Game Review: ‘Spring Tales’ Is Short And Sparse on Content
The town of Blossomdale needs your help to pull the community back together and restore the beauty of this community. Spring Tales is a short and relaxing narrative game that’s filled with intertwining puzzles, developed and published by RAF Games.
While these puzzles themselves are not challenging, they play a vital part in stringing the narrative-heavy parts together. You’ll get to take part in the daily activities of five individuals that reside in the small town of Blossomdale.
I’ve always been a fan of casual games with a strong focus on storytelling, but the stories told in this game left me wanting more. There is a lot of good stuff here, and I have a feeling that the developers wanted to do more, but the puzzle gameplay feels only half-baked. Spring Tales is now available to play exclusively on PC and can be purchased through its Steam store page. There will be plenty of spoilers in this review, so be mindful of this as you continue to read.
The story of Spring Tales
In Spring Tales, it is up to the whole community of Blossomdale to restore and rebuild itself after being hit by a large storm. The storm caused damage to the town that now requires you to pick up the pieces to help with restoring the community. After fixing electrical wiring and unclogging drains, you’ll then be tasked with helping reinforce the personal bonds of some of the families of Blossomdale.
It is bonds like these that not only make the individuals in this town feel better, but they also enrich our own lives. This is the interpretation I took from playing through this game. Much like our own personal stories, Spring Tales shows that compassion and empathy are the best ways to connect with the important people in our lives.
After a brief prelude that involves doing some small maintenance around Main Street, you’ll be introduced to the first chapter of the game, where you take on the role of Nadine. In Nadine’s story, you’ll follow her along as she starts her day in the local bakery. You’ll end up tidying up, preparing baked goods, and serving customers as the day rolls on.
This pattern of doing seemingly mundane tasks serves the connected story well enough, but I couldn’t help shake the feeling that something is missing. As I made my way through each chapter of the story, I would end up finding a good groove of connectivity with the protagonists, and then everything would abruptly end. The conclusion to each chapter, except for the last, left me unsatisfied and wanting more, but it’s just not there.
The dissatisfaction is most notable in the second chapter that follows the day of the character Ren. In Ren’s story, it starts off very much like Nadine’s: you’ll need to wake him up and handle preparing for his morning routine. Ren will then go about his day working in the town’s library for Blossomdale, and this is where the game takes a weird turn.
Ren’s story is so disjointed from the rest of the game that it’s baffling that the developer made the decision of including a cursed book where you must defeat a demon. Once the evil has been trapped back in this demonic book, this plot point is never hinted at or mentioned again. This is part of the reason I mentioned earlier that I was dissatisfied with most of the chapters. The game would have been better if this entire plot point was continued in some fashion or be cut entirely.
Disappointing gameplay
I would best describe the actual puzzles and the accompanying gameplay of Spring Tales as brief. There is a lack of complexity to the puzzles; they sometimes left me a bit confused. Out of all the chapters, the only puzzle that I encountered any sort of challenge with was in Chapter 5. Up to this point, the puzzles are easy and short-lived.
I’m not sure what the intended audience for the game is. Overall, the puzzles are relaxing by having no time pressure or punishments for messing something up; you’ll simply be given an unlimited number of tries to get them right.
I really wanted to enjoy the puzzles in this game because when I played the demo a few months ago, I was excited. I had hoped that Spring Tales would have some sort of difficulty progression, but aside from the one exciting puzzle I encountered towards the end of the final chapter, I am not impressed. Most of the puzzles involve clicking on objects with no other part or holding down the mouse button for a period of time.
It feels like the developers came up with good ideas for puzzles, but implemented them poorly. I understand that this is a casual game, but I have played other games that can be best described as casual games with more complex puzzles than these.
Final thoughts on Spring Tales
I know that the development team did the best they were able to and put out a game they were proud of, but in the current state, I’m unable to recommend this game. I did not want to spend just under two hours playing this game and having just five quick chapters. I may appreciate this game more if the curve of difficulty ramped itself up; start simple and gradually require more thought for subsequent puzzles.
Even though the chapters end too soon and the story is incredibly short, I can say that the ending of the game was well done. I just wish they put more effort into the rest of the game.
My rating for this game is: 2/5
I really wish I could give this game a higher score than a two out of five. I enjoyed the parts of the story during my time with Spring Tales, but I was able to 100% the game in 110 minutes, and that involved replaying the final chapter twice. The puzzles have interesting concepts, but the development team at RAF Games squandered these good ideas and just fell short of making them more engaging.
I appreciate what the development team was trying to do with Spring Tales, but the gameplay could have been so much more than what’s here in the final product. With all that being said, if you’re looking for something that can be completed in a short span and isn’t too expensive, you should definitely check out the demo, but as of right now, I cannot in good faith recommend this game.
You can purchase Spring Tales for PC on Steam.
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