Tuuli

"Tuuli" is a short piece in which we're an apprentice witch whose teacher dies on the eve of an oncoming invasion, the moment when the village's only hope lies in the local witch's skill. It doesn't feel like an especially puzzle-oriented story, though there are a few short hurdles along the way. For the most part, though, it's about the story.

The setting is ... it looks like pre-Christian Finland. The witch's incantations appear to be Finnish. These incantations are untranslated, which gives them a certain "otherness" when read alongside the English text, much as French or Latin would in other contexts. The writing is pretty effective at conveying a sense of both time and place, I think. And the story itself isn't simply about defeating the invaders: it's a coming-of-age story, and touches on some pretty serious ideas about the state of the world and the human condition. That's a lot to pack into what is essentially a short story, and "Tuuli" does it effectively.

As mentioned, this isn't really a puzzle-oriented game. Our heroine knows the essentials of what must be done, though we're all in the dark; but those essentials turn out to be fairly intuitive once we get down to it. I did have a moment of frustration with the final part of the climactic defeat-the-invaders spell, knowing the essentials of what had to be done but not finding the right verb for it. It's the one fly in the ointment in what is mostly a pretty smooth experience, and I feel that perhaps a few more responses to the wrong-but-related actions would have been nice.

Smoked herring on hapankorppu, a small side of viili yoghurt, and strong coffee. Not too heavy, but the flavour of that herring packs quite a punch.