Tell Me Your Story Review (Switch & PC)

Arguably some of the best conversations I had during my childhood were those with my late grandmother, a woman who had more stories than I dared to imagine, and thrice as many secrets that she never had the chance to share. If only, then, I had taken the time to carefully examine the trinkets and heirlooms in her home, I might’ve unlocked a few more core memories and developed a clearer understanding of what it was that drove her adolescence way back when. I didn’t have that opportunity in life, but in Tell Me Your Story, it was a blessing in disguise—a memoir that I could unravel without any time constraints, despite not knowing the recipients of the verse, or even the facts that contributed to the conclusion. That, to me, was something that I could explore, and, with any luck, use to alleviate my guilt.

Tell Me Your Story is a short and “cozy” flip book-like interactive art installation—a game that paints the world through the eyes of a grandmother, whose most cherished memories stitch themselves into the margins of countless heirlooms around a bright and colorful home. It’s your role, in this ridiculously wholesome tale, to navigate the nooks and crannies of the residence, and complete short but often thought-provoking puzzles to unlock additional pieces of information pertaining to your family’s history, as well as their upbringing in one of several countries. It’s a simple and elegant concept, and its inclusion of fanciful hand-drawn art does, in all fairness, compliment the general aesthetic of the journey remarkably well.

Of course, I’m getting ahead of myself here, and so, if you are keen to take a trip down memory lane, then be sure to read on. Here’s how we got on with RedDeer.Games’ Tell Me Your Story…

Chapter One

Tell Me Your Story plants you in the shoes of Amelia, a young girl who sets out to visit her grandmother, Rose—a sprightly soul who has more tall tales to share than a medieval bard, of all people. In this world, your tasks are all relatively simple: you tidy away a few items from a suitcase, and rearrange pieces of furniture and other items of value in order to unearth some form of memory—an interactive tidbit that adds an extra layer of detail to Rose’s backstory, as well as a sticker to a diary, with which you must fill out in order to generate the whole story. Suffice it to say, it’s an easy one to comprehend, and one that doesn’t make a habit out of being overly complicated or unwelcoming.

Your journey in Tell Me Your Story begins with a simple request: tidy away a few plant pots, suitcases, and items from an old porch—a symbolic casket in which an old tale resides. Upon picking one of these items up, you embark on a short but insightful quest that allows you to take a deeper dive into the memories of Rose. The ultimate goal of the game, in short, is to fill out your sticker book by obtaining new strips of stories, and finding fresh ways to connect with your grandmother, whether it’s through a scrapbook, or an item of sentimental significance.

As far as storylines travel, Tell Me Your Story does make an effort to conjure something that’s a little less cliche than your average family tale. For example, some chapters see you tackling memories from the Amazon, as well as areas across Europe and Asia, locations in which Rose went on to develop a tapestry of fascinating stories that would eventually become legends.

Feng Shui 101

If you’ve ever played through A Little to the Left, or even Unpacking, for that matter, then you’ll have a vague idea of what the gameplay entails. But, if it doesn’t ring a bell for you, then just know this: you move, stack, and ultimately organize things until the space in question is a little less cluttered, after which a new story beat or cinematic takes shape and ushers you into the next portion of the campaign. This is, at least for the most part, what Tell Me Your Story is all about, and while it can become a little infuriating at times, it doesn’t provide enough of a challenge to steer you toward an alternate path. With that said, it does make the occasional effort to produce the odd contextless puzzle—an obstacle that can only be solved by clicking in random areas, and relying on hints.

Sure enough, the goals in Tell Me Your Story are pretty self-explanatory; if you see a garden that’s rife with pots of all shapes and sizes, then you need only organize them in an appropriate order. Similarly, if you spot a selection of crockery, then you need only arrange them to fit in the faint silhouettes of a cabinet, and so on and so forth. However, there are several puzzles that require a bit more time and effort, such as a domino puzzle—a task in which you must rotate and assign certain pieces to a board without any overarching image to help point you in the right direction. Unfortunately, your only option in moments like this is to rely on mere guesswork and hope for the best. Or at least, that’s what it felt like when I first laid my eyes on some of them, anyway.

A Helping Hand

As I said earlier, the game does offer a hint system, which effectively allows you to navigate a lot of the slightly more complicated scenarios without relying on dumb luck and guesswork. This tool, while not always useful, was a sight for sore eyes during some of the tricker chapters, though I can’t say that I had to use it all that often. It was a good feature, for sure, but one that wasn’t always needed, as the vast majority of the criteria for each puzzle was often painted in black and white and smothered with blatant clues. In other words, it was, for the most part, an easy ride, and at no point did I find myself searching for answers from the archives of some online forum. And that was a major plus in my books.

Gameplay aspects set aside, Tell Me Your Story does fit into the “cozy” genre extremely well; it harbors an innocent and hearty ambiance that’s both calming and engaging, and it creates a generous web of colorful personalities that often pull on all the right heartstrings, too. Granted, it isn’t quite the marvel of the decade, but its elegant hand-drawn art style is certainly a welcome addition to the mix, and it further reinforces the fact that it’s a beginner-friendly game at heart, and one that has all the bells and whistles to connect with its audience in the purest form.

Verdict

Tell Me Your Story is as wholesome as you might expect from such a beautiful concept, I’ll say that much. It’s clearly a beautiful game, and it does all in its power to match the same tender spirit of A Little to the Left and, for good measure, Open Roads. Sure, its storyline is a little meh, and it isn’t something that you’ll go on to remember for years to come, either — but, for what it’s worth, it is an important reminder that we, as descendants of those who came before us, are often within an arm’s reach of so many great stories that yearn to be remembered. In the strangest of ways, I left Tell Me Your Story with a hint of jealousy, for I wish I, like Amelia, had the chance to unravel the key moments of my grandmother’s legacy.

To cut a long story short, if you, too, are looking to onboard a heartwarming tale that is both teeming with joy and nostalgia fodder, then you ought to consider visiting Rose and taking a good old-fashioned waltz down memory lane. If, however, you aren’t the biggest fan of furniture arrangement and logical puzzles, then you might just struggle to bond with a lot of the themes that crop up in the margins of this relatively short memoir. It’s swings and roundabouts at this point, for sure, but for as little as $8, you might as well throw caution to the wind and see what all of the fuss is about for yourself — if only to scratch the post-Unpacking itch.