Puzzles For Clef

I really thought I would enjoy this more based on the store page and opening chapters, but it has some significant problems that really become obvious around chapter 3. First, despite the charm of the game's artwork and music, the gameplay is just tedious: the player character moves and acts rather slowly, the environments can be quite large (and lack maps), and many puzzles and quests require backtracking. Second, the puzzles are not particularly good or consistent in difficulty. I enjoyed some of them (e.g. the weasel puzzle in the castle), but many really just come down to busywork instead of thinking (e.g. almost the entirety of chapters 3 to 6, of 9). Among those that do require thought, some are unclear about their rules and goal. Third, the music mechanic, despite being presented as the central one, is barely used and poorly integrated into the puzzles and story. Finally, the game is incomplete. Although it still has a story with a conclusion, there is content (including story content) that was never fully implemented and achievements that, accordingly, cannot be obtained legitimately. I went out of my way to gather collectibles that ended up serving no purpose. Since th…

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2 years since the realese date, Puzzles For Clef has earned a whooping 100 reivews. Whoever designed the puzzles ruined this game.

MASSIVE caveat: I'm reviewing it having given up halfway through because this is a great game for someone who is not me and I'm just frustrated with it at this point. Here's the thing: if you're into puzzles that are puzzles for their own sake--like a sudoku book--then this is great. And it is great in gameplay--the music gets grating after several loops but fortunately changes with each scene. The art is beautiful. But I'm going to strangle the sister character and, behind her, the devs here at about the halfway point because the puzzles are the entire point. Yes, there's a story--lightly--but this is more about puzzles on top of puzzles. So if that's your jam, awesome! Go for it! This is great for that! If you want puzzles *in service to a narrative arc* and notable achievements, like me, then maybe not this one. When the maze changed on me for the third time, I walked away from this to do some other stuff; given that I haven't returned to it in months, it doesn't seem like finishing it is all that important to me, so I'm releasing Clef and her sister to figure it out themselves.

Do not recommend for steamdeck. steam says it is playable but the game is hard locked in level 5 due to movement speed being significantly slower than other platforms. there are at least 2 discussions on steam about this issue. one from Nov 2024 where the developer says they are looking into the issue with no success but will update when able. no update has been provided since then. i did really enjoy the puzzles until chapter 5. following the light beams was also frustrating due to slow character movement. before that, the puzzles were fun (exactly what i wanted) and the graphics were great. last negative is there is no way to see how many of the collectables you have.

https://youtu.be/I3aqcrKAPj8 Large amounts of space to traverse between puzzles is a net negative as it makes the game much more a platformer than deliver on the promise of puzzles.