I managed to snag a demo of On Your Tail during Steam’s Next Fest. While it was less than 30 minutes of gameplay, I fell in love with the art style and puzzles. I had been following the developers on Threads and was stoked to hear it was released end of 2024. Disobey, a content creator group, actually reached out and shared a free key with me! (Hinthint to any streamers wanting more access to games for content!)

I’ll keep my review spoiler free, but I did include a little “spoiler” at the very end that gives away some details from the credits.

On Your Tail is a 3D puzzle and exploration game where you control Diana, an adorable goat who’s aspiring to be a detective novelist. She quickly finds herself in the relaxing Borgo Marina (of Italy) where she’s swept away into actually being a detective herself. You explore the town, solve crimes, and help villages with running their businesses.

My #1 critique of the game is the lack of voice acting. The art, style, puzzles, and everything just make me crave a little bit of voice acting from the characters. I, being non-Italian, would also appreciate it for the pronunciation of words. The entire story is based in Italy with most of the characters being Italian. Streaming this, I had no idea what I was saying half the time! Voice acting would go pretty far in terms of quality to improve the game! (Don’t judge my playthroughs too harshly!)

My #2, and last, critique of the game is around the translation for the puzzles. Many times the puzzles would give hints and clues, but were actually mistranslated which makes them impossible to solve. The “organizing the bag” puzzle is the most guilty of this. This fumble made a relaxing puzzle game frustrating! Thankfully, the developers are aware and are actively working to fix these issues.

Besides the two complaints above, the game is amazing! Beautiful soundtrack, engaging characters, fun puzzles, and an intricate mystery. I thought for certain I had the story figured out up until the end. The twist threw me for a loop, even though the clues were in plain sight the whole time.

The in-game achievements can be completed 100% in one playthrough, which is good news as the story is at least 15 hours with all the extras being 30+ hours. Once you reach the ending credits, you can go back and play again.

I’d make jokes about this being the “furry mystery game” which viewers thought was hilarious. Despite the character design, there is minimal romancing itself in the game. Majority is around cute love stories, nothing like romance in games like Stardew Valley or the Witcher (sorry, perverts). You can do little outings with villagers to add to the character depth and storylines.

Along with romancing side quests, your character can also make money via being a waitress at a restaurant, serving gelato, and even fishing. Every cozy game has to have fishing, right? These side puzzles were addicting and challenging. However, if you only want the main story, you can forgo the side quests and purely grind the main story with minimal distractions. Just know you will be doing yourself a disservice.

If you’ve made it this far, it’s clear that I highly recommend playing On Your Tail. It’s a memorable experience and cozy to allow for a stress-free playthrough.

Oh, and if you’re a streamer and interested in Dare Drops, they include some challenges specific to On Your Tail and are offering game keys!

Stop reading (and watching) here if you want to avoid major spoilers. My VOD below is the playthrough of the end. Additionally, I included (below) a minor spoiler from the credits which doesn’t impact the story.

SPOILER: The credits showed the pets used as reference art for some of the characters. 10/10 inclusion; I loved these credits. Amazing music, too!