Played on Nintendo Switch 2 | Original Release Date 21 May 2024 | Review Date 5 January 2025

OVERVIEW

Never have I ever felt so stupid and brilliant while playing a video game than I felt during my play thought of Paper Trail. This origami-like-think-‘em-up folded my brain in bizarre ways and I’m still not sure what shape it folded my brain into? Paper Trail is an ever changing puzzle solving adventure that takes the player on an adorable journey, testing your patients and endurance to solve roughly nine hours or so of paper-like conundrums wrapped nicely within a story of growth, loss and finding your own way in life. But can Paper Trail fold it’s way into my heart? Read on to find out.

STORY

You play as Paige, a young woman who is struggling to gain her independence from her parents. Her loving parents want to protect her by having her stay at home, but Paige is determined to fly the nest and make her way to start University. Because they can’t see eye to eye, Paige makes up her mind to pack her things and clandestinely set off in the middle of the night to start her new life. This melancholy aspect to the story, permeates every edge of this rather charming game. Its themes of adventure, reflection, self discovery, loss and Paige’s determination to over come adversity to reach her goal are universal. What we discover about Paige’s life and why her parents don’t want her to leave, give the story depth and is handled in a sensitive way.

Along this journey is a cast of characters sprinkled throughout various locations that Paige is required to help in some way. These characters are fine, but not necessarily integral to the overall story, except for one that you meet later in the game. This game could have simply been a puzzle game with no story required, but by folding in this thoughtful, heartwarming and moving story, I was enticed to keep progressing to each new chapter to understand more about Paige’s past. There are some deep and meaningful themes within the games narrative, that strike an emotional cord, but the story never goes ‘too deep’ into these themes which I think suits the overall tone and it allowed me to reflect on my own life experiences rather than simply be a passive listener.

A fun aspect to unfolding the story is quite literally the fact that you have to unfold it as sections of narrative are shared between each world. I thought this was a clever way of building the gameplay into the storytelling. The star of this game is the gameplay and the deep mechanics which are nicely punctuated by a beautiful art style and an interesting narrative.

GAMEPLAY

I’ve tried origami a few times throughout my life. I like the idea of it, the beauty of taking a piece of paper and restructuring it into a new shape is simple in it’s artistic concept, but challenging to master. I think I’ve only managed to make a ninja throwing star in my origami attempts and I’m resigned to the fact that my skills lie elsewhere. I just don’t think my brain works in the way needed to master origami. Paper Trail’s gameplay is heavily inspired by origami and is full of mind-bending puzzle play mechanics that require you to see the challenge on screen and fold it into the shapes required to get Paige from point A to point B and move on to the next screen and do it again. It’s a simple concept, that provides multiple layers of challenges that are equal parts enjoyable and frustrating.

The game is divided into nine areas, each with their own distinct art style and theme. They are the environments that Paige must navigate on her journey to reaching her University. There are places like a cave, the forest, the ocean, the city etc. Your task is to navigate Paige through these locations one section at a time. The sections are one screen each, different sizes and have various folding puzzle challenges that you must solve to navigate Paige from the start of the section to the end. Where the variety to the puzzles and gameplay shows up can be in the size of the section to the mechanics you need to solve for in each area. So for example, one section might be small in scale and simply require you to fold one half of the screen from the bottom to the middle which will uncover a path that Paige can now use to get to the exit. Other sections will be complex and large in scale with multiple folding elements requiring you to figure out how a section in the middle needs to be folded at it’s corner, down to another section changing the layout of the playing field allowing Paige to manoeuvre along her way.

Additional challenges present themselves as you progress through the game. It’s not simply about folding a new pathway for Paige. Some sections, for example, require you to create a pathway for a beam of light from it’s source to light a lighthouse which is in a very different section of the playing field. So you’ll need to guide the light beam through various folding interactions, which bounce off reflective elements that eventually hit the lighthouse, which triggers a pathway forward allowing Paige to move to a new section of the area. The puzzles get more and more complicated as you make you way through the game. The designers do a fairly good job of introducing you to each new mechanic, and then using these mechanics in clever ways to up the challenge. And they do this throughout the entire game, you’ll be using mechanics that you learn early to help you with later puzzle challenges that have folded in later stage mechanics.

At its heart, Paper Trail is brain teaser. And they don’t hold back on providing some really difficult mind bending puzzles. I’m not kidding when say that this game made me feel brilliant and stupid from moment to moment. Some sections of the game I figured out right away and breezed onto the next challenge. Only to get to the next section and find myself shouting at the screen, ‘C’mon, what the hell, do you want me to do?!” Often, in those frustrating moments, the solution was rather simple, yet it was wrapped in a very clever way that provided a deep level of challenge. I played this game on my own, but I’d be interested in doing another play through with a group of friends, because I suspect that each of us would see the challenge in a different way and what would be simple for one to solve, might seem impossible to others. This is a real testament to the creative brilliance of Paper Trail. The developers have a level of confidence in their ability to create the puzzle, no matter how challenging, and they give us the clues to solve it. Many times, when I was stuck on a challenge, when I eventually solved it I audibly said out loud, “Oh, duh! Of course that’s what I needed to do”. The obvious is always hidden in plain site. But to that end, there were also some challenges that I would’ve never been able to solve, which made me grateful for their inbuilt hint system.

