A haunting fairy tale story that'll make you want to play through it just to see how it concludes
I’ve always been curious about Niponichi’s series of mini puzzle games they’ve put out over the years. They’ve kept putting them out since the first one The Firefly’s Diary. Yet I haven’t really touched them till this latest release. This set of games seems to focused on 2D puzzle solving with some light fairy tale like story in between gameplay sections. But the story was what got me to check this one out which I will now recap.
A lone wolf monster loves to stare at the moon each night and sing a delightful song while a prince applauds her song every night. Yet when he wanted to see who was at the top of the hill she accidentally blinds him with her claws. This makes her very depressed so she seeks out the witch that will grant any wish for a cost. In this case taking away her ability to sing will allow her to turn into a human princess. Since she doesn’t believe the prince will trust her if he finds out she was the monster that blinded him. So they start to make their way through the forest to visit the witch.
If your looking for a hardcore tough puzzle game that isn’t what you’ll find here. Only one optional area actually made it tough enough that I had to think about the answer since it was just a big old riddle. The final area also does a good job of making you use all the different tools you gain throughout the adventure. Each new area adds a little something new. Like being able to command the prince to do things like pick up and move here if you’ll within shouting distance. Using fire and friendly monsters throwing you around are other aspects you’ll see as you play through the 5 hour adventure.
Along the way some collectibles can be picked up that give a bit of backstory to the witch and unlock some nice concept art. The Princess can also change back to her wolf form to take out enemy monsters along the way. Which doesn’t get used in an interesting way other than letting you clear the way so the prince won’t die in one hit. Even though that might seem a bit harsh it has plenty of checkpoints so you’ll never feel like you lost a ton of progress.
Overall this was just a charming adventure that I enjoyed playing through at a brisk pace. The mostly cute story was just the right about of brooding mixed with some delightful moments. Made me want to see what happened next. The puzzles are fine and they just seem to be there to give the player something to do between the story bits. Wouldn’t call this an amazing game but it 100% does what the team behind it wanted to do and I think that it means its a game worth playing.