The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales

Boring and shallow. Annoying to play.

God it's boring... The trappings are alright, but the writing/pacing/mechanics are tired. Combat is passable. A skeleton of a game. Could be good - just ain't.

I had many issues with this game, but perhaps my pettiest nitpick (that nonetheless bothered me to no end) is this: the protagonist, a writer, likes to complain about poorly-written characters by other authors, and fancies himself a much better writer. This is ironic, because he himself is one of the worst-written characters I have ever seen in published media. The irony could make for some fun meta commentary... if it had been intentional, that is. Unfortunately though, I don't think this game's writer had that amount of self-awareness.

I feel like I probably should have done a little more research before purchasing this. The main gameplay sections are nearly intolerable and the writing is abysmal. I know the writing being a little poor is kind of the point, but still, there's almost nothing interesting about the game outside of the main dilemma and the peculiar mechanics of this world. Unfortunately, that's not really enough to keep me engaged, as most of the game doesn't really deal with those facets.

C

wow. this is one of the coolest and most unique/original indie rpgs i've ever played and i think i will remember it for a long time. the art style of the books reminded me of disco elysium and i was thoroughly enthralled by every new book to explore and the story concepts of them. my main qualm is that i wish the game was twice as long, not just because i was having fun but because i think it could have benefited from some expansion - more information about etienne, roderick, more time spent in some of the books, the last segment with the artifacts (i really wish there was the chance to try them all!) etc. i also wish there were more choices that affected things, the book 1 choice was cool but that was kinda...it for a long while. although i wish the game was a bit more fleshed out it was a very fresh and new concept and it's an absolutely gorgeous game, i'd absolutely recommend!

:(

One of the coolest ideas I've seen done in a game narratively.

Cool

I like the concept of the game but I feel like they could have done more with it instead of a simple puzzle click game. The idea of jumping in different stories that are rewritten versions of existing stories is very interesting. Perhaps they should have made a more detective-style type game. That being said, it is still a good game. 8,5/10