Review: NAIRI: Tower of Shirin is a gem as far as point-and-click games go

NAIRI: Tower of Shirin is a point-and-click adventure game that will have you running around meeting interesting characters and solving easy-intermediate puzzles. It runs like a standard point-and-click game where you interact with items, combine them, and use them to further your progress.

I’ll be honest, I binged the game in one sitting. It took about 6 hours, but I had a little help from a guide at the end or it might’ve lasted longer. 

NAIRI: Tower of the Shirin: There and back again

NAIRI: Tower of the Shirin follows the story of a young girl named Nairi. She grew up in the rich district of Shirin and lived a sheltered life. The game opens with Nairi’s parents being apprehended by the Royal Guards for unknown reasons.

Nairi’s tutor, Sami, bids that she climb out the window and stow away in the neighboring warehouse. Doing so introduces us to Fredrick, the owner of the warehouse, who is friends with Sami. Frederick stows us away in a cargo box and sends us off through the desert.

Along the way, the caravan is attacked by bandits who abscond with the crates, including the one containing Nairi. When she’s found, the bandits decide she’s either being kidnapped or smuggled and decide to use her as ransom.

Here’s where you get to really take hold of the game by escaping the crate and the bandit’s compound. As she breaks out to freedom, she comes face to face with the bandits. In a move that feels very Snow White, the bandits turn out to be alright guys who can’t go through with the plan and Nairi stays with them for several weeks.

As nice as it is, she hasn’t forgotten her parents and decides to return to Shirin to find out what happened to them. And that’s where the bulk of the game takes place.

Nairi will meet a ton of characters, find dozens of objects, and wrestle with several puzzles. In true point-and-click fashion, she finishes one puzzle only to be thrown immediately into the next.

There’s a lot to learn about the city of Shirin and Nairi’s place in it, but that’s something you’ll have to learn for yourself. 

All I’ll say is that it seems like the secrets have secrets…

As far as gameplay goes, it was a standard experience. The difficulty of the puzzles is what I’d categorize as intuitive rather than easy. If you’re paying attention to the conversations around you, then you’re going to pretty much know what you need to do.

Well, until you get to the finale of the game, anyway. The difficulty ramped up by a factor of 100. I’m guessing that it was meant to be a challenge, so it delivered on that. But, man, some of those puzzles were not easy.

I’m not ashamed to say that I needed a guide for some of it because even after I was fed the answers, I still didn’t understand how the solution was parsed out. It might as well have been math for all I understood. (I’m mortal enemies with math.)

All said and done, the game has about 6 hours of content, so you’re looking at less than a dollar per hour of entertainment. You simply can’t beat that price for a game that delivers on art, story, and music.

The game does end on a cliffhanger and while that’d normally be a bummer, you don’t have to worry about that. The second game, NAIRI: Rising Tide is coming out on November 14th. So, if you’re reading this, it’s either coming out tomorrow or it’s already out! Woot.

You’ll notice this is a short review. I’ve found that 9 times out of 10, a good game just has less that needs to be said. Not only did I thoroughly enjoy it, but it’s one of the few games I’ve managed to complete 100%.

I recommend grabbing NAIRI: Tower of Shirin which you can find on Nintendo Switch or Steam for $4.99. If this isn’t your cup of tea, you can check out the review we did on I Am Future: Cozy Apocalypse Survival.