Once Glorious Artahk

This is the kind of game that I know I'll get to brag that "I knew about it before it was cool" after its inevitable takeoff. This is one of the most unique puzzle games I've ever played and it fits surprisingly well into my cozy games category. I've never had a game have me taking notes the way this one does - it has me paying attention to every single thing I come across and working through puzzles with pen and paper, and I've never once found myself skipping through the lore that you get as a reward. I feel like I'm getting to play a game and read my new favorite fantasy novel at the same time. The storytelling alone makes this game well worth the purchase, let alone the fact that it's all coming from a solo dev. Some of the puzzles are definitely hard, but I've found myself motivated by that rather than frustrated. It feels so much more rewarding when I do solve a difficult puzzle knowing I slowed down genuinely put in the brain work. I also love that there's no combat AND now the option to turn off the part of the game that relates at all to combat - although I have left the feature on so far to keep myself moving. I love the music, I love the world, I love the story. If this was ever released as a book I would buy a hardcover copy. Cozy game lovers, puzzle game lovers, metroidbrainia lovers: don't skip this one!!

Review In Progress: +Metroidbrania structure, I barely understand most puzzles that I find in this game. This is exactly how I like it. +Enjoy the main gameplay mechanic of needing to find words for the book. +Written book entries. Most branias I have played have litttle to no actual lore involved. This is a refreshing change of pace. +Music is good, perfect for the background. +Map added, and monster made optional. Dev listening to the players and patching the game so that everyone can get the experience they want is amazing. At this point, I would call this a perfect game.

[h2]It is a slow burn, but well worth the effort[/h2] [b]If you have played Outer Wilds, Tunic, and Animal Well, Artahk has much of those games DNA[/b] [b]Difficulty:[/b] ★★★★☆ [u]Playtime:[/u] 20+ hrs This is an exploration focused open-world puzzle metroidvania, imbued with rich lore an mystery. There are 90 lore entries to be discovered through puzzle solving, each 2-5 pages long, so yeah, there is a lot to read here. And that read is not really optional, since the puzzles are occasionally intertwined with the lore entries. The quality of the writing is genuinely good, the lore and worldbuilding is very mysterious and fairytale-like, it is surprisingly delightful and interesting. But you have to be OK with reading and reading [b]carefully[/b] to fully enjoy this game. The puzzles themselves rely on exploration and cleverly observing the environment and texts. There is some block pushing here, riddles to solve there, but the core design is still firmly based on the environment. Different unlocks and upgrades let you view and traverse the world completely differently, making re-exploring already treaded paths very rewarding, unlocking new puzzles, secrets, treasure hunts. The OST is nice and creates the perfect atmosphere for this adventure. Artahk pushes all the right buttons here. [b]You should take srceensots and/or take notes.[/b] Thats very important if you want to keep track of the clues you discovered. [b]Update as of 2026:[/b] a recently added map with lots of functionality, a hint system and various QoL made the game (especially the early game) a much smoother experience than it was on release. And do yourself a favour and consider disabling the Beast in the options after you first encounter it. Imo it is the only annoying and not well-thought out mechanic of the game, but you will see. If you don't like it, thankfully it can be disabled. [h3]Overall, this is an extremely impressive debut game from a solo dev[/h3]

Alright, I have played enough to get an impression and start a review that I plan to come back to after more gameplay. This game is off the beaten path for me, and I decided to try it upon recommendation. - The music is great and honestly reminds me of Skyrim; this makes exploring and piecing the puzzles together infinitely better - The art style is comfortable, dim, and keeps my attention without burning my retinas - Puzzles are difficult in a good way: you need to think and get a true sense of accomplishment when you figure it out - While I have not yet run into The Beast, I like how the threat of lingering at a puzzle for too long encourages me to leave and explore; this has helped me find clues that I needed to solve said puzzle in the first place - Discovering words that unlock lore entries is a unique gameplay mechanic, never seen it before and I like that - I am enjoying the well-written short story format of the lore - Wish I could highlight the lore entries as I read: a QoL that I imagine would save future me some time - Not usually a note-taker when I play games, but it is really helping my immersion with this one: my stump glyph doodles are truly a sight to behold - I've come around to the game not holding your hand with a map; it's refreshing to refer to a mental map and physical notes about previous locations. ~2 hours of attentive gameplay and some effort is enough to get a hang of where areas are and how to navigate the forest. I am happy with the $15 price point, definitely getting my moneys worth so far.

