Is This Seat Taken? Review

*Forgot to shower and doesn’t like bad smells* Girl, you’re the source of the bad smell haha.

It’s so great playing a full release after getting a taste of a game through a demo. I’ve been looking forward to Is This Seat Taken ever since I played the demo and when the release window of August was announced I was greatly anticipating when the release date would be announced. And then it finally happened with a surprise release during the Indie World Showcase! I didn’t expect it at all and I honestly don’t know why I did think of the possibility. Especially since another game that was also featured during Wholesome Directs had a confirmed release date the same day. So how was Is This Seat Taken?

You honestly wouldn’t think that this game would have a storyline, but it does. While you do get to hear some conversations from random shapes that fit with the level and even introducing a new aspect that you have to deal with; there is a story here that follows a specific shape. Oh, yeah, the characters here are referred to as shapes here and there are some shape-based puns sprinkled in. Anyway, we follow a rhombus named Nat who is an aspiring actor. Nat always dreamed of being an actor on the big screen, but is pretty insecure and self conscious. After all, she’s never seen a rhombus like her on the screen before. Nat’s friend Alexis, a famous writer, does try to encourage Nat, but all the doubts seem to always creep in before too long; causing Nat to hold regrets on letting opportunities slip past her.

However, everything changes one day when Alexis invites Nat to attend a film festival. One of the movies they end up watching just happened to star a rhombus. One that Nat ends up learning is an international star. This new information gives Nat the push she needs to finally pursue her dream. Nat may still be anxious, insecure about her acting ability, and may hit some road bumps here and there, but maybe, just maybe, she’ll be able to make her dream come true with the help of old and new friends.

I quite liked the story here. It’s a short and sweet story that ended up really working here. The story isn’t the focus, but it was really nice still being able to follow a specific shape, especially when all of them are named, and it doubled as a way to explain why you’re at the locations that the levels take place. It’s there just enough to give the game structure and someone to latch onto and root for. And talking about Nat, I did enjoy her story. Just like Alexis I wanted Nat to pursue her dream and I’m so glad she ended up doing just that and made new friends along the way. I’m so proud of Nat and the growth she had throughout the game.

I also did like the little snippets we got from the other minor characters. They did a good job at introducing a new aspect to levels, helped flesh out the world a bit, and injected a bit of humor. Oh and the writing style was perfect here. Short and sweet, but still being able to convey the feelings of the characters and showcase their growth and personalities.

Is This Seat Taken will take you through five cities, each with their own level select map, that holds five or six levels each. That doesn’t sound too much until you start and find out that each level also has multiple parts to it. I called them stages and each level has between three to six stages each. You also get a variety of locations ranging from a vehicle to a social event like going to a concert. It’s quite a lot even if it doesn’t seem like it. So what do you do in Is This Seat Taken? Well, I think you can guess based on the game’s title. Your goal for each level is to seat everyone based on their preferences. Sounds easy enough. Each level, and well stage, starts out with spawning in some shapes for you to find a seat for. Or spots where they can stand. The amount of shapes you have to deal with varies, as well as the amount of spots you can sit them at, but each shape has their own preference that you have to take into account. The goal here is to not only find a seat for everyone, but find a seat that everyone is happy with.

You see, every shape has their own set of preferences, with some of them even having some characteristics that you’ll have to take into account. It actually starts out pretty simple so you can get the hang out things before steadily adding on more aspects as you progress. You’ll have normal adult and kid shapes that want a specific seat (like a window seat or an aisle seat), want to stand, or want to sit by their friend or parent. Then it gets a little bit more complex as you get shapes that have an effect on the others around them. Just in real life, you’ll have to deal with stinky shapes and have shapes whose preference is not smelling them. Or shapes that are loudly playing music and shapes that want to get a little nap in. Don’t worry, shapes that affect others do show an area of effect so you know which spots will be affected by their smell or how loud they’re being or by whatever else they might be doing. As you progress further into the game, you’ll have new preferences or effects to deal with, shapes will have more preferences, and even the location the level takes place in will affect the shapes in some way.

In addition, each level having stages also comes into play. While there are some shapes that will leave, some may also stay and you’ll have to figure out how to fit the new shapes coming in. There are even levels that add in items or an interactable element that you also have to take into account.

While you can tell what a shape falls under, like the stinky shapes have stink lines and those that are going to talk have speech bubbles, each shape luckily does have a little notecard to go with them so you can see what they prefer and if they have an effect that another may not be too keen on. It is also pretty easy to tell when they’re not happy as they will let you know and they will not look happy. Even if you managed to miss both those signs, the little notepad you have actually does tell you whether or not everyone is happy. It’ll give you a thumbs up to confirm everyone is happy with where they’re sitting and a cautionary thumbs down if there’s someone upset. And clicking on it will point out who it is. Which is definitely helpful for the levels where there are a lot of shapes and aspects that you have to juggle.

Once you seat everyone, you can technically continue to the next stage even if every shape isn’t happy. This does let you continue even if you’re stuck, but at the same time…why buy a puzzle game when you’re not going to do the puzzles. Every happy shape will give you a thumbs up after confirming you’re done with the stage and you’ll get a star if you got a perfect score by the end of the level.

