A Hideously Beautiful Game: A Creepy Tale: Ingrid Penance Review

By Manuel

Players: 1
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, XBox

Creepy Tale: Ingrid Penance is an adventure game that recently got a console release following its initial debut on PC. It's not a standard adventure game though and features a very creepy tale (see what I did there?) involving a young girl's attempt to literally escape Hell itself. With a premise like that there's bound to be a lot to cover, so let's just drop to the underworld ourselves to check it out. Let's all join Ingrid on her spooky, and very deadly, journey!

Creepy Tale: Ingrid Penance puts you into the shoes of a capricious, spoiled girl named Ingrid. Rather than get her shoes dirty on the way to deliver food to her grandmother, she takes out a loaf of bread meant and a gift and uses that to cover up the offending puddle. This was probably the worse decision she's ever made in her life though as once she steps on the bread she falls straight into the underworld. Just as you'd imagine, it's a hell of a place and Ingrid quickly befriends a quirky demon named Molek who chooses to help her escape Hell because it sounds fun to him. There's something of a Jigsaw vibe with Molek as he constantly talks about "playing a game" with Ingrid, but surely he only means well right? Along the way she encounters many other people and creatures who more often than not want to see her killed. It's a deadly place and Ingrid realizes that her choices in the world are causing marks on her hands to appear that are related to the actions she's taken so far. With her only salvation being her wits and a smart-talking demon, and the world literally burning marks onto her whenever she makes an action, it's a wonder what is waiting for her at the end of her journey. One thing is for sure though, Ingrid probably should've just stepped into that puddle rather than go through all this!

If only she didn't do this...

You can check your progress at any time.

This is an adventure game and that means you move around, interact with objects, gather inventory items, and solve puzzles using everything at your disposal. There isn't a lot to describe when it comes to gameplay as it kind of just flows along if you keep your eyes open. The puzzles do get progressively more complex as time goes on though, and some will probably have you scratching your head and maybe looking up a walkthrough. There are even some puzzles that require time-based gameplay and the avoidance of enemy characters, similar to things you'd find in King's Quest III. While standard adventure-type puzzle solutions are the main aspect of gameplay, there are some segments that felt like they came out of a puzzle platformer like the Game Boy's Donkey Kong. There's a climb up a castle where you control two characters that felt the most like this, and while it might put off some, I found it to be a welcome change to gameplay. I mentioned King's Quest earlier and the game really takes a page out of the Sierra book when it comes to player death. There are many puzzles that end in death if not done correctly, or in the right time. And I don't want to make it sound light at all, as Ingrid very much dies and you restart. Some puzzles restart you back at an earlier point, but most just let you pick up where you left off. I'm glad the game was quite lenient when it comes to respawning as you die a lot here.

"I want to play a game."

This first puzzle was weird.

The game is separated into chapters, with each clearing out your inventory from the last one. Some of these chapters are really short, consisting barely more than a story sequence or two, and others are really involved and have multiple smaller sections to them. Since each have their own inventory, it keeps players from carrying around useless items and hitting dead ends due to not knowing where to go. Basically there is a solution in the current selection of rooms available to you, you just have to find it. Also, there is no save system in the game, at least not one controlled by you. Most of the time you can only load in from the start of your current chapter, but there are some checkpoints you can hit in some of the longer ones. Puzzles aren't just static affairs though, and there are several that have multiple solutions. These can come in the form of actual choices Ingrid makes (like saving trapped children or not) or done accidentally like activating a machine that progresses the game but also causes harm that you didn't foresee. All these choices lead you towards specific endings based on your "good" or "bad" choices. It sounds more complicated than it is, but there is the in-game representation of the aforementioned hand marks that shows what direction you're leaning to at any one time. The long and the short of it is that Ingrid's fate, and whether she's learning anything at all from this hellish experience, is up to you. Don't let her down! Or do, I'm not going to stop you...

Be careful with these types of choices.

She kinda does though...

It can't be stressed enough how gruesome a game this is. I am actually kind of shocked that this game got away with a Teen rating. It's not exactly bloody, but its deaths don't have the aspect of humor you'd find in something like a King's Quest title. Ingrid will be turned to stone, devoured by strange creatures, eviscerated by owls, and have her teeth removed by the cruel Auntie. There isn't any real blood or anything, but the game doesn't shy away from showing you that it really is game over for Ingrid. Also, while on the topic, the game has a weird fixation on mouths and teeth in general. One of the longest sections is based on a woman who extracts teeth from kids, and even has an optional puzzle solution where Ingrid removes a tooth from her own mouth. That last part is fully shown of course. It's not just this segment though, an early puzzle features a mouth that needs to constantly be fed where you can break its tooth, and there are other toothy mouths, and teeth themselves to find. I'm not sure what the term is for those who have phobias regarding teeth or dental stuff, but you might want to stay away from this game if you have that phobia. Besides threats to Ingrid, you find the remains of several children who have met the fates that Ingrid is trying to avoid. I don't want to add spoilers here, but attempting to "save" them isn't always a good move. Now, I don't want to make it sound like the grim aspect of the game itself is a reason to avoid it, but it's important to mention it as I don't think screenshots really do it justice. Hell, if anything, I think that the way the game approaches horror and death make it unique, and it's probably the single biggest reason to get it.

This entire this was Donkey Kong-esque.

Seriously, there's a lot of teeth here.

