The Book of True Will

The Book of True Will is a puzzle game with a heavy emphasis on story created by NeverSilent in RPG Maker XP. The game attempts to tackle everyone's favorite topic; people arguing about religion.

The game cold opens with four people sneaking into an ancient temple while hiding from an unseen foe. After solving a few initial puzzles, we'll learn who they are and why they have come here in an extended flashback. Our protagonist is Pira, an initiate in a holy order dedicated to Platos, the dragon god of a Christianity-like religion. She is visited by her childhood friend Kyle, a scribe and man of science and logic who does not believe in religion. Both believe the other is on the wrong path and try to turn each other from the life they've chosen. Complicating this conflict are Madelyn, a fire and brimstone ideologue, and Leroy, a 4chan atheist who thinks religion is for idiots.

While pious and dutiful, Pira is troubled by stories of people doing evil in Platos' name. Leroy believes that the words of Platos could have been altered through history to manipulate His followers. The group decides there's only one solution. They decide to make a pilgrimage to a newly discovered temple; one rumored to hold the original copy of the religion's foundational text, the Book of True Will, which will reveal once and for all the true design of the dragon god.

Platos doesn't divulge His secrets to just anyone, however, and the little party is forced to solve a variety of puzzles to succeed, with each character being forced to call on their own particular talents to proceed, with the implied lesson that none of them would have made it on their own. The puzzles form the entirety of the gameplay; there is no combat or exploration of any kind and the rest of the game is told entirely through cutscenes.

While a lot of the early puzzles feel a bit like filler to break up the exposition, by the third puzzle or so you'll start to see some very varied and interesting mini-games you'll be forced to solve to progress. Since there's no combat and generally no real danger you can take as long as you want to solve them, so the gameplay is pretty breezy and casual, and some of the puzzles will require some actual thought. Most of the puzzles are logic-based, generally requiring careful study of the environment to solve. I know NeverSilent to be a huge Master of the Wind fan and fans of that game will find plenty of inspiration taken from that game's style of organic puzzle-solving (as well as a few less subtle nods.)



The setting is rather impressive even though we don't see much of it. There are definite signs of a much larger world that these characters inhabit, and a great deal of the lore and history of Platos, His religion, and the temple you're exploring are all fleshed out in organic ways. Some of it is pretty interesting and it's clear some actual thought was put into it. The environments themselves are a bit lackluster, not because they're RTP which I generally think looks fine, but more that this project suffers a bit of 'first game-itis' where the maps all feel a great deal larger than they need to be and there isn't a lot of thought put into presentation. It's nothing a face-lift couldn't fix though.

As for the story, I'll be honest and say I found it rather heavy-handed. Like Master of the Wind, the nuanced differences between religious and secular viewpoints are painted only in extremes and it can get irritating fast. The characters are likable enough but fall into some predictable stereotypes. But to the game's credit, it never tries to paint one viewpoint or the other as completely right. Madelyn may be close-minded zealot but she's also a brilliant alchemist who genuinely wants to use her talents to help people. And Leroy may be an angry prick but when there's trouble he'll also throw himself in front of his friends without any thought for his own safety. Regardless of their differences, you never doubt that these are all good people.

Ultimately, the greatest sin this story commits is that it's a story we've all heard before, told in exactly the same way. If you've ever seen this kind of story, you already know how it ends. While it's told competently, it can be a little hard to get invested. Despite the seeming drama of the cold open, the heavy exposition in the opening scenes didn't exactly drive me forward, and it wasn't until the stronger puzzles of the mid-game started appearing that I found myself invested in the game.

So unless you're the type whose idea of fun is watching people argue about religion for an hour, I can't really recommend this game on the strength of its narrative. But there is a serviceable puzzle game here as well if you're looking for a brain teaser. If you like logic puzzles, check this one out.

And if you ever get stuck, remember that Platos is the answer.