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Whimsical and wonderful!

The fairy tale, of late, has taken quite a beating.

On the one hand, academic scholars have dissected it, laid it bare, and analyzed it in terms of whichever theory (Freudian, Marxist, feminist, Jungian, or just plain silliness) happens to be the "flavour of the week."

On the other hand, there is a growing feeling that fairy tales aren't "hard" or "gritty" enough. Hence the modern mania for "reconstructing" old favourites in terms of drama, conflict, and a general fascination with "the dark side" - a "DC Comics" approach to the fairy tale, if you will. The reductio ad absurdam of this idea would be something like "Lost Girls" or "American McGee's Alice".

While such ideas are interesting, they miss the point of the fairy tale. As Chesterton wrote in his classic Orthodoxy (in a chapter entitled "The Ethics of Elfland"), simple fairy tales can contain profound messages that their trendier, edgier modern counterparts often lack. As examples, he offers Beauty and the Beast - "a thing must be loved before it becomes lovable" and Jack and the Beanstalk - "giants and monsters can be beaten". It's perhaps because such messages resonate with us that we'll still see the old favourites going strong, long after "Politically Correct Fairy tales" have been relegated to the bargain bin.

Which brings me to Ten Tales.

Now, a game like this ought to push all the wrong buttons for me: I value story over puzzles, I am abysmally bad at fetch quests, and I can be quite pedantic when it comes to spelling and grammar.

The wonder of Ten Tales is that it managed to win me over despite falling short in all the three slots above - and that is a testament to the power of a fairy tale, even in our age of clever, post-postmodern fiction.

This is not to say that Ten Tales doesn't have a "meta" element. The fourth wall is broken for amusing effect on one occasion, the ten stories all have an element of self-parody to them, and there is a "Russian doll" effect in that the main quest takes place inside a story (which is within another story), creating a quite charming effect when it all ends and the characters take their final bow.

However, at heart, it is a simple set of tales, with nods both to the Western "fairy tale" and to Japanese animation. It is lighthearted, and can be played and enjoyed even by a younger child. And though the puzzles may seem contrived, they work extremely well in the context of the story that is being told. An added bonus is an endearing sense of humour, which makes itself felt most of all in the interaction between our two main characters, Maria and Mark.

The basic premise of the story is a familiar one. A young girl, fascinated by fairy tales, comes across an enchanted book in a bookstore, and finds herself - and a classmate of hers with whom she shares an antagonistic relationship* - in a fantasy world. This world is filled with "fractured fairy tales" - little stories involving dinosaurs, giants, magic and the like - which are in search of an ending. It is our protagonists' job to complete these stories, and only then can they escape this world and return to reality.

The gameplay is mainly in the form of fetch quests (as mentioned above) and simple puzzles, involving the combination of various objects. Sometimes these objects are used in trading, whereas in others they directly complete the story. The motifs are familiar - a missing object, a woman cursed and turned into a doll - but they are handled neatly and with verve. Gameplay is never "unfair" or difficult, and there's a logical sense of progression from one quest to the next, making for a linear - but enjoyable - experience.

The characters, though seen only for a short while (this game can be completed in around 40 minutes), are fun. Maria, our heroine, is more tsun than dere, with her love of fairy tales and cats. Mark, her "enemy", proves to be less of a jerk than he originally seems, and his skills come in handy at more than one point of the game. Graphics are mostly default RTP, but are enlivened by humorous, larger-than-life figures - a giant baby, a doll wearing a loincloth, and so on.

Go ahead and play it. It will be an hour well spent, and you may find your heart feeling a little warmer at the end of it all. Chesterton was right.

Highly recommended.

* You can see where this is heading, can't you?

Posts

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Agreed, enjoyed playing this game. You should play the horror-esque game Ningyo Heart, which is the first game for mightydarkchocolate's team. I reviewed it.
Professor_Q
"Life is a riddle I wish I had the answer for..."
3237
author=Leigh
Agreed, enjoyed playing this game. You should play the horror-esque game Ningyo Heart, which is the first game for mightydarkchocolate's team. I reviewed it.


I was playing it, and on course to finish it, until, um, real life intervened. I'll come back to it soon. What I saw was very good indeed.
Thank you so much for a such wonderful yet detailed review, Professor_Q! You don't know how much it means for me and other game developers to have their gamed reviewed! I will do my best fixing the grammar issues in future project, along with other issues. XD

Professor_Q
"Life is a riddle I wish I had the answer for..."
3237
author=mightydarkchocolate
Thank you so much for a such wonderful yet detailed review, Professor_Q! You don't know how much it means for me and other game developers to have their gamed reviewed! I will do my best fixing the grammar issues in future project, along with other issues. XD



Actually, I'm the one who should be thanking you for creating a game that brightened my day and brought a smile to my face - something I can certainly use in this particular time. =)

Don't sweat the grammar too much - I'm a bit of a pain when it comes to grammar, and the other elements in your game certainly outweighed it.

Enjoying Ningyo Heart so far. I'll have a review up once I finish it, (which should be soon, work permitting.) ^_^
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