Nova: Cloudwalker's Tale

Nova: Cloudwalker's Tale is one of those hidden gems that has gone under the radar. Devised by only 3 people and being their first game, I can't wait for future games from them. The Cloudwalker's tale is open to interpretation. It opens with the Cloudwalker being woken up and witnessing the destruction of a tree of stars exploding....a supernova event. The Cloudwalker has to track down all the star shards throughout the cosmos and restore the tree. There are 134 shards to find and over 70 puzzles to solve. Gameplay is simply collecting the shards and going to the exit. Sounds easier than it is. Your best friends are the white clouds that you can traverse easily, you cannot step onto storm clouds which often block your way and then you have two types of crystal clouds which dissolve once you step on them. This is not an easy game; in fact it is quite difficult at times. Some puzzles you can solve in two minutes, others take an hour to wrap your head around. I literally got a brainache trying to work things out! I found that I had to retrain my brain to think outside the box, and once that sunk in after several sessions, the puzzles became much easier. It was a similar experience I had with the Paper Trail game. Music was gentle and unobtrusive which helped to keep me calm as I was close to rage quitting a few times! Graphics were simple but clean and crisp. I really liked the graphic style of the cutscenes. A full game of that style would be wonderful. Movement was quick and I encountered no bugs in the game. The main downside of this game was that there are no achievements!!! It is a pity because the achievements would encourage people to keep on trying and push through. It gave no incentive and no reward for getting your brain cells in a knot! But other than that, it is a good solid puzzle game to complete. Oh, in the discussions there is a link to a small Japanese YouTuber who completed all the puzzles. It was funny to hear her and her brains trust beating their brains out over some of the puzzles. I completed all but 6 random puzzles on my own, so I was chuffed about that.....even if it took me over 20 hours to complete! If you are a puzzle lover and enjoy a challenge, this is for you. Highly recommend. 8.5/10 Points deducted due to no achievements.

《Nova: Cloudwalker's Tale》是一款画风优美的有趣逻辑解谜游戏。 在本作中，玩家需要操控主角，在网格式的关卡中收集“星星碎片”，并到达关卡终点。坏消息是，关卡中的地形大多已是断壁残垣，基本没有什么连通的道路；好消息是，主角可以将一些漂浮在空中的云朵作为地面行走，由此得出“Cloudwalker”（云行者）之名。而更好的是，玩家也可以直接像“滑块”一样操纵这些云朵，将它们移动到合适的位置，让主角通过。这就是本作的核心机制。 这个核心机制看似很强，实际上有一个主要的限制：当主角站在一片云上时，玩家就不能移动这一片云。这也就意味着，这里的云不能像“筋斗云”一样拖着主角跑，要是那样就太强了。不过，游戏并没有禁止玩家在主角踩上一片云后，移动另一片云，当踩上另一片云后，又回来移动前面这片云，因此，交替移动多片云朵，让主角在空中行走更多的距离，这是一种可能性。在本作的大部分关卡中，想清楚如何用几片奇形怪状的云朵来将主角送到指定位置，又不会让固定的云把其它云的行动范围卡住，就是主要的难点。 本作的这种机制让我想到一众以“滑块”为主要机制的解谜，你也可以用一个更熟悉的例子来理解——“华容道”。华容道谜题的特点就是块多、空间狭小、结构复杂，一般人很难在脑中模拟出移动多步之后的状态会是什么样，也很难将自己想要的状态快速实现出来。本作由于机制上与华容道存在相似性，在一些难的关卡中，玩家也会不可避免地感受到一种处处受限的不快感。但好在，本作中的滑块谜题都还不算复杂，要么块数不多，要么就是存在一些巨大的块的移动范围很小，因此也较好枚举。 本作也对“云朵”这一核心机制作出了多种拓展。除了最基础的“白云”之外，还有各种不同种类的云，具有不同的性质。我个人最喜欢的是第三大关的新要素，一开始先引入了一个挺常见的机制：走过一次之后就会毁掉的地面，但和本作的核心机制“云”结合之后，就形成了“走过一次之后就会毁掉的云”这样的东西，但不是一次性毁掉，而是每走一步，原来站的那一格毁掉，所以就有各种各样的可能让一块云改变形状，甚至[spoiler]分裂成多块[/spoiler]，很大程度上丰富了谜题的可能性空间。可惜在之后的第四大关（这游戏一共就四大关）中就没怎么见到这个机制了。前三个大关的机制之间也有一些有意思的组合，第四大关的机制和前两大关机制的组合也还是有的，可能设计师没有想到如何探索第三和第四大关机制的组合，也可能是考虑到当前第四大关的规模已经够大，就不再继续往里添加谜题了。 本作在上述的机制设计的基础上，也设计出了许多优秀的谜题。我之前说过我最喜欢第三大关中的新机制，这也要归功于第三大关的谜题设计，可以推理的地方很多，目标比较清晰，大部分的时间不是耗费在纠结的挪移当中，而是思考谜题中的关键，比如一些操作的顺序等，因此这个部分的谜题在我看来是整个游戏中最优秀的。其它部分的谜题有时就更加偏向于找到正确的挪移方法，或者找到正确的形状，有时不太好推，只能靠直觉和试，但整体来说也不复杂，我认为还是很好的。 本作的关卡结构是非线性的，有时通过一个关卡可以解锁多个关卡，也可以有多条路线到达同样的地方，也有许多的支线。游戏主要的收集物是“星星碎片”，散落在关卡之中，在主角和星星处于同一格时被收集，这些收集物倒不是过关的必需品，但会涉及后续关卡的解锁，当然，要解锁所有关卡的要求还是不高的。同时，很多关卡中，只有考虑到收集所有的星星碎片，才能真正感受到谜题的全貌，以及设计的精巧，所以我是推荐大家尝试全收集的。 总而言之，本作是一款设计十分扎实的滑块类逻辑解谜游戏，画风看上去像儿童绘本，但目标受众应该不是儿童。整体而言谜题难度适中，如果只考虑最低限度的“过关”的话更是可以说是简单，共134颗星星碎片中，只有最后一关的最后一颗让我感觉实在有点太靠挪移，没什么头绪，所以放弃了，其它的都还是很有意思的。音乐也挺不错的，我很喜欢。 结论：[b]推荐[/b]。

La música y la estética del juego son una fantasía. Los puzzles van variando de dificultad y te van enganchando ¡Juego súper recomendado para pasar un buen rato!