２Dオープンワールドな、小謎がいっぱいの謎解きアドベンチャー。 途方もなく巨大で真っ暗な森に残された主人公を操作して、世界中に満ちた謎を解き明かしましょう。どこへ向かうか、何ができるかすら不明な状況で投げ出されて唖然としますが、そういう不親切さもこの手のゲームの”味”です。さまよい歩くうちに、「ここのコレってアレのこと？」みたいに点同士が線でつながる瞬間がたくさん出てくるので、その快感を存分に楽しみましょう。 とはいえ目的も不明で辞めたくなった人へ：メニュー画面の[spoiler] 「Consult Tome」に、マップ内で浮かび上がった英単語を打ち込みましょう。ゲームの最序盤、”RESOLVE”という単語が床に出現しました。こういったスペルを全て集めるのが主目的です。開放された本の文章はいちいち翻訳しなくてもOK。[/spoiler] ゲーム内言語は英語のみですが、英語を理解する必要がある謎はかなり少ないので適当な翻訳でも割と大丈夫です。むしろマップ中を探索し、よく観察すること。スキルの様々な使い方を試すことが重要です。あと一部のギミックはアクション要素あり。モンスター出現の演出はオプションから消せます。消しても問題ありません。 親切じゃない(←誉め言葉)謎解き体験を求めているプレイヤーのニーズに応えた良作。 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yOpeBW-Jis

I am what one might call 'notoriously bad at puzzle games', but I like to challenge myself from time to time - the only way to get better at something is to keep trying until your skills improve after all. While I think this is a game that is going to take me quite some time to complete due to my own personal skill level, I don't mind that at all. It's clear from even a simple stroll through the game's expansive and winding map, picking up lore and trying to figure out the many puzzles (and there are many, and they will require some thinking and exploring to solve correctly) that this game is a labor of love. The lore is well-written and engaging (and there's a lot of it!), the artwork is beautiful (especially the big cinematic art pieces) and each zone of the map that I've found so far has been pretty distinct (and the darkness, of which there is a lot, has never felt Too Dark). Gameplay wise? The puzzles are challenging (at least for my novice skills) but not particularly frustrating, the controls are smooth and easy to pick up (or remap if you prefer), there's a certain level of difficulty added by the occasional Beast in your way (which will reset you slightly if it catches you) but it's a fun little challenge. The lack of a full in-game map makes navigation pretty tricky if you don't have a good spatial memory for these kinds of things (I don't, but that won't stop me) but there's something incredibly fun about the concept of perhaps making your own map with a pencil and a notepad too (which is an excellent solution I encourage others to try, which elevates the game a little by engaging you beyond the screen), even if this is a solution thought of independently, rather than subtly encouraged by the game. The lack of a map itself reminds me of much older PC games, which I think often encouraged this kind of outside the box thinking and approach. I think I've rambled enough but, all this to say: If you want a fun little puzzle game where you can spend hours in a beautiful world with rich lore, I can't recommend Once Glorious Artahk enough!

I picked this up on a whim, specifically looking for metroidbrainias on thinky games, i had never heard about it, but the name and art direction looked cool. What i found was a puzzle game with a mix of knowledge gates and item gates that took me by surprise. For me it hit every note i could ask for in a puzzle game: - IRLnote taking - Logical puzzles that never got too abstract. - Deep worldbuilding - Satisfying eureka moments that changed my understanding of what was going on - Cool character stories - A turn midway through that shines a new light on already explored areas Be warned that there is a lot of reading, but it all helps contextualize what is going on as well as your characters place in it. I loved it, but might not be everyones cup of tea. I sincerely hope this isnt the last i see of this wonderful world, i truly enjoyed every hour i spent immersing myself in this mythology and its mysteries and still i want to know more.

Fun puzzles that make you feel clever, tons of exploration and secrets, intriguing story - this game hit all the key points that I love about games. My biggest complaints with the game below were from the beginning and got better by the time I obtained the second ability. +Puzzles are great. They feel obscure and complex at first but simple and rational once you decipher what you're being asked to solve. +Journal entries are well written and I actually enjoyed the world-building and lore more than most puzzle games. I generally don't enjoy non-linear storytelling through journal entries but this was one of the more effective examples of this I've seen. +Amount of puzzles and playtime is more than worth the price -The game is very dark and feels too zoomed in. This sense of claustrophobia helps set the mood for the world but can turn people away from the game from the outset. Especially since the starting area of this game is a maze-like forest where it's easy to get lost and you're not given any direction or goals. -Particularly early on there are a couple items required for progression that are very easy to miss. I got lucky and noticed them after passing by each a few times but I can easily see never noticing them and getting frustrated from lack of direction. -This is subjective, but I found early journal entries to be boring as they focused too much on world-building before introducing the characters and storylines needed to care enough to read dozens of pages learning about the world. This was a problem as reading some of those journal entries carefully is required to solve puzzles or find items. Later on journal entries become more focused on reoccurring characters and a connecting story and I was more interested in going back and reading about the world.

