the ability, you’ll be given instructions on slowing down time. In slow motion, the objects will travel slower, but your character has the ability to run – especially useful when trying to step onto a moving lily pad. You can also speed up time, which makes waiting for the right moment a little less inconvenient.
The Vault of the Beamcasters lies to the west of the Crossroads. Here, The Explorer delves into dark caverns, searching for gems. The gems can be placed on trigger points which will activate a nearby beam box. These come in various colours, giving different powers when standing in the beam. It might be the ability to smash rocks, walk through walls or push heavy objects. The Explorer isn’t strong enough to push an object by themself, and with the gem collecting device on their back, they have limited space to turn.
The first few rooms are all about collecting gems, but as you progress through the region, you’ll use the gems to activate beams in order to escape.
There is a backstory to each of the characters in Order of the Sinking Star, which is revealed as you play different puzzle rooms. This means that sometimes the narrative can be a little confusing; for instance, I completed the first Skipping Stones puzzle over several days, by which time I’d forgotten the purpose of the mission. If I had remembered it, I would have known not to spend a few hours working out how to get a stone into a special circle.
The Merging Worlds of Order of the Sinking Star
The puzzle room mechanics spill into the overworld of Order of the Sinking Star, meaning The Queen can also push rocks, use mirrors, float on lily pads, activate beams, and avoid monsters.
Within the overworld labyrinth, you’ll find plenty of routes that are blocked until you arrive from another path. This forces you to travel in different directions, and as you do so, you’ll enter areas which merge the puzzle techniques; for example, if you travel in a northeast direction, you find puzzle rooms combining the Heroes of Hauling with The Mirror Isles. At the heart of these merged areas are Gold Rooms. Each Gold Room will have a target number of the larger star puzzle rooms to complete. Once you’ve reached the target, you’ll gain access to a secret location, which has its own target of four of the six Gold Rooms to be fully unlocked.
I was somewhat dismayed to realise that after 50+ hours, I’d only completed a quarter of the promised 1,000+ puzzles, unlocking just one Gold Room. I wish I could say I was close to unlocking the others, but I’m not. So I’m a little way off from solving the mystery of Order of the Sinking Star.
Gameplay of Order of the Sinking Star
There is a deliberate lack of hints in Order of the Sinking Star, although you are guided through most new techniques with an easier puzzle room. However, it’s important to remember that every object in the puzzle room is there for a purpose, either showing a technique or indicating that it needs to be used. The controls are given in the options menu and, you are reminded of special moves (like how to reflect) at appropriate times. Although there is no touchscreen functionality, the text is large enough to read in handheld mode.
Order of the Sinking Star plays very smoothly on the Switch 2, with quick loading times between puzzle rooms and the overworld. Currently, there are some missing or out-of-sync voiceovers, although a patch is already with Nintendo waiting to be applied.
The majority of my gameplay was in docked mode, which allowed my gaming buddies to offer their encouragement, insight, and know-how. Order of the Sinking Star is a solo-player game, but this shared approach adds extra enjoyment.
The autosaving in Order of the Sinking Star is very comprehensive, allowing every puzzle room to be saved in the position you leave it to return to the overworld. Hence, you can start a puzzle, give up, do as many as you like elsewhere, return to that first puzzle room, and the objects are exactly as you left them.
One aspect I feel is lacking in Order of the Sinking Star is the ability to easily see which puzzles still need to be completed via the fast travel map. Several times I had to bounce between fast travel points and the overworld map to find a puzzle which needed completing.
Conclusion
I’ve played lots of different puzzle games over the years; however, I’ve never played a game like Order of the Sinking Star, which combines so many different puzzle genres into one cohesive experience.
It’s not a casual puzzle game, and often I felt mentally exhausted, frustrated and amazed at the genius behind each puzzle. However, the satisfaction of completing these mind-bending conundrums makes Order of the Sinking Star worthy of the LadiesGamers top rating.
Final Verdict: Two Thumbs Up 
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