This is honestly such an all-around high quality game it's scandalous that it's free now and has still gotten this little attention. Not that I'm so much better - I got a review copy years ago and never prioritised it for some reason.

Basically I loaded the title/menu and immediately thought I should have checked this one out sooner. It struck me as really well designed right from the start. The art is lovely, and there are a few nice effects bringing some more life into it, like the 2.5D effect in the intro or the sparkling of the lake water in the sun.
You can choose between a boyish and a girlish looking character, but the choice doesn't affect the story and you'll be referred to with they/them pronouns - maybe they just didn't want to bother with the extra coding, but I'm not complaining :D
It took me a bit to notice that the name tags in dialogues, looking like wooden signs, were customised with colours, shapes and symbols for each individual NPC - a nice touch and great help for remembering who is who.
The music switched around with the atmosphere and surroundings, between idyllic and eerie Halloween-ish, very cool.
I really enjoyed the writing, too. Skilful even with rhymes (which is frustratingly rare among game writers who try to write rhymes), and often very funny.
There's no "real" gameplay with puzzles or anything, but personally I didn't miss it. You get quite a few choices for activities/company that create replay value, some dialogue options, and you trace sigils (with no real difficulty) to cast spells. I ended up lying on the sofa with my laptop and just a touchpad for maximum comfiness.

A few things I didn't find so great:
I missed a back button for when I was too trigger-happy with the clicking.
I'm wondering if there was a save issue - I thought I saved my progress before I left for a longer break, but I had to play an entire evening again. Not really a big deal though, I just tapped through it all on my laptop's touchpad.
I could have done without the talk about using animal parts for witch stuff (nothing that was actually done during the game), and without being told about how much "I" enjoy food that I'd never eat or like. There's quite a lot that isn't for the very squeamish in other (not too graphic) ways, which were fine with me personally.
Speaking of food, it's a running gag how food-obsessed the very round squirrel companion is. Not sure how IRL bigger people would feel about that. I found it a little bit questionable, but not really mean-spirited.

I've seen the ending criticised, but I honestly loved it and it made me more emotional than most of those "emotional" games with reviews about how much people cried. There was a pretty dramatic scene towards the end, but no time pressure or skill involved, and (general outcome) nothing really bad happens.
I found it VERY well played that there were some metaphorical neon plot signs that made me think "ok, it's a kids' game, I can totally see the reveal coming already", but (very general about the direction it's taking) then they just kind of let you assume or wonder about those things while adding something that never crossed my mind. I'm impressed!
There IS a lot of potential for sequels, though sadly that's unlikely to happen.

My first playthrough took 5 very casual hours with many little breaks and sending live updates and screenshots to someone. Definitely looking forward to a few more some other time!

* * *

If you like chill and story-driven games, check out my curator Peaceful Adventures and Stories. You're also welcome to join the group.

This is honestly such an all-around high quality game it's scandalous that it's free now and has still gotten this little attention. Not that I'm so much better - I got a review copy years ago and never prioritised it for some reason. Basically I loaded the title/menu and immediately thought I should have checked this one out sooner. It struck me as really well designed right from the start. The art is lovely, and there are a few nice effects bringing some more life into it, like the 2.5D effect in the intro or the sparkling of the lake water in the sun. You can choose between a boyish and a girlish looking character, but the choice doesn't affect the story and you'll be referred to with they/them pronouns - maybe they just didn't want to bother with the extra coding, but I'm not complaining :D It took me a bit to notice that the name tags in dialogues, looking like wooden signs, were customised with colours, shapes and symbols for each individual NPC - a nice touch and great help for remembering who is who. The music switched around with the atmosphere and surroundings, between idyllic and eerie Halloween-ish, very cool. I really enjoyed the writing, too. Skilful even with rhymes (which is frustratingly rare among game writers who [i]try[/i] to write rhymes), and often very funny. There's no "real" gameplay with puzzles or anything, but personally I didn't miss it. You get quite a few choices for activities/company that create replay value, some dialogue options, and you trace sigils (with no real difficulty) to cast spells. I ended up lying on the sofa with my laptop and just a touchpad for maximum comfiness. A few things I didn't find so great: I missed a back button for when I was too trigger-happy with the clicking. I'm wondering if there was a save issue - I thought I saved my progress before I left for a longer break, but I had to play an entire evening again. Not really a big deal though, I just tapped through it all on my laptop's touchpad. I could have done without the talk about using animal parts for witch stuff (nothing that was actually done during the game), and without being told about how much "I" enjoy food that I'd never eat or like. There's quite a lot that isn't for the very squeamish in other (not too graphic) ways, which were fine with me personally. Speaking of food, it's a running gag how food-obsessed the very round squirrel companion is. Not sure how IRL bigger people would feel about that. I found it a little bit questionable, but not really mean-spirited. I've seen the ending criticised, but I honestly loved it and it made me more emotional than most of those "emotional" games with reviews about how much people cried. There was a pretty dramatic scene towards the end, but no time pressure or skill involved, and (general outcome) [spoiler]nothing really bad happens[/spoiler]. I found it VERY well played that there were some metaphorical neon plot signs that made me think "ok, it's a kids' game, I can totally see the reveal coming already", but (very general about the direction it's taking) [spoiler]then they just kind of let you assume or wonder about those things while adding something that never crossed my mind.[/spoiler] I'm impressed! There IS a lot of potential for sequels, though sadly that's unlikely to happen. My first playthrough took 5 very casual hours with many little breaks and sending live updates and screenshots to someone. Definitely looking forward to a few more some other time! * * * If you like chill and story-driven games, check out my curator [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/35872486]Peaceful Adventures and Stories[/url]. You're also welcome to join the [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/chilladventures]group[/url].