Chicory: A Colorful Tale Review
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Posted: 3 months ago, last updated 3 weeks ago.
Author: @GeekDadGamer and Jo Robertson.
Overview
Chicory: A Colourful Tale is an adventure where you play an everyday dog thrust into the role of wielding a magic brush. The world starts black and white and you paint to solve puzzles, help your animal friends and restore colour. It looks like a children's story book but also engages with themes of performance, competition and impostor syndrome.
As the game progresses you explore the Picnic Province, drawing as you go to access new areas. You can interact with the environment in different ways, using your paint to solve puzzles. This unlocks new paint abilities that let you access the hard to reach places.
You collect clothes, plants and furniture as you go so you can dress your character and the place in which you live. How you do this has a permanent effect on the world. This is encouraged with side-quests that leave their mark on the world too, and often attract the attention of other characters and cause them to gather somewhere new.
It's unusual because your character is a reluctant hero, and wrestles with the feeling of not being good enough: impostor syndrome. She is suspicious of the legacy the brush holds and nervous that it might control her. More than that though, she is driven to prove that she is not surplus to requirements. She will do anything to live up to and surpass the heroes that hang on the walls she passes every day.
On PlayStation 5 the DualSense wireless controller lets you paint using the touchpad, complete with the option to flip the controls so left-handed players can draw with their dominant hand if they prefer. The controller also offers lots of haptic feedback of soft texture rumbles so you can feel as well as see how the world looks.
The result is a game that is enjoyable to spend creative time in, as much as it is to advance the story and adventure. It's a great game for families and newcomers. You can visit the phone-booth at any time and call your in-game parents to get a reminder of what you are doing and precise directions to the next goal. It includes further hints with the PS5’s Help system, even offering a thorough 100% walkthrough if you would like it.
As the game progresses you explore the Picnic Province, drawing as you go to access new areas. You can interact with the environment in different ways, using your paint to solve puzzles. This unlocks new paint abilities that let you access the hard to reach places.
You collect clothes, plants and furniture as you go so you can dress your character and the place in which you live. How you do this has a permanent effect on the world. This is encouraged with side-quests that leave their mark on the world too, and often attract the attention of other characters and cause them to gather somewhere new.
It's unusual because your character is a reluctant hero, and wrestles with the feeling of not being good enough: impostor syndrome. She is suspicious of the legacy the brush holds and nervous that it might control her. More than that though, she is driven to prove that she is not surplus to requirements. She will do anything to live up to and surpass the heroes that hang on the walls she passes every day.
On PlayStation 5 the DualSense wireless controller lets you paint using the touchpad, complete with the option to flip the controls so left-handed players can draw with their dominant hand if they prefer. The controller also offers lots of haptic feedback of soft texture rumbles so you can feel as well as see how the world looks.
The result is a game that is enjoyable to spend creative time in, as much as it is to advance the story and adventure. It's a great game for families and newcomers. You can visit the phone-booth at any time and call your in-game parents to get a reminder of what you are doing and precise directions to the next goal. It includes further hints with the PS5’s Help system, even offering a thorough 100% walkthrough if you would like it.
Game Details
Content Rating: PEGI 7+
Release Date: 10/06/2021
Platforms: Mac, PC, PS4 and PS5
Genres: Adventure, Creative, Narrative and Puzzle
Accessibility: 45 features
Developer: @TheBanov
Lists
View our choice of games like Chicory: A Colorful Tale. This game is good if you want to:
- Step up and help out
- Harm no living thing
- Use craft to learn science
- Create something for visitors
- Set your own difficulty
- Play games with visual impairment
- Broaden you gaming diet
- Play games like toys
- Play with DualSense on PlayStation 5
- Escape life's storms for a while
- Paint your game world
- Inhabit another world
- Connect and challenge friends
- Team up experts and beginners
- Get around in unusual ways
- Work in a team to win
Commitment
Duration: This game will take between 12 hours and 16 hours to complete. To complete the game fully, collect the items and find all the secrets, it will take towards 50 hours.
Players: You can play with 2 players in the same room, but you can’t play it online. The second player controls a second the brush on the screen. This doesn't limit their involvement apart from interacting with other characters.
Players: You can play with 2 players in the same room, but you can’t play it online. The second player controls a second the brush on the screen. This doesn't limit their involvement apart from interacting with other characters.
Costs
Does not offer in-game purchases, 'loot boxes' or 'battle/season passes'.
Age Ratings
Rated PEGI 7 for mild violence.
ESRB EVERYONE 10+ for fantasy violence.
Accessibility
Along with a hint system that can direct you to the next quest objective, the game includes options to make action sequences slower and easier, or even to skip them entirely. You can turn on content warnings for some of the scarier sequences.
The game also ensures that nothing relies on your ability to distinguish colours for puzzle-solving. You can adjust the tint of the visuals to be warmer colours.You can turn off and adjust text animation to make it more readable.
Turn off "wet" sounds for players with misophonia. There are optional content warnings for potentially sensitive/upsetting/scary content.
You can always access a map and make annotations.
Our Chicory: A Colorful Tale Accessibility Report details 45 accessibility features:
The game also ensures that nothing relies on your ability to distinguish colours for puzzle-solving. You can adjust the tint of the visuals to be warmer colours.You can turn off and adjust text animation to make it more readable.
Turn off "wet" sounds for players with misophonia. There are optional content warnings for potentially sensitive/upsetting/scary content.
You can always access a map and make annotations.
Our Chicory: A Colorful Tale Accessibility Report details 45 accessibility features:
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