Tales of the Neon Sea

Tales of the Neon Sea is an adventure video game developed by Chinese studio Palm Pioneer. It is a retro-styled pixel-art game in a cyberpunk setting.

Tales of the Neon Sea
Windows cover art
Developer(s)	Palm Pioneer, YiTi Games
Publisher(s)	Zodiac Interactive, Boke Technology Co., Ltd, Thermite Games
Engine	Unity
Platform(s)	Windows, iOS, Android, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4
Release	30 April 2019 30 April 2019 (Win)[1] October 28, 2020 (iOS)[2] August 5, 2021 (Android)[3] March 30, 2023 (Xbox One, Series X/S)[4] April 20, 2023 (Switch)[5] April 21, 2023 (PS4)[6]
Genre(s)	Adventure, Puzzle
Mode(s)	Single-player

Gameplay

The goal of Tales of the Neon Sea is to walk around in search of clues and solve a series of puzzles and brain teasers.

Players assume the role of Rex, a hard-boiled detective, to investigate a case. The protagonist is forced to use mechanical prosthetics due to injuries. He can use electronic eyes to scan objects and analyze corpses during investigation.

In some scenes, players will control the protagonist's assistant, William the black cat, to enter areas inaccessible to Rex to explore or collect items.

Plot

Set in a neo-noir metropolis where humans and robots contend with escalating tensions and mutual distrust, the storyline follows Rex, formerly a veteran police detective accepting random jobs as a private investigator to make ends meet.^[7]

Development

The game was successfully crowd-funded through Kickstarter in 2018.

Reception

Reception

Aggregate scores

Aggregator	Score
Metacritic	62/100[8]
OpenCritic	61/100[9] 13% Critics Recommend

Review scores

Publication	Score
Adventure Gamers	[10]
The Games Machine (Italy)	6.5/10[11]
IGN Spain	6/10[12]
Gamer Sky	8/10[13]

Upon release, Tales of the Neon Sea received mixed reviews by users and critics.

On review aggregate OpenCritic, Tales of the Neon Sea had an average 61 out of 100 review score with 13% approval rating based on 8 reviews. The game received "mixed or average" reviews according to review aggregator Metacritic.

Accolades

In 2018, Tales of the Neon Sea won the award for "Excellence in Visual Art", and was nominated for "Excellence in Narrative" and "Best Game Grand Prize" at IndiePlay China Independent Game Competition.^[14][15] The game won the awards for "Most Innovative Game" and "Best Game Design" from Indie Prize at Casual Connect Asia 2018.^[16] In 2019, the game was nominated for "Visual Excellence" award at BitSummit.^[17]