Thistledown: A Tragedy of Blood

Thistledown is a very serious game, dealing with hard topics such as pain, loss, hopelessness, the need for revenge...it's very dark, and very meaningful. The fantasy world is very extensive, you can tell that the creators put in lots of time with it. This is VERY story-driven. There is some platforming, and a bit of combat (If you want), but mainly this game is just narrating Oni's story with beautiful music and stunning graphics. Great game, worth the money. I was so engrossed in it, I played it through in one session.

it's a very good and fun game, the platforming is very nice, and I love how the character evolves. Her journey is incredible, and as the player, I felt a connection to the character, but also, a connection, as more than just a player, as if I wish I could be an active observer, instead of a passive one, it is a beautiful game, as is 100% worth a buy seeing as the price is very manageable, and it is such a good game (so far).

It's an imaginative novel that you get to maneuver your way through, exploring a beautiful world and unique lore. A great interactive story you can experience in one or two sittings. It's surprisingly dense with lore and narrative world building and I really liked some of the emotional beats the game managed to hit. Really liked the music as well.

I miss games that have a spirit. Games that ooze character, whose creators have poured their hearts into. Thistledown, however, is one such game. Is it good at being a game, with lots of fun interactive systems and challenge, decisions, replayability? Perhaps not. It more than makes up for that with its unique setting and cosmology, and an intriguing story with dialogue that often goes surprisingly deep as well as a soundtrack, that has a lot of originality and is a very pleasant listen. Thistledown is not for everyone. It knows its limits, it makes economic use of its assets, and it respects your time. It's a rare beast and a very special experience. A short one, but one I'm grateful to have had.

This is a poetic short story in video game form. It's a world of fairies and anthropomorphic animals, filled with magical contracts that govern what people can and can not do. Each species has their own set of powers (foxes can break contracts, badgers are contract lawyers, etc). It reminds me a lot of the myths from Watership Down. The story itself is about how "hurt people hurt people" and the power of forgiveness. If you explore the world and talk to people you'll find a variety of themes in the subtext of what they say; everything from toxic relationships, to alcoholism, to dealing with loved ones in a coma. There's a lot going on here just below the surface, and the music highlights it beautifully. This isn't a game for everyone. It's for players who like weird little indie games with a unique voice. People who are looking for action packed gameplay that will push their graphics card and 40K monitors to the limit should probably look elsewhere.

Great touching story. Worth the price.

Thistledown is one of the small indie hidden gems written in GMS2. Screenshots are misleading cause they look like action platformer which this game is totally not. While action\attack button is here, and the character is wielding a weapon for most of the game it's mostly here for theatrical reasons. Whole game is centered around its story, and weaponry is not an exception. Graphics and sound are great. Each character has its own portrait and there are a lot of them. Gameplay wise there not a lot and most close comapisson would be knitt, dreaming Sarah and similar exploration experiences. There are not a lot of screens but each one oozes with personality. Story in the game… I would not praise it as an “adult” or “great”. It’s definitely not a Shakespear, but it is felt competent. I felt a little dissatisfied with the overall nonresistance position that story leads to, but it doesn’t make it bad. Maybe unoriginal at worst. Story is pretty close to Lugaru/Overgrowth stories, maybe this is what you get when you try to make a game with a serious face about furry rabbits. The trick with having a world that has been shown only partially to you, only through lenses of a single character, worked pretty well to at least on me impose a feeling of believability. Based on the amount of comment here, this piece cannot be considered a commercial success, but it’s definately a good thing and I hope to see more stuff from the author on steam.

Thistledown is as it states, a narrative story about tragedy. The gameplay is relatively meaningless, as it merely serves to push the story further, only going so far as to allow the player to progress from one area to the next, and interacting with a few choice characters and minor lore tidbits. However, I find the story felt inconclusive. It felt anticlimactic just to end so suddenly with such an ambiguous ending. I do hope in the upcoming Thistledown game, a more satisfying story awaits.

As far as story based game are concerned, this is definitely a good one, if short. In a few hours, it manage to lay the foundation of an intriguing world with many different point of view, and the story beat follow each other quite fast. I wish the game was longer, But what's there is definitely good, and i look forward to other games in that universe in the future! :)