a dog lähetti viestin:

this review was originally completed on jan 4th 2025, please see postscript below

starting this review, i saw another reviewer cite their personal connection to italy, so i might as well steal their whole flow; but like, make it dark and evil instead

i'm an american and i had the displeasure of being dragged to a coastal italian town during the summer for a few days shortly after turning 16 (i naïvely assumed i'd be staying in france for all 14 days i was visiting).
there was jack all that i could do on my own, not knowing any of the local languages (latam spanish ≠ eu spanish) so a good chunk of my time was spent wandering between patches of shade in a delirium caused by ~40°C temperatures.
of the specific sights i can recall visiting, there was a beachside café (whose owner singled me out for standing by the restrooms, the person whom i was traveling with noted that they'd never heard her speak with such contempt before), a trattoria (which operated more like a ristorante, requiring an advance reservation, so we couldn't get lunch there), and a gelateria (where i would've gladly spent more money indulging in their available flavors were i not lactose intolerant).
the only thing keeping me sane was the person whom i travelled to see in the first place (the surviving records of our stay that i possess are a boar plush they won from a crane game and a photo of a cicada imprisoned in an empty water bottle); on the other hand, the only thing that could've shattered my sanity was swimming in literally unfamiliar waters (i was encouraged to try swimming in just my unmentionables, i politely declined the suggestion).

if what i've described previously seems at all similar to the game’s setting, then i invite you to try and imagine how i felt upon discovering that this game existed. seeing it in trailers was one thing, but after trying the demo, i was set on buying the game no matter what (i.e., my expectations had already been met at this point).
the sheer strength of the art direction is undeniable; the character art for the main cast is immensely expressive and instantly endears you to them, with even the unseen residents being given the same level of love and attention. the environmental design is just as full of life, where interiors are regularly filled with little details that communicate both the history of the town and its characters.
unfortunately, the story as it’s told directly isn’t nearly as elegant, due in part to either the english translation/localization or the actual quality of writing. as the game progressed, i found the script gradually but noticeably become more difficult to parse, to the point that the impact of both emotional beats and new information was dulled by me reflexively questioning if what i read was a mistranslation or not.
the core gameplay loop of investigation-deduction, alongside the occasional interrogation, sadly inherits the issues i previously described on top of those already present due to its fundamental design. the collection of clues by questioning all concerned parties and scanning the immediate area with diana’s chronolens is painless enough if you’re thorough, but the actual deductions are where i increasingly found myself becoming frustrated. what are initially engaging little logic puzzles where you have to figure out the rules and hidden wrinkles eventually become draining exercises in trial-and-error, with the final few cases (both indirectly and directly) encouraging this approach.
although the interrogation segments aren't nearly as draining when you're forced to restart, the rough state of the english script ends up causing just as much frustration due to their text-heavy nature.

but what i find most damning is that all side activities outside of the relationship quests are little more than flavor text.
this isn’t to say that i think that they should’ve had some kind of extrinsic reward tied to them, but if i repeatedly find myself thinking about doing something and ultimately deciding against it after considering how many hoops i’d have to go through to do so, then there’s either an issue with motivation or how the content is designed to be accessed.

overall, i can only broadly recommend this game on the merit of its art (characters, environments) alone, as little else in the game is as coherent nor as consistently compelling as it, barring few and brief moments of brilliance.
if it’s not already obvious by this point, i deeply wish i could give specific, constructive criticism regarding many aspects of the game, but this is not the place for that. for any indie developer, every review matters, both in terms of their content (is it truthful and informative? does it reflect the game's qualities, or the reviewer's?) and polarity ("YY% of XX", metrics dictate whether a game shows up on people's radars or not). so while i'm very reluctant to post something for any game, regardless of the impact it's had on me, i felt the need to somehow compromise between my desire to make heads-or-tails of my experiences and my desire to support Memorable Games' efforts (albeit they're not exactly in direct conflict with each other, i just felt like killing two birds with one stone).

a dog lähetti viestin:

hello, this is the postscript! (written june 12th 2025)

the above review was written when the game was in its launch state, which was incredibly rough (as one might logically deduce by the deluge of patches that followed); reportedly, things have significantly improved, but i don’t think i’ll be revisiting On Your Tail in the near future. the devs have stated they have plans for DLC, so if you do end up enjoying the game, there’s going to be more of it (hopefully)!

i’ve largely forgotten much of the specifics of what i’d critique about the game (sorry if you wanted to pick my brain about them) but i think it says something when i can still recall my major frustrations as well as what i’d consider the high points of my experience.
i also happen to possess footage of (almost) my entire playthrough, so any issues described in negative reviews around the time i originally wrote this may be documented in it lol

Great game, really pretty art, characters and enviroments as well, good story and overall nice and cozy expertience.
I played the Switch version, now playing it on my SteamDeck again.

Can only recommend.

Maureuroeururauruoruruurraurauruor