LOVE – A Puzzle Box Filled With Stories Switch Review – The Rubik’s Cube Apartment

Stories are some times told out of sequence, and that is okay. In LOVE – A Puzzle Box Filled With Stories, we have just that, as well as a diorama of sorts in the form of an apartment building that helps us to both learn the nature of a complex story and help to rewrite it. This is a fascinating experience that challenges both the heart and mind, and it is one of the more unique titles of the year.

So is LOVE – A Puzzle Box Filled With Stories a title that needs to be experienced by all? Or is this abstract puzzle-storytelling just a confusing mess? Let’s find out!

The game opens with a tutorial of sorts, where we are introduced to the concept of Past and Present signified by black-and-white (Past) and color (Present) sides of the apartment building where the game takes place. We are given some pictures to give a bit of context, but it is up to the player to fill in the holes and complete the stories.

The example tutorial story shows a couple deeply in love with each other, but this is all represented by the past. In the present, the woman is missing, and we see a deeply depressed man longing for her presence again. It is during this tutorial that we begin to control even more, as we get to spin each floor of the apartment building to mix things up, putting past rooms in the present and vice-versa. Imagine it like a Rubik’s Cube but with apartment floors and rooms instead of the colored squares.

After completing the tutorial, we are given an assortment of pictures spanning multiple stories all happening within the building. Interestingly, many of the stories overlap, and it is up to us, the player, to connect the individuals at some point in the past or present to fulfill a dynamic coming-together story. This is easily the best part of the game, as we have the opportunity to investigate interesting lives and try to make sense of circumstances.

Where things get weird in LOVE – A Puzzle Box Filled With Stories is figuring out the puzzles. Some instructions are left out of the tutorial, and we have to figure it out on our own that items need to be found and used in order to progress and solve certain puzzles. Not only that, but the windows being pretty small make it quite difficult to see inside, even with the zoom-in feature.

Thankfully, though, the active characters in the past side will have some red coloring on them to help them stand out. It is also possible to scroll down outside walls to get a better perspective of a room. Otherwise, it is very easy to miss something on the past side of the building, because the grey scale causes many of the people and objects to blend.

Where things get really confusing is more the “when” as opposed to the “what”. Because of the past and present sides of the puzzle, most of the time endings are easy to figure out. However, how to get to those endings is a journey itself, and for a couple of the puzzles, that journey is downright obscure. This leads to a lot of mindless moving of floors and scrolling up and down until something clicks, which is not an ideal approach to puzzle-solving. The puzzles should all have clear lines to connect from A to B to C to D, and for most of the puzzles, that is the case. However, for the couple that don’t follow this path, it does bog down the overall experience.

Controls is another area where things feel problematic. On Switch, the left stick controls the cursor and the right stick moves the camera around the building. The cursor is very slow by default, but the settings menu is a dream when it comes to increasing sensitivity. It feels strange because at no point does it ever feel natural, and it constantly feels like you are battling with the controls as opposed to getting used to them.

Where things look up are both in the graphics and the soundtrack. Graphically, LOVE – A Puzzle Box Filled With Stories is beautiful and does the colored/black-and-white dynamic quite effectively. The art style is perfect for this type of game and setting, and I loved how quickly the colors change when rotating the floors and seeing the dramatic difference between the past and present versions of particular rooms.

The soundtrack is outstanding! From the start, there is an excellent folk song that plays and serenades us as we learn how to play the game. After that, it is just a lovely and gentle soundtrack that helps calm nerves and gets us in the puzzle-solving mood. The vocals during the singing moments are so good that I wish it occurred more often.

LOVE – A Puzzle Box Filled With Stories is a nice, little puzzle title with a lot of heart. It shines in its unique storytelling, lovely art style, and wonderful soundtrack, but it does get hurt a little bit by a couple of the more obscure puzzles, off-feeling controls, and relatively short length to clear.

If you are looking for a new puzzle experience, I absolutely can recommend this one with some caution. The diorama style with the Rubik’s Cube-like building is definitely an interesting idea for a puzzle game, and for the most part, it works really well. For others out there, this one will be a lot easier of a purchase to swallow if and when it is discounted, so maybe add it to your wishlist and wait for that price drop.

LOVE – A Puzzle Box Filled With Stories Review provided by Nintendo Link
Review also found on OpenCritic
Publisher: Thalamus Digital
Developer: Rocketship Park
Release Date: May 28th, 2021
Price: $19.99, £19.99, €24,00
Game Size: 742 MB