The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 Review for Nintendo Switch

Falling Up

              Recall the last dream you had about falling through the sky. Recall the pain of the wind stinging your face. Recall the visuals of the clouds leaving your side and the ground coming to greet you. Recall the feelings, be it a fleeting sense of fear and panic or a silent but welcoming sense of peace. Recall all these sensations and throw them out the window. Because the start of The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 by developer King Art Games and publisher Nordic Games feels nothing like that. You dive into the quite literal storybook introduction, where one of the protagonists, Nate, is narrating the fairy tale ending he didn’t quite get as he too falls through the blue of the sky.

Beauty and Grace

              One of the first things you notice about The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 is the sheer beauty of the game. The aesthetic and art style of the world is gorgeous at minimum, and the developers spared no expense when it came to providing depth and detail to this beauty. Every flower and leaf and piece of wood harbors incredible detail, making you want to slow everything down just to take in the environment and surroundings. The character designs and models also leave nothing to be begged for, even having impressive lip synchronization regardless of location on the map. The soundtrack upholds this atmosphere of a world of fantasy, magic, and wonder. That coupled with engaging and dynamic voice acting, the game creates a sense of adventure. Or at least it should.

Charmed to Meet You

              What you see in The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 is a concoction of a wonderful art style, lovely music, committed voice acting, and a beautiful score that mix into the creation of a fantasy world. The thing that sets this game apart, however, is the characters and the story. This game comes at you in a tongue-in-cheek manner that I have yet to encounter in another game. The humor of the plot of the story and the banter of the characters had me rolling my eyes and laughing audibly. Never could one predict the direction this game decides to take with its characters and story. This is, however, the games strongest point and the distinguishing factor in a genre absolutely saturated with copies of the same game. And that is the charm of the game. The protagonists feel real and have depth to their plotlines and are not one dimensional.

A Book of Unwritten Hinderances

              For the game’s beauty and its lovable story and characters, it does carry some flaws. The gameplay itself is interesting, being a point-and-click puzzle game. The player controls the protagonist and can move them around the level to interact with different objects to complete certain goals. While the instructions are straightforward, the levels themselves provide a satisfying level of difficulty that require quite a bit of thinking and trial and error to make it through. However, because of the joystick on the Nintendo Switch, actually controlling the character or switching objects to interact with can prove difficult and you end up spinning in circles a few times. In addition to that frustration, the game offers dialogue choices that can be repetitive and confusing to maneuver.

A Lot of Smiles

              Despite the game’s slight difficulty with controls and selection management, it is nearly impossible to blame. The visuals of the game coupled with the living and breathing characters and amusing humor makes you want to keep playing it through. This book of tales is memorable, to say the least.

8.7/10

Check Out The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 Trailer:

The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 is available for Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4.