Elowen's Light

This is a fun and cozy game! The vibes are great, and I enjoy the sound track a lot. The progression feels challenging but not undoable, which is a good mix (definitely have to be careful around the sporlings...). There a couple of small bugs here and there, but it looks like the developers are patching those quick and they don't really affect the main gameplay. I look forward to more games from this studio!

I am on a mission to play every video game that catch my interest but maybe I should get another hobby

I really wish I could give this game a thumbs up, but there are so many issues that caused it to just fall short of that mark. Graphically it's super pretty, I love the character design (but I'm a sucker for fae styling anyway), and cutscene art is really nice too. The story is pretty nice too, and it's very satisfying to finish it and restore Briony. I also liked the avoidance style platforming, and the game will guilt you into avoiding all the animals you can for them to give you magic. The game loop is basically collect magic from either items in the world or by safely passing animals without touching or hurting them, then spend magic to unlock ways to get magic faster or gain new abilities. A few npc's in the world will also give you abilities if you find them. Some house unlocks will trigger cutscenes for Elowen and Briony's backstory, and explain why they are in exile and Briony lost her body. The biggest problems are the default controls and the overall structure. Whether it's because I run on Linux or because it's actually the default controls, up was being considered a jump on the controller. I haven't seen this used since the DOS and Amiga days! Even a tiny but of up on the D-pad would trigger a jump, making it a very frustrating experience. I remapped the controls using Steam's controller configuration to get rid of that up bind and didn't have much of a problem afterwards. There is some falling through terrain and other minor glitches too, but not enough to be a huge issue. In-game menu/pause is lacking, I had to xkill the process to exit. The game structure uses a procedural generation system to make your levels. A few times it makes jumps that are impossible with your current set of powers, so you have to drop off the terrain and go back to your house and let it slowly bypass the obstacle. This only happened once early at least. The procedural generation doesn't seem to have a huge variety in environments, you will start to see a lot of repetitive zones show up as you progress. This does make the game seem less built than it otherwise probably should be. Overall, it's a nice title with a few too many flaws at this time to positively recommend. I wish this wasn't the case, and I hope the developer does some improvements to make it one I would recommend as I love the two characters and their art style.

- The platforming controls suck - "You can't die" doesn't equal "stress-free" - The house overlay is visually confusing - There isn't enough to do - I didn't follow the story (because it popped up at weird times) - What's the deal with the shrooms?

8/10 This game's aesthetic and chill vibes are so nice. There aren't any true consequences to dying or anything. It's all just a nice calm ride through the story. The platforming is great and the art style is so nice. My only gripe is that it only took me an hour to finish the story, while the other two (and some change) were to complete the last achievement (which is to jump 10000 times). So ultimately, this game is great for the casual player, but I wouldn't suggest it for 100%ers just because most of it is just spamming the jump button until you get that last achievement.

Very basic but okay over all.

its cute