I have not played any daughter simulators before, but I enjoyed this little narrative game jam effort about a hermit in the woods raising a little mushroom child that they received from a witch.
A witch arrives at the hut of a recluse and offers to create a daughter for them to ease their loneliness… for a price. At the beginning of the game, you play as the recluse. The choices you make in creating and raising your child will impact the color, type of mushroom, personality and attributes that your daughter will have as she grows. Once she matures to the age of independence, she moves out, either with the love and support of her hermit parent or as a way to escape them. At that point in the game, you play as the mushroom lady as she lives out her shroomy life.
The game is narrative, similar to a visual novel, and the extent of gameplay rests on making choices. There is an element of combat in that you can choose to use powers or brute force to solve problems, depending on what you’ve unlocked for the character, but there is no character sprite or avatar to control or move around the world. You’re reading the story and making choices based on random events the recluse or mushroom daughter encounters as they live their lives in the forest. My favorite random encounters involved an alien you find in the woods who wishes to experience life on your planet, which can lead to some heartwarming events if played that way. You can also create and be a mean mushroom and die violently.
I did three playthroughs at it is a relatively short game, and got three very different endings, but still I’ve barely unlocked all of the possible combinations and attributes the mushroom daughter may have. It’s impressive replayability for a game with such an incredibly short development time. It’s also pay as you’d like, so you can technically play for free, although I did pay for it since it’s an indie game.
Worth a curious afternoon if this type of game is appealing for you!

We had a game when I was a kid, on Windows 3.1 I believe, that was about packing things. Like packing a suitcase before a trip, or the briefcase before a day at the office. I thought it was extremely satisfying, and wished there were more games like that. Unpacking is of course the exact opposite in theory, but scratches the same itch. It feels very satisfying to neatly arrange a drawer or a shelf in this isometric world.
Seeing the story of the main character unfold in the clues taped up in packing boxes was a storytelling device that I really enjoyed. When she moved into the apartment with her boyfriend and the only place I could fit her diploma was in a forgotten spot where it wouldn’t be seen, I yelled, “no, girl, get a partner who values you and makes space for your accomplishmeeeents!” Such are the lessons we learn in our 20s. The story was sweet, the graphics were cute, but overall it’s just really relaxing to unpack a pixel box in a way that unpacking real ones is not. I would not pay full price for it, though, it’s pretty short, although they tried to add replay value through the sticker collection achievements. I wish there were more games like this.

Cannot believe the average rating on this game tbh, this game is very underrated.

The game focuses on a fantastic story of a family coming together to save the world, growing up in an extremely hostile environment and learning to hone their skills to fight back against the growing evil. The characters were well developed, the graphics were lovingly made, and the gameplay was a lot of fun as you unlock characters with different abilities and level up through hack and slash dungeons. It's a roguelite, so you don't start from zero constantly, but there is the RNG element that can make some dungeons feel like a breeze and others like a slog. I am not a persistent gamer and will quit things anytime - I love to quit! But the gameplay loop and my emotional investment in the story kept me going through the end and even into a bit of the game+ mode. Also that narrator! Haven't felt that at home with a narrator since Winnie the Pooh.

It's definitely worth playing, and I would recommend giving it a try!

There are some interesting ideas here, although ultimately flawed execution.

First off, the music is great. By Your Side is such a lovely song. This was the most successful element of the game in my experience.

I enjoyed the combat system, because it actually utilized each character's strengths and weaknesses and required some strategy. Once understood, the battles were typically relatively easy.

Contrary to some reviews I've seen, I enjoyed the dream world the most. It had the most fun moments in the game obviously, and I thought the characters were enjoyable. There is far too much wandering and backtracking for my taste, however, and I sometimes became a bit lost on what to do or how to get to where I needed to. This doesn't mean the game is necessarily bad, but if there were more compelling reasons for exploration then it wouldn't have felt like dead time during the game play. There were a couple of times I just had to give up and look up a hint.

The horror aspect was hit and miss - Some scenes were affecting, while others were simply annoying. There were moments when I was able to suspend disbelief and feel real dread. Especially navigating the dark house at the beginning.

The exploration of childhood trauma was really interesting overall, and in the grand scheme of popular games there aren't many exploring depression and PTSD in a way that feels as realistic as some of the moments in this game. The biggest flaw for me is the twist - It felt to me both ridiculous and nonsensical. It's not that children aren't capable of terrible things - they are realistically even more capable due to their lack of understanding of right and wrong and consequences. But the coverup to the act was what jumped the shark for me, it was so far outside of the reality of what children could physically accomplish that I couldn't buy into it. Like, the precipitating act would be traumatic enough for any child, right? It just seemed like an unnecessary leap in the narrative that was done to get more media attention. I guess it worked! That said, I otherwise enjoyed the characters enough to see it through to the end.

Whether it was fully successful or not is up to personal opinion. I enjoyed the music and most of the game play, although the story went off the rails for me. Either way, it's an interesting entry into the horror genre.

It was truly a surreal experience playing this game during the height of the COVID pandemic. I think the release timeframe ultimately hurt its success, because it deals so heavily in themes of extinction and death. But I thoroughly loved the experience of playing this game. Even the most tedious acts felt satisfying as my actions had a real impact on the world. The social aspects of this game being designed to encourage prosocial interactions among players is revolutionary and I wish it would be adopted in more games. Suspend your disbelief and surrender yourself to the trademark Kojima drama and you’ll probably have a good time. If nothing else enjoy the satisfaction of completing the road system. My only platinum trophy game.