The Darkest Tales is a game i came across multiple times and i always had the thought of trying the game out. Unfortunately the game was never high
on my list and thus i never purchased it to play it. Recently i found the game on sale and thus i decided to give it a go. It was the right time to do so.
The Darkest Tales was developed by Trinity team a small indie studio based in Italy. The studio was formed in 2015 and since then they release only
three games. Their debut title,Slaps and beans, in 2022 Darkest Tales came out and as recent as 2023 their latest game Slaps and beans 2 was released.
Most of their games are mixed reviews with most of them directed towards the positive side.
The game was published by 101XP LTD, a company which supports indie developers. Their goal is to publish various games including their own into multiple
platforms, from Android devices, to home consoles all the way to the screens of people's computers. The Darkest Tales was released in October 2022 to steam,
Playstation 4, Xbox One and the Nintendo Switch.
There are no physiscal copies of the Darkest Tales
In 2025, the games feedback is mixed. Some consider the game a hidden gem, others consider it a great metroidvania titles whilst others things it had so much potential
to live up to, however it failed to reach their expectations. As mentioned, the feedback is mixed.
I came to the game with an empty mind as this was a game i wanted to try for quite some time.
Did i like it?
Did i not?
Would i Recommend it, or not?
Story of the Game
Darkest Tales tells the a unique story of a teddy bear called Teddy who embarks on an adventure to save his little girl. One day, Alicia (Teddy's owner) falls asleep and she is yet to wake up since then. A small light was flickering, this was the same light that protected Alicia every night. Its the light a parent
usually leaves on so that their young child wont be scared. However, this night was like any other, it was flickering non stop and even used its magical energy to move around the bedroom. The Light became aware that Alicia was trapped in her dreams and that she would never wake up. Panicked and wanting to help the
Light open Alicias toy chest and awakens a teddy bear. The Light explains to the bear that Dream demons trapped Alicia and that he should help her rescue her as she is getting sicker the more she is trapped. At first Teddy didnt want to help her because even though Alicia used to see him as her bravest warrior, with
time ,she simply placed him in box and presumably forgotten all about him. The Light explains the situation and tried to change Teddys mind. Eventually she got under Teddy's stuffing and agrees to help her just so he could shut her up. The Light used her magic and Teddy walks through the mirror to Enter the world of Dreams.
Inside the mirror Teddy becomes aware of the nightmares surrounding the area. However, he feels helpless as any of these nightmares can tear him up and thus he results into running away from danger. When the hero was near death, none other than the Red riding hood was there to help him. She took down the wolf and
told him to find a weapon. On his way, Teddy comes across an old pair of scissors. The Light/fairy that escorts Teddy uses her Magic and turns the scissors into weapons, more specifically into two blades. Armed with his new weapon Teddy is ready to go head on againts all the nightmares. His adventure though is not as
straight forward as the heroes would ve loved it to be. Important fairytale heroes such as the Red riding hood, Sleeping Beuty, Peter Pan, Little Marmaid and others seem to be an obstacle on Teddys quest. All the heroes seem to know Teddy somehow and although they seem friendly at first, they solve their differences
in the battlefield. Each time Teddy takes one down, a weird cat appears speaking in riddles and drainning the energy of the bear leading him to believe that the "cat demon " as he referes to her is his final enemy. Someting that the cat never confirms and never denies. Nevertheless, Teddy and Light make their way through many fairytale
inspired locations trying to save Alicia.
Thoughts on the story
The story for me was by far the reason why i kept playing the game and i was invested into the narrative from the beginning all the way to the end. It's ot often that i get to witness games or stories in general where the
beloved heroes from the Once upon a time Stories re being used in a twisted way and with a good narrative. Usually these characters are used for a quick horror type of story or a chasing horror game. Instead the Darkest Tales
includes these characters as the guardians of Alicia's dream world who seemed to be twisted because of the image thr girl hsd msde out for them. Teddy and Ligty were also used perfectly as every little kid always sleeps with a teddy bear
and want to have a small light turned on to keep them comfort during night. Them beeing the hero duo was an excellent choice to protect a girl. The mysterious cat who kept appearing after every single major encounter help kept the mystery going.
Honestly i didnt even see the plot twist coming when it did. As mentioned, the plot was interesting and what kept me involved with the game.
Spoilers on The games Ending
What the game sets up from the Red Riding Hood encounter is that the cat will be the final enemy our heroes will have to go up againts. Turns out, all the main enemies(Red Riding Hood, Pinnochi, Sleeping Beauty, Peter Pan, Snowwhite, Mirror Mirror etc)
were also guardians who went againts nightmares with Teddy, however, the bear seemed to have forgotten most of it. Before encountering the bear they all tried to remind him but he was too stubborn to hear and just attacked. The Cat, which always absorbed his
energy was stealling it in order to revive these fallen one upon a time heroes that fell to the blade of Teddy. This also explains why there were no bodies found after each encounter. In fact the enemy was Lighty all alone, since she is the onlyone who the kids
will eventually switch off. Teddy bears usually stay close to the bed(whether we sleep with them or not), we still know and love the stories of the once upon a time heroes but we do eventually turn the light once we grow up. Thus Light poisonned the mind of Teddy
and made the whole story up in order to steal his energy and become a god. When Teddy becomes aware of all of this he reawakens the beast with the help of the guardians and rushes to stop the "new God".
