Game: Pencil Stories
Genre: Adventure, Casual, Indie
System: Steam (Windows)
Developer | Publisher: Phantom Island
Controller Support: Full
Price: US $10.99 | UK £9.29 | EU € 10,79
Release Date: January 8, 2026
Review code provided, with many thanks to Phantom Island.
Pencil Stories is an adorable, hand-drawn indie game about a little letter named Letty, and you need to help her deliver the mail to all the denizens of the forest. You solve riddles in order to know just where to look.
The Look and Feel of Pencil Stories
The story of Pencil Stories is told mostly through letters; you learn all the different forest critters’ names, who they correspond with, and what interesting things they write to each other by reading their mail. You and Letty also have to make sure that each letter is delivered to the right place, and sometimes Letty even has invites to special events.
Pencil Stories is made up of very cute art and simple controls. It is one of those video games that could easily be played by someone who doesn’t know much about video games; it seems like a really great starter game for reading-aged children.
The story is simple, the dialogue is cute and wholesome, and the whole vibe of a midnight mail delivery person is an intriguing concept.
The Pros of Pencil Stories
Pencil Stories is cute, moody, cozy, and simple. You are mostly interacting with the locations on Letty’s orders; she’s pretty good at directing you to the right places to deliver the mail. She gives hints and tells you about her home as you wander around, looking for well-hidden mailboxes.
While the riddles could hold the attention of an adult looking for a cozy time, these would be perfect for any kid with a pretty good grasp of English. The music and sound design were fine; some of the sound effects were incredibly loud, so make sure to turn those down if you choose to play with headphones.
You start off with very simple delivery instructions, and they get more and more complex as you unlock tools like the magnifying glass. As you get more letters, the riddles change into doodles that need to be deciphered and other challenges.
The Cons of Pencil Stories
I didn’t have any massive issues with the game during my playthrough. It’s about a 2-4 hour game, and the puzzles are cute and thematic, the story is calm, relaxing, and wholesome, and the vibes are fantastic. However, I did have one minor criticism: the writing.
There weren’t many mistakes in the translation, but the ones that were there stood out a lot. In a game like Pencil Stories where you are solving riddles, a near-perfect translation is necessary for clarity. However, they didn’t prevent me from eventually reaching the solutions.
The beginning of Pencil Stories felt a little directionless as well; when you start a new game, Letty is there and tells you she is missing something, but doesn’t give you much to go on to figure out where you should be looking or what you should be looking for.
My final complaint (and this is just me being nitpicky) is that the name doesn’t make much sense. You are a friend of a piece of mail who delivers mail, and I don’t remember seeing anything that would make Pencil Stories make sense as a title. When I heard the name in the beginning, I assumed I would be drawing, not playing postal service.
Conclusion
Other than those small things, I had a great time with Pencil Stories. I think this wholesome game is very well made; you can tell it is a passion project. I think a pass with a native English speaker on the translation wouldn’t go amiss, though. If you like these types of cozy puzzle games, riddles, and learning all about wholesome denizens of a small, animal community, you will have a great time with Pencil Stories.
Final Verdict: I Like it a Lot
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