Creepy Tale Critic Reviews

I wish Creepy Tale was bigger or with at least some elements of story and lore about the forest and its creatures. But in all honesty, I can’t really complain cause I had a very entertaining evening playing it from start to finish.

Gorgeous game with a short, yet enticing story that left me wanting more. Just be sure to bring your patience with you before trying to tackle the puzzle-based gameplay.

Creepy Tale is aptly titled; it had no trouble giving me goosebumps. The gloomy atmosphere is aesthetically pleasing and the cryptic puzzles will tease your brain, bordering on frustrating at times – patience and trial and error are key attributes here. This one will likely appeal to fans of point-and-click style puzzle games with horror elements.

With a short run time of only around two hours, it’s a shame much of that time is spent flapping about, trying to figure out what to do next. The puzzles are a real downer, taking away from the player’s ability to invest in the world and truly enjoy the atmosphere. Taking everything into consideration, Creepy Tale‘s full asking price on the Nintendo eShop is perhaps a bit steep. But if you can pick it up on sale, it’s probably worth a play through for its atmosphere alone.

Creepy Tale never relies on typical puzzle tropes, and has a wonderful art style that is both unsettling and beautiful in equal measure. It's to clever for its own good, and the amount of times you'll struggle far outweighs the enjoyment of solving the mystery of your missing brother.

Piecing together the puzzles in Creepy Tale can be quite rewarding but at the same time, frustration is bound to rear its ugly head.

Creepy Tale is an atmospheric excursion that can be completed in under an hour, although it could take longer (but prove more frustrating) without the hints option activated. This is a bite-size adventure garnished with creepy charm.

The story and world in which it takes place are enough to keep the player going. Every new environment introduces the players to new creatures that call the woods home, most of which are hostile and will kill the player if given the chance. Creepy Tale's storybook art style makes the game feel like a Grimms' Fairy Tale if not for the unenjoyable puzzle-solving. While surely unintentional, Creepy Tale requires patience to trek through the forest of abysmal puzzles, but it is a short and sweet experience worth the $5 it costs to play.

Creepy Tale can best be described as a mixed bag of different flavours. If the game's presentation is full of lovely elements to see and to listen, its puzzles feel rather forced and almost as if they didn't quite belong there. This makes Creepy Tale a game that can please fans of games based mostly on watching and listening a developing story, but less so for those looking for some stimulating and well placed puzzles.

Despite having a solid atmosphere and an occasional interesting puzzle, it unfortunately fails to capture the depth of the games it's replicating.

Creepy Tale certainly lives up to its namesake, courtesy of superb sound design and art heavily inspired by the works of John Kenn Mortensen, but it's a title which falls apart under scrutiny. A completely silent narrative is ambitious, as is designing puzzles exclusively around visual cues, but there's barely an hour of actual content in-game. Any puzzle-solving veterans are basically guaranteed to roll credits within 45 minutes.

Creepy Tale would work quite well for a short visual novel as it looks and sounds fantastic. However, it absolutely fails to deliver any meaningful gameplay and feels too random, short, and void.