October 31, 2023 - Day 304 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 323

Game: TSIOQUE

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Nov 8, 2018
Installation Date: Oct 21, 2023
Unplayed: 10d
Playtime: 17m

TSIOQUE is a 2.5D hand drawn point and click adventure.

You play as young princess Tsioque, who has been left behind in the castle by her mother, the Queen, who has ridden off to fight an existential threat to her kingdom (queendom?)

While the Queen is away, the wizard will play. He's evil, takes over the castle, imprisons the princess, she has to escape, yada yada yada.

There are point-and-click adventures where the puzzles are creative brainteasers, and obvious in hindsight.

There are others where you just randomly click on crap until something happens.

Given the complete lack of tutorial, and the single-pocket inventory, IF you actually have one item, it may not be entirely obvious how to use it.

By "may not be", it's actually "good luck working out the UI!"

A later puzzle presented me with an "invisibility blanket". Often a point-and-click will say "you can't use that now" when you try to use something at the wrong time.

TSIOQUE doesn't. Nothing happens. There's no feedback whatsoever.

Turns out that on the next screen, you need to use it to evade some enemies. How? No idea. I tried to run back to the previous room and use the blanket?

Nope.

Click in the wrong place, the item is returned to the pocket.

Turns out that when you can use it, you kind of drag it towards Tsioque and *it's removed from the pocket*, and she can use it.

How do you put it away afterwards?

You can't.

Tsioque finds herself standing in the dark. Clicking does nothing. The invisibility blanket is back in the pocket. She's also wearing it, and it cannot be removed.

Take one step forward, she trips, the guards throw the lights on, the wind blows the blanket away and she gets captured.

Over and over.

I gave up in frustration - I'm ten minutes into the game at this point, with a further five minutes of being stuck on this "puzzle", and search for a walkthrough.

Turns out that above the light switch is a spider. I'd seen the spider in previous scenes, but there was nothing you could do with him.

However, NOW he's clickable (not that there's anything to indicate this); his relative size is that of a tap-target on a full-screen mobile ad, and clicking on him will turn the lights off, and all the guards plummet to their death.

Obviously.

Unlike last night with Tales of the Neon Sea's artwork to draw me in, TSIOQUE doesn't even offer that. Do I want to keep playing?:

1: Nope

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