Willow Guard

This is a cute game, I love the art style and the gameplay. I haven't spent a lot of time in-game yet but I can tell that this is going to be a great game when I finish.

I'm still playing through Willow Guard, but so far, I'm enjoying it! The game has an investigative side where you will navigate the world and uncover clues/evidence, unravel your character's & the world's past, and form relations with other inhabitants of the world. You can choose how you wish to act based on 4 personality types, with each impacting characters differently. Investing in certain personalities unlocks abilities to use in combat, too. As a fan of the Ace Attorney series, these parts of the game reminded me of it. What makes investigations more complicated than simply pointing-and-clicking is having to manage your Focus. You only get so many during each time of day (but certain actions can refresh this number) and each node you investigate in locations costs a certain amount of Focus. These can cost a lot of focus and limit what you can do in one day, but as you progress further into your personalities, you'll find neat perks like reduced Focus costs to investigate. Make good choices, manage daylight well, and unravel the truths of the world! Combat definitely comes with a learning curve. The controls are simple and easy to understand, but the difficulty comes from learning monsters' attack patterns and navigating your deck of cards you can draw upon to gain buffs or abilities mid-fight. Knowing what cards to pick, what abilities to replace, and what decks to bring in to zones allows for plentiful playstyles to help make combat feel more manageable. One note: you will die--maybe a lot. Monsters aren't too complicated but because extremely concerning in numbers. The stage designs are colorful contrasted with the blood and gore of victims and monsters, creating an uneasy environment where even daylight doesn't provide comfort. And the monsters themselves? Gross. Nasty. I LOATHE their appearances--and that just helps lean into the darkness that lurks in every shadow and around every corner of this world. Overall a great game. Pretty well-polished minus a few bugs (i.e. Slimejaws love to get stuck in walls...). Do recommend.

A little indie gem for narrative RPG lovers that gives Witcher 3 vibes. The story unfolds in a non-linear way, making you wonder if you made the right choice. The characters are interesting and well written. Combat can be a bit frustrating at times, but is made captivating by the card mechanics that always gives it a twist. So far, I absolutely recommend it!

Willow Guard is an interesting game that combines elements of dungeon crawlers, action RPGs, deck-builders, and visual novels. The story is presented in a visual novel style, where the player can choose where to go, who to talk to, make dialogue choices, and observe surroundings for clues and extra lore. Some of these actions progress the time of day, while others can only be performed during specific times—day, evening, or night amplifying the "choices matter" aspect of the game. Certain actions also require that you've discovered a specific clue, item, or spoken to a particular character, further enhancing (or at least providing the illusion of) meaningful choice. During combat, the player enters a semi-randomly generated dungeon to face numerous monsters. Instead of traditional leveling, the game allows the player to draw cards that grant various bonuses, items, spells, and skills. These bonuses reset each time the player enters a dungeon or dies. Unfortunately, the deck-building aspect feels somewhat limited, as the game is quite stingy with card variety and makes it challenging to find, create, or upgrade new cards. The same applies to the equipment system; aside from the starting gear, there are only a handful of items available to equip. This limitation hurts the game's replayability, as most playthroughs will involve players using very similar decks and equipment. Combat itself feels satisfying, with fluid and responsive controls. Hacking and slashing enemies is accompanied by ample feedback through gory animations and sound effects. However, it can take some time to adjust to the game's large hitboxes and hurtboxes when navigating, attacking, and dodging. Most enemy attacks are heavily telegraphed, making them relatively easy to avoid when encountered in small numbers. Given this, it's a shame that the game includes many underutilized mechanics, such as the equipment system, set items, traps, and other environmental hazards. Even the semi-randomized dungeon layouts feel underdeveloped, as the dungeons have a limited variety of rooms. With so many beautiful 2D indie games available, the visuals in Willow Guard leave much to be desired. The visual novel sections feature a children’s book-inspired style, though somewhat amateurish in execution. . The dungeon-crawling sections, on the other hand, suffer from a lack of refinement—washed-out colors, weak outlines, and uneven highlights detract from the overall appeal. Combined with the perspective, this occasionally makes it difficult to distinguish interactable objects, destructible items, walls, and accessible areas. That said, the visuals are at least consistent enough throughout the game and may grow on players, becoming less of a concern as they progress. Despite its flaws, Willow Guard manages to be a fun and enjoyable experience, thanks largely to its fluid combat, interactive story, and visual novel elements. The game also has significant potential for growth, with future updates hopefully addressing and fleshing out its underutilized mechanics.

Combat and story start off basic to put you in a false sense of security. Not long after its much more complex. it has some good ideas and is well thought out. The story feels like a good novel. The more unravels the farther you get into it. Day 1 i felt was too easy. Then i went out at night on day 2 and died a lot. Excited to see where things go. Will update upon completion.

A small hack and slash story focused game with animal monster hunters. Choices do feel like they matter and you can tell a lot of love went into this game and its lore. The criticisms on the gameplay are valid as cycling through tools needed to solve puzzles and also running out of specific tools is an issue. EX: I crafted magical fire arrows by combining my magical arrows and fire materials. I had thought "magical fire arrows" would count as both magical and fire in terms of solving puzzles that require "magical" arrows. This was NOT the case and I was soft locked out of some puzzles because I no longer had "magical" arrows. This meant I had to go through most of the game without magical arrows to complete certain puzzles until I RNG rolled another set of the magical arrow crafting card. Near the end game. There was also a strange bug that locked me out of equipping items / abilities. This meant I was locked out of completing certain puzzles. This was after I unlocked full willow guard gear, so not sure if that set's passive was causing issues? Even with all the bugs and issues, this game is still worth a play through as the characters are cool & cute and the story was pretty good.

After having just beaten Willow Guard, my experience with the game can be summited by "Missed Chances" The game is on a very strict timer, you only have so many days to burn through before the end game is upon you, and it is exceptionally easy to reach that point woefully unprepared. Throughout your adventure you will be teased by various puzzles that you lack the resources to attempt. It is next to impossible to anticipate which puzzles just require more in game progress to unlock, and which will vanish the moment you complete a "dungeon" never to be accessible again. There are also many barriers that require specific elemental cards to be in your deck in order to unlock them; fire for the vines, magic for purple force fields, and explosives for cracks in the walls. You are not informed in game that you are able to pass these barriers until near the very end of the game, at which point all of your chances to access those earlier missed opportunities are well and truly gone. If you don't know ahead of time what items you will need for each dungeon, you will miss out on content. If you dont start certain quest lines in time, you will also be locked out of their content (namely the main four allies, the fox, the shrew, the badger, and I assume the elk, though in my playthrough I apparently failed to save him. Though Im not sure why as his quest was the first I attempted, but perhaps theres more to it than what I am aware of. One barrier I NEVER learned how to pass are the mysterious locked gates that shine green when struck, but perhaps they require acid elements to open. I had obtained a key at some point in my quest, but no matter who I showed it to, it never led to anything, and having it on my person did nothing. I assume all of these are intentional design choices, perhaps to get players to feel like trying another run at the game after beating it the first time, but right now all I feel is disappointment. If I was to change any one thing, I would suggest adding an interactable object in dungeons, perhaps a campsite, that would allow players to change out their equipment without having to completely abandon their progress once they hit a dead end. I would also suggest informing players about the importance of their elemental cards much much earlier in the game, rather than close to the end of the game, where the information is practically useless. Otherwise, I liked the story, wish there was more to talk to the NPCs about, especially the bard who never contributed anything in my playthrough. The combat was also well done, and did not get stale at any point.