Sights & Sounds
- The art direction is fairly strong, but the execution leaves something to be desired. The town of Saint-et-Claire is scenic and the characters are charming, but it's a little hard to overlook some sloppiness in the geometry. The very first intro scene zooms way in on the mouse and shows how his fur is an overlapping mess of polygons. You can see similar clipping on other character models as well as the environment geometry
- The music is a really nice accompaniment to the gameplay, and I can't find much to complain about. The overall tone of the game is relaxed and cozy, and the various solo and accompanied piano tracks hit all the right notes (pun unashamedly intended)
Story & Vibes
- The plot in brief: You're a little street mouse wandering through the little (French? French-Canadian?) town of Sainte-et-Claire. Looking through the windows you pass, you notice that everyone seems pretty unhappy with their lot in life. A twist of fate sees you obtaining powerful abilities that help you eventually make the world just a little bit better
- The take-home message of "even if you don't feel like much, you can still help" is a well-worn trope, but the reminder is still nice every now and then
- As mentioned before, this is an extremely cozy game. Don't expect much stress, frustration, or challenges that can't be overcome through simple perseverence
Playability & Replayability
- As far as puzzle platformers go, The Spirit & the Mouse isn't breaking any new ground. You run and climb your way through the small open world and complete the tasks given to you by the spirits you encounter throughout the game, occasionally solving a puzzle. Neither the puzzles nor the platforming challenges will give the average player much difficulty. Notice how I said "climb", not "jump"? That has a lot to do with the lack of challenge
- In a way, it's a lot like Stray, but not nearly as interesting
- There is a shop for unlocking maps (handy until you learn the lay of the land) and various abilities (only one of which is necessary for progression). You buy them using the small sparks you can find hidden around the levels. These respawn each time you leave and re-enter an area, so getting the funds necessary to buy everything won't take you a terribly long time
- I suppose I could go back for the achievements I missed, but there's not much here that I'm eager to get back to. The ones I missed also pertained to grindy elements of the game (finding lightbulb collectibles, finding an arbitrary amount of sparks in each area, etc.), so those aren't really motivating either
Overall Impressions & Performance
- As much as I love a good puzzle platformer, The Spirit & the mouse doesn't really do much to challenge or impress the player. None of the puzzles are particularly clever, nor is any of the platforming very tricky
- It ran well on the Steam Deck
Final Verdict
- 5.5/10. I wouldn't call it a bad game, but I would suggest waiting for a sale even if the coziness is sufficient to reel you in. It doesn't have much going for it besides its cuteness, and the base price is a little steep for a 5-7 hour playthrough
- The art direction is fairly strong, but the execution leaves something to be desired. The town of Saint-et-Claire is scenic and the characters are charming, but it's a little hard to overlook some sloppiness in the geometry. The very first intro scene zooms way in on the mouse and shows how his fur is an overlapping mess of polygons. You can see similar clipping on other character models as well as the environment geometry
- The music is a really nice accompaniment to the gameplay, and I can't find much to complain about. The overall tone of the game is relaxed and cozy, and the various solo and accompanied piano tracks hit all the right notes (pun unashamedly intended)
Story & Vibes
- The plot in brief: You're a little street mouse wandering through the little (French? French-Canadian?) town of Sainte-et-Claire. Looking through the windows you pass, you notice that everyone seems pretty unhappy with their lot in life. A twist of fate sees you obtaining powerful abilities that help you eventually make the world just a little bit better
- The take-home message of "even if you don't feel like much, you can still help" is a well-worn trope, but the reminder is still nice every now and then
- As mentioned before, this is an extremely cozy game. Don't expect much stress, frustration, or challenges that can't be overcome through simple perseverence
Playability & Replayability
- As far as puzzle platformers go, The Spirit & the Mouse isn't breaking any new ground. You run and climb your way through the small open world and complete the tasks given to you by the spirits you encounter throughout the game, occasionally solving a puzzle. Neither the puzzles nor the platforming challenges will give the average player much difficulty. Notice how I said "climb", not "jump"? That has a lot to do with the lack of challenge
- In a way, it's a lot like Stray, but not nearly as interesting
- There is a shop for unlocking maps (handy until you learn the lay of the land) and various abilities (only one of which is necessary for progression). You buy them using the small sparks you can find hidden around the levels. These respawn each time you leave and re-enter an area, so getting the funds necessary to buy everything won't take you a terribly long time
- I suppose I could go back for the achievements I missed, but there's not much here that I'm eager to get back to. The ones I missed also pertained to grindy elements of the game (finding lightbulb collectibles, finding an arbitrary amount of sparks in each area, etc.), so those aren't really motivating either
Overall Impressions & Performance
- As much as I love a good puzzle platformer, The Spirit & the mouse doesn't really do much to challenge or impress the player. None of the puzzles are particularly clever, nor is any of the platforming very tricky
- It ran well on the Steam Deck
Final Verdict
- 5.5/10. I wouldn't call it a bad game, but I would suggest waiting for a sale even if the coziness is sufficient to reel you in. It doesn't have much going for it besides its cuteness, and the base price is a little steep for a 5-7 hour playthrough