izigame.me

I realized about 20 minutes into playing Paper Trail that I’m not good at puzzle games. Or playing Paper Trail simply reinforced that knowledge. In what amounts to a true tragedy, liking the core structure of the puzzles doesn’t make me any better at them, though it does help my tolerance for them. Looking back on it, I realize that it leaves me in a bit of an awkward spot with my feelings about the game. I’m fully ready to admit that I’m not a puzzle game guy, even less than I am a fighting game or racing game guy, so I get the feeling I just don’t understand Paper Trail on a fundamental game design level.
When it comes to puzzles, I prefer things that are based a little more on lateral thinking. That was one thing I enjoyed about The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. While puzzles in that game definitely had a limited number of intended solutions, you could usually think outside the box to invent your own answer to whatever "question" the game asked you. The puzzles in Paper Trail felt so much more rigid and inflexible. While that didn’t frustrate me, I don’t like feeling boxed in when it comes to solving puzzles. This is probably more of an issue with me than it is with the game because, again, I probably just don’t understand it in the way most people who loved it did.
The puzzles are essentially connecting things together by folding paper levels that you navigate, which doesn't do it justice as a brief descriptor. It’s a cool puzzle structure that lets you use two sides of the paper you're standing on to do things like join up pathways, connect energy beams, clear up space to slide blocks across an area, find secret origami pieces, and a few more things. The moments the puzzle design clicked with me the most were when the pages I was able to fold were different sizes, allowing for some more interesting folding tries to come out. Still, I felt like the puzzles were somewhat limited in scope and design, yet I don’t know what the developers could have done to improve upon them without making the puzzles look and feel a little overwhelming.
That isn’t to say I didn’t like the puzzles as a whole. The game presents itself pretty well with a pleasing visual style and some crisp audio design. Even if I wasn’t getting a puzzle right, the satisfying sounds of folding and unfolding the paper, the relaxing music, and the ambiance combined to make something pleasing to my ears. I was never so disengaged with the puzzles that I felt like I never wanted to finish them or got annoyed with doing them. At worst, I just sort of bounced off a lot of them more than I would have hoped. For me, it ended up being a lot of trial and error of just gradually folding pieces of paper to make the correct parts line up instead of feeling like I was truly thinking my way through a puzzle. If you're worried about the difficulty of the puzzles, there’s also a hint system that you can use, which I didn’t end up using because it felt like it somewhat defeated the purpose of trying to solve the puzzles myself.
What I did bounce off of more were the story and characters. You play as Paige (ha), an 18-year-old girl who outright tells you she’s an astrophysicist in training who likes journaling, origami, and bending the spacetime continuum.
Despite the normal, girly interests of astrophysics, journaling, origami, and bending spacetime, our protagonist still doesn’t feel like she has a lot going on.
Everything surrounding Paige and the story felt like they were created after the core gameplay was settled on as a foundation for development. Don't get me wrong, I get why. It’s hard to put a paper-folding puzzle video game into context that makes much sense narratively. That’s why it feels like Paige’s story of wanting to run away to go to college and the ability to bend spacetime feels so bolted on. It was almost like the developers didn’t think they could just release a neat little game that lets you fold paper to solve puzzles because it didn’t feel like it was enough without that additional context.
I feel like there’s supposed to be a strong emotional core thing going on with Paige, but it all fell a little flat. She moves through areas that are barely connected with each other so fast that there’s no chance to grow attached to the characters you do meet along the way. You've seen one character who has the same pasty complexion with cheeks that are dotted red, you've kind of seen them all. Without the ability to speak to them, all they do is talk at you and pop up later in the level (so apparently EVERYONE is bending spacetime). Paige’s goal never shifts or changes in the slightest as she meets people on her journey. In fact, she doesn’t seem to grow on her journey at all.
The most we get for characterization comes from Paige telling us about some of her backstory between levels, usually not tying back with anything we did or learned. That last part isn’t helped by the fact it doesn’t feel like there was much to learn about Paige in the first place. Even her backstory has those tacked-on elements that I mentioned earlier. Without directly spoiling anything, there are parts of her backstory that are meant to tug at our heartstrings and provide some additional context. The issues come when they’re dropped on us without much warning or development, kind of like how Paige casually mentioned being able to bend spacetime at the start of the game. In a way, I wish the game didn’t have the little bit of story or narrative context it does have. It’s handled so strangely that it feels at odds with a gameplay loop that’s genuinely worth praise.
Okay, I know I spent a lot of time kind of kicking the game between its origami legs. There are some story and narrative pacing gripes I have that do bring the game down, but I didn’t leave Paper Trail with a bad taste in my mouth. I think Newfangled Games has something cool on its hands with its puzzles revolving around folding paper. If nothing else, the game is worth trying for that gameplay element, especially if you can get it on sale. With a little more fleshing out, I could see some additional content for Paper Trail, or possibly a sequel, being something to keep an eye on.
To touch on the puzzles one more time, they also aren’t too long or too difficult. By some miracle and divine intervention, I managed to get the achievement for completing the game within 4 hours on my first try, which stunned me. Some of the puzzles made me feel more than a touch dumb, so realizing I was still able to complete the game under the 4-hour mark to get that achievement says...something about the puzzle design, though I’m not entirely sure what. I guess it’s not a bad thing that a simple fool like me can get them solved without consulting any guides or using the game’s hint system. As a little appreciative aside, thank you for only counting my actual gameplay time and not how much time I spent with the game running in the background while I worked or simply forgot to turn it off.
I might not get Paper Trail as much as some puzzle game enthusiasts out there. That could be a double-edged sword. The game never fully clicked with me the entire way through, but I still enjoyed doing the puzzles, and I love the idea of how the puzzles are structured as a whole. I couldn’t give much of a recommendation for the game if I'm comparing it to other puzzle games, so I’ll just have to leave it as this: try it for the neat concept. If nothing else, it’s worth a go to support some creative game design from an indie dev—just don’t go in expecting a well-crafted story, context to put everything in place, or characters that feel like they’re developing across a full journey.

