Buy the game, support developers, please! :)
Thank you for this game, it is lovely! :)

Pluses:
+ Nice and embroidered style of graphics
+ Great soundtrack
+ A lot of characters which are unique
+ Gamepad support
+ Czech languate support

Minuses:
(-) Underground is still a bit frustrating and you can not see almost anything

QoL (Quality of Life improvements):
- Settings: there is a strange dark shimmering, noise in graphics (šum in Czech language). I really apreciate if there is a possibility to turn it off!
- Settings: add contrast and brightness
- Settings: add lock FPS to 60 (you can do it in Nvidia app, but do not know about AMD and Intel graphic cards)
- Would be nice to have a difficulty settings
- Some quest list, notes for the active quest with small describtion

I got my copy from the devs~

For a husband & wife team this is a very impressive visual experience, it almost has that Forgotton Anne cinematic quality, possibly because they are Ghibli inspired. The game is roughly 4-5 hours if you playing very casually, but I missed a couple of optional interactions/side activities. That being said, with all the great visuals and enjoyable soundtrack, I definitely felt like gameplay segments were not playtested enough and I can point to a few objective issues, such as running into various checkpoint & 'trial and error' problems. To be clear, this is a narrative platformer, and I don't actually expect some complicated mechanics, the gameplay is there to get you to the next narrative segment and that is okay, but there were still some things that could have been done better.

There was a curious argument in the forum in regards to "frustration", with the other side arguing the game was just meant to be that way, but I think they are both right and wrong at the same time. The game is actually extremely easy, but it's also very easy to die by accident which could have been avoided with more feedback for level design. It's very obvious that the devs wanted a narrative experience, but sometimes they overcooked on 1-hit deaths and awkward checkpoints. The gameplay itself is kinda strange, it's mostly walking toward a correct path, with the hardest puzzles being 2 or 3 steps at most, so honestly, regardless of how you feel about it, there was not that much substance behind it, go the correct way, and if you die, do it a little faster next time. For me personally, if you had more narrative during those cave sections, I would not mind it as much because it's a narrative game, but it felt like the gameplay was always a filler, not something that was visually compelling or challenging.

I don't want to say too much about the narrative other than my general impressions of it. The world building wasn't bad in itself, and I was still invested in the first 75% of the game, however, I felt the game ended somewhat unceremoniously, there was mystery, but it's almost like you didn't do anything with it, very much a vanilla folklore. There was one important character that at first I thought would have some compelling backstory to him given his constant presence and a source of conflict for the main character, but in the end you didn't really do much with him, and I thought it was very odd, and honestly the worst part of the game for me.


(+) This is a visual and narrative experience first, and sure, I think the game was beautiful, and aside from the ending, I was enjoying the world building enough. Again, very high effort for what I assume is mostly 2 people, and the fabric animation gives the game that physical touch, making it a bit of a novelty. I saw a few people complain about the simple backgrounds, but I think they work for the settings, this game is showing landscapes/architecture from a simpler time, and I actually used to live in a place that still had a similar look. (obviously I wasn't born during the middle ages, but there are places on earth that still have a similar way of life)

(+) There were some optional things you could do, such as a few optional "fetch quests", and some collectibles, I missed a couple, although honestly, I thought there would be a little more of that.

(+) I didn't mind the dialogue and the narrative overall, I think I just felt like toward the end you didn't do anything with the mystery, felt very vanilla to me, not too different from any other folklore tale with a witch.

(+) Enjoyed the music


A few bugs:

- there was a large hole after you meet the ____ in the caves where you fall, with grass on both sides, if you backtrack there after loading, and go through the planks, the character will freeze

- there was a place inside the caves, it kinda has a small body of water with a creature, I think it was a deer or something, but if you backtrack there after the first time, your controls interact with the light effects for some reason

- if you can, make sure the damage visual effect does not linger while respawning, just looks odd when I take damage twice when I am already at the checkpoint

Maybe some QOL:

- you could extend the first damage trigger in darkness 2 seconds further away, will make it less annoying, so it's not like, always be right on time

- the 1-hit death during boss was an overkill, those spikes have awkward visuals, didn't feel good, even though the fight is easy otherwise

- I am not sure if I missed a checkpoint between the 2 running sections, make sure the player can't miss it, or add one if it does not have it

- you could make those hidden shortcuts a little more visible, sometimes I would not even attempt to swing at them because the visuals made it obvious that it was a rock

- maybe a few more achievements, for petting the geese, cows, sheep and the cat

Some narrative nitpicks:

- I only have one large issue with the story. I think the game implies that the "bad guy" will have some compelling motivation because he has a presence across the game, but you didn't do much with him, so that for me was probably the most disappointing part about the game. Maybe the game could have used some heart to heart moments between them, at least give him other traits so he isn't wasted after all that mystery.

Overall Thoughts: 7/10

Visually the game was very enjoyable, and I liked the narrative up to a certain point. With that said, I still feel like implementing gameplay is not something you have a lot of experience with, often feeling like I am playing on auto-pilot or running into repetitive segments, as mentioned there were some overcooked sections with 1-hit deaths, some awkward checkpoints, and somewhat touchy hitboxes in a few places. I do wish you would have done something more with that character that showed up across the game, I felt like there was mystery to him that didn't have a satisfying conclusion.

Fairly strong Pentiment vibes here, so if you enjoyed that game pick this up. The art style is extremely cool. The fact it's entirely done with embroidery is bonkers. Music is very good so far as well. If you enjoy funding cool little games that actually try something different, give this a try.