What Lies in the Multiverse is a 2D puzzle-platformer that really surprised me. Sometimes, when I have a few dollars worth of gold points left over in my Nintendo account, I hop onto the eShop and see what random game I can afford. Usually, I get one-off novelties or hilariously bad shovelware, but this time I actually got a charming little experience I'd recommend people check out.

The gameplay is based around swapping back and forth between different universes to traverse the world and solve puzzles. There are a number of different universes you can see throughout the game, and in addition to providing mechanics for traversal, it's also a lot of fun to see the little stories told exclusively through these universe swaps. You can see lovey-dovey couple in one universe, and then find that they're cruel and violent in another. Or perhaps a bustling city in one will be replaced by a more natural landscape in another. There's a decent variety across the game's runtime and I always look forward to seeing what came next. Plus, collectible artifacts scattered throughout the game encouraged exploration and further expanded on some of these micro-stories.

The plot of the game is nothing mind-blowing, but it did hit on some emotional beats and dark subject matter that I wasn't expecting. There were multiple moments that made me laugh out loud, with witty dialogue, dynamic sprite work, and funny sound cues to really bring up the charm factor. And the little cast of characters you get to know during your journey is very endearing. I will say that a decent amount of dialogue does feel a bit awkward in its phrasing. It looks like this game is originaly from a small indie studio in Chile, so I'm guessing this is just the result of limited resources for translation. It doesn't ruin the experiencd by any means, but it is noticeable.

Overall, this was a very pleasant surprise and I'd recommend it to anyone who wants a lovely little story with some laughs, puzzles, and nice artwork.

I played this out of desperation for RWBY content because who knows if we'll ever get more episodes. I'm not generally into this genre of game to begin with, and it was a pretty bare bones experience. I like some of the little references to the show, but that doesn't really save it from being a tedious cycle of fighting the same enemies over and over to inch towards the next levelup and underwhelming upgrade. If I didn't have a friend to play with, I would have been too frustrated with how easy it was to die early on and dropped it. Also, the story is technically there but I almost forgot to mention it in this review so that should tell you how memorable it was.