I am thoroughly baffled at the amateurish puzzle design, map and general lack of polish on this title. It could have been pretty good since the puzzle design is pretty good sometimes but this is sorely missing a TON of polish

I have not 100% finished it but I'm done with 7/9 "worlds" and the "ending". While a fair few puzzles are intriguing and genuine thinkers, the variance between "baby block easy" and "what is even going on" is wild and unhinged. There's whole areas dedicated to childish, incredibly straightforward puzzles that barely take any time (ruins, graveyard and orchard). But then some areas have some true head scratchers (garden and half of mansion) and you're left wondering where the balance is in all this. I also found it incredibly annoying to get around the world. There's no permanent map so many times I just run in random directions with a vague idea of where to go. The placement of the teleport stones is utterly baffling and none, save one, are situated inside the puzzle areas they're supposed to represent with most of them being either just outside the area or in some arcane location that you have to dig yourself out of every time you go there making the fast travel system utterly pointless. The map being the way it is also means that you will end up at the very end of a puzzle sequence without any preamble as to how to solve it which means you will have to go out of your way to find the "teaching" moment that tells you what the puzzle even means.

The puzzles are pretty fun in some of the areas (mine, mill and the shrine) which saves it for me. The game is also mercifully short and the whole map is pretty small so even if you're lost, going from one end to the other barely takes a minute which is a saving grace. While I don't feel I wasted my time, I don't think this was particularly good.

Reviewed on Jun 03, 2023


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