Leaves: The Journey

About

Leaves: The Journey is a single player puzzle game. It was developed by ZAR 21 and was released on March 7, 2017. It received positive reviews from players.

"Leaves: The Journey" is a narrative-driven adventure game where you play as a curious caterpillar. Explore a vibrant forest, solve puzzles, and interact with other creatures to uncover the secrets of the forest. With its charming art style and emotional story, Leaves offers a unique and memorable gaming experience.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

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82%

Audience ScoreBased on 492 reviews

graphics93 positive mentions

story10 negative mentions

The game features charming artwork and a whimsical, surreal world that captivates players.
Puzzles are creatively designed, offering a good mix of challenge without being overly frustrating.
The game provides a relaxing experience, allowing players to enjoy the journey of solving puzzles at their own pace.

The user interface can be clunky, with navigation arrows disappearing and inventory management being cumbersome.
Some puzzles are tedious and may require excessive backtracking, which can disrupt the flow of gameplay.
Technical issues, such as high resource usage leading to overheating, can detract from the overall experience.

graphics
178 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
52%
46%
2%
The graphics of the game are widely praised for their stunning and unique art style, often described as surreal and reminiscent of renowned artists like Salvador Dali and H.R. Giger. While many players appreciate the beautiful visuals and creative design, some criticize the simplistic 2D art assets and lack of substantial graphical options, which can detract from the overall experience. Overall, the game's aesthetic is a significant highlight, contributing to its charm and immersive atmosphere.
- “The graphics are stunning, the gameplay challenging, and the music is lovely.”
- “Leaves showcases some of the most clever puzzles in the point-and-click puzzle genre and features a wonderful art style, a combination of CG backgrounds and photographs.”
- “I have only played for about an hour so far but I am transfixed and mesmerized by the stunning artwork.”
- “While there are options to change the resolution for the game, all this does is scale up the simplistic 2D art assets used to make the game, which makes little or no difference to the graphics quality.”
- “Without any other substantial graphics tweaks, it's not possible for gamers to improve the lackluster 2D visuals.”
- “Looks and feels older than it is; I suspect the lack of eye-catching graphics is probably why the players/reviewers are somewhat limited.”
story
70 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
11%
75%
14%
The game's story is largely considered minimal or non-existent, with many reviewers noting that it serves primarily as a backdrop for puzzles rather than a central focus. While some players appreciate the artistic communication and subtle narrative elements, others find the lack of a clear storyline and character development disappointing. Overall, the narrative is often described as thin, with many feeling it detracts from the overall experience.
- “As you adventure through the artistic world, there will be puzzles and challenges you must solve if you are to progress further into the story.”
- “Based on the length and difficulty of this puzzle, I will rate 10/10 just because it has the most amazing story and ending!”
- “The communication is artistic, not spoken, and to me that creates a deeper relationship to the mechanics and the story progression for a player.”
- “There isn't really an accompanying story in the game.”
- “To say it has a story is almost laughable.”
- “The story is almost non-existent.”
music
64 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
44%
43%
13%
The music in the game receives mixed reviews, with many praising its beauty and immersive quality that complements the stunning visuals and puzzles. However, some players find the soundtrack repetitive or lacking depth, with a few noting the absence of a more dynamic musical score. Overall, while the ambient sounds and music enhance the experience for many, others feel it could be more varied and engaging.
- “If you enjoy surreal art, you will love Eve Nohl's art direction here; the soundtrack and ambience are also beautiful and immersive, and the puzzles are quite original.”
- “The graphics are stunning, the gameplay challenging, and the music is lovely.”
- “The music score and sound effects fit the game very well and don’t overpower.”
- “There is no pleasant music and many times the ambient noises were very annoying, like loud thunder or whooshing sounds.”
- “Unfortunately the game has almost no music at all, which makes it incredibly sterile.”
- “While most puzzles make sense, the vast majority of the game lacks interesting music, story, or cohesive art.”
gameplay
46 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
17%
76%
7%
The gameplay is characterized by a mix of relaxing and challenging elements, featuring surreal puzzles that can be both intriguing and frustrating due to mechanics like backtracking and a cumbersome inventory system. While the point-and-click mechanics and artistic communication enhance the experience, some players found the gameplay uneven and the story lacking clarity. Overall, it offers a decent length of playtime, but many recommend waiting for a sale to fully appreciate its value.
- “The graphics are stunning, the gameplay challenging, and the music is lovely.”
