In the recent past, I played the demo for a casual puzzle game called Grim Legends 2.  It would appear that Artifex Mundi is responsible for a lot of similar games, as I also had the opportunity to try out the demo for Eventide: Slavic Fable, another fantasy-themed puzzle game with gorgeous artwork.  Though this one takes place in modern times, we spend the entire demo in a Slavic Heritage Park where creatures from Slavic mythology coexist peacefully with humans.

Mother Duck and I often enjoy watching “atmospheric movies”.  These don’t necessarily have to be good, they just have to be relaxing and take place in a charming setting.  I kind of feel like this is the game equivalent of that.  On one hand, this game felt a bit…cheesy sometimes, and the voice acting is a tad wooden.  But the setting is what really sells it for me, as the Slavic Heritage Park felt like a really cool place to explore, what with the game taking place at night and the old buildings deep in the woods.  Hypothetically speaking, if this game were to be made into a movie, I’d bet it would be really corny, but also a really fun watch after dark with a nice bowl of popcorn set nearby.

Gameplay is very similar to Grim Legends 2, where you travel between various screens, searching every inch looking for hidden items that can be used to interact with your environment and progress.  It’s all something I find really fun and relaxing, though I was a bit disappointed to discover that the game reuses puzzles from Grim Legends 2 (which came out first, so yes, Eventide is the one doing the stealing).  These puzzles included one where you connect pairs of symbols on a board, a sliding puzzle, and one where you rotate three objects until the colors match.  Sure, these are perfectly decent puzzles, and the game had some unique puzzles of its own, but I still would have preferred it if all the puzzles were ones I hadn’t seen before.

While I personally enjoyed Grim Legends 2 more (which also had a less confusing map), the ability to collect cards in this game that describe different creatures from Slavic mythology was pretty cool.  Plus, if you like casual puzzle games, then you can’t go wrong with either of these options (at least, as far as I can tell from the demos).  The game only takes about 3-4 hours to complete, and you’ll find it to be a better deal on Steam, where it sells for $9.99 as opposed to the $14.99 price tag found on the PS4.

This post was originally published on The Duck of Indeed on October 18, 2021.