A hidden gem, if you ask me.
Bramble: The Mountain King is a fairytale of sorts that manages to do something that I find quite rare in these dark retellings: it feels earnest. Don't get me wrong: this is a very, VERY dark game (and I do recommend minding its content warnings, specially regarding child abuse), but it doesn't feel "edgy". It doesn't feel written by a 14-year-old who still equates violence with adulthood. It doesn't feel like a cheap Winnie-The-Pooh-is-public-domain-now boring slasher. Bramble actually manages to make you feel like when you were a kid and you found yourself reading one of those non-neutered, popular Grimms' Tales for the first time and you could barely peek at the most hideous illustration of an ogre you've ever seen in your entire short life. The fact that the protagonists are sweet, genuinely innocent kids and that there's no short amount of childish shenanigans enhances the horror by juxtaposition when it arrives. And oh boy, it does arrive.

All and all, Bramble has a great atmosphere, score and gameplay; which is simple and not always super responsive, but manages to offer the right amount of challenge, requiring some attention to detail.
I will say this, though: I've seen this game being described as "Limbo-like", and while this isn't a bad definition beware the fact this game isn't nearly as polished as Limbo. There are definitely a lot of rough spots, especially regarding glitches, but a great short experience nonetheless.

Shelving this for now as playing it just started feeling too much like a chore.

This game is Beautiful with a capital B. The exploration and music is also really good. Sadly, the combat gameplay loop, while really enjoyable at first, failed to change in any meaningful way over my 25 hours of playing. Combat still felt identical to the first encounter. Barely any new skills unlocked, your choices are often made for you, and the fights are too easy to be stimulating. Ultimately shelving the game due to the slowness of story and blandness of most characters not making the combat worth pushing through any more.

🎮 Platform: PS5 - legendary edition
⌚ Time played - 15h - could have done it in 10-11h but explored a bit to see if the non main story stuff was interesting. Unfortunately it wasn’t.
⭐ Score: 3.5/5 ( a good game, appetizer feeling)
📈 Difficulty: easy game
📚 Full Review:
I am a huge BioWare fan and they made me love rpgs as my favorite genre thanks to baldurs gate, kotor, and more. With that said this game was just good. It was missing that magic sauce in BioWare games that makes it addictive. Throughout the game I kept wondering if I should replay kotor instead of this. However just starting me2, I am feeling my investment is paying off. That game is really gelling with me! Anyway this is a me1 review.

- The world building is great! They are really going for something big here. Unfortunately we don’t learn enough lore about the world, beyond main quest related lore, to make it engaging even with some side quests I tried.
- main story has some interesting Sci fi elements which kept me going. It’s a pretty short game.
- companions backstory was lack luster. This is often a standout in BioWare games. Companion interaction and squabble was also missing.
- the combat was fine. I just shot everything and rarely used any powers. BioWare games often force you to use your other powers against bosses and play with your abilities.
- side quests were run of the mill and did not grip me
- no real gear juggle or hunting. Just go for drop with highest numbers and SMG were always most powerful. Rest of weapons I tried to use them like a shotty in close combat. SMG was still better.
- lots of mechanics in game aren’t explained.

Overall play it and the payoff is probably in a future game than this. I think they used this as a learning testing game. It reminds of how drake series the 1st was fine but the pay off was starting drake 2.