''Inked: A Tale of Love'' is a

puzzle-platform game A platform game (often simplified as platformer and sometimes called a jump 'n' run game) is a sub-genre of action game, action video games in which the core objective is to move the player character between points in an environment. Platform game ...

developed by Somnium Games and published by Starbreeze Publishing for Microsoft Windows. It was demoed at the 2016 Reboot Infogamer convention in

Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital and largest city of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb stands near the international border between Croatia and Sl ...

and released on 26 April 2018 via Steam. Versions for

Nintendo Switch The is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. The console itself is a tablet that can either be docked for use as a home console or used as a portable device, making it a ...

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in ...

and

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...

published by Pixmain were later released on 27 August 2021. The story follows two protagonists; a rogue samurai called Nameless Hero, who is on a quest for his love Aiko, and Adam, a comic book artist. The game uses an art style similar to papercraft visuals, but using a

ballpoint pen A ballpoint pen, also known as a biro ( British English), ball pen ( Hong Kong, Indian and Philippine English), or dot pen (Nepali) is a pen that dispenses ink (usually in paste form) over a metal ball at its point, i.e. over a "ball poi ...

on a grid textbook for outlining.

Reception

Upon release, the game received mixed reviews. It has an aggregated score of 67 on

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, based on 15 reviews for the PC version. It holds 78 for the

version, based on 4 reviews. Destructoid praised the aesthetic,

Nintendo Life Gamer Network Limited (formerly Eurogamer Network Limited) is a British mass media company based in Brighton. Founded in 1999 by Rupert and Nick Loman, it owns brands—primarily editorial websites—relating to video game journalism and ot ...

in its review criticized its length, but praised its visuals, soundtrack, story and puzzles. Pocket Gamer also praised the visuals, but found the puzzles tiring after a while. Gamezebo complimented the unique look and puzzles, but complained that the camera could use more movement.

Destructoid ''Destructoid'' is a website that was founded as a video game-focused blog in March 2006 by Yanier Gonzalez, a Cuban-American cartoonist and author. Enthusiast Gaming acquired the website in 2017, and sold it to Gamurs Group in 2022. History ...

stated it had high potential, but ultimately found the movement awkward.

References

External links

*{{Official website, http://inkedgame.com/ 2018 video games Indie video games Puzzle-platform games Video games about samurai Video games developed in Croatia Windows games Windows-only games Starbreeze Studios games Single-player video games