Review – The Magical Tale by Enigma Fellowship
Website Link – https://www.enigmafellowship.com/the-magical-tale
Price – $65
Disclaimer: we purchased the game with our own money, this review is not sponsored. All thoughts are our own.
The Product:
The Magical Tale by Enigma Fellowship is a family-friendly, narrative-driven puzzle adventure contained in one handy-dandy story book. As players read through the story of Theo the dragon and his quest to find his missing tail, they will help him solve puzzles in order to advance on his journey. Each puzzle is tied into the events of the story and will have Theo interacting with other characters he meets along his tail-saving mission.
In total, there are eight puzzles to solve during the course of the story. Each puzzle and its components are contained in a small envelope at the end of every chapter. Once players believe they have solved a puzzle they can check their answer using the spell book found on the inside front cover of the book.
There is a hint system built into each puzzle envelope in case help is needed. This means everything a player should require is found within the book. However, if someone does need further assistance, there are more detailed hints that can be accessed through a QR code system.
Baron Theodore von Puffington the Third kindly requests your help in securing his tail and making him a whole dragon again. Do you have what it takes to make your way through The Magical Tale?
Our thoughts:
While we appreciate the many creepy, spooky, and thematically dark puzzling experiences that can be found in the world, we enjoyed playing through an adventure that we found quite cute and charming instead. The book is well-crafted and the illustrations are a pleasure all by themselves. When it comes to presentation, The Magical Tale fully delivers. The story feels like it could have stood on its own as a fully realized children’s book.
The magical setting and plot provide a strong narrative push for each puzzle and help subtly set up required puzzling elements. The puzzles found in The Magical Tale were diverse while still managing to use mostly paper components. Each puzzle brought something new and never felt like a simple repeat of what had come before it. Not every puzzle is super challenging, but the book as a whole won’t be a forgettable cake walk. This is a family-friendly tale and the puzzle difficulty reflects the intended audience without feeling too light. We could definitely see ourselves playing through and helping guide a younger player through Theo’s adventure.
The fact that The Magical Tale commits to being an all-in-one offline adventure is also a big plus to the overall concept. Sticking to the world of the storybook instead of taking our adventure online helped keep us immersed within the tale being told. This would also be a huge plus if we were using this as a family activity and we wanted to limit the use of devices for a while.
Overall, we truly enjoyed The Magical Tale and would highly recommend it, especially for puzzle-solvers with children or younger family members, those who love fairy tales, or anyone looking for a slightly easier puzzling experience.
We also liked that each chapter creates an easy pause point. So, whether you want to complete the book in one sitting or break your journey into smaller sessions, you’ll find it easy to do.
Official C&C Rating:
Narrative – 5/5 Stars
Puzzles – 3/5 Stars
Overall Fun – 4/5 Stars
Final Average Rating: 4/5 Stars
Bonus Mini-Review
As a Valentine’s Day gift, Confetti bought Chaos Enigma Fellowship’s Valentine’s Day cards. Along with a cute cover message and a blank inside for givers to write their own heartfelt messages, these cards come with back cover puzzles. Enigma Fellowship offers two different cards that come with chocolate, but don’t worry, you can add the second card onto any card-and-chocolate combo.
Upon seeing the puzzle cards, Chaos was excited to solve them both right away. The first card was cracked very quickly. The second took a little (okay, a lot) more trial and error before finally being solved.
If you’re looking for a way to incorporate puzzle solving into your romantic celebrations, it’s hard to go wrong with Enigma Fellowship’s Valentine’s cards. Even if your loved one doesn’t solve the puzzle, they still get a cute card.
Chaos & Confetti 