Tails of Glimmervale

Oh no, it's boring. This game is advertised as a 'cozy souls-like' and while that seemed both oxymoronic and potentially excellent to me, I was interested to see how it pulled it off. Sadly, it does not. It hardly even attempts to. The combat is slow and rudimentary. Roll, use your single attack, wait for stamina to regen, repeat. As far as I've seen there is only one weapon, plus a boomerang that briefly stuns an enemy. Fighting enemies does not give you anything, there is no currency or experience system or levelling up of any kind. You cannot backstab, use ranged attacks or magic or items. The world is limited and extremely linear. There is nowhere to explore, nothing to discover, and yet it is very easy to get lost. The map is of limited help: it is too zoomed in to guide you far, and cannot be panned for a better understanding. I encountered a few sidequests, which were "Pick up these books scattered in clear view in the immediate area" and "Collect 10 fruit from nearby area". Truly riveting stuff, and so challenging. Apparently your character getting stuck is a common problem that the game resolves by telling you multiple times to escape by rolling around and hoping for the best. And cozy? Cozy to me means getting to know characters, building a community, maybe even customising your character and their environment! I guess the sprites are cute enough, but none of the characters I have met are all that charming. But neither does the world feel especially dreadful or mysterious, which is what I would expect tonally from a 'souls-like'. Tails of Glimmervale MAY change drastically eventually but it's clearly not that long of a game and I already feel like I could have spent my time better doing literally anything else. This isn't a souls-like or cozy or especially interesting or fun in anyway, it's just another functional enough adventure game in the vein of a NES-era Zelda. Enough for a passing grade in a games design course, not worth spending your time or money on.

There's a fox

The game has a good and consistent graphical style, as well as a well-thought-out combat system. Some of the fights can be a challenge, but as you get better through practise you can overcome them.

It's a silly little game, just a smol guy. The combat works as advertised being a "cozy" souls-like, where you don't have to worry about dying in two hits, but you can't just blow through the entire thing with your brain on autopilot. Don't expect a leveling system or complex mechanics beyond managing your stamina in fights. The boomerang is a pretty nice side-weapon, though, and the fact that it can still damage and stun enemies on its return arc allows you to set up with cool moments where you can just whale on an enemy for a lot of damage. The art style is cute, the characters are adorable, and the soundtrack is passable. The only things about this game I don't like is the lack of audio and visual feedback. You won't know you're in combat until you see the enemy or you see your stamina bar revealed, and sometimes you won't see the enemy before the game decides you've entered combat. Additionally, there's feedback for when you hit the enemy, but not when you get hit yourself. Aside from a white flash on your character's sprite to indicate you've taken damage (and the health bar, obviously), there's no hitstun or sound effect to indicate you've taken damage. This is not a game that you put hundreds of hours into either dying or exploring. It is short, it is simple, and it is cozy.

Nice art, fun characters, cozy music, great vibes. I like it.

haven't gotten too far but so far it's very solid. Only issues i've found were my game running at low fps for an unknown reason (It was fixed after reloading the game) and the text speed feels slow with no way to skip that i've found

Despite minor souls genre mechanics, this is a short and not very challenging adventure. You begin the game with your character seated near a campfire and tent. The character's name is revealed to be Willow, and his purpose is to enter an old castle that is said to contain a treasure. Unfortunately, after meeting a stranger who wants the same thing, he realizes he needs a key. Despite appearances, the game is linear and does not provide much exploration. Furthermore, there's no purpose for it because you can't equip new or better equipment or acquire experience points to boost stats. Your hero's strength and agility will remain consistent throughout his adventure. Although the game has three difficulty levels, it is balanced enough that you can play it even on the highest. On the other hand, if you only want to follow the story without wasting time with challenging foes, there is a casual mode. Enemy attack patterns are fair and obvious because of their animation. They wait a bit before attacking, giving you time to avoid or run away. Furthermore, they do not magically predict the direction of your dodge, thus they will attack the spot you were at before the dodge. Bosses are not challenging because they have a few attacks and do not go through "enraged" stages when their health is down. The speed is slow, so you won't be hit out of nowhere. When they miss, there is always time to hit them a few times without fear of retribution. Of course, the difficulty increases as you move through the game or encounter many enemies. The greatest threat is area attacks. You may avoid the attack, but if you enter the shockwave animation, you will take damage. Combat gets repetitive after a while and is not exciting. There’s only one attack and enemies come in only a handful of types. As you approach the end, the same enemies gain an extra attack to make them more dangerous. You can accept a few quests from characters, although this is required to progress. There is a map, but it does not display quests and cannot be moved around. Quests tab is broken because it opens quests each time you load the game. Some areas cannot be accessed unless you gran a boomerang after defeating the first boss. It not only temporarily stuns enemies, but it also allows you to drop wooden boards that act as bridges over water. Boomerang stun is quite effective since it delays enemy attacks and allows you to cheese a single enemy. Controls are standard for an action adventure. While you don't need to care about stamina outside of combat, the stamina bar appears once you confront an enemy. This encourages you to utilize clever management because your single attack move and dodge consume a significant amount of stamina. Fortunately, its replenishing speed is reasonable and not too annoying. Lunch boxes are used for healing, although they only replenish a portion of your health bar. You can carry three, and they replenish when you stop at a campsite. Resting also respawns enemies. However, this is not a big deal because you rarely have to take the same way twice. Certain campsites should be placed better, especially before the final boss.

Definitely worth your time! This game has much to offer for anyone that seeks a comfortable game to relax and enjoy. It is clear from the very beginning that a group of talented people has worked with passion on this game. This can be seen from the creative art design of the characters to the clever dialogue and the general ambience you'll experience. There is a fisher-npc, whose roof of his house is made out of an upside down boat! That's the attention to detail given to this game!

Incredibly basic. You have ONE attack, with your one weapon, plus the boomerang, which is a basic stunning projectile. The stamina requirement for dodge is ludicrous, the enemies sometimes glitch and don't telegraph their attack AT ALL, skipping the animation, and the one boss I had the patience to encounter had only 2 moves. The map is incredibly bland, and, due to having no landmarks, and everything looking the same, is easy to get lost in. It lacks polish at every level, like the first family you help telling you you can rest there and have some food, despite there being no way to rest or eat there, not even a bonfire. The pixel art is decent, but everything else is par at best and usually well below that. Skip this one.

very good, could not recommend more Great artstyle, soothing music, amazing puns 10/10