Tales (video game)
A point-and-click adventure through myth and fairy-tale books.
Tales is a 2D point-and-click fantasy graphic adventure developed by Ape Marina and published by Screen 7. Released DRM-free on Steam, Humble Bundle, and GOG for Microsoft Windows and Linux on November 14, 2016, the game presents stages based on myths, legends, and fairy-tale books. It has received mostly positive reviews, with critics praising its story, puzzles, voice-acting, and humor, noting it is suitable for the whole family.
- Developer
- Ape Marina
- Publisher
- Screen 7
- Release date
- November 14, 2016
- Platforms
- Microsoft Windows, Linux
- Genre
- 2D point-and-click graphic adventure
- Lead creators
- Andrea Ferrara, Giovanni Ottomano
- Executive producer
- Mark Lovegrove
Lore & Background
Tales follows Alfred Walsh, a young librarian who inherits a library under mysterious circumstances. When a forbidden book releases a mysterious darkness, Alfred must venture into the affected stories, guided by the sorcerer Merlin from the legends of King Arthur. The player moves non-linearly between books, solving puzzles, riddles, and mini-games to progress the main quest. Central to the game is a magic bell that allows travel between books; upon entering a new book, the player leaves behind all inventory and builds a new one unique to that tale.
Reader's Guide
Developed by the small team Ape Marina, inspired by Sierra and LucasArts, Tales offers a non-linear gameplay structure where each stage takes place within a different book. The game features characters from Mesopotamian, Norse, and Greek mythology, including Urshanabi, Loki, and Thor, each voiced by actors such as Vincent van Ommen, Klemens Koehring, and Jesse Lowther. The soundtrack, composed by Luigi Di Guida, includes 23 tracks with 50 minutes of original music, drawing from renaissance, medieval, and Arabic influences. An early version won an AGS Award for Best Demo in 2014, and the full game was nominated for seven AGS Awards in 2017, including Best Game Created with AGS, Best Gameplay, Best Puzzles, and Best Voice Acting. Review aggregator GameRankings rated it 80%, and outlets like AdventureGamers and ITC gave it 4 out of 5 stars, praising its puzzles, humor, and mythological basis, though some noted minor technical issues and frustrating inventory handling.
Did You Know?
- Tales was released DRM-free on Steam, Humble Bundle, and GOG for Microsoft Windows and Linux on November 14, 2016.
- The game's protagonist, Alfred Walsh, is voiced by British comedian Alasdair Beckett-King, creator of Nelly Cootalot.
- An early version of Tales won an AGS Award for Best Demo in 2014.
- The soundtrack, composed by Luigi Di Guida, contains 23 tracks with 50 minutes of original music and is included with each version of the game.
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