Thank you Hound Picked Games for sending us a review code!

NAIRI: Tower of Shirin was successfully Kickstarted in 2016 and is a 2D point-and-click adventure game that’s about a young girl named Nairi. She lives in the rich district near the tower of Shirin. Her parents are well-respected council members that suddenly get arrested for no valid reason. Before they get taken away, her parents instruct Nairi’s tutor to escort her to safety. While a family friend attempts smuggling Nairi in the desert, she gets captured and her adventure and self-discovery begins.

Like most people in her situation, Nairi is scared and worried about her parents. She wants to find them and know why they were taken away. Unfortunately, she can’t just go back to her district and demand answers unless she wants to get arrested too. Nairi will have to make new friends, but her first task is to escape from her captors in the desert.

Like most point-and-click adventure games, you’ll have to explore your surroundings and collect objects that will become useful in the near future. Some items can be combined together on their own or with the help of some glue if it’s in your inventory. The puzzles in the beginning of the game aren’t too tough to figure out, but the ones near the end of the game may require help from a walkthrough.

Nairi wears a necklace that was given to her by her mother. Not only does this necklace unlock some ancient ruins, it also activates crystals that allow Nairi to communicate with people and even a goddess that passed away a long time ago. Interacting with the departed is necessary for solving many of the puzzles. Some of the other quests are unsavory as well and include stealing and playing matchmaker for a married woman seeking companionship. Violence is shown, but there isn’t any blood, just scrapes and bruises. Last but not least, you’ll find some instances of gross humor including kids farting and picking their nose.

The graphics are hand-drawn and charming. The environments are colorful and nicely detailed. It’s not too hard to find important items. If you click in random spots, you may find a hidden gold coin which can be spent at merchants. The level design can be a little confusing at times, but thankfully there are some signs to guide you to important areas. It is easy to miss an area to explore so don’t be shy to use a walkthrough if needed.

There isn’t any voice acting, just some “blip” sound effects as the text appears on the screen. The background music is charming but not memorable enough for me to want to buy the soundtrack. It is available for purchase on Steam if you’re interested in it though.

All in all, this game can be completed in roughly 6 hours. It does end on a cliffhanger so I hope there is a sequel to tie up the loose ends. The asking price is reasonable and if the moral issues don’t bother you it’s worth looking into. While the Switch version runs well, I was wishing for the precision of a mouse for some of the tile sliding puzzles. The portability of the Switch version is nice though.