I loved Once Glorious Artahk, it's my favorite game released in 2025 by a wide margin. It's a puzzle metroidvania with some metroidbrainia elements too. It does something interesting with combining puzzles and narrative, where each puzzle gives you a word that unlocks a chapter in a book. The key is that both the puzzles and the narrative chapters are very solid, it doesn't feel like you are getting shortchanged on either, and they also intertwine somewhat. It is worth doing as many puzzles and thus getting as many chapters as you can, both because the puzzles are genuinely fun and the chapters all reveal something interesting. Without spoilers, I should say that the game has an epic fantasy story that reminded me the most of Richard Adams' work (I think I spotted a reference too), and also Lois McMaster Bujold's Five Gods series to an extent, with some cosmic horror elements. It also has a wonderful antagonist. When it comes to gameplay, there is very little hand-holding. You get shown the controls and are set loose in a large maze-like forest. You need to take notes by hand and probably also screenshot stuff a lot (I did both). I absolutely had to draw a map of the initial area, and I also drew one other map, but some of the areas are quite easy to remember, so I didn't map everything. Taking notes in a game is my catnip, so if you enjoy that, you'll be delighted! If not, this game might not be for you? It is like Blue Prince without the randomness, and with a story that ultimately comes together and makes sense (sorry Blue Prince!). Or I could also compare it to Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, but with a very different setting and ambience. The same goes for Heaven's Vault. These should hopefully give you an idea what kind of game this is. The art is nice but not spectacular. I actually liked that it did not distract from my imagination when I was reading the chapters, this is truly a bookish game. I thought the music was surprisingly good! But I wished it had some more tracks, because near the end of my gameplay it started feeling repetitive. I completed the game in about 27 hours without looking anything up, and I didn't get desperately stuck at any point during those hours. I'm still trying to 100% it with looking up at least some hints of where to find some of the puzzles, because I did get desperately stuck after completing the game while trying to gather the last remaining chapters. (I'm at around 40 hours, but almost done, I think.) I played on a Steam Deck docked to the TV, with a PS4 controller, and this worked very well. There is no official layout, but I just bound every keyboard button to a controller button as they came up, and this worked without any problems. When you put in words, you'll need the onscreen keyboard, but this is minimal and can easily be done with the controller too. Accessibility-ish information: There are some optional late-game puzzles which I found a bit hard to see, but you can complete the game without them. There is one puzzle that requires sound (I think this one is also optional) and some others where sound can be a clue you're on the right path. There are some timing-based puzzles including one where I had a bit of trouble, but eventually managed. There is one enemy, who can be turned off from the settings menu. One thing I was missing is the option for a hi-res font for the text, as I was playing with one of my family members, who prefers that for accessibility reasons. I ended up reading the text out loud (yes, all of it), which is, let me just say, not equally fun in every game, but here it was great. This probably added a bit to my playtime, but I still think you easily have at least 20-25 hours of puzzling here to get to the ending, and at least 10 more hours to find everything. Is it a metroidbrainia?: There are some metroidbrainia elements, specifically mechanisms of the game world that you can figure out before you get to a puzzle that demonstrates them. (Some examples of this are [spoiler] how you can use different color fire and how you can travel on the light beams.[/spoiler]) I often sequence break in these types of games, largely accidentally by bumbling into a game mechanic, but here that didn't happen and I was like "....wow, I could've figured this out so much earlier". Which is awesome. BUT the bulk of the game unlocks are not knowledge-based but ability-based, as in a more traditional metroidvania. Still, this game should be a lot of fun for people who like metroidbrainia types of games. (REALLY, JUST GET IT) ____ Source of the game: Bought with my own money, with the launch discount because I'd seen it mentioned on the puzzlevideogames and metroidbrainia subreddits.

Just got the credits, very neat game! Very exploration focused, and impressive for a one person dev team. It does lean heavily on its writing, so you'll need to enjoy reading to get the most out of it, but the writing's interesting enough and does a good job building the world. You'll also most certainly want to take a lot of screenshots and write notes for yourself. The puzzles for the most part are about observing your environment, there's a little bit of block pushing involved but as you progress and unlock more of your verbs the things done with that are pretty interesting. The least interesting thing was probably the couple times the game made me do a lights out puzzle, but those were pretty low in number. Most of the puzzles are instead based around observing your environment and using the cues there to figure out a word to put into your book, which in turn fills in the games backstory. It's not without flaws, I found myself getting lost a lot in the first areas of the game because of a lack of distinct landmarks, and like a lot of puzzle games it does make you retread old ground a lot, which in turn makes it hard to remember what I had and hadn't already gone back to. On original release this was further exacerbated by there being a beast that rotates through the initial areas that will hunt you down if you're in the same area as it for long enough, thankfully the developer added in an option to turn it off partially through my playthrough, it was particularly annoying with my playstyle, since I'd look at my notes and figure out an area I wanted to do things in, occasionally having the game tell me I couldn't go there right now wasn't really what i was looking for. There was also one audio puzzle i was not able to solve without using some more advanced tools; i simply couldn't distinguish well enough between the notes by ear to put in the answer. Overall i'd recommend the game though! Had a really good time puzzling it out.