Now this is a hidden gem of a puzzle game. The concept of having different characters with their own unique ability is interesting and well-executed, the mechanics are varied, the puzzles are interesting and can get really challenging in the late-game. I'm guessing the reviewers before me either never got too far in the game or skipped a bunch of levels, because I’ve sunk 37 hours into the game and I’m still not close to completing it (including bonus levels)!
This is a turn-based 2D top-down puzzle game with grid-based movement. There are four playable characters: a bunny girl who can hop across gaps (one space wide), a strong human girl who can push heavy blocks, a mermaid who can swim (but can’t leave water), and finally a bird girl (harpy?) who flies. You can only control one character at a time, but you’re able to swap between them with the press of a button. Aside from these character abilities, there are a bunch of side mechanics in the game. While none of the mechanics are exactly groundbreaking, they are combined in clever ways to form some very satisfying puzzles. I’m not sure how to explain it, but good puzzle design just hits different. I get a similar level of satisfaction from solving these puzzles as I do the ones from popular puzzle games such Stephen’s Sausage Roll, Baba is You, Bonfire Peaks, a Monster’s Expedition and Snakebird, even if the mechanics in this game aren’t as unique.
There are 80 regular levels in the game, equally divided into 8 areas with 10 levels each. While levels within an area are usually a mixture of easier and harder levels, I felt the average difficulty increased steadily from one area to the next, so the difficulty curve is as smooth as it gets. The game starts off very easy, but I started to feel the challenge in the 4th area, and things finally got crazy from the 6th area onwards. Thankfully, you only need to complete 5 out of 10 levels of a given area in order to unlock the next, so progression is fairly lenient. Only levels which introduce a new mechanic are mandatory; the rest are all optional. You could just do the 5 levels you find easiest and skip the harder levels. Still, the 8th area is so challenging that even finding 5 levels easy enough to beat was quite a struggle, and this is coming from someone who finished Stephen’s Sausage Roll without a guide. Even until now, I’ve only beaten 6 levels of the 8th area (I’ve completed every other area). Anyway, once you beat 5 levels of Area 8, you unlock the ending. After the ending, you are told of the existence of a ‘Hard Mode’, as well as a clue on how to unlock it.
Hard Mode is simply where the bonus levels are found. The bonus levels are also divided into areas of 10 levels each, and progression follows the same formula. Only one new mechanic is introduced in the bonus levels, though it is a significant one in terms of difficulty added, but fortunately it isn’t present in every level. While Hard Mode started off easier than I expected, the average difficulty of a bonus level is well above that of a regular level. I’ve managed to beat 26 bonus levels so far, but I did skip quite a few levels, instead of slogging through it linearly like I did for the regular levels. I’ve only completed the first area of Hard Mode. I’ve unlocked 4 areas for now, so that makes 40 bonus levels. Beating 5 levels of the 4th area might unlock another area, or it might just unlock a true ending of some sort. Can’t be sure until I actually progress, and that isn’t happening anytime soon!
Despite the somewhat amateurish presentation of the game, it has all the important QoL features. It has unlimited undo, a sprint function to make your characters move faster, full controller support, as well as the option to rebind controls, which you would want to given that the default control scheme kind of sucks. I recommend Enter for Menu, Z for Undo, Spacebar for Change [Character]. The default R for Reset and Shift for Sprint is fine. Note that movement cannot be rebound and is permanently tied to both WASD and the arrow keys, and that Backspace will act as an extra Undo, as long as it isn’t bound to any other function.
However, there is no proper fullscreen mode for this game, which adds to the amateurish feel of it, though I’ve grown to accept maximized windowed mode.
I’m surprised how much this game has gone under the radar given the quality of its puzzles. I assume players are put off by the way it looks. Heck, even I didn’t expect much from the game. I thought it was just going to be a casual puzzle game with easy puzzles. I only bought it because I really dug the core concept of having different characters with unique abilities. I was so glad to be proven wrong! If you’re reading this review, I’m hoping you will give this charming puzzle game a fair shot instead of judging a book by its cover. You will find that it’s an absolute steal at $4 USD! (Was $5 when I bought it, but was a steal nonetheless)
