Ten Tales

Hello, players!
Get ready for not just one tale, but "Ten Tales", a game made by mightydarkchocolate with Rpgmaker XP, an engine that was used often by this developer in the other games I've already reviewed:

- Densha Soul
- Ningyo Heart
- Roaches

If you like dark mystery-horror games (without gore or excessive graphic violence) check those games, or at least give a look at the reviews. Ok?
Because today we're going to play something totally different!

So be ready to leave the dark and creepy atmosphere, because "Ten Tales", released in 2013, is in fact a sort of faery tale adventure: we play as Maria, a girl who loves books, or a bookworm, as many people calls these persons. While visiting a new bookstore and looking for books about fairy tales, she finds one that in the occult section. Guess what? That's a magical book called "Ten Tales", and now Maria is trapped inside it! Anyway this won't be a horror adventure (that Maria seems to hate, and ironically these were this developer's past adventure games I reviewed in the past) but a surreal journey that includes humor, comedy and fantasy (so don't worry, there are NO game overs!).


Wooooow! How cute is this funny green guy!

The gameplay is classic: this is an adventure game so it's all about exploring some locations, looking for items and using them at the right place, for example you need an item to cover the private parts of a statue after you take its loincloth... yes, this is just ONE of the tasks found in this game! There are also some fetch quests (classic and IN MY OPINION not very interesting) and puzzles that are pretty simple and are well integrated with the lighthearted and surreal fairy tale setting that includes giant babies and cursed brides.
What I did not like is that items are used automatically when needed, but sometimes the dialogues aren't update, and also you cannot pick up items you see until you trigger the needed event: you will find many places with points of interest and items lying around, but Maria won't pick up or use them until when necessary. Uh ok!

And then there is Mark, the annoying sidekick/foe that will follow Maria, and will be often a nuisance with his presence. I know that the author said that this is intentional, still it's a bad mechanic in my opinion.
Finally another problem I had for the game is the writing, but if you read my previous reviews of mightydarkchocolate's games you know that this developer isn't a native english speaker, and that there are many typos. More proofreading would have been better, also the game includes some... uhm quirky momens of "silly anime humor" that will make (some) players facepalm, but ok, this is part of the narrative of the game... hate it or love it!

Now the aestetics: mapping is ok, but overall the aestetic are also cute with giant cats and toddlers, strange snowmen, talking roosters and so on. It's a strange, bizarre worked and while there are some odd things (the proportions of some items, the statue that seems more lying on the ground than standing) it's still a good looking game that uses both classic assets, edits and something custom made.


A large rat? Ok that's not cute at all... but I see that it's not the rat that's large, but we are tiny! That woman is a giantess!

Final Verdict
"Ten Tales" is an ok adventure game, maybe more indicated for people new to rpgmaker that want a simple, lighthearted experience, the game in fact takes about 1 hour / 1 hour and 20 minutes to be complete, but you can also save, if you want. However the game is not without flaws, as I mentioned there are many typos, some annoying fetch quests, not to mention Mark's presence, and the "Ten Tale" are also pretty predictable in the sense that are all short tales about love and friendship tying all together. Unfortunately these stories have some abrupt endings that leave many open questions, anyway all these little imperfections do no make this adventure a bad game. On the contrary, if you like the genre, try it, why not?