I feel it's a waste of time even talking graphics. I'll cut to the chase right away. They're as perfect as any game can be. The art style feels like it came from a storybook, the character designs are spooky and great, and there's so much detail in every bit of the world that you're bound to miss things if you're not paying attention. I usually want to complain when a game relies a bit too much on one color scheme, and Creepy Tale: Ingrid Penance is definitely a game that revels in its darker colors, but they managed to work within these limitations so well that when the occasional blast of color does show up, it's very jarring. Even the lighting is spot on, it's just insane how well everything comes together. I played the game on the Nintendo Switch, and it ran perfectly. I can only imagine it looks as good, if not better, on more powerful consoles. Oh, and everything just moves so smooth. Saying that it feels like you're playing an animated movie is an understatement, you are playing an animated movie in my opinion. Just maybe one where the main character is confused on what to do next sometimes!

Creepy Tale: Ingrid Penance features music that feels like it comes from a horror movie soundtrack. Maybe one meant for kids or animated, but a horror movie soundtrack nonetheless. That might be a weird way to describe it, but it just had that film score vibe to it where it was creepy and dark, but still melodic and, dare I say, epic too. A good way to describe it actually is that it reminded me of those Midnight Syndicate albums where they're not just like creepy music to put on in the background, but also meant to also tell a story themselves. I don't know if I'd add any of the songs to my video game playlist, but I am interested in checking out the soundtrack fully when I'm done with this review.

Seriously, this game gets creepy af.

RIP these kids' teeth.

The other big topic when it comes to sound is the voice acting. I don't know for sure, but I'm pretty sure that the voice cast is largely a foreign one. There are odd pronunciation and vocal quirks here and there that didn't feel like they came from a native English speaker. With that said, I really do think that it added to the overall atmosphere. The not-quite-right English blended in well with the other-worldliness of everything. I don't want to make it sound like accents make things creepy, but something about the imperfect line delivery really gelled well with me. All this aside, the voice acting is all perfectly acted and performed. Ingrid's voice actress particularly stood out, and she gave her performance hit all the beats a complicated role like this required. It's rare that I feel a game has a perfect soundscape, especially a small indie title, but there really isn't anything I can complain about when it comes to sound at all. It's just that good.

Adventure games' control schemes are usually basic and not up for question as to whether they're good or not. Creepy Tale: Ingrid Penance sort of flies in the face of this by having a lot of sections that have time sensitive gameplay where you have to be at a certain spot at a certain time for things to go how you want them. There usually isn't any issue with inputs and the like, but the lack of a way to run, or move faster, is something I wished the game had more than once. It's not like Ingrid won't suddenly run when she needs to, but her rather slow gait got to be a bit much when a lot of things were going on at the same time. Also, the world mostly moves from right to left, but the up and down part of movement sometimes means that it can be easy to miss interactable objects. This is easily avoided if you're thorough, but part of me wishes the control scheme was a little more simplified when it came to things like this. Lastly, and this isn't really a control issue, but the menus and action icons can be very easy to miss due to the fact that they are very small on screen. I played the game completely in handheld mode, and while I already mentioned that the game ran fine, it was really hard to read things most of the time. Dialogue and the like was fine, but the inventory descriptions made it so that I was usually trying every item on every interactable object since I couldn't always be bothered to squint and bring the switch up to within an inch of my face. I guess I should've mentioned that when I talked graphics, but what the hell, this game is still messing with the way I think!

I got to mess with these owls a bunch though.

I even became their queen.

Creepy Tale: Ingrid Penance actually features multiple endings that are influenced by a myriad of choices you can make throughout the game. There are dozens of choices that can lead you towards one ending or another. Thankfully each run of the game won't take too long if you want to see them all. Depending on how quickly you solve some of the longer puzzle sequences, one can finish the game anywhere from 3-6 hours, maybe even 2 if you know exactly what you're doing. There are even puzzles and solutions that are technically optional depending on what route you're currently on or going for. While I don't think I'll be going back to the game anytime soon, when I do I plan to play it in a completely different way than this first playthrough. Adventure games with multiple endings like this are nothing new, but I don't think I was expecting that from an indie title with the low MSRP of $9.99. That's more than enough for the experience you do get, and it feels like a steal when you factor the rest in.

Give me a storybook version please.

Hideously beautiful indeed...

I can't recommend this game enough. Everyone should experience this, if you're able to stomach some of the creepier parts I mentioned earlier at least, as it's quite a unique game that is sure to completely fly under most people's radars. Creepy Tale: Ingrid Penance is actually the third game in a series and I am very curious what the other games are like. I can't speak for those, but you can't go wrong picking up this game now on your console of choice. If you do, maybe be a bit nice and watch that sin count. You can end up in a hell of a place if you don't!

Check Out Creepy Tale: Ingrid Penance on The Nintendo Switch:
https://www.nintendo.com/store/products/creepy-tale-ingrid-penance-switch/

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Story: A
Gameplay: B
Graphics: A+
Music/Sound: A+
Value: A

Overall: A

Pros:
+ The game's storybook art style is brought to life by amazing animations and attention to detail.
+ Tells a very creepy Brothers Grimm-esque story complete with some truly gruesome dead ends.
+ Challenging gameplay that adds in complex puzzles to the standard adventure game formula.
+ Has a perfect soundtrack and a great voice cast.
+ Multiple endings and optional puzzles and events make this highly replayable.

Cons:
- Some puzzles can be quite complicated and esoteric at times.
- Font and inventory icons are near unreadable on the Nintendo Switch.
- Is a rather short game once you know what you are doing.

A copy of this game was provided to us free-of-charge by the publisher for the purpose of this review. This did not affect our review in any way.

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