If you get a perfect score in all the main levels of the game, you do unlock something extra. That something is Special Levels. There are five Special Levels, one for each city map, and this basically gives you an extra level that’s more unique and detached from the main story. Not only does each one have a unique setting and a really short story to provide a reason behind it, but it also introduces something unique that you have to take into account during the puzzle. Heck, they even foreshadow what you have to deal with in future puzzles while still retaining their uniqueness. Like how the first Special Level has you seating wedding guests based on what they like to eat and the next one has you interacting with an object in the environment to help create the perfect seating conditions.

Also, since the game makes you go back to the level select screen when you finish a city map to go to the next, it ends up naturally getting you to do the Special Level right away. Well, if you aimed to get perfect scores at your first attempt at the levels.

I really liked Is This Seat Taken. It’s what I expected based on the demo, I liked the levels and all the different things you have to think about, and I really liked puzzling out where everyone can be happy. I did find this game to be pretty easy. There are a handful of tricky levels sprinkled in, and the amount of aspects you have to keep track of for everyone does increase as you progress, but I would still say it leans more towards the easy side. Personally, I didn’t mind and actually liked it that way. Sometimes you want an easy puzzle game, you know? That doesn’t mean there won’t be levels you’ll be stumped on for a bit, though, as there were a couple that I got stuck on.

It was also pretty satisfying whenever I completed a stage where everyone was happy, especially for the trickier stages.

What I especially liked and appreciated is that this game could have easily gotten overwhelming, but it doesn’t. Or at least, that feeling only lasts momentarily until you breathe and start trying to solve the stage. This is thanks to how the puzzles are set up as you can group shapes based on their preferences and handle it by a couple shapes at a time rather than all of them. There will always be shapes that definitely have to be together and there will be a shape that will most likely have a preference that’ll decide what area they’ll sit at. It makes it way more manageable. I usually grouped the shapes on the side where the spawn points are so the shapes that want to sit together are together and those that have opposing preferences are away from one another before I start moving them to the seats/standing spots. This also ended up helping in not feeling like there were too many aspects to take into account.

I did also notice that most stages do have multiple ways of solving it. You can get put into a situation where you can’t solve it for the levels where a seat can get dirty, but I do like how a lot of them are flexible enough that you don’t have to get the exact solution the developers were probably intending.

In terms of what I didn’t like, I wished there was a hint system and a way to either reset the stage (or at least set every shape aside). There were definitely some levels where I wished I could have gotten a hint for and there were a good handful of them where taking everyone to the side off of the available spots and restarting from a fresh slate helped me figure out how to solve a stage. Especially for the stages where there are some shapes left behind that you also need to move to a new spot. Plus it was quite annoying when I pressed the restart level, thinking maybe it restarts the stage you’re on, only to find out it sets you back to the beginning (Stage 1). And it was a very tricky level that took me a while to solve the stages I already did. It’s my fault, I don’t deny that, but man I had hope that it would reset the part of the level I was on only.

On that note, you do need to make sure you have enough time to do a whole level as you can’t leave it midway through and return to the stage you were on. As well as not starting a new level if you need to do something (trust me, it’s really easy to be in the zone and start a new level despite planning on closing the game to do something else). There are also two levels where the excuse of why you’re there is pretty flimsy, but I’m conflicted over wanting to add a new level location (as I do wish there was a bit more variations for the main levels) as I did like the puzzles and how it added something new you had to take into account.

Some people may also not like how easy the majority of the puzzles here are. I personally didn’t mind, but those expecting a difficult puzzle game may be disappointed.

The audio and visuals here are great as well. The level select screen and all the locations have their own track and it definitely leans into that cozy vibe. Though, there is a little bit of energy injected into it to stimulate your thinking cap while solving puzzles. The shapes also talk, using cute gibberish, and I liked how this wasn’t annoying as it followed the calming vibe of the game. The visuals, which was the first thing that caught my attention when I first saw this game years ago, are still so cute. It’s simple, but also leaves room for some extra details that help you look at a shape and instantly know if it’s a shape connected to Nat’s story, the type that they fall into (like classy shapes or kid shapes), or if they have any effects that would affect other shapes. They also specifically did a great job with all the colors here. The base of each level is this sepia color, which does have this calming vibe to it, and the colors used on top both suit this sepia tone and let those features pop. Even when the color being used is more subdued. I also like how each level was decorated, how some objects were interactable, and the small details that you can notice in some of them.

Verdict

Overall, Is This Seat Taken is a great puzzle game that I really enjoyed. The story with Nat is sweet and works well at giving you an excuse to be at these levels; I loved figuring out the seat every shape needed to be in so they would all be happy; there are some pretty creative levels; and I really liked how cute and cozy the game was. I also did like the various preferences and effects the shapes could have and how they played off of one another and the curve balls that the game throws to give you that extra bit of challenge. Not to mention the theming for each of the Special Levels. While I do wish we got some more levels, like at different locations or using themes they can be a bit more creative with , I also do think this game ended up being the perfect length.

If you want an easy, puzzle game that’s fun, satisfying, and has some tricky levels sprinkled in, you can’t go wrong with Is This Seat Taken. Who knew puzzling out the best seat for everyone could be so fun and satisfying?