Review chaiinchomp 4/5 · Mar 20, 2022
Twin-stick platformer with a narrative that gradually unfolds
-- Part of my Itch.io Bundle Project - Attempting to play and rate every game in the 2020 Bundle for Racial Justice --
- Rating: 8.8 / 10
- Year played: 2020
- Playtime: about an hour
- Completion level: Played some, didn't finish
- Verdict: Recommended, I enjoyed it
A beautiful but somber narrative experience with unique twin-stick platformer …
-- Part of my Itch.io Bundle Project - Attempting to play and rate every game in the 2020 Bundle for Racial Justice --
- Rating: 8.8 / 10
- Year played: 2020
- Playtime: about an hour
- Completion level: Played some, didn't finish
- Verdict: Recommended, I enjoyed it
A beautiful but somber narrative experience with unique twin-stick platformer gameplay. You control a young girl with one joystick and a light spirit with the other, which you can grapple onto to swing across platforms and make your way across a haunting landscape full of secrets to find and things to collect. Each collectable you find isn't just a pointless checkbox to tick off, but rather adds a piece of narrative and begins to build up the story of the game's main characters - the girl, her mother, and her newborn sibling. In addition to that, every collectable unlocks an additional bonus level.
A minor gripe is that the sensitivity of the right control stick (controlling the light spirit) is way too high, without any way to tweak it, but it's not bad enough to get in the way of enjoying the experience as a whole. If you enjoy momentum-based puzzle-platformer gameplay (portal, anyone?) and narratives that aren't heavy-handed, but rather unfold piece-by-piece as you go, then absolutely pick this game up.