Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Game
Game2022
The Darkest Tales
Developer Trinity Team
When a nightmare creeps into reality, the only ones that can help are those whose magical powers we’ve believed in since childhood. A brave teddy bear heads to the far side of “happily ever after” to rescue his owner, Alicia. From the Steam store page
193 reactions from 2 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky) · newest Aug 30, 2026 · last updated Oct 8, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
72
Fresh
138 positive · 54 negative
95% range 65–78%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 138 | 54 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
1 newer reactions are still waiting for a label.
Steam's own rating
Mostly Positive
665 of 938 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What people are saying
Mixed: beautiful dark fairy-tale world, but frustrating controls and bugs divide players.
Many players praise the game's unique dark fairy-tale aesthetic, calling it visually beautiful and well-crafted. The story and atmosphere are often highlighted as compelling, with some calling it a gem. [3][7][10][19]
However, a significant number of players criticize the controls as clunky and unresponsive, leading to frustration. Bugs and a lack of a map are also common complaints, with some calling the game a buggy mess. [5][6][13][27][28][34][35]
Praised art style and atmosphere · story and fairy-tale theme
Criticised controls and physics · bugs and technical issues · lack of map
Summary drafted by an AI model from the 36 reactions it cites ([n] links open each post), then checked by code: every paragraph cites real posts and every quote is verbatim. Written Oct 8, 2026. Method
Reactions
60 of 193 · most liked firstThe Darkest Tales is a Dark Tale in gaming history indeed... This game really dissapointed me. To begin with the worst, the game ships with a total game breaking bug, where you get to a endgame point and got left behind with no weapons. Only by manipulating a save file, you can rescue your game. This is NOT a thing people want! The developers should really adress this problem, because you cannot sell a game in this state. I could solve the problem quit simple myself, because I know what the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It has potential, but... Well, it commits many gaming sins. No invincibility frames for you, even when knocked into spikes and getting sent back to the platform before - have been killed while still respawning. The initial controls, at least on keyboard, are horrid - who wants your heal key to be H when you're using WASD? Why would you stick your main attack and grapple on left control and left alt? If you have no mouse, you're doubly screwed, since there's a bow to aim with, so arrow keys for…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A teddy bear was made a knight. And for his mistress swore to fight The night was dark alone he lept. For he was facing certain death. The Teddy Bear from Among the sleep spent 48 hours in a bar then jumped through the looking glass from Alice in Wonderland to fight through your childhood in a limbo style setting. Ah yes finally, Naughty Bear has a contender. You play as a badass, sword wielding, cape adorning, teddy bear! How can one complain? I loved it. I am a huge fan of twisted…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Compelling visuals and an interesting twist on the fairy tale genre make this enjoyable in the main, but there are obvious flaws in the game play mechanics that can prove frustrating. When Alicia falls into a dangerous and nightmarish slumber, where her dreams become a threat to her survival, in steps some of her favourite childhood toys to rescue her. The Darkest Tale is a 2D platforming action adventure. 🤔Overall Impressions🤔 I really enjoyed The Darkest Tales, especially its settings…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The Darkest Tales is a 3D rendered 2D "Metroidvania" platformer where you take on the role of a teddy bear and fight enemies in a little girls subconscious/imagination. This isn't the worse game I've seen on Steam, but also far from excellent. The movement is a bit clunky... and importantly, there's no map, which is really a cruicial feature for any Metroidvania style platformer to have. The 2D gameplay is lacklustre in the era of 3D gaming and it doesn't have enough to make up for the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Story-line is great, but the mechanics/controls of the game are terrible.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →So, this is a very annoying game. That's strange, because I liked the demo. But after playing the full version, I couldn't understand why. The Darkest Tales makes you very frustrated. Poor character control. I really thought a couple of times that something was wrong with my gamepad. The bear is disobedient. Sometimes it doesn't jump or perform a hit. The gameplay is very uncomfortable. The story is very simple and dull. You can describe it in one sentence: a plush bear saves his mistress's…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The Darkest Tales is a metroidvania set in the mind of a girl who is being attacked by "demons" and you are her favourite childhood toy, bought to life by a fairy and tasked with saving her soul. Or something, I dunno, there's people saying this has a good story but considering the childish and cringe-worthy dialogue, that is delivered in squeaky childish voice-acting, I'm not really getting that vibe personally. Even if this was the greatest game-play (sadly, it isn't) it would still be doing…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A pleasantly satisfying platformer with interesting quests that you can get stuck in for a long time! The idea with the fighting bear in the dark kingdom is really brilliant.