Gameplay
The game is an Action adventure 2D platformer with Metroidvania elements. The hero gets control of Teddy, a stuff plushy bear who with the help of Lighty a light fairy goes to the world of dreams in order to save
his little girl Alicia. The Teddy bear represents Alicia's most powerful knight, however, he seemed to have forgotten that and thus his powers at the start are a bit lack luster. All he can do is run around and jump in order
to stay alive. Eventually Teddy and Light come across an old pair of scissors which with the help of Light turn into a paid of double blades. The hero can use those blades to attack people/nightmare demons. There are no combo
combinations, its always the same combo from start to finish. Soon after he gets the scissors the hero discovers another new ability, heal. Lighty can help Teddy by knitting his wounds away. On the left top side, a half
pair of scissors is spotted depicting the life of the hero. Each time Teddy gets hit by a player or the environment, a shiny part of the scissor is being wasted away. When all of them are gone, Teddy and the player dies and
respawn to the last check point. Inside the gap of the scissors, theres a white blue energy depicting the availability to heal.
The more the hero proceed with the story the more powerful the hero gets. Even though the hero uses his blade to attack he also needs to dodge away from upcomming attacks. The dash can be used to move away from upcomming hits
and can also use the dash to reach distant points that a normal jump couldnt reach. For flying enemies, the hero will have to jump and attack or reach the part where long range weapons become available. Long range weapons such as
a bow, a shuriken or a shotgun. The long range weapon act differently so its up to the player to choose which 1 to equip. The bow is used to aim and shoot a quick streak of arros, the shuriken is thrown and acts a shuriken which leaves Teddy
defensless until the shuriken comes back and the shotgun is a powerfull weapon which shoots spread bullets forming a triangular air of Attack. Long range weapons are powerful as they deal with enemies capable of flying away from Teddy. Additionally
range weapons are good at solving puzzles that have triggers and levers.
In order to deal with enemies much stronger who have armor, the player has to use the heavy weapons such as the Axe and great Sword. This weapons are slower than the double blades however their damage are much greater. Holding down the
heavy attack button can deal great damage and even break the armor off the heavily guarded enemies. Additionally the heavy weapons can be used to break away areas located near the heroes. Another weapon used for close range is the Spear which
on the land acts similar to the twin blades, however underwater the player can use it as a long range weapon as well. Last but not least the player can gather energy in order to create a barrier or have a critical on the next hit. Holding
down the attack button for both heavy and light weapon, a powerfull AoE will be caused. By killing enemies, Teddy automatically absorbs their essence. Around the circle that represents the healling area theres another orange aura. When the orange
aura does a full circle the player levels up. The player can access a skill tree through a mirror which re found around the level and act as checkpoints. Through the skill tree the players can upgrade the power and the speed for all the weapons
and passives.
It goes without saying but daash is not the only attack, the hero will gain. The player can use a hook on areas highlighted with blue/purple. The player simply has to tap a button and they can start swinging arround. They can mellee enemies
whilst on the robe to protect themselves. Using dash can help them move away to other near vines as a quick step during levels with vines. A handy ability that can be used everywhere is wall bounce. Eventually Teddy will be able to stab the
surfaces around him in order to reach greater heights. Double jump becomes available relatively early which allows the bear to reach greater heights and to reach areas with presice platforming and by using every mobility option available to the player.
Swimming and flying also become available throughout the story. Swimming can be used everywhere but the same cannot be told about flying. In order to hover through the skies, the area must have multiple tiny stars. When jumping into the stars zone, Teddy
will trigger fllight and the player can go everywhere amongs the clouds/area. Exiting the stars will cause the hero to drop to the land. Trying to swim will when the ability is locked will cause damage and dropping from high place will not cause any
fall damage.
Throughout the levels treasures can be found. These trasures are powerups which makes the hero's abilities even more frighfull. They act exactly as the charm system from Hollow Knight. The player has slots availble
that expand the more the player levels up. These charms can be found around the area, however some of them require platforming skills to obtain them. These charms can make the projectiles create an explosion upon impact. Charms can also have an impact
on mobility skills like increasing the range of the dash or even cause it to deal damage when used. Others can make the hero gain faster EXP and in general they help improve both main skills and the passive ones.
