Ghost of a Tale Preview

I didn’t have time to post this when it was originally published, but RPGWatch has produced a preview of Ghost of a Tale based on some hands-on time spent with a demo of the mouse-y RPG-ish adventure at GamesCom. Here’s a snippet:

The point of the demo is to escape the prison, but as you are a tiny mouse your fighting skills aren’t worth much, especially not against rats that are three times your size, so you will have to use your intelligence to defeat the rats in another way. The game has 3 ways of moving forward; normal, sneaking and running. If you approach a rat that is sleeping, you can get past it by sneaking. When you approach the rat, a small diamond shaped figure is displayed that serves as a detection indicator. When it is completely filled with a red color the rat will wake up and see you. By sneaking and halting (to lower the detection level in the diamond) repeatedly, you can pass the rat without it noticing you. This specific rat also holds a key you need to unlock a door further down the corridor you are in, which makes it a bit trickier to not wake the rat.

Once that has been accomplished a next rat awaits that is wide awake. You can pass this specific rat by running past him at the right moment, going through a door and hide in a cupboard. The rat will enter the room and search for you, but will not find you and leave. There are other objects you can hide in as well, like a basket or a trunk you can jump into, but you can also disguise yourself to pass unnoticed in some occasions.

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The game has no combat mode in which you can fight with your opponents. It is a non-violent game and you will need to find other ways than fighting to defeat your opponents. Next to sneaking, running or hiding, you could for example also drop things on them. Not only do you need to use your skills to pass the rats, but you will need it as well to solve other problems. You are after all only a small mouse and many things aren’t that easy for you. Like a key that is out of your reach, but can be obtained by dragging a stool from another room to climb on, thus shortening the distance to the key.