Paper Trail is a decent puzzle, particularly for those who enjoy cozy/semi-casual games.
Story
The story is somewhat good, which reminds me of picture books and short graphic novels I read as a kid. The usage of folding paper is rather creative, notably during various kinds of scene transitions. Neither the story nor the characters are rememberable, although it's fine since it's a puzzle game.
Visual/Audio
Paper Trail boasts a gorgeous and eye-catching art style. It uses folding paper(s) for all aspects of the game, including the credit. The sound effects are okay, while addition of audio tracks that mimic conversation helped me enjoy the story.
Gameplay
The puzzle mechanics and design are exceptional. The game introduces new mechanics as you progress into new areas and serves puzzles that combine multiple mechanics, where I never feel overwhelmed. Figuring out possible puzzle solutions wasn't difficult, although sometimes I forget to fold in specific ways (horizontal, vertical and diagonal) or not fold too much.
The difficulty is just right for those who are looking for cozy/semi-casual games. If it's too hard for you, the game provides hints by showing step-by-step folding the paper(s). Although even if you see whole steps, usually you still need to figure out other mechanics by yourself. For obvious reason, please hold back from using hint too frequently or see many steps at once. And if it's too easy for you, you can try collecting all origami/collectibles which is quite a bit more challenging.
Other
The game runs well on my Linux device with minimal issues. It's also available on Android and iOS, but limited for those who subscribe to Netflix.
Wrap up
I had a great time with Paper Trail, where I bothered to collect all collectibles. The base price is a bit pricey though, considering you could beat this game under 4 hours.

One of the most creative, inventive and brilliantly designed puzzle games i've played, even though there's some real brain twisters involved. Paper trail takes the idea of folding paper to the next level by adding tons of extra elements into the formula, making it both more challenging and keeping it fresh. There's never once a puzzle that gets stale because each of the 9 chapters has its own gimmick that changes the way you think about it. What makes the game so brilliant though is the simple fact that you can fold not only horizontally and vertically but also diagonally as well. Not every page is square or rectangular either so that alone creates a ton of variety especially in later stages with side pages and ledges that get thrown into the mix.
There's also another brilliant mechanic at play where you cannot fold a piece over or underneath yourself so you have to think ahead most of the time. Other objects like heavy statues or boulders also have this property further challenging your options, which makes for some real head scratchers. While things like portals, moving platforms and elevations further complicate matters. Paper trail however never goes too far, always having an approachable design to each of its puzzles, of which there are plenty to solve. I was actually very suprised at the amount of different puzzles the devs were able to come up with, and it really speaks volumes about their creative genius. As it is much harder to design a puzzle that is both hard and solvable.
The game is bug & lag free, had no possible softlocks and didn't crash once during my playtime, so it's safe to say that the game is incredibly polished. Not only technically but also visually as all the pages look utterly beautiful with clear and well defined lines never cluttering the screen. There's also an amazing soundtrack to soothe your ears, one that reminded me of Ori's luma pools at times which is in my opinion still the greatest OST of all time! Finally we arrive at story and while it had a subplot that had me really invested it didn't go anywhere in the end. I had hoped to find some closure of this subplot in some way, good or bad. But the main plot is still enough to give some meaning to it all. The cutscenes being told with folding as well was refreshing and thematically consistent! All in all paper trail is a super solid game to challenge your grey matter :)