When it comes to game design, most of it revolves around having a solid idea and then going full-bore, capitalising on one thread, and having the player follow it along. In Telmari the player is given a mechanic in the first level and must continue using it through to the end.
The game starts with Telmari, a small red-headed lady, intent on a mission to fell a demon tree whose roots are suffocating her precious sunflowers. Along with a talking cat companion, she sets out to travel through several lands equipped with her trusty bow.
It’s not as simple as it may seem though. Telmari can only overcome obstacles by using her bow to plant arrows in the landscape and using them as springboards to reach higher and further than she would normally. Moving through each level, which measures just one screen, will get you closer to the goal of the demon tree. In one spot you might be placing an arrow and making a simple leap forward, beating the kitty to the end and earning a trophy; or you might be chaining together several jumps over many arrows while avoiding danger. It’s worth noting that the arrows are temporary, they break after two touches or after a few seconds.
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Danger usually comes in the form of wild animals getting in the way or breaking your arrows, preventing your traversal, either that or horrible pink roots covered in spikes. As is traditional with these kinds of platformers you get one life per attempt - end up hitting spikes and it’s back to the start of the screen.
That’s about all you need to know about how Telmari plays. It’s a very simple approach to a well-worn genre of difficult, twitch platformers. Initially, everything feels great. The whole concept, wrapped up in lovely comic book style, is a joy throughout the first twenty or so levels. Chaining together several arrows, placed at the correct points so they don’t break before you use them, it feels wonderful. Then frustration sets in, and this cannot be swerved because the arrow mechanic is your only way through. If you can’t time things write, there’s no breaking away and trying something else.
When you structure a game around just one mechanic it restricts imagination on the player’s behalf - there’s really only one solution, or a very slight variation on it. On one level, despite knowing exactly where the arrows had to land, I was stuck for over half an hour because I couldn’t get the timings right across firing arrows, dodging enemies, and bouncing through small timed windows of said enemy movement.
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Of course, this mileage will vary depending on your skill level, but regardless, it would have been nice for Telmari’s arrows to have a secondary skill, especially as Telmari won’t hurt a creature. It’s a game for the most patient among us and one that will go down well with speedrunners. It’s reminiscent of old-school platformers in both the best ways and the worst - simple to pick up, difficult to master. While I enjoyed my time with Telmari, it isn’t a game that will stand out in memory outside of its genuinely lovely visual design and early levels.
Pros: Good puzzle platforming, Lovely hand-drawn graphics
Cons: The simplistic nature of solving the levels gets old, can get frustrating quickly
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For fans of: Celeste, Super Mario Bros, Braid
6/10: Good
Telmari is available now on Steam. Review code was provided by the publisher. Read a guide to our review scores here.