I bought this during the winter sale after having this on my wishlist for a while. I was very interested in the premise of playing as a blind character and relying on sound to navigate. As others have stated, this game doesn't actually rely solely on sound. Rather, it creates a sort of echolocation where every time you make noise, throwing something, jumping, running, you create a pulse of sight in that line of sound. Still a very unique and interesting gameplay concept. Doesn't represent a realistic blind character however, as the story even opens up explaining the main character has learned to envision the world in her imagination through sound, which in itself does not represent what blindness is.
The art style is similar to titles like Meadow and Shelter, but with flashing bright colors and a see through, pulsing landscape. Definitely do not play this game if you have issues with flashing lights, some levels are completely composed of your character traveling through a light show that is constantly flashing in wavelengths. Also, since this is a platformer at heart and doesn't solely rely on sound, it's not accessible to the blind. You will need sight to land the jumps and progress the story.
The story is mysterious, though not completely unexplained. Others have called the story dark, which perhaps it does appear to become, though when you beat the game it feels more triumph and positive again.... And the story is explained for what it's worth, though the universe this takes place in as a whole is a mystery. We learn that the village is under some spell and trapped by our guide, who doesn't seem to remember or fully understand why this happened, and we are the only one left to attempt to rescue everyone. Supposedly our brother had attempted, though failed from being lost in the darkness, which isn't a problem for our blind character. The story revolves around helping the guide, simply by following its path and finding our way out of the hell of each level, and listening to the guide explain its dreams and memories as we try to piece together what happened. The answers to this are explained, but I'll leave it to you to finish the game and see those for yourself.
Controls for keyboard and for controller (xbox in my case) are fluid and responsive, if you're having trouble just to use sprint 24/7 and trust yourself, I've found running blindly and traveling upwards on platforms gets you through the game easily. I've found keyboard better for most things, but controller better for wall jumping. You don't need to overthink, there's no complex puzzles here, just jump up and keep going. This will also help net you the achievement for completing the game in 30 minutes, though if you do try to fully explore, gameplay will last more like an hour or two. I've played through threeish times, my third involving me just messing around and throwing the hamster-like creatures everywhere, and the achievements are all reasonable to obtain in theory.
The only one I'm missing is collecting all the collectables, I'm only missing about 20ish. I've found that collecting previous ones you've missed does not raise your score, instead you have to collect more than you previously have. For example, if you obtained 49/50 collectables, finding the last one in your next playthrough will not grant you the achievement. Instead you must refind all 49 AND the one you missed to get it. Which is very tedious and if anyone knows how many exactly are in each level, hmu because I'd love to 100% this gem. I'll update if I ever complete it.
I recommend this only on sale because it is a very short game and I imagine will be a confusing mess to most players. But give it another go and see it through, the story was enjoyable and it's a gameplay style you won't get anywhere else.
Oh and for parts people seem to be having issues with: The ice level, JUMP and never stop jumping, you won't fall through the ice then as you're always a bit ahead of it. I did this successfully on my first try, just bounce your way through it. And for the falling rocks part, if you find yourself stuck and there's a blockage in your way that hasn't fallen down, reload the game back up. You probably died right before this part and it stopped the chain reaction of ground falling for you. HMU if there's another part you can't progress through.
