Paper Trail: Come for the Story, Stay for the Charming Art Puzzles

 Note: I received a game code for the Nintendo Switch for my honest opinion and review of the game. Thank you so much to Newfangled Games for the game code!

I was intrigued by Paper Trail the minute I started seeing the trailer for it and some of the art. It did not look like anything I had seen before and the fact that it was a puzzle game hooked me in. I'm not the best at puzzles, but I love them and I wanted to see what Paper Trail was all about. The story introduces us to Paige who is ready to leave home and go to university, but her parents don't want her to go. Paige decides the only thing to do is run away from home and fulfill her dream.

Paige and her parents. 

This is where we're introduced to Paige's interesting powers. The mechanics in the game are top down puzzles. Paige is able to fold the world like origami and create new paths like making a path to a lighthouse and repairing its tower. It's such a unique way to do puzzles in a game. It starts out simple at first to ease you in, which I appreciated and then gets gradually more challenging adding new elements to the mix like movable statues. 

Folding the world to fix a lighthouse.

I will say that I liked that I could adjust the accessibility settings. Sometimes, it was hard for me to see where to fold places on the map. I went into the settings and there was a feature called show grid. This broke the map up into a grid that I could see and it made things a lot easier for me figuring out what to fold and where. It did not distract from the relaxing lo-fi music or the charming art style of the game. No two maps are alike and I found myself delighted by each one. My personal favorite was the swamp with all the cute frogs because I love frogs. Each area looked like a lovely painting and I found myself taking time to stop and admire each little detail.

Look at the cute little frogs!

It's not to say that I didn't get frustrated with some puzzles, but that was a me issue because I didn't always see the patterns. I have Dyscalculia which makes it harder for me to see patterns with spatial things like this as well as struggling to see patterns in math. It's not that I can't get it, it's just that my brain takes a little longer to get there. Honestly, I feel this is where Paper Trail really shines for someone like myself. There's no hurry and no timer to solve the puzzles. The game gives you that freedom to take your time, to try different things, different folds, to see what works and what doesn't. So even though it got a tiny bit frustrating in places I would tell myself, okay let's take a moment and try again. The fact that Paper Trail is so relaxed it allows you to do that is really wonderful. 

This puzzle was a doozy for me.

Some of the story cutscenes have folding puzzles in them too. They're a little simpler and as you fold in the right places, you get more of the cutscene images. Sometimes I would be absolutely bamboozled by a puzzle because I could just not figure out how I was supposed to do it like a puzzle with a lot of lights and statues. This is where the hint feature comes in. I love that they thought about this and incorporated it into the game so that everyone can continue enjoying Paige's journey. It's called the slider and it will take you step by step through the puzzle showing where and how you fold the map. This is such a nice thing to have and when I got stuck on a couple of puzzles, that slider helped immensely. 

Thank you slider for all the puzzle hints! 

As I continued the journey with Paige, I loved learning more about her and what was driving her towards her goal. There were some parts of the story that made me sad for her, but it made me understand her much better. Paige wasn't running away, she was running towards something important that she felt would help her achieve her dreams and things she wanted to do. Speaking as a parent I do understand that fear of letting go, but eventually children grow up and they have to live their own lives and we have to let them. I do love the gentle way Paper Trail shows this with Paige's journey and by the end of the story I was happy for her and her family. The game itself isn't very long, I finished it in eight hours. I think that's the perfect length for it and I loved everything about it. The story is well done, the puzzles are interesting, and I love the charming art style. If you enjoy puzzle games, you will enjoy Paper Trail. It was such a joy for me to play and I'm so glad I got to experience it. Thank you, Newfangled games for this beautiful game! 

A vibrant Autumn landscape.

*Paper Trail is available to play on the following platforms: Steam, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Playstation 4, Playstation 5, Netflix Games

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