The Sacred Acorn

The developer describes this as a souls-like, but I think it's more accurate to call it a Hollow-like on the basis it shares more of the uniqueness and charm of Hollow Knight than it does the grim dark fantasy setting of Dark Souls. The Sacred Acorn features a beautifully crafted world with a wonderful art style, light hearted soundtrack, and some of the cutest animations I've seen in a game. Every time Ima gets out of their burrow after a nap, you're obligated to say "aww das a big stretch". The Sacred Acorn is great. Support the Devs and Australian-made games.

Death's Door + Hollow Knight + Squirrels = A NUTTY good time! I'm a *huge* small mammal fan (just look at the name/prof pic) and this little gem scratches that cutesy itch, all while being a fun adventure in the process. I wouldn't exactly label it a "souls-like", as I see it resembling the games I mentioned up top much more closely. However, the mechanics of the game are good and the combat is enjoyable once you gain a handle on the timings. I particularly enjoy the traveling map buddy! Most importantly, I had the opportunity to stream this game via Twitch and one of the developers stopped by to hang for awhile, curious about how I was enjoying the game. To me, this not only shows commitment to their player-base, but also as a creator looking for ways to better their product. While already making an overall enjoyable game experience, that dedication alone gains my two-thumbs up and a positive review.

I have been following this game since its first demo in Feb '22 and am so stoked it's finally here! Cute metroidvania with a good upgrade system and fun combat with engaging bosses. I'm so proud of how far it's come!

Fun little game with a comfortable art style. Cute characters, varying biomes to explore, open world which is nice. It sits somewhere adjacent to metroidvania/soulslike not perfectly fitting into either but obviously has parts of both. Can see that it has hollow knight inspirations which I'd say has the same fitting. The scope is a little less than hollow knight and most games adjacent to it though, which isn't necessarily a bad thing as I tend to find long complicated games tiring and a game like this fits in really well between those. The bosses are cute, original and fun as well.

Disclaimer: I got to do some VO stuff for this so take that into account with my little recommendation, but I'm hecking loving this. The best way I can describe it is the best warm summer night game, with a huge helping of Hollow Knights vibes its as cute as heck This game has just the right amount of challenge to keep it interesting, but not so much as to be brutal Also, ALL HAIL KING SQUIRREL!

What can I say? It's charming and fun. Beautiful graphics and great music! Just the right level of challenge without being frustrating. A passion-driven project by passionate people.

Cool game without a lengthy intro, got straight into the game which is awesome! Story seems fun overall and love the concept of being a squirrel. The 'mana bar' and 'health orbs' were slightly confusing to begin with, was hard to tell which was which and first death happened because of it. Needs an option to reduce text speed when talking to NPCs as it moves quickly. Attacking in the early game feels kinda hard to time with mouse and keyboard. If I'm trying to be cute and time it really well, I found myself turning around and facing the wrong direction for my attack before the animation finished. Maybe a slight delay on the animation to help with timing? Good stuff, love your work!

Cute metroidvania with a bunch of cute characters to talk to, some of them very well hidden. I got lost a few times but following the sign posts helps to find a nearby owl or map.

(A review of a game with so little time played seems very reactionary and lacks consideration, but the issues in the game are such that I did not want to spend any more time with it... Also, game development is incredibly difficult and I am nowhere near talented or intelligent enough to pull it off. This is being written from the perspective of a consumer who was very much looking forward to playing this game, while also wanting to support fellow Australians) A very pretty game, but one that I feel has a number of flaws that really impede any enjoyment that could be had: - a modern, kind of top-down/kind of isometric (sorry, not quite sure of the correct term) perspective game that only allows for 8-way directional movement, on an analog stick, is disappointing. The movements feels a bit 'sloppy' and lacks refinement, while also actively making some environmental traversal far more bothersome than it perhaps needs to be; - others have previously mentioned this, but the sound mix is lacks balance - some sounds are mixed significantly louder than others, to the point of near-distortion; - Collision detection on pick ups seems, I don't know, broken? Running around over items multiple times to pick them up is a frustrating experience; - Tying navigation progression and map usage to randomly dropping currency is, again, really frustrating; - early combat lacks 'finesse' - hit once or twice, run out of range, rinse & repeat. This prevented me from getting engaged with the game early on, particularly if you are fighting more than one enemy at a time; - the most egregious combat issue, to me, is the actual number of 'hits' and the pause between hits - a two-hit combo (which did not perform particularly reliably), followed by a near-second long pause. Combining this with the previous issue makes combat not feel very enjoyable and almost stiff; By the time I'd died trying to navigate a very narrow, twisting thorny pathway to release a captured little nut, I wanted nothing more to do with the game. I wish the development team the best of luck moving forward, but I don't want to play this any more.

"Gateway Souls-like" is how I would describe this game. With the disclaimer that I hate the Souls genre with a passion and "Cozy souls-like " seems to me like the equivalent of saying "Comfy cuddly cactus". I can not deny it´s charm. Cute really is THE way do describe it. If you like Souls/Hollow-like games. It´s gonna be fun. And it´s a lot better than throwing yourself into any other Souls game. Without a doubt. Pros and cons: Pros: The developers clearly love the project and the community. You really feel heard and they feel open. It´s a great concept, even if the perspective and cuteness clash with it´s genre. Everything from music to game play is pretty smooth with few rough edges and the game is designed such that issues can be addressed easily. It´s not "Too" difficult or unfair. It really is a skill issue. Skills that I do not have. Cons: (Highly personal) The only real con I can think of is what I´d like to call genre culture shock. Games that look like this are usually puzzle/platform games and a heap of very small issues that im just petty about comes along with that. Maybe I was just expecting another Ori or even Leo´s Fortune and simply loved the idea too much to realize what the game really would be. TLDR: I would recommend this if the Souls/Hollow style is something you like in any way or just want to try out. I do not have the heart to leave a thumbs down. It is a great and fun game for what it is. But there is always room for improvement. Which im sure the community and developers will provide in heaps.