If you get stuck, each section has an optional hint system that you can leverage. The hint system only shows you what order you need to fold and unfold the section you’re currently solving. However, it doesn’t show you the moves you need to make within each fold. I found this a really great way to help me when I was stuck, with just the right amount of info, but not spoon-feeding me the entire solution. I still got to have my ‘ah-ha’ moments when using the hint system, which made me feel like I wasn’t just getting the answers, but I was kindly being nudged to discover the solution, as if a friend who already knew the answer was sat next to me saying ‘what if you folded this bit?’, and then didn’t say anything else. I suspect there are some players who may never need this hint function, but I for one, am not too proud to say, I used it a lot and I’m very happy it’s an option they built into the game. If it wasn’t included, I wouldn’t have played the game for that long and simply just walked away.

All of that being said, not every section of the game is as fun as others, and throughout my playthrough, I felt I was going through the motions from time to time. This isn’t a major issue, but I feel like the game could’ve been a little tighter and not as long. It did feel mildly repetitive at points, but overall, because each world introduces a new mechanic to master and it ramps up the challenge as you progress in a meaningful way, the game ultimately sticks the landing for what it sets out to be.

One aspect of the gameplay that I didn’t love was how it controlled. I played the game on the Switch 2 with a traditional controller scheme. So this could simply be because of how I choose to play the game rather than a problem with the game itself. You control Paige using the left joystick, which is very straightforward. However, to fold the pages on the screen, you use your right joystick to move the cursor to where you want to fold. You then hold R2 and move the joystick to where you want to fold. The issue I came across a lot with this setup, is that the cursor didn’t always register which part of the screen I wanted to fold. It would ‘grab’ the wrong section from time to time, which was mildly frustrating. I kept wanting a mouse/trackpad control scheme - which I only found out is possible, on Switch 2, after I completed the game. So, if you’re new to the game, try and play it with a mouse, trackpad, or dare I say a touchscreen control scheme, you’ll have a much smoother experience.

GRAPHICS

Paper Trail is full of charm in every aspect, and the graphics and art style work well to create a relaxing gameplay environment that allowed me to, happily, spend hours at a time playing the game. It has understated, storybook, painterly-like graphics that are varied from world to world, but are cohesive in its overall concept. It’s not doing anything revolutionary in graphics department, however the thoughtfulness of how each section was designed and used the art style to give you clues as what you were to solve for simply works well. I think the simplicity in the visuals (positive simplicity) are executed in a complementary way to the complex game play. My favourite section, in terms of graphics is the autumnal section - I’m a sucker for anything autumnal and Paper Trail’s version of this is bliss.

MUSIC

The soundtrack for Paper Trail, composed by Claudie Mackula, is low-fi, mysterious and haunting. Claudie mixes the right amount of instrumental and choral arrangements into the soundtrack that softly punctuate the gameplay experience. It evokes the themes of the story nicely and adds an element of reflection as the narrative unfolds. I personally like this style of music and could imagine it being listened to in the background during a rainy day or as music for meditation. It’s calming, relaxing and thought provoking.

I also enjoyed two other sound aspects of this game that I think are worth mentioning. One is the character sounds. During the gameplay, Paige encounters different characters. They are not voiced in these moments, but simply ‘speak’ in googly-de-goop sounds. Think Animal Crossing if you will. But I found myself laughing at the way the characters vocalised their dialogue - it’s cute and utterly charming. I also loved the sound of the paper folding. It was like paper ASMR throughout the whole game. Soothing and distinctive - they really nailed this sound affect.

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

I only found out about Paper Trail because I had the chance to hear the designers speak at a game development expo, which by the way the game was developed by two brothers Henry and Fred Hoffman. Henry oversaw the game design and Fred was responsible for the art direction - nice work you two! I mention this because I feel, unless you’re actively looking for this type of game you may never come across Paper Trail where you play games. This is a fantastic game that deserves to be experienced by anyone who likes ‘thinky games’. It’s a prime example of a small development team who started with gameplay mechanics, stuck to their vision and created a wonderful gameplay experience. If you haven’t played Paper Trail and are looking for a puzzle game that has heart, meaning and a lot of challenge you can’t go wrong with this one. Sure, not all aspects of the game worked for me, but there is enough depth, variety and challenge that are thoughtfully crafted within this origami like that it’s an easy recommendation for anyone remotely curious.

OUT OF SYNC GAMING REVIEW SCORE | 7 out of 10

Did you play Paper Trail? Are you an origami master? Share your thoughts and comments below.

Paper Trail Review