- “Leaves - The Return features the same mechanics as the first game, but has a new map to explore and new puzzles that rival the creativity of the original.”
- “It uses the typical point-and-click mechanics and has a nice variety of puzzles to solve.”
- “For gameplay purposes, because the user interface for this game is mostly just 2D static images with a few flash-like sprites and objects on top... it might as well be a browser game.”
- “The game mechanics are not great - there is a lot of backtracking, the map doesn't allow you to instantly travel back to where you want to go, the pull-down screen for your inventory often gets triggered when you are trying to climb a ladder. I also didn't get the achievement for seeing all of the inhabitants, even though I saw them all twice.”
- “However, the mechanics and specifically the puzzles are nonetheless surrealist, incomprehensible, and illogical, combined with annoying game mechanics and quite a bit of back and forth.”
grinding
36 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
6%
94%
The grinding aspect of the game is characterized by numerous tedious puzzles that often feel more like chores than engaging challenges, leading to frustration among players. While some puzzles are interesting, the overall experience is marred by vague instructions and excessive backtracking, making progress feel laborious. Many reviewers express a lack of motivation to continue due to the repetitive and tedious nature of the gameplay.
- “Even though there are some interesting puzzles, there are just too many tedious puzzles that are not fun to solve, so I have no interest in continuing this game.”
- “Didn't like the puzzles either, as they felt more like tedious chores than something clever to figure out.”
- “Very boring and tedious puzzles, unpleasant art and animation (everything looks very cheap).”
atmosphere
30 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
47%
43%
10%
The game's atmosphere is described as surreal, artistic, and relaxing, with a Salvador Dali-like quality that immerses players in a unique fantasy world. While some reviewers appreciate the creativity and visuals, others feel that the atmosphere lacks depth and coherence, and that the puzzles can feel more like chores within this setting. Overall, it appeals to those who enjoy atmospheric puzzle games, despite some criticisms regarding its execution and comparison to more polished titles.
- “If you like relaxing puzzles with a little bit of a Salvador Dali atmosphere, try this!”
- “The atmosphere was nice and surreal and I enjoyed wasting an afternoon on this, even if I did feel like I was stumbling around in the dark for a lot of it - if you like feeling like you're in a surreal fantasy world where nothing makes sense, then this is the game for you.”
- “So much creativity was given for every location, for they each have their own unique atmosphere, visuals, and sounds.”
- “The visuals are surreal, but do not create a sense of atmosphere.”
- “There's so many better point-and-click puzzle games out there, and ones with more logical and satisfying puzzles, and which nail the surreal atmosphere far better than this trash does.”
- “It has its own atmosphere but lacks story or characters, which I would love.”
stability
16 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's stability is largely criticized, with numerous reports of glitches affecting puzzles and navigation, leading to crashes and frustrating gameplay experiences. While some players noted a lack of significant bugs, the overall consensus points to a buggy interface that detracts from the game's potential.
- “Damn near every puzzle glitches, and the only thing to do is reload.”
- “Though it proved to be a little buggy: sometimes had to guess where the scene navigation arrow was since it did not appear and it crashed several times, making me fail an achievement.”
- “Terrible, sluggish, and very buggy interface on what would have been a decent puzzler.”
humor
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is highlighted by its funny characters and quirky art style, reminiscent of Shaun Tan, which adds to the overall enjoyment. Players find the mix of humor and challenging puzzles engaging, though some express frustration at getting stuck. Overall, the game successfully combines humor with cute and whimsical elements.
- “I really enjoyed the Shaun Tan-esque art style with its quirky geometry and funny designs.”
- “- funny characters”
- “You love puzzles with funny and extra cute or mixed feelings?”
optimization
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
34%
33%
The game's optimization has been widely criticized, with users reporting significant technical performance issues, including memory leaks. Overall, it is considered poorly optimized, detracting from the overall experience.
- “[*] not well optimized.”
- “The worst aspect of this game is the technical performance.”
- “The game simply had a memory leak, likely because it's not that optimized.”
character development
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Character development is noted for its unique and unconventional designs, often evoking comparisons to abstract art and Monty Python animations, resulting in a distinctive visual style that stands out from typical game aesthetics.
emotional
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players appreciate the emotional satisfaction derived from the "need help?" hint system, which allows them to feel a sense of accomplishment when they receive assistance. The hints often lead to moments of realization, enhancing the overall emotional engagement with the game.