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The concept of a teddy bear fighting nightmares is something we can, I think, all understand on a deep level. As children we are taught that the world is good, happy, beautiful; and then as the illusion of that slowly collapses many of us find ourselves seeking solace in familiar things. Plushies, action figures, bedtime stories, lullabies. Eventually, most of us lose hope altogether - and the biggest challenge of adulthood is, I believe, learning to find that hope again, to see the good in the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I was honestly hyped when I bought this, but after 4 hours it just got on my nerves. I even gave it another shot, but nope still annoying. The Darkest Tales is more frustrating than fun. Character control is awful, it’s buggy and laggy even on the Steam Deck. Half the time I thought my gamepad was broken because the bear wouldn’t jump or swing properly. Platforms are hard to see, and the whole gameplay just feels uncomfortable. And the enemies? Absolute pain. The bear has to jump on almost…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is an extremely buggy mess the only area that works as intended is the first one and i believe that only cause it was used as the demo. i cant tell you how many time i fell into the void or had to relaunch the game cause cutsceans and deaths can disable important in game mechanics and controls
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Overall its a solid metroidvania. Nothing to complain about. - Fantastic theme and use of fairy-tales. - Nice level design. - Great art-style and lighting. - Good voice acting - Controls and character movement felt good. - Fairly forgiving platforming and combat, although there were some tricky multi-stage bosses and gauntlet parts that could have used checkpoints but they were manageable. - Skill tree, changeable abilities, equipment and outfits. Overall its a nice package. - Fast travel…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The idea of the game is absolutely amazing! Kind of dark the hero is a bit sarcastic...but I love him for it. The visuals are good in my opinion. However when it comes to the control that is the area where the game is fall short in a " great" way! Clunky not responsive. If you fail for example the chasing even at the last bit of the sequence you are forced to replay that segment. And many times you will fail just because of the weakness of the control. I am a bit disappointed of the above…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →#BAD - An immediately obvious issue is that it's hard to tell where you can stand just by looking at the environment. The traversal is not properly communicated at all. Two surfaces will look exactly the same and only one will let you stand on it. - If you take damage on the spikes, you get stun locked. Combine this with the point above and you understand how frustrating it is. - The enemies check all the holy trinity checkboxes: bad attack telegraphy, unpredictable hitboxes, slice sponges. -…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Interesting concepts. Keyword is concepts. The game controls are obviously not optimized for a keyboard format. Lagging of frame rate before boss attack, glitching of controls which sometimes don't even work at later stages at times, plus terrible lighting decisions for most levels make this game an excursion in frustration, mostly because of the poor interface. The only reason to play this should be for the story. As a game, it needs more development.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Introduction I played it once beta and have been waiting for 9 months. Here is my experience and perspective for this game. First of all this game is an indie game. That's mean they don't have that much budget as AAA games, so they will focused on the idea and unique gameplay instead. This is why I love indie games and want to support small developers. Story The Darkest tale is a linear game so as it story, nothing complicated and they're all been told by cut scenes. Overall it's…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →When dreams turn into nightmares, and a once beloved teddy bear and a spirit have to team up to save their child from being devoured by demons. This is pretty much the story summed up. The first part was very dark, and I liked that part the most. The enemies are very much what you would expect from a child's nightmare. Angry gingerbreadman and wolves for example. It seems very much to be fairytales happening inside the dream, a tiny bit different from the original stories, thanks to the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's just kind-of meh. The graphics are great, but that's about it. It can be entertaining for a few hours, but there are far far better titles out there. Positives: * The graphics and mood are rather magical * Some ok-ish story twists Negatives: * The combat is just not fun. Way way too many flying enemies. Bosses that are not difficult, just uninspired, annoying and boring. * Movement and combat is clunky. There's some sort of bouncy-back effect when you hit an enemy. It's just not fluid…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Nice graphics. There is not enough detailed map, useless portals, only making things even more confusing. Almost half of the ability improvements are hidden or not available until the end of the game, you need to look for them after completing the storyline, but why are they needed then?......
