Guanche mythology with puzzles and exploration

Guayota is a visual narrative exploration puzzle game developed by the Madrid studio Team Delusion and published by Dear Villagers. It is released on both PC and Nintendo Switch, in this case we were able to play the PC version.

The story begins when The king entrusts us with the mission of exploring a mysterious island in the Canary Islands. On this island we find strange temples full of traps, and our only tool is a torch that will guide us in the exploration and help us unravel the mysteries that surround the place.

Guayota, its gameplay and the temples

Guayota part of a central area from which, after completing the first temple, we can access three different temples (including the previous one), each dedicated to a deity from Guanche mythology. The first temple is located on top of a snowy mountain and is dedicated to Magec, the Sun God. Here we meet a strange being, a blue flame that will float near us and allow us to do certain things in the puzzles to come.

Each of these temples consists of eight rooms: four initial ones and four others that are unlocked by completing the first ones. The particularity is that most of the rooms They have two different versions. The first version is the “real world” version, where cheating is the main challenge. The second version is the “dream world”, which we access when our torch goes out, which usually happens after we die. The lifespan of our torch lasts up to three hits, although we can regenerate it in oil wells. In the world of dreams, the riddles changethe traps disappear and more logic must be used to return to the real world. Each of these realities offers us fragments of Guanche mythology and history, so it is worth exploring both versions.

Puzzle mechanics vary in each temple. In the Temple of Magec, for example, the real-world puzzles involve illuminating mounds with light to open doors while avoiding traps. In the dream world, although traps disappear, walls emerge that allow or block the passage of light when touched, forcing us to play with th is concept to solve the puzzles.

Another temple is located in the forest and is dedicated to Chaxiraxi, the goddess of fertility. In this place, the puzzles are based on connecting rays through stones, adding or subtracting points if the beam ends in one type of stone or another. I will not talk about the next temple, but I will say that, Besides the first three, there is anotherwhere the mechanics of the previous ones merge and give rise to more complex puzzles, which will make us think for a long time.

The technical part

The game is developed with Unreal Enginewith likeable characters and a general environment that, although sometimes simple, is visually striking. It particularly stands out in the interiors, where the lighting shows what it is capable of.

On the technical side, On PC we have some simple settingsyou can touch the resolution and its scale, also the effects and post-processing, but not the textures. It lacks more options. On the other hand, I did not encounter any kind of performance problems or crashes while playing.

In short, Guayota is…

Guayota offers a good experience. The mythology is interesting, especially that of the Guanche, the one we are not used to but which is very rich in history. The riddles are simple at first, but they gradually become more complicated, with a good difficulty curve. Visually, it’s nothing extraordinary, but the whole thing ends up being striking. The duration also seems quite correct to me, about 10 hours of quiet play and do all versions of the puzzles. They can be more or less important depending on how you handle the puzzles. In addition, there are several achievements that require a little more time to complete. Really, for the type of game it is, there is nothing negative to point out, the game keeps its promises and does it well.

In short, this is a highly recommended game if you like puzzles or if mythology directly grabs your attention.