Deaf Game Review – Ghost of a Tale

Review in short

Score

6.7 out of 10

Pros

• No spoken dialogue so all dialogue text is well done, icon system for having been spotted by an enemy

Cons

• Even with the visibility icon there are still times when players need to rely on hearing to avoid enemies, lore font choice may be difficult to read for some

Above score was automatically converted from 0-6 scale to a 0-10 scale.

Full review

In Ghost of a Tale, an RPG from SeithCG, you play as Tilo, a Minstrel Mouse in search of his wife in a world ruled by some pretty awful Rats. Throughout the game, you’ll rely on stealth and creative problem solving to complete both main story missions and side missions.

Quite often, games that require players to rely on being stealthy are difficult for Deaf and HoH gamers. The frequent lack of visual indications when you’ve been spotted by an enemy paired with being unable to hear footsteps or enemy voices make for a nearly impossible experience.

Ghost of a Tale is not like most stealth games though.

Ghost of a Tale implemented Deaf/HoH accessibility features!

Now, they’re not perfect, but they’re still quite helpful and make what would otherwise be an unplayable game for Deaf and HoH gamers a fun (and adorable!) experience.

As far as audio options go, there is no spoken dialogue, so no need for subtitle settings, but there are sliders for various volume settings.

Above is the icon you’ll see above an enemy’s head. The icon itself is quite helpful, though the difference between the one indicating you’ve been heard and the one indicating you’ve been seen are not nearly different enough to differentiate, especially when playing on a console, sitting a ways away from your TV.

Here are the icons in action:

While these icons are very helpful if you’ve spotted an enemy, given that there’s no minimap or radar type thing telling you of the location of nearby enemies, there were several occasions I died after being caught and I wouldn’t have if I’d been able to hear the enemy footsteps. However, after dying a few times, you learn the patterns of enemies and can then avoid detection. Is having to learn their patterns due to lack of sound visualization ideal? No. But you can so the game isn’t entirely unplayable for Deaf/HoH players, just more frustrating on occasion. One annoying issue here (and one that exists in many games) is that when spotted by an enemy, even if players miss the icon changing, the music changes, so hearing players are well aware they need to run and hide. This needs to be paired with an equally obvious visual cue for Deaf/HoH players.

I mentioned there is no spoken dialogue, so no need for subtitle options, though there are instances of on-screen text. Size wise, it’s decent, though there are no size options. Font wise, it may prove hard to read for some, as it’s a stylized font instead of a clean, easy-to-read sans serif font.

Same issue with lore books and notes. The font choice isn’t the easiest to read and an option for text subtitles would be incredibly helpful.

The dialogue choices are clearer and easier to read than the lore text, thankfully. And again, with there being no spoken dialogue, text is nice and large because it’s the only way information is communicated to the player.

Overall, thanks to the enemy awareness icons, this stealthy, adorable mouse action RPG is rather Deaf/HoH friendly. It may prove frustrating on occasion as players may need to try a few times to learn enemy patterns, but given those patterns, it is entirely possible to play without hearing.