Discover this colorful city by searching for Sophia, her pets, and the people she meets on her journey.
Sophia the Traveler is a cozy game based on the Where’s Wally type hobby books ? This point and click title transports us to our childhood, to happier times where the days passed more slowly and we had more time to enjoy the simple things.
In this graphic adventure we accompany Sophia, her dog Mike and her pet parrot on their trip to Venice, the land of water, in which we must find more than 100 objects and characters in addition to our protagonists in different situations.
The mechanics are very simple and after the first level that takes place in a caravan, the possibilities we have become clear to us: interacting with objects, opening drawers, making flowers grow, opening doors or removing leaves from trees are some of the actions that will help us find what is presented to us in the list on the left.
The beauty of simplicity
The developers were in love with the city of Venice thanks to the cinema and it shows in every corner, since despite not having physically gone there, they have spent years exploring its streets and canals through travel books and Google maps, which gave them has allowed us to fill our designs with details. The illustrations are simple, full of color and joy, the animations, characters and landscapes are drawn by hand and you can see the love with which they have created every corner of this animated Venice.
The story is presented to us in the form of a comic between levels, in the balloons that appear when clicking on the object or character in the list of items to search, in animations and in the music, sounds and atmosphere generated by all this amalgam of noises and voices. The feeling can be a little overwhelming at times with so much hustle and bustle, but we can get away by simply moving to another side of the map, since the sounds are located at different points on the map, as we change our location, the noises and voices change. we found.
The different levels are full of Easter eggs that encourage us to explore to find these references, in this way, we can come across all kinds of icons from cinema, television and, of course, from video games, for example. , Ryu and Ken from Street fighter.
Design flaws
The title is visually very friendly, however, it is not so user-friendly, where some points could be improved that would make the experience even more pleasant. For me it is a game to play slowly, take our time exploring each corner, discover its casual animations, in short, relax and enjoy . That said, I miss the possibility of having all the objectives on the same page, there are levels in which the number of characters to find is quite voluminous and it would be appreciated to have them in view at all times without having to scroll.
Along these same lines, the levels are not well defined, finding the maximum difficulty in levels 4, 6 and 8, the latter being especially complex, not only because of the number of objectives, but also because of the size of the map and its dimensions. , since we have to remove leaves, draw curtains, open windows, drawers, boxes, trunks and a long etc.
Conclusions
Sophia the Traveler is a game made with the intention of being cozy and making us remember our childhood and it is something that it achieves perfectly, from the home screen with its protagonist playing the guitar, making the song not something accessory, but rather integrated in the narrative showing Sophia’s love for music.
The game is short, approximately two hours , something that is appreciated nowadays, especially for those of us who find it difficult to find moments of peace to spend a little time doing what we like most, it is a title with which we can relax without pressures , since, if we do not find an object, the game provides us with a magnifying glass every 6 minutes, this magnifying glass shows us the approximate area where our objective is located. This way we won’t be left without the achievement for a rebel object.
We have enjoyed it very much, perhaps more finding Easter eggs than the objects on the list , and it has served to relax and put a smile on our faces during a particularly stressful week.