In this charming indie, an aspiring writer gets lost in a scenic coastal destination while searching for inspiration. Diana Caproni wanders Borga Marina, making friends and solving mysteries in this low-intensity detective story.
Italian developer Memorable Games has crafted a gorgeous setting that serves as an ode to Ligurian communities and Mediterranean vistas. The location and sleuthing format also recall seminal adventure titles of yesteryear - particularly the sun-soaked vibrancy of the Broken Sword series.
Struggling to improve her writing, Diana (who, like everyone else in this world, is an anthropomorphic animal) hops on her scooter and motors off to get her creative juices flowing - and to uncover more about a familial connection to an idyllic resort town. Immediately puzzling her way into the locals’ hearts, Diana’s journey takes her through one mystery after another.
Gameplay is a mix of dialogue sequences, minigames, and detective puzzles. Diana collects cards from every interaction and discovery she makes around Borga Marina. These cards are stored in her mind palace, where they can be reviewed at any time for context on the unfolding story.
During investigation sequences, certain areas hide a set of clues tied to past events. Fortunately, Diana possesses a 'chronolens', a device that gives her the ability to peer into the past. This enables her to uncover clues used in the investigation minigame. It's always handy to have temporal manipulation gadget when you need one.
Investigations take place in a charming, board-game-style diorama. This turn-based activity has Diana applying the clues she’s gathered in the correct sequence. As the story progresses, the boards become more complex, but the sequencing remains approachable. If she gets stuck, Diana can use joker cards to simplify the investigation or boost the chronolens's ability to find clues.
As she explores the town, Diana meets companions - some of whom will tag along on her adventures. These relationships unlock additional minigames. Taking a part-time job as a waitress unlocks a chibi serve-'em-up game. There's also competitive marbles and a mail delivery gig, all in a day's work for a complete stranger trying to solve a spate of robberies.
Engaging with these activities changes the world around Diana, adding a light social sim element that complements the mystery-solving dynamic. A day cycle resets minigame opportunities and adds progression to relationships, which creates a loop that can be satisfying to explore. There's a lot to do here, an activity around each corner.
Despite its various systems, On Your Tail maintains a calming and cosy atmosphere for the most part. However, Diana’s peaceful sojourn is frequently disrupted by technical issues and performance hiccups on Switch.
For a game that encourages exploration and regularly sends our inquisitive hero trekking across Borga Marina, the frequent loading kills momentum. Simply walking from one side of town to the other can trigger a significant number of loading screens. Entering buildings or transitioning between story scenes also takes a noticeably long time.
In our review copy, area load transitions occasionally caused crashes, further slowing Diana’s holiday. These crashes are accompanied by numerous technical issues, including frequent texture pop-in and environments failing to load as Diana runs through them. The cards displayed for dialogue and location discovery often struggle to load as well. It’s worth noting that these visual issues seemed a bit less prevalent in handheld mode.
Elsewhere, conversations occasionally bug out completely, leaving Diana (and you) stuck between dialogue transitions. This can be resolved using a pause menu option labeled 'Unstick Player' - an odd addition that seems to suggest these scripting issues are both expected and unavoidable.
It’s a shame to encounter so many technical hurdles while playing On Your Tail, because the overall experience is clearly designed with care. The developers have lovingly built Borga Marina and its inhabitants; the music and relaxing soundscape pair beautifully as you stroll through the winding streets in search of clues.
Conclusion
An engaging blend of life sim and detective mystery, On Your Tail has a wonderful setting and great characters. Unfortunately, the overall experience is bogged down by painful load times and debilitating technical issues. The game isn't a graphical powerhouse and the Switch is more than capable of maintaining a stable day in Borga Marina. Here’s hoping Memorable can patch in some improvements post-launch so that Diana’s search for inspiration feels less like a slog.
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Comments 29
I am interested in the game, too bad for the technical problems highlighted in the review. I will wait to buy it, if it improves with the patches, also because the price is not exactly cheap.
Damn. This had such good user reviews on Steam and I really was contemplating getting this to pass the time before Xenoblade X's release.
I guess the Switch version will be a pass , for now.
have it on steam. great game. shame about the tech issues, but really fun game. 6 seems a little harsh considering the game is fun beside the tech issues, but i suppose that can really impact the fun you have. Either way, snap this up when on sale i think
Thanks for the review, glad to hear that the game itself is great as its issues on Switch are technical ones - fingers crossed they'll be fixed through patches (especially the crashes) and/or Switch 2 (the loading times), but I'll eventually get it for sure anyway also considering they're "a bit less prevalent in handheld mode"!
Where are the indie games starting people? Every time I see a game that might be good the devs are furries.
