Spring Tales turns ordinary life into something unexpectedly magical

If I were to pinpoint a downside to being an indie game fan who writes about indie games, it would be that I find it really hard to play games just for fun. It's something I'm trying to be better at, but my attempts are made difficult when games like Spring Tales do something that begs to be written about. 

Spring Tales, by RAF Games, is a mashup of life simulation, cleaning, organizing, and narrative gameplay that's completely hand-drawn and utterly charming.  It's one festival played through the lives of five residents in a town, and it is a perfect representation of small-town life; everyone is connected, stories crisscross like tangled wire, and nobody is as isolated as they may feel. 

And not everything is what it seems. 

Cozy puzzles and building connections

No matter what you do in Spring Tales, it's achieved through a mini puzzle. Making a coffee means mastering the perfect pour, cleaning up the florist means perfectly lining up the leaves of the plants on a shelf, and tidying up the workshop means finding the perfect spot for everything in a drawer organizer. 

If you love games like A Little to the Left, a lot of the mini-games in Spring Tales will be familiar to you, but each puzzle manages to feel fresh and challenging despite the inspiration being clear. I do like that Spring Tales frames these puzzle mini-games within a bigger story, though, rather than presenting one organizational catastrophe after another with no reason beyond them being oddly relaxing to do. 

Each character interacts with others that you've already met or will meet in your time playing, and you slowly uncover the tale behind Spring Tales the more you play. 

Daily life plays out

In Spring Tales, each chapter is a story from a different person's point of view. You first play as Nadine, the coffee shop owner, and live out a day in her cafe. Bake croissants, make coffee, track down three pieces of a key so you can unlock a box in the cupboard and find a cake recipe that apparently warrants security measures. You know, normal coffee shop stuff. 

On another day, you play as the librarian Ren. As him, you brush your teeth, go to work, sort books, and talk to the visitors who come in for something to read. You also get pulled into a shadow realm through a book that was dropped off by a mysterious stranger. Here, you solve puzzles to free a floating rabbit who was apparently wrongly imprisoned in the book, only to discover it's actually some sort of demon. Just another ordinary day in the library, of course. 

Not every character has a “weird moment”, though. Many of the chapters are completely normal with nothing bizarre going on at all. I think that's what makes these sudden moments of strangeness so effective, because they're framed by familiar daily life activities. 

Escape reality with… reality

Outside of the weirdness with the bunny and the key in three parts, Spring Tales is very much a story of normal town life and the relationships that form between the people who live there. It's not on a “everyone knows everyone else's business” level, which was my experience living in a tiny British village, but more on a “we will rally around to help so-and-so solve this problem even though they didn't ask” level. 

Most things in Spring Tales are so delightfully mundane that they remind you of the things you need to do in real life, like washing the dishes or repairing something broken. However, none of these things ever feel like a chore, and most of the time completing these tasks benefits not only the character you're playing in that chapter, but everyone else in town as well. 

Spring Tales is out now and is an absolute joy. Cozy atmosphere, puzzles that are just challenging enough to keep you entertained, and a close-knit community filled with warmth. If you're not ready to commit and want to try before you buy, there's also a demo available.