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Tis story about a toy bear forsaken by your owner (toy story). No map. Sometimes the game feels janky, with an unforgiving check point system. Epic story (toy story) epic graphics, you are a teddy bear that was the crutch for this human that just forgets what you did for them(toy story). Overall its a story about a bear that is a toy. reviews are WAAY too harsh. The music, voice acting, setting and art style of this game make it more then worthy of a play through especially for a…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →When this game came out I was really disappointed after reading some of the reviews here, what a mistake; the game is not bad like ppl say. It is definitely not perfect, it has some flaws but very forgettable. Combat is just ok (so far) story, voice acting, characters. Very fun game. I wish ppl wouldn't expect every game to be HK
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →im gonna be completely honest- dont buy this game if you have anger issues or are very impatient. The controls are weird asf, the only way i could play was using q for the hook instead of left alt (who even uses left alt ...).The graphics are beautiful and the story interesting but some of the mechanics left me enraged . For instance, the save points.. Where do i even start... It took me an hour and a half to beat the giant chasing me, just because there was no save point anywhere. All it took…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game has amazing idea, great original enemies, nice graphics, good metroidvania as we love it. But... Unity. Oh, boy. It's 2022 and they try to make a PRECISION platformer in Unity?! Be REALLY prepared to a lot of frustration because of clunky Unity controls and physics. You'll want to break your keayboard not because you lack skill to defeat this fast boss, oh no. Couple of years ago you finished Hollow Knight with 50 bosses tower (and may be even did a speedrun), so these slow…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I beat the story and I am just gonna say what was good and bad and just kinda eh Good: Movement, characters Bad: Level design, enemy design, QoL, Difficulty scaling, (most) boss fights, and (most) platforming sections Meh: Story, weapon unlocks, upgrades (charms, skills, power ups, whatever you wanna call them), and the skill tree The "skills" the collectible sloted perks were either mediocre or trivialized most fights The weapons are (almost) all either a side-grade or a downgrade and one is…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The only good thing about this game is its setting. You will be fighting famous Grimm's Fairy Tale characters but they are evil. Combat is serviceable but to heal you need to hold R is very bad design. I don't like that when you hit the enemy instead of them getting knockback it's you who get's knocked away who thought of this as a good design, don't reinvent the wheel and make it worse. You cant rebind some moves in mouse, only in keyboard which is again very simple but overlooked one. Also…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Disappointing but I would give it a neutral if I could. The basic idea is nice, but if suffers from a rather poor execution in most areas. The game encourages backtracking, but fails to provide a basic feature in the form of a map so you have no idea what you may have missed and most likely won't bother looking for previously inaccessible spots and secrets. Most of the game is platforming with a few combat encounters sprinkled in between platforming sections, but the combat encounters are…
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positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Watching walkthrough for this ga.. garbage and only remain 1hour to complete, but do you think they will allow you to finish it? No try first to finish that castle level, dark rooms, rotating platforms, chainsaws, spikes, some monster chasing you, so 30times to repeat same secquence and maybe then you will see the cutscene. Want quickly to finish, uninstall and forget about it, but they have another plans and already wasted more then 1hour of my time on that level, don't repeat my mistake,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Is it a perfect game? No. Is it something beautiful and unique and special? Absolutely. Try the demo, and if you find yourself captivated by the first boss battle, then this game is for you. You've got nothing to lose.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →At the time of writing this review I have less than half an hour played, and although I had to stop playing before I was ready to give up on it, I have enough of an impression to guess that I won't be picking it up again. While I can easily, EASILY commend the artwork and overall visual style (it is a BEAUTIFUL game) and the concept of the game, actually playing it is not as enjoyable as just looking at it. One of the first things I noticed as I started playing is that even though the voice…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Beautiful, but the gameplay is bad
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Cool game, I don't get the negativity of other reviews.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A dark fable with beautiful environments, great art style and atmosphere. I liked the level design a lot, mostly the second world which reminds me of the old Amiga classics (I'm old). I didn't have much problems with the controls, they responds quite well and I don't think they are buggy as many says. Regardings combats, when you learn that the "right distance" (other than the timing) is the key you'll find them easier (even if sometimes you will have to try and repeat). Overall for me...…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →its a peak game. its a must play for people that have played hollow knight before.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Appealing by familiar setting but with a twist :) Short and exciting game, with rather clunky controls and some really frustrating platforming moments. Can recommend for its story, everything else is pretty average.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Pretty good game that honestly could have been great if they polished the controls a bit more. Aside from the games handling, everything else is excellent. I still think it's worth most people's time, but you'll spend your time feeling like the game could have been so much more. Edit: Adding on now that I've finished it. There's SO much to like about this game that it's all the more painful how janky the controls are. And the jank gets worse the further in you go once the game starts asking…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game was fun, but it's controls were garbage. Too many times, the jump didn't want to work out, or when your going forward and the controls seem to think your pointing down for a jump down platform move. And there were times when you reached a end area when back tracking, and there wasn't a means to reach the teleport area door, so you had to just go back to menu to reach your last checkpoint. Overall, I did enjoy the game play, the story, and the overall look of the game. There was certain…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The concept is very interesting, but it's filled with bugs and it's way too much linear. The whole idea of fighting distorted versions of fairy tales is great, and saves a lot of time on worldbuilding and storytelling, which was a bit lacking. The fighing seems slightly off at all times and knockback can push enemies out of bounds, making them immortal and unreachable, which is annoying if they have ranged attacks. Everything in the game seems to have been created in order to be similar to…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I do not know who this awkward, broken, lost-in-translation, eurojank game is for. It is far too difficult for kids (even on Easy) and way too goofy for adults. I finished it out of spite and laughed through most of the latter parts until the uneventful and predictable ending.