Mirrored Souls is a short and sweet puzzler from The Bricks Studio. Don’t be fooled though, there is a good challenge to be had here.
The concept is simple enough; the screen in split in two, and on either side we have two characters – Daru and Ravi. Our controller inputs move both of them in opposite tandem – that is to say, pressing right moves Daru right but Ravi left. Using this set up, we must navigate both characters to the goals on their respective sides. Of course, that’s not enough of a brain twist, and so Bricks have laid out each area with various switches, doors, pressure pads and more that need manipulating in order to pass the level.
Some are simple enough, like moving a block to hold a door for the other character, while others require not just logic but also rhythmic timing. One such level had me using an extra ledge on Ravi’s side to give them extra height on a jump, and then needing to press the jump button in an alternate rhythm to make them jump individually rather than at the same time. Later levels use this mechanic and more, and it can all get rather tricky.
When solved, the levels are only a matter of seconds long generally but it is that initial brain scratching that takes the time of course. In between some stages we get story interludes, and the mirrored world aspect plays in here, with things perhaps not being quite even between the two characters. It’s snappy enough to read and digest, though as usual I was just keen to get back to the puzzles.
For hardened puzzle fans this shouldn’t take more than a few hours to get through, but if we get really stuck then we can enable an option to skip a puzzle. There doesn’t’ seem to be any way of indicating which ones have been skipped though, so we’ll need to make a mental note if we want to come back to any of these. It does at least let us get through and not get stuck on one level, which came in handy once or twice!
Presentation wise, Mirrored Souls is nicely done, with a colourful, painterly art style that presents both sides of the screen as different times of day. Complimented with some calming music, it’s a tough challenge that is made to feel somewhat less stressful by the audio/visual work.
Conclusion
Overall, Mirrored Souls is an enjoyable, surprisingly tough puzzle title with a well-implemented dual-control mechanic. The Bricks Studio make sure to make good use of the various mechanics they introduce, and for those looking for a new puzzler to see them through a few evenings this will do nicely.
This game was reviewed based on Xbox S|X review code, using an Xbox S|X console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.
