Nanotale – Typing Chronicles, by developer/publisher Fishing Cactus, is so much more than a game about typing. I was given this game to try out and review, and I was expecting some small-scale adventure game with random typing challenges scattered throughout. I was amazed at just how wrong I was.
In the world of Nanotale – Typing Chronicles, you play as Rosalind, an archivist-in-training whose goal is to explore and learn about the plants, animals, and history of the world around you. This is where the typing aspect of the game comes in- to learn about and document your discoveries, you must type in key phrases corresponding to each item.
This is also the primary method of interacting with the world to cast spells, talk with other characters, or fight off enemies. This makes for some very unique and exciting gameplay, as you can combine multiple words to cast different types of spells and change the world around you.
The movement controls for the character are, by default, a little confusing (ESDF instead of the typical WASD to move), but they can easily be changed to fit your preference. The movement itself I found to be a little jerky at first, but I got used to it over time and it wasn’t a big issue.
In place of a sprinting ability, you can summon a magical spirit fox to ride around on and aid you in your quests.
Within the game, the world itself is beautiful; the art style fits very well with the adventuring theme of the game, the terrain is interesting and fun to explore, and the world is populated with many different kinds of plants, giving it a very natural feel. In addition, there are characters scattered throughout the world, each with a unique and interesting design that fits the environment.
As you travel deeper into the woods, the atmosphere changes around you, becoming darker and more mysterious. This is due to the corruption of “dissonant magic,” an evil force which you must fight using your own powers of “true magic.”
This gives Nanotale – Typing Chronicles a very simple overarching theme of good versus evil, but within this theme, there are many quests and side-quests to complete, making it continually engaging as there’s always more to do. I was personally planning on spending a few hours playing this game in order to review it, but I was having so much fun, I ended up playing for almost nine hours over the span of a few days… Nanotale is, suffice to say, addicting.
While there are many amazing aspects of this game, there were also a few problems I had with it. My main issues had to do with glitches: there were several times where my character got stuck, for example, and I had to exit and re-open the game to fix it. I also managed to glitch through the floor at one point, which made for an exciting adventure until I suffocated and died in the void below the map. I also got stuck in a dialogue with one of the characters: I kept trying to type “bye,” as it was telling me to, to leave the dialogue, but nothing was happening when I did so. All of these glitches were fairly minor in the grand scheme of things, but still worth noting. Nanotale – Typing Chronicles does have a helpful “respawn” option if your character gets stuck- however, it can be a bit of a hassle to have to restart from your last checkpoint and redo all your progress.
I can honestly say that I enjoyed playing Nanotale – Typing Chronicles much more than I expected to. I’d give it a rating of 9/10 overall, simply because of the glitches I encountered. The beautiful design of the game combined with its ingenious method of interactions made for an amazing experience; I’d highly recommend Nanotale – Typing Chronicles to anyone who likes a good adventure.
Check Out the Nanotale – Typing Chronicles Trailer:
Nanotale – Typing Chronicles is available for $19.99 for PC via Steam.
Steam Review
I'm a student of game design at Michigan State University, and I enjoy playing all types of video games, from competitive multiplayer games to simple solo games. Some of my favorite games have been Minecraft and Among Us.
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