tl;dr I think this game is perfect, the puzzles have just the right mix between satisfaction, complexity and a feeling of progression, the story is outstanding especially in how it’s told, the polish is on another level from most other mobile developers on the market, and I would recommend this to absolutely anyone looking for a quality experience on mobile.

Coming into Monument Valley, I went in completely blind, having no idea what this game was about in any way. Within seconds, I immediately not only had an instant idea of my main goal and what type of game this is, but was also taken aback by the absolute polish this game has. It's minimalist yet isn't failing in delivering exactly what it wants too, resulting in an incredibly stylistic art style. The calming music, the sound of the first rotating platform and how it locks in place as Ida walks across, Ida's footsteps themselves, all having an incredible feeling of quality that I've never felt in a mobile game up to this point. It's safe to say that immediately from just opening the app for the first time, Monument Valley succeeds in providing an extremely peaceful atmosphere, and sucks you in as soon as you start playing.
Going through the second chapter, The Garden, it becomes apparent that there's an underlying story to this series of puzzles, revolving around Ida. The chapter's description states In which Ida embarks on a quest for forgiveness, setting up a plot exposition simply but effectively. When finishing the level, Ida takes off her hat and seemingly returns a shape to its place in this (what can be inferred as a) monument. The vagueness in its storytelling provides a layer of curiosity, which I enjoy for the sake of my small brain's attention span. I also notice at the end of the chapter the ability to take a screenshot of it, reinforcing the developer's intentions of making each chapter seem as if it could work as an individual art piece. Even the chapter selection is top tier minimalism, with no actual text ever being shown, simply a monument with roman numerals representing chapters.
Chapter III, Hidden Garden. Ida has an unexpected meetingWe are introduced to moving platforms, as well as going into buildings to appear in other entrances floors upward. After pressing a button, we go inside the second tower, except instead of appearing somewhere else, we stay inside, with nothing but black and some platforms surrounding us. The feeling of being separated from the world we were just in is apparent, and subtle things like the reverb in Ida's footsteps add to that. The contrast from what I was just doing gives me a feeling I can't really describe, but what I do know is that it just makes me want to play more. We see a ghostly blue figure taller than Ida, saying Long have these old bones waited in darkness. How far have you wandered, silent princess? Why are you here? As more platforms arise, I become even more curious as to the story behind Ida. We learn she is a Princess, though I'm only left with more questions afterwards. Reaching the end of the chapter, Ida places another cube down. I wonder what those are, what their significance is.
Chapter IV, Water Palace. Ida discovers new ways to walk. The scenery is very different, invoking Japanese inspiration with its aesthetic. I'm now seemingly surrounded by water, but not entirely sure why. Stepping on a switch however, reveals the meaning of this chapter's description, as the platform I was standing on rotates, but Ida stays put, now standing sideways, unaffected by gravity. This opens up a whole new way to traverse the area, now walking up walls and sideways stairways. It feels very fitting with the isometric puzzler theme the game has for itself, and I completely welcome it. Pressing another switch, now we can move the level around to change our viewpoint, now opening up a whole new portion of the level previously unseen. There's a waterfall on this side, further heightening the peaceful vibe that the game tries to give off, while also being fitting to the chapter's scenery. More so than just opening up the level, moving it around also provides new solutions to puzzles and traveling to what previously seemed like unreachable places. Entering inside the level once again, we find the same blue figure from earlier, seemingly waiting for us. This was the valley of men. Now all that remains are our monuments, stripped of their glories. Thieving princess, why have you returned? Thieving princess.. Based off this, it would be reasonable to assume Ida has stolen the cubes that she's been placing on the tops of monuments at the ends of chapters, and has now returned for an unexplained reason.
This extremely vague storytelling is brilliant, because it doesn't directly answer any of the questions you wonder, but once you put some thought into it, you can come to a feasible conclusion. At the same time, these answers are told through more questions, always keeping that sense of curiosity and wonder with me. It's brilliantly captivating.
We still say nothing to this blue figure, simply leaving the area, coming back outside, and placing another shape, this time being a rhombohedron.
Chapter V, The Spire. Ida encounters the bothersome crow people. I've been seeing these crows in the past two chapters, but I was never able to interact with them, besides a simple tap making them squawk a bit louder. Walking up to them, they definitely live up to the description, standing still and repeatedly squawking at Ida until we walk away from them. It seems pretty obvious that we must avoid these in order to feasibly make it along the paths the game wants us to take. We go inside yet again, this time what would normally be a black void surrounding us, being a somewhat more comforting dark blue-ish violet. There's no plot continuation in this chapter, but I'm personally okay with that, considering how unique this chapter's aesthetic is compared to the previous ones.
Chapter VI, The Labyrinth. Ida meets a totem, a friend. Beginning in an unknown room, we walk towards three pillars simply sitting there. As we stand between them, a fourth pillar rises up in yellow, this being the totem. The totem helps raise us up to the surface, with yet another beautiful and unique mix of colors compared to previous chapters. I think these are my favorite puzzles so far, and definitely the most unique in my opinion. It almost feels like I'm controlling two different characters at times, kind of forming a companionship between Ida and the Totem. Finishing the chapter, Ida puts down another piece unto the monument, and the platform she's standing on lowers. She then floats away in the ocean, seemingly on purpose. I wonder what her goal is. The totem tries to follow along, but sadly, the further he goes into the ocean, the lower under the waves he is, until he disappears. It honestly pulled at my heart, which I know sounds silly because he's quite literally just a pillar, but even that little eyeball on the side of it just gave him enough expression for me to attach a bond to him, and I know that was definitely intentional. Farewell Totem, I'll miss you.
