edwinward

This game has problems and was perhaps cool in 2016, but not in 2026. It's just a mess. -The character movement is incredibly slow, and feels artificially slow to pad the game length. -The multiple different forms of flashbacks that are in use simultaneously are disruptive to the gameplay as well as a bizarre creative choice that once again, feel like padding -The level design and animations of the main character both make the game feel like a hobbyist project. -The "God" perspective of the player shifts between vantage points often and without warning. This game might be worth $5, but it is not worth $20.

I normally don't like metroidvanias, but the balance toward exploration and away from combat made this one really fun for me. The game isn't perfect, the framerate can get quite choppy on the Switch 1, and the map could use a legend (I spent almost an hour looking for ore to upgrade my suit when it turns out it has a special icon on the map), but it's a beautiful world that is fun to traverse, and the idea of oxygen tanks doubling as the health bar is genius.

A *short* but fun little game. The themes can be heavy at times, but the gameplay is always breezy, and the art and lighting are always gorgeous. I also have a ton of respect for keeping it a 90 minute experience. If Rime was AAA, this is the Indie homage to Rime?

I really wanted to love this, but the net experience is a mixed bag. First the good, there's a lot of the charm to the world, the animation on the cat is excellent, and breath-of-the-wild decision to let the game end when you are ready to is very respectable. But all of the charm is diminished by (1) the actual movement/controls/platforming, which need a lot more polish, (2) there's no overall goal other than climb back up your apartment building, for that reason there's no motivation to engage with most of the side content, (3) you can't really tell what's the point of all the in-world collectibles. For instance, at first pieces of metal trinkets are important, and you need them to buy a new movement ability from the crow, but then after that metal trinkets seem to be only used for buying hats. This could have been fixed, (1) with more work on the movement, (2) a meta-mystery/plot/issue that is built by each interaction with the NPCs, so you want to keep playing even after you can end the game, and (3) consistent usage of the in-game collectibles.

As an entry into the linear adventure hero's journey with pretty visuals indie-game genre, I thought this was good! The game looks great, there's lots of gameplay variety, and the game is good about changing up the scenery, one minute you are in winter wonderland, the next you are a hurricane buffeted by deadly energy blasts. The game is also pretty good about providing new and creative opportunities to use the staff. There were occasional bugs, but I could fix them by reloading. I did have to check a walkthrough *occasionally* but that comes with the territory of these games. If you like the gameplay of Little Nightmares but you want a change of pace of thematically, I can easily recommend this one.

I really enjoyed the *idea* of subverting the post-apocalyptic wasteland game trope by giving the player the perspective of a fox, but the problem is the game struggles to iterate on it's own premise. It has a gorgeous little open world, great art style, interesting 2.5D movement mechanic, and the bones of some systemic gameplay. However, the core gameplay loop is based on finding food (super easy, if you get hungry enough food will conveniently appear) and chasing the red scents of your lost pup, which is painfully simple and low stakes to do, and which has very little consequence for failing. There's potential in the idea, but the idea needs more variety in mission design. Also it's easy to get jaded about taking care of your pups once you realize the only threat seems to be the owl which the game heavily telegraphs.

If you loved Inside and/or Little Nightmares, you'll really enjoy White Shadows. It provides that same sense of exploration as those two games and an even better sense of spectacle. While it's short, the the 2 hour runtime was actually a positive for me, I love a game that I can fly through after work one day. In terms of the negatives, the dystopian caste system is present but never fully explored, the hero never makes it out of the depths in which they lie, to where the upper castes live and work and the movement behavior of the player character is a weird mishmash **** floaty jump (easy), and unintuitive, limited, mid-air control once you jump (hard). But overall, these negatives are minor, and I look forward to seeing what this developer does next.