Monument Valley – Sacred Geometry

It took me longer to finish this game than I thought. After beating the main story and managing to finish seven out of the eight bonus chapters, I got stuck at the last one. Then I didn’t have any energy to do a short standalone chapter as well.

Then I once accidentally deleted my progress. The game’s menu is a bit vague but I caught up to where I left off in no time. Now I’ve finally finished this game and I am ready to share my thoughts on it.

Monument Valley is a minimalistic puzzle game involving the use of optical illusions and manipulating the environment around Princess Ida to allow her to reach certain platforms. She is on a quest for forgiveness as it is hinted in various parts of the game when she speaks with a ghostly figure who talks about something called Sacred Geometry. The game was released on mobile but later came to PC, marketed as Panoramic Edition. It is short in length but memorable.

I really like the audio in this game, it is quite serene and otherworldly, while the visuals are beautifully designed with the colours and each chapter offers something unique in experience.

Speaking of which, the puzzles are not too difficult but each chapter has its own challenge to overcome.

I like the chapters with the totem that whenever Ida is separated from it, they always find a way back to each other. It’s the crow people that I don’t like. They always get in the way and the real challenge came when I got to the bonus chapter The Thief where Ida loses her hat and has to guide the crow that stole it, back to her so that she may retrieve it.

Ida’s quest for forgiveness seems to be about her stealing the sacred geometry and what has been lost becomes transpicuous once I reached the chapter of The Descent which is one of my favourite chapters alongside The Box and Water Garden. It is not revealed why she stole the sacred geometry, but it has cost her people their true forms, including hers.

To return them all, it made me happy to see a positive outcome to the main story. That left me with the bonus chapters, my favourite being the Serpent Lake where a new form of controlling my surroundings is introduced.

Ida’s Dream was a separate adventure that I initially had a little trouble with in the beginning, which led to me taking a break. When I started this game, I was playing it between night shifts during the week of late October when I was scheduled for them. It was just a game that was easy to squeeze in at that time.

Now that I’ve finished it, what can I say? It’s a good easy and relaxing game and I look forward to playing its sequel. That’s it really, but it’s good for a mobile game ported to PC.