Thoughts on the Gameplay
Personally, the gameplay of the darkest tales had me conflicted. There were plenty of things i enjoyed but they also felt like some polishing was needed. The game directors had the excellent idea of enchancing the experience by simply giving the players new abilities
and weapons relatively often keeping the gameplay fresh through out the 8 hours experience. The level design despite being simple it has some creative platforming which makes it more fun. Combat wise, the game is good but this is where polishness was needed. For example
a great thing about Hollow Knight and Bo, is the ability to bounce/reset of enemies when hitting an enemy or a platforming hassle like spikes. Teddy can also do it, however the hitting, registering of the hit and the bounce is not that responsive. Hitting an enemy from
above sometimes elevates the hero and other times fully and in other cases brings him to the ground where they receive a hit from the one they just hit. Heavy Damage attack, sometimes when fully charged does not behave as it should have. The glowing effect becomes
visible but letting go deals the normal heavy strike. Another prove of needed polish, can be seen with the healing ability. When the player holds down the healing button(when emptied) and moves it seems like the bear is T-posing(idle movement(without inbetween animations)).
On the bright side, the game does contain a decent enemy variety with some of them having a unique feature such as needing green magic, others have their armor pierced and lots more.
Post Game Content
Weirdly enough, the Darkest tales doesnt have any form of collectables for the hero to collect. The only thing availble for them is to simply achieve the platinum of the game and the power ups(charms). There are some missable trophies that the player
can miss on their first go, so if you do not wish to replay the game for 1 or 2 missable trophies i would recommend looking at the trophy list. I personally had to go through a second playthrough just to collect the "I kinda like it!" trophy. The charms are
not needed for the platinum, but the players can alaways look an online guide as to where to find them. Teddy can use the mirrors to go from check point to checkpoint, from world to world and use all the mobility options availble(gained from the story) to
them in order to access all areas.
Sound and Graphics
The graphics of the game are its strength and also its main weaknsess. First of all, i really enjoyed how all of the maps are inspired by the once upon a time fairytale. In the beginning we storm through the forest of the Red riding hood whilst fighting enemies inspired by the tale.
The we meet the world of Jack and the beanstalk. The level requires the player to move upwards in order to reach the castle. The promised neverland is filled with fairytales like Aladins Genie, Snowhite and her dwarf army and Peter pan with the fountain of youth. Leaving the lands
brings you to the ocean with references to Mobby Dick's white whale to finding Atlantis and the little marmaid. The thorns of sleeping beuty with her minigame was fun but also slightly annoying and the encounters on that level where unique. I could go on and on about the way the levels
are designed and fused them, however there is a major issue i came across. Certain levels were simply too dark for me to see things. Granted this could have been swapped in the settings but the default settings should ve been playable. This darkness within the levels was my major issue.
The cutscenes and the fairytale austhetic were simply, ok, not interesting and simply had the ingame models talk. The skip option doesnt skip the scenes and simply fast forwards them. The pages cutscenes, were boring that included one drawing and a few words.
On the sound department the game dissapointed me as well. There are not many interesting Osts within the game with some of the files simply not having any background sounds. The sound effects are not medium with little to none distinctions. The voice acting
is also not something worth being praised for. Lights voice is high pitch and Teddy's seemed to have smoken too many cigarettes. None of the voice actors are distinct or stand out. They simply exist, they played their part and thats just it. I wish i could say
something good about it, it just didnt stood out to me. Background noices also glitch often with some of the songs being completely removed whilst navigating the level. Interactive noices sometimes remained active when they shouldnt be. For example, in "Atlantis" if
you remove the water and jump where the water was, you can hear the splash effect even though there is none. Again these small details in both the audio and visual departments prove that the game needed more polishing.
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, the Darkest Tales is a decent metroidvania 2D action adventure game worthy of your time at a decent budget. The story of the game is by far it's strength. It uses the main two guardians of a child, the teddy bear and the small light. These two guardians
are send inside the sleeping realm in order to protect Alicia from the dream demons. The narrative involves the beloved heroes and locations from the well known fairytale land. There is a nice mystery that drives the plot and a very good plot twist. The gameplay keeps
things fresh by constantly adding new abilities and power ups. All weapons feel completely different and have different attacks that can be used for both in combat and for solving the puzzles. Sometimes there are some bugs and dont always act as intented. Occasionally some
visual glitches occur but nothing game breaking. The level designs re simple and re inspired by the respective fairytale which adds various characters from the intended and other tales. Each level has a gimmick that is to be used in order to proceed. There is an intense lack
of actual cutscenes which is an obvious thing. Furthermore, the graficks can be considered too dark for certain levels. Audio wise the game is lacking. There are no memorable OSTs, sound effects and great voice acting that stood out. There re even some audio glitches that can
be found through out the game. In terms of post content, the game has nothing to offer aside from finding some charms. The game can be completed within 8 hours and 10 for 100% completion. I would reccomend the game if its on sale.
This is a video with my Honest review close to when i played the Game