Been binge-playing it since day 1 and loving it,yeah its a little buggy but nothing major.The game is amazing,don't skip on it just for a few bugs that could be fixed with an update.
I know releasing Switch versions helps indies out a lot, but I feel like every developer from indie to AAA should just wait for Switch 2 instead.
@LadyCharlie As people keep explaining, the Switch 2, at best, will help the “Punishing load times”. Developers are responsible for fixing “Glaring technical issues” and “Frequent crashes” even if the game is running on an NSA super computer.
even good games are shovelware on switch.
developers see what people will tolerate this generation on switch, even from Nintendo themselves, so now they think of our platform as the one where the users don't give a sh*t.
People that only remember wii and switch think it's always been this way, others are in denial that it is this way.
@nessisonett
I used to love an animal person showing up in a game, a la chrono trigger or suikoden. Now it's become shorthand for "game I won't like, probably." 🤔
I was on the fence for this game, and waited for a review.
Luckily I did. This is not a game that should run badly on the Switch. That it does just means it's poorly optimised and buggy. Sorry but there is no excuse for that.
@LadyCharlie Nah, no way the Switch can't run this game. Devs should optimize and fix their games instead.
It's not "Borga Marina"
It's BORGO MARINA (in English, you’d probably translate this fictional Italian town name as 'Marineburg').
@fenlix you can blame the developers so far when 90% of Switch 1 games reviewed now, from indies to big AAAs, are all having a stroke running on it's absolutely ancient chipset from 10 years ago.
I feel like for the past 12 months 9/10 times reviews I see and read on Nintendo Life are all about how bad the games run on Switch. Hell, even Nintendo games are now struggling on the thing, do I need to remind you about Echoes of Wisdom?
This is the hardware issue at this point, it's not an isolated case and we've got an overwhelming number of examples from this past year already.
Yes, I put this on my wish list, but will take it off. One reason that I like simple “cosy” games is because they are simple and easy to play. This game sounds like too big of a hassle. I might wait for sale and fix. Thank you for the review!
@nessisonett I fail to see a problem.
@dugan The review makes it seem worse than it is,the gameplay itself is simple to play and cozy,the game never crashed for me.But yeah,the loading issue is true,not a huge issue tought,just having to wait a minute for the next bigh chunk of town to load.
My biggest "what if" with switch 2 is if it'll provide a considerable performance boosts for og switch games with minor input for Devs. I'm talking games that would naturally perform better with more RAM, CPU/GPU power. Because if it does, it could really give of switch games a second extended life.
@Ejadaddy That's technically not possible. Games would need at least an update to use the increased RAM, CPU and GPU. Otherwise some games might not work at all. (for example games timed by cpu cycles, which still sometimes happens) I am certain that games will run in a "Switch"-mode on the Switch 2. With maybe an option to add Switch 2 updates to games (like on XBOX or PS).
Faster RAM might help the load times, because those aren't timed that might help. But we'll have to see.
Switch is the only thing I've got that can play this right now, so while I will wait for a sale, I either need to get this and ignore the technical issues or drop the idea altogether.
@sanderev it would be much more complicated for them to make a "Switch-mode" than Switch 1 games just running at higher Switch 2 clocks which would improve the performance.
@Randomname19
I agree to certain point. There is a great game under the hood here. The loading time, however, is a HUGE issue. I’m not an impatient player, but when you have to wait 20 seconds for a screen transition, you begin to question your sanity.
So it's another case of buy it anywhere but Switch? Why am I not surprised? Switch 2 can't come soon enough, honestly.
@sanderev Yeah and that's why I said "with minor input from the dev". If the process for increasing performance is not a tedious one, it could incentivise Devs to do it with a benefit of getting more sales. But yes, we will have to wait and see. April can't come soon enough!
@Ejadaddy I just don't like that people seem to think that the Switch 2 is magically going to improve every Switch game. That's not possible.
@sanderev No it's not. But if it's been engineered with this consideration in mind, then it may make it possible with some input from the Devs. Well, we'll see what happens come April but I ain't holding my breath
@AlexRoivas @tanaka2687 It's not even so much of a screen transition as you have to sit for 20 seconds waiting for another part of THE SAME SCREEN to load.
@tanaka2687 The game is absolutely fun besides the tech issues, but I think a 6 is more than fair. The game has annoyingly frequent load times and is constantly crashing to the point where it has significantly affected my enjoyment of the game as a whole. In fact, my most recent crash has rendered the game literally unplayable. Every time I try to boot the game back up, it crashes on loading the save file. The game needs a serious patch, like, NOW. If this is the shape the game is in after several months of delay, I can't imagine how bad it ran BEFORE it was delayed.
@Randomname19 You must be playing a magical version of the game if yours never crashed. Mine crashes just about all the time.
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