Mystic Pillars, a premium puzzle game that was previously available on both Android and iOS has just been made available on Steam earlier this month. The game was made by Holy Cow Productions, a studio from India. Its current price is four dollars on mobile and seven on Steam. Mystic Pillars also supports 20+ languages, including all other common tongues in India like Hindi, Kannada, Telugu, Tamil... The game is critically acclaimed in the country - with the original showcase being part of the Unite India event back in 2018. It was also selected as one of the top Indie games in the Indie Megabooth GDC Showcase 2020 as well.

Mystic Pillars is actually a mix of storytelling and puzzle, with you stepping into the role of a traveler from Ancient India, whose job is to journey across the ruined kingdom of Zampi and resolve the drought problem... by solving various puzzles, of course. The plot of the game would be revealed piece by piece after you completed various milestones in-game.

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All character arts are hand-drawn with distinct Indian design

With each puzzle you solve, more magical pillars that were blocking the waters would be destroyed. On your adventure, you would come across quite a few other characters, interact with them, and find out more about the kingdom of Zampi and its downfall. Almost all story elements of the game are narrated through animated cutscenes, which are super resourceful for a title that only cost 4 dollars. The game also has voice over in both English and Kannada (the local language in Bangalore, India, which is the region the developers were in). Mystic Pillars is received pretty well on all stores it was in - earning 4.6/5 stars on the iOS store and 5/5 stars on the Google Apps Store. The steam version received decent reviews all over the board.

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Later levels are pretty complicated

The game is based on Mancala, an African board game with an Indian equivalent named Ali Guli Mane. In this game, your job is to push the diamonds around different pillars until everything matches the number that was shown on the top of the pillars. You would only get a set number of moves for each challenge - it would take a while to get used to the gameplay. The difficulties increase gradually across the 100 levels, with more pillars getting added into the mix.

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There are a lot of maps available in the game

Overall, the game is a decent time-waster that's actually worth the money invested. You can support the Indian Game Industry by purchasing it. Mystic Pillars is a great puzzle game - not only does it look pretty but its lore and art design are pretty unique. You can tackle its uniquely complex math problems and dive into Indian culture at the same time.

Gameplay

The overall gameplay is rather easy - based on the above picture, you would only have to create a clear connection through all the pillars in the levels by scattering around the gems.

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The designs of the pillars would change based on the current level you are in

While this is Holy Cow's fourth game, this is the first title that they published by themselves. The first game that they were a part of, Zenith, is a subpar adventure RPG on Steam while the second game, Bad Dream Brigade, is a lot better - it is available on both Android and iOS.

Mystic Pillars is currently available on both Steam, Android and iOS. Interested in more articles related to video games? Please check out this post for the best turn-based strategy games available on mobile right now.