This is absolutely bursting with charm. The joy it takes in the materiality of its arts and crafts framing is unparalleled, constantly playing little games and jokes with the idea that it is a physical game constructed by your schoolyard friend while also overtly juxtaposing that with the fact that it is in fact a video game. This kind of clever play between the represented materials and the actual materials is something I rarely see outside of Kojipro games, so it's kind of shocking to see it in this little indie game for children.

At the same time, it's impossible to forget that this game is aimed at kids. The writing is often fun, but it's in a very simple and educational register, more Humongous Entertainment than Square Enix. The moment-to-moment mechanical movement is intentionally slow and deliberate, often requiring extra confirmations or slow-to-progress dialog. This can make the game feel sluggish at times even though it's relatively short and certainly not difficult.

Nor does it have much real mechanical depth: it's essentially a series of light puzzles and minigames, with an RPG theme laid on top like a costume. It's fun enough to bounce your way through, but the difficulty is low and there's nothing at all crunchy. On the other hand, it also has a needlessly sexy demon king, so who's counting?

Reviewed on May 12, 2023


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