SOPA – Tale of the Stolen Potato
SOPA – Tale of the Stolen Potato is a whimsical point & click adventure with a story sprung from a child’s imagination. You play as Miho, a young boy sent by his grandmother to fetch potatoes from the pantry while she prepares soup. Maybe because he tries to avoid eating soup, or maybe because children can turn the mundane into magic, Miho suddenly finds himself battling a frog-like creature over a sack of potatoes. He loses, and the creature vanishes into another world. Much like Narnia’s wardrobe, the pantry thus becomes a portal leading Miho into an enchanting realm full of quirky, fantastical beings.
The premise is charming and immediately draws you into Miho’s quest to track down the culprit and recover his grandmother’s potatoes. Visually, the game is delightful, with a bright color palette, vibrant animations, and characters speaking in an expressive, playful gibberish.
Unfortunately, SOPA – Tale of the Stolen Potato’s natural charm is dampened by several design choices that made my experience uncomfortable enough to make me set the game aside after roughly two hours, with little motivation to finish the story. The most frustrating issues were the camerawork and character movement.
SOPA – Tale of the Stolen Potato is a 3D game without a free-roam camera, relying instead on perspectives that automatically shift based on Miho’s movement. When he walks left or right, you can see him from the side. Front or rear views appear when he moves vertically. Certain moments that change the verticality (such as climbing on boxes) switch to a top-down isometric angle. These constant shifts make it easy for objects to be hidden behind Miho with no way to rotate the camera to view them from an angle. Constantly seeing the camera switch its perspective requires frequent mental adjustment, which quickly becomes exhausting.
The world itself is lively, filled with creatures you can interact with, which makes it feel vibrant and lived-in. However, navigating it is often frustrating, as Miho frequently collides with NPCs. One market area is especially crowded, making simple movement cumbersome. More broadly, the paths you’re meant to take aren’t always intuitive and can blend too easily into the background.
The game includes Steam achievements, many of which are easily missable. With no manual save system or chapter select, missing even a single achievement means replaying the entire game up to that point. While the total playtime is only about 4–5 hours, certain sequences are easy to fail even after many tries. Early on, for instance, Miho must steer a fast-moving boat down a river without hitting rocks. This is a very difficult three-minute segment that’s made even trickier if you’re attempting the achievement that requires collecting some items during the ride. It feels out of place in a game that otherwise aims to be cozy and casual, and the inability to retry these moments without a full replay is simply discouraging.
Ultimately, SOPA – Tale of the Stolen Potato offers a heartfelt, imaginative world that’s easy to fall in love with, but its design flaws make exploring that world more tiring than it should be. However, for players willing to overlook its rougher edges, it could prove to be a really charming experience.