Arietta of Spirits is a lovingly crafted story-heavy game with an attention to detail. Gameplay-wise focuses heavily on combat which is well-tuned to suit the general aesthetic of the game, but can feel a bit punishing and slow to some.

A sweet and short game which was not made artificially long. The game as well-placed shortcuts and jumps to skip boring backtracking, while still having the option to revisit old areas for purely optional less story-heavy content. It feels nice to not be forced to complete the fetch quests just to advance in the story. On the other hand I think I'd like to return and see whether I missed something :)Though I wish there was a map to make that a bit easier. Also, I got really lost at one point of the main story. But otherwise the map was well-crafted, too.

Completed the game on normal difficulty and felt that it was well balanced. Additionally, the game seems to have a "soft" elective difficulty setting in form of bushes which can drop health items, and nothing else. So no extra grind looking for rupees! It's up to the player to choose how much to utilize this mechanic.

The game perhaps starts a bit slow, but very emotionally. Almost too much so. Very well done, anyway. It's a pity that the game isn't able to keep up the emotions all the way through. But there's plenty of good scenes!

As mentioned, the combat probably splits people to two camps. I personally don't like how attacking roots the character in-place, or how even just touching an enemy is a hit. Or how dodging and blocking can't override the attack animation. This slows down the combat and forces a more deliberate stance - which does suit the game a lot better, I do admit. But I'd prefer a more fluid system nevertheless.

Regardless, the boss fights in the game are well done, and function very well with the combat system. Bosses have plenty of unique mechanics to be discovered - though sometimes it can take a few deaths to figure them out. So difficulty seems to be on point :)

So, overall a nice little lovingly crafted experience that can be completed in a single evening, especially if not going the completionist route.