This is not another puzzle game. I love this game. The design is very cute and difficulty escalates quickly. The music is so peaceful, I love the violins in the orquestra. The cinematics are very cute too. You can see it has been made with love. It's so nice to play. Congratulations to Racoon & Sheep.

雲を乗り継いで星を集めて、ゴールにたどり着けばクリアのパズルです。雲とは、要は動かせる床です。 自キャラが乗っている雲は動かせません。だから長い距離を移動しようと思ったら複数の雲が必要になり、雲同士が干渉しあって動きが取れなくなるのを、スペースを見つけて端に寄せたり回り道したりしてうまく道を作っていく。この作業がパズルの中心です。星は集めなくてもクリアはできます。たくさん収集しないと解放されないレベルもありません。 ワールドが４つに分かれていて、ワールド２からは新しいギミックがパズルの要になるパターンです。雲を隣接させることでガムのようにくっつく灰色雲、一度通ったら砕ける水晶雲、通行不可の稲妻雲。この稲妻雲のワールド４で、一気にタイプが変化して箱入り娘パズルのようになります。同じゲームだけど様々な顔があって応用が利くルールです。 難易度ですが、意外なくらい難しい。「え、なんでこんなムズイの？」と何度も思いました。まったく解法が分からないレベルもひとつあります。もちろんすべてのレベルではないですが、詰まるところは本当に悩まされます。だからこそできた時にうれしいし、あっさりクリアできるレベルで安心感みたいなちょっとしたよろこびがある。 「一手戻る」無制限です。ＢＧＭがヒーリング系でいい感じ。ゲーム全体の雰囲気も語りかけてくるものがあります。おすすめできる作品です。

추천을 할지 비추천을 할지 생각이 많아지는 게임. 점수로 치자면 10점 만점에 6점 정도. 접근하긴 쉽지만 난이도가 너무 높다는 점이 발목을 잡으며, 게임의 자체적인 줄거리와 배경을 설명하고 싶었던것 같은데, 퍼즐 게임의 특성상 그런 부분이 잘 드러나지 않는다. 이 게임의 난이도를 말하자면 "잘 하면 풀릴것 같은데 어떻게 풀어야 할까??" 가 아니라, "이게 진짜로 풀 수 있는거야??" 라는 생각이 들 정도. Baba is you나 The Witness 처럼 최상위급 난이도는 아니지만, 웬만한 퍼즐 게임들 보다는 꽤 높은 난이도를 보여준다.

Increíble joya. Puzles retadores, en un ambiente muy inmersivo con una música relajante de fondo. Muy recomendado para pasar un rato tranquilo, pero resolviendo rompecabezas que se complican bastante. Mi afán de completarlo todo me impide dejar una sola estrellita atrás sin recoger :)

10/10 Juego muy intuitivo y divertido. El diseño de los niveles es excelente. 10/10 Very funny and intuitive game. Level design is excellent.

Nova: Cloudwalker's Tale is a lovely puzzle game with great atmosphere, music, and sound design. The objective of each level is to reach the exit by moving clouds around. Each level also contains 1-3 optional stars to pick up. Level design is enjoyable and varied - surprisingly so, given how few puzzle mechanics the game introduces over time. Levels also vary significantly in difficulty: some levels are very quick to solve, particularly early on and on the main path. But a few of the levels were frankly *surprisingly* difficult. As a point of comparison, by the end I'd looked up ~12 of the 134 stars. Besides atmosphere and level design, I also loved the mouse-based control scheme. Movement is quick, and can be as quick as you can move your mouse. If only all games were this responsive. I have a few minor criticisms. Firstly, the game lacks Steam achievements for some reason. Secondly, the game is called a "Tale", and mentions wordless storytelling. But while I enjoyed the atmosphere, I didn't really see or care for the story, insofar as there even is any. Thirdly, if you collect some but not all stars in a level, and then replay the level, then you must collect already-found stars again. This makes sense since some puzzle mechanics are irreversible, but it still made game completion slightly more cumbersome. Fourth, puzzles have no numbers or names, so there's no way to talk about or look up solutions for specific puzzles. Fortunately I did find a full playthrough of the game incl. all stars, but looking up solutions was still harder than it had to be. But ultimately this is a well-designed, atmospheric, and enjoyable puzzle game. Recommended. [quote]For more puzzle game reviews, news and everything puzzle-related, follow [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/25928931-Puzzle-Lovers/]Puzzle Lovers[/url] and check out our [url=http://steamcommunity.com/groups/puzzlelovers]Steam group[/url].[/quote]

A puzzle game with a clever use of mechanics that doesn't overstay its welcome. The highs of the game makes what once seemed impossible seem obvious, cleverly using a few pieces to jump from island to island. The lows of the game make you feel like you are playing rush hour, randomly moving pieces until the one you want slips through. Having gotten all stars, I can say that those are few and far between. If I were to make one criticism, I would say that the story is obtuse and disconnected from the game play, delivered mostly through some empty rooms and hallways with a few abstract pictures on the wall. I'm still not quite sure what the story is. It's window dressing, but sometimes that's all a good puzzle game needs.