//Spoilers//
My thoughts on Goldenheart.
I really enjoyed this game, mainly the challenges of the gameplay. Although I had a few issues with it.
One of the main issues I faced through my first playthrough were enemies "jumpscaring" you. In many parts of the game the enemy spawns were... A bit too harsh. Many times while crossing between rooms, in a room with fixed camera and in other situationsm high speed enemies come out of your screen and hit you hard, In some cases, I lost about half of my health bar... Although this might have been a skill issue of mine than anything lol.
But my main issues with the game are the plot related ones, being the main reason why I'm even writting this. To be honest, I am really into writting and I really liked the characther designs and the overral world (and also because I totally don't have a bias for a single characther).
- "Not Enough Info?"
This is like, the main issue with the game's plot.
The game manages to give you too little info and too much info at the same time, and here's how:
There's a concept in writting called "Setup and Payoff", it's very simple and intuitive. First you Setup something! Like for example, a characther, a creature, whatever you want! Just foreshadowing it! And then you use that again later on. But the thing is, the game just setups a whole bunch a things and never pay'soff.
The game gives you a bunch of info and genuinely interesting characthers, but never elaborates on it.
Of course, you can setup something and never elaborate on it, creating a mystery or something... Or just do weird shit for the sake of it but ANYWAYS!
A good example of this issue in the game is the Spider in the wall. You walk in a cave and in the first second you enter a giant spider comes out a hole in the wall just to say "hi lol" is never going to be used ever again? This shit literally jumpscared me in both of my playthroughs because I just started blasting at it the moment it left the wall. This is a cool setup, but again, it does nothing and you never see it again... Unless it does on the backtrack because if it does I'll be really angry since I didn't do it and I just deleted my save file lol.
And all of this keeps happening over, and over, and over, and over again. Another example, the Hero statue in the sand town and a bunch of people talking about the old Hero and stuff! Where Is this information used again? Nowhere! But there's still a chance that it has a purpose on the backtrack! So more minor worldbuilding information that I'll never use! :D
- The MacGuffin Orb
I know it's just a 1 hour game, but damn i didn't even knew why I was after the MacGuffin (desired object trope) that Lavka stole from the player's village. The only moments where is explained something about it is that scene with Lavka in the bridge which he basically says: "Yeah it does cool stuff" and in the end which is revealed that it was messing with Lavka's mind.
Anyways, the intro goes straight to the point and throws you into the gameplay, but to be honest, I wouldn't care that much if it had extra steps. For example, first you would wake up and train some dodging with Sentry and then Lavka would burst in and steal the orb. It would be enough time for you to talk with some villagers and even the elder. Just a little bit of depth, enough to make someone care a bit for the village.
- "Things just happens"
Literally that, things just happens.
Again, it's just a 1 hour game, but the characthers that popped on your way could had something for them.
For example, Silvia and Ribbon.
To be honest Silvia is my favorite characther of the game, Not because of her design but the concept of a demon messing with a writers dream not only cool asf, she her whole damn section of the game is really challenging and interesting.
But, because the game is so short, things... Just happens.
You just enters her house, enters in her mind, beat the demon, they drink coffe and you keep going. And something that really got me confused was... Why the hell the Green Knight boss was there? Like... He's literally just there and managed to jumpscare me on the first AND the second playthrough. Anyways back to Silvia!
. You enters in Sylvia's house pretty much waking her up.
. She asks if you're just passing by her house or if you're a fan, since her house is literally the only way between two main sections of the game.
. She thinks you are a fan and offers you a coffee, she talks a little bit and gives you a autographed book.
. *Joke about the fact that she is only staying in this house because the people that want to go to another part of the map keep waking her up.*
. She gets the key to the exit door and when she's in front of it, she falls asleep.
And this whole section could had like 4-3 minutes and it would be enough for me to make a crusade for this characther.
Anyways, to not expose my bias towards Silvia, I'm gonna also talk about Barry.
Just gonna throw this one here but you could had just made the whole sequence where you cross the desert with him just a cutscene where he talks a bit, it would honestly be 10x better than what it is now in my opinion since the only thing you do there is follow him for a few seconds before going to the next section... To be honest if you removed this section the game would literally be the same but with -20s~30s of gameplay.
He could literally talk anything about himself and the place he lives in this sequence, damn he could even talk about how hard he is into the mushrooms in the cave, even foreshadowing the next box since he could say: "but i've been kinda worried recently... There's been some weird sounds on the deeper parts in the cave...".
Anyways... That's basically it I guess.... I think you got the point.
I'm really tired since I've been writting this for like 2-3 hours by now I guess.
Again, I really enjoyed this game, but I think the points I made here could had enhanced the experience.
I'm looking forward for the sequel!