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I had fun with this. The dark twists on classic stories, the story overall really was good in the campiest of ways. Lots of upgrades to find and some good looking visuals. Recommended
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Very fun semi-metroidvania. Does not have the most complex story, but the general graphics are interesting and fairy-tale inspired. Only downside is that 2 of the levels are very dark. To the point where I wish I had an OLED in a pitch black room. Had a great time with this. Took me 17 hours to complete including some backtracking for items.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Okay, first of all this was my first metroidvania style game so maybe things I did not like are part of the genre. Let's start with positives, this game has a really cute designand you can see that people working on this were passionate about it. The story line was ok, nothing groundbreaking nor terrible, just a nice little tale with some twists. Also the dabbing is really nice, I saw in one of the reviews that the voice of Teddy is not suiting him and I can not disagree more, his voice is…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is a weird one for me It's pretty much as close as you'll get to MMX meet Hollow Knight, which is a decent combo. The game clearly has a lot of heart put into it and is of surprisingly high quality for an indie game in many aspects, it looks pretty good, the audio side is great, VFX are appropriate in looks and intensity for the most part, the story is decent and I do like some of the humor present here. But then small issues come sour the experience. Pogoing off enemies is…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →As a professional bear lover, i approve this game. Game was good, but bear was great.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Visual Style The standout feature of The Darkest Tales is its stunning watercolor aesthetic, evoking the pages of a twisted storybook. Levels are inspired by iconic fairy tales, such as Little Red Riding Hood and Neverland, each warped into something macabre. While most areas are visually captivating, some, like the sea monster's interior, are overly dark, making navigation a chore. The game’s biggest visual flaw, however, lies in its clarity. In a platformer, distinguishing safe terrain from…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A very fun game, if a little too easy. Definitely more aimed at younger players, but still a fun 10hr romp if you're into your metroidvanias.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Amazing game, I loved the Tim Burton meets Alice in Wonderland vibe this game gave off. I love these kind of dark fairy-tale universes. The art style, soundtrack, script, It all came together very nicely. There was a bit to be desired as far the map goes. And the abilities left a bit to be desired. But the world creation and story telling come together so well and the way it was written was so well done its super easy to look past all that.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A mix review...But horrible control...It's like they don't have many testers for this game... Mouse cursor should always be visible on the screen....Just like other metroidvania game. Map system should be added since it's confusing on where we haven't explored...
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →i played a demo and was excited.. but the writing is really obnoxious
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →it has a very fun take fairy tales and that is I like this game so much and the art for the game and trading cards is amazing
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Ridiculously bad game. I mean overall design and idea are awesome. But quality of code and gameplay mechanics are SOOOOOO bad as if it was only bunch of juniors fresh outa school that developed this game. Year and half after release and the major bug like bosses bugging out or dash always moving rightwards no matter what you press are ridiculous. Definitely a choice for people you dont like
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →there is a bug against a princess, the space button wont work neither the joystick so i am just stuck in a boss fight
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Physics really is horrible
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Hey Gamer, I thoroughly enjoyed this game. I played it starting on in the weekend and finished on Tuesday. Was interesting in the story thoroughly as someone who grew up reading all sorts of stories from Grimms' Fairy Tales to Hans Christian Andersen. These stories were warped but they all make sense in the end. And the story twist is brilliant~! There is no map and also sometimes the inputs (controller) seems to get stuck (maybe that is just on my end) but I can so see this getting a sequel.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm taking my time to 100% this gem. I adore the both the story and the game play, it's incredibly forgiving to players mistakes so even if you get stuck somewhere it's not for to long, it hits all the hallmarks of a great game. The graphics, music, all blew me away. I played the demo before the full game came out and had high expectations that where met and blown out of the water, I hope this game gets to soar to great heights. I can tell it was a game made with a lot of love. great job on…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →You had a chance of being ignored... But since you insist, I Will just have to not recommend this game.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Save got erased out of nowhere. 4/10 did not feel like playing again. Don't bother.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I feel like this is the perfect mix between Alice Madness and Hollow Knight. Don't get fooled by the early difficulty, the game gets challenging and even more interesting the more it progresses, unlocking a balanced skill tree and interesting movement mechanics. The looks are amazing and the gameplay hits the right spots for me. I'll play on the steam deck as well and give more insights.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Fun platforming adventuring game with an enjoyable story. #DLGBump
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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