Newfound Courage

Only two pieces of media have ever made me emotional, and one of them is this game. The art is absolutely radiating, the characters have such unique stories, and the world building is amazing. The ending of the first book is painfully bittersweet, and it left me almost crying (It's painfully relatable). The second book is a great sequel, one that I wish was longer so I could dive into characters more. Combat is really fun, and the only thing I'd ever complain about it is the controls (I have to put my fingers in weird positions). I truly hope from the bottom of my heart that this game gets another update with a third part. It'd make my year.

!!Spoilers Below!!

Gameplay Pros
- Pretty decent and simple gameplay.
- Puzzles are relatively harmless (Base game)
- Failsafes in objectives if the player were to be somewhat gullible.

Gameplay Cons
- Many instances of padding (DLC). The Carnival rides takes too long, the Magpie nests, backtracking to find keys (might be better to be able to have the means to grab them earlier rewarding those that pay attention), and the Palace being either repeating or winding hallways makes the DLC feel longer than it shouldn't.
- With the type of gameplay it has, there preferably has to be a means to be able to change keybinds. Which there does not seem to be.

Story Pros
- Relatively sweet plot. Not perfect, but most certainly not bad either. Applied to both base game and DLC, but more in favour of base game.
- Jake's rejection as a great means to show maturity in relation to the inevitability of unrequited romances. Especially when both Jake and Alex still choose to stay as close friends. Even better with Alex needing a bit of time to grieve a love lost. Actually both Alex and Jake's relationship is rather decent all things considered.
- Town NPCs having a relatively good presence as their own characters (Base game).
- Amusing dialogue for failsafes.

Story Cons
- Music doesn't gradually reduce volume but instead it usually stops abruptly within a cutscene. Breaking the flow, and potentially immersion.

Decent game overall. However I cannot say I would absolutely recommend nor absolutely wouldn't recommend. The game is mostly saved by its story, but the gameplay has a lot to be desired.
But when it comes to the DLC... to be honest, it's inching towards 'not recommended territory' due to the gameplay alone.

A touching queer narrative game with some light combat elements.
I really liked the themes and characters' stories! Make sure you play both books - Return to Otherwhere is where things really started to shine for me, building on the foundations of the first book. There were some lines I found especially resonant, like becoming less joyful because you're trying to manage how people see you, and parents "wanting their smiling child back", someone's insistence on using a birth name instead of a character's new name because it would be disrespectful of the parents' choice, etc.
I had a few quibbles with the game, but nothing that really affected my experience. The writing itself wasn't super polished, the combat felt clunky, and I found the first book's premise both a little straight-forward (in a hero's journey sense), and confusing (a lot of time/text was spent on the houses when I didn't feel the details added much to the narrative). But overall I found the game very easy to play through, and worth the time spent on it. I even restarted the game o I could see the beginning framing section again, now with added context.

(I couldn't figure out how to play the Winter's Fair DLC, though it may no longer be available)

sweet and quick! Can't wait to play Book 2 and the DLC next :)

LOVE IT! First those reviews crying because it's ending is sad can A. grow up and B. play book 2.

the story is great, wish it was longer though, really hoping for either a book 3 or a sequel game! would buy either in an instant.

Also i beat the game start to finish on my steam deck, the ONLY "issue" was it would say keyboard buttons instead of the controller buttons

This game hit me right in the feels and has a good story, will be playing book 2 next

Awesome Game! the characters were so cute, the humour is hilarious, the art style is beautiful, along with the story, i just wanted to keep exploring the world and meeting the quirky characters. Look out for ol' Marge, shes probably sloshed again! <3

I really liked this game, definitely recommend this to anyone who likes the pixel-art style adventure games. It has plenty of charm, gorgeous art style and beatiful music. The writing is very fun and touching, the characters are highly likeable.

It captures everything I like about indie games, I wish more high-budget mainstream releases could have a quarter of its heart. Looking forward to more games from this developer in the future!

This game was absolutely beautiful, and lovely. Very short and sweet, but got me SUPER emotional!

While I do wish there was a little more to the romance side of the game I really enjoyed playing this.

idk good game but i think u should change the cover

This was an amazing game and i would recommend it to anyone wishing for an amazing story that i think that so many can relate to (besides the magic powers of course)

A beautiful story about love, friendship, growth, and perseverance.

Can’t believe this game made me finally feel emotions

Go gay boy!

A very sweet short game with both imagination and heart, just what I wanted :)

I absolutely loved this game. Slight spoiler: The ending was left open so maybe it will continue in the future? but I do say I love the story I cried a total of 3 times and had to hold back tears on 4 other occasions, with only 4hrs of game time? That's how you know it is a good story game.

A quite nice quite simple mini-rpg