Long Ago: A Puzzle Tale Switch Review – Roll With It

Long Ago: A Puzzle Tale is quite unsurprisingly a puzzle game (Truth in advertising is important). Developed and published by GrimTalin, the game is filled with sliding puzzles similar to that of games like Slayaway Camp and Friday the 13th Killer Puzzle, albeit with far less violence. However, as you control a ball it’s probably more accurate to call it a rolling puzzle rather than a sliding one.

Well, enough with the intros. How does this one fair? Let’s roll with it.

Regardless of slide vs roll terminology semantics, the concept of Long Ago: A Puzzle Tale is simple enough. Roll the ball around the grid and collect the feather’s or coins whilst trying to stay below the turn limit. Simple enough. However, it becomes less simple when the other mechanics are brought in to the game.

Fan’s of the genre will understand the basics immediately. While you may have a ball to roll, it is constrained to a single direction and will not stop until it makes contact with an object that it cannot pass through. Utilizing these objects, you can position your ball to roll toward areas it may not otherwise be able to reach allowing you to collect the objects (Again feathers or coins depending on the level type, more on that later), so you’ll need to think ahead before making a move and plan as many of your moves out in advance as possible.

But you don’t need to nail the level instantly as it is a fairly casual puzzle game, meaning that there are no real consequences. You can undo moves if you make a mistake or just want to try something else, and you can reset the level completely if you feel you may have messed up from the start or you can fail and use an unlimited retry option to start again. The polar opposite of punishing in that regard.

This is welcoming news for non-veteran’s of the genre (And like even a few that are), as some of these puzzles will be quite difficult. In particular, there are many times where you’ll need to roll one direction, then another, and then back again, which can feel like wasted movements. Experts will be able to find ways to minimize those types of moves, which is the only way to receive the maximum crystal’s for a level (Yes, that is a third collectible I have yet to mention, but I’ll get to it shortly).

To begin, you’ll need to play Story levels, and these are the ones that require you to collect feathers. Collecting the feathers will unlock more of the story, and collecting all in the level will allow you to clear it and have the narrator or character read the story that you unlocked out loud.

Each piece of the story is a rhyming couplet that connects to tell somewhat of a fairy tale focused on the main character, a brave princess attempting to escape from her so-called royal “duties” as a woman. It’s a fairly progressive female empowerment piece, which is quite nice. These levels allow you to use all of the moves provided making them more lenient in terms of completion.

The second set of levels are a little trickier, as these ones are the same stages as the Story levels. However, you’ll need to collect coins this time (Generally more of them as well so following the same strategy may not yield the same results). These levels also provide crystals once completed, with a maximum of 3 crystals on offer if you can complete the puzzle in the minimum number of moves. These crystals will go on to unlock further levels including the Challenge levels if you collect over 120 of them. There are 5 chapters in the Story with 16 or so levels in each that then convert into the coin collection versions with the crystals. So overall there are 3 types of collectibles, the crystals for unlocking levels, the feathers for unlocking story, and the coins that can be used to purchase additional skins for the ball.

Much like other examples of the genre, Long Ago: A Puzzle Tale contains a number of mechanics slowly introduced to make levels a little harder, such as logs that only allow entrance from specific angles to monk statues that you need to touch to activate and plenty more. Generally introducing a new mechanic every couple of levels, so you can get used to them before you get to the super-tricky stuff incorporating multiple mechanics.

However, it’s not all that dire when you get to the super tricky stuff as playing a level enough will fill up a magic meter that will then provide hints on which moves should be made. This is optional, though, and the game is perfectly fine to just let you try the level as much as you want.

The artwork on the characters is quite nice, the music is fairly relaxing, and overall it’s a good example of the genre, which is fine. Not every game can be revolutionary, especially in a genre as clear cut as the sliding puzzle, but this one does enough to garner attention, especially thanks to its affordability.

Long Ago: A Puzzle Game Switch Review provided by Nintendo Link
Publisher: GrimTalin
Developer: GrimTalin
Release Date: May 28th, 2021
Price: $9.99, £8.49, 9.99€
Game Size: 377MB