“Life is not about finding pieces of a puzzle. It’s about creating and putting those exceptional pieces together.” The game of ‘Storyteller’ brings this quote to life. It serves each player with unique, exceptional puzzle pieces to become epic storytellers and create a whole new world with their imagination.
Publisher Annapurna Interactive and developer Daniel Benmergui first revealed this game in July 2021. And the anticipation for Storyteller had only witnessed an upward trajectory ever since. On March 23, 2023, players finally got their prize for maintaining the hype all this time when it made its way to Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam.
If This Was A Movie
‘Storyteller’ takes place in a book that makes you jump and then fall into fairytales, classics, and flash fiction of the mysterious labyrinths of illicit affairs, the invisible strings that lead to new romantics, the anti-hero’s attempts to poison the wine, the battles to conquer the bejewelled crown, the karma of high infidelity. Players can fearlessly fill the blank spaces with the twists of their wildest dreams and reinvent the tales they know all too well.
The catch is that these stories aren’t correlated, besides the repetition of characters in different contexts. The lack of continuity is a drawback to the game because Storyteller lacks a solid story to make it stand out. However, these repetitions help the players predict the characters’ attitudes and thus benefit the overall experience. A player already expects the Queen to act aloof and selfish unless someone benefits her, the Butler to be spiteful even without provocation, the Knight to be noble, the Baron to be aggressive, and pretty obviously, the character named Hatey to be perenially hateful.
Design of the Mastermind
The core gameplay centers around creating stories that fit specific prompts given in each of the 13 chapters of the game. What sets “Storyteller” apart from other puzzle games is the freedom it offers players to use their imaginations and be the mastermind of the tales. The prompts of the stories are the expected result, and players can make any combination of characters and order of scenes as long as it fits the prompt. In some stories, a variable appears that gives an additional mission to the players to recreate the story with new limitations. The game’s puzzles are well-designed and provide a decent challenge, but they are simple enough to avoid frustration.
The fun and brilliant thing to note is how well-created the game mechanics are. Even when a scene does not make sense, the game helps you understand why the positioning of certain characters could be wrong through subtle hints. For instance, if you try to wed characters who are already in love with someone else, they are presented with a speech bubble with their lover’s face. Similarly, suppose you try to make a character mourn someone’s demise without establishing a relationship first. In that case, the character will stand there shrugging with a question mark over their head.
Haunted
Storyteller cleverly uses the concept of death and loss through nearly all of its stories. The heartbreak of losing a lover, the resurrection of the lost, the murderous treachery for the sake of luxury, the game covers it all with a particular nuance.
An exciting dynamic of the game is how ghosts can interact with the settings, other characters and objects. One such scene comes up hilariously when a character dies, has amnesia, forgets he died, looks at himself in the mirror, and shocks himself. In other cases, ghosts avenge themselves or mend broken hearts in the afterlife.
Long Story Short
Storyteller is a short, sweet and pleasantly challenging experience. It lacks a strong story, but compensates with a range of epic and tiny tales. It has simple drag-and-drop mechanics and an engaging motif to secure the crowns and gloat in the glory of being an epic Storyteller. So if you’re looking for a game that will challenge your creativity and imagination, look no further than ‘Storyteller’.
FINAL RATING: 71/100