Of the narrative-heavy anthro games I've played lately this one was definitely the best. Interesting culture and manages to say something.

I don't recommend it at all, especially if you're Christian, as you are forced into worshipping satanic gods.

The game started off strong by presenting me with a choice-heavy, psychological appeal that allowed me to explore the weight of my decisions, but I didn't entirely agree with the interpretation. I have come to the conclusion that, to a certain degree, my choices were ultimately fixed in place and not at all flexible, given the context or creativity, but rather what the developer thought should happen if A and B aligned.

Around 4 hours in, I completely lost interest in the game and just kind of played on autopilot because I thought I would just survive this one bad part of the game, but sitting in that situation just made me realize that I never really liked the story to begin with or the characters.

This game contains suicide, guilt-tripping, murder, devil worship, torture, child sacrifice, and then, after it has presented these topics, it proceeds to blame them on you because it's a "decision-heavy" game.

Now it wasn't all bad, though, because I did enjoy playing around with the choices, but again I didn't really feel I had the creative freedom to experiment as much as I wanted, since I kind of had to lean on the description the developers set for the symbols and how they thought those should be interpreted by the characters.

Grotto is a unique game, in that its narrative repeatedly prioritizes feelings of anger or helplessness rather than attempting to make you feel sad. Many narrative driven games have gotten me to cry, but much fewer have made me feel this suffocated or at loss for what to do. Because in most choices games, the options at the very least imply their consequences. But in Grotto, it is ever unclear how your signs will be interpreted.

Truthfully, it felt frustrating at first to figure how best to communicate what I wanted to the characters. I was sure that at least a few of them would not heed my warnings and take anything I gave them as what they wished to do. And yet I found myself desperately trying to prevent them from making those choices. I got deeply invested in these characters, and when the late game threat came to be, I was overcome by an immediate sense of alarm. Choosing who to sacrifice was intense, and felt suffocating, because there were no good options. Truthfully, the way the narrative was handled gave me goosebumps at every turn.

Mechanically, it did all it could to not feel repetitive, which I can respect. You can fast travel between the two rooms, most action animations don't take dreadfully long, and even the pipe didn't feel like a chore, surprisingly. My only gripe, which is possibly on me having attempted to maximize efficiency early on by unlocking all constellations, is that I did not realize constellations were renewable until the last third of the game. It could have been communicated a little better, because I genuinely thought limited time uses for constellations were a feature, but I would believe it if anyone who didn't immediately unlock everything figured this out organically.

Artistic direction is unique, gorgeous, and I desperately need more games by this studio with this artstyle. Much like in Laika, Beicoli's music and voice carries the hell out of the game, and elevates it even further. It's as much an artistic masterpiece as it is a narrative one.

It's, in my opinion, a hidden gem and a must play if you like narrative driven choices games.