Game: The Puzzle Maker: Cebba’s Odyssey
Genre: Puzzle, Indie
System: Steam (Windows & macOS)
Developers | Publishers: Arcaneworks Inc.
Controller Support: Yes (Desktop)
Price: US $11.99 | UK £9.99 | EU € 11,79
Release Date: September 25th, 2024
A review code was used with many thanks to Game If You Are.
The Puzzle Maker Cebba’s Odyssey is a new puzzle game from new indie developer Arcaneworks Inc. that does something interesting with a style that’s going to seem very familiar to fans of classic turn-based strategy games. With a colorful pixel aesthetic that quickly recalls Fire Emblem, specifically, it won’t be hard to grok that you’re going to be playing with a lot of different units to clear maps as efficiently as possible.
But the game offers a twist on that formula, wasting no time reminding you that this is a puzzle game and not a strategy sim. With strict limits on what each unit can accomplish and one round to pull it all off, you’ll need to bring a little of your Into the Breach forward-thinking skills to bear, too. Combined, the results are unique and almost chess-like. The only possible hindrance is how overwhelming all this can start to feel despite the game’s best efforts to keep things escalating smoothly.
Cebba’s Odyssey Sets Up A Strategist’s Table
The key to unlocking Cebba’s Odyssey’s puzzles lies in understanding both the units available to you and plotting out an order of operations. Now, that’s a scary mathematical phrase I just used, but in this context, all I mean is that you’re going to have to figure out little flowcharts about what unit does what and in what order.
Cebba introduces her puzzles to you in a storybook style, using battlefields to share her memoirs as a puzzlemaker. Since she starts at the beginning, that means the first act of the game is a light tutorial with limited units, so that you can get used to what she’s trying to teach you. That means looking over simple goblins and some tough terrain and figuring out how you’re going to use a handful of fighters to clear the map.
What streamlines the riddle is that every unit you’ll get has only two options available to it: A single move to another point on the map, based on its individual limitations, and an action. A knight can move one square, up or down, left or right. And it can hit something real hard, once. Yet even these limitations open up wider tactics and mobility when Cebba teaches you that, like Into the Breach, a knight can hit another knight to move them.
Cebba will give you a couple of levels to grasp how that can work in your favor while throwing in other things to bear in mind, like that you can move one guy, then do something with other characters, then come back to that first guy and now hit something, etc. Then she’ll start to introduce other units to you, like the cleric, and that’s when things start to get funky and furious.
Rewarding, Even When Increasingly Difficult
With the introduction of the cleric, you’ll quickly see how different units are meant to synergize with each other. This unit, fragile and not fit for combat, can’t move far, but he can do one special thing that’ll recomplicate everything you just learned: He can refresh one unit’s actions. Time to wrap your head around those possibilities!
Later units (and terrain options!) add more twists, many of which are pretty easy to bear in mind. Some will add broader movement capabilities, including fast feet or teleportation. Or slippery ice and damaging fire. Others have ranged attacks or position-based attacks. And in all cases, the goal is clear: Use everybody once to clear this map. Nobody’s going shoot your fragile pegasus warrior, scarred Fire Emblem vets. Just position your team right, and it’s all gold.
It’s still easy to start feeling quickly overwhelmed by the options laid out in front of you, but to ameliorate that, bear two things in mind: First, there are no timers on these levels, so feel free to take your time and absorb what’s going on in front of you. Second, the undo and restart buttons are positioned neatly at the top of the screen, with no cost or repercussions to use. Just keep plugging away, and you’ll figure out how to clear every map. Eventually.
The Nuts and Bolts of the World
Testing on a Steam Deck offered a brisk, no-lag mouse-and-button style experience. While not mapped naturally to a Deck, Cebba’s Odyssey runs perfectly fine. The touchpad offers a smooth cursor, and the usual shoulder button stands in for your clicks. On PC (and Mac, which is a nice option!), there are also some intuitive keyboard options available should you prefer. The Z is typically your movement; your X is your unit’s action. The rest is, again, via mouse.
With the pixel graphics bright and sharply defined, it’s easy to keep track of what’s important. The left side of the screen will fill up with your crucial information about unit abilities, and the game will quickly teach you how to deselect a unit you touched by mistake (mouseclick pretty much anywhere else on the map). Considering all the brain power you’ll need to figure out how to solve Cebba’s next riddle, it’s an elegantly simple setup that stays useful and never cumbersome.
Conclusion
The Puzzle Maker: Cebba’s Odyssey is the kind of puzzle game that’s going to seem intimately familiar at first, but a depth of puzzle craft and detail makes it into something all its own. At first glance, it’s easy to see a little of Fire Emblem inside the game, with its variety of unique pixel art units and movements. After a little fussing, you’ll probably also think of Into the Breach, where the order of operations as you start your turn makes the difference between victory and defeat. But Cebba quickly takes over its own niche, and it does so well enough that it can become something fresh for dedicated puzzle fans to chew on.
The only ‘quibble’ is that, wow, these puzzles begin to escalate in a way that hyper-focused minds might start to feel genuinely overwhelmed by midgame. But the game is also untimed and chill about letting you figure it out at your own speed, mitigating the issue well. I’ll also say that I didn’t fuss with the make-your-own puzzle portion of the game, as it’s purely optional, and I am Bad At Such Things. I will say that the same controls work well there, and wiser minds than mine might enjoy the option!
Final Verdict: I Like It A Lot
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