Chapter VII, The Rookery. In which a throne lies vacant. Interestingly enough, the start of this chapter lies in directing one of the crow people to press a button. I wonder where Ida is, possibly still yet to arrive from the ocean. After pressing a button with the crow however, a block rotates and she appears. I wonder why it was decided to start with one of the Crow people in this chapter. We get to enter inside once again, only to find that blue figure, once again. Those who stole our sacred geometry have forgotten their true selves. Cursed to walk these monuments are they. Foolish Princess, have you forgotten too? From this, it seems we can infer that other people also have stolen geometry from these monuments, and the Princess was one of many. However, unlike the many others, she has come back to return them. I wonder why that is. Scaling a castle, we return one more piece of geometry, this time not so much looking like a shape as it does some kind of constellation in its visual properties.
Chapter VIII, The Box. There lie strange delights. We are met with simply a box. No Ida, no crow people, but a large box. We can open the box however, and that reveals a Crow, trapped from inside. It turns out you can actually open the box in multiple ways, each revealing a seperate puzzle to light up each corner. Lighting up all corners, more puzzles appear.
I think this easily has to be the most creative chapter in the game so far purely from a puzzle standpoint, because I could’ve never thought of this, nor have I seen a puzzle game do this before. To be able to fit so much into one screen of real estate and still make it fully work is crazy, let alone making each puzzle enjoyable to go through and feel like you’re making progress, even for someone as bad at puzzles as me. This theme of using this one box for as much content as possible is even further stretched here, as while it seems just like the cube has opened on two sides, you can actually raise the other sides to reveal even more area, almost like a little diorama. Just when you think you’re about to finish the level since you can see the end right there, entering a doorway that seemingly leads straight to it, another small room raises up. I can’t even be annoyed because the game just feels so rewarding to play, on top of feeling complex due to how much scenery is on screen at once, even though in the grand scheme of things this is probably a standard difficulty puzzle game. We go up one staircase, press a button for more stairs, press another button and the room gets even taller, providing a smooth curve for you to walk up. Press another button on the side of the wall you’re walking on, and that piece you’re standing on raises up even higher, and finally reveals the exit door to the level. And at the end of it all, one final switch to put everything back into place. Everything back into that one small box. Absolutely beautiful level design.
Chapter IX, The Descent. In which there is nobody left to forgive us. We’re back in the ocean, on what appears to be a stormy night. A flower is on our island, so we pick it up. As we go lower on the raft, more of it slowly appears. After some more puzzling, the storm finally passes. We are now in daylight. But most importantly, Totem is back. He helps us get inside our rock formation, and now we descend. We go lower and lower, and eventually climb down to a lonely staircase. The colors have changed. What once was beaming with oranges and seemed somewhat lively, is now dark and grayscale, with very long staircases going down and minimal puzzles. A platform takes us even further down, to a platform with a mirror. We look to the mirror, but instead of seeing Ida, we see some kind of bird flapping its wings staying afloat, with a crown on the top of its head. We leave about as soon as we meet our reflection, only being used for a simple pathway puzzle to figure out what’s blocking our way. We climb further downward. That blue figure is down here. Long ages lie heavy on old bones in these buried halls. Sacred geometry was our pride, our downfall. But forever will our monuments stand in this valley. We go further. Finally, we reach the bottom. Here lies what seem to be hundreds of coffins, possibly of the people who ruled with this secret geometry before their downfall. There are stairs that lead up to one elevated coffin, so we go up. When we go up, we simply drop the flower next to the coffin. And the chapter ends, moving onto the last chapter of the base game.
Chapter X, Observatory. In which at journey’s end what was not meant for us is all returned. We seem to be in some kind of space setting, very unlike any other chapter in the game. Moving past the first area, we go higher. This time, it feels more like we’re simply floating in the sky. Then, we go back down to the first area. The only difference is one light is now lit up. There are two other entrances, so we can assume these areas are to light up the other lights. The level exit appears once we light them all up, and the chapter is completed.
But then, a cutscene starts. The Crow People begin walking all around Ida, who is standing on one block. The Crow People begin turning pink by some blue aura in the sky. All different colors, in fact. And they all begin flying, something they were never able to do when black. The blue aura changed into the crown that was on the bird from the mirror, and is placed on Ida. Just like that, she turns into said bird, and flies along with all the transformed Crows.
This is such a beautiful cutscene in my opinion, and it ties everything together so perfectly. The beauty really comes from how much it’s up to interpretation, and how you can really put it together however you think of it and it’ll still work. That being said, the true meaning behind this cutscene is still wonderful. The Crows were actually people who stole Geometry, and were stripped of their flying abilities as punishment due to Ida stealing the geometry. Since the Geometry has been brought back, the beams coming down have changed the Crows back to their original forms. That mirror section from earlier was actually hinting at Ida’s true original form, and how she was close to changing back to who she truly was. Ida stole this geometry due to her fascination with the humans who held it, and as a result, caused her following to be punished for her actions.
The only complaint I could possibly give this game was that it was a little short, but later on, it was supported with DLC to extend the story, which pretty much nullifies that. I truly think pretty much everything about this game is perfect, especially in what it sets out to do, and the polish is on another level from the average shovelware or even super popular free games on the Play Store. I would 1000% recommend this to anyone looking for something to play on mobile, even if you aren’t a puzzle person. Gladly giving this 5 stars.