A Juggler’s Tale is a story-driven 2D platformer that uses a beautiful setting, interesting story, and decent puzzle platforming mechanics to hang around for a short but sweet amount of time. Taking place completely within a travelling story-teller’s marionette show you play as Abby, a puppet that looks like a female Pinocchio. And much like Pinocchio, she wants nothing more than to be free from her strings. A Juggler’s Tale operates as a sidecrolling platformer focused on keeping a minimal HUD (99% of the time nothing at all is displayed on screen) and uses the strings attached to the main character’s body as a primary platforming mechanic.
Perhaps the main thing going for this game is just how pretty some of the scenes are. The art direction for the background settings of each area are absolutely stunning, there were these brief moments where fields of grain or a watery-horizon made me put down the controller and just soak it in. The game constantly uses its settings to create challenges for the player. For example, early in the game Abby is stuck in a haunted forest. Tree branches block the linear path forward, not because these branches are too dense to pass through, but rather because Abby’s strings will get caught on them if she tries to go under. The whole game plays with this puppet on a string motif in a very self-aware way. There’s a constant monologue from somewhere above; the puppeteer, with (purposefully) gag inducing rhymed couplets chimes in during every obstacle Abby faces. The puppeteer plays around with the strings attached to her and attempts to talk her out of her desperation to be free. The voice acting is great. Some of the lines are cringe, but that’s also kind of the point. As the puppeteer gets more desperate, and his lame lyrics get overruled by anger, the lines get better.
One of the strengths of the game is that no one idea ever sticks around long enough to get stale. Sections introduce a mechanic- turns out the haunted trees will move their gnarled branches when faced with a torch. Then the game takes that initial idea and throws a twist on it- rain begins pouring so movements need to be quick lest the torch go out. Next the mechanic gets combined with a previous mechanic- the torch needs to be tossed through a hole in order to make it far enough down a path. Finally there’s a climax: a fight with a giant spider won by tossing torches at it. Through it all Abby learns her lesson: freedom isn’t always sunshine and roses, and the game moves on. The next section of puzzles, about stealth, sticks to the theme of freedom meaning not everything can but trusted but completely moves away from the torch/fire/ducking under things mechanics. Most games can be likened it to a stand up set, a premise gets introduced, there are a couple of different riffs on it, then the comic hits the punchline. What A Juggler’s Tale does particularly well is knowing when to end a “joke” and move on to the next one. Throughout it’s very short playtime, give-or-take 2 hours, no areas, obstacles, or puzzles felt like padding. Everything had its own interesting take. No part of the quest felt forgettable.
Without giving too much away, the game shifts about halfway through from being about navigating around things with those pesky strings attached to outrunning enemies whose strings are still attached.
Of course the downside is that length. It’s incredibly short and lacks replayability. While the story is pretty good, it’s not a mindbreaking, world-changing work of literary perfection that will have you replaying it over and over.
A Juggler’s Tale ends up being a very pretty diorama. Worth a look at, interesting in its execution, but you just know that after the initial wow is over it’s going to be put in the closet then never seen again. However, it is certainly worth checking out once, especially as a date-night kind of game. Abby and the team at kaleidoscube succeeded in making a game worth playing.
A Juggler’s Tale is out now on Switch, PS5, Xbox One, and PC.
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