Game: Panmorphia
Genre: Adventure, Puzzle, Point&Click
System: Nintendo Switch (also on Steam (Windows and Mac) and mobile (Android and iOS)
Developer|Publisher: LKMAD
Age Rating: EU 3+ | US Everyone
Price: US $5.99 | UK £5.99 | EU € 6,99
Release Date: October 7th, 2021
Review code used, with many thanks to LKMAD
The legend goes that in each generation a child is born, a sentinel, bound to the land of Panmorphia and the four elements that govern it. The sentinels have the ability to wield each element and transform themselves into an animal that best represents it. With the use of the amulet, they are able to combine all four elements and travel through the aether. They are called upon for help in times of need….
After these ominous lines at the start of the game, it’s no surprise that in Panmorphia, you are the sentinel! Other than this, there’s not a great deal of story or explanation as to how this strange place came to be threatened, or even how you, as a sentinel, can save it. But let’s see what the game entails.
Escape Room in Beautiful Surroundings
Just when you’ve read the entry lines, you are enticed to touch an amulet on the rocks….and you are whisked away to a stone tower overlooking a beautiful ocean, sparkling beneath a colourful sunrise. And the gate behind you closes with a bang….it’s up to you to find the way out.
Panmorphia is an escape room kind of game, solving puzzles by pointing & clicking. Going from scene to scene you pick up items, knowing that you won’t necessarily use that item in the same scene, but it might come in handy somewhere entirely different. There are sliding puzzles, items that are only revealed when the right light hits them, references to letters you need in other puzzles and many more brain teasers.
I’ve played other point & click games and they usually come with a fantasy-like setting. Panmorphia is different: all scenes you travel through could well be real pictures. Pictures taken on an exotic island, but somehow slightly altered to include the world of Panmorphia.
Although they are still pictures there are little signs of movement too, like a bee flying by or little fireflies swarming at a certain point. There are rocky cliffs, meandering streams and old Greek ruins. You wander through the forest and a steep gorge, the old pathways are sometimes framed by flowering shrubs, at other times the landscape is much more dry and full of pebbles. You find mushrooms in the hollow of an ancient tree, and an ancient-looking stone shed with a hearth and a pot ready for cooking. Panmorphia does an excellent job of creating an atmosphere.
Changing your Perspective of the World
There are enough screens to wander through, but what I really loved is that every screen gets multiple uses in a special way. Because after a while and solving the right puzzle, you morph into a cat. The scenes look very different now, and there are different kinds of puzzles to solve too. The same happens later, when you change into a bird and a fish, each giving a unique perspective on the world.
Everything is recorded on a map that grows when you’ve found new scenes to explore. There’s also an in-game notebook that tracks your discoveries. That’s a really lovely addition to the game that more games should make use of!
Arrows and Easy Mode
Starting Panmorphia the lack of a pointer or arrows to go to the next screen surprised me. It’s not often that a game on the Switch starts out by using touchscreen-only and, without the arrows it doesn’t make for easy gameplay. I flitted from screen to screen without even realising I had clicked on a trigger to change screens. It is, fortunately, easily remedied in the options. You can include arrows, and though you still manoeuvre through the game by touchscreen, it’s much easier now to go where you want to.
There’s also the option of choosing an easy mode. Easy gives sprinkles on the screen for points you can click on and includes a hint system making Panmorphia so much easier to solve. Because although I really enjoyed the game, for me it wasn’t a walk in the park without the hints.
The background music suits the atmosphere in the game. The ambient sounds that accompany your journey are pleasant and immerse you in the game.
Conclusion
Panmorphia is a lovely point & click escape room game, trying to find your way out after the door closed with a bang. The scenes you are presented with are beautiful. The background music is good and by using ambient sound and little bits of movement on the screen, the right atmosphere is created.
If you like point & click games that keep the brain active, give this one a try. And if you want to give Panmorphia a try first, there’s a Lite version on mobile available. And if you can’t get enough of puzzling with Panmorphia, there’s also a second game out on Steam and mobile, called Panmorphia: Enchanted.
Final Verdict: I Like it a Lot