Scarlet Deer Inn

(I am a native Czech, but this review is in English for multiple people to easily read.) Tl;dr: good, but too expensive for what it is, 4 hours for a pretty much full experience, "7/10" vibes, overall I recommend, but wait for a sale. What is this game? A linear adventure platformer, with veeeery light puzzles. Gameplay-wise, it is very simple, you jump around, interact with interactibles when you're stuck and then jump around again. Sometimes you may whack things with your torch, but that's about it. What is this game about? Well, the description pretty much says it. However I'd liken it to a fairy tale told through a videogame (with a reference to a famous... poem? ballad? not sure, from "Kytice" by "Karel Jaromír Erben" - very fun sequence to see). I won't spoil further. How this translates to gameplay is what I've written above. In terms of an objective, it feels like a series of fetch quests and unlocking doors. Very simple. Visuals: I'm grouping these two together. Visuals for characters are very charming, the embroidered spritework is very stylistic. The whole game is NOT like that, it is just the characters and creatures. But the game does look very pretty and stylistically sound, so that's very NICE :) Sound: SFX are alright, nothing crazy. Soundtrack however is beautiful, utilizing flutes, strings and well-sung vocals at times by very talented artists. Characters aren't voiced, which is a bit of a shame, but it might ruin the atmosphere of feeling alone. Writing: I was very charmed by the Czech dialogue, especially for that old hag Dorothy (I assume that's her English name, I played fully in Czech though), who I did feel incredibly annoyed by, as was obviously intended. I adored the way some characters expressed themselves using different "styles" of the language, e.g. the miller. Feels-wise, I feel like this was the team's (or rather, couple's) first game, it sometimes felt like a Flash game, which is good, because those I feel were usually very good at expressing author's intent, which this game does too; but it is also because they were many times obviously very simple or amateurish in structure, which this game did remind me of at times. It feels good, but simplistic and too short. I'm sure I was supposed to help the archer girl of the shoemaker get revenge on the slug-boys, but that didn't happen. I was hoping there'd be a little bit more to chew on in terms of story basically. On the other hand, one could push the simple gameplay only so far until it felt reductive and boring. So, this game is...alright. Not really anything insane or spectacular, definitely not a Hollow Knight Silksong, but it's fine if you want a short classic fairy tale-like experience. I think Czech/Slovak (maybe Slavic in general) people will enjoy it more than others, because it touches on familiar concepts of our folklore and known literature.

It's genuinely depressing how beautiful this game looks and sounds while the gameplay is so rough. You can tell a lot of work went into it, and I hope the devs take the constructive criticism into account for their next game because I would love to give them another shot. There's a lot of talent here. First, as I've said, the art is wonderful. Simplistic and charming, and done in such a creative way. The music is also fantastic. So ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ catchy. I also loved the story. It had some great characters and tension building moments. But...I'm not sure what this game is wanting to be? It has elements of a puzzle adventure, but the puzzles are extremely easy. It has "quests" but they're only fetch quests. It feels like it should be exploration, but that's impossible to do well because of the light mechanic. It has some very (VERY) basic combat and platforming that's more of a nuisance than fun or challenging. It's upsetting. I wanted to love this game, but it needed better direction. I'm crossing my fingers for another that implements all the amazing elements I mentioned along with better gameplay.

I am having the same issue others are having, and have been softlocked out of the game. I am NOT going to replay the entire game up to this point because 4 hours is a very long time. But once I talked to the main baddie on the bridge, a boulder fell and broke the bridge. I proceeded right and fell through a weak floor, almost getting crushed, which prevented me from going left. I fell through another weak floor, and then my game froze entirely, unable to open a menu, move, or do anything. I closed and restarted my game, but there is no checkpoint after the conversation with the baddie, and I was respawned on the left side of the bridge at the point you are BEFORE the conversation with the baddie. This leaves an invisible wall at the bridge and there is NO progressing the story after this point since you need to be on the right side of the bridge. This is incredibly frustrating to spend nearly 4 hours invested in the story in one sitting, only to get locked out of the ending. Please fix this with a patch or a save system so one can go back before the cave collapse animation was triggered. I want to recommend this game so badly because I have followed the progress since 2023, but I cannot, in good faith, suggest this to someone with this critical game-breaking bug still in place.

I was enjoying this game for most of my playtime. Currently, I'm on a chase sequence where I chase a red hat bug which leads to a blue hat bug. During the blue hat chase part, I pull a lever that causes me fall in a pit which is game over. Every time you fail the chase sequence you have to start from the beginning. I failed the blue hat part several times now so I'm giving up. Overall, I was having a good time up until this long chase sequence that seems unfair or possibly bugged-maybe skill issue-but having to start the chase from the beginning is way too tedious.

I am going with a not recommend, and purely on one aspect. $20 for 2.6 hours of a game does not seem like a proper value. If it was priced down to maybe $15 or $10 I would gladly recommend it. There is only so much game here. The story is really nice, if not a little too open ended and ominous for a conclusion that also does not give much value to the price tag. If the game was given a proper ending I could even give that a recommendation, but as it is, nope. TLDR: Good story with mid ending, mild amount of gameplay and platforming/puzzle solving, not worth the value.

Short but interesting experience (should be hour or two longer than my time shown, I played demo to completion and progress was transferred). The embroidered style is interesting and music is great. I really liked elements from real folktales and legends showing in the story.

If you're looking for a large, dense, 80 hour AAA gameplay experience then you have to shift your expectations, but if you're interested in a short but solid handmade, artisan experience that's refreshingly balanced in its lighthearted and darker tones then you should check it out, especially since the art and animation are entirely embroidered, and that in and of itself is a massive achievement. I think the thing I ended up liking most about this game was how the characters were able to express themselves through limited dialogue. Without spoilers, it becomes humorously clear very quickly which characters are seemingly charming but have manipulative intent. Also too since the animation is embroidered a lot of the character designs are simple but there's a great charm to it, simple expressions and movements do so much to breathe life into the game. Well done team. SHOULD YOU BUY THIS GAME? If you want to support indie developers who have clearly worked hard to hand craft a small but charming and satisfying story, absolutely.