★★ / ★★★★★
2 to 2,5 stars out of 5 at best.
This game is all style, no substance.
Gameplay is boring and sluggish.
The plot is disjointed and contrived.
--> I would recommend this solely for its nice visuals and audio, nothing else. <--
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I am frankly shocked at the number of positive reviews. The gameplay and level design are pretty obvious as to why they have severe issues, so I won't elaborate on them. Other reviews were able to sum it up nicely.
What am I most shocked by is the praise for its "interesting" storytelling. The plot is nonsensical and contrived; things happen just so things happen. There is no reason whatsoever for Olle to do what he's doing and go where he's going. This is not a narrative game; it's a (poorly) interactive art book with a soundtrack.
As someone studying literature and with a decade of experience with GMing tabletop RPGs I am truly flabbergasted at the positive reviews about the plot.
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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . !!! THIS SECTION INCLUDES SPOILERS !!! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
0) The perspective
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Half the game (or more) I thought that we magically sized down to size of a mouse, but then it turned out that everything is just giant..? I still don't fully understand how the size of things is supposed to work and why.
1) The narration, plot and storytelling:
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The last book we get to read with the king's story should have been the first thing we get to hear. Perhaps the bedtime story itself. Olle presumably knows all about it, but the player doesn't, so then we get to wonder. Why did the troll take our sister? Where did he take her? Do they eat people? Why have we still not found her? Why are we randomly stumbling around all around the place, and for what reason? Why aren't we trying to track down the troll? Do we actually know where the troll has gone? Who is Tuva and why is she helping us? Why does Tuva have a problem with us killing the shapeshifter but not the water musician monster? Why is Lemus randomly in convenient positions all around the place and how does he know to be there, is it just poorly written deus ex machina?
- We never get these answers by Showing or By telling, and when we do its far too late.
The game is over-reliant on exposition (aka: Tell don't show) and even that it does very, very poorly. Narrator couldn't have been used to a much greater extent; exposition on individual places or enemies could have been more common throughout the story. So we at least get to understand what is going on, when we are forbidden from knowing why is it going on in the first place.
The main plot itself tries to be like Limbo, Little Nightmares, or other works mentioned in different comments, but at the same time, it has narration and exposition. The result is a disjointed, incoherent mess. The game does not pick Telling over Showing or the opposite, it chooses both and does both poorly.
This should have been an artbook paired with a soundtrack, not a story, not a game. For a game it would need to have at least a little engaging and consistent gameplay and builds on itself. For a story it would need to have some sort of a plot structure and storytelling elements, continuity... not just things randomly happening because they are cool concepts that look cool.
2) Game's conclusion and the message of the story:
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The thematic message of this game had a very questionable conclusion. "He regretted not being able to save the baby; he regretted killing the shapeshifter." Why? Is his own suffering less worthy than that of those around him? Is the message to get into codependent relationships where you will only be 'enough' if you sacrifice yourself for others? Where is your own worth and survival less important than that of others?
So if he saved the baby, then what? What would happen after? What would he do? How in the hell would he actually save the baby in the long run...? Why should it be a child's responsibility to do insanely dangerous feats and risk their life to save an infant which most likely would die anyways or grew up in god knows what environment afterwards?
If he didn't kill the shapeshifter, then what? Would he be killed gruesomely and eaten by something? Possessed or abducted? If we killed this creature and by doing so saved tens or hundreds or more of its future victims why exactly is that a bad thing? And by this logic why have we not regretted killing the water musician monster if it was exactly the same? Because the shapeshifter had a body of a conventionally pretty female?
And in the end, the sister didn't have to be afraid of the night because her brother would fix her mistakes and save her damsel in distress ass forever, really? The point isn't that she should take personal responsibility for her own safety and well-being and not do extremely dangerous, borderline suicidal things like going in into a dark forest at night in a world filled with horror. (If you interpreted the magic as a dream or child's imagination, she still was frolicking on the edge of a ruin on top of a mountain, fooling around in a forest with wolves, bears, and other beasts.) But no, no, no, it's her brother's responsibility to... not even fix her, but rather "keep saving her," and if he doesn't than he should feel bad about himself.
When he fell and died in the end, sacrificed himself for his sister, I really did hope he would stay that and that the game will conclude with a measure of introspection and self-reflection and growth on the sisters part. That her brother died needlessly and suffered horrific trauma beforehand simply because she is an inconsiderate, irresponsible, codependent person. That she should still adventure and be herself but not in a way that makes others suffer or die if they care about her, or that she should distance herself from those who would suffer by loving her but cant stop themselves.
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People seem to like this game, for what reason is a mystery to me... The gameplay is undeniably critically flawed, the plot and storytelling is flawed as much as the gameplay if not more. Play this only if you genuinely only care about "vibes" and visuals and soundtrack - not lore, not narrative, not gameplay, not character study, etc.
This game has an enormous potential as big as the king within the mountain or the mountain itself but absolutely fumbles it. If the studio invests more into game design / gameplay department together with a team of writers they can produce absolutely breathtaking games.
