Havsala: Into the Soul Palace is an actual Soul palace for Phryne’s reincarnations. She was a woman who loved herself and life itself: she wanted to learn, live more, and thus she built this sanctuary for her own soul because she believed that the body may die but even then, a soul should remember what it knows. She could not bear the idea of filling this empty shell of her soul and then letting go of all of that. In this beautifully drawn one-room point-and-click puzzle game, we witness Phryne’s two other reincarnations and their stories. The game was published on 21 June 2022 by the developers Ubik Studios and Stratera Games.
The game’s opening starts with reading Phryne’s book; it sets up the tone for the rest of the game and creates a mystery for players to unravel. In every book you read, you realize that this is a place for people who have been searching throughout history, seeking an escape when they feel trapped. Nevertheless, beware that you might need to read more than you expected, but do not worry: there is a notebook that contains information about the characters and books you read in summary. There is also a cute companion: a crow that, if you feed it, will give you little hints on puzzles. The story is intriguing but has a hard time explaining itself to the player. Even though as a player you try to do everything the game asks you to do, you might not understand the story in the end. On the other hand, with art design and music, the game immediately sets the vibe. Also, I must mention that it caught my attention that the character choices are unique, especially because the story focuses on female thinkers, mythological and historical figures. Instead of showing them just as muses or background figures, the game portrays them as intelligent minds who study science, philosophy and rituals. So, with these we can clearly see a pattern of character selection and creation choices.
Personally, I would not call this game a cozy puzzle. The first reason is that it contains a lot of reading for a short puzzle game in which there are heavy notions, and these vary from cosmology to philosophy to mythology. They are not complex texts but if you have no interest in these fields as a player, you may get bored and eventually stuck on the puzzles. For the second reason, the puzzles may be a bit difficult for most of the players—especially if you are new to the genre—and there are some points in game where the puzzles are quite obscure. In addition, there are some errors in the English in-game texts; some misspelling and grammar mistakes were clearly observable.
As level design in the puzzle part, the game contains four chapters, and each chapter has its own unique, beautiful puzzles. There are few items to use in different chapters, so as a player you must investigate the room thoroughly and pay attention to the details. Although, in a few puzzles, the game does not give clear instructions on how to approach the puzzle, so as a player it is possible to feel like the game mechanics are hard to understand and play. Overall, it has quite good, challenging, and variable puzzles.
Publisher: Stratera Games, Rouge Duck Interactive, Gamersky Games
Developer: Ubik Studios, Stratera Games
Platforms: Steam
Release Date: 21 June 2022
Genres: Adventure, Indie, RPG, Strategy
PEGI: Not rated
Photos: Screenshots from Havsala: Into the Soul Palace (Ubik Studios, Stratera Games, 2022), taken by Elif Bozdağ
