Emerald Echoes: Innovating on the puzzle-tale - TCbH Review

0:00 Over the last several years, I've been able to cover each major release by Post Curious since their foundation. Starting with The Tale of Ord, which blew my mind in how far the escape room in a box genre could go to the recent co-production of the Jigsaw oriented Pandora's legacy with Ted Ed. And to be upfront, founder Rita Orlov and I have gotten to be buddies who try to hang out at conventions. So, make that what you will as we continue to cover her games. Which brings me to today with Emerald Echoes, a direct sequel to their sophomore release of The Emerald Flame, an exploration of centuries old alchemy, romance, and gender in Eastern Europe via Rad as hell puzzles. But before we dive in, you should know that even though we're going to try to remain mostly spoiler-free in this video, our B-roll is going to have some locked content, maybe some hints, and some various sleuththery going on because, you know, we got to show something. If you want to go in completely blind, I can assure you that Emerald Echoes manages to hit the narrative heights of something like The Light in the Mist while being the more bombastic big box sort of puzzle tale experience that Post Curious has really become known for. So, you should be okay to make that commitment if that's your thing. We good? All right, let let's get

1:31 to the game. Emerald Echo is in many ways a bold departure from the publishers's prior work. From the get-go, you'll open the box and notice sequential chunky envelopes representing chapters, each then divided further in a linear progression along with associated weird cryptic materials that chapter is going to rely on. You and fellow players are the eyes and hands of two colleagues investigating what happened to the women central to the Emerald Flame, where each envelope has letters from the older timeline, then a sleeved and progressively revealed text chain between our investigators acting both as a hint system/solution confirmation and an accompanying narrative with its own quirky and ultimately very effective subplots while remaining consistent in the quality of puzzles and writing.

2:22 The narrative framework inherently changes the experience in several key ways, most of them for the better, though it doesn't come without a certain cost. As we progressed deeper in Emerald Echoes, we felt a companionship with our investigators who became as vivid as the ancient protagonists to us, accompanying our adventure, confirming our suspicions, and admitting the same struggles as we went along, which changed our approach to the game. No longer were hints now some sort of admission of failure, but actually an accepted and inherently necessary part of the experience. And it became completely natural to just figure out the next steps in the puzzle and then nudge up the text chain to see if you were on the right track and follow it along to its conclusion. which in spite of now having played many of these, we aren't puzzle masters and healthy helpings of clues are necessary for us to be able to conquer any of these narrative mystery boxes. And here it felt most naturally baked into the system, geniusly serving to enhance the storytelling and also serve to untether this from the need to have any sort of digital platform. Everything you need to solve this is in the box aside from like a pencil or something. So, if the puzzles are good, the narrative crisp, and the framework is innovative, what's the problem? Well, no real problem, just

3:52 a trade-off. I'm going out on a limb and saying that of the bigger box stories from Post Curious, this is my favorite to date, though I am and always will be a light in the mist stand. But Emerald Echoes is by far the most linear of the publishers work. You open the box, you get to your chapter, you get to the next envelope, you solve the current puzzle and follow along in sequence. There's no real sense of free form exploration or working in parallel. In some ways, this may be better for couples or solo players or those wanting a handhold, but the former sense of overwhelming, disorienting wonder as you open a box and then divide and conquer sort of tactics are stripped away. Also, because the top layer narrative between the two investigators that you're essentially playing as is as much a part of this as the bottom layer mystery of the past, this has much more of a third person than first person feel. The investigators are talking to one another and you're solving the puzzles along rather than them contacting you and you're a participant in the narrative.

4:56 This ends up making for better storytelling, though perhaps less immersion and certainly a less challenging of a structure. I don't mean the puzzles are any less intricate or difficult. I continue to be surprised by the new ways these confound me. But to see the story through and check your answer before moving on to the next envelope, you'll be progressing through the hints whether you needed them or not. Overall, Emerald Echoes is another strong entry by Orlov and co-designer Chelsea Stark with gorgeous illustrations, somber storylines, and some really wild puzzles, including a great showstopper finale that felt on par with the climactic moments of the OG Tale of Ord. This is a fabulous evolution of the puzzle tail formula and in spite of it being a direct sequel to a pre-existing game is really a fantastic entry point if you have always wanted to get into this sort of thing.

5:52 That said, as much as I enjoyed it, I'd be remiss if the more open-ended free form sort of sandboxy puzzle tales were to cease in favor of this more linear path. But it seems like Post Curious, if nothing else, is always willing to innovate and explore. And that's our review. But let me know, have you played the original Emerald Flame? Are you looking forward to the sequel? And how do you feel about the difference between a more open-ended puzzle tail or one that is more linear in fashion? Put it in the comments. And as always, thanks for watching, thanks for supporting, thanks for being a great community. You know that I've been Jack for the Guardboard Herald.