Until the end of September, Kaleidoscube released its newest game, a short but visually stunning, narrative adventure called A Juggler’s Tale. The title follows a young woman trying to escape from a circus, but the most interesting part of this suggestion is that this girl, Abby, was actually a puppet and the real challenge on her journey is finding the environment for Abby’s. manipulate and move threads so they can move forward.
The game takes place sideways and uses a 2.5D graphic style that allows the player to focus on Abby and her actions while being captivated by the landscape and world behind the protagonist. On top of that, it’s an ideal decision, especially since the player’s point of view is that of a spectator of the puppet show, which is Abby’s life, which in itself helps represent this surprising story that its developer conceived.
The graphics and the characters themselves are the strengths of A Juggler’s Tale. The characters are faceless, but very expressive and make you want to learn more and more about Abby’s journey. Even the world itself helps get the message across through several shocking scenes that always manage to express the breadth of the path the protagonist has to go.
By now, you’ve probably figured out that history is also one of the most important elements of this title. It is mostly told by a narrator who expresses himself in verse and riddles, it is like a fairy tale from a children’s book. The narrator lends himself to the laudable task of keeping the player’s attention and while not a professional storyteller he does his best to ensure that the story is never the weak point of this game.
You may be wondering why I chose to focus on the story and the graphics first, and the reason for that is because I find myself at a dead end when it comes to the gaming experience. As I mentioned earlier, you can constantly move through the levels by scrolling to the right. The trick is, Abby often just can’t get anywhere because her overhead strings get caught in the elements of the landscape. This means that you will have to come up with a way to move the landscape in order to proceed. Other times, Abby will be stuck alone, so you’ll have to do something similar to get ahead.
A Juggler’s Tale was designed to be simple and linear throughout the game and consequently you don’t have to worry about many controls. That’s a good thing in large part because it means that the “gameplay” and puzzles are essentially fairly straightforward. We can see this as an advantage as there is a wide range of ages at which this game can be enjoyed, but also because of this basic design I have observed that the gaming experience is often uncomfortable.
There are some puzzles where the only solution that seems logical doesn’t seem to work and there is no workaround no matter how hard we search. Many times in the end it happened to me that the solution to these riddles was the one that came to mind at the beginning, but it is necessary a little “cheat” to make it work. That is, you have to do something that the game does not allow you to accept as valid.
Take as an example Encounter with the wolf from chapter two. You will be asked to pull a cart over a bridge, which must be lowered before it can be crossed, in order to use the cart to free the wolf from its strings. Once lowered, the bridge will keep raising unless Abby is sitting on it, which means the bridge must first be lowered and then pulled before it goes back up. The problem with this is that it takes Abby so long to move the car that the bridge begins to rise again. The frustrating solution to this was to simply drive down the bridge several times, gradually pushing the cart inch by inch until it was possible to get the cart onto the bridge without the bridge rising, thus freeing the wolf and move forward on history. Needless to say, it seems a bit absurd.
And that is not an isolated case. Sometimes the game specifically asks you to do something that seems irrational. There are many occasions when you are expected to find yourself in direct danger in the hopes that the narrator will save Abby by pulling on her strings. And if you think the team didn’t think of it, there are dialogues out there that fit those circumstances exactly. It’s weird and pretty frustrating.
While I don’t like those moments, there are many aspects of this game that are worth playing. It doesn’t take long: in fact, it is possible to work through the whole story in 1-2 hours, a time when you take away an interesting and engaging story that will stick on your mind. If you’re looking for a game for a weekday afternoon or a simple game for a weekend morning, A Juggler’s Tale is the perfect option either way.
