The Tale Of Bistun Review Is This The Next Best ARPG? (Steam)

by Jim Smale · February 19, 2025

In this Tale of Bistun review, we delve into an enchanting action RPG that masterfully blends Persian mythology with immersive gameplay. Discover why this hidden gem might just be the next best ARPG on Steam. Intrigued? Keep reading to uncover its secrets and decide if it’s worth your time!

The Tale Of Bistun Review Pros:

Decent graphics.
5.55GB download size.
Steam achievements.
Full controller support.
Subtitles options – on/off, background, and text size.
ARPG gameplay.
Tutorial pop-ups as you play along with button prompts on interactive elements.
A full 3D game world on an isometric camera angle that moves around with you.
Excellent voice work, the game has a narrator who is telling a story and playing all the parts, it works really well and he does an awesome job.
Big vibrant game world.
Simple hack-and-slash combat.
Puzzle elements.
Cutscenes are a mix of in-game character interactions and fmv.
Collectible stone tablets for lore and story.
Many Breakable objects.
You can see the enemy health bars.
The game moves at a fast pace from running to rolling, and combat.
Hoopoe is your bird companion that will show you the way through the world.
The gameplay loop is you go into the world and get tree seeds to then give to the big Tree character, he then gives you a pomegranate that powers you up.
Smash a mountain of rock and work your way through it each time you eat a Pomegranate.
Breaking into the mountain gives you an Amethystine stone that once you interact with sends you to another realm.
Find upgrade stations to add new attacks to your weapons.
As the game unfolds you get new weapons that need upgrading for all new attacks.
Many enemy types from little
I do like how you find sculptures and tablets to carve, they add to the world and look great whilst also giving some lore.
The mountain breaking as you progress is very satisfying and looks impactful.

The Tale Of Bistun Review Cons:

No graphics settings at all not even resolution.
You cannot remap the controls.
The text in the game is small and hard to read from a distance and you have no settings for those.
You never feel confident in knowing when the game was last saved.
The gameplay loop just keeps repeating, go in kill some enemies in an area, pick up a tree part, fight more enemies, and then give the tree its part then go into the other dimension then repeat. The only thing that really changes is how many parts of the tree you have to collect.
The camera is stuck and makes fighting pain as you cannot always see the enemies where you are or the direction you are facing.
Your character is very plain and mundane and doesn’t really have any charm or personality.

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