Key Fairy

lush and mysterious, deftly dancing with enemies, and full of evocative writing that so efficiently drew me in to the depths of the forest. quiet until it's howling at the moon

Key Fairy has been one of my most anicipated Indies to release this year, and the full game is as good as the demos have put it out to be! Key Fairy leans into the maneuverability aspect of bullet hells, letting you defeat enemies through identifying their attack patterns and defeating them through taking 'stars' that they leave behind. This unique gameplay loop makes it a surprisingly bulletless-hell, where the player has to get intimately close to enemies in order to defeat them. Enemies in each zone are often evolved version of past enemies- and each new encounter will kick your ass the first time you visit them. If you are into the dark souls-esque pattern of enountering weirdos with increasingly sporatic attack patterns, then you will find Key Fairy's learning curve satisfying. Speaking of enemy encounters, sometimes you will find two more more enemies teaming up in a room. These rooms are curated so that the enemies dont just come down on you with 2x difficulty, which makes those rooms some of my favourites in the game. The other, non-combat half of Key Fairy is conversing with chracters and absorbing the whimsy of what they say. Some of what characters will say will feel more comprehensible than some other dialogue, which is a consequence of initiating conversation with forest sprites.. One of my favourite encounters involves defeating birds in coats, and then encountering them later on asking for special objects. Fail to provide those items and they will insult you in a way that tickled me. There is no boring dialogue. The game in its entirety is about 6 hours long, give or take how long it takes you to adapt to new encounters, how much you care for some of the esoteric dialogue prompts, and if you want to get all of the achievements (which require multiple playthoughs).

Everything you would expect of fairies and everything of that ilk: Teeming with life and dizzy with danger. Cooked with a heavy dose of whimsy, a few dashes of the unknown, and a teeny pinch of something terrifying. Quite honestly, everything looks, feels, and sounds unified with this theme. It's really neat. Instead of bashing the forest denizens into submission, you weave around and collect emitted stars to pacify foes. Your movement is very driven by the momentum of your grapple thread (without it you are [i]very[/i] slow albeit precise), with a slow-recharge dash to provide flexibility in repositioning or being aggressive. Mastery of this is paramount to success as every enemy in every encounter is designed to test how proficiently you can play around them. It feels sublime when you're in a good flow state. The game is fairly open and hands-off about how you approach it; It feels like you are free to immerse yourself and quite literally get lost, as seems natural when it comes to the fae. That being said, everything has a place, some individuals will provide advice and directions, and you [i]will[/i] intuit some sense of direction and purpose. It never really gets frustrating about where to go next—although you might feel perplexed if you are searching for all the unique interactions and not-quite-endings for their respective achievements.

peak fairy

Key fairy is a incredibly delightful game, with a with soft yet raw artstyle, wonderful dialog, a very Very fun movement system, AND immersive and charming music. It's a simple metroidvania meant to exist by showing something being itself in the game itself being of a self, itself. . . sefl. It's in all around positive experience that should have you enthralled by its sheer whimsy and messaging; not even including the movement which has a lot of applicable moments to let you fly by like a bullet yet need you to just flutter about. Also there are plently of keys to be had, it IS in the title afterall.

I think the moon is mad at me

喜欢，希望能有中文翻译。很喜欢文本的气质但是啃原文有点费劲

This is officially in my top three favourite games I've ever played. The story and dialog had me grinning from ear to ear. "Whimsical" really is the best word to describe it. The art style is absolutely gorgeous. when I first saw it on the steam store I thought it was a little dark and scary, but after playing for a few hours I totally changed my tune; it meshes absolutely perfectly with the joyous charm and whimsy of the story and dialog. The gameplay is incredibly smooth and satisfying. The game will only take about 5 hours to beat, but after playing through the game once I'm 100% planning on a second playthrough -- not because there are any other routes to explore, but because the game was just that pleasant of an experience. Please buy this game. [spoiler] Note: maybe back up your save right before the moon fight. The game didn't transition correctly between combat and the ending cutscene and I got killed while going through dialog, which ruined my save... [/spoiler]

Really well-polished game with interesting depth and challenge, and deep thought implementing a lot of accessibility/assistance options. The movement in this game feels incredible, and the illustration, writing and music and sound design are really beautifully done. The story feels heartfelt and intentional, and there's a lot of secrets and paths to go down.

I don't usually buy games I randomly happen to see on steam store page. This game was the exception, because of its unique style, music, atmosphere. And I'm so happy I did. It feels nice to play. To zip around the whimsical fairy tale forest. Talking to weird and funny creatures (who sometimes don't even know who they are). It's expensive, yeah. But a unique and interesting experience. I am, however, stuck trying to get the last key ancient key ([spoiler] I gave orb and a stone to crows, but they don't say what else they want, and I feel like I talked to all NPCs 3 times over [/spoiler]), and the game's attempt at help are.. not enough for me to figure it out =(