This was probably my most anticipated game from the jam and I was right to trust the hype!
Okay, here's my review
Things I really liked
- Superb writing as always. You're an amazing writer and that's no surprise, but your writing appears to get even better with each new game.
- Beautiful story. It was sad and tragic, but at the same time it didn't feel like it had an unhappy outcome. The ending was absolutely beautiful. There definitely was "sad magic" in there and that's one of my favorite things in a story.
- Great use of parallaxes. Again, this is something to be expected when it comes to your games. But in terms of parallax use, I think this is your best work and the forest was beautiful.
- Really charming art style and graphics. I've told you this before: your first game I played was a bit rough in terms of graphics, but you've improved a lot and this game is proof of that. There was a lot of attention to detail. For example, the cat's running animation or all the different mushrooms, flowers and other details you can find in the forest. I even found a small cave where something was taking a nap and I loved that. I bet that was a gnome!
- The music. You struggled with it but you made it! The results were really nice! The final version of "Our Hands" was definitely the best one! I also really liked the music that played when something bad was happening.
- The horror. At first sight, this game has no horror. But trust me readers, it has a lot of horror. Real horror. Everything surrounding the Glyph cult was really creepy, the mother had one of those "uncanny valley" faces and the father was a great villain to hate. Also, glyphosate is an actual horror from real life, since it has greatly affected the health of many people around the world (in some places, it has greatly increased occurrences of cancer and congenital disorders/deformities).
Aspects that have room for improvement
- There were some glitches. The game can still be completed (or at least I managed to do so), but I reckon they might cause some players to feel frustrated. For example, at times Rubi could phase through everything (it seems to be triggered after changing back from the cat form).
- Rubi's hair. What you attempted with the party members being part of her hair was pretty smart. However, at times it didn't look good. Like part of her hair was separated and left behind. Your idea was really neat, but it definitely needs some rework.
- This might be related to my pc/keyboard, so I guess this one can be ignored: there was a scene where suddently the text was automatically skipped really fast. I had to close the game and load a previous file.
- The foreground (the vines with thorns) was a bit...visually intrusive. This is probably just me, but it made me feel kinda dizzy at times.
Overall experience: beautiful game with a hauntingly beautiful story and a great mix of emotions achieved through superb storytelling and a fitting soundtrack. This is, in my humble oppinion, your best game yet, and the story will definitely stay with me for a while. I already lamment the outcome of the characters, but at the same time, I'm happy they found each other and found freedom.
Keep on sharing your amazing storytelling skills with the world, Chevie! Consider me a fan of your works!