From Daedalic Entertainment and the team at Flatter Than Earth, Once Upon a Puppet is a grand adventure eight years in the making and a powerful production worth a resounding round of applause.
Meet Nieve, an ambitious Weaver and Puppeteer unceremoniously exiled to the Understage by her melancholy king. With her magically bound puppet, Drev, dangling by the strings of her glove, this dramatic duo is ready to do whatever it takes to get the endlessly curious actor back to entertaining an audience.
Glide and swing through beautifully crafted theatrical sets straight out of a Broadway production, guided by platforming mechanics inspired by the art of puppetry, while solving puzzles in its deep and detailed world, likened to hits like Little Nightmares and Unraveled.
Abandoned set pieces react as you push, pull, and manipulate the characters and corrugated cardboard around you, slowly bringing sense to the scenes that led to the darkened state of the World Stage.
Naive and Drev work hand-in-string during your quest, taking on tasks from storytime characters in their own unique way. As the pair meet in dire straits, you brave the perils of the badlands below, dodging the carelessly tossed apparatus that once made up the soul of a theater now in tatters. It's all in an effort to reach Haven Hamlet – a safe haven of discarded actors and disgraced stagehands that Drev believes can help the pair unravel the strings that bind them.
The mysterious Oracle, a wise old lady who narrates much of your journey, asks you to seek out a magical ring in the forbidden Phantom Forest. Here, you're reintroduced to characters like Kumpel, who tasks Drev to practice using a bow in his barn before the team heads out to tackle the dangers ahead.
This is no easy feat for anyone but a master puppeteer, who must now hold the bow steady while Drev draws back the string.
The two can team up in myriad other ways, such as Nieve holding Drev steady while he delivers a forceful punch to shift sturdier props blocking their path. In other scenes, the long reach of our Weaver grabs distant objects, enabling feats no lone puppet could achieve – and carrying the pair ever closer to the distant stars of the mainstage they long for.
With plenty of collectibles dressing the sets that make up the world of Once Upon a Puppet, the multifaceted Nieve can put her Weaver skills to work at sewing machines to spin found threads into costumes for Drev. And in collecting the scattered shards of the stained glass that once adorned the sets of the stage shows, tales of its past are slowly pieced back together.
As Nieve waves her hand to walk Drev up toward the Frontstage they so sorely miss, the strings of their bonds gradually tighten. Stages magically fluctuate between the past and the present, giving reason to the unravelling of Nieve's heart and the spiralling self-doubt bubbling up from her expulsion from the upper echelons of the theatrical world.
Walk along the pair's jagged journey to the forefront of the World Stage and uncover long-forgotten stories surrounding this carefully crafted world and the shady secrets that led to its current state. Enjoy spontaneous shadowplays as you by flat walls, punctuating the underlying story of other staffers getting caught in the web being spun around Nieve and Drev's industry.
As the strings tying the story together begin to loosen, you'll learn just how much the fate of Nieve and her magical marionette are intertwined with the wider kingdom of theater as you prepare to take on the new masters of Broadway.
Once Upon a Puppet, a single-player puzzle-platformer eight years in the making, from a team spread around the globe, is out now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC through Steam and the Epic Games Store.
If you want to bring the magic of the World Stage into your home, the er Pack includes not only a digital artbook, soundtrack, and some neat new skins and string colors but also the means to print and paint your own Drev figurine.
You'll also get that warm, fuzzy feeling by further ing a tiny team of independent creatives pouring their heart and soul into bringing their dreams to life via their own artistic callings. Isn't that nice?
If you like what you see, the Once Upon a Puppet Backstage edition includes the base game and the er pack in a slightly discounted bundle.