Now this was a really pleasant surprise for me, I honestly didn’t expect this game to be this good. It reminded me of the works of Ghibli, or the terribly underrated animated movie Kubo and the Two Strings. The characters, the graphics, all the animations, the music – they all created a beautiful, emotional and magical story, it was basically like playing a 3D anime.

I loved every aspect of the exploration and collectibles, and traversal was also extremely fun for me. However, I wasn’t a huge fan of the battles… I’m probably in the minority with this opinion but I’m not entirely sure they were even needed, or this many of them. They get quite challenging towards the end, even on the easiest difficulty, mainly because you have to use your bow and arrows quite often, and fast and precision aiming with the controller sticks is terrible, as I’m sure most of you know from experience. I wonder how much easier all these parts are with a mouse. Anyway, memorizing and then using all the correct button combinations after you get more weapons and abilities can also be a bit hard.

All in all, a great game with much replay value, but don’t get fooled by how cute and innocent it looks. It’s difficult (especially with a controller) with some brutal extra trials, and also, the main topic of death and letting go is for more mature audiences. Hopefully the battle system will be polished a bit in a potential sequel, in which we might learn more about the protagonist.