Recent reviews by LittleThiefCat

Caveat: if there was a neutral review option, I would select that.
Edit 2: Okay, I've now played through the game multiple times, seen all the known endings, played through hard mode without burdens (because I thought you were locked out of them) and without skips (so I wouldn't accidentally miss content), and become a master of sokoban. I legitimately have stockholm syndrome with this game now. I'm leaving my original review below because I think my criticisms still stand, but I'm changing my takeaway to "this is a truly excellent game, just lean on guides if you start to get frustrated and don't feel bad about that for a second".

My worry with the story that I originally alluded to was that it was leaning into (minor spoiler) anti-choice/pro-life propaganda, but fortunately that isn't what the game was going for at all. (Major spoiler) While the game leaves some of Gray's choices and regrets up to interpretation, it's meant to be a much more nuanced situation than just "baby >> mother" that reflects on her own desires, regrets, and humanity.

If you hate sokoban, do yourself a favor and just watch a let's play. You MUST enjoy it to be able to play through the 30+ hours needed to reach the true ending. Also, if you are questioning if you've gotten the true ending, you haven't. Keep playing.

Original review after getting the first ending:

I honestly don't know how to feel about this game. The first time around is fun-- you play through about 200 sokoban puzzles and get drip fed the story about why the protagonist is doing these puzzles in the first place. The music, while repetitive, is a major draw and the story itself is engaging. Then you probably get a bad ending, and that's when things simultaneously get good and go south. At this point you're replaying the game looking for secrets to be able to make more progress and get a better ending. It's miserable and tedious to play, because until you actually find those secrets you're grinding out all the same sokoban puzzles you did in the first run, often multiple times as you try to figure out what bizarre advancement path to take. The store page isn't joking when it says you'll need to talk to other people to figure things out. Doing so WILL spoil you, and the game IS going to make you feel incredibly stupid in the process.

I legitimately think this game would be improved by leaning away from the almost ARG-esque elements and having its in-game hints be a little less subtle. For example, I wasted at least two hours trying to solve a puzzle in the order the game presented it to me (which I also wouldn't have realized was a puzzle without guides). It was only after looking up half a dozen different youtube videos that I was able to realize the puzzle is unsolvable without a sword that I didn't know existed that you can only get later in the game. Just having an extra hint in that area -- "Hey I think I need to come back to this later" -- would have been enough to stop me from grinding out two hours of sokoban puzzles I really didn't need to do. Solving these meta puzzles could be incredibly fun and rewarding if it wasn't so much of a slog to attempt things, or even realize there are things you're supposed to attempt.

One other criticism: the game has a weird fixation on breasts, which isn't exactly what I was hoping for when I decided to pick up a game with the female protagonist tag. There isn't enough of it for me to say it's reason alone not to play, but it is obnoxious, objectifying, sexist, and adds almost nothing (you do get arrested for one gag though which is pretty funny.)

All that said, I have 15 hours and counting at the time of this review and I can't stop playing. I'm a little worried about where the story is going now that I've gotten a better(?) ending and reached "hard mode", but I'm willing to give it the benefit of the doubt for now and will update this review if that turns out to have been a mistake.

Edit 1: I bought the soundtrack and it gave me MP3s AND FLAC files. 11/10. Soundtrack is definitely worth buying here.

This is a fun little horror game in the same vein as Irisu Syndrome, Pony Island, and Doki Doki Literature Club Plus (specifically Plus). While the horror elements could use a little work (for example, there were some ~SPOOKY~ Kinito models that seemingly just existed to be spooky), I had a lot of fun finding the secrets and piecing together the story. Really hope the dev keeps making games-- this is especially impressive for a first showing.

This game *gets* what makes a roguelike fun. Runs feel different in very tangible and fun ways.

This is one of those "if Steam had a neutral option, I'd select that" reviews. While the game is overflowing with charm, it's very heavily carried by the charisma and voice acting chops of the main characters, and there isn't much to it beyond that. The main gameplay mechanic is making choices ala Life is Strange, but none of those choices actually matter (there's one ending and a bonus scene if you click enough sparkles). The writing doesn't explore anything interesting with that lack of agency either. Also, towards the end there was a really dragged out scene of an eight year old child farting with their butt visible that was extremely uncomfortable and soured me on the remainder of the game. That said, I've erred toward recommending it solely for the aforementioned charisma of the main characters. Potentially worth grabbing on a sale.

Edit: Immediately after posting this I scrolled through some other reviews and found out about a more sexually charged scene I missed in my playthrough. The protagonist is *eight*. Switching to not recommended, jfc

this is the kind of game i could lose entire days to while procrastinating

This is a really charming and surprisingly tricky puzzle game. I highly recommend it, especially to fellow cozy gamers. The cast of characters in this game is also a great example of diversity in a fantasy setting done right.

This was a legitimately great game that I would have paid money for. My only criticism is that it was way too easy, which is honestly fine for an April Fool's day game. I hope the devs see how much people enjoyed this and make another one with some more serious puzzles.

This game is just pure fun. It's perfect for when you want to zone out and relax for 30 minutes. It's more than earned the rewards it's received.

this is legitimately some of the most fun I've had with a game in years

For the most part it seems like people bought this game expecting something like Stardew Valley or even Rune Factory, when it's really more of a JRPG that also has farming sim mechanics. I'll update this review once I'm deeper in, but so far it seems like a solid game with an interesting story and likable characters.